As a Human Resource Specialist, you might have noticed that you have some free time between recruiting, administration work, and improving employee relations. The thought may have crossed your mind that maybe you could be spending your time making a bit of side income. After all, who doesn’t need more money?

As a HR specialist, you have valuable skills that can be incorporated into a myriad of different jobs outside of your current position. The world is more connected than ever, meaning there is a huge digital market out there waiting for you to tap into. It’s all just a matter of figuring out what suits your style best.

If you’re looking into getting some extra work on the side, then check out our 7 side income ideas for Human Resource Specialists below.

#1. Etsy

Etsy is one of the largest growing online marketplaces on the internet with 1.7 million active sellers and 28.6 million active buyers. Etsy is an online marketplace that provides the perfect platform for hobbyists to sell their creative projects, largely focusing on handmade, vintage, or rustic items. Setting up shop is relatively easy, making it easily accessible even for those of you who are new to online selling.

They take 3.5% of sales, but everything else is profit for you. From funny HR prints to resume templates, there are several directions you can take your HR skills to generate some side income. Take a look at your strengths and interests and then take a look at Etsy’s homepage to get some inspiration for your side hustle.

If you’re creative, you can even branch out into other products. Take a look at Louise Verity, a 34 year old woman from England, who started selling on Etsy while working a full time job in HR administration. She started a side business copying prints onto book pages and framing them into block frames and sold them on Etsy. This became a pretty lucrative side job, which eventually even became her full-time job!

#2. Resume Writer

As an HR specialist, you have the perfect insider insight into the typical applicant onboarding process, which means you have the skills needed to help coach job seekers on how to write an effective resume. 71% of employees are looking for new jobs, which gives you the perfect business opportunity to work as a resume coach. With so much competition, having a good resume is more important than ever to gaining an interview with your dream job and people are willing to pay for that skill.

Writing a resume that is geared correctly to your client’s needs is a highly specialized skill that you already possess as a Human Resource Specialist. If you plan to make the transition to resume coach, you will provide your clients with services such as:

• Interviewing them: It’s important that you have a firm grasp of your clients background and experience so you can help them write a resume that effectively showcases their strengths.
• Insider knowledge: The industry standard for ATS systems and resume formatting is always changing, so your clients will rely on you to know how to get their resume past the initial screening process.
• Writing the Resume: As a resume writer, you’ll need to provide your clients with a personalized resume that is tailored to their industry.
• Editing and proofreading: Once you’ve gathered information on your client, you’ll need to write their resume but your work doesn’t end there. Writing a resume is a process and you’ll need to edit and proofread your drafts until your client is happy with the finished product.

The starting salary for someone in this field is $20 per hour. Considering that most resumes will require between 6-8 hours of work, this can add up to some significant side income if you can pick up regular client work.

Another additional benefit is that most resume writing jobs are remote, meaning you can work with clients all over the world from the comfort of your home. This makes it a perfect side gig since you can work on it when you’re not at your regular 9-5 job.

If you’re interested in resume writing, there are several resources available to you. The National Resume Writers Association is a nonprofit that offers opportunities for resume writers to show off their skills in writing competitions as well as offering webinars, certification, and client matching services.

#3. Write an eBook

Other HR professionals are constantly seeking valuable information and new ways to increase productivity and eBooks are a popular medium of choice for informational resources.

When creating HR eBooks, there are 3 things you’ll need to be successful:

• Killer content: Whether it’s on how to recruit employees or how to correctly handle human resource issues within the office, you’ll need written content for your customers. Take a look here for a step-by-step guide on how to finish an eBook in 30 days.
• Professional Photos: It’s easier for people to process visual information rather than just text, so you’ll need to fill your eBook with high-quality pictures and images.
• A kickass eBook cover: A good eBook cover will attract interested readers while a bad cover will drive them away, even if the content is good.

Once you’ve created your eBook, you’ll need a store to sell it from. We recommend Sellfy, a platform where HR professionals can create an online store to sell their eBooks and other digital downloads. eBooks are a great side gig since the potential for income can be more substantial than just working a traditional job. Because it’s a source of passive income, you are not limited by however many hours you can work. Instead, you are only limited by however many units you can sell.

#4. HR Consulting

Consultation jobs are becoming increasingly popular as more and more Human Resource Specialists turn to the internet for additional income. As an HR consultant you provide your skills and knowledge to help guide businesses through the whole process of developing and refining their own HR department. You can look at popular consulting platforms such as these:

👉 Expert 360

👉 Clarity

👉 Talent Exchange

Be aware however that consulting is not a get rich quick scheme. Businesses will only work with consultants they trust and feel confident with, so you’ll need to work hard to build a solid reputation for yourself. You’ll also need to make yourself available to your clients, which can cut into your primary career. If you’re not careful, consulting can turn into a full-time job.

Once you’re established, however, the results can be tremendous. The mean salary for consultants is $90,860. Not bad for a side hustle!

#5. Online Career Coach

Did you know the average job opening attracts 250 applications?

There’s quite a bit of competition among job seekers, meaning many people are willing to pay for a career coach to help guide them to a more lucrative career. As an online career coach you will guide your clients through a series of questions designed to give you as much insight into their professional experience as possible.

Once you have all of their relevant information, you’ll then create a personalized career plan that will help them reach their goals. As an HR Specialist, you should already have experience with guiding employees in terms of career advancement, so this is a good side income that builds off of your existing skills.

This doesn’t mean you can approach online career coaching lightly. Career coaching is a results-oriented industry, meaning that clients will only work with a coach who has a history of providing value to their clients. If you have a past history of helping employees set and achieve career goals, this could be quite the lucrative side gig.

When it comes to career coaching, you also need to be up-to-date with the current job market. Whether you choose to specialize in a certain industry or work as a generalist, you’ll need to be aware of current events within your client’s industry. Be prepared to constantly check up on what’s going on in your industry and to do in-depth research as needed.

#6. Recruiting

Freelance recruiting is becoming increasingly popular as more and more of the employee onboarding process is done online. Between websites such as LinkedIn, AngelList, and BranchOut, recruiters can access a whole world of potential employees that wouldn’t be possible offline.

Recruiting as a side gig is especially appealing due to the versatile nature of the job. You can work from virtually anywhere, at any time, making it easy to do even when you’re working a full-time job.

However, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to network. Even though much of recruitment happens online, you’ll still need to reach out, make connections, and form relationships in order to be an effective recruiter.

Recruiting is not for the faint of heart. Be prepared to network aggressively, make cold calls, and regularly check up on prospective hires. In addition, the recruitment game is always changing. There are hundreds of websites, platforms, and services available for recruiters to use, so you’ll need to stay on top of a constantly changing industry. In order to succeed, you’ll have to work hard and stay persistent.

If you have the skill, however, you can bring in a considerable amount of income. The average annual salary for freelance recruiters is $56,917, which is not too shabby for some side income.

#7. Tutoring

Tutoring isn’t just for college students anymore! With more and more young professionals taking to the internet to further their education, there’s a market for experienced human resource tutors.

There are several different ways to break into the field of HR tutoring. If you’re interested in traditional tutoring opportunities, you can check out websites such as the ones listed below:

👉 Chegg

👉 Wyzant

👉 Varsity Tutors

For qualified Human Resource Specialists, these websites offer traditional tutoring opportunities. You’ll provide one-on-one tutoring through either video chat or text chat software to their clients, usually college students or young up and coming professionals.

If the thought of one-on-one tutoring doesn’t sound appealing, consider educating others through custom-designed courses. Using your human resource expertise, you can create a course designed to walk your students through certain fields within human resources using mediums such as text, video, and online quizzes.

Teaching students through custom-designed courses takes more time and energy than one-on-one tutoring but the payoff can be much greater. Once you’ve created your course and uploaded it to a website such as Coursera or Udemy, you’ll need to start promoting it so that you can start attracting students. Once the word is out, however, the course is pretty much a passive source of income. You’ll only need to work on it to make updates as needed and to answer student questions.

When it comes to tutoring, it’s a matter of personal preference. If you enjoy working with people and giving personalized lessons, one-on-one tutoring is the way to go. However, if you want to set up a stream of passive income that you won’t have to worry about later on, creating your own course may be the best option for you.

Getting Creative With Your Side Hustle

As a human resource specialist, you have several in-demand skills that you can use to generate a lucrative side income–it’s all a matter of getting creative with it. There are several different areas of HR you can choose to specialize in, so take an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses before making the leap.

What’s your HR side hustle?

Drop a comment and let us know.

Ritvars Lauža is the marketing lead of Sellfy – a platform where artists, music producers, photographers and other creators can build an online store for their own products.

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