Welcome, in my new Blog series for Non HR Professionals I intend to focus on enhancing skills and practice knowledge. Students can then tackle HR subjects with superior confidence. My subsequent blogs will cover:

• Realise the implications of Employment Legislation on your Organisation
• Recruitment questions & pitfalls
• Learn the appropriate codes of conduct
• Improve your absence management
• Management style v Leadership
• Your team‘s performance.

Let’s start with linking HR topics. Most Non HR Professionals are first introduced to HR issues through handling holiday requests and becoming involved in the organisation’s appraisal process. Being involved in dealing with colleagues can be overwhelming as you discover that even a small group of people can have a myriad of different personalities. Appraisal processes in general, are good preparation for Recruitment interviews, except most Non HR colleagues, rarely consider “linking HR topics” to maximise your practical experience on HR.

Line Managers do not spend much time “thinking about people management”. Using the practical knowledge you learn in handling one topic and applying it to another, is a methodology all Line Managers apply, they think about operational management issues and seek to master the concept of “upwards management”.

Sadly, most Non HR Professionals learn only to become expert on the latter. Students should apply the same thinking about people management as they do to operational management. This will improve their HR learning a lot – until next time.

Additional resources:

HRM Blog – Intersection for HR Practitioners
Study Sociology
#SmartMind