In the company that you work for, you probably have what is known as a human resource department,
affectionately known as HR.
But what exactly does HR do?
And do they provide any real value to the organization?
The common response to the second question is no.
Often viewed as simply an administrative department that tracks vacation days and processes benefit
forms, HR seems to get little to no respect.
Especially when you compare HR to some of the other functional heavyweights, like: marketing,
operations, finance, and more recently IT.
So before I make my case on why HR is one of, if not the most valuable departments in
an organization, lets start at the beginning.
Human resource management, or HRM, is the process of managing an organization's human
resources, or its workforce.
More technically, HRM is the process of developing the policies, practices, and systems designed
to influence employee motivation, behavior, and performance.
In addition to tracking payroll hours and processing benefit forms, HRM has a lot to
do with attracting and maintaining a high performing workforce.
So lets talk about some of the primary functions of human resources.
The goal here is to give you a general understanding of some of the important responsibilities
under HRM.
Keep in mind that weeks can be spent discussing each of them individually so if you're interested
in learning more you may want to conduct some additional research.
The first responsibility of human resource management it to actually analyze and design
the jobs within an organization.
In order for firm's to be able to produce goods and offer services, they must first
specify which employees are going to perform what tasks.
This commonly takes the form of what is referred to as a job analysis.
A job analysis is the process of getting detailed information about jobs within an organization.
For example, what tasks, duties, and responsibilities, should be performed?
How about the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform the job effectively?
Referred to as a job description and job specification respectively, these are two common byproducts
of a job analysis.
One thing that we'll see come up regularly is the effectiveness of our recruiting, selection,
training, and performance appraisals is largely dependent upon the job analysis.
In addition to obtaining data related to the different jobs in an organization, HR will
also engage in job design.
Job design involves actually defining the manner in which work should be performed and
ultimately the tasks required for each job.
Another responsibility of human resources is to engage in planning.
Human resource planning takes the form of evaluating both the existing labor supply,
both internal and external, and comparing that to the demand for labor.
HR, with the assistance of other functional areas, can make recommendations associated
with staffing and also downsizing in the event that supply exceeds the demand for labor.
Assuming that demand exceeds supply, human resources can then help the organization attract
workers who are qualified to meet the demands of the job.
This commonly takes the form of recruitment and selection.
Recruitment involves getting qualified applicants to apply for openings.
The rationale here is that a larger applicant pool will increase the likelihood of finding
more qualified workers.
One of the common responsibilities here is figuring our where to recruit.
Depending upon the type of applicant being sought, a number of different outlets from
traditional newspapers to executive search services can be utilized here.
Going back to our job analysis, if HR has accurately determined the requirements for
the job than they should have an easier time selecting the appropriate medium to communicate
with applicants.
Many organizations have even employed databases that track the skills, abilities, and education
of existing employees.
By creating a simple profile and self-reporting information, existing employees give managers
the ability to filter for specific skills, certifications, or other attributes that may
be needed for job openings.
Once a large enough number of applicants has been achieved, HR now engages in selection.
HR now needs to determine which applicants have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and
other characteristics necessarily to perform the job.
One way to think about selection is similar to running hurdles in track & field.
Each hurdle, will eliminate a number of applicants until eventually only a few are remaining
and management can make a hiring decision.
Now fortunately most firm's don't require us to run hurdles, but they do have a complete
an application, maybe take a personality or intelligence test, and sit down for an interview.
These are meant to help the employer get a sense of who is more qualified to perform
the job.
Although HR may not actually administer these selection measures, they are heavily involved
in the creation of them as it's important that they actually relate to job performance.
The next important function of human resources is training and development.
As you've probably experienced, every job requires some element of training in order
to equip workers with the knowledge, skills, and behavior needed to perform the job.
Of course workers come in with a certain degree of knowledge and skills, but they may lack
an understanding of how to operate software or certain procedures within the organization.
Again this goes back to completing a thorough job analysis as HR will have identified those
knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary to perform the work.
In addition to training, human resources also plays a significant role in managing performance.
Here, it's important to get a solid understanding of how well employees are doing their jobs.
There are many ways of accomplishing, but the commonality amongst them all is they actually
measure job performance, and provide feedback to workers in areas that are important to
organizational performance.
The next area under HRM is compensation and benefits, which involves developing the pay
practices and others perks that employees receive in exchange for being employees.
This requires an understanding of what similar jobs pay in the area, as well as the required
knowledge, skills, and abilities of the job.
An organization's compensation and benefits also assist in the recruiting process, as
generally applicants are drawn to employers who provide good better and generous benefits
packages.
And the last primary responsibility of the human resource function is to handle employee
separation.
Unfortunately there are times when its appropriate for an employee and employer to part ways.
This could be due to performance issues, economic slowdowns, retirement, or simply the employee
is leaving for another firm.
As you can imagine, HR plays a significant role in ensure that separation is handled
smoothly and done in accordance with local, state, and federal laws.
Failing to do so can have a harmful impact on the firm and increase the chances of lawsuits
or even workplace violence.
Together, these functions represent key components to human resource management.
As you can tell, HR plays a role in quite a few different areas.
And as environments become much more competitive, firm's are increasingly turning the HR as
a method of providing some type of competitive advantage.
Just think about this for a second.
If I can attract the most qualified applicants through a combination of pay and benefits,
identify them in my selection process, and provide them the training and development
needed so they can excel, wouldn't I have an advantage over other firms that don't engage
in these behaviors?
Coupled with the fact that these practices seldom provide an immediate payoff and there's
just enough of a disincentive for other firms to following suit.
Thank you for watching this video on human resource management.
For questions, please leave them in the comment box below and I'll do my best to get back
to them in a timely fashion.
If you want more from Alanis Business Academy you can subscribe to our channel, listen to
our podcast on SoundCloud and Stitcher, or go to alanisbusinessacademy.com where you'll
find additional content, quizzes, and more.
Thanks for watching.