IES Blog

Important competencies for HR teams

Posted on November 26th, 2012 Read time: 1 minutes

New challenges are facing companies worldwide, calling on human resources departments to develop new competencies and strategies to tackle these obstacles head-on. The recent economic crisis, continued globalization and advancements in technology are all altering the way business is conducted. As a result, human resources must take on new roles in the business model and become a more strategic component to business planning and development.

In a piece for Personnel Today, Dave Ulrich, human resources specialist, explained what new competencies human resources departments must undertake to help companies remain competitive while offering actionable insight. In order to achieve this level of expertise and experience, many companies are outsourcing their human resources tasks – such as payroll management – to seasoned providers.

One new competency human resources must take on is the role of strategic positioner, according to Ulrich. Human resources professionals should have a global understanding of business practices, study worldwide trends and then report these insights for business applications. Human resources departments must study the competitive dynamics of respective markets and apply all knowledge toward business strategies for growth and development.

Furthermore, Ulrich points out a growing trend among HR professionals to champion change within an organization. They can achieve this by gauging the company's capacity to innovate and translating that measurement into change processes and structures. Human resource departments are responsible for the integration of new protocol and best practices throughout the business model, and therefore must constantly be pushing for change to drive success and growth.

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