An HR Administrator provides administrative support within an organisation's HR or Personnel department. The HR department is a vital element of any business as it deals with issues such as employee remuneration, recruitment of new members of staff, training, pensions and employee relations.
Due to the extensive nature of HR, your role could be extremely varied but obviously this depends on the type of business you're working in. Typical daily duties might include:
Maintenance of relevant HR databases
Dealing with induction of new staff
Liaising with payroll department
Reporting on absenteeism to managers
Ensuring all legal procedures are adhered to
Liaison with recruitment agencies to receive CVs and arrange interviews
Writing job advertisements
Short-listing CVs for HR Managers
Processing documents relating to employees leaving the company
Co-ordinating staff training
Your working week will, in most cases, be the standard 35 hours though this is just a guideline as it varies depending on which industry/type of business you're working in.
Experience in a previous role is often enough to land an HR Admin role, though increasingly employers are looking for candidates with relevant qualifications such as those offered by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). If you've no experience then entry to the profession is tricky and it's likely that you'd be required to have at least a very good degree. It may be worthwhile taking the base-level CIPD course, the CPP, which gives you a basic understanding of the HR function.
An advantage of the job is that you will be constantly gaining skills in HR and this may enable you to progress your career to a purely HR role. Many employers encourage this and push employees to gain the relevant qualifications needed to take the next step up.
Employers will usually be looking for the following skills:
Excellent communication and people skills
An eye for detail
First class organisational skills
Proficiency in software such as Peoplesoft
Salary Information
Salaries vary geographically and as usual, expect a higher salary in London and the South East. A typical starting salary would be anything between £14000 and £18000 per year though this could rise to nearly £20000 plus benefits in the City or West End.
Human Resources administrators provide valuable administrative support to a company’s HR department.
