What does a HR Manager do?
An HR manager leads a company's people function — recruitment, employee relations, performance, policy and culture. In India they typically oversee hiring and onboarding, handle grievances, manage payroll and compliance, drive engagement and retention, and shape HR policy — balancing the needs of employees and the business to keep the workforce productive, fairly treated and aligned with company goals.
A hr manager usually has around 4–12 yrs of experience and earns typically ₹6L–₹22L/yr in India. The day-to-day blends Recruitment, Employee relations, Performance management and more — this page gives you a ready-to-use hr manager job description template you can copy, plus the exact skills and salary employers expect.
HR Manager job description template
Copy the 8 responsibilities, 5 requirements and 9 skills below into your job post, then edit the parts that are specific to your company — pay band, location and reporting line.
Select the text above to copy it manually if the button is unavailable.
What are a HR Manager's key responsibilities?
A hr manager is typically responsible for the 8 duties below, which cover the day-to-day work most employers expect the role to own outright. Paste them into your job post as they are, or cut the ones another team already handles — a responsibility list that claims work the hire will not actually do is the fastest way to lose a candidate at offer stage:
- Oversee end-to-end recruitment, onboarding and offboarding
- Develop and enforce HR policies and ensure labour-law compliance
- Manage employee relations, grievances and conflict resolution
- Run performance-management cycles and appraisals
- Drive employee engagement, retention and culture initiatives
- Oversee compensation, benefits and payroll coordination
- Advise managers on people decisions and organisational structure
- Track HR metrics like attrition, time-to-hire and engagement
What qualifications does a HR Manager need?
Employers hiring a hr manager in India usually ask for the 5 qualifications below, typically alongside 4–12 yrs of experience. Keep only the ones you will genuinely screen on: every extra must-have narrows the pool, and in the Indian market a long mandatory list filters out strong candidates whose background simply reads differently on paper:
- Proven HR generalist or HR business-partner experience
- Knowledge of Indian labour laws, compliance and HR best practices
- Strong interpersonal, conflict-resolution and communication skills
- Experience with HRMS tools and HR metrics
- Bachelor's/Master's in HR or a related field (MBA-HR preferred)
What skills should a HR Manager have?
These are the 9 skills employers name most often on live hr manager listings in India. Treat the first few as the ones worth screening for directly and the rest as signals a candidate can pick up on the job — asking for all of them at once is what turns a reasonable role into an unfillable one:
Listing the three or four skills you genuinely screen on — rather than all 9 — is what keeps a hr manager posting from filtering out candidates who could do the job.
What does a HR Manager earn in India?
Typical salary (India)
typically ₹6L–₹22L/yr
Experience range
4–12 yrs
These are typical ranges and vary by city, company and skills. For live, role-specific pay data, see the OnJob salary guide.
HR Manager job description — FAQs
What does an HR manager do?
An HR manager leads a company's people function — recruitment, onboarding, employee relations, performance management, policy and compliance, and culture. They balance employee and business needs to keep the workforce engaged, fairly treated and productive.
What is the difference between an HR manager and an HR recruiter?
An HR recruiter focuses specifically on sourcing and hiring candidates, while an HR manager oversees the broader people function including recruitment, employee relations, performance, policy and compliance. The manager role is broader and more strategic.
What qualifications do you need to become an HR manager in India?
An MBA in HR or a master's in human resources is commonly preferred, along with several years of HR generalist experience and knowledge of Indian labour laws and HR best practices.
How much does an HR manager earn in India?
HR managers typically earn ₹6L–₹12L per year at mid level, with senior HR managers and HR business partners earning ₹15L+, and HR heads earning considerably more. See our salary guide for current ranges.