If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? If you’re a fan of superheroes, and the Marvel comic characters a few may come to mind such as superman, Captain America, and Wonder Woman. There have literally been thousands of superheroes with millions of superpowers.
If you really don’t feel like you have an HR superpower, simply reflect on what you experienced in 2020 and 2021. An onslaught of uncertainty, change and struggle… to put it mildly. HR overcame everything that was thrown at it during a period of constant change. And now maybe you’re asking yourself “how on earth did you manage to pull it off?”
Superheroes are amazing for many reasons such as super speed, super strength or invisibility powers. Some really don’t have much in the way of super powers and rely a bit more on some really cool gadgets…Thor’s hammer, Captain Americas shield and Wonder Woman’s Accessories.
And the same is true for HR teams. HR professionals, have real superpowers and are the real super heroes in our organisations today.
Realising your HR superpower
You probably didn’t accomplish this feat because you had a superhero gadget, but you probably achieved great things with a combination of skills and tools and your sheer superhuman endurance.
Effective HR leaders have these super powers:
1. Empathy
Through the power of empathy, leaders inherently understand what it means to be in someone else’s shoes. Leaders with empathy act with compassion and compassion starts with understanding. With continuous listening, empathetic leaders can achieve meaningful, real-time feedback.
Powerful people data that can be feed directly into your people analytics platform, helps leaders determine a cause of action… faster.
Your superpower gadget: people analytics empowers empathetic HR leaders.
2. Resilience and endurance
A superhero might have super strength, but HR have shown super stamina, resilience and strength by being able to manage and operate in spite of challenging and adverse conditions. Attracting and winning the right talent is an ongoing requirement, with around 60% of businesses saying that retention is one of their biggest concerns (McKinsey).
Being able to tackle this business need is a super power and being able to retain the best talent at all levels of the organisation is a highly sought-after skill.
Your superpower gadget: HR software that encompasses, recruitment, onboarding, engagement and e-signature.
3. Vision
You may not have x-ray eyes, however, HR leaders process vision and the ability to breathe innovation and inspiration into their people. HR leaders are gifted with the strength of vision to create smooth and efficient HR processes that create a positive work experience. They can anticipate long term trends and requirements. Another HR superpower is establishing systems and processes that employees love and run like clockwork such as employee self-service and workforce management.
Your superpower gadget: mobile first HR software
4. Connection
Connectivity across the business has proven to be more important than ever before. The ability to facilitate human interaction and a feeling of connectivity with remote staff and those working from home on within a hybrid model. An HR leader’s superpower is to harness the power of connection.
HR pros have super powers in building environments that improve engagement and improve the workplace experience (even if working remotely). Connectivity includes 24/7 real time access to workforce management and rotas.
Creating a positive employee experience, which includes innovative recognition, reward programs, time saving training, particularly at the point of need.
Your superpower gadget: remote and hybrid working that enables connectivity and access to real time shift checker
5. Agility and flexibility
For HR this means this means managing the people function in a way that is able to respond fast, nimble, flexible and frictionless for everyone involved.
Essentially creating a future proof environment that can respond to changes in the operating environment and the business needs. The ability to manage through the stormiest of days, and frequently at speed. Think back to implementing the furlough schemes.
Managing time effectively and improving the operational processes beyond HR with the ability to accomplish tasks more swiftly. Even if you don’t possess shapeshifting superhero skills, being able to tackle new challenges and help your business thrive is more than enough. And no more excel spreadsheets or excel hell.
Your superpower gadget: You and your modern HR software.
We know that HR are the central function for any successful business. HR are superheroes and all they need as a super gadget is HR software.
elementsuite HR Software
