Regardless of which department your team works in, leadership training is important.
In Human Resources, the need for effective leadership is more important than ever. A recent study reveals that only a quarter of employees trust that their HR leader cares about their needs.
Furthermore, only 47% feel confident confiding in and receiving help from their HR department.
How can organizational leadership training help reverse this trend?
Here are three best practices for leadership training in your organization’s HR department.
3 Best Practices for Leadership Training in HR
According to the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), leadership isn’t a position—it’s a behavior.
It’s a leader’s job to inspire and empower employees to fulfill the company’s mission, vision, and values.
Below are three things HR leadership training should prioritize.
1. Focus on Building People Skills
It’s important for HR leaders to possess hard skills like talent management and HR Information Systems (HRIS) proficiency.
However, the most crucial skills HR leaders must obtain are soft skills.
McKinsey research highlights the importance of these soft skills, revealing that over 98% of CHROs want to focus more on the employee experience.
According to an article from Forbes, the top skills HR leaders need include:
- Empathy
- Coaching
- Employee empowerment
- Active listening
- Virtual management
- Employee recognition
It’s a good idea to prioritize these skills in your leadership training initiatives. This can help improve your HR leaders’ ability to connect with their employees, leading to increased trust.
2. Identify Areas of Diminished Trust
Trust is a key component of effective HR leadership. Employees must trust their leaders to act in their best interests.
According to an article published in Harvard Business Review (HBR), the concerns employees are most comfortable sharing with HR are blatant violations of company policy, such as harassment or discrimination—although it’s worth noting that this represents only approximately 15% of employees.
When it comes to less obvious matters such as harmful communication, culture or morale concerns, or issues with a supervisor, employees don’t often turn to HR leaders.
Building trust in HR begins with identifying and correcting what Harvard Business School Professor and Teamraderie Advisor Frances Frei calls “Trust wobbles.”
According to Frei in the Teamraderie Leadership Lab event, How To Build Trust, “I am likely to earn your trust if you experience my authenticity, my logic, and my empathy.”
In an article published in HBR, Frei explains that when one of these three factors “wobbles,” trust is damaged.
It’s a good idea to consider the following questions and structure your leadership training around the answers:
- Authenticity: Do employees feel like their HR leaders are genuine, or do they perceive fakeness in their demeanor?
- Logic: Do they have confidence in HR’s ability to make logical decisions and follow through?
- Empathy: Do they feel like HR leaders act in their best interests or the best interests of the company at employees’ expense?
If employees at your organization have little trust in HR, it’s very possible that more than one—and potentially all—of these areas could use work.
Focus your training efforts on strengthening each of these pillars of trust.
3. Train Leaders to Create Psychological Safety
The importance of creating a psychologically safe work environment is gaining increasing attention.
Psychological safety refers to the ability to take interpersonal risks without fear of negative repercussions. This is especially important in matters pertaining to HR since employees aren’t likely to bring concerns to HR’s attention if they feel like they’ll be punished for it.
Unfortunately, retaliation in the workplace isn’t uncommon.
In 2020, approximately 55.8% of claims filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) included instances of retaliation. On top of that, according to HBR, retaliation isn’t often reported since the financial and reputational risks aren’t always worth it to employees.
Even if retaliation isn’t a reality in your organization, the fear of retaliation can serve as a deterrent for employees to come forward.
Fostering a culture of psychological safety can help reduce this fear. When employees feel comfortable engaging in productive interpersonal conflict, speaking with candor, and expressing disagreements without punishment, the organization will benefit.
Practical Steps for Training HR Leaders
If you’re searching for practical ways to build soft skills, trust, and psychological safety, engaging your team in expert-led workshops can significantly help.
Teamraderie’s live, virtual team experiences are designed to help your team improve their people skills and leadership competencies.
Whether you’re training new managers, emerging leaders, or senior executives, Teamraderie’s experiences are an excellent option to provide relevant, engaging training.
Click here to learn more about how Teamraderie can help your team develop successful leaders.
