Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2012. The salary bands it gives, 16,000–30,000 euros at SMEs and 18,000–36,000 euros at multinationals, are Spanish figures from 2012.
This morning I came across the question “Do I have an HR profile?” online, and it got me thinking. How many times have we talked about candidates’ profiles and how well they fit a job? We have also written, and will keep writing, about the professional competencies that define jobs; in fact we have covered several of them, listed at the end of this post.
But we have never answered the question… I want to be an HR officer, but I don’t know what the job involves.
Here is what you need to know.
Salary range
Let’s start with the money, which depends a great deal on the company and on experience. Pay ranges from a basic salary of 16,000 euros at a small or medium-sized company for someone with no experience, up to a maximum of 30,000 euros after six years.
At a multinational, the figures range from a minimum of 18,000 euros with no experience to a maximum of 36,000 euros after six years. Intermediate figures range between 24,000 and 33,000 euros.
Qualifications
With some exceptions, a degree is always the minimum initial requirement for candidates for this kind of post: graduates in psychology, business administration and management, law or even labour relations.
Responsibilities of the post
This is what we will ask of the employee, and what we will look for in their previous work experience, or even in any additional training that sets one candidate apart from another.
An HR officer’s responsibilities are:
- Supporting the HR director in selection processes for new posts to be filled in the company.
- Identifying, detecting and defining the company’s staffing needs.
- Searching for and screening CVs and potential candidates with talent.
- Dealing with external HR suppliers.
- Developing applications and reports and managing the company’s human resources, aiming for the best match between person and post within the organisation.
What we look for in a candidate
Above all, we look for experience at recruitment firms or temporary employment agencies, but also experience conducting the different kinds of selection interview.
Whether we need a candidate with a high level of foreign languages will depend on the type of company hiring and on its relationships with clients and staff, that is, whether the company works locally or internationally. Those requirements will also determine whether the language skills needed are spoken, written or both.
We want someone who can work towards targets and handle pressure when a quick, agile response is needed. Proactive, because they have to keep constantly up to date with new selection techniques and new ways of finding candidates and talent.
Someone with good relationships with candidate suppliers and used to working in a team, so they can meet the needs of other departments that come to them for help in selecting new candidates.
Other competencies we have written about:
Featured image: Fundación General Universidad La Laguna from La Laguna, España, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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