Work in the field of hr. HR sphere: what is it? Advantages and disadvantages of the profession

The IT industry is famous for its love of foreign job titles and abbreviations. The HR department is also affected by the trend, and a person not from this area, and sometimes an experienced HR manager, can break his head, wondering what is the difference between Career Adviser and People Partner. So we decided to tell you in more detail what roles, responsibilities and specializations exist in the HR department. They can be performed as different peopleand one person who takes on more and more roles with every thousand cut in the HR budget. So who is who?

1. Personnel Inspector

The inspector is responsible for maintaining personnel records in the company, drawing up according to work books or SPD, writing job descriptions etc.

Olga Kovtun, Lead HR Inspector at Intecracy Group: “HR Inspector is the name of the profession in the professions classifier. The main pool of tasks is working with documents and software... Communication with people takes place when hiring, applying for a vacation, as well as paperwork upon dismissal. "

2. HR manager

A multi-tasking position in the HR department that includes different HR roles in any combination. They are more common in small companies where different positions already exist, but the main tasks, in addition to, for example, personnel issues or recruiting, are assigned to the HR manager.

Olga Moroz, Head of Operation HR at Zakaz.ua: “In fact, my position is the Deputy HRD, I am responsible for all operational HR processes that take place in the company (from direct search to corporate events). But the strategic plans and the setting of global tasks for HR-s - this is what HRD does for us. In fact, the only difference is that in the absence of HRD I can take responsibility for making decisions and coordinate the work of the department itself. "

3. Recruiter

A specialist whose activity is aimed at recruiting personnel for the company in which he works, or for client companies, if he represents a recruiting agency. An IT recruiter, respectively, is engaged in the selection of personnel in the IT field, which requires you to have certain knowledge in the field of information technology.

Katerina Chaikovskaya, IT Recruiter of Art2Hire: “Since the field is technical, then in the search and selection of such specialists, some technical knowledge is required. The recruiter does not need to delve into the very depths of the technical issue, but must know and understand the terminology. Today, unfortunately, there are often “specialists” who cannot distinguish Java from JavaScript, which is what creates a not very positive reputation for this position. The main approach of our company is professionalism and understanding that we work primarily with people, not a LinkedIn profile. "

4. Recruiter-Researcher

This specialist selects candidates and accompanies the candidate only until the "entrance", the first "Welcome!"

Oksana Tarasenko, recruiter-resecher (freelancer): “The specifics of the profession are creativity, sales (sometimes bidding), and at the same time - analytics, perseverance, organization. Unpredictability (everything can go completely wrong) and absolute predictability (first find, and then accept). And a lot of communication. Love, patience and tolerance. It happens that you have to communicate very closely with someone with whom you have no desire to communicate. But he is an ace in his profession. And you are an ace. And two professionals always have something to talk about, don't they? "

5. Career Adviser

His main task is to work with project / account management and work with IT specialists and their teams. This is important, especially at the stage of onboarding new specialists. Each professional has a Career Advisor to talk to and get a recommendation. Career Advisor is an assistant and partner in administrative and organizational matters.

Irina Tsepoukhova, Career Adviser at SoftServe: “I think our team is united by a passion for people and their needs. We see potential in each employee and help him to maximize his potential in our company. Initially, our department was created in order to guide people up the career ladder, to teach them to understand the requirements for a particular position. But over time, we became assistants not only to developers, but also to managers. Now we are transforming in the direction of providing HR-service to managers. "

6. People Partner

The person who in the HR department deals with the issues of motivating employees, stimulating development on the project and in the company, catches and works with dissatisfaction. It is the best friend for each employee, who acts as a buffer between the interests of the company and the individual.

Olga Gladun, People Partner at Logic IT Solutions: “Only in IT can you meet an interesting person called People Partner. He is a jack of all trades, versatile specialist, friend, assistant and advisor in all organizational and administrative matters. This is a person who combines an HR manager, a recruiter, and an event manager. In a word, the organization of all the delights aimed at the internal comfort of employees in the company. "

7. Training Manager, L&D Manager (Learning & Development)

Alexandra Kovaleva, Training Manager at Softengi: “Training management is an understanding of the interests of employees, personal communication, participation in a performance review, certification. For example, how can the experience of one team be useful to others? The main task is to analyze the needs of employees and projects, and on the basis of this - to form a development path. Activities are related to the impact on the satisfaction of people and their development, taking into account the interests of the company. The main pain of this profession is how to effectively train and retain an employee, so that the money spent on training will bring profit to the project. "

8. Business Partner

HRBPs are HR professionals who work closely with senior management, focusing on missions and objectives, the processes requested by the organization. The main focus of this position is on strategic planning and scaling of processes in the company.

Darina Lepenets, Business Partner at Trinetix: "My responsibilities as a business partner focus on building and scaling HR processes, building HR policies and procedures (from determining the level of loyalty and involvement, motivating staff to developing assessment, development and training of personnel)."

I am convinced that the processes in the company should serve the purposes of both business and personnel, taking into account the expectations of both parties. It is on this basis that I try to create all the changes that are being introduced together with the employees. This allows us to be more effective and empower everyone to feel ownership of change and be part of a “better tomorrow”.

9. Marketing + HR \u003d MarHR

His responsibilities include working with the company's career website, accounts in social networks, referral programs for attracting new employees, e-mails for the internal and external world, writing expert content on sites where potential target audience is present. Also MarHR is involved in sponsoring events and working with feedback on work in the company. In fact, MarHR helps to build effective recruiting work (assess engagement and conversion, help build a funnel of incoming resumes from different channels, form key messages of the company to the outside world), but the tasks of increasing employee engagement and loyalty within the company can also be the responsibility of the marcher.

Irina Snozyk, Marketing & Sales at Softengi Training Center: “I have not yet met such a job title as marchar in Ukraine, but there are already employees who combine knowledge and tools from the areas of HR and marketing. Marchars have a lot of common or shared responsibilities with the person who deals with the employer's brand, but a “pure” marchar should be engaged in marketing, not branding. I think that soon the Ukrainian market, following the wave of popularity of building an employer brand, will also need to have a marchara on the staff ”.

10. HR Generalist

This is a human HR department, subordinate directly to the CEO of the company, who is responsible for the implementation of all HR processes. Found in small companies.

Ananstasia Klyuchikova, HR Generalist: “This is a kind of HR“ foreman ”, in the company he is responsible for processes from recruiting with subsequent adaptation to organizing training / team building, maintaining corporate culture and is responsible for them. A broad-based specialist who sees the whole picture. "

11. HR-Director

HRD is a top manager who implements, supports and develops the company's strategy by taking tactical steps in personnel management. HRD is the only person in the company who should be able to interact with each department, with each leader, since the implementation of the HR strategy, and, accordingly, the business development strategy depends on the level of mutual understanding with top managers.

Elena Rozdorozhnyaya, HR-Director at ESU: “No matter how trite the phrase“ staff decides everything ”sounds, it is exactly so. Therefore, HRD is essentially the second person in the company after the CEO. Typically, HRD sits on the board of directors and influences key business decisions. Although this influence largely depends on the scale of the HRD personality. In the same position, different people have completely different approaches to the implementation of their functions, even within the framework of the same job responsibilities.

In addition to knowing all the functionality of the HR service, HRD must have strategic and systematic thinking, professional courage and perseverance to implement an HR strategy across the entire business. It is necessary to learn to look at the business through the eyes of the owner. It is necessary to be able to organize processes in order to provide the business with an influx of new qualified specialists, to build systems of adaptation, motivation, training, development, regardless of the region, season and cataclysms of the external market. You need to be ready to prove to the company management that the decisions made by HRD are correct and benefit the business. Otherwise, the company will not have HRD, but the head of the personnel department. "

12. Head Hunter

If we talk about professionalism, then this is the highest level. This is when you are faced with the difficult task of finding someone specific, persuading him to switch to another company, or simply luring him away. And here it is necessary to include all the art of communication, negotiations, be subtle and careful. It is always difficult, reckless, and therefore interesting.

Tatiana Melikova, CEO at Art2Hire: “Head Hunter is a bounty hunter ... Good hunt - I usually wish my team. We are like hunters, patient, observant, persistent and very wise. We select the moment, do not rush, and sometimes we do everything quickly and clearly. What we do really looks like a hunt, except that there are no victims, and everything is only for the good. It's over high level... More sophisticated and refined. There can be no mass scale, mailings (although I am an opponent of them in principle), only an individual approach, personal communication, using all the skills of effective communication. "

13. Employer Brand Manager

Increasingly, in Ukraine you can find the vacancy of an Employer Brand Manager, a specialist responsible for the internal and external brand of a company as an employer.

The specificity of the position is that this is such a "seven-armed Shiva", combining the qualities of a marketer and HR specialist with the skills of a communications manager. Its target audience is candidates and employees. He works with the market, the country from which the company is ready to hire specialists. His tools are limitless. He works in seven areas: strategic planning, PR (public relations), SMM (social media marketing), Corporate Identity (corporate identity or visual image of the company), Internal Communications (internal communications), Event Management and Corporate Social Responsibility (corporate Social responsibility).

Katerina Drobot, Employer Brand Manager at MacPaw, Co-founder

Very often, on websites that provide an opportunity for job seekers to find a job, and employers - an employee, there is a vacancy for an HR specialist. Many job seekers are at a loss as they try to figure out what HR is and whether they would be suitable for the position themselves. Not everyone succeeds in guessing what this is, and therefore awkward situations often arise during interviews.

Over the past few years, a large number of new professions have appeared in the country, among which HR is very popular due to the shortage of professional employees in it and the huge prospects. Market relations have put all businessmen before the fact of the need for a strategic plan for the management and development of staff.

The HR specialist works to select the most talented, creative and capable employees for the company. Also, his responsibilities include the correct distribution of employees to achieve the intended goals and the formation of a favorable working environment in the enterprise, thus significantly increasing the total cost of the organization.

What is HR?

Many are looking for the answer, what does the abbreviation HR mean? The answer is quite simple: it comes from two English words - human resources, which in Russian means “human resources”. Thus, if you decipher the name HR-specialist, it will turn out - a specialist in human resources. In fact, this work is similar to the work of a regular HR officer, but with additional functionality.

Today, in almost every university of economics, you can find a department that trains specialists in personnel management. But all the same, experience remains the decisive factor in this case, while diplomas do not play a special role. That is why people often find themselves in the field of HR without appropriate education. Among such specialists, one can most often find graduates of technical universities, former students of linguistics, philologists, psychologists, sometimes even former military men.

There are many educational institutionswhere you can get this specialty. In Moscow alone, there are about 10 programs for mastering HR management in universities, not to mention courses, retraining, trainings and seminars. There are also MBA programs that can be mastered in 6-24 months. A prerequisite for future applicants is knowledge of English language and the presence of at least an incomplete higher education.

How to get a job?

Knowing how HR stands for, people tend to get workplacewhere you can solve unusual problems. That is why former office managers often find themselves in this area, sometimes executive assistants take on an additional function in addition to their main responsibilities. When applying for a job in a branch of a foreign enterprise, they begin to rise up the career ladder from the position of an assistant), having reached the position of a coordinator, you can start thinking about the work of a specialist manager, etc. Very often, former employees of recruiting agencies become HR specialists - they are willingly hired for this position because of their vast experience and knowledge of the business sector.

If we talk about the gender component of the HR sphere, there are much more women here. However, all the men who get there are most often in high positions, as they very quickly move up the career ladder - the result of so-called "sticky floors" and "glass ceilings" that prevent women from gaining leadership positions. Large portals that publish advertisements from employers claim that 21% of employees in this area are men and 79% are women, while the ratio in the upper ranks is different - 62.7% (men) / 37.3% (women).

Those who are fortunate enough to hire a human resources specialist should understand what HR is and what they will have to do. We are not talking about carrying out any business operations, business meetings, signing securities, the HR manager, in principle, cannot be interested, since he does not deal with this directly.

So, an HR specialist is obliged to do:

What else should an HR specialist do?

A very important skill that a HR specialist should have is cooperation with line managers. It is he who has to advise them on certain issues arising from the staff. An employee has to work with a large number of people, and for this it is necessary to have at least minimal data from a psychologist: in some cases, this is very helpful in work.

An HR manager who does not have good communication skills simply cannot cope with this job, because he will have to know almost everything about his employees. Moreover, you will have to receive information through personal communication. If we talk about the HR leader, he needs to be a strong manager in order to achieve high results.

Those who do not know what HR really is, believe that employees in this area do not need to specialize, since the technologies are used almost the same everywhere. This statement is partly true, but only if we are talking about a specialist who is engaged in personnel administration. If we are talking about an HR director, he will need to know the structure of the business at the top management level. This is necessary in order for the specialist to understand exactly where the enterprise is heading, and to be able to build a policy of working with personnel, based on these trends.

Advantages and disadvantages of the profession

The manager's salary will directly depend on the enterprise and the tasks assigned to it. A specialist will have to know everything about the clients of his own company and about the tasks that they set for themselves. It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, and it is possible that the first few weeks of work he will often have to stay late.

If an HR specialist manages to become not just an administrative employee capable of following the orders of management, but a trustee of employees, he will have to protect his charges, going into inevitable conflicts with his superiors.

If we talk about wages, on average, the HR manager of a large russian enterprise, in which the state reaches 2 thousand people, can earn up to 10 thousand dollars a month. The minimum rate for a beginner HR specialist is $ 800.

• Corporate culture

1 -1

Personnel risk management is an ongoing process. Minimizing risks and reducing the degree and likelihood of possible damage are goals at each stage of work with personnel - from recruiting to dismissal. Read the article on how to manage risk in your organization.

From the article you will learn:

Already at the hiring stage, you can make a mistake by incorrectly assessing the level of the applicant's competence, its compliance with the values. As a result, the specialist will receive a salary that does not correspond to the level of his competence or will quit after a short time.

But even at the stage of production there is a risk of leaving key specialist to a competing company. At the same time, expenses are and training and advanced training of the employee will be retrained from investments in losses.

The third stage of risk management is dismissal. At this stage, the company may face the risk of violation of labor legislation, image losses. The organization is not insured against these risks, even when the dismissal took place in strict accordance with the law.

Conference "Personnel work: taking into account new rules and risks"

Sistema Kadra held a conference on personnel work, at which we talked about the main changes in labor legislation in 2017, as well as what wording to avoid in contracts so that the State Inspectorate does not punish a fine.

The event discussed:

1. Employment contract. Risky wording for which the GIT will fine

1. Dismissal under the article. Employer blunders due to which the court will reinstate the employee

The risk management process in accordance with each of the listed stages consists of:

• careful analysis and verification of each candidate, attracting professionals as aptitude consultants of the applicant, confirmation of the recommendations presented;
• development, maximally adapted to the needs and values \u200b\u200bof each employee, planning and implementation of their professional and career growth;
• strictly regulated dismissal procedure in accordance with the requirements of the law, monitoring of the company's reputation.

The systematic approach lies in the cyclical nature of the risk management process. Each cycle includes three stages:

1. Identification of possible risks using methods such as surveys, questionnaires, brainstorming. Based on their results, events that are potentially dangerous or have catastrophic consequences for your enterprise are identified.
2. Assessment and prioritization of risks using uniform rating scales for such parameters as possible damage and its probability. The time period can correspond to a budget cycle or a cycle. Prioritization is established based on expert assessments or surveys.
3. Comparison of risks with the "level of stability" of the company. This level is set taking into account how much the company will be able to withstand. Comparison with this level will allow the risks to be classified according to their importance. The sequence and degree of management impact on the identified risks depends on this.

The personnel risk management policy presupposes a qualified approach and should be implemented in a comprehensive manner with the management of all other types of risks. The continuity of the management process will ensure that with each subsequent cycle, risks will be minimized.

Achieving professional heights in any field is a laborious, long-term process that requires careful strategic planning. Connecting your life with HR means acquiring a lot of options for realizing your talents and skills. Each of the main areas of development - whether it be recruitment, adaptation, assessment, training, motivation or development of personnel - implies both horizontal and vertical movement that can satisfy any ambition. In the field of human resources, there is a place to roam for both generalists and "careerists"; not only psychologists, but also philologists, economists, lawyers, marketers and PR specialists will be able to find their niche.

StructureHR-services

One of the main advantages of starting a career in HR not as an “external” recruiter, but in a company with a clearly built HR structure, is the possibility of growth and job promotion in parallel with mastering and expanding the functionality, gaining invaluable experience in combat conditions, bypassing the “pulling” stage of work in recruiting agency.

The HR service is a collection of specialized units that, within the framework of the selected personnel policy, are called upon to manage the company's personnel.

According to Irina Tsypina, manager of the recruitment department of Kelly Services, the structure of the HR department depends on the number of the company as a whole. For example, in a company with up to 300 employees, the HR department may look like this:

Assistantperforms functions of administrative support for the head and the department as a whole. Sometimes such a specialist can partially fulfill the non-specialized duties of a HR manager.

It should be clarified that the HR manager is responsible for several HR areas at the same time:

selection and adaptation;

training, assessment and motivation of personnel;

personnel administration;

maintaining established reporting.

If more than one unit is provided in the staff structure, then, as a rule, they are interchangeable. Thus, this organizational structure makes it possible for an employee to master several HR directions at the same time in a short period of time (up to three years).

In a company with more than 1000 people, the structure of the HR service is usually more complex and, according to Irina Tsypina, may look like this:

A company with over 1,500 employees may have an even more complex structure, such as:

The last two schemes represent a complex hierarchical system, where an HR department employee has the ability to grow both horizontally and vertically (under certain conditions). Horizontal growth will allow to gradually study all HR areas and gradually gain experience in the selection and adaptation of personnel, in planning their training and conducting trainings, in developing an organizational and staff structure, in personnel administration, and (in some cases) in building a system of benefits and compensation. In addition, such a structure makes it possible to choose the closest direction for subsequent vertical growth.

Which is preferable: an internal candidate or an external one?

Job seekers often ask themselves whether they will be able to find growth opportunities within their company, or whether an outside specialist will cross their path.

it is read that in large organizations where the work with the talent pool is fine-tuned, it will be the internal candidates that will be considered first. Oksana Alekhina, Ph.D., associate professor of the ExMBA and MBA programs of the IBDA RANE under the Government of the Russian Federation, says that “for actively developing companies that understand the value of human resources, an internal candidate will always be preferable. Moreover, the examples of HR specialists from the best companies in the world (GE, Tesco) indicate that internal candidates who worked in production, sales and any other divisions of this organization before the HR field are very effective. These people not only know the business of the company well, they also understand well the needs of the company's divisions in HR services. "

At the same time, Yulia Gubanova says that “the desire to raise our own staff or to invite a“ star from the outside ”often depends on both the general policy of the company and the specific situation of a vacancy."

HR career scenarios

It is impossible to prescribe one scenario for building a career, since everything depends not only on the company, growth opportunities within it, but also on the person himself, his professional and personal qualities... In this case, we can only talk about certain conditional options.

For example, Svetlana Kataeva, Managing Director of the recruiting company AVRIO Group Consulting, gives the following examples of career development in the HR sector:

"Recruiting specialist -\u003e Head of the recruiting and adaptation group (department) -\u003e Deputy Director for Human Resources -\u003e Director for Human Resources -\u003e HR Partner".

"HR Specialist -\u003e Specialist in Benefits and Compensations -\u003e Head of the Department of Benefits and Compensations -\u003e Deputy HR Director -\u003e HR Director -\u003e HR Partner".

Yulia Gubanova, in turn, gives the following scheme:

"Assistant of the HR Department -\u003e Training Specialist -\u003e Head of Department -\u003e Head of Department -\u003e HR Director".

Next, we will consider in more detail each of the positions in terms of requirements for candidates in terms of the required experience, professional and personal qualities, and also describe the approximate range of job responsibilities that a specialist will have to face.

HR Assistant

Requirements for a candidate for an assistant position are quite simple: incomplete higher or completed higher education, good knowledge of PC. If we are talking about a foreign company, an excellent knowledge of English is also required. HR experience is usually not required.

Personal qualities include responsibility, developed communication skills and quick learning.

The main duties of an assistant will be:

reception and distribution of telephone calls;

organization of meetings, business trips for employees;

maintaining in the department of workflow and established reporting.

According to Yulia Gubanova, “in about a year and a half, an assistant, with the normal performance of the assigned work tasks, can apply for the position of a department specialist”. Then to the requirements “a wish is added to the experience of working in the field of personnel from a year, the availability of a completed higher education, preferably a specialized one. Requirements to professional competencies and personal qualities will largely depend on the direction of the activity. "

According to Oksana Alekhina, among the requirements for an applicant for the position of a recruiting specialist, one can name: "the presence of additional education in the field of psychology, courses (or trainings) in the selection or experience in the selection in a recruiting agency."

Such a specialist should be able to work with various sources of search, know the methods of selection and personnel assessment. Also, according to Oksana Alekhina, he must "have the skills of conducting various types of interviews and using psychological tests, and in addition, be able to independently compose professional tests."

With regard to the desired personal qualities, a recruiter must be active, responsible, attentive, purposeful, have a high degree of learning, good communication skills (including not only the ability to clearly express one's thoughts, but also the ability to listen), have the skills to conduct presentations, be hardworking and ready for a lot of work.

The main responsibilities of a recruiter will be:

tracking staffing needs;

work with various search sources;

conducting telephone interviews and interviews;

analysis of candidate profiles;

organization of interviews with heads of departments (in the case of a multi-level selection scheme).

A specialist in personnel records management must know labor legislation and the rules for maintaining personnel workflow, be able to work in specialized programs (1C, Boss-personnel officer, etc.).

Among the desired qualities are perseverance, the ability to monotonous work, accuracy and attention to detail.

The main responsibilities of a HR recordkeeping specialist will be:

registration of the necessary personnel documents for admission, dismissal, transfer, etc .;

registration and maintenance of work books;

maintaining a database of employees.

According to Yulia Gubanova, “it is desirable that a personnel training and development specialist has the skills of budgeting and drawing up training plans, knows how to work with providers and knows the market for training and personnel development services, as well as the procedure for preparing training documents. Plus "will be the skill of self-development of textbooks, tests, seminars and trainings."

The main responsibilities of a personnel training and development specialist will be:

assessment of the company's needs in the development and professional development of personnel;

organization of individual and group trainings (with the involvement of external providers of educational services);

conducting internal trainings on their own;

reporting on the effectiveness of training;

personnel certification;

budgeting of the employee training program.

In this case, preference is given to applicants with higher education in economics, finance or mathematics. A competitive advantage will be the availability of work experience (at least two years) in the field of personnel or compensation administration.

A specialist in compensation and benefits must have theoretical knowledge of building material and non-material motivation, have experience in developing systems of performance indicators, and be able to work in Excel. Key competencies include: good mathematical ability, attention to detail, the ability to work with numbers and formulas, the ability to analyze, and operate with a large amount of information.

The main responsibilities of such a specialist will be:

assessment of the situation on the labor market (monitoring of wages);

study, diagnostics of systems of remuneration and incentives, salary policies (taking into account the company's industry) in conjunction with the personal achievements of the employee;

development and implementation of wage schemes for all categories of workers;

development and maintenance of a system for recording wages, salary changes, bonus programs;

writing procedures and policies for schemes of material (non-material) compensation and incentives.

When an HR specialist becomes a manager, there is a need for managerial competencies: leadership qualities, the ability to plan activities and organize the work of subordinates, the ability to manage people and contribute to their development.

The requirements for the position of the head of the department will be as follows: higher education (preferably specialized), PC at the level of an experienced user, knowledge of the language (if the company is foreign), work experience on average 3-5 years. The presence of specialized seminars will be a competitive advantage.

The rest of the requirements for the position of the head, according to Yulia Gubanova, "will depend on the specifics of the department headed by him." For example, the position of the head of the training and development department “will require a good knowledge of the training programs market, knowledge of personnel assessment technologies (psychological testing, 360-degree methodology, assessment center) and experience in their application. An advantage will be the ability to develop a training system from scratch.

Svetlana Kataeva believes that “former recruiters can become successful heads of the recruitment and adaptation department: those who have gone this way themselves and have rich practical experience, those who had leadership potential and managerial inclinations”.

In addition, she explains that “for the head of the recruitment and adaptation group, it is important to have a systematic understanding of the process of attracting, hiring and retaining personnel, mastering technologies of mass recruiting, recruiting middle and top managers, knowledge of technologies for direct search and hunting of top personnel. The ability to share your experience with employees will be equally important. "

As for the position of the head of the department of benefits and compensations, according to Svetlana Kataeva, “such managers, as a rule, have a higher economic education and started their careers as a specialist in payroll accounting. Then their functionality expanded, and, if there was managerial potential, they developed further in the HR-sphere: for example, as a specialist in labor relations, benefits and compensations, and then as a leading specialist or group leader. Another option for career development is also possible: from generalist (general) functions in the HR-sphere to specialization in the field of benefits and compensations (also with an economic education). "

Such a candidate should have pronounced analytical skills, a penchant for working both with numbers and with people. In addition, for a specialist of this level, it is important to be able to see the big picture, calculate and justify the economic efficiency of various models in the field of "Compensation and benefits".

The idea of \u200b\u200bwho the ideal HR is in 2007 came to my mind; I had been in the profession for two years already. Since then, I have been looking for the answer to my question in books, conferences, meeting the best HR "s, CEOs and business owners, and now, ten years later, I have found the answer to my question.

What happened in ten years?

Work in four companies from different industries

More than 50 read books on HR and HR in business

Judging the best companies for the HR Brand of the Year award from Headhunter

Communication with colleagues from the world's leading companies

More than 50 completed projects

Creation of the most read article in the field of HR - 33 life hacks for resumes, already more than 560 thousand views

What lessons have I learned from all this knowledge? There are several of them. From the most obvious, but not always applied in practice, to quite unique ones taken from other areas. I found the main clue to my answer when I stopped looking at HR as a service or a set of tools.

Today, for me, HR is, on the one hand, a business partnership, and on the other, a set of first-class products provided to 4 key audiences: employees, executives, top management and HR themselves.

I was greatly influenced by the Product Management course from a Silicon Valley 280 group led by a San Francisco-based product director with 20 years of experience at Adobe (creators of Photoshop, Acrobat Reader etc).

There I learned how to create and launch products most efficiently. I developed an understanding of business from the age of 14, when in the 9th grade I had an economics lesson, in the senior grades the basics of business were already taught to us in one of the banks, then the banking academy followed.

In the last courses of the institute, I went to work at a bank in the corporate clients department, which comprehensively studies the client's business to provide him with financial services.

Lesson 1.Take the competency model as a basisSHRM

I decided to create an HR course back in 2014. Teaching others to me always helps to systematize my knowledge and take a fresh look at already routine things. I studied everything that is offered on the HR education market both in Russian and abroad.

From all that I found, I selected several reputable organizations for myself: CIPD, HRCI, SHRM. Each of them offered its own Body of Knowledge on HR. As a result, my choice fell in favor of SHRM, tk. it is based on the most recent research on what HR knowledge should be.

SHRM identifies 4 functional areas and 9 behavioral competencies:

click on the image to enlarge it

Today I develop my knowledge and knowledge of my team according to this model.

Lesson 2. Choose the Right Model

There are different models of HR in a company. They are all different stages in the evolution of HR as a function and a set of knowledge. Each subsequent stage of evolution is more complex in terms of development and implementation, so many companies have retained HR for more early stages development.

Quite briefly and simply, here are all the stages and, accordingly, the operating models of the HR function. Each subsequent model has all the advantages of the previous one, but is more developed.

Operating HR models

HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT

The company is limited to the minimum required set of functions. Everything you need to comply with the law + a primitive way of implementing other areas.

When in 2005 I was looking for a job in a bank and bypassed the best banks in the city - there were only personnel departments with women over forty. Now this model has been preserved in state-owned companies, some factories and where progress has not had time to look.

Usually, HR departments exist where the first person does not know about the tasks of the HR department and is not able to form a need.

SERVICE FUNCTION

The most common model today. HR provides a range of services from recruiting, to training, assessment and building bonus schemes. In its work, HR "s rely on the best practices and act on the principle" everyone has it and we need it. "

Such HR "s sometimes even speak at conferences with successful reports on the implementation of a new HR technology, but have difficulty answering the question" What problem / business task did this solve and what business result was obtained? "

CENTER OF EXPERTISE

It is a service model led by subject matter experts. Experts understand the interconnection of different HR processes, have a deep knowledge of the theory and practice of HR.

They say “we have implemented this system because everyone knows that it is important for a business to have such a system, it makes the business profitable and efficient. "

This model is a classic that Michael Armstrong writes about in his book, which has already gone through several reprints. There is even a translation into Russian.

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP

A model where the institution of business partners is introduced along with the centers of expertise. These are people who are between the business leaders and the HR function and can, on the one hand, translate business needs into HR requests, and on the other hand, ensure high-quality integration and adaptation of centralized HR tools in their business unit.

Business partners understand the specifics of the business processes of their division, know the goals and objectives of the division, participate in meetings on an equal basis with the heads of the division, act as coaches and consultants for the heads of divisions, resolve conflicts, and help build interaction between their own and other business divisions.

They have a very well developed “Business acumen” competence - business understanding. The model is popular in large companies and corporations with large business units. Usually, the number of personnel in a company is from 1000-2000 people and the company itself has Western roots or pro-Western domestic management.

STRATEGIC PARTNER

Partner creating products. The most modern and most sophisticated model. It is used in modern IT giants like Google or Facebook.

Here HR "s think not as a category of services, but as a category of products that they create. HR products are aimed at solving long-term goals, implementing a strategy, displaying the company's values \u200b\u200band mission.

In this model, HR builds its plans based on the business strategy and is often an active participant in the creation of the business strategy itself.

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I recommend going to a higher level without jumping over one. You cannot immediately become a business partner from a service without gaining deep expertise. In different companies, I went through all the stages (I was lucky enough to go through the first stage not as an HR employee, but as an employee of a business unit, but I felt all the "charms" on myself).

Lesson 3. Be a Strategist

I learned this lesson from working in a company with no business strategy and then in a company with a strong business strategy. While working for the company, I built excellent HR services.

I had the best team of recruiters throughout the CIS, we created a unique variable remuneration system that really worked and influenced employee performance, we did the best master classes with world gurus and created the best program for accelerated employee adaptation.

Our package of benefits was the largest in the country, with a minimum budget per employee and a satisfaction rate of 95%.

But I have always been unhappy. I was missing something. I saw that there was no quality connection between my HR department and the CEO. I worked hard to create an HR strategy, I did it for several years in a row and followed it. But the lack of a business strategy multiplied my team's effort by zero.

Therefore, HR's task is to help shape the CEO's business strategy.

I am not saying that HR can or should do it, no. But HR must act as a catalyst and facilitator of its emergence.

By the way, David Ulrich writes well on HR and strategy.

Lesson 4. Apply the Right HR Tools

The number of HR tools is off the charts. That only is the title of the book 1000 and 1 way to motivate employees. Today, I estimate the variety of all HR tools at about 10,000 pieces. Of these, no more than 100 are unique.

For the first 5 years of work in HR, I want to use this or that tool simply for experience, either because it is necessary or because someone from the famous has used it. For a long time I wanted to do grading, conduct a satisfaction survey, create a bonus system, write a training program for managers.

The difference between an experienced HR and a beginner is that an experienced HR dreams of solving a business problem / task.

The tipping point or point of no return occurs when you see the business results of your work. This happened for the first time in 2013. I made an HR report in numbers, where I counted different metrics and saw how they changed over 3 years, realizing the reasons for the changes.

The lesson here is this - in the first place the question "Why", in the second "What", in the third "How". Not "we want to do grading." And “we want to compare our personnel costs with the market in order to pay at the level of (why).

To do this, we need to assess the level of our wages with the market wages (what). Estimate salaries grading and review of the salary market (how) will help us ”.

When we judged the projects of 50 participants in the nomination for the HR Brand of the Year award, I remember one gas station chain whose project from the HR point of view was generally boring and not interesting, and my colleagues did not even pay enough attention to it at first.

But there was a colossal business result that owed its effect to the work of HR. I drew the attention of colleagues to the project and it won the nomination when we reviewed it from the point of view of business efficiency.

Don't chase tools. Dream to influence business (preferably in a good way :)

Lesson 5. Analyze Business Needs

How to influence the business? You need to analyze his needs. How to analyze needs? Here's a simple example that we used this year. To begin with, we took the company's strategy, identified annual goals and started asking ourselves questions:

• how HR can help implement strategy
• what kind of people do we need to implement the strategy and how we can attract them
• what knowledge we lack to achieve goals

Then we started interviewing business leaders, asking just two questions:

• what are the goals of your unit this year
• how HR can help you achieve your goals

Based on the answers to all questions, we have formed a map of needs. All needs were grouped into 25 blocks. For each block, we wrote a solution - what we will do and what result we want to get to help the business.

Lesson 6. Take into account the life cycle or User journey

HR "s have a concept" life cycle employee ”, for companies developing the product - user journey. I like the second tool more, because it is more businesslike.

Its essence is simple - the entire path of the employee in the company and the problems / obstacles / difficulties he faces are drawn. Points are identified where the employee loses efficiency, engagement and can leave, and measures are developed to eliminate these points.

Lesson 7. Get Started with Beta Versions

If you've come across the world of software development or games, you've heard of beta versions. There is a beta version of the iPhone firmware, there is a beta version of Windows.

The bottom line is simple - before releasing it for widespread use, the company provides access to the product to a selected circle of users who know that the product in testing mode may have a number of errors.