How to be a good HR manager: 7 tips for the role

Leading HR takes tact, organization and dedication. The person in this role looks after their own team and, at the same time, makes decisions that affect every area of the company.

These 7 tips show how to get to know your team, work with other departments, lead by example and look after relationships beyond the numbers. To widen your view of the role, see our post on strategic people management: what it is, its pillars and goals.

Tip 1: Knowing your team

The first tip is to know the people who work in your department well.

Get familiar with your employees, their strengths and their limitations. Value diversity and learn to balance it.

When you understand your people, it is easier to delegate tasks according to each person’s skills, which tends to raise the department’s engagement and productivity.

See also: our post on 7 technology trends in HR.

Tip 2: Working across departments

Work together with the managers of other areas to develop suitable HR ideas and practices.

Try to understand each department’s responsibilities and offer suggestions that contribute to results.

Your department helps with the selection processopens in a new tab and with assessing talent in other areas. That is why you need to understand well what each one does.

Tip 3: Firm leadership

As an HR manager, you will resolve internal conflicts and deal with problems in how employees behave and carry out their work. Our post on how a leader should act in difficult situations can help.

This takes a firm hand and fairness at the same time, especially with company policies. Policy cannot stop you from considering the context of each violation.

Always remember the “human” in “human resources”.

It makes no difference whether you are dealing with new hires or with an influential manager. When someone acts out of line, you need to know when and how to apply organizational policy.

Failing to do so weakens your authority and keeps the company from reaffirming its organizational culture. The result is a loss of identity and credibility, and the organizational climateopens in a new tab feels it too.

Tip 4: Leading by example

A good HR manager sets an example for the team.

Leading by example is a challenge, but it gives people a model to follow. Imposing rules that you break yourself makes your job harder. The rules that apply to others also apply to you.

That makes it easier to connect with employees and improve engagementopens in a new tab and motivation.

Want to lead by example? Be a leader, not a boss.

Tip 5: Staying organized

You cannot be a good HR manager without organization. It is one of the most important skills in the role, and anyone who works in HR needs to manage time well.

This applies to your workspace and to your documentation, which must be filled in correctly, especially in employees’ personal files. A missing file or a wrong piece of information in an employee’s profile can have serious consequences.

If your company has already digitized its files, enter the data as soon as you receive it. For more on this path, see our post on digital HR. If you still manage paper files, keep everything clean and organized too.

Read more: our post on strategic HR planning.

Tip 6: Different HR functions

Explore other HR functions to broaden your knowledge and skills.

Limiting yourself to what you already know blocks professional opportunities and personal growth. If you have always worked in recruiting and selection, for example, how about gaining experience in training or in building HR strategies?

See also: our complete guide to Human Resources.

Tip 7: Relationships beyond the numbers

As an HR manager, it is easy to get into the race for the best numbers: more hires, a higher satisfaction rate, more training sessions.

These indexes matter, but an HR manager’s work is also about relationships. Build good relationships with employees at every level of the company and do not limit yourself to delivering good numbers.

How to track your team’s development

Knowing your team and looking after relationships calls for continuous follow-up. The HR manager needs to see who is progressing, who needs support and where to invest in development.