What Are the Personality Traits A HR Professional Needs to Have?

If you want to work in HR, you need to be a certain type of person, which is why on the Frank Kelly blog this week, I've outlined the personality traits any HR professional needs to have.

Managing People is a Considerable Task

Taking on a role in human resources is certainly not an easy task. You are essentially a people manager, and as it turns out, effectively managing people so that they prove an asset to your company’s bottom line, is a considerable task.

Between recruiting staff, training them, administering them, serving as the first port of call for specific people management issues etc. human resources is a job description with many elements. In my experience, there are several personality traits that often prove essential to carrying out this job 

description effectively, including….

Conscientiousness: Often as a HR professional, you are dealing with sensitive issues, which require you to think through how you handle the matter at hand.

Empathy: Dealing with people requires them to be able to communicate with you. People often feel far more comfortable communicating sensitive issues with a HR professional who has the ability to emphasise; thus communicate with them on their level.  

Efficiency: You are often dealing with facts, figures, records etc., and you need to be able to handle them efficiently, so that the company you work for runs smoothly.

Inquisitiveness: One of the roles that will often fall to you as a HR professional is recruiting and training new staff. You need to be inquisitive so that you can make sure that not only are they right for the vacancy in question, but that they receive all the essential training they need to prove an asset to the company.

A Desire to Help: Above all, you need a desire to help if you want to make it as a HR professional. Essentially, this job is about helping people, and if don’t have a desire to help, it will translate into what you do, and employees will pick up on it, making it far harder for you to succeed in the role of ‘managing people.’

At the end of the day, it takes a certain type of person to take on the role of HR professional, but once you take it on, it can be the most rewarding job you've ever had; you just need to know how to work with people.

Read More

Frank Kelly’s Top Five Employee Motivational Techniques for the HR Professional

As a HR professional, it’s your job to ensure that your company’s employees remain motivated and thus, productive. This week I tackle this subject with Frank Kelly’s top five employee motivational techniques.

A Motivated Worker is a Productive Worker

A business’ human resources staff is responsible for hiring, administrating and training staff. Ensuring that staff remains motivated is an enduring part of the job description, as a motivated worker is a productive worker, who will increase your company’s bottom line.

Often the job of a human resources professional is a thankless one, and ensuring your firms employees stay motivated in such a limited capacity is a task at best, difficult at worst. However it is always achievable.

Frank Kelly’s Top Five

It is possible as a human resources professional to play a pivotal role in ensuring an employee stays motivated and here are five ways you can do just that:

Listen: Often times a disheartened employee just needs someone to talk to, and the pastoral nature of your position makes you the person. Having someone to listen can broaden an employees’ perspective, and motivate them to approach the task at hand with a new vigour.

Recognise: An unmotivated employee can sometimes feel as though their contributions are going unnoticed. You are in the position to not only directly communicate appreciation for their services, but to approach the management and encourage positive reinforcement in the work place.

Train: Sometimes an unmotivated employee is simply a bored one. Arranging further training for them will not only reengage their brains, but add value to their position at your company.

Incentivise: In your position as a human resources professional, again you have a unique pull with higher management, which you can use to boost employee morale.  Arrange incentives for employees to work for, and watch their motivation soar.

Strategize: An unmotivated employee is often one with no aspirations. Why not work with them to set a list of goals to reach both in the work place and their further career, then provide the necessary information they need to achieve them.

It may be a thankless job, but the role of human resources professional is a pivotal one in improving employee motivation. Use your position to enrich the lives of your company’s employees, whilst driving their productivity, and consequently your firms bottom line, up in the process. 

Frank Kelly

Read More

What is the Role of a HR Professional?

The role of a HR professional is critical to a company’s wellbeing, but what does this role entail? This is the question I wish to explore on the Frank Kelly blog this week.

At its core, a human resources (HR) department exists to manage an organisation’s staff. A broad job description to be sure, it encompasses several different roles that each in their own right are critical to employee well-being.

Recruitment

Often it falls to the HR Professional to recruit an organisation’s staff, an essential job, as if an organisation is staffed with inadequate employees, productivity suffers. Specifically, a HR professional will be involved in advertising vacancies, sourcing and screening applicants, conducting first stage interviews and advising managers on the suitability of candidates for the position in question.

Training

Once you as a HR professional have recruited a staff member, you will then be involved in training them. This will usually include conducting extensive orientation programmes for new employees, as well as implementing and maintaining training programmes for established employees, to give them the information they need to progress, as well as maximise productivity and increase the corporate bottom line.

Employee Relations

Once that employee is released into the wider workforce, your role as a HR professional involves ensuring they integrate effectively into the company, as well as maintaining employee relations at all times, to ensure a positive work environment, where employees can excel. Specifically, this often includes ascertaining employee satisfaction and engagement, as well as acting as a mediator in cases of workplace conflict.

Maintaining Safety

It often falls to the HR department to ensure that the company is in compliance of health and safety legislation, and that individual departments are meeting in house health and safety standards. This means that the HR professional is usually involved in supporting workplace safety training and managing official workplace safety and accidents records, as well as handling potential compensation issues.

Other roles often attached to the position of HR professional include: ensuring an organisation complies with legal guidelines, handling employee administration (wage, holiday days etc.), mediating between management and staff etc.

Honestly it’s hard to define everything the HR role entails. Ultimately, it’s about making sure employees are a benefit to the company which you work. That is why the position of HR professional is so critical. 

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter.

Frank Kelly

Read More

How Can You Cultivate a Career In Human Resources?

Considering the breadth and scope for opportunity in the modern HR sector, it is an industry that many wish to enter. Considering this, how can you cultivate a career in the modern HR industry?

The industry is on the rise; as a career option that appeals to those with people skills and proficiency for communication, it is attractive to a large swathe of the educated population. Furthermore the essential role HR holds for the cultivation of a success business venture means that any modern company needs a HR department.

These two key factors have ensured that the industry is projected to continue expanding further into the job market. Experts predict that by 2016 the industry will have grown 11% from its 2006 figures. However a wealth of opportunity does not a career make. The modern HR sector is like any industry; they only take the best of the best.

So this leads to the question that considering the high bar the sector places on entry into its ranks, how can you cultivate a career in the HR industry?

The first element to consider is education. It is not completely impossible to hold a position, even a managerial position, in HR without a degree. However increasingly the industry has placed a heavier emphasis on the need for academic credentials and in the post 2000 world, it’s almost essential.

Saying this Most HR departments require a minimum of a four year degree in a range of academic disciplines. However a bachelor’s degree in human resources, personnel or another related discipline is preferred due to the demands training for the position requires.

However in the modern day academic credentials are often no longer enough to differentiate you from the myriad of other degree level applicants vying for the same post. There are so many people who have attained degrees in the employment market that the HR industry is looking for people who stand head and shoulders above the rest.

This is why if you are serious about entering the industry, you must have experience. Experience indicates a familiarity with the industry. Furthermore it emphasises the fact that you have already handled the unique pressures the HR sector can bring and have proven yourself a match for them.

From there general vocational principles apply. Take every opportunity given to you. Cultivate contacts and working relationships. Act with integrity and efficiency. Prove that you are a valuable employee; this is the only way to move up into a higher, even a managerial, position in this diverse sector.

The opportunities are endless in the modern human resources industry; however you have to be willing to work for them. Don’t believe that doors will open for you, do everything you can to open them for yourself.

Why not check out my website for my latest articles.

Frank Kelly, Dublin City

Read More

Connect with Frank Kelly

I am always looking for new people to connect with. You maybe a HR professional, a company boss looking for someone to help improve productivity in your employees or just another inhabitant of Dublin's fair city. I am always looking to build new relationships.

You can do this through any of the following social media accounts:

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Google+


You can also find out more about me through the following sites:

www.frankkellydublin.com

About.me

Forbes

I look forward to connecting with you!

Frank Kelly

Read More

Frank Kelly: A look back at my time with the CIPD

Below is a snippet of an article on www.frankkellydublin.com, reflecting on my time as chairman of CIPD.

During my time as Director of HR in Dublin City I had the wonderful privilege and opportunity to explore many different developments in the field of HR management and practice as well as the underpinning conceptual models which help in understanding the role of HRM as a significant element of organisational life.

The CIPD or Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development to give it its full title, is the professional body for HR practitioners with a strong focus on people development. It has its HQ in Wimbledon with over 130,000 members internationally. My time as Chairman of CIPD (Ireland) was for the two year period from May 2009 to May 2011 and coincided with the most challenging period ever experienced not only for the Irish economy but for the global economic system as well. 

At the time I became Chair I was quoted saying that “nobody is immune to the difficulties that arise during a recession and so it is important the private and public sectors work together to overcome the challenges we face”. This was a key principle that I tried to apply during my term as Chairman. My time as Chair really showed the positive influence that flows from a strong and focused HRM strategy.

To read the full article, please visit http://www.frankkellydublin.com/frank-kelly-reflection-on-cipd-chairmanship/

Please don’t forget that you can link with me on Linkedin, Facebook, Google+ & Twitter.

Read More

Hello and Welcome from Frank Kelly

Hello and welcome to my HR and Business Coaching blog.

My Name is Frank Kelly and for over 16 years i was director of HR within Dublin's City Council. I now work as a HR and Business coach, helping company leaders increase their employees productivity. Through my techniques in approving employees self belief and thus reaching the companies objectives more quickly.

This blog will be used to offer hints and tips for you and your company to help you increase productivity in your workforce.

I hope you enjoy these hints and tips!

For more of my posts please visit my website, alternatively, you can follow me on Twitter.

Frank Kelly

Read More