Companies depend on human resource managers to find and recruit employees on their behalf. The human resource department is thus a vital aspect of any company as the quality of its workforce is dependent on the HR team’s ability to find the right talent. So what does the HR manager get for being such a critical asset to an organization? What are the benefits of being a human resource manager? Read on for reasons to pursue human resource management in college:
1. It gives you the chance to participate in company growth
Workplace productivity is largely dictated by the abilities and attitudes of people charged with various roles. If the HR department is incompetent, productivity will be affected, and company growth will be slowed down. As someone who has their employer’s best interests at heart, HR management is perhaps the best position to prove that and have a sway on the company’s progress. A bachelor’s degree or an MBA in human resource management will provide you with the skills you need to identify, recruit, and retain great talents for your company.
2. It puts you in the spotlight
A smooth journey up the corporate ladder doesn’t come on a silver platter. You have to work for it and be willing to be in the spotlight, lest your exploits go unseen. Human resource management puts you in this all-important limelight. Your achievements won’t go unnoticed here, and it’s not just your employers that will be keeping an eye on you. Rival companies will too, and that will give you bargaining power when negotiating a pay rise. Note that your failures will be equally visible to senior executives and potential third-party employers, so you must be willing to take the bad with the good.
3. The HR field experiences minimal disruptions
Unlike most other mainstream career fields, including marketing and entrepreneurship, the human resource field has remained largely immune to technological advancements over the past couple of decades. The skills and experience needed to thrive in the industry haven’t changed much either, and there aren’t many digital systems that can substitute core human resource operations. This makes it easy to grow your skills and work experience without having to learn new concepts and techniques from scratch.
4. Above-average salaries
The job market follows the law of supply and demand. The fairly high demand for HR professionals attracts high remuneration as well, with the average global salary for human resource managers being estimated by Payscale to be upwards of $82,000. Depending on the company you are working for, you can expect added benefits such as bonuses and profit-sharing.
There is also a greater opportunity for career advancement and more job opportunities in absolute terms since all companies will need human resource services at some point. You can even set yourself up as a freelance human resource consultant if you’d rather work independently.
5. You will face plenty of new challenges
Sometimes it’s impossible to tell you didn’t know something until you have to do it. HR management is a pretty diverse domain, and HR managers are often caught up in situations they have never been in before. The fact that you deal directly with humans makes it necessary that you have patience, tolerance, superior comprehension abilities, and emotional intelligence in your repertoire. You also need to have an ability to detect talent masked in shyness, communication ineptitude, and other traits conventionally associated with incompetence. All these will not just improve your management skills but also make you a better person.
6. It puts you in a position to help people
Many people miss jobs because they are generally nervous and don’t know how to answer interview questions or communicate in interview rooms. As the head of a recruitment exercise, you have the opportunity to overlook this and unearth the attributes that really matter.
Additionally, you will be dealing directly with employees, some of whom will approach you with personal concerns. There are many ways to make yourself approachable and ensure everyone in the company is willing to open up and discuss pressing issues with you. HR managers are recruiters, career directors, psychologists, and personal mentors encased in a single frame. You don’t have to be an expert in all those, but your presence and willingness to listen will mean a lot to anyone who comes to you.
Endnote
Human resource management has its downsides too, but they aren’t anywhere near as many as the upsides. You will enjoy the benefits above as long as you are qualified, talented, willing to learn, and able to fulfill your responsibilities.
