HR manager CV: the one read by people who read CVs

An HR CV is unusual: the person reading it does this for a living. Every weakness you would spot in someone else's CV will be spotted in yours, and generic phrasing lands especially badly.

Scale first

HR roles vary enormously by headcount, and it is the first thing a reader wants calibrated. Put it in the summary: "HR lead for 340 employees across four sites, with a team of five."

Also state the mix — factory and office populations are different disciplines, and someone who has run compliance for a garment floor has a skill an office-only manager does not.

Metrics that carry weight

• Time-to-hire, before and after
• Cost-per-hire
• Voluntary attrition, and the trend
• Offer acceptance rate
• Positions filled annually
• Training hours delivered, or people through a programme

Pick the ones you genuinely moved. HR readers know which metrics are easy to game, so two credible numbers beat six decorative ones.

Compliance is a distinct competence

Name it specifically: the labour law you worked under (the UK Employment Rights Act 1996, say, or the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006), its rules, and the audits your employer is subject to. Factory environments add buyer and social compliance audits — Accord, Alliance, BSCI, SEDEX — and experience of passing them is directly marketable.

If you have been through an audit with no non-conformities raised, say so.

Name the HRIS

BambooHR, SAP SuccessFactors, Zoho People, Workday, Darwinbox, or the in-house system. If you led an implementation or migration, that is a project worth its own lines: what you moved from, how many records, how long it took.

Employee relations, handled carefully

Disciplinary cases, grievances and terminations demonstrate real capability but require discretion. Describe the volume and the outcome, never the case: "Handled 20+ grievances annually with two escalations to formal proceedings and no subsequent legal challenge."

What to avoid

The HR field has more stock phrasing than any other, and an HR reader is immune to all of it. "Strategic HR business partner", "people-first culture", "drive engagement" — these say nothing. Replace each with something only you did.

Layout

The People template is a single column with policy, compliance and lifecycle work given equal weight. It is ATS-safe, which is worth caring about given that your own function is often the one running the system.

Run it through the ATS checker — worth knowing what your CV looks like on the other side of the software you use.