Qualification of Human Resource Management Specialists: Assessment Experience

In the contemporary labour market, demand for human resource management (HRM) specialists is steadily increasing. However, a comprehensive conceptual framework for this professional field still requires further development due to the fragmented coexistence of various research approaches, including economic, personnel-administrative, and socio-psychological perspectives. In the course of the study, the authors relied on an integrative, multi-aspect methodology of human resource management developed by them. The purpose of the research is to analyse the extent to which the actual qualification level of HRM specialists, as well as undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in programmes such as “Human Resource Management” and “Personnel Management in Organisations,” corresponds to state and industry standards. The research methods included semi-structured interviews with HR department staff and line managers of enterprises in Naberezhnye Chelny, as well as a questionnaire survey of university students in the Republic of Tatarstan based on a multistage combined sampling design. Thus, the empirical base of the study comprised HR professionals, line managers, and university students. The findings reveal a significant gap between experts’ perceptions of the professional competencies required of HRM specialists and the actual level of competency development among HR department employees. It was also established that students majoring in management disciplines do not possess a sufficiently formed understanding of the content and scope of their future professional activities. The multi-focus framework of the concept of “personnel” and the multi-aspect approach to the functional content of human resource management proposed by the authors may be applied both to improve the performance of corporate HR departments and to enhance the training of future HR professionals.