The main areas of work for people in HR are:

• recruitment and contracts – finding the right person for a vacancy and agreeing the terms of that employment.
• employee relations and welfare – ensuring that staff are happy in their roles and managing such issues as disagreements or changes in circumstances.
• employment law and health and safety – ensuring that the company complies with, and keeps up to date with, government regulations, such as those covering working conditions.
• pay and benefits – making certain that maternity and paternity pay, sickness pay, holidays, pensions and any other benefits the company offers are paid and that tax and National Insurance payments are made to the government.
• training, coaching and development – this may include telling staff about changes in industry practices, helping staff gain new skills to use within the company and developing staff through ongoing mentoring and training.