Best HR Books for Every HR Professional

If you’re a good HR (and you definitely are, because you’re here reading the article that features the greatest books for HR), you know that human resource management is more than just a hire-and-fire roller coaster. It’s crucial to excel as an HR manager every day and propel your skills in decision-making.   And that’s when properly-chosen books about human resource management become handy. Each decision matters greatly, especially when it comes to managing human resources. Read further to learn how the best Hr books can assist you in strategic planning and result-oriented choices.    

How Books on HRM Can Help You With Better Decisions

Being a leader and HR professional, you need to foster strategic thinking, in the first place, in order to make smarter choices. But how do you do that? By reading the best books on human resource management, of course. They rewire your brain for higher intellectual potential and strategy-based decisions and prevent stagnation of your cognitive “pool”.   However, the benefits of reading do not end with smart decision-making strategies alone. On top of that, the top HR books can help you achieve the following:  

• Develop abstract reasoning competencies
• Speed up the process of solving problems
• Promote organizational effectiveness
• Make you more empathetic
• Lead the team to success, and more

  88% of widely-recognized leaders read for self-improvement and education, according to the research by Tom Corley who listed reading among the habits of successful people. The best human resources books will help you enhance your HR skills so that you could hire sales people who will sell and develop a highly functional and passionate team of sales professionals who will rock it and drive success.   If you need the best HR books, why not rely on expert choices? Find the list of the best picks below and prepare yourself for an immersive reading experience with each of those.  

6 Must-Read HR Management Books

With the help of much valuable advice from the experts who lead their companies to greater results day-to-day, we’ve selected the top six books all HR managers should read. Let’s delve into those, shall we?  

• The HR Answer Book: An Indispensable Guide for Managers and Human Resources Professionals by Shawn Smith & Rebecca Mazin

  Can you create a well-formatted job description or an application form? Shawn Smith and Rebecca Mazin will teach you even more than that in The HR Answer Book.   “If you don’t know what books about human resource management to start with, this one should be your first go-to resource,” states Hasan Abir, Growth Marketer at Apploye. "You’ll get over 200 questions answered on the following topics: interviewing, employee selection, compensation, time racking, benefit days (vacation, sick days, and holidays), performance management system, firing employees legally and humanely, etc."   Besides the answers, there are checklists, questionnaires, and templates,” Hasan continues. The HR Answer Book stands out among other books on HRM. This HR’s bible will help you interview salespeople incisively and correctly, deal with regulatory issues, and nail HR management from top to bottom.  

• The Power Of Wow: How to Electrify Your Work and Your Life By Putting Service First by the Employees of Zappos.com, Tony Hsieh, and Mark Dagostino

  “It’s a collaborative set of stories that feature multiple perspectives from the workers at Zappos and shows the company’s backstage,” summarizes Andrew Gonzales, President of Business Loans, who emphasizes that it’s one of the best HR books particularly due to the contribution of Hollie Delaney, Director of HR at Zappos.   “Hollie Delaney, for example, laid it all out for HR managers in one chapter and explained in detail how to go about onboarding and how to train new hires extensively. Based on this example, we launched a four-week onboarding process to give newbies an opportunity to dive deep into our company culture and its core values, as well as to understand our sales processes from the B2B perspective,” Andrew notes.   How to onboard and coach a newbie effectively? The fullest answer is in The Power Of Wow, #2 among the best books for human resources.    

• HR from the Outside In: Six Competencies for the Future of Human Resources by Dave Ulrich, Jon Younger, Wayne Brockbank, Mike Ulrich

  Recruiting the top sales professionals can be as easy as 1-2-3, if you possess all six “powers” (competencies). And you’ll start developing them all, once you read this powerful guide, one of the best books on HR management for HR professionals.   The authors dwell on the following HR skills:

• Credible Activist
• Strategic Positioner
• Capability Builder
• Change Champion
• HR Innovator & Integrator
• Technology Proponent

 

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  “The book provides clear-cut formulas and instructions on how to build each skill so that even a first-timer in HR can grow as a pro manager in no time,” claims Max Wesman, Founder & COO of GoodHire. “For example, the Technology Proponent should simplify the recruitment process at the very beginning and never actually stop expanding the number of tech solutions in HR management.   The authors hint at automation tools for resume search, employment screening and background check, real-time performance monitoring, feedback collection, payroll automation, etc.,” Max adds.  

• Talent Makers: How the Best Organizations Win through Structured and Inclusive Hiring 1st Edition by Daniel Chait & Jon Stross

  Talent Makers was selected as a top-read among human resource management books by Joel Phillips, Founder of Home Guide Corner, who states that “Structured hiring is the only way to go when it comes to effective hiring. This method of hiring eliminates chaos and discrepancies in the hiring process.   The book breaks down effective ways to hire new talents and gives direction to HR leaders to better manage the placements of their new talents. This also highlights the obstacles and critical points of the hiring process which can be detrimental for HR professionals and the growth of their companies.”   The authors of Talent Makers dole out the winning tactics on how to pick the best applicant in the competitive market of today by following the principles of structurization and inclusivity. They also instruct you on how to retain the top talent, when you have already grabbed one.  

• Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull

Read a short review by Ricardo Luís Von Groll, Manager at Talentify.io, who explains why Creativity, Inc should be on your bookshelf as one of the greatest books for HR managers: “Written by one of the most important personalities in the history of world animation film, Ed Catmull, it’s a definitive book that teaches how to create a culture of creativity within a company.   In this book, Catmull shows that the secret to obtaining success and increased results in a company is to have an environment that stimulates boldness and freedom and tells step-by-step the story of how he created one of the largest animation studios on the planet.” Creativity, Inc is indeed the best human resources book that will help you gain the following insights:  

• How to motivate yourself through the hard times
• How to spark creative energy in your workers
• How to get your team members motivated
• How to experiment and accept failures
• How to deliver criticism and work on it
• How to maintain a happy and productive team in spite of everything
• How to open new opportunities, and more

 

• Predictive HR Analytics: Mastering the HR Metric by Dr. Martin R. Edwards & Kirsten Edwards

Just around the corner of this sentence, Shawn Plummer, CEO of The Annuity Expert, provides the reasons why he has put Predictive HR Analytics on the list of the best books for HR professionals: “It’s an essential read for HR practitioners who want to become toughies in human resource analytics. Even if you lack some fundamental analytical skills, this book will open your eyes on predictive analysis.   We started using the principles of predictive analytics back in 2019. The book prompted us to consider an alternative to our existing analytical system. Since then, we’ve been applying a set of analytical techniques to our data to foresee the upcoming changes in HR with the help of the SPSS method suggested in the book.”  

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  There may be plenty of reasons why your employees leave you. Have you ever tried predictive employee turnover analysis? Isn’t it the highest time to give it due importance and reduce turnover costs with predictive analytics?  

You Either Read the Best HR Books or Stagnate. What’s Your Choice?

As a human resource manager, you should stay afloat even during the nastiest weather of changes, make wise decisions, and successfully implement a change management process. Human resource management books can help you do that. You can get priceless information and tips from specialists peering at least into one of the top HR-related reads above.     Apply the lessons from the books and polish your recruitment process to perfection at the NASP Career Center. It will help you create personalized job postings and find the top motivated and qualified sales professionals. Join it today and see how it’ll improve your HR results.