6 Essential HR Coordinator Skills in 2024
An HR coordinator is responsible for facilitating primary human resource job duties, including payroll processing issues, administrative duties, employee relations, employee benefits, and compensation.
In a company, HR coordinators are the bridge between the employees and the HR director. Instead of the human resources (HR) director handling any issue that can arise, the HR coordinator is the first who tries to mediate the problem and also improve overall HR functions, including employee training, creating employment programs and managing the human resource information system (HRIS).
As the HR coordinator is a mid-level position, individuals need proper human resource education and should have at least one HR certification like most other HR-related professionals.
Depending on the company size, a business might have more than one HR coordinator. Since the duties and responsibilities span multiple human resources duties, human resources coordinators hone soft skills like communication skills and time management skills.
The HR coordinator job description is diverse and thus requires a plethora of many different skills. If you’re interested in learning the skills via video, then watch below. Otherwise, skip ahead.
Here are six top human resources skills an HR coordinator needs in 2024.
HR Coordinators Skills
In 2022, it is more essential than ever for HR professionals to have exceptional interpersonal skills. Ever since the pandemic, employees have had to change their approach to work. According to Pew Research, around 71% of the general workforce worked from home in 2020. Moreover, 54% would prefer working from home even after the pandemic.
For HR coordinators, this means that they have to master a digital approach to human resource management alongside their usual skills. Besides answering employee-related issues, they also have to master the software outside HRIS and MS Office. For example, instead of calling an employee to their office, HR coordinators will invite them to a Zoom chat for a possible performance management or training call.
Moreover, with stress and anxiety hitting new highs, the HR coordinator’s job is to use proper communication to provide employment support and ensure optimal work processes.
Instead of communicating in person, HR coordinators file issues and report to their human resources department online. This doesn’t seem like a major shift at first, but it requires a different approach.
Since employees and most of the human resource department work remotely, here are some skills a human resources coordinator must exhibit to keep the communication in the team going.
1. Proactivity
Employees tend to get more passive when working remotely. Being in your own house creates the benefit of freedom, so it’s the HR coordinator’s job to ensure nobody is slacking. This requires proactivity in communication. For example, pinging an employee even before a possible issue arises and communicating it in a proper way.
Furthermore, employees can feel left out. Although the human resources coordinator feels there are no issues on the horizon, they should still check to see how employees are doing, even if it is just the usual “good morning” at the start of working hours.
On the flip side, HR coordinators should avoid micromanaging employees. By checking every second, an employee can start to believe that they are doing a poor job.
2. Schedule Meetings
It’s evident that HR professionals need to schedule online meetings, no matter if it’s for business administration, recruitment, checking employee records with the human resource department, or a quick chat.
But the key isn’t just about scheduling meetings but communicating them with the human resource team and employees.
Some HR professionals might think the job is done by sending a Google Calendar invite. But if there isn’t a clear info funnel, it results in poor time management and employees missing scheduled calls. On the other hand, the human resources coordinator doesn’t want to spend too much time alerting everybody about the upcoming meeting. Especially when you consider that excessive online calls can waste around $1,250 per employee in a month.
Thus, the HR coordinators need to find the silver lining where the communication is clear within a minimal time frame. New employees are keener to a meeting, but old employees will require an extra push.
3. Picking the Communication Preference
While the human resources director might prefer emails, it’s much easier to communicate with employees via team management software. But if the HR coordinator is looking for new hires, they might need to find a more personal communication medium.
In remote work, HR professionals need to master different ways to communicate and figure out which medium is proper for which occasion. The HR coordinator job description requires that they communicate with almost everybody in a company. Therefore, the coordinator is adept in online communication and adjusts them to their existing interpersonal skills.
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4. IT Skills
Technology is evolving faster than anything else in the world. So besides HRIS, MS office, and other software that HR coordinators know like the back of their hand, more and more job descriptions list software knowledge that wasn’t here 10 or 20 years ago.
For example, when recruiting new candidates, a company might require automated recruiting software to speed up any future hiring process. Although hiring isn’t the center of the HR coordinator job description, the human resources coordinator might still need to help with recruitment in a smaller company.
More and more cloud-based human resource management tools help analyze employee data, maintain employee records, update employee benefits, and improve performance management.
Administrative duties and even training programs are shifting towards better efficiency with new software, and it’s up to HR coordinators (and the entire human resources department) to keep up.
Although human resources technology relieves the strain of having professional time management skills, it does require a different skill set. Similar goes for decision-making. By using AI-based technology, HR coordinators can make more objective decisions when hiring or performing administrative duties.
Overall, new technology brings more problem-solving solutions to the table. But similar to other changes, to maximize the benefits, the human resources coordinator needs to master new skills first.
5. VR Employee Training
Although still new, there are examples of human resource management using VR for employee training. If a human resources (HR) coordinator will use VR for training depends on the company and the industry. Although HR coordinators don’t need VR if it’s for an employee doing desk work, companies use VR for safety training in industries such as healthcare.
But it’s not just in heavy industry. Major companies such as KFC are using VR to help new hires learn the ropes. In addition, VR changes the hiring process to a whole new level since the HR professionals are in one state and the employee in another.
While employee training and hiring cover a broad topic set, HR coordinators can expect to go through a whole new training process as well.
6. Employee Management in Gig Economy
It’s a general idea that the younger generations prefer flexible work time and telecommuting. Although studies show that although 53% of Generation Z prefers full-time gig work, only 10% are full-time gig workers, while 18% do gig work part-time.
Nevertheless, more and more employees are looking for work opportunities outside the classic 8-hour work. With the shift, HR coordinators need to figure out how to get the most out of hiring gig workers and freelancers.
Benefits like efficiency and agility are appealing in the freelance employment world, but there are traps. With the quicker hiring and recruitment process, it is harder to hire a responsible gig worker.
This means that although hiring might seem easier, an HR coordinator needs to pay more attention to the person they are hiring.
Furthermore, although freelancers come and go, it’s still the HR coordinator’s duty to create a work environment where the freelancer will find support and strive.
Many gig workers often create loyalty to the company. By providing skill development programs specific for gig workers, HR coordinators can create a healthy ecosystem that merges the old with the new.
Human Resources Coordinator Skills – Wrapping Up
No matter if human resources coordinators are looking for jobs inside a small company or major corporation, it’s possible that most job descriptions will list intercultural human resource management (HRM).
The human resources (HR) coordinator might work with employees and hire candidates from different cultures. They can also answer to higher-ups from different social backgrounds and even in different countries. Employees from one culture might prefer direct discourse, while others favor a more indirect approach and procedures. Thus, a real professional needs to know how to manage both and create a synchronized workspace where nobody feels left out or discriminated against.
HR coordinators need to keep in mind that the feeling of discrimination doesn’t have to occur. Meaning, that an employee their beliefs and views are attacked. The unfairness can also happen if the human resources coordinator pays too much attention to one employee, creating discrimination towards another.
HR coordinators must know the differences when recruiting and hiring new candidates, doing administrative duties such as business administration, posting job boards, conducting training, new program development, and other duties and functions. There are far more benefits to running an intercultural business, and a professional is responsible for getting the most out of the overall process.
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 a great HR resume, and create a successful job search strategy.
