What makes a Great HR Director

With almost 30 years of experience in recruitment, the team here at Lucy Walker Recruitment knows first-hand how important the right people-centred leaders can be for your organisation. That's why our clients often come to us for guidance on how to hire the right HR staff.

Remarkable HR leaders have the power to drive company culture, maintain motivation and reduce employee turnover by building and managing a more engaged workforce.

The question is, what are the key characteristics of the HR Director who will be pivotal to driving the performance of your HR function?

Basic Character Traits

There's more to finding the perfect candidate for your role than making sure they have the right skill set and qualifications.

While experience is critical for a HR leadership role such as a director, you'll also need to evaluate your potential employee's attitude during a competency-based interview or personality test. This will help you find someone for your team that has the following three essential character traits:

Passion and Enthusiasm
HR directors work with people every day, which means that they need to be passionate and enthusiastic about helping others achieve their goals. A good HR professional puts the needs and interests of the people they're supporting at the forefront of everything they do. They use emotional intelligence to establish a healthy environment for their teams by:

• Implementing team bonding exercises and making sure that the right people work together to facilitate group success.

• Conducting stay interviews to reduce turnover and learn what people like or would like to change about your company.

• Constantly seeking out new opportunities to empower employees through new training strategies, workflow techniques and mentoring.

As the average work environment continues to evolve, the best HR leaders know how to stay ahead of the curve. They plan for the future of their workplace by identifying potential threats and opportunities in the marketplace.

For instance, if your HR director notices that your employer brand isn't up to scratch, they might implement employee advocacy campaigns with vlogs from your top-performers to attract new talent to your company.

By keeping the future in mind while they observe the present, a competent HR director can address challenges before they arise and ensure that your teams stay consistently happy and engaged.

Impeccable HR leaders are problem solvers. They're the first to notice when something isn't right with your organisation, and they're always available to offer creative ideas on how you can fix common issues.

To find out whether your new HR employee knows how to respond in a crisis, use behavioural interview techniques to find out how they've handled issues in the past.

The Specialist Skills

Once you know that your HR director has the basic skills outlined above, you can start to look for other signs that they'll perform well in your organisation.

For instance, you should look for evidence of the following 3 "specialist" skills.

Communication & Relationship Skills

HR leaders work closely with a wide selection of different people. One day, they might be helping commercial and operational directors to ensure your company has a positive presence online. The next day, they may be working alongside the payroll team to make sure that your pay scale ensures that everyone gets the right remuneration and benefits aligned to their market value.

Because they work in so many different spaces, HR directors need exceptional communication and relationship skills. They need to know how to speak to each person in your team using language that they understand, and how to encourage communication between different parts of the business too. They:

• Share ideas regularly

• Encourage open communication among employees

• Listen carefully to the people around them and respond to their needs

Knowledge and Expertise

To successfully grow your organisation, your HR director needs to know everything from the latest compliance rules, wellbeing initiatives, to the relevant details on benefits and compensation in your sector. This means that the ideal HR director for your business is likely to have experience either in your sector or an aligned market.

When it comes to knowledge and expertise, remarkable HR employees dedicate themselves to constantly learning and building their skill sets. They develop their knowledge in multiple ways from attending the latest industry events to attending relevant training events.

Finally, a great HR director will know how to drive lasting change in a business through their ability to translate the organisations vision and values. They devote themselves to the process of helping other people in their organisation develop their skills and unlock their true potential. Sometimes, this might be establishing training initiatives for specific teams, acting as a mentor to other managers in the organisation.

Outstanding HR leaders are champions of business culture. They constantly work to create a space that recognises and supports better staff performance by empowering the people that work within a team. As the innovator leading your team, your HR pro might:

• Design and deliver a framework for constant education and development

• Interview employees perform evaluations and offer constructive feedback

• Implement diversity and acceptance strategies to give everyone in the team a stronger sense of belonging.

• Explain and demonstrate business values daily.

What Next?