This description fits the present-day HR professional who must juggle skills while multitasking in an HR job. In every organization, big or small, the HR professional is the pivotal figure whose insight, foresight, and excellent managerial skills allow the entire organization's circuits to function. Under such circumstances, the human resources professional can ill afford to get blindsided by changing regulations.
Use Time Effectively.
Benjamin Franklin's assertion that "time is money" has never been truer than it is today. The cutthroat competition prevalent everywhere leaves the HR professional no time to slack off or procrastinate. Every passing second is valuable, and effective time-management practices have to be followed. These practices are a set of values, skills, tools, and systems that work together to improve the quality the HR professional's working life.
Most of the time, HR professionals end up lamenting, "If only I'd had a few more hours to compete the project." While lamentations will not bring tangible results, the HR professional should concentrate more on plugging the loopholes through which precious time slips away. Prior to learning proper time-management skills, it is important to focus on what needs to be done during one's working hours. Managing time effectively will give the HR professional more time to focus on work and thereby improve efficiency—and his or her HR career.
Prioritize Your Work.
Identify the time thieves and arrest them. Determine which activities consumed the most time and why. List them. Were you:
- off schedule or running behind schedule?
- obstructed by unimportant work in between scheduled tasks?
- working mechanically without keeping track of completed jobs?
- undertaking too much multitasking?
- taking more breaks than necessary?
After identifying and carefully analyzing your time thieves, it is time to amend your work schedule. The action plan of the HR professional should be to prioritize his or her tasks based on their importance. List all of your tasks on paper and assign each a degree of priority—high, very high, not so important, and so forth. The HR professional should adhere strictly to his or her schedule in order to finish each day's work on time.
Learn to Say No.
Becoming an excellent HR manager is much easier when one employs a well-designed time-management system to stay organized. As an HR professional, you will have to work with thousands of employees dealing with the same types of time-management issues. Develop your own time-management skills as much as possible so that you can be an example to these employees. If they continue to waste time, put your foot down. Remember, every individual's inability to achieve productivity adds to the company's inefficiency—and ultimately financial loss. Let each of the individual practices—creating to-do lists, prioritizing, and planning—do its part. Combine these practices into a system, and see what fruits your efforts bear.
In conclusion, if, as an HR professional, you find that your work is not progressing at the pace you desire, ask your colleagues what impedes their productivity. Highlight your achievements, and let them brainstorm the solutions to theirs. Effective management of time never hurts, never fails, and always delivers.