Jobs in Human Resources vary greatly in required skill sets and expected experience. As a departmental function, HR includes recruiting, retention, benefits administration, and all employee matters. An individual HR job, however, can vary from a highly administrative role to a position in executive/strategic management. Specialization is often a key difference between employers, with small to mid-sized firms generally hiring HR generalists, and large employers retaining HR specialists with deep competency in particular functional areas. 

HR Assistant
Find out about HR Assistants - what the job entails and their function within the Human Resources department.
HR Generalists
Find out about the job of an HR generalist, which is a common multifunctional role within mid-sized employers.
HR Recruitment
Describes the recruitment function within an HR department, which involves sourcing, selecting, and onboarding employees to an organization.
HR Manager
Find out about the role and responsibilities of a typical departmental HR manager.
HR Director
Find about the head of the HR department, which is usually the job title of HR Director.
HR Executive
Understand the strategic nature of Human Resources and what the common functions of an HR executive are inside an enterprise organization.
HR Consultants
Find out about working as an independent consultant to Human Resource departments.
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KEY TERMS
HR jobs vary depending on the size of an organization. The general responsibility of an HR person is to balance the needs of the company with the needs of the employees and attempt to find ground that will satisfy both as much as possible. While many of the responsibilities in an HR department are administrative, there are also personnel responsibilities that require personal interaction with employees that can border on counseling. This may be a bit of a stretch for some HR departments, but in small to mid-size companies it is a widely held perception.
In larger organizations, HR jobs are often broken up into specific duties and hierarchies, with job titles that can include HR Generalist, HR Manager, HR Director, training manager, compensation manager, recruiting manager, and others. A generalist will usually report to a director or manager, and a manager and director will usually report to the CEO of the company. HR managers with more specific responsibilities such as hiring or training will usually report to a generalist or director who is in charge of several departments and oversees and facilitates these departments.
In smaller organizations, there may only be one or two HR staff, in which case they handle a broader spectrum of these duties. The demands can be greater on these HR jobs due to these wide-ranging responsibilities, but this is usually tempered by the fact that there are fewer employees to handle the data. A way to ease the burden in this situation is to separate the payroll and benefits duties from the other duties and have an accountant or outsourced company handle these responsibilities.
In larger organizations, HR jobs are often broken up into specific duties and hierarchies, with job titles that can include HR Generalist, HR Manager, HR Director, training manager, compensation manager, recruiting manager, and others. A generalist will usually report to a director or manager, and a manager and director will usually report to the CEO of the company. HR managers with more specific responsibilities such as hiring or training will usually report to a generalist or director who is in charge of several departments and oversees and facilitates these departments.
In smaller organizations, there may only be one or two HR staff, in which case they handle a broader spectrum of these duties. The demands can be greater on these HR jobs due to these wide-ranging responsibilities, but this is usually tempered by the fact that there are fewer employees to handle the data. A way to ease the burden in this situation is to separate the payroll and benefits duties from the other duties and have an accountant or outsourced company handle these responsibilities.
