If you have ever thought about pursuing a career in human resources, you have probably wondered about the human resource degree ranking value. There are a variety of professional publications that provide information regarding how valuable various degrees are, and understanding where the human resource degree ranks can help you make an informed decision regarding whether to pursue a career in the field.
Human Resources-The Basics
Although broadly defined, the field of human resources is basically a sector that places primacy on the development and implementation of programs that improve its efficacy in hiring processes, benefits, and pay. In short, human resources is a field predicated on using programs that effectively create and manage employee-employer relationships. Some of the processes that are generally handled by the human resources department of an organization include:
► Managing job selection, recruitment and promotion
► Developing and promoting the right personnel policies
► Developing and overseeing employee wellness programs
► Providing an informative orientation for new employees
► Managing the organization’s pay-for-performance system
► Promoting employee job training and career development
► Fostering effective employee-employer relations
► Serving as primary contact for work-site accidents and injuries
► Providing guidance on disciplinary actions
Degrees In Human Resources
Individuals who are interested in working within the field of human resources often decide to obtain a degree in the field. Doing so can be advantageous as human resources degrees offer training courses in subject areas such as negotiations, compensation, international human resource management, and employment law. Additionally, obtaining a human resources degree provides you with a well-rounded education in subjects as diverse as computer information systems, accounting, international business, management and marketing, and finance.
Human Resource Degree Ranking Value
If you are attempting to determine how valuable a human resource degree is based on its ranking value, you may find the task to be a bit difficult. There are a variety of “Top 10” or “Top 15” lists that discuss the most valuable degrees to obtain, and you would be hard-pressed to find human resources on any of the lists. For example,
Forbes’ Jenna Goudreau wrote an article entitled “The 15 Most Valuable College Majors.” Some of the majors included in the list are biomedical engineering, software engineering, environmental engineering, petroleum engineering, biochemistry, computer science, and applied mathematics.
Like Forbes, The Daily Beast ran an article regarding the degree of value to be attributed to various degrees. Entitled “20 Most Useful College Majors,” the list included titles such as biomedical engineering, business, education, software engineering, multimedia and web design, and nursing. Yet the field of human resources did not make the list.
In yet another article regarding degrees with the most value, the human resources degree failed to make an appearance. Entitled “30 Best Paying College Majors: 2013,” the article details which majors help their earners pull in the most money after graduation. The list included majors such as chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, computer science, actuarial mathematics, civil engineering, and nursing. Human resources was not amongst the top 30.
Conclusion
As made plain from the information listed above, degrees in human resources do not rank well in terms of how valuable they will be after graduation. However, this does not mean that they will not be of value to their earners. There are a wide variety of well-paying careers that an individual can pursue with a degree in human resources, including a human resources manager. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, human resources managers can earn $99,720 annually. Thus despite the fact that the human resource degree ranking value is low, you should not conclude that this fact means earning the degree would be disadvantageous for you.
