Personnel management: who are HR managers and what are their tasks

We understand what is the responsibility of an HR manager and what salary he can expect

What is personnel management

Personnel management (from the English personnel management) – attracting, hiring and retaining employees. Unlike human resource management (from English human resource management), which deals with personnel strategy and building corporate culture, personnel management is focused on more administrative tasks – working with specific employees.

At the same time, specialists in both areas are called HR managers. In short, the purpose of their work is to help the company’s employees interact with each other and maintain motivation.

Tasks of an HR manager

Such a specialist has 5 main tasks: recruitment, assistance in adaptation, motivation of employees, assessment and development of personnel.

1. Recruitment

At this stage, the HR manager is looking for candidates for available positions in the company:

• Classic headhunting. Placement of vacancies on career portals and analysis of uploaded resumes.
• Aggressive headhunting. Selection of specialists among employees of competing firms.
• HR branding. Company positioning. For example, through social networks and advertising.
• Remote recruitment. Search and involvement of employees for remote work.
• Recruitment automation. The HR manager can make his work easier by transferring part of the tasks to ATS (Applicant tracking system) programs, which can correlate resumes with vacancy positions or collect responses from recruiting sites.
• Use of social networks. For example, LinkedIn or Telegram.

2. Adaptation of employees

Next, the recruiter helps the selected candidates get used to the new job. For this he uses:

• Company tours. They allow you to quickly get used to the workspace.
• Teaching. The HR manager brings in more experienced colleagues to supervise the activities of new hires.
• Seminars and trainings. They can tell how the enterprise works, what technologies are used or how conflicts are resolved.
• Role-playing games. The method helps new employees imagine themselves in stressful or conflict situations in order to find ways to work with them.
• Conversations with a new employee. In a conversation, the HR manager can verify that the onboarding is successful.

3. Employee motivation

In order for the team not to become indifferent to the projects and goals of the company, the HR manager needs to inspire employees and minimize stress factors.

• material motivation – salary increase, allowances, bonuses and additional bonuses.
• Non-material motivation – recognition of the results of work, praise, congratulations to the employee and staff on significant dates, lack of micro-management, the ability to make independent decisions, comfortable office space, flexible schedule.

4. Evaluation

An important aspect of the tasks of an HR manager, which allows you to control whether the skills and knowledge of an employee correspond to the position held:

• Certification. The recruiter thinks through how team members will pass the qualification test, and fixes the order in official documents. Certification is usually carried out several times a year.
• Business games. An HR specialist creates tasks and cases that mimic real processes in the organization.
• Method of expert assessments. The work and skills of employees are analyzed by external experts.
• Assessment Center. Experts evaluate the results of staff in business games and quests.
• Testing, interviewing.

5. Staff training and development

No matter how strong a candidate’s professional skills are at the time of hiring, they become obsolete after a few years. To help an employee develop:

• Professional coursesduring which specialists receive additional qualifications or deeper knowledge in their field.
• Seminars, conferences, lectures, business breakfastswhere employees can communicate with colleagues from other companies and exchange experiences.
• Training with independent solution of business problemssuitable for both subordinates and managers.
• Games and trainingswhere the necessary skills are developed in an informal setting.

Personnel management methods

In working with personnel, an HR manager combines several methods – economic, administrative and socio-psychological.

Economic methods

They are based on payback: if a company invests in material incentives for employees, it wants to see higher KPIs and financial performance. The manager can not only raise salaries or tighten fines, but also provide social bonuses – medical insurance, a corporate program in a fitness club, food or travel expenses.

Administrative Methods

The main principles of the company’s work are fixed in internal regulations. They should also fix labor relations so that the orders of the management do not just remain on paper, but are executed.

Socio-psychological methods

They are based on theoretical psychology and sociology, help create a friendly atmosphere in the team and shape the corporate culture. Managers can single out informal team leaders and give them the opportunity to take initiative, minimize conflict through training, and help employees plan their careers.

Demand for the profession of HR manager

The recruiting portals contain both internships and vacancies for the positions of directors and HR partners. In August 2022, 11 ads were placed on hh.ru, including 247 positions in Moscow.

Candidates for HR positions are required to have skills in working with Excel and PowerPoint, knowledge of labor legislation and specialized programs (1C: SCP, ERP systems), an understanding of staff training and development methods, and the ability to program and work with big data is considered a plus. These skills will be needed when a specialist organizes information about employees and maintains workflow. Some companies are looking for employees who know the specifics of recruiting in a particular industry – for example, in IT or marketing.

How much does an HR manager earn

According to the Rabota.ru portal, the average salary of a HR manager in our country is ₽32 thousand. The amount varies depending on the region: in Moscow, such a specialist receives an average of ₽53 thousand, in Ufa – ₽51 thousand, and in Krasnodar — ₽27 thousand

In some companies, there are positions where only a part of the core tasks is transferred to the HR manager. Recruiters receive an average of ₽59 thousand, and business coaches – ₽68 thousand.

Salary depends on experience and skill level. Consider the example of an HR analyst who collects and analyzes personnel data using various metrics. At the initial stage, a junior HR analyst can receive ₽60–80 thousand, for the position of an HR analyst – ₽100–150 thousand.

Where Can You Learn Human Resource Management?

Bachelor’s programs are usually devoted to more general areas – economics, business analytics or management. But such faculties often teach courses related to personnel management. Specialized programs are available at major universities:

• HSE (campus in St. Petersburg)
• Moscow State University
• RASHIGS
• Financial University
• UrFU
• SFU

If you need a more flexible schedule and an emphasis on practice, you can take advantage of professional online courses.

• Skillbox
• Netology
• Geekbrains
• Laba
• Coursera

Another way to develop leadership and management skills is to take an MBA program. It is aimed at experienced professionals who want to expand and deepen their professional experience.

• Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University
• RASHIGS
• HSE