How To Become A Personnel Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a personnel technician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Ralph McKinney Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a personnel technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.15 an hour? That's $39,836 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 58,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a personnel technician?

Ralph McKinney Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Management, Marshall University

When starting a career, as noted above, an individual needs to have a clear career plan that considers
how to balance the relationship between work and life. Planning helps individuals identify their
strengths and weaknesses along with their desires and expectations. By understanding your strengths
and weaknesses, you can better communicate your value as an employee. Likewise, understanding your
desires and expectations provides a general basis for negotiating a compensation package. It may not
necessarily be about maximizing the salary, but maximizing your needs and your long-term goals. For
example: You may be able to negotiate more paid time off rather than negotiating a higher salary.
Increasing your salary throughout your career means that you have value as an employee and that the
employer knows your contributions and your value. This means that you must be seen and heard. The
easiest way to be seen and heard is to showcase your efforts and accomplishments through feedback
sessions. As an employee, use the feedback sessions to illustrate your work as well as your efforts to
build your knowledge and skills. If a manager is unaware of your efforts, how can you be rewarded?
Additional credentials help build value and illustrate your commitment to the profession. Determine
which credentials are important to your career. Is it a master's degree or micro-credentials? How do
these fit within your plan? Perhaps the extra time off can be used to take educational courses. If an
employer is paying for education, this is a benefit that has exceptional value beyond the immediate
salary. The extra education can provide for greater upward mobility within the organization.

ScorePersonnel TechnicianUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $39,836

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.61%

Asian 7.47%

Black or African American 12.99%

Hispanic or Latino 18.49%

Unknown 5.09%

White 55.35%

Gender

female 69.53%

male 30.47%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.0

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a personnel technician

Explore personnel technician education requirements

Most common personnel technician degrees

Bachelor's

49.0 %

Associate

29.4 %

High School Diploma

9.3 %

Start to develop specific personnel technician skills

Skills	Percentages
Human Resources	15.30%
Payroll Processing	10.28%
Personnel Actions	4.94%
Personnel Transactions	4.47%
Workers Compensation	4.27%

Complete relevant personnel technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New personnel technicians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a personnel technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real personnel technician resumes.

Research personnel technician duties and responsibilities

Manage wage and salary administration and supervise payroll function.
Enter and process all employment, absences, FMLA and other miscellaneous transactions into PeopleSoft.
Design and facilitate training sessions for campus HRIS users.
Create training material for say policies (i.e., books, handouts and PowerPoint presentations).

Prepare your personnel technician resume

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Choose from 10+ customizable personnel technician resume templates

Build a professional personnel technician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your personnel technician resume.