What are the Top Skills that HR Professionals have Learnt in 2021
HR has a significant role to play in guiding the organisation through digital transformation. The function is under pressure from all corners of the organisation to deliver a people strategy fit for the digital age. Over 60% of HR leaders report pressure from the CEO to ensure employees have the skills they need in the future. At the same time, 69% of HR leaders report increased pressure from employees to provide development opportunities that will prepare them for future roles, compared to three years ago.
The pressure has only mounted since the onset of the pandemic as major digital challenges such as remote working escalated, with 59% of C-suite and HR leaders agreeing that human resources is now even more focused on digital transformation than in 2019.
In order to meet this challenge and support the organisation in the digital age, HR professionals must develop new, up-to-date skills. At Insight222, we categorise the skills for the future ready HR professional into three buckets:
Data driven skills
According to LinkedIn’s 2020 Global Talent Trends report, Employee Experience and People Analytics are the top two trends impacting HR. To succeed in the digital age, HR professionals need to embrace a more data driven, evidence-based approach to their work.
Experience led skills
Employee Experience tops the list as expectations for career development and working environment rapidly evolve. Being able to adopt skills, such as digital literacy, to deliver user-centric end-to-end experiences through innovative HR technology and design thinking principles – in other words, becoming experience led – will be critical for HR to meet the expectations of the modern workforce.
Business focused skills
The long-standing un-automatable, intrinsically human skills of HR professionals remain the same: Managing relationships, influencing change and building credibility. However, these skills take on a much more business focused approach. HR professionals are not deploying these skills in order to impact HR for HR’s sake. Instead, they are deploying them in order to tackle business challenges, and influence business strategy and goals.
How willing are HR professionals to upskill currently?
An Insight222 study found that only 41% of HR professionals believe they are capable of having conversations about data, and just 23% are comfortable using analytics without guidance.
Furthermore, recent research conducted by Insight222 in collaboration with pymetrics shows that HR professionals tend to rely more heavily on an instinctive approach to decision-making over a deliberative, data-driven approach to decision-making.
In short, HR professionals lack the skills and confidence to evolve in the digital age.
Building digitally savvy and analytically willing people across the human resources function is the basis for innovation, curiosity and delivering value for the organisation. To this point – HR professionals agree: Over 80% of HR professionals strongly agree that people analytics drives business value and is important for their career.
There are plenty of reasons to be positive. The same research from Insight222 and pymetrics shows that a profile of HR professionals’ soft skills has a significant overlap with the soft skills required in a digital environment, despite a disparity in decision-making style.
And, taking the myHRfuture learning academy community as a prime example, HR professionals around the world are dedicated to upskilling in data driven, experience led and business focused capabilities.
What have HR professionals been learning in 2021?
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular courses from the myHRfuture academy, taken by users all over the world in 2021. Let this list inspire you to set learning goals for 2022 and encourage you that you are not alone in your upskilling journey.
HR is undergoing a substantial transformation and it is an opportunity for every professional in the space to reinvent their role, their impact, and their career.
1. BUSINESS FOCUSED: Organisational Acumen
Organisational acumen is understanding the organisations strategy and vision and how they align with HR programmes and initiatives. It also implies an individual can learn and thrive in a constantly changing environment and deal with ambiguity.
Our course, ‘Becoming a Data-Driven HRBP’ empowers you to build the technical skills and knowledge you need to create real value for the key stakeholders you serve, by doing the work of a HR business partner that helps your company win in the marketplace.
Culture and Mindset Change in a Digital Era
Organisations are becoming increasingly interested in understanding their company culture and culture is becoming a top priority for CHROs. It is becoming increasingly important for HR leaders to manage the organisation's sense of purpose, and to engage the workforce in alignment with business needs.
In this course you will learn about the importance of a growth mindset in supporting cultural change in a digital era how to successfully bring your employees on a change journey.
2. DATA DRIVEN: Analytical Thinking
Analytical thinking requires the capability to structure business problems into questions and hypothesis through discussions with business leaders and then partnering with data analysts and consultants in people analytics team to translate requests into solutions, information, and insights.
The ‘People Analytics Starter Kit’ course empowers you to build the technical skills and knowledge you need to drive real success with your People Analytics projects that result in actional outcomes.
Framing Business Questions and Developing Hypotheses for People Analytics
This training course for HR professionals and HR Business Partners will help you to understand the first two critical steps in any analysis project – framing business questions and developing a hypothesis. To make sure that any analysis you conduct by the People Analytics team, it is essential that you fully understand the business questions, that it’s relevant, and that you set out your hypothesis clearly.
3. DATA DRIVEN: Data Analysis
Running a Successful People Analytics Project
For individuals and teams alike, the data analysis capability can gather, analyse, and interpret data to provide insight to support business needs and deliver business value.
Our course, ‘Running a Successful People Analytics Project’ empowers you to build the technical skills and knowledge you need to drive real success with your People Analytics projects, that result in actionable insight and add value when implemented.
Analysing and Interpreting HR Dashboard Data
In this course you will learn how to use your HR dashboard to conduct analysis and explore the answers to business questions on two end-to-end examples related to attrition and diversity in recruitment. The course explores the types of questions you might start to ask as you conduct your analysis and how you can look at the data from multiple angles.
The course also walks through examples of how to ensure that you add relevant business context to your analysis and present your recommendations back to the business in a way that your stakeholders understand the story you are telling and will act on your recommendations.
This course will give you a thorough understanding of the power of basic and advanced statistics and how to apply them in an HR context. In this course we cover the most common misconceptions and myths when using statistics in HR and the tools and techniques that you need to bust those myths.
By taking this course you will learn about basic statistics, such as mean, mode, median and standard deviation as well as more advanced concepts, such as correlations, regression analysis, T-Tests, and statistical significance.
4. BUSINESS FOCUSED: Storytelling
Storytelling is a critical skill for all HR professionals. It gives you the power to take your audience on a journey, using the principles of the “narrative arc” to create and resolve tension that will truly resonate with your stakeholders and inspire change.
In this training course Kerry Hart helps you build the skills needed to take your analysis and insights and turn them into compelling stories that will ensure that your stakeholders act on your recommendations. She shares four-step frameworks to help you bring storytelling to life to drive real change and action.
How to use Storytelling in People Analytics
This training course for People Analytics professionals and HR Business Partners will help you understand how to take your analysis and your insights and turn them into compelling stories that will ensure that your stakeholders act on your insights and recommendations.
5. EXPERIENCE LED: Digital Literacy
Introduction to AI in HR and the future of work
There is a lot of hype surrounding AI in HR and its impact on work, but AI, automation, augmentation, and the future of work are much more than just buzzwords.
For digital literacy, it is essential to have knowledge of the potential artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) at the workplace and how it can be applied in HR to, for example, improve service delivery. We need to interpret the real opportunities that new technologies can offer HR in how it can improve its own function and the organisation that it supports.
The objective of this course is to provide you with a solid foundation of what the rise of new vendors incorporating AI and machine learning means to HR and how to consider building such tools into your digital HR strategy.
Our course, ‘Introducing to Digital HR’ empowers you to build the technical skills and knowledge you need to support your HR function drive business outcomes in a digital age.
Build the skills you need to Press PLAY on your Career in 2022
The myHRfuture academy is a learning experience platform for HR professionals looking to invest in their careers. All of our online HR certifications reflect the core HR skills you need to develop for the future, giving you a professional edge while providing evidence of the skills you’ve mastered, helping you get ahead and Press PLAY on your Career® for only £25 per month. With over 40+ HR certifications, 800+ pieces of expertly curated content and 200+ hours of learning the opportunities are endless. Start building the skills you need to get ahead today.