Human Resources Specialists
Recruit, screen, interview, or place individuals within an organization. May perform other activities in multiple human resources areas.
Most important skills
- Speaking
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Writing
- Critical Thinking
- Social Perceptiveness
- Service Orientation
- Active Learning
Key knowledge
- Personnel and Human Resources
- Administrative
- Administration and Management
- English Language
- Customer and Personal Service
- Law and Government
- Education and Training
- Computers and Electronics
What the work involves
- Address employee relations issues, such as harassment allegations, work complaints, or other employee concerns.
- Analyze employment-related data and prepare required reports.
- Conduct exit interviews and ensure that necessary employment termination paperwork is completed.
- Confer with management to develop or implement personnel policies or procedures.
- Contact job applicants to inform them of the status of their applications.
- Develop or implement recruiting strategies to meet current or anticipated staffing needs.
- Hire employees and process hiring-related paperwork.
- Inform job applicants of details such as duties and responsibilities, compensation, benefits, schedules, working conditions, or promotion opportunities.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Enterprising, Conventional, Social.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Bachelor's Degree (46.6% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 4 years, up to and including 6 years (50.9%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year (50.1%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 4: Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Human Resources Specialists is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 82% of occupations compared | 79% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | High | Higher on dealing with the public than 62% of occupations compared | — |
| Teamwork | Very high | Higher on teamwork than 89% of occupations compared | 81% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | High | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 71% of occupations compared | 49% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | Moderate | Lower on time pressure than 58% of occupations compared | 49% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Conflict situations | Very high | Higher on conflict situations than 95% of occupations compared | 40% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | High | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 79% of occupations compared | 34% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Consequence of error | Moderate | Lower on consequence of error than 52% of occupations compared | — |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: moderate
- Conflict situations: very high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: high
- Consequence of error: moderate
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0.95%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 19.73%
- Constant contact with others: 79.32%
n = 38, Incumbent 08/2019
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 7.19%
- Fairly important: 14.12%
- Important: 25.77%
- Very important: 6%
- Extremely important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 38, Incumbent 08/2019
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 8.66%
- Very important: 10.8%
- Extremely important: 80.54%
n = 38, Incumbent 08/2019
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 3.18%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 3.03%
- Some freedom: 44.74%
- A lot of freedom: 49.06%
n = 38, Incumbent 08/2019
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 2.77%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 33.19%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 49.46%
- Every day: 14.58%
n = 38, Incumbent 08/2019
Conflict situations
- Never: 1.09%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 7.56%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 29.21%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 22.03%
- Every day: 40.11%
n = 38, Incumbent 08/2019
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 1.09%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 20.71%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 34.06%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 26.47%
- Every day: 17.66%
n = 38, Incumbent 08/2019
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 8.14%
- Fairly serious: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Serious: 4.98%
- Very serious: 3.82%
- Extremely serious: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 37, Incumbent 08/2019
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O*NET-SOC 13-1071.00 · SOC 13-1071 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8