5 Key Takeaways from Human Resources Courses

At some point of time in our career paths, the Human Resources role gets deeper entrenched into our core functional role. Whether you are a technology person, a finance person, a customer service person, a marketer or any function in an organisation; after some years you will find yourselves at in need of some HR knowledge. This is especially important when we embark on a people management role. Some of us are fortunate to acquire them by learning from our bosses and mentors, while some of us will need to invest some amount of time and money to gain that professional knowledge. 

In the course of absorbing knowledge, it is also not uncommon to see people experiencing mid-career switch to the Human Resources field. In contrast, there might be a skeptic few who wonder, “What’s in it for me and why should I sink in that amount of money for this course?” We pondered over these questions and here is our Top 5 Key Takeaways - that might help to determine if this ‘expense’ translate into a worthy investment or mere dollars wasted. 

1. Employment Law and Industrial Relations

Any businesses operating in Singapore needs to have HR professionals who know the Singapore's Employment Law and legislation framework. While HR’s primary function is to ensure that people are placed according to their strength to work towards an organisation’s strategic business goals, they are also especially responsible for minimising risk of the company getting legally entangled. In today's global working environment, it is also getting increasingly important that HR professionals know where to find and how to interpret legal frameworks and policies in the business' operating country. 

2. People Management 

A company fundamentally starts with staffing themselves with the right people, so that they can get moving and continue growing. Talent Management is the area where HR professionals attract and recruit the right people into the organisation. This will also encompass job competency analysis and also introduce an understanding towards performance management. These form the basic in an organisation in attracting people, identifying and retaining talents. 

3. Training and Development

A company poise itself for phenomenal growth if it grows its people. In today’s organisation, there are increasingly more overlap in skills sets required for an ordinary person to add value to the bigger company’s strategy. So by knowing how to identify the organisation’s training needs and develop a training strategy or program, a HR professional will then be able to grow its human capital capabilities so that its people continue to grow the company. 

4. Rewards Management

It is quite safe to that no one will want to spend 9-10 hours of their daily live doing something unrewarding. Rewards Management is an area of study where not only an overview of remuneration and benefits are administered effectively complementing the organisation’s strategies, but also covers a wider scope of rewards program. The right reward system might not and should not be one that simply pays out cash for a job well done, but potentially gives a sense of recognition and appreciation to encourage good work and good behaviour.   

5. Strategic Management 

An organisation needs to put a bunch of people together, with varying skills and expertise to achieve their business goal. HR professionals should be able to appreciate the psychology behind different functions, work groups and individuals. With this, they can then better marry the business and individuals changing needs, and support the organisation’s strategic growth. 


We reckon these are the 5 basic key areas any HRM courses should cover. There are however, many other areas and aspects that courses would cover so that their graduates become all rounded professionals. This said, any persons thinking of undergoing a course should always come with an open mind, so that they can apply the principles of these subjects learnt readily into the fast changing global workplace. 


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