With a one-person HR team, administrative duties often take priority over strategic initiatives, like employee experience, workforce planning, or company culture.
However, as companies grow, so too do opportunities for HR professionals to take on new responsibilities and contribute in meaningful ways. Specialized HR careers ensure that every stage of the employee lifecycle has a clear owner and a process—so nothing gets left in a blind spot.
Whatever HR job title you land on, you have a wide range of career paths to choose from. Where do you start? We’ve outlined five tracks to help you find your ideal future in HR.
For the jack-of-all-trades and multi-tasker extraordinaire, HR Generalist roles may be the fit for you. The HR Generalist has a hand in all pieces of the HR machine, including benefits, onboarding, performance management, talent acquisition, and compliance. The HR Generalist plays a vital role in ensuring that everything runs without a hitch. While this can be a lot for one person, it gives you a 360 degree view of the company’s ecosystem (and can help you identify where else you might want to specialize down the line.)
Qualifications
Responsibilities
National Average Salary*
$55,880
As companies grow, workforce planning becomes more important than ever. The Talent Acquisition Specialist is responsible for building and shaping an organization's structure. In this role, you understand the importance of hiring candidates that are both qualified and a culture add. This role manages all efforts to recruit, interview, and onboard top talent. Over time, talent acquisition can be broken into even more specific roles, such as department-specific recruiters or onboarding specialists.
Qualifications
Responsibilities
National Average Salary
$50,800
Data is becoming increasingly important to every department within an organization, and HR is no exception. The HR Data Analyst tracks metrics throughout the talent lifecycle to inform better processes. This role is still relatively new in the field, so it requires a lot of creativity and strategic data-driven thinking in order to develop useful and actionable metrics.
Qualifications
Responsibilities
National Average Salary
$80,000
Employees’ primary communication with their HR team typically centers around compensation and benefits. Whether it’s a missed paycheck, open enrollment, or tax season, employees rely on the Payroll and Benefits Administrator to answer their questions and make sure everything is in order. The Payroll and Benefits Administrator maintains processes to ensure that employees are properly compensated.
Qualifications
Responsibilities
National Average Salary
$42,908
Employees need a central contact for their disputes, personal concerns, and questions. Within the HR department, the Employee Relations Manager handles all things people. This means the Employee Relations Manager works collaboratively across the HR team, relying on peers for expert guidance when different employee situations arise—but the role’s primary focus is to advise and consult employees on any concerns.
Qualifications
Responsibilities
National Average Salary
$76,988
HR touches every part of the employee experience and as the field grows, there are more and more HR career paths to choose from. The best way to find your niche is to dive right in, get your hands dirty, and see what tasks align most with your goals and interests. Here’s to finding the right stops along your path to Chief People Officer, Chief Happiness Officer, or even Chief Listening Officer!
*All national salary averages come from Glassdoor.