Enhancing HR skills on returning to the Job Market

There are many types of skills which are utilised in Human Resources or HR and on returning to the job market or changing jobs or the industry in which you work,  there may be expectations of deliverables which may not be easily understood or identifiable.  For example in working for  the local arm of a  multinational company, the provision of pension plans for employees may not  have been  an expected deliverable, especially if the company is looking at a sizable labour force which may or may not be unionised  and one may experience difficulty in beginning to understand the concepts which are being explored. However given that in  being interviewed you are being assessed not only on the content of your knowledge, but also on your willingness to prepare for the job market, here are a few concepts which will help you hold a discussion on a topic even though you may not have the practical experience to support the knowledge.

Pension Plans - Research the types of Pension Plans which are approved for  in the local economy.  One quick way is to review the financial statements of companies which are quoted on the Stock Exchange.  If possible download the latest financial statement of several companies, and search for the accounting policy notes and the notes to the financial statements.  If time is of the essence, perform a search for pension and highlight the information for close scrutiny.

• On locating the relevant paragraphs, learning  about the topic which is being presented can be easy if you identify the points which seem to be factual or related to a date. For example,  you can identify the type of plan which  has been accepted by the company, as well as the due dates for the valuation of the plan and  the names of the valuators. This will lead to additional research on the work done by valuation companies and can prompt questions in the interview.
• Another quick win is to identify the accounting standard which guides the disclosures relating to pension plans. Further research on the standard, will reveal when the standard was adopted by the local accounting body, the date of the last revision and whether the company is compliant with this standard or not.  
• Another quick win is to identify the number of employees in the plan. This will give an idea on the possible size of the employees in the plan. A visit to the offices of the entity will indicate the age of the available population as well as the possibility of them belonging to the plan.

A more difficult area to learn about is Benefits, which I will perform research on and try to write about.