Essential Human Resources Administrator Skills 2024
Are you looking for the top HR administrator skills to become a better HR professional? Here are skills you can master to excel in your career as an HR administrator.
An HR administrator is not an easy role, and it requires a certain set of administration skills. It is a high-stress, fast-paced, and challenging role that demands multitasking skills. Human resource administrators explain things in non-technical terms and are well-organized.
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An HR administrator must have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in human resources, business administration, or a related field. They look after the administration of all ongoing processes in an HR department.
The HR activities entail familiarity with business software, strong communication skills, interpersonal and people skills, flexibility, willingness to learn, company policies, and updating internal databases. Activities also include legal compliance, record keeping, handling work schedules, keeping confidential information, and managing the HR data of the organization.
HR administrator duties include responding to human resources professionals and handling personnel records. In addition, the ideal candidate handles payroll duties, manages training and travel accommodations, fits right into the work culture, handles internal HR databases, handles HR metrics, and responds to other HR administrators.
HR administrator jobs require the individual to assist the human resources managers and directors of administration in providing a comprehensive administration service. They act as the first point of contact for all customers to the human resources team, providing an effective human resources administration service relating to the employment lifecycle and coordinating HR recruitment systems through software. Human resource administrators ensure accurate HR records on all employees, including full-time, part-time, and bank staff/hourly paid employees, and provide HR reports.
Human Resources Administrator Skills
This guide will provide a brief on some of the HR skills you must possess to become a professional HR administrator.
1. Communication Skills
Communication is a two-way process, and human resources administrators must learn about vertical information streams. These streams enable an HR administrator to communicate with human resource management and HR generalists. Conversing with the human resource members is a vertical communication stream that is important for HR administrators.
HR administrators must exhibit good communication skills as they are responsible for communication across the organization. They must possess the ability to adapt their communication style with people from every department, at different levels, and with different agendas.
Moreover, external communication is also mandatory as it helps to connect with people outside of the organization, like potential employees and investors. Therefore, human resource administrators must exhibit written and verbal internal and external communication skills to express and present ideas in sync with company policies. In addition, they conduct HR interviews that require listening skills to listen to the employees with grievances in the workplace.
HR administrators work with a great variety of individuals, hence they must communicate well. Human resource administrators work with all staff and other HR personnel to keep all HR aspects running. Therefore, establishing a good written and verbal flow of communication is essential for completing administrative duties.
2. Conflict Management
Conflict management is identifying and handling conflicts in a sensible, fair, and efficient way. It is the process of dealing with incompatibilities or disagreements arising from diverging opinions, objectives, and needs. HR is the hub of conflict management as all employees come there with their grievances. Managing or resolving conflict is no small task. Instead, it’s a challenging task that requires patience, training, and intuition. Ignoring an argument is not the same as resolving conflict instead from the roots and conflict management is an everyday reality for HR individuals.
Therefore, HR administrators must develop command over conflict resolution skills to deal with disputes that require fixing and addressing for the mental well-being of employees at the workplace.
3. Decision Making
An HR employee makes more decisions on average than their counterparts in another department. Processes such as promotions, training, recruitment, and reduction require daily attention. Thus human resource administrators must hold the ability to make decisions with available resources.
Decision-making involves choosing between various solutions to a problem. Human resource administrators conclude decisions through the intuitive or reasoned process or a combination of the two. Hence, they need self-motivation and decision-making skills to ensure their work is done on time.
4. Organizational Skills
Organizational skills allow you to focus on different tasks and use your time, energy, strength, mental capacity, and physical space to achieve the desired outcome in the meantime.
HR administrators are responsible for maintaining data and files for all the organization’s employees such as their emergency contacts, medications, blood groups, and relevant critical parameters. They secure this data and make it accessible in case of emergencies.
Maintaining databases ensures that all tasks run without delays, as otherwise, individuals can lose energy in obtaining information rather than using it.
HR administrators oversee all staff members’ legal queries and their documentation. In addition, delegation and strategic planning are mandatory for the maintenance of the proper organization since they maintain files and keep an eye on the schedules and policies to ensure compliance. Therefore, human resource administrators must exhibit strong organizational skills.
5. Ethical and Cultural Fit
It is essential to follow a moral code of conduct in all areas of the workplace, therefore the human resources administrator position comes with an added responsibility. They hear about all the employees’ personal information, weaknesses and strengths, and possible grievances, which means that it is their duty to safeguard this information and uphold the ethical-moral code.
HR administrators ensure that employees in the company behave in the correct manner. Moreover, they provide support for the company’s commitment to equal opportunities and its dignity, diversity, and equality policy.
6. Adaptability
Adaptability allows a person to learn more skills and knowledge based on changing circumstances. Human resource administrators must showcase adaptability through their work.
If an organization does not keep evolving with time, it will soon become outdated, which is why it is necessary to upskill a business. Continuous upskilling and evolving with time are adaptive skills. Henceforth, all HR administrators must have the ability to learn and master new market trends and HR skills and implement the gained knowledge into their work.
HR recruiters appreciate good adaptability skills. So, we recommend you include this skill in your resume.
A workplace can never remain the same forever. Human resources management, anticipation, and transitioning of the evolution are mandatory. Not just they expect it, but they also help the organization get used to the change and navigate it in the right direction.
You must become well-prepared to change the recruitment styles, hierarchies, and work culture to keep up pace with the changing work dynamics. Human resource administrators act as a buffer between the incoming change and the employees to soften the blow of the effects. Hence adaptability skills are fundamental for this administration position.
7. Compliance
HR administrators ensure that the organization follows all compliance laws. Moreover, they ensure that employees are well-educated about any compliance issues and that all internal and external rules and regulations are met.
HR administrators help the organization adhere to legal standards and in-house policies. Their responsibilities include enforcing regulations in all aspects, at all levels, and advising on such matters.
Some of the HR administrator responsibilities within the compliance subset include:
- Creating employee handbooks
- Educating and training
- Hiring the right talent
- Organizing routine HR compliance training
- Investigating work-related accidents
- Conducting background checks on prospective employees
- Assessing healthcare information
8. Recruiting
Recruitment is how companies seek out qualified individuals for internal positions. A substantial part of recruitment is to interview candidates. One of the competencies of an HR administrator is to ensure that the recruitment process is fair.
HR administrators perform recruitment work, including preparing recruitment documents, organizing recruitment timetables, drafting and placing adverts, and logging application. Their duties also include administering recruitment campaigns through the E-recruit systems, sitting on interview panels, and administering tests.
Therefore, this is an essential skill for human resource administrators as some companies demand administrators with exceptional recruitment skills. By including recruitment as a technical skill on your resume, you present yourself as a professional with recruitment expertise.
9. Technical Skills
Technical administrative duties include maintaining personnel records, managing HR documents (e.g., employment records and onboarding guides), and updating internal databases.
HR software programs help HR professionals to organize better. This is an employee management system that allows for the allocation of personal and professional employee data. With almost all corporations turning to technology to better organize their employee data, HR software programs are an excellent technical skill to add to your resume.
HR administrators handle employee documentation and general administrative tasks through software. Whether updating databases or writing reports, computer literacy is also mandatory for HR administrators.
Some of the most demanded technical skills include MS Office, database management, onboarding management, recruiting, collaboration, compliance, HRIS, outlook, customer service, data entry, employee relations management, Microsoft excel, scheduling, facilitation, and performance management.
Looking to master these skills? Explore our top-rated HR certifications to become a professional HR administrator:
10. Documentation Skills
HR administrator responsibilities include processing employee data, updating company policies, and assisting in hiring. Hence the role demands diligent documentation skills and familiarity with HR records. HR administrators handle employee documentation, including contracts, recruitment paperwork, and starter packs. In addition, they manage daily record-updating and documentation of the human resources department.
Some of the documentation skills are:
- Maintaining digital and physical personnel records such as employment contracts
- Updating internal databases with new recruits’ information
- Creating and distributing FAQs and guidelines documents about the policies
- Gather data regarding payroll like bank accounts and working days
- Publish and remove job advertisements
- Schedule job interviews and contact candidates as per requirement
- Prepare presentations and reports on HR-related metrics like the total number of hires by the department
- Develop training and onboarding material
- Respond to employees’ questions about benefits
Documentation is a vital part of an administrator’s job description, as they are the primary contact for queries on the HR systems. They act as a systems administrator, configuring the system as required, controlling all user access, managing data flows of the system, ensuring accuracy and data protection compliance, and liaising with HR professionals to troubleshoot HR-related queries as required. HR administrator manages databases but inputting starters and leavers, contractual amendments, change of details, annual leave, and recording sicknesses and other vacations. Moreover, they provide reports from the HR database for auditing and monitoring employee data and training. Hence, excellent documentation skills are mandatory to become an HR administrator.
Conclusion
HR administrators handle HR procedures and juggle various administrative tasks. The administrator guarantees that the HR department supports employees while conforming to labor laws and labor relations. An ideal HR administrator candidate must become proficient with these ten skills to secure the HR administrator’s seat.
Recruiters expect an employee with prior experience in an HR field, proficiency in digital tools and HR software, such as HRIS, and at least a bachelor’s degree in HR. If these skills resonate with you, you are on the right career path to becoming an HR administrator.
If you are new to Human Resources and are looking to break into an HR Administrator position, 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 that lands you a sought-after HR Administrator job.
