The Top-5 skills for HR professionals in 2021 (or why you should invest in your English communication skills)

What do Human Resources and a diamond mine have in common? Managing the business’s most precious asset. In the case of the mine, it’s the diamonds. In your organisation, it’s people.

But how can you manage people effectively if you lack communication skills? More so, in English, since working in a multinational and multicultural environment.

Managing people means interacting, and interaction requires good communication skills. I have collaborated with quite a few HR leaders recently. There is one recurring pattern: they know they need to master English communication to advance their career but struggle with speaking or speaking up, instead.

You see, Human Resources professionals like you need to deal with all sorts of situations: from pleasant ones such as promotions and new benefit schemes to stressful ones like negotiations and lay-offs.

You constantly need to switch from talking to the CEO or the management board to discussing with partners or employees, and vice versa. At every part of this spectrum, you need to adopt a different communication style while being yourself.

This is challenging, especially when all this has to be carried out in English, a language other than your native one.

The pandemic & the new more advanced role of HR

Improving your English communication skills is a no-brainer in 2021. The pandemic has made this even more striking.

As an HR leader, you no longer have to focus solely on the “common” HR functions and tasks, like hiring, training and compensation. You have become an integral part of your organisation. You are required to act as a leader and contribute to the organization’s effort to adapt, survive and thrive.

As a result, what you learned about Human Resources at university or on-the-job are largely already obsolete. You need to acquire and master new skills. And guess what: mastering communication in English is part of every one of them.

Here is a list with the 5 most sought-after skills for HR professionals like you in 2021 and beyond!

The Top-5 skills for HR professionals in 2021

1. Rapid learning

Even before the pandemic, things had started to change radically for Human Resources. The new post-covid era has made these changes even more prevalent. You are now considered a precious asset of your organisation, which can contribute to managing its people and its overall efforts to navigate these extraordinary times, stay afloat, and evolve. From technology to legal and from finance to ethics, you need to learn new things continually, absorb quickly and act meticulously on them, to help achieve the top-level business goals. The challenge is how you will learn big data, analytics, employee privacy, and cost optimisation from your colleagues in the other departments if you are not comfortable speaking (and understanding) good English. More so, if you can’t talk naturally and be yourself in order to create relationships and open channels of communication with them.

2. Hiring the right talent

 It is not about hiring talent anymore. Nor hiring the best talent around. This is so 2010’s. It is about hiring the right talent. How to identify the skill gaps within the organisation and then find people with the appropriate skills (hard and soft), so that they become a perfect match for the job posts. To understand what these skills are in the first place, you need to communicate effectively with the hiring departments and their leaders. Then, talk with candidates in the same effective way to get to know them, extract the right information, and assess their learning agility. This requires a good command of the English language and the ability to speak naturally and remain authentic. Mindfulness can help with that.

3. Connecting people working remotely

The hybrid office is the new reality. Employees working from home sometimes (or most of it) go to the office for specific reasons like meetings, brainstorming sessions, or other company events. How to connect and engage people under these circumstances is a huge challenge for HR professionals and leaders today. Zoom calls are fine, and online productivity tools keep the communication channels open and the work flowing. But what about employee engagement? To boost it in this on-and-off face-to-face mode, you must substantially increase the time you talk to them. You need to get to know them, listen to what they have to say, understand their needs, provide support. Moreover, you are required to effectively communicate the organisation’s goals, work expectations, provide recognition as well as motivate and inspire. A mindful command of the English language is key to all this. 

4. Hiring talent worldwide

The new norm is to hire the right talent from anywhere in the world, regardless of their place of residence. Remote work has hugely contributed to this. Digital nomads, freelancers or simply professionals with specific work-life arrangements, living anywhere on the planet, are now considered an equally good option for talent acquisition. Hunting and recruiting candidates worldwide means that English is the primary language of communication. It is of utmost importance to speak English confidently and effectively while using the pauses to gain headspace and pick up the candidate’s personal and cultural cues. Moreover, you need to be very careful about how you interview people, to remain compliant with international laws and at the same time, embrace diversity with respect. Picking the right words and tone of voice is essential. As well as how you present yourself and your organization during a call while maintaining your style and letting your personality shine.

5. Managing constant change

In previous decades, it was about change management. The new century has now added the concept of perpetuity and speed. Never before have things -in society and business- been changing so continuously and rapidly. And this has a huge impact on employees and stakeholders alike. And an ever-present heavy burden on their shoulders. Coping with rapid change requires advanced communication skills. As an HR professional, you need to be able to unfreeze situations quickly. With the minimum impact on the business, complete the new setups effectively and refreeze the new normal smoothly. Until the next crisis dictates another shakeup. Doing so requires that you communicate confidently with all the parties involved while providing the appropriate support to manage the employees’ change fatigue. To make it in HR as a change leader, you need to be a good and mindful listener, have impeccable English language skills and communicate with empathy and authenticity. An experienced English coach can help you with finding that voice.

You are now ready to sail in 2021 and beyond in style and with confidence!

Investing in these skills is a surefire way to accelerate your HR career fast. Other clients of mine from the Human Resources industry have confirmed that and they actively seek to boost their English communication skills to enhance their career further.

Here at ProEnglish, this is also my end-goal. To empower non-native highly- skilled HR professionals like you to claim what they deserve in their career by breaking down the language blockage, in a safe, kind and trustful environment.

I am Vera Daskalaki, your Mindful English Coach. You, being here and reading this, really means a lot to me.

Let me know if anything of the above hit a nerve and feel free to send me any questions. But before anything else, start working on these 5 skills today. A small step forward every single day can add up to significant progress over time.

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