Free HR Courses

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2024 report found that low employee engagement costs the global economy $8.9 trillion (i.e., 9% of global GDP), highlighting what poor HR execution costs at scale. At the organizational level, HR directly shapes three things: 

• who joins the company (talent acquisition and workforce planning)

• how they develop (performance management and L&D)

• whether or not they stay (employee engagement and culture)

Each of these directly impacts productivity, innovation, and financial performance. 

• Organizational Growth

  • Supports hiring

  • Helps with workforce planning

  • Builds skill development aligned with business goals

• Workplace Culture

  • Improves employee experience

  • Supports communication

  • Encourages inclusion

  • Strengthens learning and workplace policies

• Employee Performance

  • Supports performance management

  • Enables feedback

  • Helps with training

  • Improves engagement

  • Supports career growth

Free HR courses are short, self-paced programs that help you understand the basics of human resource management and workplace operations. They cover:

• HR Analytics Course  (1 hr)

  • HR Functions and Skills Covered: HR analytics basics and levels, analytical techniques for talent acquisition, employee performance analysis, recruitment and retention strategy, compensation, workforce planning insights, predictive analytics in HR, challenges, and best practices in implementing data-driven HR

• Microsoft 365 Copilot for HR Professionals (3 hrs)

  • HR Functions and Skills Covered: Talent acquisition automation (job descriptions, candidate shortlisting, interview scheduling), employee onboarding and lifecycle automation (onboarding journey, handbook summaries, communication packs), performance management (OKR and KPI generation, performance review summaries, feedback drafting), HR analytics (AI-generated analytics summaries, sentiment and competency insights), L&D workflows (skill gap analysis, learning recommendations, development roadmaps, training plans), custom HR agents via Copilot Studio, and responsible AI in HR (bias detection, data privacy, compliance)

The free HR courses focus on the following tools across the course programs:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot: It is covered across a dedicated 3-hour course built for HR professionals. You learn to use it across the full HR workflow: drafting job descriptions, shortlisting candidates, generating onboarding packs, writing performance feedback, producing analytics summaries, and building L&D plans. 

• Copilot Studio: It lets you build custom HR agents and FAQ bots without any technical background.

• Microsoft 365 applications (Word, Excel, and Teams): They serve as the environment in which Copilot operates. Basic familiarity with these is helpful, though not required.

HR management applies differently across each of these four functions:

• Recruitment strategy involves defining role requirements, sourcing candidates, screening applications, conducting structured interviews, and managing the offer process. Our Microsoft 365 Copilot course covers practical automation of this workflow, while the HR Analytics course covers data-driven recruitment metrics and talent acquisition analytics.

• Workforce planning uses HR data to identify future hiring needs, skill gaps, and team requirements. The HR Analytics course covers predictive analytics and HR metrics used for workforce planning.

• Employee engagement is tracked through surveys, feedback, sentiment analysis, and performance discussions. The courses also cover how HR teams use engagement data and AI tools to improve retention and employee experience.

• Learning and development encompasses skill gap analysis, learning program design, training delivery, and development roadmaps. The Microsoft 365 Copilot course dedicates a full module to L&D workflows covering how to use Copilot to analyze skill gaps, generate learning recommendations, design development roadmaps, automate L&D communications, and create annual training plans.

These three titles represent different scopes of HR responsibility:

• HR Generalist

  • Focuses on end-to-end HR operations

  • Handles recruitment

  • Manages onboarding

  • Supports employee relations

  • Ensures compliance

  • Provides payroll support

  • Supports performance management

• HR Business Partner (HRBP)

  • Focuses on HR strategy and business alignment

  • Supports workforce planning

  • Builds talent strategy

  • Works on organizational development

  • Manages change management

• HR Specialist

  • Focuses on one HR domain

  • Common areas include:

    • Talent acquisition

    • Learning and development

    • Compensation

    • HR analytics

    • Employee relations

    • HR tech