Discussion Week 3

ive Critical HR Competencies

· Strategic contribution: This accounts for almost half of HR's total influence on business performance. It includes four subcategories: culture management, fast change, involvement in business decision-making, and leveraging customer information to create unified and customer-focused organizations.

· Business knowledge: HR professionals must understand their organizations and industries to become key players. They also must use the knowledge to make strategic contributions.

· Personal credibility: HR professionals must have effective relationships with key people inside and outside the organization, deliver results and establish a reliable track record, and have effective written and verbal communication skills.

· HR delivery: This includes six "traditional" HR activities: staffing, development, organizational structure, HR measurement, legal compliance, and performance management.

· HR technology: The growth of technology as a delivery vehicle for HR services requires HR professionals to be able to use technology and Web-based channels to deliver services to employees. Research, however, has found that the promise of HR technology to noticeably affect the overall financial performance of the organization has yet to materialize. Research also has found that taking these five core competencies into account means that HR practices, contributions, and activities affect business performance (financial performance of the business over the last three years compared to major competitors) by about 10 percent.