SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP Certification Exam: Behavioral Competencies - Interpersonal Skills - Communication

Behavioral Competency 4—Communication
Being an effective communicator is one of the most important building blocks to a successful career in HR. First, career-level HR professionals will need to hone their oral and written communication skills to handle employee and candidate communications, grievances, and training and presentations, along with investigations. More senior-level HR professionals will require a higher level of communication skills that will be used in developing presentations, programs, policies, and various analysis or other outcomes, along with interactions with a variety of internal and external stakeholders.

Three subcompetencies comprise the Communication competency.

They are defined by SHRM as follows:
- Delivering messages Developing and delivering to a variety of audiences communications that are clear, persuasive, and appropriate to the topic and situation
- Exchanging organizational information Effectively translating and communicating messages among organizational levels of units
- Listening Understanding information provided by others

Key Concepts
- Elements of communication (e.g., source, sender, receiver, message feedback)
- General communication techniques (e.g., planning communications, active listening)
- Communication techniques for specialized situations (e.g., giving feedback, facilitating focus groups, facilitating staff meetings)
- Communications media (e.g., phone, e-mail, face-to-face, report, presentation, social media)

Definition
According to SHRM, “Communication is defined as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to effectively craft and deliver concise and informative communications, to listen to and address the concerns of others, and to transfer and translate information from one level or unit of the organization to another.”16

Proficiency Indicators for All HR Professionals
All HR professionals are expected to conduct themselves according to the following behaviors associated with the competency of Communication:

Communicating Clarity
Communication is a vital and critical change management element. To be effective with change management in any leadership position within an organization, and especially in the HR function, will require over-communication to ensure that everyone hears and embraces a message, that they will understand the message and act accordingly.

The basics of a communication model is simply:
Who is the Communicator → Says what Message → in what way Medium used → to whom Intended Receiver → with what effect Feedback

Whether the communication is spontaneous (someone dropping into your office) or carefully planned out (all-hands meeting), the same model is applied in order to ensure impactfulness. At each step of the model, something can go south, derailing the intent or purpose of the communication. Clarity of what is intended to be communicated is absolutely of high importance in HR communications—whether they be planned communications or the informal, spontaneous type. A communicator’s ability to be clear builds their credibility and helps avoid rumor mills or “noise” within an organization.

Kouzes and Posner, in their book The Leadership Challenge,56 described the following behaviors that contribute to the “credibility factor” with communicators:
- Accuracy, derived from their expertise and preparation
- Consistency
- Reliability, doing what a person says they will do
- Courage to disagree when appropriate and necessary
- Integrity
- Creativity
- Maintaining confidentiality
- Creating an atmosphere that is comfortable

Listening
Effective communicators are excellent listeners. They can interpret and confirm what is being said and use this content to drive the conversation further—for example, through follow-up questions such as, “If I understood what you told me, you feel that the records are incorrect. What makes you think they are incorrect?”
Communicators must also be good observers of nonverbal messages. They can promote a more open and better discussion by using a nonthreatening manner to draw in a person who may be indicating resistance to speak (e.g., sitting with legs crossed and arms are crossed high, perhaps with a scowl on the face). Use an open-ended question that may sound to the receiver as agreement, to help elicit their openness, for example, “Chris, you would be probably one of the best people to ask this question due to your length of time in your job. What do you believe I should review?” Listening has another big benefit in communications too. Focused, authentic attention builds trust and goodwill with others, allowing you to get to the heart of what really matters.

Delivering Critical Information
The delivery of a message, especially critical messages, involves choosing the communication channel that best fits the message and the intended receiver’s needs, along with a delivery style that supports the receiver’s understanding of the message. Timing plus anticipation of the intended receiver’s reactions are important considerations. Circling the wagon and not getting to the core point of the message within the first couple of sentences is highly ineffective. When delivering critical information, get to the factual point quickly. An example would be: “Lee, the ABC project deadline for Friday is not going to be met by my analysis and observation. I believe that if we switch Jan from the implementation group over to the analytics, we have a better chance of making a Monday deadline if we have everyone work overtime 2 hours each night next week.”

Providing Constructive Feedback
In constructive feedback, you need to consider ways to be precise but also help the person to hear and apply the feedback. This can be done by framing the message in terms of the ultimate goal of the activity, what is lacking, and what specifically needs improving and what improvement would look like.
The following might be made in a coaching session aimed at helping a manager improve their ability to conduct discipline meetings:
“You want Jim to know the reason for the meeting and the outcomes. I’ve observed that when Jim rambles at length and repetitively about various excuses, you lose focus on the point that he’s not meeting quota and what Jim has to do to correct his quota deficiency. Yes, allow Jim to respond and explain, but keep it short and draw him back to what he can do, what he is accountable for.”
The employee’s understanding of the feedback can be confirmed by asking the employee to demonstrate the performance and/or by observing the employee at work. For example, in the situation described earlier, the HR professional might role-play a meeting with the manager.

Ensuring Effective Communication
Impactful communicators are prepared to shorten their message to key points if the audience is rushed or bored, tailor it if the audience has more trouble understanding or accepting a certain point, or expand the message if the audience shows great interest. They engage their audience with not just their words and supporting documentation but also with their voices and nonverbal body presence. Their gestures are appropriate to the message, such as shaking their heads up and down for positive agreement/understanding or side-to-side to signal a disapproval. They establish eye contact and have vocal qualities that amount to speaking clearly, at a pace and volume that can be heard.

Knowing Your Audience
Understanding an audience’s needs and perspective relies on building awareness of common interest. This requires seeing situations through the eyes of the audience or intended receiver, an essential skill set within Emotional Intelligence. As discussed earlier, knowing how your message will be framed and delivered for understanding and acceptance will help with a communications impactfulness. Consider the audience, their needs, and perspectives when shaping your communication. This is easier with a cognitive and emotional connection.

Leading Meetings
Communication in meetings often focuses on conveying information, receiving updates, soliciting opinions, improving engagements and morale, and coordinating activities. While these are essential communication activities, meetings can become time wasters that are resented by the employees if they are a one-way street and/or are felt to be a waste of their time. All meeting facilitators would well advised to open up their meeting with the purpose and goal of the meeting and why the people present are attending.

Here are additional tips for leading effective meetings:
- Set a clear agenda with defined items. Circulate the agenda before the meeting and specify what individuals may need to do to prepare for the meeting.
- Allot time according to the agenda and stay within the time limit as a show of respect for others’ time.
- Start on time. Come early to allow social exchanges that strengthen relationships, but start covering the agenda at the published time.
- Take time to resolve conflicts, but postpone discussion of conflicts that may be difficult to resolve until after the meeting.
- Review any decisions and assignments at the meeting’s end.
- Send an e-mail summary if needed for more complex agendas.

Proficiency Indicators for Senior HR Professionals
Beyond the basic proficiency indicators are the following additional behaviors that senior HR professionals are challenged to master.

Negotiating with Stakeholders
When negotiating with stakeholders, it’s imperative that you begin dialogue with the stakeholder by asking open-ended questions about the issue at hand, their position and perspective, and the desired outcomes they have. The more information you can gather, the better you will understand what is motivating their position, and the more targeted and effective your negotiations will be. By also building an authentic dialogue with the open-ended question, you will be creating a level of trust that will help you work out a deal when a genuine connection is felt. Stakeholders need to feel that you hear and understand their point of view.

Soliciting Feedback
Significant communication events need to be evaluated as soon as possible to determine if the communication has met its objective or failed. Within the change management process, feedback is the phase of communicating that makes sure the desired outcome or action targeted is going to happen. Allowing the audience a question-and-answer period is most helpful after a presentation. Even within a one-in-one communication when delivering critical information, asking for feedback is a wise thing to do (e.g., “Leslie, so I am confident that I communicated everything that I had planned to discuss with you, will you please give me a recap of our discussion and your next actions?”)

A review of what occurred for all major communication initiatives and meetings would include these evaluating questions:
- Did the intended audience react as anticipated?
- Was there confusion and, if so, about what?
- Where did the audience seem most engaged and why?
- Where did the audience seem least interested?
- Were the medium and materials used supportive and understood by the audience?
- What questions were asked? Were there interruptions and when?

Developing Communication Strategies
While not all communications require extensive planning, the costs of not planning are high. Impactful communicators create strategies for critical and/or complex communications.

These strategies can include the following considerations:
- How will the communication take place? Face-to-face? By phone? In writing, using e-mail, text, or other methods? It is going to be difficult to assess the intended receiver’s (or receivers’) reactions when they are not personally in front of you. In these cases, communications should be reviewed by multiple people who can point out areas where there may be ambiguity or potential confusion. Complex topics addressed in presentations usually provide visual support materials that allow the audience to see and digest information, especially those involving numerical data. Discussions about sensitive issues may be conducted best in person or at least by phone or video conference call, rather than by e-mail.
- When will the communication take place? Some messages require the planning and releasing phases or portions of the message to different groups in a specific sequence. As an HR professional, you need to also consider organizational timing. What other communications might be occurring at this time that can distract from your message?
- Where will the communication take place? For sensitive discussions, the setting should safeguard confidentiality. For group communication events, the setting should be comfortably accommodating for the group size. Be sure to minimize the risk of distractions and interruptions with sensitive discussions.
- Who will communicate? Some communications will be better delivered by a presenter with authority in the organization, such as the CHRO. Others require expertise and the ability to respond to technical questions, such as the HRIS manager. Still others require communicators who are adept at listening, understanding an audience’s changing needs, and responding in a positive, unthreatened way, such as the workers’ compensation specialist.
- What form of media will be used? HR communications should consider the appropriateness of the media used to deliver the messages and intended receiver’s ease with different media types, such as reading level, ability to use and access to technology, and the effects of time zones.
Communicating in various media presents certain challenges and different types of planning. The following table provides the advantages and challenges of various means of communication.

Mastery of Delivery
Framing is often used in discussions of communication. The term reflects the process of getting an audience to see communicated topics and facts in a particular way. Reframing is changing the way an audience sees or feels the intended message. When an HR professional manages an employee’s discouragement over a change in the workplace by pointing out benefits and opportunities for them created by the change, the HR professional is reframing the facts.

Effectively framing the message requires clarity and explanation. This in turn requires:
- Articulating the objective and desired outcome of the communication
- Identifying the benefit to the intended audience
- Identifying the key points of the message and placing them in a logical order
- Providing an explanation for each point that helps the intended audience see these facts in the desired frame