Becoming a Human Resources Manager

If you’ve ever applied for a job and gone through an interview process, you’ll have dealt with that company’s Human Resources Manager. They will have interviewed you, developed your contract, and taken you through the onboarding process.

What else do Human Resources Managers do? How much do they make? And how do you become one?

If you’re interested in knowing more about this career path, we’ll step you through everything you need to know about becoming a Human Resources Manager.

What is a Human Resources Manager?

The Human Resources Manager is responsible for a myriad of tasks in the business. They can do everything from payroll to recruitment. Depending on the size and type of business Human Resource Managers may be doing recruitment, staff training and onboarding.

They often also have a hand in writing company policy and procedures and maintaining and updating the staff files.

A Human Resources Manager will be responsible for staff wellbeing, managing the relationships in the business and any staff complaints or disputes. They would also be responsible for professional development and staff check ins.

Where do they work?

Because every industry requires recruitment and staff management a Human Resources Manager can work in any industry. They could work in healthcare at a hospital, or in the mines or in education at a university or school.

Because of the broad scope of this role, they have their choice of industry and there is always work out there for as qualified Human Resources Manager.

This makes human resources a very solid and safe career path with a projected job growth of 15.6% over the next five years according to Seek.

How much do they make?

Handling people can be a challenging role and that’s why it’s well compensated. The average salary for a Human Resources Manager is between $100,000 and $120,000 per year.

What can you do next?

Human resources is a broad field with opportunities in many different industries, if you were wanting to grow in your career beyond this role the next thing you could look at might be consulting or recruitment.

What skills do you need to excel as a Human Resources Manager?

Due to the varied nature of the role, there are a lot of skills that will help you succeed but these six skills are key to being a Human Resources Manager.

Communication

As a Human Resources or HR Manager you’ll need to have exceptional verbal and written communication skills.

A huge part of your job to communicate with staff, hand down company policy and create an open dialogue so that everyone can feel comfortable, supported and heard at work.

Compassion

Compassion is key for a Human Resources Manager. You’ll be the point of contact for staff when there is something wrong in their life. So, you need to be able to practice compassion and empathy in your dealings with the employees.

For this reason, it is also important that you understand how to maintain healthy boundaries and not bring the emotional effect of your working life home.

Because dealing with other people’s problems can be draining if you let it.

Leadership

A Human Resources Manager is a ‘manager’, so you’ll be in charge of your team. It will be your job to make calls on important work issues and decide on specific work protocols.

You’ll need to be comfortable leading and showing strength and confidence in your dealings with each department.

Organisation

There are lot of competing priorities you’ll need to balance as a Human Resources Manager. Managing your team, delegating to your staff, maintaining records, training and staff development and handling conflict will all be a part of your job.

For that reason, it’s important that you have fantastic organisational skills and administration skills as you’ll have a lot of data to manage and files to update within the scope of the role.

Coaching

As the HR manager you’ll need to be good at coaching and motivating the staff. Your job will usually include the onboarding and training process for new recruits, so being a good teacher is important.

You’ll also be responsible for the professional development of staff and for completing staff performance reviews.

This means you’ll need to have a sound understanding of each staff members role in the company. And of the individual who completes that role to be able to offer the best insights and options for professional development.

Conflict Management

One of the most important skills you’ll have to master to excel in human resources is conflict management.

In any company you’re going to have disputes, personality clashes and issues. We’re all different people and sometimes one person won’t gel with another. This is why you’ll have to be fantastic at managing and resolving these disputes in an impartial and fair way.

Providing both parties with the opportunity to be heard and express their concerns and finding a way to move forward that works for each party and for the company as a whole, is highly valuable skill.

How do you become a Human Resources Manager?

Human Resources Managers come from all different walks of life, because the industries they inhabit are so varied. Some have studied a degree in psychology, others have gradually worked their way into the field.

You don’t generally require a degree to become a Human Resources Manager. It is best if you are suited to the role as it’s a challenging field if you don’t possess the soft skills required to excel.

But, you can gain these skills through practice and by studying a Diploma of Human Resources.

The Diploma of Human Resources is a self-paced, online trainer supported course. You can start anytime and study from anywhere in Australia so you can get your qualification and prepare for your career change while you keep working in your current job.

The course covers managing the HR department, staff recruitment, performance reviews, employee relations, project work and managing risk.

If you’re interested in knowing more about getting into human resources, you can check out the course here or you can have a chat with one of our friendly course advisors here.