Job Duties and Tasks for: "Human Resources Manager"

1) Administer compensation, benefits and performance management systems, and safety and recreation programs. 2) Identify staff vacancies and recruit, interview and select applicants. 3) Allocate human resources, ensuring appropriate matches between personnel. 4) Provide current and prospective employees with information about policies, job duties, working conditions, wages, and opportunities for promotion and employee benefits. 5) Perform difficult staffing duties, including dealing with understaffing, refereeing disputes, firing employees, and administering disciplinary procedures. 6) Advise managers on organizational policy matters such as equal employment opportunity and sexual harassment, and recommend needed changes.

Job Activities for: "Human Resources Manager"

1) Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships -- Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time. 2) Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates -- Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person. 3) Making Decisions and Solving Problems -- Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems. 4) Staffing Organizational Units -- Recruiting, interviewing, selecting, hiring, and promoting employees in an organization. 5) Getting Information -- Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources. 6) Judging the Qualities of Things, Services, or People -- Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.

Skills Needed for: "Human Resources Manager"

1) Active Listening -- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. 2) Management of Personnel Resources -- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job. 3) Writing -- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience. 4) Reading Comprehension -- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents. 5) Speaking -- Talking to others to convey information effectively. 6) Negotiation -- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences. 7) Time Management -- Managing one's own time and the time of others. 8) Social Perceptiveness -- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they

do. 9) Monitoring -- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action. 10) Critical Thinking -- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. 11) Instructing -- Teaching others how to do something. 12) Persuasion -- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior. 13) Active Learning -- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making. 14) Judgment and Decision Making -- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one. 15) Learning Strategies -- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things. 16) Mathematics -- Using mathematics to solve problems.

Abilities Needed for: "Human Resources Manager"

1) Oral Comprehension -- The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. 2) Oral Expression -- The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. 3) Written Expression -- The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand. 4) Written Comprehension -- The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. 5) Speech Recognition -- The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. 6) Speech Clarity -- The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you. 7) Problem Sensitivity -- The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem. 8) Deductive Reasoning -- The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense. 9) Inductive Reasoning -- The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events). 10) Originality -- The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem. 11) Near Vision -- The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer). 12) Category Flexibility -- The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.

13) Fluency of Ideas -- The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity). 14) Information Ordering -- The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations). 15) Mathematical Reasoning -- The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem. 16) Memorization -- The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures. 17) Speed of Closure -- The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns. 18) Selective Attention -- The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted. 19) Flexibility of Closure -- The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.

Knowledge, Experience, Education Required for: "Human Resources Manager"

1) Personnel and Human Resources -- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems. 2) English Language -- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar. 3) Customer and Personal Service -- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. 4) Administration and Management -- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources. 5) Law and Government -- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process. 6) Clerical -- Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology. 7) Education and Training -- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects. 8) Economics and Accounting -- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking and the analysis and reporting of financial data. 9) Psychology -- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.

10) Mathematics -- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications. 11) Public Safety and Security -- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Definition and Nature of the Work

Human resources managers manage the needs of a company's employees. They develop and manage employment programs, salary compensation and job evaluations, benefits, promotions, equal opportunity initiatives, and education and training programs. In large companies one human resources manager may be in charge of each of these areas. However, in small or medium companies the human resources manager may manage the human resources operation of the entire business. Human resources managers must be highly qualified and experienced. There are many state and federal regulations in place to protect employees, and the manager must know and follow these regulations. If a company's hiring or promotion policies do not follow these regulations, the government may penalize it. Human resources managers focus on people and their needs. For example, a human resources manager's responsibilities in the benefits area may extend fromHuman resources
managers focus on people and their needs. To be effective they should be knowledgeable about all areas of human resources as well as every aspect of the company. ( G. Baden/zefa/Corbis.)researching and

planning programs to processing individual benefit claims, depending on the size of the department. In addition to managing human resources programs, human resources managers usually supervise other employees.

In industries that are unionized, human resources managers deal with relations between labor and upper management. They read union contracts to help upper management comply with the terms of the contracts. They examine workers' grievances and try to help settle disagreements between labor and management. Human resources managers' tasks can be extremely interesting and varied. They develop plans for finding applicants to fill job openings. Then they interview and, where necessary, test these applicants. These managers use their knowledge of job evaluation to fit the employees into the proper jobs. They use their knowledge of salary compensation to calculate employees' salaries and to make sure that the company's entire salary program is competitive with that of other companies. Human resources managers may also develop programs that increase employees' skills, strengthen their managerial ability, or provide career counseling.

Education and Training Requirements

Human resources managers must have excellent skills in management techniques, budgeting, counseling, business planning, and organization and systems design. They should have a knowledge of all the human resources areas, including benefits, salary compensation, employment, equal opportunity, payroll, and career planning.

Most human resources managers are college graduates. Many hold a master's degree. Because many different skills are needed, many educational backgrounds are acceptable to employers. Particularly valuable majors include those in human resources, business administration, political science, and psychology.

Getting the Job

Although employment agencies may list job openings, large companies usually fill human resources management jobs from within the company. To do the job properly, human resources managers must know every aspect of the company. This knowledge comes from experience. Classified sections of newspapers or career sites on the Internet may carry ads for these positions.

Advancement Possibilities and Employment Outlook

In large companies human resources managers may rise to managerial or executive status. Those who work for smaller companies may have to move to other companies to advance to a higher level. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, human resources managers held 157,000 jobs in 2004. Employment of human resources managers was expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2014. More and more companies are viewing human resources departments as being crucial to the well-being of the organization and will continue to expand their human resources departments to take care of the needs of the growing workforce. Increasingly complex benefit packages and labor laws also will create a demand for more human resources managers.

Working Conditions
Human resources managers usually work in a pleasant office setting. They spend a great deal of time interviewing people, talking on the phone, and in meetings. They must work well with people. To recruit new employees or take part in conferences and seminars, they may be required to travel. Human resources managers generally work more than a forty-hour week.

The human resources job functions may vary from company to company and according to different job levels but the core human resources activities and accountabilities are clearly outlined in this sample job description.

HUMAN RESOURCES
Main Job Tasks and Responsibilities plan and manage recruitment and selection of staff plan and conduct new employee orientation identify and manage training and development needs for employees develop and implement human resources policies and procedures administer HR policies and procedures administer compensation and benefits

ensure compensation and benefits are in line with company policies and legislation benchmark compensation and benefits support annual salary review implement and monitor performance management system handle employee complaints, grievances and disputes administer employee discipline processes conduct exit interviews review and update employee rules and regulations maintain the human resource information system and employee database coordinate employee safety, welfare and wellness maintain knowledge of legal requirements and government reporting regulations affecting HR functions

Education and Experience degree or diploma in human resources management, business administration or equivalent generalist human resources experience knowledge of the principles and practices of HR management knowledge of business principles knowledge of relevant legislation and regulations knowledge of relevant software

Key Competencies organizing and planning problem analysis and problem solving judgment skills critical thinking skills communication skills presentation skills integrity coaching skills persuasive ability adaptability