HR Recruitment

What is Human Resources?

In the simplest of terms, Human Resources is the division of a business that is responsible for managing the employee lifecycle. A Human Resources department takes care of a firms most valuable asset – its people. Human Resources professionals make sure that employees have everything they need to perform their day-to-day duties as well as creating a healthy and inclusive work environment that not only attracts the best people, but retains them.  

Professionals within a Human Resources department perform a huge variety of tasks such as – recruitment, employee relations, HR operations, compensation and benefits, payroll, learning and development, diversity and inclusion and early careers.  

With this in mind, it is important to consider that human resource management is a overarching, umbrella term to describe the function. Due to the many areas of human resources, it is typical for professionals in this field to possess specific expertise in one of more areas. A few of these career titles are below;  

• HR Generalist 

• Training/Learning and Development  

• Compensation, Benefits and Reward

• Experienced Hire Recruitment  

• Graduate Recruitment and Early Careers  

• Diversity and Inclusion

• Payroll

To take this one step further, Human Resources involves both strategic and comprehensive approaches to managing people as well as workplace culture and environment. The role of a human resources professional is to ensure that a company’s most important asset – the people – is being nurtured and supported. Today's Human Resource management team is responsible for much more than the traditional end-to-end administration tasks (albeit these still being important). Instead, human resource management teams are more focused on adding value to the strategic direction of a firm, the utilisation of employees and ensuring business needs are met and positive impacts are being made in measurable ways.

Overall, Human Resources plays a crucial role in the smooth operation and success of any organisation. It is responsible for managing the people who make up the company, and for ensuring that they are happy, productive, and able to contribute to the overall success of the business.

Human Resources (HR) Recruitment 

A Human Resources (HR) function plays a vital role in an organisation's performance and success as well as people’s careers and development. The Human Resources (HR) function ensures the right people are in the right jobs; attracting these people is just the beginning.  

Human Resources professionals encourage employees to stay within a business, perform to the best of their abilities, support them with the skills, training and development needed to build long-term careers and empower them to work together and drive an organisation's success. Furthermore, Human Resources professionals ensure employees' rights are protected, ensuring they are fairly rewarded and treated correctly during their employment.

More specifically, we have included what we believe to be the main benefits of having an efficient and successful Human Resources function.  

Recruitment and Training  

Bringing the right people into the business with the required skill set to ensure success. It is a difficult role without a planned method and strategy. Timing is essential. This is where recruitment and training comes in.

If the right candidate is hired, training is followed, and this is usually fairly straightforward if the right person is found for the role.  

Performance Management Strategy

Human Resources (HR) departments are responsible for measuring work efficiency and designing a performance management and/or employee engagement strategy accordingly. An HR department will help employees improve skills and encourage effective working. 

Building Relationships 

It has been proven that the happier the employee, the better and more productive the workspace. It is an Human Resources (HR) department's job to ensure a nurturing and supportive working environment. Workplace relationships, their integrity and the values of an organisation are essential.

Conflict Management  

There can be many occasions where there is a disagreement between employee and employer, and it is down to the Human Resources (HR) department to manage these in an effective, supportive manner ensuring fairness for both parties. They will take timely action to ensure it doesn’t escalate and have negative effects on a business.  

Employee Retention  

It is obvious that high employee turnover can badly affect the overall efficiency and culture/environment of an organisation. Employees are an organisation's biggest asset, and hiring can be a long and expensive process. It is a Human Resources professional's role to improve and maintain good employee retention. This is usually a result of the points mentioned previously, but regular feedback from employees is also an effective way to improve and make changes.  

Read more about why you need an HR Recruiter here!

Beginning the search

Once you have decided to hire an Human Resources (HR) professional and have taken into consideration what HR candidates within the market are looking for, you can start to begin the search for your perfect candidate. The next steps to consider are how to sell the position available and what salary the role you are offering will warrant. An informative and well-written job description is key when trying to entice the top talent, however, ensuring the salary you are offering is in line with the market rates is also an important factor to consider when looking to attract the right calibre of candidate. A good Human Resources recruitment agency can help you with providing job description templates and accurate salary information.  

Write an effective job advert

The key to attracting the best and most suited talent is to ensure that you have an appealing and informative job description. A good job description should be comprised of the following sections:  

• Start off the Human Resources roles job description by including a concise and informative introduction to the role and who it will be supporting. This will help whoever is reading the job description to ascertain whether the role is appropriate for them and aims to entice potential candidates to keep reading.

• List the key role responsibilities that the successful Human Resources candidate will be undertaking in order to make clear what is expected should the applicant be offered the role.

• Give a personal specification. In this section, list the essential and desired skills, qualifications and attributes that you are looking for the successful applicant to have. For instance, if you require an HR Advisor to have a minimum of three years of experience with extensive employee relations experience, you should make this clear. Setting out your expectations and clarifying whether these are prerequisites or preferences will mean that you will attract candidates who meet these requirements and receive fewer applications from candidates who do not have the relevant experience.

• When it comes to remuneration and benefits, you should list the salary, or salary bracket, on offer and highlight any benefits, rewards or extra training available. Think of this section of the job description as a means to showcase what you are offering that other companies may not be.

• At the end of the Human Resources position's job specification, it is important to give some insight into what your company does, what the company culture is like and what sets you apart from competitors. This section doesn’t have to go into a great amount of detail, as most applicants who are interested in the job description will then go away and do their own independent research on your company before applying to the role. However, this section should not be overlooked as it is a great way for you to showcase what your company has to offer and what differentiates your business from any other business that applicants may be considering working for.

• Salary – where salary is concerned, this can differ depending on location, industry and the level of support required. If you want to ensure that the salary you are offering is competitive and in line with market rates, please enquire with Lily Shippen consultants to give you accurate data.

The recruitment process

Having put together a job description and package that considers what Human Resources professionals are looking for, you are now nearly ready to begin the interview process. However, before you start looking at CVs and shortlisting Human Resources (HR) candidates to interview, take a moment to think about the following: 

The market  

• It is important to consider whether the current Human Resources market is candidate-driven or job heavy. A good and reliable Human Resources recruitment agency can help you with this.  

Think “outside the box”.

• A competitive candidate market throughout 2022 has resulted in companies needing to seek professionals with key transferable skills that might not be the traditional background they would hire. Whilst it is easy to see why specific industry experience is appealing in a more remote based environment, it is worth remembering that cultural fit and work ethic remain top of hiring managers priorities when it comes to recruiting Human Resources professionals. We would always strongly advise our clients to be open to considering experience from a range of industries, as well as varying levels of education, to promote a diverse workforce and ensure the best talent for their business.  

• In recent years, we’ve witnessed more and more companies thinking “outside the box” and making hiring decisions based on personality and transferable skills rather than specific industry experience. A good Human Resources (HR) professional will be able to adapt to a new industry quickly and pick up the terminology as they go along. It is easier to train an individual on the nuances of an organisation than it is to train them on how to behave and operate in certain situations. Of course, a Human Resources (HR) function will need to adapt depending on the organisation and its employee population.   

• In addition, due to the change in the business landscape as a result of the pandemic, many companies have had to change the way they work and operate, with many companies now considering fully or partially remote Human Resources or People professionals where they have previously expected fully office-based staff.  

HR Salaries 

Roles within Human Resources across the function can range depending on level, location, responsibilities and industry.  

In London, HR salaries usually begin with entry-level roles, circa £25,000 - £28,000 per annum for a permanent role. In Manchester, these salaries usually begin at around £22,000. These HR salaries will continue to increase in bandings through to an HR Director level. It is hard to comment on an HR Director’s salary and what it should be as this can hugely depend on the size of the organisation and team, the industry they are in and what sort of benefits / total package is on offer.  

Recruitment trends suggest that Human Resources (HR) candidates with financial services experience tend to require higher salaries than their counterparts in other industries. However, it is important to consider the expectations that come with a higher salary.  

The typical journey for an HR professional is to begin in an Administrator / Assistant / Coordinator role (£25,000-£35,000). They will then progress to an Advisor or Officer (£35,000-£50,000). The next level will be Manager or Business Partner (£50,000-£65.000+), although these roles tend to have different approaches. You will then progress to Head of / Senior Management.  

Benefits 

Whilst salary undoubtedly remains a priority for Human Resources candidates, our research reveals that more than a base salary in isolation is required to attract and retain top talent. Instead, offering a fuller, more-rounded benefits package is essential for companies to maintain a competitive edge, with most respondents preferring to receive benefits over the cash equivalent.  

Flexible benefits solutions are now evidently popular and important. Without a flexible working option, companies are instantly ruling out a number of strong candidates.  

Benefits can range from private medical insurance and healthcare, enhanced pension schemes, gym memberships and childcare vouchers. However, we are seeing more of an emphasis on wellbeing and support from a broader perspective. Whether this be mindfulness workshops, working-from-home set ups and budgets, subscriptions to mental health applications and varied exercise support.  

In regard to holiday allowances, the majority of organisations offer 25 days annual leave. However, more than a quarter of employers offer 26 days or more, with 36 days or ‘unlimited’ packages on offer. More than half of employees have the opportunity to buy or sell annual leave – which is an important perk to those whose work-life balance is important to them.