No longer are HR professionals an inward-looking group that's worked only in human resources, Lars Schmidt writes for Fast Company. Schmidt founded Amplify, an HR executive search and consulting firm, and is co-founder of HR Open Source, an HR community platform.
He notes that a report issued this year by HR Open Source finds that 68% of current HR professionals have worked outside of HR. "Inevitably, they're steadily cross-pollinating the HR function with new skills and ideas that organizations should be all too eager to embrace," Schmidt writes.
But Schmidt argues that HR professionals need to go further in obtaining and mastering job skills that will allow them to "tackle critical issues ranging from sexual harassment to emerging recruiting technologies, not to mention a business and industry acumen to rival their executive peers."
Learning agility is an essential skill HR leaders need in order to help them separate "hype from substance and [find] effective ways to harness emerging technologies in order to execute an effective people strategy...," he writes.
Creativity is important for HR to help advance their companies' brand. Business and data expertise as well as the ability to tell a story also are key skills.