Human Resources Tips for New Leaders

Being a new leader can be overwhelming. Being a new leader without the right training can be frustrating and frightening. Human resources tips for new leaders can be very helpful and keep you out of trouble. One of the best partnerships a new leader should build from the start is with the Human Resources (HR) team. Why do I say that? One of the greatest resources for any organization is its people. Leaders lead people and human resource management – the HR team – facilitates all the functions related to managing people.

There is a lot that goes into managing staff. Regardless the size of the team, there are multiple aspects that support workforce management.

“Human resources helps maintain a happy, legal and effective workforce.” Indeed

Likewise, many of the job functions done by the HR staff overlaps that of managers. In fact, many small businesses don’t have a dedicated HR person or department and the small business owner or managers are solely responsible for all the human resource obligations. Even in larger organizations, the overlapping job responsibilities require both the manager and HR to work in collaboration and support each other in their engagements with the team. Another reason why you, the novice leader, should take time to become very proficient in HR management and support.

In many situations, that HR team will provide the infrastructure for employees to follow, and for managers to enforce. A great example of this is the employee handbook. The handbook often has HR and Legal input and establishes company guidelines and standards for employee behavior. Other times HR provides guidance and support such as helping manager know how to properly and legally conduct interviews or providing fair and equitable compensation and pay raises. None the less, HR can be an advocate for the employee while as the same time working to keep managers out of trouble.

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Find out what you don't know

First, find out what you don’t know. I shared a few human resources tips for new leaders but you still have work to do be proficient. Become familiar with the many functions of human resource management and the impact they have on your responsibilities as a manager. The list of HR jobs is comprehensive but here are a few that are very common in most organizations:

Recruiting, Interviewing and Hiring
Onboard and New Employee Orientation
Training and Development
Performance Reviews
Compensation and Benefits Administration
Attendance and Time off Management
Performance Management
Conflict Management
Workplace Policies and Employment Law adherence

Each of these areas are important for a manager to know and become familiar. Some such as Interviewing and performance reviews will require you as the leader to have a more comprehensive understanding and strong skill set because you play a more direct role in performing these tasks.

Want more information to level up your leadership skills?

Coaching Employees for New Leaders and Tips on Managing Poor Performance for New Leaders are great Novice Leaders reads with lots of useful content.

Create your development plan

Next, construct your development plan around building proficiency in the areas you need growth. If you have access, partner with your HR professional. Many businesses have training available already to help managers get the skills they need. If you don’t have access internally at your company, don’t let that stop you. There are tons are free resources online to help you as well as courses available for which you can enroll. Even if you pay for a training course, the investment you make in your skills is yours for the life of your career and can benefit you many times over.

Here are some additional methods you can use to work on improving your Human Resource skills:

Take courses: college, online, certifications
Read Books on Human Resources. Many college online and physical bookstores have HR textbooks that make excellent learning and ongoing reference resources
Read Blogs like Novice Leader
Watch POD Casts and videos on HR Management

Let me know your HR horror stories below in the comments section and what you did to survive them? Maybe your story can save someone else from a crazy HR nightmare.

If you found this article helpful be sure to check out some other Novice Leader posts like this one: What Are the Top Manager Skills New Leaders Should Develop?

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