Human resources management is one of the most crucial departments of any company and can affect the business’s overall productivity. This role has expanded in the past few years to not only enforce policies but also recruit talent and manage employee expectations and experiences. And, those with the ability to properly manage and deploy employees have the potential to become great leaders.
If you’re looking to become a crucial manager in any company, you need to have an HR degree and should learn about HR management. Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
Basic Responsibilities
A member of the HR department deals with recruitment, onboarding, managing payrolls, training and development, holiday management, employee benefits, employment law compliance, and safety compliance. HR also plays a central role in creating a positive work environment for the employees and ensures their wellness and personal development as well. Most company directors understand the importance of having good HR, which makes the position respectable in the market.
Why You Need an HR Degree
As you can probably guess, managing people is a taught skill and doesn’t always come naturally. Rather, you need to make sure you have the proper qualifications to take up the role. Completing an MS Human Resource Management degree program can help you learn about staffing, performance evaluation, resource allocation and morale-boosting.
HR Degree also teaches you additional soft skills like professional writing and communication that apply particularly to your daily tasks. Often, company directors lack these skills, which would make your role all the more important for the business’s progress. Having a degree shows that you are fit for the job and assures the business that you will quickly adapt to the new place of employment.
Skills You Will Learn
It’s time to get into the specific skills you’ll learn while pursuing a degree in HR management.
1. Communication
If the company has to work remotely, HR can gently communicate the possible consequences of a downturn in business. This would allow the employees to gain information in a motivational way. One of your many roles as an HR manager would be to ensure that the workers can take the bad news and use it as fuel to work harder. You would also act as the primary contact with the rest of the company.
As long as you make the employees feel valued and cared for, they would become dedicated to the company. An HR degree would inform you about the aspects of communication that you need to employ in these situations. This could range from usng the tone to listening skills, choice of words and more.
2. Conflict Resolution
Whether the teams are working remotely or in person, conflicts and disagreements can arise at any time. For example, if two workers started dating or there was a harassment complaint, it would be your job to assess the situation. Some companies do not allow dating between workers at all, and you would need to inform the concerned parties about this.
Alternatively, some companies allow dating if the workers are not letting their romantic life affect their work lives. HR would appoint a person to assess the risks in these situations and communicate the recommended course of action. In this case, you would need to balance rationale and compassion.
Another form of conflict you might deal with is sexual harassment or safety complaints. These are tricky circumstances, but the right education would have taught you how to consider all perspectives and create solutions.
3. Acquisition and Retention
As an HR manager, one way you improve the organizational efficiency of your workplace is through recruitment.
HR usually reviews all the applicant resumes and conducts the first round of interviews for potential employees. It is your job to determine whether or not someone would fit into the company, and what role they might best serve.
Alongside determining the best position for a new hire, you would oversee their orientation and training to make sure they can transition easily into the new workplace. You’d manage team morale at a holistic level to make sure employees feel valued and respected. A combination of all these factors would drive up employee retention. No company wants a high turnover rate, so you’d play the central role in ensuring all new hires want to stay with the business.
4. Strategic Planning
HR plays a role in planning the future course of action for the company as well. Each member of management has a different set of priorities. The financial manager might offer the direction to decrease running costs, or an operational lead might present new projects to the company. You need to develop strategies that benefit the company without overburdening the workers.
Your reports during these planning meetings would cover the strengths and weaknesses and projections of opportunities and threats faced by the business. As such, you need to analyze a lot of data and present your findings in a simple, concise manner.
Final Thoughts
HR management is not a simple job, but it can be a rewarding challenge. It is best suited to those who have aspirations of leadership while having a strong sense of empathy. The ability to effectively execute your responsibilities depends on having the right skill set, so you might be better off starting with a specialized degree.
Once you have the needed information and abilities, you will be able to do your job most effectively. This would allow you to become an important member of the company for both your co-workers and the company directors.
Alex is fascinated with “understanding” people. It’s actually what drives everything he does. He believes in a thoughtful exploration of how you shape your thoughts, experience of the world.