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Posted by Neelie Verlinden
As the job market becomes increasingly competitive and unpredictable, it is more important than ever for HR professionals to recession-proof their careers.
This means developing (future) skills required now to stay ahead of the game and thrive in any economic climate. This article will discuss what skills HR will need and the steps you can take to develop them.
Contents
Remaining competitive in a recession
Advantages of upskilling for HR professionals
The risks of not upskilling during a recession
15 Top future skills HR needs to develop
Steps to take to recession-proof your HR career
How HR can approach their managers to motivate L&D spending
Recent economic downturns have made many leaders in organizations skittish. Economic downturns can lead to a potential recession, and the concern has led to some companies pre-emptively reducing staff or further tightening their belts. Even 61% of economists predicted a likelihood of a recession in 2023.
Although we’re not in a recession yet, and cannot predict with 100% certainty that there will be one, it’s important as HR professionals to understand the potential implications, challenges, and opportunities presented when there is economic uncertainty.
Let’s examine the implications of economic downturns. During these periods, businesses may experience decreased demand for their products or services and increased cost pressures. This makes organizations make tough decisions, particularly when cutting expenses, reducing staff, or issuing hiring freezes.
Additionally, businesses may look for innovative, cost-effective ways to streamline operations, such as implementing automation.
These decisions will directly impact HR, as HR professionals play an essential role in managing the workforce and ensuring the organization has the talent and skills needed to meet its goals.
In a recession, HR professionals may need to navigate complex situations, such as layoffs, developing severance packages, and other legal considerations, but they will also need to assist the business in adopting new business models in response to the changing market climate.
And the HR profession itself will face new pressures to demonstrate the value they bring to the organization during economic uncertainty. This calls for a proactive approach to developing future skills and competencies to assist the business in weathering the storm and position itself as a valuable HR business partner.
Those HR professionals who invest in their upskilling pre-recession will be better equipped to withstand the potential challenges and be better positioned to provide value to the business.
Let’s further unpack the benefits of proactively developing your future skills now.
There are several compelling reasons why HR professionals should be looking to position themselves as indispensable partners in the business by upskilling. These benefits include:
Dr. Dieter Veldsman, Chief Scientist HR and OD at AIHR, on the importance of re- and upskilling for HR professionals:
“The future for HR careers has never been brighter, and we are continuously listed as one of the fastest-growing professions for the future. To capitalize on these opportunities will require HR professionals to gain self-insight into their skills and an active effort to reskill and upskill aligned to the future of work requirement.“
HR professionals may be viewed as an expendable cost rather than a strategic asset if they do not demonstrate value to the organization through their skills and activities. On an individual level, there are also career risks that an HR professional could face:
Fortunately, there are strategic steps that HR professionals can take to avoid these risks and to help ensure that they continue to provide value to the business.
The following 2 sections will unpack what future skills HR must focus on and how to start developing these today.
At AIHR, we’ve identified 4 core competencies that HR professionals need to develop:
These competencies should be developed in addition to specific functional competencies (such as Comp & Ben or L&D).
While the skills most relevant to you will depend on factors such as your HR career aspirations and current role, more general skills are required for all HR practitioners.
AIHR has identified 15 future HR skills you should focus on developing:
Many of these skills are part of the broader HR competencies mentioned at the beginning of this section that helps you become a T-shaped HR professional. T-shaped HR professionals have a more comprehensive set of skills beyond their specialization, which enables them to lead the organization through different challenges and times of change – like a recession.
There are various ways to recession-proof your HR career. Things you can proactively do yourself to take control of your career development, build skills, and feel more confident about your position.
1. Map your HR career path
Start by mapping out your HR career path. This will enable you to determine the direction you want to progress based on your HR career goals and capabilities.
Your career pathing plan will provide you with valuable insights into:
The resources you can use to fill in your skills gaps.
Let’s say you currently work as an HR Administrator but want to become a Compensation & Benefits Manager. To succeed in this role, you need to have (among other things) the following:
While you may already have developed the first two skills and competencies within your HR Administrator role, the last 2 may need to be developed to help you advance into the position.
To give you an idea of what your career path in HR could look like, you can use our HR Career Path Tool.
Dr. Dieter Veldsman, Chief Scientist HR and OD at AIHR, on modern-day HR careers:
“We must acknowledge that no two HR careers will look the same. We are starting to see new HR patterns emerge, and this provides opportunities for HR professionals to craft their own career journeys.”
Once you’ve mapped your career path and know where you want to go, it’s time to take stock of your current skills and competencies. There are two main reasons to do a personal skills audit:
For example, while assessing your current skills, you notice you’re doing very well regarding ethics and data privacy, critical and systems thinking, and negotiation skills. However, areas that need developing include organizational design and change management.
Depending on your time (and financial) resources, you can either start working on one or both skills simultaneously. You may need to approach your manager to ask for the company to sponsor an online course. In the last section, we provide helpful tips and an email template to help you approach your manager.
4 = Excellent experience and expertise
3 = Good knowledge and experience
2 = A little knowledge and experience
1 = Interested in learning and knowing more
0 = No knowledge or experience
HR professional development goals focus on improving an individual’s skills and competencies to feel more confident in their role and advance in their career.
As soon as you’ve charted your HR career path and made an inventory of your current skills, you can set concrete development (upskilling) goals for yourself.
For example, Your overarching goal is to improve your people analytics skills.
You can then break this goal down into smaller increments that can look something like this:
Improve your Excel skills
We’ve written a practical 7-step guide to setting – and achieving – your HR professional development goals.
Organizations are not the only ones feeling the pinch from the current economic uncertainty. There are additional ways to help you upskill that won’t cost much or depend on asking for approval.
For example, say you want to develop your critical thinking skills. There are various inexpensive ways to achieve this, such as:
Despite HR’s prominent role during the pandemic, stakeholders and leadership continue to undervalue the HR department’s contribution to the business.
This makes it all the more challenging for HR professionals to illustrate the value they bring to the business. This is why it is essential for HR to look for opportunities where they can add value to the company and communicate these initiatives and successes to the rest of the organization
For example, in the face of rapid technological advancements and evolving business models, organizations need to have an agile and adaptable workforce. HR can provide value by developing talent strategies that prioritize the (acquisition and) development of the skills and competencies needed in the future.
By analyzing the results from these talent strategies, translating them into money (i.e., costs saved, increased productivity, etc.), and then communicating the success, HR teams can showcase their value to the organization.
Many people don’t like to network. Or at least they think they don’t. Because networking doesn’t necessarily mean attending events and speaking to people you don’t know.
Reviving your network can be as simple (and low-key) as:
Make a list of people you’ve been in touch with over the past year – both in and outside your organization – who might be able to give you ideas or information about potential job or side gig opportunities.
Even if nothing tangible comes out of these catch-ups right away, at least people know that you’re open to different options and ideas so that they are more likely to think of you when something does pop up.
When reviving your network, don’t forget about the HR community you are a part of. Being part of a community of fellow people practitioners is invaluable, especially in times of (potentially) challenging times.
It’s a great place to:
7. Prioritize resilience and total well-being
None of the steps mentioned above will be successful if you’re on the edge of burnout, physically suffering, or otherwise unwell. Therefore, one of the first things to do is to prioritize your total well-being.
One way to do so is by becoming more resilient and a SAFE HR professional – Self-aware, Act, Forgive, and Educate. In practice, this means:
Asking your manager if your company can sponsor your training can be a delicate conversation. This is why we’ve compiled a handy page with helpful tips and email templates to help you ask your manager.
Here are a few additional tips to help you approach your manager for aid in sponsoring your upskilling:
Whether or not we will enter a recession, HR professionals have many ways to proactively take matters into their own hands and recession-proof their careers.
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How to Recession-Proof Your HR Career - AIHR
Posted Date: 2023-05-11
