Human Resources and Recruitment

Careers in Human Resources Human resource management (HRM) is one of the professions that exist in all organizations. Every organization is made up of people bound by a shared goal or objective. For the achievement of the goal or objective, the people have to be properly trained, supervised, motivated, and rewarded. This is the core of HRM -- managing people with the aim of achieving a defined purpose. Therefore, the importance of the HRM profession cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, HRM is crucial for organizational success.

Without the right people for the job, as well as equipping them with the necessary resources, support, skills, and capabilities, an organization may not successfully achieve its mission and vision. Managing people involves a wide array of processes, ranging from recruitment and selection to training and development as well as payroll management, performance management, and employee relations. This means that HRM is a broad field with several areas of specialization. The field entails positions such as recruitment specialists, payroll managers, talent managers, and employee relations managers.

In this paper, I describe the responsibilities, tasks, salaries, and lifelong learning opportunities associated with three careers in the field of HRM. I also describe why HRM interests me as well as the content knowledge expertise required for success in this field. The three careers in my field of interest that are the most appealing include a payroll manager, an employee relations manager, and a recruitment specialist (also known as a headhunter). The responsibilities and tasks of these positions differ accordingly.

Payroll managers are tasked with supervising all things related to the timely payment of employees and contractors. Recruitment specialists are tasked with finding and placing the proper candidates for the proper job positions that are available (Martinez, 2001, p. 48). An employee relations manager, also referred to as a director of labor relations, supervises general policies for employment. In fact, they oversee virtually all aspects of employment from benefits and compensation to complaints, while contending with global change in labor practice (Townsend and Wilkinson, 2014, p. 203).

Depending on what specific industry payroll managers and employee relations managers specialize in, they can make upwards of $100,000 a year. Headhunters tend to make about half of that annually. The lifelong learning opportunities for these positions are all relatively similar. It is advisable for serious candidates to earn post-baccalaureate degrees in fields related to human resources. Additional opportunities include professional certification from various certifying agencies in this field.

The vast majority of them include continuing education in the form of attendance of seminars, online seminars, and continuing education units at formal educational institutions. There are several areas from the field of human resources -- particularly as it relates to the aforementioned three career possibilities -- which are desirable to the author of this paper. Firstly, it is a field with a lot of interaction with others. Some careers do not offer this opportunity to communicate with others directly and in person on an almost daily basis.

This field, however, involves a great deal of human interaction, which is exciting for an avowed people person like me. Nonetheless, the cardinal reason I am drawn to this field is the degree of importance human resources has for organizations across verticals. Human resource departments perform some of the most important functions for organizations. They are a central cog in the very structure of any enterprise, without which no organization can exist.

The attraction associated with this reality is that this field is vital to modern business itself, especially "strategic human resources" (Mustafa et al., 2016, p. 273). I enjoy the thought of working in this field because it would enable me to function as one of the professionals responsible for maintaining order and continuity to how business operates. I also like the thought of working in such an important field and one that is so necessary to the enterprise today.

The content knowledge expertise required for success in human resources is very specific to this particular field. In fact, it is actually extremely specific to the three career paths outlined which the author is seriously considering. This field requires candidates to be formally trained in it, either with a master's degree or a bachelor's degree in human resources. Moreover, there are numerous certifying agencies that enable professionals to specialize in their expertise according to their areas of interest.

Some of the more salient of these include the Society for Human Resource Management and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit plans. The continuing education requirements for such entities are focused around technological advances relevant to these careers, such as recently released software and computer skills necessary.