Because of this it is important that any Human Resources department works closely with central administration to clearly understand the objectives of the business. It requires strategic thinking, excellent communication and people skills, as well as strong negotiation and conflict resolution skills.
Human Resources Day to Day Role
The role of human resources is broad, from payroll function to discipline, recruitment and strategy. What an individual Human Resources Assistant or Manager actually carries out day to day at the company will depend a great deal on the size of the company. A large business will have a very large human resources department, broken up into separate specialisms.
Whilst in a smaller company the human resources employees will generally have a broader role – handling all the various tasks required, which include:
- Recruiting staff – the Human Resources department is responsible for deciding how many people need to be recruited and how skilled they need to be, based on the business’s core objectives.
From this position it is the role of Human Resources to write the job description, market the role, screen CVs, interview candidates and hire; negotiating the salary and bonuses with the accepted candidate.
- Monitoring and Evaluating staff – Human Resources in a business should be responsible for creating a working environment that facilitates the objectives of the business.
This includes everything from working conditions, to monitoring performance and disciplining staff where appropriate.
- Developing Recruits – deciding what training the staff need to undertake to keep at them at the necessary skill levels in their industry year after year is a role of Human Resources; although they should also work closely with line managers and directors in this respect.
- Increasingly the role of Human Resources is moving towards having a consultancy role when dealing with motivation, discipline and performance; helping managers to achieve the best from their staff and advising on the best way to act, or react, in particular situations to do with employees.
What Skills are Needed to Work in Human Resources?
When applying for a role it is important to understand what is required, to include relevant information in your human resources covering letter and CV. Staff working in Human Resources have good people skills, as well as being a good communicator; but this alone is not enough.
“Good people skills” goes beyond just being generally happy and easy to talk, because the role of a human resources officer expands into disciplining and even firing staff. As such an HR employee needs to be firm and fair, with a high standard of integrity and good conflict resolution skills. It is also important to be very organized, with good knowledge of computers and strong administration skills.
Human resources is growing ever more popular to work in, because of its varied specialisms and increasing importance within the business world. Actual work experience is incredibly important, but the knowledge gained from a qualification, such as a human resources degree will also help candidates become more qualified and ultimately better at the job.
Other relevant courses include: Business, MBAs, Psychology, Management and Finance. Most importantly of all, human resources is about people, their performance and consequential rewards or discipline. As such, to get far in the role, understanding people is perhaps the most important thing.
