How to Write an HR Administrator Resume
Looking to write an HR administrator resume that wins your ideal job?
You came to the right place.
An HR administrator is an entry-level position in the Human Resources Department of a company. The HR Administrator resume highlights skills, education, experience, and management to help you land a high-paying job.
But there is a problem. You have spent too much time on your non-essentials, and now your human resources administrator resume is lacking the hook to impress potential companies. An HR Administrator needs to have strong administration, interpersonal and organizational skills to manage the HR department, conduct multiple tasks, and report to the HR manager or the VP of HR.
You need a solid presence on Linkedin, to write an impressive bio, add in your skills, mention your degrees, and provide details of previous companies you have worked for – all tied to your resume.
Writing your HR administrator resume is a time-taking process. Your resume is the most important thing that you can never take for granted.
We recommend having a one-pager resume that fits your skills, education, and relevant work experience. Why? We’ll share more details later on in this guide.
You need to be laser-focused while writing your resume. And we understand it’s not as easy as many people think. That’s why this guide will teach you the ins and outs of writing a job-winning hr administrator resume.
This guide serves as a learning point for creating an appealing HR administrator professional resume. Here’s what we’ll cover in this guide:
- Best examples of HR administrator skills.
- What type of reporting skills do you need? (Payroll reports, ad hoc reports)
- What type of employee questions do you expect?
- What HR systems do you need to know? (Applicant Tracking System, Payroll system)
- How to prove you can work in a fast-paced environment?
- How can you help with the recruitment process, administrative tasks, workers’ compensation claims, and job postings?
And HR administrator is responsible for maintaining personnel records, writing job descriptions, performing data entry tasks, finalizing new hire paperwork, and helping with job fairs. Let’s understand how to write an HR administrator resume.
How to Write and Format an HR Administrator Resume
An HR administrator has several duties. They need to update, and manage employee records in the database, conduct a recruitment process, and help the company with hiring and retaining top talent from the market.
The company will also expect you to have a solid understanding of labor laws and employment regulations.
Your HR administrator resume needs to mention skills, education, and experience that are relevant to the job you are applying for. Not every job will demand the same set of skills.
There are four steps to applying to the HR administrator job:
- Conduct thorough research online about the company policies, senior management, and turnover rates.
- Craft your resume with the exact job title that you are applying to.
- Ensure your human resource administration resume is complete with all relevant details.
- Write a customized cover letter that shows you have done your research to stand out from other candidates.
Hiring managers don’t have a lot of time to check every resume that they receive. In fact, always think like a hiring manager and ask yourself the following questions:
- What type of hr administrators the company is looking for? (Maintaining personnel records, or helping the HR department with job fairs)
- What type of skills does the company require?
- What sort of administrative tasks does the company need?
- Is the company looking for someone with experience in handling employee relations issues?
- Are you good at benefits management and administration support?
Many HR administrator resumes include irrelevant details that you cannot justify. Please exclude statements like these from your professional resume.
- Assisted employees with their questions.
- Wrote reports using Microsoft Office.
- Managed employee information without any problems.
- Provided necessary HR support to the team.
- Helped full-time salaried employees and part-time employees with their compensation plans.
There is nothing special about these skills or experiences. This is something that the hiring managers expect from you. What is something unique you did that brought a positive change in the company?
A good HR administrator resume example has the following statements. These elements below strike a chord with the HR manager:
- Helped the HR manager in implementing, training, and guiding the HR staff for an HRIS tool that reduced employee questions by 15%.
- Reduced redundant data-entry tasks by automating the system through an HRIS tool and witnessed a 15% improvement in team productivity.
- Processed workers’ compensation claims for more than 300 employees every month.
- Assisted new employees with a dedicated 1-week onboarding and orientation program.
- Orchestrated successful hr policies to lift employee morale, improve employee relations, and reduce the turnover rate by 20% within the first 6 months.
- Demonstrated skills in serving as the first point of contact for employee assistance.
- Implemented performance management systems to increase profitability and work morale by 35% within 1 year.
- Determined the requirements of technical skills for new employees and helped launch 3 new training programs during employee probation.
- Orchestrated company policies to streamline hiring efforts for 300 employees.
Did you notice the difference? You need to quantify and justify the work delivered in the past company through numbers.
Want to create the best human resources administrator resume and land your dream job? Then this HR course is the perfect choice for you.
What is the Best HR administrator Resume Example?
The best HR administrator resume example utilizes a reverse chronological order with the most recent work experience first. It is also a combination-based (compliant with Applicant Tracking System, ATS).
Employers don’t have time to go through your hr administrator resume and determine when the most recent work experience. It is critical to list the most recent work experience at the top. This ensures that the employers get to know your latest experience without wasting any second.
It’s no surprise that 98% of Fortune 500 companies now use ATS to save time, effort, and costs in filtering out irrelevant hr administrator resumes. ATS is a quite sophisticated method that filters out resumes not containing relevant keywords.
For the HR administrator resume, here are all of the possible keywords. Go through these and include the most relevant ones for each job:
- Employee relations issues
- Employee records and personnel files management
- Employee benefits administration support
- Human Resource Management
- Workforce planning
Here are some tips to make your resume ATS-compliant:
- Research every single job application.
- Write a customized cover letter and resume with the most relevant keywords.
- Use a 12-font Times New Roman or Arial.
- Go through the best hr administrator resume example.
- Most recent work experience first.
What Sections Should You Put on Your HR Administrator Resume?
There are many sections of an HR administrator resume, but you need to include the following ones:
HR Administrator Resume Professional Header
The hiring managers will glance at your professional header the moment they receive your application.
Make sure to include the following details:
- Full name
- Job title
- Phone number
- A portfolio, if you have one
- City
- Email address
Other than the essentials, you also need to include the most relevant skills and experiences when applying to different jobs. Before adding in skills and work experiences, always ask the following questions as a hiring manager:
- What was the impact of your job in reducing the turnover rate in your previous company?
- Are the skills relevant to the current job description?
- Does your hr administrator job resume fit one page?
- Can you justify your experience?
It doesn’t matter what you write on your resume, as long as it is relevant and justifiable, there shouldn’t be any problem. It is your resume, so let’s not take it for granted.
Here is one example of an HR administrator resume example and format.
HR Administrator Resume Experience Example
Companies demand HR administrators have at least 3 years of experience. Some job descriptions may require up to 5 years, however it varies from job to job.
The human resources administrator has an important job role in the smooth functioning of the HR department. Here are some of the most common responsibilities:
- Be a point of contact for all employees.
- Administer drug, background checks, and other pre-employment screening.
- Demonstrated skills to help new hires in the onboarding process.
- Handle employee relations issues such as grievances in a professional manner.
- Provide administrative support to the HR Department.
- Work with HR Business Partners to provide comprehensive benefit programs and HR programs.
- Help new employees with a thorough onboarding process.
- Manage personnel files and employee records.
- Process senior management meetings minutes.
- Organize employee recognition events.
- Help the HR department in organizing job fairs, with thorough attention to detail.
- Handle all employee data in an employee database maintaining confidentiality.
- Create comprehensive job duties for new and existing employees.
- Improve employee engagement by crafting policies and procedures.
But before you write your Human Resources administrator resume, consider the following:
- Remain relevant and only list skills, qualifications, and experience if it is relevant to the job.
- Use reverse chronological order.
- Build resume compliant for ATS.
- Create a customized cover letter for each job role.
When writing your cover letter and human resources administrator job resume, answer the following questions:
- Who were you reporting to?
- How many team members do you have in the HR department?
- What tools did you use for managing personnel files and employee records?
- Why are you applying for this job?
- What makes you different than other candidates?
- Did you also draft policies and procedures?
Listing Skills
I understand. You are a multi-tasked, versatile HR professional with a diverse range of skillsets. You can craft HR policies, create amazing PowerPoint presentations, write meeting minutes, and conduct interviews efficiently.
So why not list them?
- Strong communication skills.
- Excellent interpersonal skills.
- Excellent administration support skills.
- Create and maintain an employee handbook.
- Technical skills such as proficiency in Microsoft Office and HRIS software.
- Demonstrated skills in creating PowerPoint presentations and meaningful reports.
- Have a positive attitude.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Listing Education
The minimum degree requirement for an HR administrator is Bachelor’s in HR, Management, or a relevant field.
But having a BA Hons. or Bachelor’s is not enough to land the job.
You need to mention your university projects such as your thesis and company reports relevant to the job you’re applying to. Many times, employers may look at the relevant projects you did during your studies, and hire you.
Listing Certifications
Certifications prove you have invested time and effort in understanding a field relevant to your education. It gives you the much-needed competitive advantage and shows you are continuously upgrading yourself with the latest knowledge.
Here are some relevant HR certifications to get ahead of others as an HR administrator:
Listing Achievements
Listing achievements in your hr administrator resume is critical in creating an ever-lasting impression. Without achievements, your resume may not differentiate you from others.
Hiring managers need to know not just the work you’ve done, but the results you’ve achieved. Here are some questions to help you write the best achievements:
- How did your work contribute to the business objectives?
- How your HR policies have made a difference?
- What measurable results you have produced?
- How you’ve strengthened the HR Department?
- What you’ve done to reduce the employee turnover rate, and foster a healthy work culture?
We understand it may not be easy to quantify achievements in the HR Department. After all, HR does not result in sales.
But I strongly encourage you to find the problems that you solved, and the impact that your solutions had on the company. Talk about your experience in terms of numbers.
Many HR administrators will write:
“Overlooked the recruitment process and shortlisted candidates for interviews.”
As an Hr administrator, this is obvious. It doesn’t prove any results.
Here are some great examples of quantifying your results:
- Sourced qualified candidates through social media and resume databases from networking events.
- Planned, organized, and executed hiring events partnering with 12 local community organizations
- Cut new hire processing time from 3 weeks to 1 week and cost by 35%.
Listing Interests
Professionals do not list interests on their resumes. Rather, convert those interests into achievements if possible.
Listing Languages
The US is a melting pot of different cultures, races, religions, and languages from all around the world. Unless otherwise specified, you need not list any other language than English.
HR Administrator Resume Example
Here is one example. It was not crafted using any resume builder:
The achievements are quantified. The skills are relevant, and so are the qualifications and work experiences.
No headshot and no summary.
HR Administrator Job Application Experience
Remember that there are two approaches to applying to your dream job:
- The shotgun approach – Applying on all job applications without customizing your cover letter and resume.
- The sniper approach – The exact opposite of the shotgun approach.
The shotgun approach works like this:
- 30 job applications submitted
- 0 responses
Laser-focused sniper approach works like this:
- 20 job applications submitted
- 5 responses to interviews
- 2 last round interview
- 2 job offers
How Long Should the HR Administrator Resume Be?
For most candidates, a one-page resume should be enough.
10 seconds. That’s how long it takes for your hiring manager to skim through the resume and decide if you are a perfect fit for the company. If you have done everything right, your resume should fit on one page.
HR Administrator Resume Tips
Here are five writing tips that will help you write a great resume:
1. Personalized cover letter for each role
Always personalized the body of your cover letter and mention skills, certification, and work experiences relevant to the job description. Writing a custom cover letter for every job application is time-consuming, but it can increase your hiring prospects. Here are the elements of a custom cover letter:
- Address the hiring manager with their name (if it is mentioned in the job description or company website).
- Mention company name.
- Mention skills and experiences relevant to the job.
- Justify why do you want to work with the company?
- Mention how you learned about the job.
- Don’t write long paragraphs.
A half-page cover letter with bullet points should be enough to convey your message.
2. Update your HR administrator resume
At HR.University, we have the best HR administrator resume examples and formats for you. Oftentimes, we are so indulged in working, that we forget to update our resumes with new certifications, qualifications, and work experiences.
Many times, job applicants apply to new jobs without updating their resumes. If you do this, do not expect any response back from the employer.
3. Link to your human resources portfolio
How many VPs of HR have their own portfolio? No, we aren’t talking about the portfolio mentioned on your resume. We’re referring to your website or a Google Drive folder with links to slides and documents that you’ve worked on in the past.
This will give you a competitive edge over other candidates. Sharing an official link of your bio for the company you’re working at, is also great! For example, check out these VPs. They are currently working at their respective companies and these links serve as an excellent representation of their professionalism:
Donna Morris – Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer at Walmart
Gloria Chen – Executive Vice President at Adobe
4. List relevant work history
HR Administrator has 3 to 5 years of work experience. If you have worked in one or two companies at most, then try to make the most of your resume space by elaborating on your work experience. The key here is relevancy.
It is understandable that 5 years of work experience working with 2 companies may not be enough to list. But think about all the tasks that you completed during your tenure. What tasks could you mention in your resume?
5. Proofread your resume before applying
Writing and submitting an HR administrator resume without proofreading is akin to shooting yourself in the foot. Imagine sending your perfect resume to more than 20 companies, and finding out it has a glaring spelling mistake?
I’d suggest hiring an expert copyeditor to go through your resume, proofread and polish it.
HR Administrator Resume Don’ts
Here are a few other don’ts:
Resume objective and summary
It’s not required. When going through hundreds of applications, no hiring managers will have time to read your objective or summary.
Headshot
Your Linkedin profile URL is enough to give potential employers a complete description of yourself alongside your headshot. No need to include one in the resume.
Old experience
What was relevant 5 years ago, isn’t applicable today. With this in mind, only mention previous work experience if it is relevant somehow to the current job you’re applying for. If it’s not, leave it out. Save the resume space.
Remember, no longer than 1 page.
Where Can You Apply with Your HR Administrator Resume?
After spending a number of hours, you have crafted a perfect 1-page HR administrator resume. Equipped with knowledge and passion, you are now ready to make customizations and apply to various HR administrator job roles.
It is a good rule of thumb to start off by applying for HR administrator jobs in your area. For example, if you are from Chicago, search for the following terms on Google:
- Chicago hr administrator job
- Hr administrator jobs in Chicago
You will then see a list of websites with HR administrator jobs in the Chicago area. Zoom in on the most relevant ones and start applying.
Here are some of the most common websites where you can find jobs relevant to HR administrators:
Key Takeaways and Summary
We’ve discussed a lot about the Human Resources administrator. Here are key takeaways and summary:
- Stay relevant and use a reverse chronological order for your resume.
- Customize each HR resume and the impact of your policies on the management team and the company.
- Use the right keywords.
- Proofread your resume.
- Use a sniper approach and only send resumes to relevant jobs.
Writing an HR administrator’s resume takes time and effort. But it’s definitely worth the wait. Once you have your resume, the opportunities are endless. There is a high demand for HR administrators with organizational and interpersonal skills.
Good luck in job hunting. Now go ahead and apply this guide in writing that perfect CV.
If you are new to Human Resources and are looking to break into an HR role, we recommend taking our HR Certification Courses, where you will learn how to build your skillset in human resources, build your human resources network, craft an excellent HR resume, and create a successful job search strategy.
