A career in Human Resources (HR) brings with it a wide variety of opportunities for career progression.
With organisations becoming more and more aware of the need to attract and retain the best people for their workforce, along with the important task of employee welfare and employment law, employers are constantly seeking skilled additions to their HR team.
What do HR professionals get involved with?
They are recruited to deal with all the functions of a business that relate to its employees, hence why it might often be known as the Personnel department. Whist there are several specialist roles in HR, including employer branding, HR business partner, and change management, most positions will require you to get involved in multiple functions. These may include recruitment and selection, training and development, employee relations, contracts of employment, complaints and grievances, employee rights, appraisals, and health and safety.
Why HR?
Some of the major reasons why people choose a career in HR is the opportunity to influence innumerable aspects of the organisation, to assist in the development of its employees, and to play a part in influencing strategic business decisions. A business is only as good as its employees, and an organisation’s employees are only as good as their HR team. It is also a very sociable occupation with constant opportunities to liaise with various members of staff and ensure they are getting the most out of their work experience.
Roles
At one end of the HR career pathway are HR Assistants and at the other sits the HR Director, with a number of varying roles in between.
With qualifications from leading HR qualfication accreditor the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Professional Development) on your CV you can make your way up the HR career ladder enjoy the salary rewards as you go.
Here are some of the roles available to you when you have gained the right skills with CIPD HR courses…
- HR Assistant or HR Administrator – an entry level position acting as the first point of contact for all HR-related queries and handling all personnel-related paperwork and documentation, such as employment contracts
- HR Officer – responsibilities include recruitment, payroll, training, induction, sickness and absence tracking, disciplinary and grievance procedures, redundancy settlements, equal opportunities and establishing staff support systems.
- Recruitment Coordinator – arranging the advertisement of new vacancies, analysing applications and shortlisting candidates, arranging job interviews, and managing any testing procedures involved in the recruitment process.
- Training Officer – identifies the training requirements among employees within the organisation and designs and implements appropriate training programmes for individuals or groups.
- HR Manager – a strategic role involving a range of policies, processes and practices relating to the overall business needs of the organisation. Involved with overseeing others in the HR team and the delivery of their responsibilities in addition to employee welfare, salary reviews, and employment law.
- HR Director – managing and controlling departmental expenditure within agreed budgets as well as maintaining awareness of contemporary HR development theory and methods and provide suitable implementation within the organisation.
The CIPD Level 3 Foundation Certificate in HR Practice allows you to gain a role as an HR administrator earning up to £25,000*.
With the CIPD Level 5 Intermediate Certificate in HR Management you are qualified for a role as a HR Manager earning £47,500*.
Normally the HR team will be office based, working a regular 40 hour week, although during the key graduate recruitment intake or during a time of internal redundancies, there may often be periods of extended hours.
So back to the original question of why you might want to work in HR, the motivation is generally one of people. Many roles ask for candidates who are ‘good with people’ but there is no function where this is more important than in HR. You need to genuinely care about the well-being and development of your employers employees, which often results in close working relationships with people from across the business.
The IT team, sales division and the finance department may keep themselves to themselves; it’s your job as an HR professional to make them function as a cohesive unit.
If you would like to enhance your HR skills to ensure your CV is standing out to employers, please give us a call on 020 7173 5664.
<h3class=”h5″>
*Salary Checker, 2015
