Human resource management (HRM): The complete guide

Employees are a business’s greatest asset. Just as you support your customers to foster loyalty and reduce churn, effectively supporting your employees in key moments—such as onboarding new hires, answering benefits questions, and managing leave and internal tool requests—can yield significant value. This approach enhances employee satisfaction and retention, ultimately contributing to the overall success of your organization.

That’s where effective human resource management comes in. With the right HRM strategy, you can streamline HR operations, deliver high-quality employee service, enhance productivity, and more.

Use our guide to learn how HRM works, its benefits and key elements, essential skills, and how to start a career in human resource management.

More in this guide:

• How does HRM work?
• The importance of human resource management
• 8 key elements of human resource management
• Essential human resource management skills
• Human resource management careers
• How to get into HRM
• Frequently asked questions
• Streamline HRM with Zendesk

How does HRM work?

HR managers oversee day-to-day employee experience management, including employee relations, benefits, compensation, and compliance with labor laws. They also guide organizations through employee experience journey mapping to ensure employees receive support at every stage of their journey. Human resources serve as the primary contact for questions regarding benefits, culture, compensation, onboarding, offboarding, leave, and more.

HRM teams often include an employee service or HR help desk team responsible for tracking, managing, and responding to employee inquiries about HR policies and information. This branch of HRM focuses on enabling employees to quickly access assistance and providing exceptional service at scale, often with the help of AI.

The importance of human resource management

From providing essential internal customer service to onboarding new hires, HRM plays a crucial role in delivering an exceptional employee experience (EX), which leads to better business outcomes. Here are just a few of the benefits:

Protects employee and company data

HR teams are responsible for collecting and managing sensitive employee data, so part of human resource management is ensuring personal information is safe and secure. For example, HRM teams use software with advanced encryption keys to keep employee data safe, whether stored locally or shared across regions.

Boosts employee engagement

Effective HRM enhances employee engagement by fostering a positive work environment where employees feel supported and motivated. Job satisfaction can increase when employees can easily access help and resources.

For instance, HRM teams might invest in help desk tools that offer support through convenient channels or provide 24/7 support with bots. They can also implement a knowledge base for easy access to information on wellness programs, career development, and rewards. Plus, regular employee engagement surveys can help measure the impact of these initiatives and guide future efforts.

Enhances employee skills

Human resource teams provide employees with various opportunities and ways to develop their skills, including:

• Professional development webinars and seminars

• On-the-job training

• Tuition reimbursement

• Internal or external mentorships

• Career development programs

• Employee development plans

Skills-building resources can live in a robust knowledge base where employees can quickly and easily find information and ask questions about programs and opportunities. HRM improves confidence, competence, and ability by supporting employee growth and development.

Retains talent

Human resource management is crucial to reducing employee turnover and retaining top talent. One effective strategy HR teams use to support employee retention is providing fast and personalized employee service. For example, if you needed to take a leave of absence and received a response from HR weeks later, it would negatively impact your perception of the company. Conversely, a prompt and effective response from HR can enhance your trust and satisfaction.

Other ways HR professionals proactively boost employee retention include:

• Researching and recommending industry-specific compensation ranges

• Advocating for employee perks

• Addressing workplace issues

• Supporting employee-management relationships

• Maintaining culture initiatives

• Evaluating development goals and performance

HRM teams also develop talent strategies designed to help organizations recruit, hire, develop, and grow exceptional employees.

Improves company culture

A company’s culture can significantly impact employee satisfaction. HR teams can enhance company culture by fostering supportive workplace environments through the following practices:

• Providing fair, objective compensation

• Establishing employee resource groups (ERG)

• Developing inclusive onboarding

• Prioritizing accessible workplaces and equipment

• Conducting unconscious bias and microaggression training

• Building cross-department mentorship programs

• Prioritizing seamless access to support, especially for sensitive cases

By prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), HRM helps establish a welcoming workplace culture that enables employee growth.

8 key elements of human resource management

Human resource management plays a crucial role in enhancing employee well-being. To accomplish this, HRM teams focus on eight key elements.

1. Providing effective employee service

From onboarding new hires to addressing benefits inquiries and managing leave and internal tool requests, HRM teams are responsible for delivering fast and personalized employee service. In today’s landscape, they must accomplish this while scaling operations and keeping costs low.

AI-powered HR help desk tools can significantly enhance their ability to provide excellent service at scale. According to Gartner, 76 percent of HR leaders agree they will lag in organizational success if they don’t adopt AI in the next 12-24 months.

Here are a few ways AI can help HRM organizations streamline their employee service operations:

• Offer 24/7 service: Generative AI bots, like Zendesk AI agents, can provide round-the-clock support and inform HR teams about what types of employee requests to automate.
• Accelerate help center content creation: Generative AI can quickly build knowledge center content and identify knowledge gaps.
• Improve service efficiency: AI can automatically route tickets to the right team based on sentiment, intent, agent ability, skill, and more.
• Ensure consistent service: AI-powered quality assurance (QA) tools can automatically score all of your employee interactions to maintain consistency and identify areas for improvement.

For example, LATAM Airlines, the leading airline in Latin America, uses AI agents to manage thousands of employee requests. By improving services and automation based on the data provided by these digital agents, LATAM has achieved a 90 percent employee satisfaction rate.

HRM teams that successfully adopt AI can deliver superior internal support, enhancing the overall employee service.

Suggested reading: 11 ways to use AI for a better employee experience

2. Maintaining data security

HRM teams are responsible for safeguarding sensitive employee data. Data security and privacy concerns are growing with the rise of flexible and distributed work environments. HRM must implement robust security measures and advanced privacy features—like encryption keys and two-factor authentication—to protect employee and company data while meeting these evolving work expectations.

With HR service leaders under immense pressure to implement AI tools, it is also crucial to prioritize security during integration. According to the Zendesk Employee Experience Trends Report 2024, privacy and security are top challenges for EX leaders when implementing AI. Therefore, selecting HRM solutions that seamlessly ensure the safety of employee and company data is essential.

3. Streamlining onboarding and offboarding processes

The employee lifecycle is a significant portion of HRM. HRM teams make employee onboarding seamless by ensuring access to resources and information about benefits, internal tools, and more. HRM leaders also track and analyze onboarding processes to provide increased visibility for hiring managers about knowledge gaps, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement.

Plus, HRM makes employee offboarding more efficient by systemizing and organizing exit management and offboarding paperwork while providing timely and accurate answers to employee questions.

4. Managing employee leave and life event policies

HRM teams are responsible for managing employee leave and other life events that occur in an employee’s personal life and impact their ability to work—like medical leave, Family and Medical Leave (FMLA), and bereavement leave. These can be sensitive times in your employees’ lives, so providing top-tier service helps ensure both employees and the company are cared for.

HR managers establish standardized leave processes and should make this information easily accessible to employees. When employees have questions about these policies, HRM teams use internal help desk tools that equip HR teams with employee context to tailor responses and provide personalized guidance on paid and unpaid leaves of absence.

5. Adapting quickly to evolving employee needs

HRM teams must keep pace with the evolving needs of their business and employees. HRM leaders who invested early in flexible, adaptable HR tools were better equipped to transition to distributed work environments. Selecting tools that can be easily adjusted to meet current demands while effectively supporting the business during periods of change is crucial for HRM organizations.

Take grocery store giant Tesco, for example. Its internal service team invested in a new help desk tool to manage internal technology queries more efficiently, as previously, the only channel available to colleagues to reach the help desk had been the phone. To become more agile, Tesco made it easy for colleagues to get the help they needed across multiple channels, focusing on help centers. This allowed them to provide faster and more efficient support, ensuring employees could continue working smoothly even in a distributed environment.

6. Enhancing employee productivity and managing performance

HRM managers play a pivotal role in enhancing employee productivity by leveraging advanced HR technology. They utilize tools like employee self-service portals, HR bots, employee service quality assurance, and workflow automation to streamline HR processes and provide easy access to information and resources. Automation is particularly important, as it frees employees from repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on more strategic, value-adding activities. This efficient use of technology helps HRM managers create a more productive and engaged workforce.

HRM teams also play a crucial role in employee performance management to further enhance productivity. They securely document employee performance, track knowledge and skills gaps, and make recommendations for improvement. Their findings give managers the information they need to navigate challenging conversations about performance and conduct or recommend raises and promotions. These factors can foster a culture of continuous improvement and high performance.

7. Recruiting new employees

Human resource management teams, with help from talent acquisition teams, provide recruitment guidance for various departments. Depending on an organization’s forecasted needs, HRM leaders recommend individuals for specific roles, conduct background checks, participate in compensation negotiations, and perform interviews.

Whether you’re investigating your company’s succession planning or building a customer success team, HR managers are a reliable source of information and recommendations.

8. Improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging

One of the most essential elements of human resource management is improving and supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in the workplace. From small steps like creating more inclusive surveys to organization-wide developments like hiring diverse candidates or implementing diversity training, DEIB helps make workplaces more welcoming.

Human resources teams are also responsible for developing, maintaining, and upholding DEIB policies, like anti-discrimination and harassment policies. HRM leaders should also create employee resource groups to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace.

Essential human resource management skills

To effectively strategize and execute HRM initiatives, individuals at all levels should master these eight essential human resource management skills:

1. Communication: Communicate clearly and emphatically with employees at every organizational level.
2. Problem-solving: Deescalate employee issues and provide effective solutions for complex problems.
3. Critical thinking: Combine attention to detail with big-picture thinking to strategically solve problems and design company plans.
4. Proactivity: Anticipate potential problems to get ahead of employee needs.
5. Active listening: Understand employee concerns by paraphrasing and asking follow-up questions for clarity.
6. Negotiation: Achieve positive agreements with employees and third-party companies.
7. Organization: Manage multiple tasks simultaneously, such as recruitment, succession planning, data security, and performance management.
8. Digital literacy: Utilize HR software like an AI-powered internal help desk to organize data, analyze results, and serve employees effectively. Easy-to-use tools that don’t require technical expertise can make this more seamless.

These soft and hard skills can be enhanced over time through training sessions, webinars, and other growth opportunities.

Human resource management careers

Whether you want to focus on employee compensation and perks or training and development, plenty of HRM careers and positions are available to individuals.

Human resource manager

Human resource managers typically plan and coordinate an organization’s administrative and employee relations functions. HR managers can work in almost every industry, and Glassdoor data shows their average salary ranges from $68,000 to $110,000.

The typical responsibilities of an HR manager include:

• Recruitment and hiring

• Professional development

• Compensation, benefits, and perks

• Compliance and security

• Employee relations

• Health and safety

• Succession planning

• Delivering great employee service

To be successful, human resource managers must have communication, problem-solving, organization, adaptation, and other change management skills.

HR help desk manager

HR help desk managers are responsible for leading an internal support team and human resource help desk operations. They must also analyze the performance of the HR service team. The individual in this role should manage the company’s help desk software, employee service workflows, and internal self-service tools. Additionally, Glassdoor found that the average salary of an HR help desk manager ranges from $75,000 to $120,000.

An HR help desk manager:

• Uses AI to deliver high-quality employee service at scale

• Sets HR help desk KPIs, goals, and service level agreements (SLAs)

• Helps employees serve themselves with tools like an internal knowledge base

• Resolves requests about benefits, compensation, and leave

Successful HR help desk managers are skilled in problem-solving, team management, empathy, technical literacy, and other service-specific skills.

Training and development manager

Training and development managers—also known as learning and development (L&D) managers—focus on employee development in the workplace. This role can be found in various industries (from customer service and IT to healthcare and finance), and according to Glassdoor, the average salary of a training and development manager ranges from $74,000 to $125,000.

Training and development managers are responsible for:

• Conducting needs assessments

• Creating and maintaining development plans and programs

• Reviewing and selecting training materials

• Managing a training and development budget

• Evaluating the effectiveness of current training programs

• Developing employees and supporting team growth

• Overseeing third-party training and integration

To improve team productivity, training and development managers must have communication, presentation, critical thinking, product knowledge, digital literacy, DEIB, collaboration, and other development skills.

Payroll specialist

A payroll specialist oversees an organization’s payroll operations, managing details such as overtime, deductions, and bonuses to ensure accurate and timely compensation for employees. These specialists also calculate wages and administer payments based on individual salaries and timecards. According to Glassdoor, the average salary range of a payroll specialist is $53,000 to $78,000.

Payroll specialists are responsible for:

• Maintaining payroll records

• Preparing and distributing compensation

• Generating payroll reports

• Calculating wages and payroll taxes

• Auditing payroll data

Payroll specialists should be detail-oriented, superb communicators, organized, analytical, and focused on compliance.

Benefits manager

A benefits manager oversees a company’s employee benefits, including legally protected benefits like FMLA and fringe benefits like relocation assistance. Benefits managers are also in charge of researching and recommending insurance and retirement benefits options.

Glassdoor data shows that the average salary of a benefits manager ranges from $75,000 to $100,000.

The typical responsibilities of a benefits manager include:

• Designing and proposing a company benefits plan

• Contacting and negotiating third-party benefits providers

• Educating employees on benefits options

• Managing enrollment and administration of benefits

• Ensuring legal compliance

• Evaluating the cost of benefits programs

Strong benefits managers will be highly skilled in negotiation, communication, adaptability, analysis, and regulation management.

How to get into HRM

If you’re interested in starting a career in human resource management, you can prepare by following the recommendations below.

1. Get a relevant education

While having a human resources, management, business, or other degree to pursue an HR career is not essential, it’s highly recommended. A relevant education introduces you to the concepts behind workplace diversity, workforce development, business ethics and planning, strategic HR, and more.

Plus, an HR-specific education enhances essential human resource management skills, such as digital literacy, active listening, communication, and organization.

2. Gain field experience

Before diving into a full-time career, consider investing in hands-on field experience through internships and entry-level positions. This experience allows you to learn about the responsibilities of an HRM team and build foundational skills necessary for gaining and excelling in higher-level positions.

Support experience (like using HR help desk tools) is also relevant and recommended for individuals looking to start a career in HR. You can also join professional organizations, attend networking events, and become involved in conferences and conventions to grow your experience and meet other trained professionals.

3. Build skills or earn certificates

Invest in skill-building training and certificate programs to enhance your HRM knowledge and improve your qualifications. A person can pursue professional certificate programs anytime, and they are a great way to grow HR skills and technical knowledge about essential human resource management software solutions.

There are various certifications and education options to pursue, so research the programs that fit your long-term career goals before deciding. Consider a certification from a quality institution like:

• Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI)
• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
• American Staffing Association

You may also complete HRM certificates and skills-building courses at various public and private educational institutes.

4. Apply for HRM positions

The final step in pursuing an HRM career is to apply for human resources positions. Update your resume with relevant education, experience, skills, credentials, and certifications.

Optimize your resume for targeted HR and HRM keywords so applicant tracking systems (ATS) can pick them up, like:

• Talent management

• Organizational health and safety

• Communication

• Organization

• Compliance

• Employee engagement

• Employee retention

• Training and development

• Recruiting

Finally, don’t forget to present personal and professional references that speak to your skills and experience.

Frequently asked questions

Streamline HRM with Zendesk

HRM is crucial to business success, as a company is only as strong as its people. Effectively supporting your workforce is essential for enhancing employee satisfaction, reducing turnover, and boosting productivity. To achieve this, HR teams need powerful, automated HR help desk tools that provide fast, dependable, and personalized service.

Zendesk enables HR teams to deliver exceptional employee service while maintaining low operational costs. Our employee service solution is user-friendly yet powerful, designed to scale seamlessly with your organization, ensuring you can support employees during critical moments. With AI integrated into every aspect of our solution and pre-trained on HR intent models, you benefit from minimal implementation times and faster, more accurate employee service.

See how to streamline your AI-powered HR help desk to handle employee service requests efficiently and optimize service at every step. Watch a free product demo today.