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Develop HR capabilities

Read the Queensland Government’s HR Capability Model (PDF, 1.2 MB) to find out what you can do to improve your human resource (HR) capabilities and develop your career.

The model can help you:

  • plan your development journey
  • shape your performance and development conversations
  • consider your potential career pathways.

It’s mapped to the Leadership competencies for Queensland, which describes the skills and behaviours required of leaders at all levels across government.

The HR capability model (PDF, 1.2 MB) describes 11 HR professional areas:

  • Workforce strategy and planning
  • Talent acquisition
  • Design and transformation
  • Learning and development
  • Performance
  • Leadership and succession
  • Employee experience
  • Health, safety and wellbeing
  • Workforce insights
  • Employee relations
  • Industrial relations.

Depending on your agency’s HR operating model, these areas may be in the form of specialist roles or teams, or as a range of capabilities used within a generalist team or role.

Read the model to understand the capability profiles for each specialist area including a description of each area, the critical leadership competencies and a set of essential capabilities.

A HR specialist needs to be:

  • business minded—curious, analytical, agile and data literate
  • connected—caring, ethical and inclusive
  • a trusted advisor—credible, coach and collaborator.

To develop in each attribute, HR specialists should use the 70:20:10 principle.

Challenging on-the-job experiences and assignments should make up about 70% of your focus. Forming development-related connections should make up about 20% of your focus. Formal training should make up about 10% of your focus.

Be curious

On-the-job experience

  • Research and share with colleagues innovations relevant to the work you are doing.
  • Volunteer to lead a project aimed at improvement. This might be the review of current processes or practices.

Development-related connections

  • Work with a colleague to frequently and respectfully challenge each other's day-to-day activities, ideas, solutions and approach to work.
  • Identify networking opportunities outside of your organisation which you can participate in to understand more about innovative concepts and approaches. This might be outside of your agency but within the Queensland Government, within another state's government, or outside of government. Adopt or adapt these concepts and approaches to your area of expertise.

Be analytical

On-the-job experience

  • Set yourself a target to include data with insights in a certain proportion of your projects or pieces of work, or at a certain frequency (e.g. once a month). Work with a colleague who specialises in data analytics and visualisation to identify where this can add value and how you can use it to achieve the best outcome.
  • Research and present a business case (using data and insights) for implementing an improvement or introducing a solution to an issue. Practice methodologies for strategic, analytical and critical thinking where possible.

Development-related connections

  • Shadow an HR analytics specialist (formal or informal) when they are working on project.

Formal training

Be agile

On-the-job experience and development-related connections

  • Seek out new learning opportunities and try something new on a certain basis (for example, daily, weekly). Aim for things which take you 'out of your comfort zone'.
  • Constantly reflect and recognise your new learnings and progress. You might like to include feedback from others in your reflection (actively seek this out) and incorporate the reflecting into mentoring or development discussions.
  • Research neuroplasticity to understand how your brain can grow, regenerate and change.
  • Practice tenacity, perseverance and flexibility, and build resilience by doing your utmost to improve the skill every day.
  • Alter your mindset when faced with barriers, obstacles and adversity. View these with enthusiasm and take the opportunity to prove your determination to overcome issues and pursue your goals. Recognise your efforts.
  • Track and monitor your progress by documenting your new activities, goals and achievements. Make note of any setbacks too and how you endeavoured to overcome them.
  • Adopt a growth mindset. Consider your existing knowledge and experience as barriers to learning new strategies. For example, adopt approaches preferred by children such as being more tactile (feeling) rather than the adult approach of being auditory and visual (seeing, hearing, speaking).
  • Canvas others for their perceptions of any explicit changes to your style.

Formal training

Be caring

On-the-job experience

  • Identify and practice ways to regularly demonstrate genuine care for people in the workplace. Remember, care can be demonstrated across all aspects, whether employees, leaders, colleagues and others.
  • Practice intentional listening (actively listen and act based on what you have heard). This can be viewed as a sign of engagement and can make others feel valued.
  • Put things in place and remove barriers to help make peoples' workdays smoother. Find out what could make people's jobs simpler and what the blockers are. You may not be able to change it all, but listening and making the effort can contribute to a committed culture rather than a compliance culture.

Formal training

Be ethical

On-the-job experience

  • Research ethics in the workplace, at both an interpersonal and organisational level. Share your findings with others.

Development-related connections

  • Hold a conversation with a trusted colleague, mentor or coach regarding what it means to be ethical in the workplace (including behaviours).
  • Reflect on a situation or experience when you felt you were in an ethical dilemma. Examine the details of the situation, including the outcome. Consider any areas of strength and any aspects you might have done differently. Identify any learnings for when you are next in such a situation.

Formal training

Be inclusive

On-the-job experience

  • Research ways to build an inclusive workplace and share with others.
  • Volunteer to undertake a project aimed at increasing inclusivity in your area. Generate interest and ask others to join you in the project.
  • Join an existing community of practice or networking group aimed at increasing inclusion in the workplace, such as the whole-of-government LGBTIQ+ steering committee. Email lgbtiq@psc.qld.gov.au.
  • Champion the establishment of a diversity & inclusion community of practice.
  • Hold a workshop in your area for identifying ways for improving inclusion.
  • Research inclusive conversations and practice them in the workplace.

Development-related connections

  • Reflect on your work over the past 12-24 months. Whether projects or day-to-day activities, critique your work and outcomes for promoting inclusivity in the workplace. Identify lessons learned for your work or projects in the coming 12 months.
  • Interview an expert in inclusion (internal or external) to better understand the principles, activities, and impact on the business. Identify ways to incorporate your learnings into your work.

Formal training

Be credible

On-the-job experience

  • Learn from your peers in other agencies about a range of key HR topics.
  • Pre-prepare some 'stories' to share with colleagues and others which showcase your knowledge, skills and experience.
  • Gain a deeper understanding of those you work with by doing some research into their area including the industry, field, and profession that they work in.
  • Prepare some questions for gaining a stronger understanding of the overall strategy, impacting factors and future direction of the area you work in. This will increase your knowledge and illustrate your interest in gaining a better understanding to partner more effectively.

Development-related connections

  • Find a coaching or mentor program in your agency.
  • Reflect on a time when you presented to a group on a specific topic. Critically evaluate your strengths and areas for improvement when presenting yourself as an expert. Identify one or two ways to improve.
  • Ask for feedback on your presentations and interactions with others.
  • Watch a presentation or interaction of a colleague or leader and consider what, if any of their techniques you could adopt to improve your own presentations and interactions.

Formal training

Be a coach

On-the-job experience

  • Offer your services as a coach or advisor in an area which you have expertise. Practice tools and techniques for coaching and finesse those you already find successful.
  • Set yourself a goal to present to others a topic which you are passionate about. Ask for feedback afterwards on your ability influence and persuade.
  • Join a group aimed at providing advisory services.

Development-related connections

  • Practice coaching styles and techniques on a trusted colleague.
  • Reflect on previous interactions. Have you adopted a true coaching or advisor role or did you 'take on' the actions and responsibilities of other people? Identify how you could improve and incorporate those lessons into your future coaching style.
  • Seek feedback on your coaching and advisory effectiveness.
  • Engage a mentor known for their effective coaching. Shadow or interview them to examine their techniques and identify those which you could adopt. Develop a plan for adopting these techniques into your own approach.

Formal training

Be a collaborator

On-the-job experience

  • Join a work or project group undertaking a true collaboration. Keep a journal of the process, activities and outcomes to use in your own collaboration.
  • Research effective collaborations and share your findings with your team. Identify where collaborations could be effective.
  • Workshop ways to improve collaborations within your workplace, including showcasing successful and effective collaborations.
  • Volunteer to undertake a collaboration which will stretch your experience such as cross department, cross agencies or cross sectors.

Development-related connections

  • Reflect on previous collaborations you have participated in. Examine the process and outcomes against true, effective and successful collaborations. Plan for what you would do differently in future collaborations.

Formal training

Last updated:
1 March 2023
Last reviewed:
1 March 2023
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