To begin with, someone aspiring to pursue HR needs to analyse the options open to him. Career options are wide starting from recruiting, to training and development, to labor relations and benefits administration. Essentially an HR manager builds a company’s culture, handles employee relations, maintains benefits and payroll, recruits new hires and does much more. HR management sector has two key terms – specialist and generalist. HR specialist focuses on any one area such as recruiting or training whereas a generalist is less focused but handles a number of areas and tasks simultaneously. Normally, in all smaller organizations there are one or more HR generalists handling all HR issues. Larger organizations, on the other hand, have HR specialists handling specialized areas. The growth rate from being a generalist to a specialist takes about 2 years or more by when you would are skilled in your area of specialization.
With a growing trend in the market today and the importance being given to HR, there is an increased need for HR professionals and the minimum requirement is an MBA degree or MSW at the least. Today HR students have tremendous opportunities and choices to make because companies and organizations are beginning to realize the role of HR in pushing the company to higher scales. Unlike before, the latest trends today like eLearning, Total Reward Management, Campus Bridges, Employee Engagement, Continuous Learning & Development, Development Centers for Competency & Skill Development, Career & Succession Management, Talent Management, HRIS, OD Interventions, Measurements on ROI, Performance Management, Psychometrics for Profiling (source: timesascent) completely transform the meaning of HR.