Overview of HR Front Office Jobs

The HR Front Office is the modern part of Human Resources. Modern HR Departments are organized like factories and the HR Front Office is the Sales Department of Human Resources. Generally, the HR Front Office is the crucial unit for the successful and modern HR in the organization as the HR Front Office staff have to skilled in Human Resources and they have to understand their internal clients.

The HR Front Office Job Profiles have to respect the need for the HR skills and the competencies in the negotiation and the common business sense.

HR Front Office Career Path

The HR Front Office Career Path is usually about two different approaches, the organization uses to build the HR Front Office and it has to be fully respected in the job profiles and the career path.

The first career path approach is about the full growth of the HR Front Office internally and they usually do not begin their career in Human Resources purely in HR Front Office. They start in any back office HR function and they are promoted to work as the front office staff as they demonstrate their selling and negotiation skills and competencies. The employees have the basics of know-how in Human Resources Management and they are able to start pretty quickly selling and negotiating the HR solutions to the internal clients.

The second HR Front Office career path approach is about the growing of the potential inside the front office itself. Many organizations prefer this approach as the employees are purely skilled in the negotiation and selling skills and they accept the limited know how in the area of Human Resources Management. The employees start as the pure supporters of the skilled HR Front Office staff and they learn how they should deal with the internal customers and they observe the best HR practice.

HR Front Office Job Profiles

It is not possible to judge which career path option is better. Generally, it depends on the complexity of the organization and how sophisticated products the organization offers to its clients. The more sophisticated the products are, the more organizations prefer the career path option 1 as the HR employees gets a chance to accommodate with the corporate culture and it is extremely visible from the HR Front Office Job Profiles.

HR Front Office Job Profiles

HR Consultant Junior Job Profile

The HR Consultant Junior is the entry job position in the HR Front Office. The job profile is mainly about the administrative support to the skilled HR Consultant or the HR Key Account Manager. The HR Consultant Junior prepares the documents, monitors the deadlines and communicates with the HR Back Office function to make sure, the deadlines will be met and there are no issues in the HR solutions provided to the internal client.

The HR Consultant Junior learns the basics of dealing with internal clients and the job profile is purely focused on receiving and learning the skills. The internal client likes, when the HR Front Office staff understands the principles in management applied in his or her area and the Hr Consultant Junior has to learn the art of dealing with the customer.

The motivated and promising employee is not expected to stay at the job position of the HR Consultant Junior for more than 24 months as he or she gets bored after this period of time. On the other hand, it has to be clearly communicated to the employee, the time spent on the job position of the HR Consultant Junior is necessary and it is not lost. The job profile of the HR Consultant Junior has to send a clear message to the motivated employee of the HR Front Office.

HR Consultant Job Profile

The HR Consultant is the employee of the HR Front Office, who provides the consultancy and guidance in HR Management to the middle management. The HR Consultant usually does not speak to the top management of the function, but fully co-operates with the HR Key Account Manager (or HR Business Partner) on the implementation of the agreed HR solutions at the client’s side.

The HR Consultant is fully independent and negotiates with the middle management about the best approach to implement the solutions as the internal client is fully satisfied. The HR Consultant solves the issues at the workplace and the right person on the job position knows most of employees personally or by name as the HR Consultant can be trusted by the employees, when he or she is asked to present the solution to them.

The HR Consultant does not prepare the own solutions and the proposals have to be prepared in a close co-operation with the HR Key Account Manager.

HR Key Account Manager (HR Business Partner) Job Profile

The HR Key Account Manager (or HR Business Partner) is the top job position and it has to be reflected in the job profile. The HR Key Account Manager negotiates with the top management and has a direct access to the Board Members usually.

This job position is a key to the success of Human Resources as they build the opinion of the top management on the Human Resources Function in the organization. The HR Key Account Managers are responsible for building the sub-HR strategy for the managed area and they co-operate with the top managers of the function to increase the potential and performance of the human capital employed in the managed area.

The HR Key Account Manager is managed by the HR Strategy and he or she has to follow the main principles defined in the strategy, but he or she has the freedom to adapt the HR Strategy to the needs of the internal client.

The HR Key Account Manager is extremely important and extremely dangerous to the HR Function as the HR Director has to closely observe the HR Key Account Managers as they follow the strategy defined by the HR Function and not just the interests of the internal clients.

HR Front Office Manager Job Profile

The manager of the HR Front Office function monitors the employees, sets the priorities of the HR Front Office and solves the conflicts. The HR Front Office manager is the point of the contact between HR Front Office and HR Back Office to set the right priorities to be solved.

The HR Front Office Manager keeps the HR Strategy compact and defines the goals, which are shared among the HR Key Account Managers as they do not prefer the internal customers.