Typical HR responsibilities are focused in major areas such as recruiting and staffing, compensation and benefits, training and learning, labor and employee relations, and organization development. Most HR professionals have experience in one or more of these specialty areas. These areas all deal with helping employees in an organization perform more effectively and satisfactorily on the job.

Recruiting and staffing

You're either in or you're out. When an employee leaves and a job opens up or new jobs are created, HR is usually in charge of the process. Recruiting and staffing is one of the largest areas of HR. Recruiters start the process  working with specific departments to write job descriptions and understand what skills and abilities the new employee should have. Then they're off and running  responsible for finding candidates, determining who might be a good fit, conducting interviews and making job offers. While recruiters involve department employees in the process to interview and make the hiring decisions, it's the recruiters who are usually in charge of finding the talent, managing interview scheduling, negotiating offers and making sure departments have all the information they need to make the best hiring decisions possible.

While recruiters work to find and hire the talent, staffing experts determine who should go where. They strategize with different departments to anticipate hiring needs and help determine where a new employee might best fit in an organization. Staffing professionals are heavily relied on in high-growth companies to make sure the company is prepared to hire enough new employees to grow the company, and that employees are in the right positions.

Compensation and benefits

Finding talent is important, but employees also have to be paid. HR, specifically compensation and benefits professionals, are in charge of making sure new employees are given an appropriate salary and benefits, and current employees continually receive their salary and benefits.

Compensation experts focus on the money. This includes processing regular payroll (making sure that the check is in the mail) and payroll changes, including raises and tax changes. Compensation experts also work closely with an organization's finance department to ensure salaries stay within each department's budget, as well as conducting and researching salary surveys to make sure they're paying the going rate.

Benefits professionals also have to make sure employees are taken care of  they specialize in helping employees with medical and other company benefits. This may include teaching new employees about their medical plan choices, implementing and managing the plans offered by the company, and managing the cost of benefits for the company.

Training and learning

Part teacher, part manager, part leader  that's a training professional. Helping employees become oriented to a new job or company is just one of the many responsibilities of training and learning professionals. Sometimes called training, or learning and development, it's helping both new and tenured employees develop and grow as professionals both on and off the job.

Training and learning professionals are typically responsible for running programs designed to educate and develop employees. This can include programs for an entire employee population, such as new hire orientation or ethics training, but also includes more specialized programs for different groups of workers within a company, like online training courses, in-class instruction or on-the-job training.

Training managers, for example, are called upon to do everything from registering and tracking training courses, to developing new courses and evaluating the effectiveness of training programs after they happen. This may include designing surveys or determining if newly trained employees perform better than they did before the training. They also may be responsible for providing information to employees on training classes and programs outside the company.

Labor and employee relations

Labor relations is a function typically found in companies whose employees are members of unions. Labor relations professionals are called upon to deal directly with unions, doing everything from interpreting current union contracts to negotiating new ones. They also analyze and monitor union activity and work with unions during organizing campaigns  the time when unions recruit new members.

Employee relations professionals need to be familiar and comfortable with the law; they are also responsible for equal employment opportunity and affirmative action programs. For government agencies or companies that do work for the government, this may include creating reports to demonstrate a company is complying with the law and making an effort to hire and retain employees from underrepresented ethnicities.

Labor and employee relations is not found in every human resources department. Organizations that don't have government contracts or unionized employees may rely on outside attorneys or consultants to deal with any legal issues or employee conflicts that arise.

Organization development (OD)

While developing employees is important, perhaps just as important is developing an organization. A relatively new field, organization development focuses on evaluating how a company is structured and how employees work together to see where improvements can be made. Also referred to as organization effectiveness, this might include helping to restructure the chain of command in a department to helping employees cope with a major change, such as the introduction of a new company-wide technical system.

OD professionals are experts in understanding behavior and psychology. They often act as internal consultants, helping their fellow employees understand how a new company program might affect the employees' behavior.

OD specialists often manage the performance review process, making sure that employees are evaluated and moved within the organization based on how well they're working. OD Specialists may also help companies develop succession plans (determining who is in line to be the next person in a leadership position, such as CEO or CFO) and mentoring programs, making sure less experienced employees can learn from their more experienced comrades. OD professionals may also be called upon to help an employee address individual issues through executive coaching, or a department address a leadership or performance challenge.