Careers Succeeding at Work Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Human Resources Human Resources: General Questions Answered Print gehringj / Getty Images Succeeding at Work Human Resources Management Careers Job Search Resources Hiring Best Practices Glossary Employment Law Employee Motivation Employee Management Management & Leadership Employee Benefits Table of Contents Expand What Does HR Do? Questions About Degrees Questions About Careers Related Popular Topics By Susan M. Heathfield Susan M. Heathfield Susan Heathfield is an HR and management consultant with an MS degree. She has decades of experience writing about human resources. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on 12/06/20 Are you interested in basic information about human resources including a definition? Career planning, a career outlook, and more? HR salaries, jargon, and acronyms are all covered to quickly answer your questions about the field, the jobs, and the services provided by HR. Here are answers to some of the questions about human resources that are received most frequently in an email, and on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter. Here's hoping that the responses to these human resources questions will be useful to you, too. What are Human Resources? What is a Human Resource? What is Human Resource Management? What is Human Resource Development? What is the importance of Human Resources Management? See HR jargon that you need to know. See Human Resources and management acronyms. See more HR basics. What Does a Human Resources Professional Do? The following are job descriptions for commonly found positions in Human Resources employment. Take a look and see if you can use these samples to assist you in developing your own job description or those of your staff. They also describe various positions in a career in HR for career seekers interested in what HR staff members do. Human Resources Manager, HR Generalist, or HR Director - Job Overview Human Resources Director Human Resources Manager Human Resources Generalist Human Resources Assistant or Associate Labor Relations Manager, the Director of Industrial Relations, and Labor Relations Staff Training Manager, Training Director, or Training Specialist Employment Manager, a Recruiter, or a Placement Specialist Compensation Manager HR Questions About Degrees and Credentials These resources respond to questions about what HR professionals need in terms of college credentials and certifications to work in the HR field. Do I have to go to college and get a degree to work in Human Resources? Do I have to have some kind of certification to work in Human Resources? HR Questions About Jobs and Careers The following resources provide answers to questions about whether an HR career might work out for you. Want a Career in HR? How to Find Jobs in Human Resources—Fast Human Resources: Questions About Related Popular Topics People want to know about certain topics that are universally popular in the field of HR. These resources take you to information about the topic. Hopefully, you find them useful and insightful. Employment Laws Employment laws, guidelines, and information? Need to know the latest about employment laws? It's a quickly changing topic with which you will want to constantly stay in touch. In fact, you will need to call an employment law attorney in each of these six cases. Performance Management How can you redesign our performance management system? (review, appraisal, evaluation) process redesign and development? Performance appraisals are disappearing in favor of a more employee-oriented, customized performance management system that focuses your managers' energy on setting goals and employee development. Find out all about it. You may want to change your system. HR Policies, Guidelines, and Forms Sample and example policies, procedures, guidelines, and forms? Need a sample policy or form that you can use as an example when you devise your own forms and policies for use within your company. These HR sample policies are prime, effective examples. Training Management Design and development of a training program? If you're committed to employee development, you'll want to take a look at all of the articles in the HR training section. You'll find everything from employee onboarding to needs assessment, on-the-job training, and more. Recruiting and Hiring Employees How can you recruit and hire superior employees? When recruiting, selecting, staffing, and hiring, pick the smartest person you can find. You want talented employees who fit your culture. Your recruitment strategies are critical in attracting these people. Retention of your best employees starts with your recruiting, staffing, and hiring strategies, policies, and procedures. Recruiting, testing, selection, and staffing are the focus of these resources. Interviewing Potential Employees How can you interview prospective employees? How to conduct a safe, legal interview that also enables you to select the best candidate for your open positions is important. The interview is one of the significant factors in hiring. Perhaps the traditional interview is accorded too much power in selection. Learn more interviewing tips and interviewing techniques to make your interviews a powerful tool and process to evaluate candidates. Select and Make Offers to Great Employees How can you select, make offers, and hire great employees? Learn how to select the best employees for your open positions. Selection and evaluation techniques are explored that help you pick among qualified candidates. Employee selection and employee evaluation processes are critical to hiring superior staff members. Learn to improve your hiring practices. Offer Motivating Compensation How to determine a motivating employee salary and compensation? Find the latest information about setting salaries, paying employees, using salary as a tool for the motivation of and retention of employees. Offer Motivating Benefits Packages How can you design attractive benefits packages for employees? The right benefits package can help you attract and retain talented employees. Your benefits package can cost up to thirty-five percent of an employee’s salary. Make sure that your benefits are serving your organization's best interests in attracting and retaining key employees. Need to Find a Specific Human Resources Topic? How can you find out if a particular HR topic is covered in the HR section? The easiest way to determine if your topic is covered is to use the Search Box in the upper right-hand corner of each page. Search on the topic about which you seek information. You can also scroll through the topics listed in the left-hand column of any page.