HR Administrator: Job Profile and Role

An HR administrator – or Human Resources administrator – is a company’s go-to person when it comes to dealing with the onboarding process, conducting job interviews with future employees, and taking care of their data and wages. In short, the job of an HR admin is a multitasking and challenging one that requires various skills and also a few qualifications. Maybe the job of an HR administrator is the right fit for you because you a) enjoy challenging work and b) love to work and communicate with people.

In this blog, you will find out if the job of an HR administrator fits you perfectly. We will tell you which responsibilities await you, what salaries you can expect and who your potential employers are. You will also find out how to become an HR administrator and which skills are among the most important. To give you an idea of what your work involves, you will get insights into a typical working day of an HR admin. To help you thrive in this job, you will also get three important tips for being an excellent HR administrator.

Short Summary

• As an HR administrator, you are in charge of everything connected to your company’s employees, including job interviews, filing personal data, and taking care of their wages.
• As an HR administrator, you are the bridge between your superiors and the company’s employees.
• As an HR administrator, you are the go-to person when it comes to complaints and issues the employees may have with each other or the management.

Job description

As an HR administrator, you are in charge of most administrative and employee-related tasks in your employing company. These tasks can range from recruiting new staff, including doing job interviews, to completing the onboarding process. As an HR administrator, you may also be tasked with the opposite, offboarding, meaning that you are also in charge of dismissing employees and taking care of all the necessary paperwork. It is also your job as an HR administrator to ensure good relations between your employees, you, and the company’s higher management.

Responsibilities

• Employee Records Management
• Leave/Attendance Management
• Human Resources Compliance
• Human Resources Reporting
• Recruitment and Onboarding
• General Administrative Tasks
• Payroll and Compensation
• Training and Development
• Benefits Administration
• Employee Relations

Different types of HR Administrators

• HR Generalist
• HR Data Administrator
• Compliance Administrator
• Recruitment Administrator
• Employee Relations Administrator

The Employee working for the Employees

As an HR administrator, you are an employee yourself. Therefore, you should a) know which benefits and work climate benefits employees the most and b) make sure that these things are implemented in the company that has hired you as an HR admin. In short, as an HR administrator, you have the great opportunity to create a healthy work environment for everyone in your company and related to it will benefit from.

Salary

As an HR administrator in the UK, you earn between ￡23,000 and ￡30,000 per year. Salary-affecting factors tend to be your work experience and your administration position, your employer and the employing company’s location. Note that your annual salary may also be affected (positively) by possible bonuses and other financial benefits if these are part of your employer’s payment package.

Working hours

As an HR administrator, you will be working between 37,5 and 40 hours a week. On an average workday, you work between 7 and 8 hours. Note that both your daily and your weekly working hours may vary and you may have to work overtime. This usually stretches into the evenings and the weekends. We recommend that you check the overtime and payment policy with your future employer. It is also a good idea to check whether you have the option of remote work.

Employers

As an HR administrator, you are usually employed by small, medium-sized and large companies. Here, you can find work in various sectors, ranging from corporate businesses to the healthcare and education sectors. As an HR admin, you can also look for a job in the hospitality or retail industry. Before you start applying, you should always make sure that the company’s and your values are on par with each other.

Qualifications

Two to three A-Levels in business, psychology, or economics, for example, or four to five GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) may be the first qualifications you need to become an HR administrator to enter a college course or a university course. However, you should always check which entry qualifications are needed since they may vary. To become an HR administrator, you should also look into CIPD qualifications or an NVQ, a National Vocational Qualification. As a future HR administrator, you should also have qualifications related to HR database software, Microsoft Office, and payroll software, for example, Sage. 

Skills

Before we start with our list of three important skills you, as an HR administrator, should have, we recommend that you always check the required soft skills (and qualifications) with your future employer. Even though the following skills are important, they may not exclusively be the ones your potential boss is looking for.

But let’s take a look now at three skills you, as an HR admin, should have, develop and master.

Communication Skills

As an HR administrator, you need a whole bouquet of communication skills to perform well. You need not only strong verbal communication skills but also non-verbal ones. They help you to read people and deduct from their gestures and facial expressions what they may be thinking. Your communication skills should also include strong written communication since your daily tasks will involve answering queries, emails, and more.

Conflict Management and Problem Solving

It is a fact universally acknowledged that where people work together, interpersonal differences will occur. As an HR administrator, you therefore need to be excellent at conflict management. It is vital that you know how to get to the bottom of an issue and to make sure that the opposing parties remain as calm as possible (including you, we might add). Your conflict management will be especially successful if it is accompanied by strong problem-solving skills that enable you to dissolve a conflict smoothly, efficiently, and quickly.

Analytical Thinking

Analytical thinking skills will also support you in your conflict management and problem-solving. The last thing you should involve is emotions – even though empathy and emotional intelligence are also important skills to have as an HR administrator. When faced with issues, complaints, and heated discussions, you need to get to the bottom of it fast. By analysing the situation you stay calm and tend to find a solution that everyone is happy with a lot faster and with less hassle and stress.

Career Path

Your career as an HR administrator usually starts as an HR admin assistant. After you have worked in this entry-level position for about a year, you can get promoted to the job of an HR administrator. After that, you have more options to progress, including the position of an HR advisor and an HR manager.

Educational Background

There is no specific educational background required of you to become an HR administrator. However, doing an undergraduate degree, for example, a Bachelor’s degree in business management or human resources, may benefit you in the long run. Lots of employers prefer applicants with this educational background.

Alternatively, you can become an HR administrator by doing an apprenticeship, for instance, an HR/Learning and Development apprenticeship. A college course may be another option for you. An appropriate course is the Level 3 Foundation Certificate in HR Practice which you can obtain from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Entry Level

Before you work as an HR admin, you need to work in an entry-level position first. This typically is the job of an assistant HR administrator and will keep you busy for about a year or slightly longer. After that – and depending on your overall performance and possible further qualifications – you can advance to the position of HR administrator.

Continuous Learning

As an HR administrator, you should set timeframes in which you want to achieve important career goals and qualifications. These will help with your continuous learning which for you, as an HR administrator, can include the following things: taking online courses in HR management and HR analytics, and/or pursuing relevant qualifications and certifications. Good choices are the SHRM-CP (Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional) and the PHR (Professional in Human Resources) which you can obtain from the HRCI (Human Resources Certification Institute). You should also look into more software and database-related qualifications, such as MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist).

A Day in the Life of an HR Administrator

Checking emails, looking over the day’s schedule and appointments, and liaising with your management are all important tasks in your job as an HR administrator. Let’s take a look at more tasks you will have to perform daily or – if not daily – on a regular basis.

Processing Data and Updating Records

As an HR administrator, you deal with multiple documents and files daily. And the bigger the company you work for, the more (digital) paperwork you need to deal with. Therefore, one of your daily tasks as an HR administrator is to process all the relevant personnel data (personal information, bank details, etc.) and update the records if and when necessary.

Completion of Onboarding

After you have successfully concluded a job interview and recruited a new employee, you need to complete the onboarding. On the first day of the new employee’s job, he or she needs to know where everything is and how everything works. The new employee should also know who to address when issues and problems arise. Therefore, the completion of the onboarding is another important task you perform as an HR administrator.

Working on Employee Relations

Happy employees are good employees – and they are your brand or company ambassador, so to speak. As a good HR administrator, you should always set aside some time for your company’s employees. Integrate office hours, if you want, in which the employees can speak to you directly which allows all of you to work on a very good employer-HR-employee relationship.

Tips for Thriving as an HR Administrator

When you are working as an HR administrator, you will likely already have earned qualifications that have helped you thrive and get to the position you are in now. As with every job, it never hurts to improve both your personal and professional strengths or to look into ways in which you can improve your working environment.

Therefore, in this section, we will look at three things that will help you thrive as an HR administrator:

• Conduct employee surveys
• Encourage employee training
• Work on your communication skills

Conduct Employee Surveys

As an HR administrator, you are dealing with your company’s employees daily – be it the onboarding process, conducting job interviews, or taking care of their payrolls and wages. As an HR administrator, you may also be made aware of potential issues your company’s employees have with their colleagues, you, or even the management. To address these issues in an efficient and target-aimed manner, you should encourage regular employee surveys. When conducted anonymously, they will give you valuable insights into things that go well and issues that need to be dealt with quickly and swiftly. 

Encourage Employee Training

Whether you regularly read Gallup reports or not, as an HR admin, you should be aware that employees are an integral part of any business. Many employees get dissatisfied if they do not feel appreciated, for example, because they are held back from improving in their respective levels of expertise. If you want to thrive as an HR administrator, we recommend that you encourage employee training. This you can discuss with your superiors and the employees. Regular training and courses will benefit everyone in the long run and will therefore also help you to thrive as an HR administrator.

Work on your Communication Skills

Communication is key in any interpersonal relationship. It is sometimes also the most difficult skill to master and one of the key skills you, as an HR administrator, should have. We assume that your skills in this area are already outstanding. However, you should never stop working on and improving them. By learning about new communication techniques and methods, you will thrive as an HR administrator.

Frequently Asked Questions