You have certainly heard about the term Human Resources or HR acronym. But what is human resources actually? This article is intended to clarify the subject and is a perfect supplement for our series of articles about the professions that we regularly publish on our blog.
What is human resources?
There are two definitions of human resources. The first is derived from classical economics, and according to it, human resources are nothing more than manpower, which is an essential resource used for production. The second one, more commonly found in management books, relates to the departments of companies that deal with recruiting, training and motivating employees, in other words, personal policy.
For the purposes of this article, we will focus on the second, more commonly used meaning of the phrase human resources.
Human resources job description
As mentioned above, a lot of companies have an internal department dedicated to human resource management. Many companies such as Google, Facebook and EY spend millions of dollars a year on their operations. What are typical human resources jobs?
- Recruitment and layoffs. This one is fairly obvious. Every growing company needs new employees, and many of them don't want to work with people who are ineffective or don't fit the company's vision. HR departments recruit, create reports about employee effectiveness and monitor who clearly should change workplace.
- Promotions and training. This is another important role, after all, someone has to take care of the distribution of roles in the company, the development of employee skills and human resource management. Efficient assignment of roles allows you to significantly increase profits, and, indeed, every company needs to make money for its investors, which you can also become!
- Administrative activities. Although many small companies use external agencies, corporations frequently independently handle wage calculations, maintain personnel documentation, account for vacations, sick leaves and compensations, and perform other tasks with similar characteristics.
How to find a job in human resource management? What skills do I need?
If the tasks listed above appear to be interesting for you, perhaps you are considering hiring yourself in the HR department. What do you need to be able to do and what attributes should you have?
- Openness to people. In the human resources job description paragraph you can read that one of HR's tasks is to recruit new employees, so this department is the face of the company. Would you hire in a company where there is a bad atmosphere from the beginning? We would not.
- Empathy. Many of us complain about unkind or psychopathic bosses. A good human resources specialist will effectively match up the teams so that employees will feel comfortable with each other, and for this you need to be understanding and have the ability of listening.
- Organization. If you can't keep your papers organized and don't know where you put someone else's records, working in HR will be a nightmare. On the other hand, if you have control over everything, it will be a pure pleasure.
- Microsoft Office. If you think it's nothing complicated, just think about what part of Excel's functions are you familiar with? Of course, you can look for a description of the functions on the Internet every time, but you'll be working slowly and very inefficiently in that case. Proficiency in using the office suite will be a great asset when recruiting for an HR specialist position.
And where can I find job offers?
The opportunities are indeed many. While small companies may advertise in newspapers or on Facebook, you'll also find job opportunities on their websites. This is how Paidwork, KPMG, Google or Facebook recruit.
There are also many online portals where you can search for jobs. Indeed, Glassdoor and ZipRecruiter caught our attention.
How much will I make working in human resource management?
The universal answer would be "it depends," but Paidwork's blog is based on specific information. The wages of a Human Resources Specialist are on average $49,497, while the range is $39,000 to $86,000 per year. For a Human Resources Manager, the average is $68,634, and the range is $41,000 to $107,000 per year. Quite a lot, right?
Is HR forward-looking?
The question of the industry's development perspectives is quite reasonable. On the one hand, many sectors are being automated, and a lot of people are afraid of losing their jobs. On the other hand, industries based on human contact seem to be a fairly reliable choice. In our opinion, Human resources continue to be a fairly good choice for the future. If you're in your 30s, 40s or 50s and considering a job in HR, you shouldn't be afraid of losing your job as a result of automation.
And if you don't want to change your job, but are short on money, be sure to check out how Paidwork works!
You can find the link to download the app here:
 |  |
Look for more information on the official webpage:
