What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about HR? Like most people, you may likely link the term to an organisation’s workforce. Although this is also used in labour economics, the term human resources or HR is popularly applied to refer to the individuals that constitute the workforce of an organisation. It also refers to the functions of the group that is tasked to implement the policies in relation to the training and management of individuals.
If you have tried applying for a job, the people whom you will first seek out and go through before you meet the bosses of the company, are those who are part of the HR Department. They are responsible in assessing your competencies and skills. Once you have passed their approval, they are going to endorse you to meet up with the higher-ups in the organisation.
Modern Term
The term, human resources, was only coined on the latter part of the 60s. Its responsibilities revolve around the management of workers that include development, training and in implementing training courses. Once accepted in the company, the HR will also look into your performance and see if the training needs assessment or what other things they can suggest that you undergo in order to improve your skills.
The function of this department is now defined as personnel. They are very much involved in various processes that workers go through in order to become more competitive and highly skilled.
Functions and Roles
There may be differences in terms of the implementation of the functions of the department, but the key roles are the same. These roles cover many areas that include the following.
- The department plays a great role when it comes to resourcing qualified people into the workforce of the company. They are involved in the recruitment and selection phase. Once they have chosen the qualified individuals, they are still involved in processing their transfer on to the rightful departments.
- All the people who are part of the HR team of an organisation or company must always be aware of the labour laws on various levels that include the state, federal and local. They have to make sure that the company abides by these laws and all its employees are promptly briefed. They must also be aware of the changes, so that they can do all the necessary adjustments with the policies and procedures of the company.
- This department is in charged of the development of the structure and organisation al design. They must do this according to what is lawfully right as well as what is preferred by their bosses. This must also be done according to what will benefit most of the people within the organisation.
- After the HR team has pooled the right individuals to work for the company, they are still in charged of the record keeping of all the documents and files of these people and make sure that they maintain the confidentiality of these records.
- They have to analyze and perform the duties that involve workforce personnel data management. They are also involved in the learning management that involve further training or implementation of the training courses whatever they deem to be best fitted according to the skills and capabilities of their employees.
- They are also the ones whom the employees will go to whenever they have problems with compensation and benefits. They need to supply all concerned people about what they need to know regarding the matter. They must also update them regarding any changes or if there will be any delays in delivering any expected raise or bonuses.
- The role of the HR team involves the morale building of all the people who are working for the company. They have to get their views about the work-related issues that they often face. This way, they can act on these to help boost the moral of their employees, get their loyalty and improve the retention rate.
Setting the Standards
The human resources department may directly implement everything that needs to be done regarding to the functions that have been mentioned above. This all depends on the company that they are working for. The HR managers must also be able to apply and act on the legal issues that the company faces.
A typical organisation must be able to follow certain standards that are considered to be major trends in the industry. These include the diversity, demographics and qualifications.
The diversity refers to the differences of the people within the organisation. These include the differences in ages, gender, race, sexual orientation and many more. Through this, the institution will be able to come up with the right strategies and plans according to what is going to be the best and best suited for the people who are working for the company.
The demographics refer to the characteristics of the people who are working within the organisation. These will rate the employees according to age, social class and gender. The results will help the company analyze the insurance packages that will suit the employees, pension rates and other system-related issues.
The department should analyze the qualifications of all those who want to be part of the company. They must also be active in searching for highly skilled people who will fit the important roles in the company or those whom they think will bring in more success in it. If they find themselves competing for the approval of highly skilled individuals to be part of the company, they must be able to come up with competitive financial rewards and other packages that will help convince these people to take a second look at their offer.
This is an interesting department and also a very integral one in any company’s structure. This may be the reason why many people are getting interested with careers that involve any HR tasks. If you want to pursue the venture, you have to be broad minded and well aware of the issues regarding the industry that you want to be part of.