Skills Required to Become an HR Manager

HR stands for Human Resources, a domain which is concerned with managing people in the organisation. HR professionals are responsible for planning, organizing, directing, controlling and evaluating the work of human resources, and to prepare and implement procedures for recruitment, training, development and welfare of the employees in an organization. . These professionals maintain the relations between the management and the employees.

Today, most of the companies have an HR department. An HR manager is a professional who handles many roles including supervision of policies, employee relations and also serves as an intermediary between the employer and employees. An HR manager also helps other managers in handling people-related challenges and issues.

Importance of HR

The quality of manpower is the driving force behind every successful company. The functional role of HR department starts from hiring the best candidates for the right role and at the right time. Other major responsibility of the HR department is to ensure the best use of available resources by the employees.

Thus the HR domain is the primary body behind planning & controlling the man power resources such that all the company’s resources are used in the best possible way.

Tasks and Responsibilities of an HR Manager

HR managers share interactions with all levels within an organization: from the executive level employees to department managers and production staff.

The responsibilities of an HR Manager vary as per to the business and size of an organization. In small companies HR managers take on multiple aspects and responsibilities, whereas in larger companies they usually focus on one or two core aspects. However, their major tasks include:

• Building human resources policies.
• Advertising the jobs in job portals, newspapers, magazines and social media channels
• Recruiting new employees through interviews and placement drives
• Interacting with the job applicants
• Planning the enterprise’s future personnel needs.
• Handling all issues related to pay and personnel benefits
• Evaluating the staffing needs
• Organizing and managing employee trainings.
• Implementing necessary disciplinary procedures in within the staff.
• Maintaining the employee records.
• Handling the issues with staff welfare.

Qualification and Experience

Minimum qualification required to become an HR Manager is a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent Diploma in any domain (like BBA, B.Tech, B.Sc etc) with a Master’s Degree, generally an MBA (Masters in Business Administration), or a Post Graduate Diploma in Management(PGDM) in the HR domain, followed by a minimum of seven years of progressive experience in Human Resources.

Required Skills

HR management requires a wide skill set. Some of the major skills have been discussed below:

• Communication Skills

Communication is a core skill in the HR domain. An HR manager has to interact with multiple levels of employees and departmental managers. They also require excellent written skills while advertising the job requirements at the job portals and the social media channels over the internet.

• Technical Skills

An HR manager has to be computer savvy and should have the knowledge of Microsoft Office tools like Excel and Word. The HR manager has to create worksheets, enter and organize data using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

• Interpersonal Skills

HR managers must have strong interpersonal skills. This is a role where they have to continuously work with employees at all levels. They have to identify and resolve employee issues and also evaluate employee relations with confidentiality and sensitivity. They should also possess essential people skills for conducting interviews, trainings, orientations and preparing performance reviews.

• Accounting Skills

An HR manager must have understanding of the basic accounting principle from budgeting to generating proposals for measuring performance.

• Problem-Solving Skills

Since an HR manager is also a link between an employer and employee, problem solving skills play a crucial role. While solving problems between employees, an HR manager has to be an impartial mediator. He/she has to listen to both sides in a conflict, remain impartial, maintain confidentiality, and provide the best resolution.

• Administrative Skills

Depending on how big an organization is, an HR Manager is also supposed administer assessments and staffing activities. The HR manager is majorly involved in the selection of vendors for payroll administration, health insurance and retirement plans. Therefore the HR manager must have an excellent understanding of benefits administration, which is developing, maintaining, and managing benefits for the employees in an organization.

CERTIFICATIONS

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), which has over 260, 000 members in 140 countries worldwide, provides the following certifications for HR management:

• PHR(Professional in Human Resources)
• SPHR(Senior Professional in Human Resources)
• GPHR(Global Professional in Human Resources
• HRBP(HR Business Professional)
• HRMP (HR Management Professional)

Career Prospects

Human Resources has a vital role to play in both public and private sectors. With the increaseing globalization, new companies are being set up all over the world. New companies are hiring professionals to set up their business and existing companies are hiring candidates to increase their employee base for competing in the global market. HR management is thus essential to every company.

If you have interest in the HR domain, and want to pursue a career in HR Management, you can post your HR training requirement here.