Human-resources, training, and labor-relations managers and specialists find the most qualified employees and match them to jobs for which they are a good fit. In addition to hiring the best people, they are also involved in keeping up morale and thus increasing productivity, limiting job turnover, and helping their companies improve performance.

These managers and specialists also help their firms provide training and development opportunities to improve skills and increase employees' satisfaction with their jobs and their working conditions. The ability to deal with people is the most important part of the job.

The director of human resources supervises several departments, each headed by a manager who is likely to specialize in one aspect of human resources, such as employment, compensation, benefits, training and development, or employee relations.

Recruiters maintain contacts within the community, often traveling to job fairs and college campuses to find qualified job applicants. Recruiters screen, interview, and test applicants. They also check references and are often the ones to extend the official job offer. They must be familiar with their company and its human-resources policies in order to discuss wages, working conditions, and promotional opportunities with prospective employees. They also must keep informed about Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and affirmative action guidelines and laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Compensation/Benefits Management

Compensation, benefits, and job-analysis specialists conduct programs for employers in specific areas such as pensions and other employee benefits. Job analysts, occasionally called position classifiers, collect and examine detailed information about job duties in order to prepare job descriptions.

Establishing and maintaining a company's pay system is the job of a compensation manager. Compensation managers design ways to ensure fair salaries. They conduct surveys to see how their firm's salaries compare with those of other firms, and they determine whether pay scales comply with changing laws and regulations. Compensation managers also manage their firm's performance evaluation system, and they may design reward systems such as pay-for-performance plans.

Employee-benefits managers and specialists oversee their companies' employee benefits programs, including health-insurance and pension plans. They need expertise in designing and administering benefits programs. Businesses today confront an ever-changing landscape, in which employer benefits account for a growing proportion of overall compensation costs, and benefit plans are becoming increasingly complex. An employee-benefits manager is the gardener for this landscape. Familiarity with health benefits is critical, since nearly all firms are dealing with the rising cost of health care for employees. In addition to health insurance and pension coverage, some firms offer their employees life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, disability insurance, and new benefits designed for a changing workforce, like parental leave, child care, and employee assistance and wellness programs. Benefits managers must be well versed in the changing federal and state regulations that affect employee benefits.

Employee-assistance plan managers are responsible for many programs covering occupational safety and health standards and practices, health promotion, physical fitness, medical examinations, and minor health treatment, such as first aid. They are also involved with office security, food service, recreation activities, car pooling and transportation programs, such as transit subsidies. Child care and elder care are growing more common because of the growing number of two-income households and the increasing elderly population. Managers and specialists are involved in securing counseling to help employees deal with emotional disorders, alcoholism, or marital, family, legal, and financial problems.

Training Positions

Training and development managers and specialists, as their titles suggest, supervise training and development programs for employees. Companies have come to understand that training develops skills and enhances productivity and the quality of work. It also builds worker loyalty.

Training managers provide training either in the classroom or onsite. This includes setting up teaching materials prior to the class, teaching the class, and issuing completion certificates at the end of class. Training managers are responsible for the entire process. They plan, organize, and direct a variety of training activities. Training managers help employees improve their job skills. At the same time, they help supervisors improve their interpersonal skills in order to deal effectively with employees.

Training can take many forms. Almost all companies offer new employees a course on what constituted sexual harassment and how to recognize and report it in the workplace. More experienced employees may get training on how to use their benefits most effectively, how to start an on-the-job savings plan, and how to find out about the latest technology that can make their lives easier.

Employer-relations representatives often work in government agencies. They maintain relationships with local employers and promote the use of public employment programs and services. Interviewers, whose numerous job titles include human-resources consultants, human-resources development specialists, and human-resources coordinators, help to match employers with qualified candidates.

Occupational Analysis and Industrial Relations

Occupational analysts conduct research in large companies and government agencies. They are concerned with occupational classification systems and study the effects of industry and occupational trends on worker relationships. They may serve as the liaison between a firm and other firms, the government, and/or labor unions.

The director of industrial relations establishes the labor policy, oversees labor relations, negotiates collective bargaining agreements, and coordinates grievance procedures to handle complaints resulting from management disputes with unionized employees.

Labor-Relations Specialists

Labor-relations specialists prepare information for management to use during the collective-bargaining process. Collective bargaining is the name for the specialized kind of negotiation that takes place between an employer and one or more unions. This is a process that requires the specialist to be familiar with economic and salary data and to have a thorough knowledge of labor law and collective bargaining trends. The labor-relations staff administers the contract with respect to grievances, wages and salaries, employee welfare, health care, pensions, and union and management practices. As union membership continues to decline in most industries, industrial-relations personnel are working more often with employees who are not members of a labor union.

Mediators

Dispute resolution has become increasingly important as parties attempt to avoid costly litigation, strikes, and other disruptions of business. Dispute resolution is complicated. It involves employees, management, unions, and government agencies. Specialists involved in dispute resolution must be knowledgeable and experienced. Mediators advise labor and management to prevent and resolve disputes over labor agreements. Arbitrators decide disputes that bind both labor and management to specific terms and conditions of a contract. Labor relations specialists who work for unions perform the same functions on behalf of the union and its members.

Work Week

Most human-resources, training, and labor-relations managers and specialists work forty-hour weeks, but longer hours are sometimes necessary. Labor-relations managers, arbitrators, and mediators work round the clock when contracts are being negotiated. Most work in their offices, but some traveling is necessary. Recruiters attend professional meetings and visit college campuses to interview prospective employees. Arbitrators and mediators have to go to the site of negotiations. These are usually held in a neutral location, rather than in the corporate headquarters or the union hall.

Employment Requirements

Educational backgrounds vary because of diverse duties and responsibilities. Entry-level positions require a college degree, preferably with a major in human resources, human-resources administration, or industrial and labor relations. For some employers, a bachelor's degree with a business concentration or even a liberal arts focus will suffice.

Most colleges have programs leading to a degree in personnel, human resources, or labor relations. An interdisciplinary background is best in this field, so a combination of courses in social sciences, business, and behavioral sciences is ideal. Some jobs may require a specialized background in engineering, science, finance, or law. It is advisable that you take courses in compensation, recruitment, training and development, and performance appraisal, plus courses in management, organizational structure, and industrial psychology. Other worthwhile courses to consider are business administration, public administration, psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and statistics. Additionally, courses in labor law, collective bargaining, labor economics, labor history, and industrial psychology would be useful.

Many jobs in labor relations demand graduate study in industrial or labor relations. A background in industrial relations and law is desirable for contract negotiators, mediators, and arbitrators. Often, people in these jobs are lawyers. Previous experience is certainly an asset, but for advanced positions it is essential. Many employers will go for an entry-level worker who has some experience in an internship or work-study program while in school.

Human-resources, training, and labor-relations managers and specialists have to be able to speak and write well. They have to work with or supervise people from various cultural backgrounds. They have to keep a cool head under pressure. This is not your grandfather's workforce. All sorts of issues that Grandpa could not even conceive of come into play these days: onsite day care for the little ones, benefits packages that apply to married couples as well as same-sex life partners, sexual harassment policies, and many other issues that went unaddressed until recent times.

Entry-level employees learn the trade by working as administrative assistants. They enter data into computer systems, compile employee handbooks, and answer the phone and handle routine questions. They often enter formal or on-the-job training programs in which they learn how to classify jobs, interview applicants, or administer employee benefits. They may ultimately advance to managerial positions.

Government Human-Resources Job Outlook

Federal, state, and local governments employ 17 percent of human-resources managers and specialists working today. They handle the recruitment, interviewing, job classification, training, salary administration, benefits, and employee relations for public employees.

Competition for these jobs is intense. Changing legislation and rules and regulations in occupational safety and health, equal employment opportunity, salaries, health care, pensions, and family leave will increase demand for human-resources training and labor-relations experts. That's the good news for you, prospective job seeker. The bad news is that you will have to do your homework before you arrive for an interview. And once on the job, you will wish for more hours in the day to keep up with all of the constantly changing legislation related to working life in these United States.

The rising cost of health care will increase the need for specialists to develop compensation and benefits packages. Demand is expected to be strong for certain specialists. Employers are expected to devote more of their resources training programs due to the growing complexity of many jobs, the aging of the workforce, and other changes in the working world that will increase the demand for training and development specialists.

Salaries

The average salary for compensation and benefits managers is $66,530. It is $67,460 for training and development managers. The median for all other human resources managers is $81,810. Employment, recruitment, and placement specialists make an average of $41,190. Local government salaries average $40,540 for all of the above specialties, and state governments average $35,390. The average annual salary of compensation, benefits, and job-analysis specialists is $47,490. Local governments average a little higher, at $51,430, and state governments average a bit less, at $39,150. The median annual salary for training and development specialists is $44,570. Local governments average $45,320, state governments $41,770, and the federal government $38,930.

The average salary for human-resources managers employed by the federal government is $71,232. Employee-relations specialists make $84,847. Labor-relations specialists earn $93,895, and employee-development specialists make $80,958.