A Day in the Life of a Human Resources Assistant

We recently caught up with Bright Network member, Jaiyesimi, to chat about how her career is going. Jaiyesimi has been working as a human resources assistant and told us about her personal experience of what a day in the life of a human resources assistant is really like. Read on to learn what this role is about and whether it’s the career path for you.

What does a human resources assistant do?

Human resources, otherwise known as HR, is the department of a company that makes sure all the employees within the company are happy and able to work effectively without any conflict or issues. Jaiyesimi is a human resources assistant, meaning she works within this department helping with the tasks that a HR department undertakes to support their colleagues.

We started by asking Jaiyesimi to reflect on working as a human resources assistant.

Is there a task or project that you’ve worked on that has stood out to you?

I’ve built a solid reputation by being proactive, reliable and dependable. These shape and widen my career horizon. It also helps me when coaching and mentoring new staff joining the organisation.

I focus on the company's key objectives and clearly align it with the role being hired for. A particular task of coaching new staff who applied for the role of "Client Relationship Officer" boosted my capability and capacity of taking a higher role in the company. The new staff were meant to be trained by my boss. Since she was on leave then and the company needed someone to train them, the Head of HR assigned them to me to take up my boss’ role.

I trained, coached and guided them through the vision, mission and stipulated goals of the company. This gave me the opportunity to explore and display my intelligence in bite-chunks in order to get their training across the finish line. These sets of trainees are doing very well in the company today.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned since starting?

The most important thing learnt so far includes the following: good communication, ethics, teamwork and problem-solving skill and that has been my major strength.

Also, the ability to think independently has expanded my understanding of empathy and making decisions accurately.

The working conditions of a human resources assistant

Human resources assistants are responsible for the workforce of a single company. This means being present in the company’s office is quite important to show that you’re approachable and present when your colleagues have a question or query. This often means working from the office, with the option of hybrid work depending on the company. Many human resources assistants work standard office hours or 9am to 5pm, but this may vary depending on the company.

We asked Jaiyesimi about what it’s like working as a human resources assistant.

What are some of the key skills you’ve learned in your job?

• Goal setting
• Decision making
• Project management
• Having a real impact
• Interacting with great mindset of people
• Making good money
• Building good organizational culture
• Multi-tasking
• Delivering respects to customers and showing empathy
• Knowledge about the products and services

What’s one thing you didn’t expect?

Raising expectations

A typical day in the life of a human resources assistant

Working as a human resources assistant may involve having different tasks throughout the working week which can make your days very different. For instance, you may help a colleague out with questions on one day, run a question-and-answer session on another day and find ways to improve the workplace for your colleagues on another! This variance can make being a human resources assistant a really interesting job and keep you on your toes. We asked Jaiyesimi to break down a typical day in the life of a human resources assistant, from the tasks she completes to her daily routine.

What are the main tasks in your job?

• Recruiting and hiring
• Onboarding and conducting ongoing training and development
• Managing Employee and Employer relationship
• Keeping database updated
• Updating clients database

What do you do throughout the day?

My daily routine includes:

• Being customer-first in my service approach
• Strengthen employee relations with the company
• Solving employee complaints
• Updating employee information on the database
• Responding to emails
• Reviewing contracts

How you could become a human resources assistant

Working in human resources requires having a specific set of skills and attributes. Firstly, being approachable and friendly is very important as your colleagues will need to feel comfortable coming to you with any problems they’re facing or questions they have. Additionally, you should be organised and able to manage your workload to make sure you’re on top of all your tasks, including the ones set by your manager. You should also have good communication skills as you might be involved in presentations if there are any changes to company policies. Luckily, you can improve on your own skills and reach a point where you’d be a great human resources assistant!

We asked Jaiyesimi for her advice on how you can break into the human resources assistant profession.

What top tips would you give Bright Network members wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Tip 1- Always believe in yourself and use positive language

Tip 2- Give credence to complaints

Tip 3- Maintain the passion to inspire others to grow

Have you been inspired by Jaiyesimi? Are you considering working life as a human resources assistant? Explore the current jobs in human resources and read our human resources manager job profile to learn more!