I have been working in the HR field since 2006. Most of my experience was in the IT field. I started as an HR generalist, that is, it was a full cycle of work with personnel. Starting from the search, hiring, and support, and ending with filling out the workbooks of employees. It so happened that I developed quite organically in this area, as over time I received more and more new responsibilities and experience. I worked in the formation of HR processes, their description, then I gradually began to move away from recruiting and more and more concentrated on HR. Then I began to occupy managerial positions in HR. Now my position is called “HR director”. I can say with confidence that my experience is vast and I managed to see a lot in this area.

If we talk about how HR is seen by those who are NOT HRs, then this question is in the air and still does not disappear anywhere. I still often read, see, hear that HR is a recruiter and vice versa. Therefore, due to this confusion of concepts, many still do not clearly understand what the HR is doing. In my experience, this is a two-sided problem. The first, is that people do not understand what HR is doing mainly due to the fact that HR itself is bad at declaring and communicating it. Employees do not know what HR is or does by default, they need it to be explained and conveyed. In particular, it is necessary to convey your value to employees, then the knowledge about the HR function in the company will be more accessible and understandable.

Responsibilities of HR & Why the

Company Needs It

The HR function has been dynamically progressing over the past several decades. Earlier the function and responsibility of HR was to take care of the legal employment of an employee, ensuring labor safety, maintaining documents, and workbooks. Next, the development and evolution of the HR responsibilities was to provide an opportunity for the professional development of an employee in the company. Now HR has become a strategic long-term function as a business partner. Now HR must clearly understand the vision of the business and ensure the company’s adherence and development in working with employees. Of course, one should not forget that the engine of business development is the very human capital, the development, and satisfaction of which allows business to move forward.

If you ask me now what is the value of HR, then I will answer that it is a strategic partner of a business who, understanding all aspects of people management, helps this business to develop.

Modern HR Trends

Now you can find many names that relate to the HR function, for example, from the last that I saw, the happiness manager. This is the position in which a person is responsible for ensuring that professionals are happy at work. Here it should be understood that there is content and there is form. Here the HR industry is the content, and the other related titles are the form. That is, the form can change, but the meaning remains the same – correct, tolerant management of people.

People Partner

It’s about the person-to-person connection. Here, the main task will be to establish friendly and comradely relations with employees. That is, holding face-to-face meetings, monitoring a person’s emotional state, whether a person is coping with stress, and what is his or her general attitude towards the company. These responsibilities include developing methods to improve employee loyalty to the company and how the company can increase the duration of a particular employee’s work in the company.

Mental Health & Well-Being

Companies increasingly began to pay attention not only to the professional productivity of talent and learning, but also to the mental state of employees and comfort at work. In the modern paradigm of reality, businesses have begun to separate physical and psychological comfort. Providing physical comfort is now the base; nice office, comfortable chairs, modern technology, and so on, however, it turned out that this alone is not enough. Now the Well-Being direction is gaining more and more popularity among companies. Personally, I think this is a very cool sign and I am glad that companies are making sure that talent is comfortable and psychologically in their workplace.

Corporate & Social Responsibility Manager

This direction is more about what we, as employees, can do not only in professional activities but also in how to be useful and socially responsible. This often applies to the outside world, when employees are able to positively influence society and the environment. At the same time, you need to understand that this area is quite solid and involves the work of the whole team and not just one manager. Also, there is no need to separate this direction from the corporation or business, as if it were something that should live separately. On the contrary, the company must declare that it is socially active.

For example, a company claims that it is very athletic, then you need to convey this to society and perhaps organize an annual running marathon for charity. Thus, the company consolidates the title of sports, and also makes its positive contribution to social life, helps others, and draws attention to this topic.

Corporate Driver

Tons of books have been written about corporate ethics and building structure. Today this role is taken by HR, which is responsible for creating ethics, values, rules, and messages of the company.

HR Analysis

Enough time has already passed for it to become clear that HR is about numbers too. HR can also be in numbers and databases. I am very supportive of data embedding in HR, especially when it comes to making decisions based on specific data. That is, we do not make decisions based on our thoughts, assumptions or judgments, but use analytics and statistics for this. Increasingly, I notice that companies are “getting on these rails” and come across positions like “HR Analyst”.

Internal Communication

This is a very important point, so important that it is difficult to overestimate it. In the HR department, this function should be presented as responsible for everything that happens in terms of communication in the company. Communications that are not well-established cause the company to not work as a whole organism and can put an end to the existence of the business as a whole. Therefore, this trend of building communications within the company can have a very positive effect on the business, and I more than support it.

How to Master One of the HR

Directions

If I had answered this question 10 years ago, then I would have answered “you just need to get into some company for this or into similar positions”. This is how I got into HR, because 10 years ago there was not enough knowledge, resources, courses, and I had to go straight to the “battle”, get big and move on. Today the situation has changed somewhat. Our education has made a big step in terms of HR and has become a lot of resources for training. Yes, I am not canceling organic development and it is also good. And yet, it will never be superfluous to acquire HR education. You can choose those programs that are optimal for you based on your level of training and knowledge.

Here you will be offered basic or deeper knowledge and you can start using it. Choose what works for you – online or offline courses, business schools, webinars, and articles.

As the number of open vacancies for the HR position shows, there are not enough of them. This was quite expected due to the pandemic. When everything was just beginning, the business began to sink rapidly and the first to be laid off were mainly administrative workers. Now we can say with confidence that demand has returned with a vengeance and there are not enough specialists, so if you are looking for a profession, then turn your attention to the HR position. Alternatively, go to the vacancies page and join our HR department.