Abstract:
The major purpose of this study was to determine the human resource management skills required for personnel administration in tertiary institutions in Enugu State. Four research questions were answered using the mean statistic along with four hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance using the t-test statistic. The population consisted of 250 administrative staff from five government owned tertiary institutions in Enugu State. However, only 213 administrative staff completed the questionnaire correctly. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. Structured questionnaire titled Human Resource Management Skills Questionnaire was used to generate data for the study. The instrument was validated by three experts from the Department of Vocational Teacher Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and one Administrative Staff from Personnel Services, Registrar’s Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The Cronbach Alpha reliability technique was used to estimate the internal consistency of the items in the instrument and administered to human resource administrators in tertiary institutions in Anambra State. This yielded an average coefficient of 0.91. The findings showed that the four human resource management skills comprising basic skills, interpersonal (social/human relations) skills, problem solving skills and industrial relations skills were highly required for effective and efficient personnel administration in tertiary institution; that human resource administrator who exhibit these skills are better equipped to handle the enormous and challenging work carried out in tertiary institutions. It was recommended that human resource administrators in tertiary institution should exhibit abilities in activities that are related to basic knowledge when handling a given job; adapt new approaches of handling employees, provide opportunities for employee training, basic elements involved in interpersonal relationship should be imbibed and improve productivity through peace, welfare and industrial harmony in tertiary institutions.
