Employee relations specialists are key members of any HR department. Apart from playing an important role in workforce recruitment, they are responsible for managing human relations and interpersonal conflicts at the workplace.
As an employee relations specialist, you will conduct surveys and analyze employee data. But, perhaps, more importantly, you will provide counseling to staff members, helping them sort out workplace-related personal problems that might hinder their productivity.
You will arrange training opportunities for employees as well and manage their files and work-related documents. You will need a thorough insight into legislation regulating employment conditions within the company and in the larger context of the industry as well.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an employee relations specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.13 an hour? That's $58,508 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -6,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many employee relations specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed listening skills, writing skills and detail oriented.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an employee relations specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 6.8% of employee relations specialists included business partners, while 5.9% of resumes included performance management, and 5.6% of resumes included company policies. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the employee relations specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most employee relations specialists actually find jobs in the finance and health care industries.
If you're interested in becoming an employee relations specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.0% of employee relations specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 31.6% of employee relations specialists have master's degrees. Even though most employee relations specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an employee relations specialist. When we researched the most common majors for an employee relations specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on employee relations specialist resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an employee relations specialist. In fact, many employee relations specialist jobs require experience in a role such as human resources manager. Meanwhile, many employee relations specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as human resources generalist or human resources coordinator.