When is “Dear Human Resources” the right greeting?
In three cases. The posting tells you to send applications to HR. The company is small enough that HR or an office manager runs hiring. Or the job itself is in HR, which makes the HR manager your future boss. Outside those cases the letter is addressed to a department that will log it and pass it on.
Dear HR, Dear HR Manager or Dear Human Resources Manager?
| Greeting | How it reads | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Dear Ms. Okafor, / Dear Dana Okafor, | Specific. Always the best option. | The posting or LinkedIn names the HR contact. |
| Dear Human Resources Manager, | Formal and correct. Addresses one person by title. | You are applying for an HR role, or the ad says the HR manager hires. |
| Dear HR Manager, | Same meaning, slightly less formal. | Emails, and companies that write “HR” in their own ad. |
| Dear Human Resources Team, / Dear HR Team, | Neutral. Fits a shared inbox. | The address is hr@ or careers@ and nobody is named. |
| Dear Human Resources, / Dear Human Resources Department, | Stiff. You are greeting a department. | Government and other formal applications that name the department. |
| Dear HR, | Too clipped for a letter. | Only a short internal-style email. Prefer “Dear HR Team,”. |
Punctuation follows the usual rule: a comma for most letters and all emails, a colon for formal business letters. Capitalize every word of the greeting.
Who reads a letter addressed to HR?
Usually a recruiter or HR coordinator checks it against the requirements and forwards a shortlist. The person who decides is the manager of the team with the opening. A letter addressed to HR can still reach that manager, but it gets there as one PDF in a batch.
That is why direct contact tends to go to the manager. We coded 79 public first-person accounts of job seekers who wrote to someone at the company. 70 wrote to the hiring manager and 5 to a recruiter. The remaining four went to department heads, executives or another company contact. The sample is stories people chose to post, so read it as a pattern and not a rate. Sources are in the outreach study.
Example openings
Dear Human Resources Manager,
I'm applying for the People Operations Coordinator role. For the last
two years I've run onboarding for a 120-person support team at Lumen.Dear HR Team,
Please find my application for the Benefits Specialist position
(ref. 2291), as requested in the posting.Dear Human Resources Department:
I am submitting my application for Compliance Officer, vacancy
announcement 26-014.What to do when the posting only mentions HR
Send the application the way the posting asks, with the HR greeting. Then look up who runs the team. If you find them, a short separate note to that person does more than a better greeting on the letter HR receives. Our guide to hiring manager vs recruiter explains who does what, and “Dear Hiring Manager” is the safer generic line when the ad does not mention HR at all.
Need the actual name instead of a generic salutation? Paste the job URL into DearHiringManager.io — find the hiring manager's name in about a minute, then open with “Dear [Name],” instead.
FAQ
Should I write “Dear HR” or “Dear Human Resources”?
Neither is ideal. “Dear HR Team,” reads better than both. Spell out “Human Resources” for formal and government applications.
Is “Dear Human Resources Manager” correct?
Yes. It is the right greeting when the HR manager is the one hiring, which is the case for HR roles and at many small companies.
Should I address HR or the hiring manager?
Address whoever the posting names. If it names nobody, “Dear Hiring Manager,” is the better default because it points at the person who decides.