Functional competency clusters.
a) Business/operational strategy translation and alignment of HR management
strategies,
b) Talent management,
c) HR administration,
d) HR information and knowledge management,
e) HR research and process development, and
f) HR monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
The evolving competence approach to managing people in organisations has created the
opportunity to identify key competencies required for effective human resource manag-
ers. Research conducted by Ulrich (1998) in Redman & Wilkinson (2009) shows the
relative importance of some competencies over others in Table 10.2.
Table 10.2 Professional competencies in human resource management
Competence profile % of relative importance of effectiveness
Personal credibility 27
Ability to manage change 22
Ability to manage culture 19
Knowledge of human resource practices 17
Understanding of business 14
Source: Redman & Wilkinson (2009).
A close look at the competence profiles reveals that such profiles mostly focus on lead-
ership qualities. Managing people is about influencing others and that the influence has
to come out of personal credibility, trust and a sense of commitment. This will explain
why personal credibility comes at the top. Ability to manage change is next because
effective human resource management goes hand in hand with creativity and innova-
tion. New strategies, procedures, and practices, which will require both managers and
employees to move out of their comfort zones through continuous learning, have to be
adopted. Ability to manage and internalise changes is critical for a human resource offi-
cer. Since change management involves creating new aspects of the organisation’s cul-
ture, ability to manage culture is also ranked relatively high. Human resource knowl-
edge is also important but is ranked lower than other attributes because of the current
shift of emphasis from what employees ‘know’ to what they are ‘able to do’ effectively.
The experience from West Sussex County Council
West Sussex County Council is one of the organisations that changed from using the
traditional human resource management approach to recruitment and selection to com-
petence based (Farnham & Stevens 2000). Traditionally, the council used the following
recruitment and selection procedures and processes:
- Approval was sought from the top management.
- Line managers provide job descriptions and specifications.
- Job descriptions and specifications are fine-tuned by the personnel department.