HR Manager Development Challenges

How to make employees develop is a problem that human resource managers often think about. While developing others, they also face the problem of self-development. Because the entry threshold of human resources seems to be low, but the development threshold is very high. After a period of time, many human resources managers find themselves in an embarrassing situation of Up (promotion) or Out (out).

Therefore, we invited several industry insiders and expert consultants to discuss the career development of human resource managers. They are: Zhuang Lirong, Human Resources Director of Walmart (China), Feng Yunfei, Assistant President and Human Resources Director of Konka Group, Gong Ruiping, Human Resources Manager of Global Sources China, and Wu Daini, Senior Organizational Behavior Consultant of Top People. At the same time, more than one hundred human resource managers participated in the discussion.

How to enhance professional competence?

Many HR managers do not have a professional background in human resources. They may come from administrative departments or business units and have not studied human resources before working. It is important for them to complete the transition to HR professionals. There are many ways to become more professional at work, including re-degree, improving at work. It is important to have clear goals and action plans.

Zhuang Lirong studied international business management at university, and entered the field of human resources by accident; Gong Ruiping's undergraduate major is English, and based on the principle of "the older you get, the more valuable the job", she chose Human Resources. Although they entered the profession with different motives, what the two have in common is to continue to supplement themselves with a degree in human resources. "Doing human resources without a degree in this area seems to be a disadvantage," said Gong Ruiping. She chose Renmin University to complete related majors. And Zhuang Lirong also has a master's degree in Human Resource Management from Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Australia.

Gong Ruiping believes that this kind of learning can give oneself a complete concept of human resources system. She also emphasized that, to do human resources work, a degree alone is not enough. One must also have the ability to apply concepts in order to apply these theories into practice. Zhuang Lirong believes that reading a professional degree can not only help you in your work in thinking, but also help you establish better interpersonal relationships among human resource managers. "Because human resources work, interpersonal relationships are very important. It is not enough to do your job well in the company, you also need to communicate with colleagues more."

In addition to studying a professional degree, another way to improve one's ability is An important method is to keep learning on the job, especially not to stick to your own job. Even if you are in charge of a certain aspect of the work, you should find opportunities to understand other aspects of the human resources system, and strive to become an all-round human resources talent. Zhuang Lirong is currently in charge of recruitment and employee development. For future development, "Maybe I will have the opportunity to participate in other aspects of work, such as evaluation."

No matter which method is used to improve myself, it is important for human resources managers The key is to have clear goals and a clear plan of action. Feng Yunfei has only been HR Director for two years. His previous work is related to company operations and strategy. His goal is to become a successful HR manager within a year. The method is to be more empowered and pay less attention to details. . Gong Ruiping also hopes that she can reduce detailed and micro operations, and be more able to control the overall situation and do more in-depth work in a certain field.

How to break through the bottleneck of development?

Professional competence is a must-have for human resource managers, but it is also the most basic skill. The further up you go, the more important it is to have an understanding of business and strategy, because human resources must ultimately be aligned with the company's strategic development.

According to the theory of University of Michigan management scholar David Ulrike, the function of human resource management can be divided into four dimensions: strategic human resource management, change management, daily operational goals (such as payroll, vacation, etc. ), the daily management of dealing with people (employee communication, handling employee disputes, etc.). Feng Yunfei believes that the higher the position, the more important the first two dimensions are, and the knowledge of these two dimensions is usually not learned in the professional field of human resources. "The work of human resources is outside of human resources." Wu Daini also said that the higher a person's position is, the less important his professional ability is, and the more important his core ability and character are.

Feng Yunfei's rich experience in business and strategy has now become an advantage for him in human resources. He brings his business understanding and strategic thinking to human resources, so that human resources can be integrated with the company's business. more closely.

Most human resource managers often lack such experience. The lack of understanding of strategy and business often becomes a bottleneck in the development of human resource managers, because after they are submerged in daily specific operations, they find it difficult to understand the development of business across departmental boundaries, which hinders them from strategic Thinking of Human Resource Planning.

Of course, the most effective way to change this situation is to step out of the human resources department and work in other positions, especially in some diversified companies, this experience is very important.

Wu Lan, the cadre inspection manager of the Human Resources Department of TCL Group, believes that TCL's industrial chain is very long and wide. Once it reaches a certain level, it will cover production, procurement, marketing, after-sales service, information management and other links within the entire group. When serving, if you don’t have work experience in other positions and the ability to think systematically, you will not be able to help leaders at the strategic level, you will not be able to tap reserve talents for the development of various industries, and you will not be able to provide support for the expansion of new businesses. "In our diverse organization, there is definitely a need to learn across roles."

But this approach isn't the only one that works, and in many companies, there's no such opportunity. At this time, we must take advantage of other opportunities to communicate more with the business department. Human resource managers spend more time with the general manager and with the business department to understand how the business is developing. Gong Ruiping suggested: "When your job doesn't provide you with conditions for learning other knowledge, you need to create conditions yourself. When I was a regional human resources manager, I volunteered to attend business meetings such as sales. They didn't invite them. You, but you can bring it up yourself. Currently, we will all attend business development conferences in China. In the process, you will have a deeper understanding of the business."

How to perform unpopular tasks?

According to a survey of 100 human resources leaders in China by Top People, 90% of human resources directors are troubled by constantly announcing news that people don't like to hear and changes they don't want to hear. And of those 90%, 35% believe that the situation has not improved in the past year, and 55% believe that it is getting worse. Wu Daini said: "The director of human resources is the largest internal salesperson, selling unwelcome news, policies, such as doing a more complete performance appraisal. Even if the decision was not made by him, it seems that he made it." In this way , the director of human resources has become a "black face" role in the enterprise.