Abstract
People working in the HRM department need specific skills, motivation and devotion to succeed in this dynamic and interesting field. The following guidelines can be beneficial to anybody who is interested in pursuing a career in the field of HR in SA. According to Swanepoel et al. (2003: 61), "Human Resource Management as a field of study, theory and practice is taken to be that part of management concerned with all the factors, decisions, principles, strategies, operations, practices, functions, activities and methods related to employees in organizations. All the dimensions related to people in their employment relationships and all the dynamics that flow from it are all aimed at ensuring organizational success through "good fit" employment relationships in turbulent and ever-changing environmental conditions?. One of the main objectives of HRM is to coordinate the interaction between people working within the organization which can be defined as "a coordinated social entity" (Swanepoel et al. 2005: 11). Planning, recruiting, selecting, implementing strategies, retaining and assisting employees, motivating and leading workers, assuring compensation and benefits, health and safety, dealing with labor unions are the main tasks of a HR expert.
