HR & Recruitment - Stockport JobsMatch

If you have strong interpersonal skills, are a natural problem solver and great at building relationships, a career in HR and Recruitment could be for you.

HR specialists are responsible for ensuring a company has the people they need to deliver their products and services effectively. This includes recruiting the right candidates, making sure they have the skills they need to do the job, are motivated to perform to the best of their ability and have a structured career path to develop long-term.

HR and recruitment professionals make up just 1% of the UK workforce. But they’re a vital part of any business and nearly every type of organisation, regardless of size or sector, will need HR staff. That means there are plenty of opportunities to start and develop your career in human resources in firms of all sectors and sizes across the Stockport region.

Featured Stockport Employer

Hear from Caroline Salt at Music Magpie in Stockport (with offices in Stockport town centre and distribution centre based in Hazel Grove), sharing her career story about working in the HR & Recruitment Industry. Find out what it takes to get started, what a typical day involves, the key skills required to succeed and what the best bits about the job are.

Want to know more about Music Magpie? Part of Entertainment Magpie (compirising musicMagpie (UK) & Decluttr (US)), they’re a proud Stockport brand name and international tech business at the forefront of the global recommerce revolution, allowing customers to make the choice to both buy & sell from a service that is ‘Smart for You and Smart for the Planet’.

Labour Market Information

Over the past few years, the Covid-19 pandemic has created a complex and challenging environment for HR practitioners who’ve been relied upon to find ingenious solutions to ensure business continuity and support employees throughout extraordinary times.

For some businesses, HR and recruitment roles faced cutbacks and redundancy, whereas for others the ‘people’ element of their businesses was seen as even more important. New technologies to support home-working, e-learning, video interviewing and onboarding for example, were rapidly adopted to allow standard HR functions to continue and many look set to stay or receive greater investment.

Looking ahead to the future, there is likely to be continued steady growth in HR and recruitment roles to overcome talent shortages, upskill and develop the workforce, retain essential skills and knowledge from an ageing workforce, as well as supporting employee wellbeing and productivity.

Starting Salary

£9.50 per hour or £16,000
per annum

Typical Salary Range

£22,000 – £70,000+
per annum

Working Hours

37 to 39 hours per week, between 8am and 6pm

Working in HR & Recruitment

If you are looking to join an external HR, training or recruitment consultancy, local employers include:

Hallidays HR
Cornerstone Resources
Ealoor Consultancy
Ashfield HR
Ladybridge HR
Evolve HR Solutions
Triple Three Solutions
F1rst Commercial Recruitment
Westpoint Cyber Talent
HR GO Recruitment
Damar Training
Ingeus
Plato Training

To pursue a career in the HR & Recruitment sector, you will need to be able to demonstrate skills like:

Communication skills
Discretion and confidentiality
Interpersonal skills and empathy
Emotional intelligence
Team player with strong leadership skills
Decision making and problem solving
Ability to manage own workload
Resilience

Employee engagement
Employee relations
Employment law
Industrial relations
Learning and development
Payroll and pensions
Performance and reward
Recruitment
Organisational development
Training

If you specialise in recruitment, you could work ‘in-house’ – helping to recruit new colleagues to join the company you work for, or in a recruitment agency where you’ll help other businesses to find the staff they need.

Similarly, if you specialise in L&D (Learning and Development), you could work as an in-house trainer or join an external training consultancy. You may also consider related roles in career coaching or occupational psychology for example.

You can start your career in HR and recruitment at any level – upon leaving school or college, with a degree or apprenticeship, with industry experience or transferring from another sector. It’s common for employers to recruit individuals with strong administration skills or experience in office work, retail or customer service into entry-level HR assistant or administration roles.

You can start at a higher level with more advanced qualifications or a specialist HR or business management degree, with some larger firms also offering graduate schemes in HR. At some stage, you will likely need some form of CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development) qualification (which range from Level 1 to Level 7 or degree-equivalent).

If you’re working in HR, you can choose either a generalist role that covers all aspects of employee development or, if you join a bigger organisation, you may choose to specialise in a particular area. If you specialise in recruitment, you could work ‘in-house’ – helping to recruit new colleagues to join the company you work for, or in a recruitment agency where you’ll help other businesses to find the staff they need. Similarly, if you specialise in L&D (Learning and Development), you could work as an in-house trainer or join an external training consultancy. You may also consider related roles in career coaching or occupational psychology for example.

You can progress your career in HR, Recruitment and Training by gaining the hands-on experience, knowledge and practical skills of designing and delivering people-management solutions in a range of business types, sizes and sectors. You can choose to specialise in a particular area of HR (such as workforce planning or organisational change) or within a particular sector (such as aviation or manufacturing).

You’ll then likely work your way up to roles with greater responsibility and seniority, or to larger firms with a bigger workforce to support, or move into consultancy work or even start up your own business.

There are plenty of opportunities to develop and grow your career, whilst increasing your earnings potential and gaining additional qualifications to support your personal and professional development.