The job functions of a human resource manager vary by employer. You can hire a human resources manager with experience that fits your company’s needs, which might include hiring, training and terminating employees; handling payroll and company benefits; and handling employee issues. Because the manager’s job function bridges satisfaction between the employee and company, lacking this key employee might affect your attrition rate.
Hiring Employees
A human resources manager connects an employer’s needs to job candidates. The manager recognizes the needs of the company and hires candidates based on experience, career goals and whether the employee fits in with the hiring company. The alternative to finding job applicants might include hiring a recruiting company or launching Internet advertisements. You’d have to muddle through applicants, find qualified candidates and set up interviews yourself. Delegating this work to an educated professional saves time and increases productivity.
Training
The human resources manager can also train employees. Rather than take other employees away from their job duties or affect their productivity, the manager can take the necessary time required to fully train a new hire. This results in increased job satisfaction for a new employee, as she’ll better understand her role and job duties. Without the human resource manager, someone else must train the employee. If the person training new hires provides incomplete information about the new hire’s job duties or functions, this may result in job dissatisfaction.
Compensation
A human resource manager researches the pay scale of competing markets. The manager then reports to you for a decision about new hire pay, current employee raises or pay plans. Any dilemmas with pay, pay plans or raises are handled by the human resources manager. Unless you have the time to research and organize employee pay yourself, having an employee specifically dedicated to these tasks also decreases employee dissatisfaction and the likeliness of errors.
Benefits
A human resource manager takes care of employee benefits, including dental, health, vision, life and disability insurance. The manager can also shop for competitive providers for your company. Because the human resources manager handles the fine details of benefit plans, you can focus on your business. Employees who have questions about any of the benefits they receive deal directly with the human resources manager. Without this manager in place, you may spend unneccessary time learning the fine print of benefit rules, keeping up with provider changes, completing forms and answering employee questions.
2016 Salary Information for Human Resources Managers
Human resources managers earned a median annual salary of $106,910 in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On the low end, human resources managers earned a 25th percentile salary of $80,800, meaning 75 percent earned more than this amount. The 75th percentile salary is $145,220, meaning 25 percent earn more. In 2016, 136,100 people were employed in the U.S. as human resources managers.
