Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Opportunities in Human Resource - Becoming a Freelance Human Resource Consultant
Human resources, commonly known as HR, works as a link between employees and businesses.
Most businesses hire entire human resource departments while others outsource these services to companies providing HR services. That said, those looking to become self-employed can transition to human resource consulting. This is an engaging, growth-driven and interesting career for the right people. Here is what you need to know when making the transition to independent human resource consulting.
What Are the Roles and Responsibilities of an HR consultant?
So, what does an HR person do?
Human resource consultants provide human resource solutions, make management decisions and give thoughtful advice. Businesses hire HR consultants when they do not have an internal HR team so that the consultant can help support the business.
Whether they are looking for advice on hiring for new roles, implementing new employee compensation and benefits packages or creating new guidelines for on-site and remote employees, businesses hire independent HR consultants for much-needed advice.
Businesses also hire freelance HR consultants if they need advice from and the expertise of an outside professional. They know this outside perspective will be important in certain projects and in solving certain challenges and problems because the external stakeholder will come in with a different perspective.
What Skills Does an HR Consultant Need?
Before becoming a freelance HR consultant, you need to explore whether remote or freelance work is suited for you. Next, you need to consider the required job skills in human resources. These skills include:
● Good communication skills
● Problem-solving skills
● Decision-making skills
● Accountability
● Realistic outlook
● People skills
● Organisational skills
● Relationship-building and planning skills
What is Demanded of HR Consultants?
Before you start looking for a job as a freelance HR consultant, you need to understand what will be expected of you. There is usually no single job description for an HR consultant, and it mainly depends on the company and project. However, it is still a good idea to look at job description examples for human resources positions. These human resources job descriptions will help you know what will generally, be expected of you by showing you the different human resources responsibilities that could be bestowed upon you.
Some examples of HR tasks you could be expected to complete include:
● Optimising HR functions depending on the client’s requirements
● Building company culture for harmony between the business, employees and clients
● Finding the right candidates for hire
● Performing new hire onboarding
● Creating recruitment policies
● Putting together employee benefit and compensation packages
● Evaluating candidate and employee performance
Because the work can be very engaging and challenging, you need to have the right experience required for human resources roles. This means you need to have either worked as one or completed an internship undertaking similar tasks.
Becoming a freelance HR consultant has become easier due to the rise of the gig economy. More companies are open to hiring such consultants, with many platforms already providing job listings you can check out, where you can also apply for these roles.
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