The HR world has gone through some major changes over the years. In the past, HR professionals’ main responsibilities included record-keeping, payroll, and compliance. But today, technology has automated and streamlined many HR functions, turning the focus towards personalized people management and building positive workplace cultures.
Today’s job titles are beginning to reflect those changes and the increased importance of the employee experience. Newer HR functions and titles reflect the skills today’s HR leaders possess. New creative HR job titles like chief collaboration officer, people champion, and adventure coach all reflect the changing function of the HR professional’s role.
HR job titles that fit the new world of work are crafted with creativity, purpose, and culture. Here are some of our favorites.
Director of HR analytics
Yesterday’s human resource information specialist (HRIS), analytics, or HR information specialist is today’s director of HR analytics.
HR has always intersected with tech, data, and analytics. HRIS or HR information specialists worked with IT to oversee the use of technology such as applicant tracking systems and benefits portals, ensuring data was kept secure.
But today’s director of HR analytics goes beyond this to mine much-needed insights about behavior, skills, engagement, teams, networks, collaboration, and how work gets done. They dive deep into people data to uncover insights that can enhance productivity, drive performance, and unlock innovation. And this role is only more important as org charts flatten and agile teams replace traditional hierarchies.
Salary
While these HR job titles (and salaries) are new, some information is available about how much a director of HR analytics can expect to make. In the United States, this figure is about $122,396 per year.
Talent acquisition specialist
Yesterday’s recruiter is today’s talent acquisition specialist.
Recruitment is a traditionally central function of the HR department, with certain HR pros focused exclusively on sourcing, vetting, and hiring new people. A talent acquisition specialist, however, brings a new dimension of strategy and vision to their work with the recruitment cycle. In addition to filling open positions, talent acquisition specialists anticipate which positions may open in the future and ensure the company sets up new hires for long-term success and growth in the organization.
Salary
The median salary of talent acquisition specialists in the United States is $68,791.
Chief diversity officer/diversity leader
Yesterday’s HR coordinator is today’s chief diversity officer or diversity leader.
In the past, an HR coordinator may have spent some of their time thinking about and promoting inclusivity. Today, entire roles such as chief diversity officer and diversity leader are dedicated to ideating and executing diversity and inclusion initiatives.
After all, modern companies understand that diversity and inclusion are fundamental to business success and acknowledge that companies must do more to remove inequality in the workplace. Chief diversity officers work across the company to align diversity and inclusion goals with business outcomes. They also institute policies around recruitment and promotions that can remove bias and hire or promote people companies may otherwise overlook. Some of these practices include dropping degree requirements from job roles and instituting blind screenings for hiring and promotions.
Salary
The chief diversity officer is an essential job with a salary to match: $140,384 per year on average, to be exact.
Employee wellness manager
Yesterday’s benefits administrator is today’s employee wellness manager.
With benefits and compensation being one of the main concerns of HR departments, it was always common for one or more people to focus entirely on administering benefits. But today, things get even more granular. Employee wellness managers are responsible for overseeing organizations’ health and wellness programs in particular.
A title that has seen a growth spurt in popularity in recent years as people who worked from the office moved home overnight in the middle of a global pandemic. Employee wellness managers manage programs like yoga classes, at-home wellness challenges, medical services, and employee assistance programs.
Salary
The average salary of a wellness manager is $77,681 per year.
Chief heart officer
Yesterday’s employee relations manager is today’s chief heart officer.
A role always requiring a heavy dose of empathy within an often rigid framework, employee relations managers facilitated and managed employee relations, including handling complaints, managing grievances, and analyzing feedback. Today, this type of work is approached with the heart first as chief heart officers employ their high emotional intelligence to understanding the experiences and changes that shape professionals’ lives. They approach people’s outside needs, personal preferences, or private happenings with sensitivity and coach them to maintain work-life harmony at optimal levels.
Salary
One of the most recent and unique titles on this list, little information is available about the average salary of a chief heart officer. The average salary of a similar role, chief people officer, is $148,803 per year.
Chief learning officer
Yesterday’s trainer is today’s chief learning officer.
HR specialists focused on training and onboarding emphasize turning new hires into full-fledged team members. But the trend toward hiring chief learning officers shows the growing understanding that education and development must continue throughout a person’s time with the organization. That’s not to mention that today’s professionals see opportunities for growth and continuous learning as a key to joining and staying with companies.
Chief learning officers are generally experts in both corporate and personal training. They’re able to drive organizational strategy and goal setting while aligning the development of their people with business missions and objectives.
Salary
The average salary of a chief learning officer is $152,685.
Employee experience manager
Yesterday’s HR manager is today’s employee experience manager.
In the past, HR managers were often bogged down with repetitive work like spreadsheets, forms, and approvals, taking away the time they had to focus on what they were most passionate about and found most important: employee experience and company culture. Thankfully, automation– and a trend toward prioritizing employee experience as one of the most critical HR responsibilities–has freed up enough time and energy for some HR pros to focus solely on their work as employee experience managers.
An employee experience manager’s responsibilities include more than just providing people with a great employee experience. They’re also responsible for building strategies to improve the work culture and optimizing every area of the employee lifecycle.
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Salary
An employee experience manager can earn an average of $72,074 annually.
Back to the title drawing board
What may seem like needlessly quirky or unique HR titles actually reflect a shift in the way people see HR functions in the modern workplace. Gone are the days of endless administrative tasks, getting buried in keeping records, and ensuring compliance. Today, companies and professionals recognize HR pros as strategic partners in helping an organization succeed.
Reconsidering and potentially transforming stale HR position titles helps us march into a new age of workplace infrastructure and be more specific and excited about the jobs we perform. No one ever said our work lives had to be boring, so why can’t the same be applied to our job titles, too?
