What Is Human Resources (HR)? Areas, Responsibilities, and Roles

The human resources (HR) department manages a company's employees. This pivotal business area is responsible for identifying strong applicants to fill open roles, hiring new employees, developing and enforcing policies, securing and maintaining benefits and other workforce programs, and other critical tasks.

Learn about what it means to work in HR, including key areas of responsibility, and careers you can explore. Afterward, build skills needed to succeed in human resources with the HRCI Human Resource Associate Professional Certificate.

What is HR?

Human resources (HR) creates and maintains a productive and compliant work environment. This department manages the complete employee lifecycle, from recruitment and onboarding through training, compensation, performance management, policy enforcement, and even reductions in force (RIF).

The size of an HR department will depend on the company's size. While a smaller company may have an HR team that handles many different tasks, a bigger company may have more HR team members who oversee a specific area, such as the ones outlined below.

5 key areas of HR focus

HR spans many different areas related to employees. Let's review some of its primary activities.

1. Recruitment

Recruitment includes all aspects of hiring, from sourcing candidates to onboarding. In this area, you may work with hiring managers to determine the needs of a particular role and then find candidates that meet those requirements. You will typically use job boards, career websites, social media, employee referrals, and more to find potential candidates, conducting phone screens to learn more about your top choices.  

After the hiring manager chooses a candidate, you’ll work with them through the onboarding process. This includes collecting payroll and benefits administration paperwork, such as W-4s, I-9s, direct deposit forms, and any other documents your company needs. In addition, you may prepare new hire materials, such as orientation packets or company handbooks outlining company policies.

In this area, some of your major tasks may involve:

• Sourcing and screening candidates

• Conducting interviews

• Checking references

• Making job offers

• Onboarding new hires

2. Compensation and benefits

Compensation and benefits work involves ensuring your company takes care of its employees by offering competitive salaries and a satisfactory benefits package. Your job as an HR professional may include seeing that employees receive the correct salary and access the benefits they want. You may process payroll or work with an accounting department or third-party company that distributes paychecks.

If you have a management position within human resources, you may analyze the benefits offered by competing companies in your geographical area and industry. Your work can help managers make compensation decisions for current and future employees. When you make changes, you might administer new company policies on benefits, such as health insurance or retirement plans.

In this area, some of your major tasks may involve:

• Tracking employee absences and tardiness

• Processing payroll (if not done by a finance department or third party)

• Administering benefits programs, including health insurance and 401k

• Calculating hours worked, withholdings, and deductions

• Handling any questions or concerns from employees regarding their pay

3. Training and development

Training and development help employees to continually update their skills and improve their job performance. Whether you develop the training in-house or contract with another group, it’s essential to establish an inventory of the training and development opportunities available within your company. This also can include outside sources that provide the information and skills employees need.

When developing a training program, you’ll consider mandatory and voluntary opportunities. Laws may require some training, such as sexual harassment education. Other training may focus on individual career goals or the company’s needs. Your objective is to ensure that all employees have access to the tools they need to succeed and become more valuable to the company.

In this area, some of your major tasks may involve:

• Developing and implementing training programs

• Designing training materials

• Conducting training sessions

• Evaluating the effectiveness of training programs

• Providing feedback to employees

4. Employee relations and performance management

Employee relations include everything a company does to create a healthy work environment and encourage positive employee relationships. This may consist of facilitating conversations about employee policies such as compensation, working conditions, and dispute resolution.

In HR roles, you must be a company culture ambassador. You might work with the company’s management to develop an organizational structure and culture that supports the company’s goals. You’ll also act as a liaison between employees and managers to ensure that appropriate communications exist between all parties.

In this area, some of your major tasks may involve:

• Handling staff issues, such as employee conflict, communication, and training

• Ensuring that employees can work together effectively

• Creating a company culture that is positive and supportive

• Developing initiatives to enhance employee well-being

• Designing and implementing policies related to employee conduct

5. Administration 

One key role of HR is keeping track of documents, including employee records related to attendance, vacations, medical leave, and other employee data. This helps demonstrate that the company complies with labor regulations on working hours and conditions. It also helps make sure that employees receive the correct salary and benefits based on their employment status, working hours, and pay rates. 

In this area, some of your major tasks may involve:

• Ensuring compliance with employment law

• Developing company policies

• Managing employee records

• Handling employee discipline and termination

• Reviewing and updating employee handbooks

• Investigating complaints of harassment or discrimination

• Conducting exit interviews

How does HR support employees?

As a human resources professional, you support employees by providing continuing education, training, and support for health and well-being. Adequate human resources are essential to maintaining employee satisfaction and morale. While the way HR supports employees may vary from one company to another, your HR department can provide support to employees in the following ways:

Providing a career path within the organization

As a human resources professional, you support employees by offering a career path within the company. Your department can offer clearly defined avenues for advancement, promotions, and transfers to other departments or divisions. This helps to encourage employees to stay with the organization rather than seek outside opportunities when they’re ready for new challenges.

Offering continuing education opportunities

HR may oversee continuing education programs that benefit both the employer and the employee. This could be professional development, tuition reimbursement for courses, or certifications. Giving employees opportunities to enhance their skill sets and industry knowledge can boost morale and incentivize workers to continue working for the company. Education assistance programs often work well as recruitment and retention tools.

Training and supporting managers

You may work with department heads and managers as a human resources professional to improve their knowledge and skills. By training leaders in the company, you’ll help employees throughout the organization. Your training may focus on staff motivation, effective feedback, disciplinary issues, diversity, technical skills, and compliance with the law.

Supporting health and wellness

Your HR department will likely support employees by managing health plans, employee assistance programs, retirement planning, and disability benefits. These programs can help employees resolve conflicts and manage stress outside of the workplace that could otherwise interfere with their work. In some companies, these program benefits extend to the immediate family.

You also may assist managers with creating employee wellness programs that include fitness challenges, healthy eating guidelines, and stress reduction practices. Healthy employees tend to use fewer sick days, which can improve the company’s productivity. Some employers offer these on-site, while others collaborate with outside vendors to provide services. 

What are the educational requirements for HR?

Many HR positions require a bachelor’s degree in human resources, business administration, or a related field.

What skills do you need to work in human resources?

You'll need to develop specific HR skills to succeed in this type of work. Some of the more important skills include:

• Active listening: You will likely find it beneficial to practice active listening skills, as it can help you pay attention to important details and show employees that you value their time and perspective.

• Analysis: HR professionals often use data to evaluate recruiting methods and employee performance. Being able to interpret this data can be helpful.

• Operations: Good organization, data entry and analysis skills, and a capacity to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously can serve you well in an HR job.

• Communication: In an HR role, you spend a considerable amount of time talking to people in interviews, training sessions, and conversations. You also will likely write many emails, handbooks, and other documents.

• Training: You may need to develop and deliver training sessions for adults, including new and existing employees.

• Technical skills: The specific technical skills you need depend on the company you work for, but being able to use a computer and operate word-processing documents, spreadsheets, and databases tend to be helpful in most companies.

Human resources jobs

HR jobs span a range of areas, from administrative support roles to analysts. Learn more about different job titles you can explore if you're interested in working in HR.

*All annual base salary data is sourced from Glassdoor as of July 2025 and does not include additional pay, such as commission and benefits.

Recruiter

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $62,371

As a recruiter, you will use specific tools to find qualified candidates to fill open positions at your company or at companies that hire your services. You will locate and screen clients, sometimes participating in initial interviews or salary negotiations.

Human resources assistant

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $46,106

As a human resources assistant, you will support HR management in administrative tasks like recording information, processing documents, and communicating with employees about their applications for benefits and other programs. You may also coordinate employees for onboarding and other training opportunities. 

Human resources generalist

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $68,295

As an HR generalist, you will manage or supervise a company’s HR operations, including hiring and onboarding new employees, overseeing compensation and benefits, and maintaining compliance. In this role, you will manage a lot of different aspects of human resources without specializing in one specific task. 

Benefits administrator

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $65,568

As a benefits administrator, you will assist new employees as they select benefits when onboarding. You will also help current employees when they update their selection. In this role, you will process applications, keep track of employee information, and help companies understand the policies they can choose from. 

Training and development specialist

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $75,505

In this role, you will develop and conduct training programs for employees. You’ll assess the training needs of your team and create or acquire training programs tailored to their needs and to company goals. 

The size of your company can dictate how many people will be involved in each HR specialism. In larger organizations, entire teams might focus on one aspect of HR, with each team member having specific skills and knowledge in their respective field. If you work in a smaller company, you’ll find more general roles, and HR professionals will do a little bit of everything.

Human resources information system (HRIS) analyst

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $72,448

In the role of a human resources information system analyst, you will manage and monitor technology and data the HR department uses, including payroll, employee surveys, exit interviews, and more. Using the data you collect, you’ll help the company make strategic decisions about human resources policies. 

Human resources manager

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $101,927

As an HR manager, you'll manage HR staff, ensuring legal compliance, developing talent strategies, administering compensation and benefits programs, handling employee relations issues, and creating initiatives that support both business objectives and employee well-being.

Human resources director

Average annual salary in the US (Glassdoor): $114,381

In this role, you will supervise the HR department. You’ll oversee orientation and training programs, develop HR policies, and monitor compliance with labor laws.

Read more: HR Entry-Level Job Guide: Jobs, Salaries, and Strategies to Get Hired

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