Human resources (HR) professionals play a critical role in organizations. They are responsible for recruiting, hiring, training, evaluating, and compensating employees. HR also handles labor relations, workforce planning, and compliance with employment laws and regulations. The main responsibilities and skills of an HR professional can be summarized as follows:
Recruiting and Hiring
A core duty of HR is recruiting and hiring qualified candidates to fill open positions. This involves developing job descriptions, posting openings, screening resumes, interviewing applicants, conducting background checks, and ultimately selecting new hires. HR utilizes various recruiting techniques to attract top talent, including employee referrals, job boards, social media, college recruiting events, and more.
HR professionals must have strong interviewing abilities to properly assess candidates. They should understand how to ask behavioral questions to gauge skills, experience, and cultural fit. HR is responsible for ensuring hiring practices are fair, consistent, and align with equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies.
Onboarding
Once new hires are selected, HR oversees employee onboarding. This includes orientation to familiarize workers with the company, training on policies and procedures, and assisting with paperwork and benefits enrollment. Proper onboarding helps new hires become productive faster. HR ensures they have the tools and information needed to succeed in their roles.
Training and Development
A key duty of HR is facilitating ongoing employee training and development. This includes identifying skills gaps and conducting needs assessments to implement appropriate training programs. These may involve in-person workshops, e-learning courses, mentorships, tuition reimbursement, and other development opportunities. HR measures training outcomes and ensures development aligns with organizational objectives.
HR also oversees leadership training for managers and succession planning to prepare employees for advancement. Strong learning and development programs enhance employee engagement and performance.
Performance Management
HR plays a central role in performance management processes. They help design fair evaluation criteria that align with company goals. HR provides training to managers on giving constructive feedback and documenting performance issues. They also coordinate formal appraisal meetings where managers rate employee performance and discuss areas for improvement.
In addition to evaluations, HR tracks key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that provide insights into organizational or departmental performance. This data informs strategic plans to enhance productivity.
Compensation and Benefits
A core HR responsibility is overseeing employee compensation and benefits programs. This includes conducting salary benchmarking to determine competitive pay rates. HR develops compensation structures, pay grades, and incentive programs (e.g. bonuses). They also research, select, and manage employee benefit plans such as health insurance, retirement accounts, paid time off, tuition reimbursement, and other perks.
HR ensures compensation practices comply with wage and hour laws. They handle pay equity analyses and may use merit or cost-of-living increases to retain top talent. The goal is to provide fair rewards that reflect employee contributions.
Labor Relations
For unionized workforces, HR plays a lead role in labor relations. This involves negotiating collective bargaining agreements, administering labor contracts, and resolving disputes. HR partners with labor leaders to foster positive relationships between management and union representatives. They also keep abreast of labor laws and union policies to maintain compliance.
Compliance
HR maintains knowledge of employment-related regulations to ensure organizational compliance. This includes laws pertaining to equal employment, discrimination, harassment, disability accommodations, leave management, hiring practices, wages, and safety. HR may investigate workplace issues and develop appropriate disciplinary responses. They also track required postings, training requirements, and other compliance tasks.
Employee Relations
HR departments are often responsible for employee relations, engagement initiatives, and company culture. HR may create employee resource groups, coordinate team building exercises, lead engagement surveys, organize company events, and implement wellness programs. By promoting positive relations, HR helps foster a collaborative and enriching work environment.
Data and Analytics
Increasingly HR is leveraging data to drive decisions on workforce planning and strategy. HR analyzes turnover rates, engagement scores, hiring metrics, compensation benchmarks, demographics, and other insights. Advanced HR teams use people analytics tools to identify trends and correlations. The goal is to maximize human capital investments based on evidence-based outcomes.
Administrative Tasks
HR professionals handle a variety of administrative duties related to managing people data. This includes inputting information into HR information systems (HRIS), maintaining digital and physical employee files, processing paperwork for onboarding/offboarding, answering employee questions, organizing company directories, and coordinating HR projects and communications. Organization and attention to detail are vital skills.
Strategic Planning
Some HR professionals are involved in higher-level strategic planning to align HR initiatives with business goals. This requires understanding operational needs and challenges. HR provides insights into the workforce to inform plans and decisions. Strategic HR leaders identify talent needs, risks, and opportunities to help the organization excel now and in the future.
Leadership and Collaboration
Effective HR professionals demonstrate leadership abilities and collaborate cross-functionally. As subject matter experts in talent management, HR partners with executives, managers, and employees across all business units. HR projects influence people at all levels. Excellent relationship-building, communication, and stakeholder management skills are essential.
Skills and Knowledge
Here are some of the most important skills and knowledge areas for HR professionals:
- Recruiting and interviewing
- Training/development expertise
- Compensation, benefits, and labor relations knowledge
- Employment law understanding
- HR systems and analytics experience
- Coaching and leadership abilities
- Organization and multitasking capabilities
- Communication and interpersonal skills
- Ethics, fairness, and objectivity
- Detail orientation and confidentiality
Education
Many HR roles require at least a bachelor’s degree. Common majors include human resources, business administration, psychology, communications, or organizational development. Some schools offer master’s degrees focused specifically on human resources management. Professional certifications such as SHRM-CP, PHR, or SPHR may also be desired by employers.
Conclusion
In summary, HR professionals wear many hats and perform various critical duties related to an organization’s people and culture. They handle a wide range of responsibilities including recruitment, onboarding, training, performance management, compensation, compliance, analytics, and more. Top HR professionals have excellent leadership abilities, business acumen, and people skills. They play an integral role in attracting, developing, supporting, and retaining a high-performing workforce.