SHRM's HR Competency Model Initiative 

As a global leader in service to the HR profession, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is committed to empowering HR professionals with the proper tools and resources needed to succeed.  With more than 250,000 members in over 140 countries, SHRM recognizes that a successful human resource professional utilizes both expertise and experience to achieve the organizational strategy and mission. To accomplish this, the human resource professional must leverage his or her technical and behavioral competencies.    

In keeping with our mission of serving and advancing the profession, SHRM set out to identify the core competencies needed to succeed as an HR professional.  Through extensive research across the globe, SHRM created a comprehensive competency model: SHRM ELEMENTS for HR Success.

SHRM's Elements for HR Success is a comprehensive competency model designed to assist HR professionals as they set out on or continue their careers.  SHRM's competency model comprises nine competencies, one technical competency and eight behavioral competencies, and it identifies the foundational competencies HR professionals need for success: 

• at the entry, mid, senior, and executive levels of experience;
• in small, medium, and large sized organizations;
• in private, public, non-profit, and not-for-profit sectors; and
• in organizations with multinational and domestic operations.

Watch Dr. Alexander Alonso, Vice President of Research (previously Director of HR Thought Leadership), discuss SHRM's competency initiative.

Competency Model Background
Model Development
Overall, the initiative engaged 33,500 HR professionals in 29 cities representing 33 nationalities. 

First an initial model was developed through a synthesis of the academic and practitioner literature.  The resulting model then was tested, refined, and further developed through 111 focus groups with 1,200 HR professionals globally (Bahrain, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America). 

Click on a region of the world below to see what nations were represented in the development of SHRM’s competency model, Elements for HR Success.