Women domination in HR space is well researched, debated and followed closely by many across the globe. And like many before have questioned why and what makes this HR equation and women work so well?
HR is quite often considered as one of the most predominantly female functioning streams in many organizations. Over the years, we have seen a gradual feminization of the HR function. HR is perceived as ‘soft’ while sales and finance are ‘tough’. Women are expected to exhibit softer skills while men are expected to be more decisive. We are not being stereotypical in any way or confirming gender roles, but this is what usually continued and thought of.
A month before, Interview Mocha started conducting a survey with an aim in mind to find out the reason behind increasing number of Women in Human Resource profession and their benefits and drawbacks to the organization. Interview Mocha engaged people on various social media platforms and here we are with the results.
Core Skills for Human Resource Professional
HR professionals assess the candidate against a list of skills and personal characteristics needed for the job. Let’s turn the tables and see what that list of attributes would look like for an HR professional.
In no way is our list authoritative, but it is the opinion of the corporate people who have spent their time in taking the survey.
Communication skills were ranked as the highest. Communication skills are important for HR managers to interact effectively with outsourcing providers, public officials and employees, prospective employees and colleagues. After Communication skills, People’s skills and Negotiation are considered as the second most important skills for an HR professional.
Women HR professionals are outnumbering Men
Studies reveal that 70 percent of HR profession is dominated by females. It has often been said that the skills and qualities required to be a successful Human Resources professional lend themselves more to those of the female skill set.
HR function provides a great career gateway for entry-level women to embark upon a corporate career compared to other functions, such as finance or sales. Perhaps HR is perceived by women as being people-based and soft, empathetic, etc rather than data-driven and analytical.
HR behaves differently than other parts of the organization. It’s more networking and can be nurturing, the ability to make clear judgments about intangible things like personality, potential, and match-making. Obviously, women are better at this.
Women are considered to have a better Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Emotional intelligence is one's ability to make others feel valued and understood. It requires good listening skills, empathy, eye contact and evoking a positive feeling in others. More than 40 percent people think that women have better emotional intelligence than men. Both men and women have emotional intelligence, but each has a significantly different Emotional Intelligence profile.
When women are excited and passionate about whatever they are doing, they become extremely driven from that emotion. Having an emotional drive can be very powerful in leading a business or an organization and any initiative.
The key HR skills are the ability to empathize, relate and influence, women have more of it.
By this statement, we don’t mean to say that men don’t have these qualities to be a HR. But women have better- listening capacities, empathy, good organization skills, flexible and are great sympathizers and capacity to negotiate without conflicts. These qualities combine to make a great HR.
Here more than 54 percent people are of the view that women have more of HR Profession required skills. Believe us more of them were men who agreed with this statement.
Women remain anchored to lower levels and lower paid positions at work
When asked about the position of women at work, more than 39 percent of people denied that women remain anchored to lower levels and lower paid jobs. That’s really good when you see in a male dominated world women are successful to position themselves at the top.
Companies with women on board are more effective
Deanna M. Mulligan, CEO of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America once said, "We put a man on the moon, we should be able to put women on boards."
Studies reveal that Fortune 500 companies with the highest percentage of women board directors financially outperform companies with the lowest percentage. So if you want your organization to outperform your rivals, make sure you have women on the board.
More than 38 percent of the people agree with this that companies perform better with women on board. The logic behind this must be if you have a more diverse group sitting at the decision-making table, then you're going to get more diverse ideas. It's just that the board functions better if there’s a variety of views’ around the table.
What do people think?
When we asked people about their perceptions, here is what do they think are the benefits and drawbacks of Women HR to an organization; there were different views and thoughts over it.
Women play a crucial role in every industry and organization. They are more approachable, multi-tasking and conflict resolving, dedicated, focused and sound decision makers. Women are power, they can take any challenge. Organizations have amicable work environment with females in HR.
Sometimes their personal constraints, sensitive nature, emotional attitude can lead to loss. Women compromise and sometimes it becomes a bit difficult to balance when it comes to work and family.
But we do think with women in organizations there are more of benefits rather than drawbacks.
HR is a great profession for both men and women. HR as a profession can suit anyone depending on what they want to get out of their job, what motivates them and what they enjoy about work. There is nothing such thing like it is better suited to men or women. In fact, HR is more male dominated at the higher end. The important thing is we need a more even gender distribution throughout.
