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Human Resources

Whatever the size of a business, it needs a functional human resources department to handle workers, company policy, and regulatory compliance. HR is the division in charge of a company's personnel, staff member connections, and workplace culture. This team is accountable for hiring, terminating, training, personnel development, mediation, benefits administration, payroll, federal government policy, lawful compliance, safety, and frequently moderates and assists in dealing with worker issues and conflicts.

Key Takeaways

  • Recruitment and staffing, training and development, salary and benefits, employee relations, and legal compliance are the key duties of a human resources (HR) department.
  • Individuals who work in human resources often possess great interpersonal skills and a passion for assisting others in their endeavors.
  • Records experts, human resources assistants, compensation and benefits specialists, recruiting managers, and human resources directors are all common HR positions.
  • Human resource credentials range from a two-year associate degree in human resource management to a master's degree in human resource management.

Human Resources Occupations

What HR Specialists Do

Human resource experts recruit, screen, and interview job applicants, as well as placing newly hired employees. Additionally, they may be responsible for compensation and benefits administration, training, and employee relations.

Work Environment

Generally, human resources specialists work in offices. Certain individuals, particularly recruiters, travel to job fairs or college campuses and meet with applicants. During regular business hours, the majority of human resources specialists work full time. Some work in excess of 40 hours per week.

How to Advance Your Career as a Human Resources Professional

A bachelor's degree in human resources, business, or a similar discipline is often required to enter this occupation.

Pay

In May 2020, human resources specialists had a median yearly salary of $63,490.

Career Outlook

Between 2020 and 2030, employment of human resources professionals is expected to expand 10%, roughly in line with the average for all occupations. Over the next decade, there are predicted to be approximately 73,400 jobs for human resources specialists. Many of those openings are likely to be created as a result of the need to replace people who change occupations or leave the labor force for other reasons, such as retirement.

Source: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/human-resources-specialists.htm

Associate's

An associate degree in human resources prepares graduates to begin or advance their profession in human resources management, or to pursue and complete a bachelor's degree in human resources. Typically, programs provide students with a working grasp of human resources processes and rules, as well as essential computer software, in addition to the developmental and behavioral skills required to manage individuals in a work environment.

Career Outlook

Human resource specialists might find themselves in almost any type of work environment—education, government, legal, or commercial—with a wide variety of frontline responsibilities. This requires them to be adaptable and knowledgeable about various facets of human resource management. As a result, human resource specialists earn an average annual salary of $59,180. Whether you acquire your HR Associate Degree online or in-person as a prerequisite for a bachelor's degree, you can anticipate it to be a valuable career asset in and of itself and to help you increase your earnings potential.

Curriculum

Once students graduate, they should be able to:

  • Demonstrate expertise in a variety of areas of human resource management including labor relations, remuneration, staffing, recruiting, performance management, and training.
  • Discuss why development and training are vital to a business's success and how they are effectively implemented inside a corporation.
  • Describe the key objectives of a compensation function and the strategic role that compensation practices play for businesses operating in competitive environments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of business fundamentals such as marketing, corporate ownership, social responsibility, and risk management.
  • Integrate sound management principles into the enterprise's organizational, planning, controlling, leading, and decision-making functions.
  • Demonstrate and apply fundamental principles of speech criticism, public speaking, audience analysis, and effective delivery approaches.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of computer applications and the broad consequences of technological progress on social organization in terms of economic, political, personal, and environmental challenges.
  • Demonstrate skill in English writing, including the ability to write essays as well as revise and edit one's own work.
  • Demonstrate essential mathematical abilities by articulating mathematical logic and reasoning as the foundation for information processing
  • Be prepared to begin a bachelor's degree program immediately without additional academic preparation.

Jobs with an Associate Degree

A human resource management associate degree qualifies you for an entry-level employment as a human resource generalist. Generalists typically serve as jacks of all trades, assisting the rest of the human resources team with benefit coordination, training and development, and payroll. In a public or private organization, the position may be referred to as human resources assistant or assistant recruiter.

Bachelor's

A bachelor's degree in human resource management is the most commonly held degree by newly hired human resource management professionals. This degree program takes around four years to complete, and graduates are placed in positions such as human resource generalists, human resource managers, benefits managers, and other leadership positions. Depending on the organization's size, newly graduated human resources professionals may still have to 'work their way up' to higher positions.

You will study behavioral science, performance management, employee training and development, evaluation, and training as part of your bachelor's degree courses. Due to the fact that this is typically a management degree, business courses such as accounting, economics, finance, and marketing will be included in addition to other general studies courses.

Consider the following typical courses from an HR management program.

Core course examples:

Organizational Development and Change: This class will familiarize you with the basics and theories underlying organizational development. You should acquire skills in diagnosing, designing, developing, and analyzing a variety of organizational development difficulties. Investigate the factors that contribute to change, how organizations change, and how to manage change.

Selection and onboarding of new employees: You’ll learn the fundamentals of recruiting new employees, developing training programs, and negotiating benefit packages in this course designed to assist you in developing an organizational culture that is uniquely yours.

Strategic Compensation Systems: Here, you’ll gain an understanding of the principles of compensation and benefit systems for employees and conduct an examination of all aspects of compensation programs, from initial strategy to implementation, assuring equity and competitiveness, as well as rollout strategies.

Because bachelor's degrees differ by institution, the following are some possible titles for available human resources programs:

  • Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Management
  • Bachelor of Arts in Human Resources
  • BS Business Administration: Human Resource Management
  • Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Leadership

Master's

An MBA is a master's degree program that focuses on business administration knowledge and skills. The core MBA program is often comprised of courses in accounting, business law, finance, marketing, operations and project management, as well as organizational communication and leadership. Certain MBA programs provide an extra concentration in human resource management, which typically consists of two or more courses that give further training and teaching in human resource management methods and practical challenges. Students enrolled in an MBA in Human Resource Management program complete the normal MBA curriculum as well as a cluster of courses focused on human resource management themes.

Online MBA programs provide a more flexible and convenient alternative to traditional, campus-based MBA programs. Students enrolled in an online MBA program often receive lectures and other instructional materials via a learning management system (LMS), which also allows for professor-student interaction and participation in online class discussion groups. These programs are frequently an excellent alternative for students who would rather not go to a college or university campus for classes and for students who do not live in close proximity to a school providing an MBA in human resource management program. As with other types of online MBA programs, online MBA in Human Resources Management programs offer all or a substantial portion of their general and specialty education online.

PhD

A PhD program is designed to prepare students to be successful researchers and educators in any of the world’s leading educational institutions. Our full-time PhD program in human resource management is distinguished by the breadth of its research techniques and pedagogical training. Our graduates will have honed sophisticated academic scholarship skills and acquired the competencies necessary to teach at the post-secondary level.

Why join the PhD program?

Impactful - A PhD program in Human Resource Management is aimed to equip future academics who aspire to undertake significant research and teach at prestigious research institutions. Students are introduced to major theories, research methodologies, and scholarly literature on labor and organizations.

Engaging - You will study in a vibrant and intellectually challenging environment geared for students interested in developing the skills necessary for academic achievement.

Customized - As a PhD student, you will collaborate directly with academics who share your research interests, work in related fields of study, or offer a fresh viewpoint. Our diversified academic members in human resource management are well-known for their research and scholarly perspectives on a variety of themes.

Potential Career Options

To assist you in determining the ideal career route for you, the following are some examples of human resource management careers:

  • Human resources assistant
  • Benefits administrator
  • Payroll specialist
  • Training coordinator
  • Compensation specialist
  • Training manager
  • HRIS specialist
  • Employee relations manager
  • Benefits manager
  • Human resources manager