Again…What Does HR Do Every Day?

From the outside HR people look very very busy, but nobody really knows what they do. I see a lot of forum questions from people asking themselves what does this department really do and what are they paid for since the results of their work are not that visible. They don’t produce anything concrete, but they never have time when you want to go meet them. They always schedule you for another day or ask you to send them an email. So what do they do? Is it that difficult to hire someone?

Well, in a lot of companies HR is actually undersized. They say the optimum ratio is 1 HR person to 100 employees, but sometimes due to extensive local bureaucracy that is not enough. You can’t really see what HR people do because they have so many things to do that they have no time to presents reports of their work to the people. Here are just a few ideas of what HR does in each area. Most of the times there is one specialist covering more than one area which makes it really difficult, challenging and necessary for them to be always open to specialize in something new.

Recruitment people – discuss job openings with managers, post ads, read hundreds of CVs (don’t imagine it’s that easy – to hire one good professional sometimes you have to go through hundreds of worthless CVs that waste your time), schedule interviews, make phone interviews, test candidate skills (sometimes HR people need to speak 2-3 languages to be able to test them by themselves – help from outside is not always available and they have to manage), participate in face to face interviews (which drain all your energy by the end of the day), make presentations, promote the company, participate in job events, prepare tons of recruiting reports, answer hundreds of silly questions from candidates etc. etc.;

Payroll people – spend their time entering employee data into the payroll system: new joiners, contract changes, leavers, timesheets, vacation hours, sickness leaves, bonuses, night shifts, overtime, week-end shifts, salaries, additional employee benefits; when the payroll is done they prepare payments for salaries and additional documents for local authorities;

Training people – spend their time analyzing competencies that need to be developed in employees on each position, discuss training needs with managers, prepare internal trainings, prepare training plan for internal and external trainings, present the internal trainings to selected employees, contact external companies and sometimes negotiate training offers, organize external trainings – make sure external trainers have all the necessary logistics to do a good job, gather training feedback from participants, prepare training reports;

Administration people – prepare huge amount of employee related paperwork – contracts, contract changes, certificates, prepare access cards, order computers and users&emails sometimes, manage lockers and protection equipment sometimes, manage employee assets, manage additional employee benefits like transportation (are sometimes involved in finding and negotiating a contract with a transportation company), manage taxi or transportation vouchers, prepare reports of HR indicators (attrition, sickness leave, joiners, leavers, etc);

Communication people – manage the internal communications towards the employees, manage external communications for external partners and media, manage the internal suggestion system, manage internal display boards, prepare newsletters with important information for the employees, are sometimes involved in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) campaigns, manage sometimes employee satisfaction surveys and actions.

What else do HR people do: are involved in internal and external audits, are involved in the risk management system, prepare files for work permits for the Immigration authorities, prepare employee motivation programs within budget, prepare huge amount of work policies and work instructions necessary for the good flow of information or for company certifications, need to be always up to date with local and international labor regulations (otherwise high fines can be paid by the company), give advice to managers, are involved in the succession planning system…

So, do you still wonder what HR people do?

Recruitment and Selection Strategy: How Important Is Attaching a Cover Letter While Applying for Any Job?

Question by Netra Patel on LinkedIn,

It depends a lot on the job. If someone is applying for a skilled worker position like carpenter or welder, the recruiter is not going to care much about a cover letter. They will most probably ask all candidates to come for real work tests to see who is better at doing the job. So, don't bother with a cover letter unless they ask for it in the ad placed for the job.

If you are applying for an entry level position that you expect a few hundred others to apply too (like let's say call center agent), use a cover letter, but keep it as short as possible - you may even include it in your resume at the beginning under the "Professional objective" section. The recruiter is probably going to have time to read maximum 3-4 words out of it. Imagine the time someone needs to go through 500 resumes. They will search just for some keywords then reject the resume or move it to the pile of candidates to go through first tests (i.e. language skills tests or Excel written tests and so on depending on the position). Most probably your CV/resume will be in front of the recruiter for about 1 minute max, so don't waste your time on a long cover letter that nobody will read, but focus on having a good structured CV.

And finally, if you are applying to a middle level to senior or management position, it is advisable to use a cover letter. The recruiter will give more attention to each candidate and will have the time to read it. Make sure you adapt it to the job so that the recruiter knows that you want to work for their company and are really interested in the job. If you can find a contact person's name (I mean the recruiter or a manager in the company) use it to make it more personal.

All in all, a cover letter should have maximum 3 paragraphs. Nobody will have time to read more unless there are only a few candidates applying for a top management position. First paragraph - mention what job you are applying for and where you found it, when it was published etc, second paragraph: mention why you see yourself as the best candidate for the job, what skills and knowledge you bring to the company, third paragraph - thank them for the time taken to read your application and mention that you are available to offer details and to meet them for an interview.

Take care and good luck with the applications,
Geo

Recruitment and Selection Strategy: What Skills Do I Need to Be a Good Recruiter?

This is an extract from my book - A Career in HR - The Good and the Bod;


These are the skills you need to have or to develop in order to be a good recruiter:

Intelligence level over the average.

Highly responsible person – will be taking the initial decision concerning a candidate being rejected or selected for next stage. Someone’s fate depends on his/her decision, experience, skills, mood sometimes or state of fatigue.

Great decision taking skills – will take decisions concerning candidates being selected or rejected, will change the strategy in a project if things don’t go well on the initial path, will take decisions concerning recruitment channels and will be responsible for the success of decisions taken, will take decisions concerning partnerships with recruiting agencies (if to use or not and when since costs are very high).

Very organized person – will manage hundreds of resumes (sometimes thousands!), hundreds of candidates, will give hundreds of feed backs – all on time and to the correct candidate; will prepare daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports.

Good communication and presentation skills – will give information to candidates, will deliver presentations to general public, and will represent the company.

Pro activity – will have to come with solutions for problems that haven’t yet appeared; will always be searching for ways to improve and make work more efficient.

Mature person – closely connected to the amount of decisions to take; will be responsible for own actions.

Strong analytical skills – will have to analyze resumes, recruiting channels’ efficiency, market reports, recruiting agencies’ reports; will be carefully analyzing a candidate’s skills and if they fit to the job or in the new team;

Flexibility – will have to change recruitment strategy as often as necessary to meet targets and deadlines;

Great time management skills – must be aware that requested resources and reports must be delivered on time;

Highly sociable person – will be working daily with a lot of people; must be sociable and must like interacting with people since there will be days with 14 interviews (situation not recommended by theory books, but different and inevitable in reality).

Some project management skills – can be given a project to complete by himself/herself and will need to organize available resources. I.e. it’s not possible for a recruiter to recruit a large team of let’s say 30 people alone. Ability to organize and conduct own work and available resources without too much supervision.

Professional attitude – represents a first contact between candidates and the company, can influence negatively or positively the company’s image on the market;

Some telephone skills – will be conducting from time to time phone interviews;

Some technical skills – will need to setup some software alone; will need to prepare and conduct a presentation with a laptop and video equipment alone in a different location than the company headquarters where an IT representative is available; will need to use a laptop, smart phone sometimes, conference equipment, video equipment, USB sticks, headphones, some software. A recruiter must be ready to learn how to use all these and how to make work easier.

Great resilience to effort – will be reading sometimes resumes at 10 pm at home; will be carrying a large laptop around, will be carrying presentation materials around, flyers and others. Will be asked to work overtime from time to time, at work or at home; will be asked to give up vacation if a new project needs to start and reschedule own family time.

Great resilience to stress – will have tight deadlines and huge volume of work from time to time; will have stressed managers who will ask for fast results for projects.

Human Resources Mysteries: Is Human Resources a Good Career Option?

Depending on what your skills and aspirations are, it can be a great career option.

Please consider the following:

Pluses:
- you have the possibility to implement a lot of great measures to motivate and help the employees;
- you have the possibility to represent your company in public meetings, conferences, at the University, at job events, you get to talk to the media, to students, to teachers, you can even get to present your company in the same auditorium where you used to study - this time in front of the students;
- the management asks for your opinion concerning recruitment plan, training opportunities, employee motivation, labor requirements, performance management, employee surveys and action plans - your opinion matters;
- you can influence the image of the company when communicating to candidates and job portals;
- you can influence the well being of the company by recruiting and developing the best people;
- you can create a great work environment by organizing team buildings and various other smaller team activities;
- you can help people by offering them advice or simply listening to their problems and at least trying to improve their life;
- you get to talk to a lot of people, to learn new things, to make friends.

Minuses:
- working with a lot of people every day can turn you in an anti-social person; you need to really be a great people's person if you want to survive; human resources is not for those who want to work alone in a closed office in front of their computer;
- sometimes people drive you crazy with silly questions and actions: they lose their badge, they don't like their photo in the database and absolutely need another one taken, they forget to fill in and sign things and you have to chase the around, they don't read the procedures and make mistakes that you have to help fix all the time, they forget their passwords, they create chaos and you have to be a moderator for disciplinary actions, they forget their locker key at home and come to you for another one for the day, they lose, forget, ignore and don't pay attention to details and make your life a living hell;
- most of the times when something's wrong, they come to HR, even if it's not HR's job (someone took their parking space, someone stole their food from the fridge, there's no more coffee in the machine, they don't like the carpet in their office, they want to suggest removing plastic cups from the kitchen etc etc.); all this because you did their Induction training and they don't know who to go to;
- bureaucracy can be a killer in HR; legal paperwork takes ages to complete, has strict deadlines and is not valid if a word or number is missing; so you must be really careful about the paperwork you prepare and register with the authorities;
- payroll, unless outsourced can drive you crazy - lots of numbers to insert in the system - hours, absences, sickness, bonuses, advances, vacation, new hires, leavers, taxes, contract changes; you must be a patient and attentive to details person;
- if you work as a recruiter, the huge number of resumes to read and people to interview can become overwhelming; you may end up at home after 14 interviews with no desire whatsoever to see anybody, to be called by anybody - you can even turn up to consider water dripping down the pipes tooooo noisy :) ;
- candidates not coming to the interview after you bothered to read the resume, prepare tests, schedule the meeting, prepare questions etc. can make you really mad sometimes, especially if recruitment deadlines are tight;
- reporting in HR is also annoying - everybody asks for HR data in all sorts of formats, most of the time it's the same information in 5 different templates that the 5 requesters can't seem to agree upon and want it their way;

All this being said, inform yourself and choose wisely. HR can be rewarding but also crazy. You decide...

Engagement Strategies: Employee Motivation Idea - Employee of the Year Selection

Here's a proposal for you to think about - how can you select the employee of the year for a team as fair as possible. Prepare an Excel file, include the names of the people in the teams, insert the criteria and give weights to each of them.

Here's a file you can use:
http://www.comialarm-resurseumane.go.ro/HR/Employee_of_the_Year_Criteria_Excel97-2003.xls

Take into consideration the following criteria:
- mid-year rating grade - rates from 1 to 5 were considered, 1 being the best, 5 the worst;
- annual rating grade - given in October so you can have the final Employee of the year selected by December.

Additional criteria:

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Team Work

Employee consistently demonstrates the spirit of teamwork by offering support to fellow employees whenever a need arises for a collective effort in accomplishing a task or goal.  Employee takes a positive approach in interacting with fellow employees.

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Reliability

Employee is always on time for work, doesn't waste time on too long breaks, his colleagues and his manager can always trust that he/she will perform the activity he/she was entrusted with, will respect deadlines and will promote quality of work

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Innovation

Employee has developed an original idea or suggestion that has a positive effect on the operations, policy and/or procedure.  The end result of the idea or suggestion is a reduction in cost(s) to the operation or increased efficiency or accountability.

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Personal development interest - Learning & Development

This criteria defines the person's interest in developing themselves, his/her interest in being part of trainings and in improving the knowledge

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Professionalism

Employee conducts himself or herself in a manner consistent with the values and goals of the company.  Employee demonstrates an above average knowledge of their job responsibilities and delivers a high quality job performance and services.

Customer focus

Employee consistently recognizes and meets the needs and requirements of internal/external (where applicable) customers.  Employee demonstrates compassion in dealing with the customer, being mindful of how his or her attitude and actions are perceived.  Employees use problem-solving techniques, when necessary, to satisfy the customer’s needs and reflects a positive image of the institution.

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Quality

Employee consistently uses a systematic approach to accomplishing his/her responsibilities, taking care to minimize errors.  Employee acknowledges and takes pride in ownership of the day-to-day processes for which he/she is responsible and utilizes initiative where necessary to meet overall goals.

Engagement Strategies: Criteria to Check Motivation of Employees

Here are some criteria that you can use use to check motivation of your employees. You can create surveys to see where you need to work on improvement. They have been placed into groups according to Maslow's pyramid of needs.
Lower needs must be fulfilled first:

Criteria	Category
Conditions for physical recreation	Physichological
Conditions of periodical recreation (trips, parties, etc.)	Physichological
Conditions of serving lunch	Physichological
Average time spent at work	Safety
Bonus and rewards system for holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.)	Safety
Bonus system for results recognition	Safety
Budget for travelling	Safety
Company headquarters	Safety
IT support	Safety
Meeting efficiency	Safety
Other material benefits (car, bonuses, etc.)	Safety
Overtime compensation system	Safety
Recreation spaces	Safety
Safety of position	Safety
Salary increase system	Safety
Salary level	Safety
The Office	Safety
Transportation facilities	Safety
Work atmosphere	Safety
Degree of information upon company results	Belonging
Initial training	Belonging
Quality of collaborating with HR	Belonging
Quality of collaborating with IT	Belonging
Quality of collaborating with other departments	Belonging
Quality of collaborating with top management	Belonging
The way knowledge is transmitted within the company	Belonging
Degree of responsibility on the job	Self-esteem
Feedback from direct manager	Self-esteem
Recognition of my results	Self-esteem
Respect the employee is treated with	Self-esteem
Work itself	Self-esteem
Internal opportunities to develop your career	Self-actualization
Opportunities to develop technical/specialist skills	Self-actualization
Promotions system within the company	Self-actualization
Support offered during the activity	Self-actualization
Training system offered periodically	Self-actualization

HR Skills: If I work in HR, How Advanced Need My IT Skills to Be?

You need medium level IT - word processors, spreadsheets processors, presentations software, email software. Also, you may participate sometimes in conference calls and may need to set up your own equipment or you may do presentations and may need to set up your laptop and video equipment by yourself. Anything additional is useful. If you know some database software for example you can create your databases and reports easier. So IT advanced level is not required, but may prove useful.

Human Resources Mysteries: Why is HR Seen as a Useless and Inefficient Department?

This depends on how dedicated HR employees really are. If they are motivated and love their job, they will find a way to show people they are not useless and inefficient. If they are not motivated and don't really love their job, they normally avoid interacting too much with people and that's why their work is not understood. 

As I told you before, HR is not the best paid career ever, budgets are low, volume of work is huge; sometimes HR is seen as a parasite by management and that's why HR people are last when salaries, trainings and benefits are discussed. All this can get an HR employee really demotivated.

Human Resources Mysteries: Do People in HR Travel?

Most of the times no. Only if you are on a higher position coordinating people in more countries or if yo have colleagues in another location and you need to go there for training or to support them. However, since costs need to be cut as much as possible, HR uses conference call and IT equipment to communicate remotely rather than travel.

Do I need a Certain Degree to Work in HR?

It depends on the county you are in. I am in Romania and I got in HR after graduating Computer Science and a master's degree in Business and communication. I got an entry level position while still a student and now after several years on specialist positions, I am HR manager. In the US I think you need a certain degree to get to a certain level in HR. You can ask this on LinkedIn - HR groups.

SPHR certification helps a lot - so try to pursue that. However, getting it depends on the number of years of experience that you have in HR - the more, the easier it is to get.

HR Job Tips: How to Get in HR With No Experience?

1. Try an internship in HR first. A lot of multinational companies need students to help with paperwork or with simple tasks that the specialists don't have time to handle. They offer training and you will learn a lot if you are really interested. 

2. Try courses in HR - instructor led courses in class are better, but online courses go too.
 
3. Register to HR groups on social networks (LinkedIn for example). You fill find there people who can give you lots of advice and also HR jobs for entry, middle or senior level.

4. Get an entry-level job in a multinational company. This will get you closer to their internal job board. A lot of multinational companies prefer to promote from the inside. Applying to a position advertised internally may help you get the job you hope for.

Good luck,
Geo