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Charles Brooks
Interim team
London
HR Administrator
As an HR Assistant you are expected to handle and facilitate the administration process for the HR team. This is the best place to start learning, as you can quickly understand and pick up the essentials. Completing an initial 12-18 months of administration will be provide you with the foundations necessary to develop your career in HR.
Administration roles can be demanding, and typically arise within fast-paced environments that require candidates of graduate calibre. Coupled with good qualifications, positive personal traits are becoming increasingly valued. These include excellent attention to detail and outstanding communication skills, as well as the ability to prioritise and multitask efficiently and effectively.
Roles can be extremely broad with varying responsibilities (dependent on the organisation and HR team). If you fulfil all of your expected administration responsibilities, then you will be in a position to get more exposure to ad hoc project work. For this reason HR, Personnel or Business graduates are highly sought, because they have the willingness, theory and ambition to take on more responsibility to progress within this career. However, there are also many other disciplines that have transferable content, such as a degree in Psychology.
Gaining exposure to generalist administration can lead you in the direction of specialising in either Recruitment, Learning and Development or Compensation and Benefits. Broadly speaking, this would first require you to take a sideways or backwards step, because each specialism demands particular skills or personality traits. For example, Compensation, Payroll or Benefit applicants are generally expected to possess good analytical, Microsoft and database skills.
