Do you aspire to be a better Human Resources (HR) manager? We have a treat for you!

When it is your responsibility to manage the talent in the business, you will regularly find yourself being a fire-fighter and jumping from one crisis to the next – unfortunately this does not give you a chance to stop and focus on your own development.

With that in mind, we have scoured the internet and found four awesome TED talks which we believe can make you a better HR manager.

What’s great about all of these talks is that none of them are longer than 14 minutes, which means you can un-pack the concepts and iterate with them inside your working environment.

Be a better HR Manager by stopping remote work burnout

Too much screen time, too many video calls and too few boundaries make working from home hard for all of us. In this great TED talk talk podcast host and writer Morra Aarons-Mele shares honest advice on what you can learn from the introverts in your life about protecting your energy and your limits.

In this 4 minute talk, she gives you 3 very easy steps to be able to apply to your team and to help you improve your remote working environment. 

Be a better HR Manager and build a more creative team

Believe it or not, the world doesn’t revolve around e-mail and Teams meetings! What you really want is a team which is bristling with creativity, new ideas and connecting with the right decision-makers.

In this 4 and a half minute video clip digital anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush looks at our obsession with productivity. She explains that our obsession with to-do lists, life hacks, morning routines — is actually making us less productive, 

Be a better HR manager and give better feedback

It is never easy being an HR manager and when you are required to give feedback to team members, you can often find yourself coming into a situation where you are expected to resolve emotionally-charged situations.

Humans have been coming up with ways to give constructive criticism for centuries, but somehow we’re still pretty terrible at it.

In this 5 minute TED talk which has already been viewed over 1.5 million times, cognitive psychologist LeeAnn Renninger shares a scientifically proven method for giving effective feedback.

Be a better HR manager and design gender bias out of your work environment

While there has been some progress made in the transformation of workforces, there continue to be issues driven by gender bias and the approach to introducing diversity of ideas and opinions into a business.

In this 14 minute talk, equity expert Sara Sanford offers a certified playbook that helps companies go beyond good intentions, using a data-driven standard to actively counter unconscious bias and foster gender equity — by changing how workplaces operate, not just how people think.

Have you got more suggestions for us to build better HR managers in South Africa?

Irrespective of whether you are an HR manager in Gauteng, Western Cape, KZN, Limpopo, Rustenburg or the Eastern Cape, you want to have the tools which allow you to make better decisions.

We are strong believers in looking to empower HR professionals in South Africa – if you would like to recommend other TED talks or other videos you have seen that you think will be empowering, please feel free to post them in the comments section below.

We look forward to connecting with you to discuss ways that we can empower your team and help you build the workforce of the future.

If you would like to connect with us, please feel free to drop us a line.