Unit 1
Introduction
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the term used to describe formal structures devised for the management of people inside an organization. The responsibilities of a human resource manager fall into three primary areas: staffing, employee compensation and benefits, and defining/designing work. Essentially, the motive of HRM is to maximize the productiveness of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its employees. This mandate is unlikely to change in any fundamental way, despite the ever-increasing pace of change in the business world. As Edward L. Gubman discovered in the Journal of Business Strategy, "the basic mission of human resources will always be to acquire, develop, and retain talent; align the workforce with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business. Those three challenges will never change."
Definitions of HRM
In simple words, HRM is a method of making the efficient and effective use of human resources so that the set goals are achieved. Let us also consider some necessary definitions of HRM.
According to Flippo “Personnel management, or say, human resource management is the planning, organising, directing and controlling of the procurement development compensation integration, intenance, and separation of human sources to the end that individual, organisational and social objectives are accomplished”.
The National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) of India has defined human resource/personnel management as “that part of management which is concerned with humans at work and with their relationship within an enterprise. Its purpose is to deliver collectively and boost into an advantageous employer of the men and ladies who make up an organization and having regard for the well-being of the persons and of working groups, to enable them to make their best contribution to its success”.
According to Decenzo and Robbins “HRM is concerned with the human’s dimension in management. Since every organisation is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance and making sure that they proceed to hold their commitment to the organisation are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This is true, regardless of the type of organisation-government, business, education, health, recreation, or social action”.
Thus, HRM can be described as a procedure of procuring, creating and keeping competent human resources in the organisation so that the goals of an organisation are completed in a positive and efficient manner. In short, HRM is an art of managing people at work in such a manner that they give their best to the employer for achieving its set goals.
The importance of human resource management can be discussed, after Yodder, Hemerman and other from three standpoints, viz. Social, professional and individual enterprise.
(a) Social Significance
Proper management of personnel, enhances their dignity by satisfying their social needs. This it does by (i) maintaining a balance between the jobs available and the job seekers according to the qualification and needs, (ii) Providing suitable and mist productive employment, which might bring them psychological satisfaction; (iii) making maximum utilization of the resource in an effective manner and paying the employee a reasonable compensation in proportion to the contribution made by him; (iv) eliminating waste or improper use of human resource, through conversation of their normal energy and health; and (v) by helping people make their own decisions, that are in their interests.
(b) Professional Significance
By providing healthy working environment, it promotes team work among the employees. This is done by (i) maintaining the dignity of the employees as a ―human being‖; (ii) providing maximum opportunities for personal development; (iii) providing healthy relationship between different work groups so that work is effectively performed; (iv) improving the employees ‘working skill and capacity; (v) correcting the errors of wrong posting and proper reallocation work.
(c) Significance for Individual Enterprise
It can help the organization in accomplishing its goals by: (i) creating right attitude among the employees through effective motivation; (ii) utilizing effectively the available resources and (iii) securing willing co-operation of the employees for achieving goals of the enterprise and fulfilling their own social and other psychological needs of recognition, love, affection, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization.
HRM is more relevant in today ‘s context due to the following compulsions:
1. Change Management: Today, terms such as ―Learning Organization. ―Managing Organizational Change, ―Change Agents and the like are being increasingly encountered. It is now an accepted fact that any organization can survive in today ‘s socio-economic environment only if it is proactive to environment changes. Advances in information technology too are focusing organizations to change their very way of thinking.
2. Competence: It is often said, ―Give a man a job that he excels at and he would not have to work. In the organizational context, it may not be always feasible to allocate tasks to individuals at which each one excels, but surely, we can enhance competence of individuals for specific tasks through well-designed training programmes. It is equally important to take note of the interests of the individual. It is much easier to train him in tasks closer to his inherent liking. It is, however, seen that many managers do not realize the importance of this aspect and would prefer sub-optimal performance form an employee rather than spare him for training/ retraining because in the latter case the employees would not be available for work during that manager ‘s tenure. What is not appreciated is that without the required competence, an employee would either shirk from the assigned tasks or would do a lousy job. After a while such an employee would attempt recognition through destructive means because he is unable to make a mark as a good performer.
3. Commitment: The extent to which the employees are committed to their work and organization has a significant bearing on an organization ‘s performance. Commitment levels can be assessed in a number of ways. One can make use of informal interviews and questionnaires, statistics on absenteeism, grievances, and voluntary separations. Transparency in organizational functioning, employees ‘perception of various HRM policies, channels of communication, and role models played by superiors strongly influence employee commitment.
4. Congruence of objectives: Even well-qualified and committed employees could pursue goals at variance to the organizational objectives. It is, therefore, essential that all newcomers to the organization are properly socialized into the existing community and are made aware to the organizational values, work ethos, customs and traditions. It is important that they know what the organization stand for and what it wants to achieve and, in the process, what is expected from each individual, so that he can find reason and meaning for his existence in the organization. This exercise is commonly referred as socialization.
5. Motivation: Another aspect of human behaviour is the employee ‘s willingness to work and the desire to constantly improve his performance. There are different schools of thought on motivation but essentially, all agree that work is not inherently distasteful. People want to contribute to meaningful goals, particularly, those they have in setting. Most people can exercise far more creativity, self-direction and self-control than their present jobs demand. It is, however, necessary to create an environment in which all members can contribute to the limits of their ability. Subordinates must be encouraged to participate in the process of decision-making, continually broadening their self-direction and self-control as this would not only lead to direct improvement in operating efficiency but would also ensure their grooming for higher responsibilities.
Human Resource management is concerned with the most effective use of people to achieve organizational and individual goals. It is a way of managing people at work, so that they give their best to the organization. It has the following features:
1. Action Oriented: Human Resource management focuses attention on action, rather than on record keeping, written procedures or rules. The problems of employees at work are solved through rational policies.
2. Individuality Oriented: It tries to help employees develop their potential fully. It encourages them to give out their best to the organization. It motivates employees through a systematic process of recruitment, selection, training and development coupled with fair wage and policies.
3. Integrating Mechanism: Human Resource Management tries to build and maintain cordial relations between people working at various levels in the organization. In short, it tries to integrate human aspects assets in the best possible manner in the service of an organization.
4. Pervasive Force: Personnel Management is pervasive in nature. It is present in all enterprises. It permeates all levels of management in an organization.
5. Auxiliary Service: Personnel departments exist to assist and advise the line or operating managers to do their personnel work most effectively. Human Resource manager is a special advisor.
The scope of Human Resource Management refers to all the activities that come under the banner of Human Resource Management. These activities are as follows.
Human resources planning: -
Human resource planning or Human Resource Planning refers to a process by which the company to identify the number of jobs vacant, whether the company has excess staff or shortage of staff and to deal with this excess or shortage.
Job analysis design: -
Another important area of Human Resource Management is job analysis. Job analysis gives a detailed explanation about each and every job in the company.
Recruitment and selection: -
Based on information collected from job analysis the company prepares advertisements and publishes them in the newspapers. This is recruitment. A number of applications are received after the advertisement is published, interviews are conducted and the right employee is selected thus recruitment and selection are yet another important area of Human Resource Management.
Orientation and induction: -
Once the employees have been selected an induction or orientation program is conducted. This is another important area of Human Resource Management. The employees are informed about the background of the company, explain about the organizational culture and values and work ethics and introduce to the other employees.
Training and development: -
Every employee goes under training program which helps him to put up a better performance on the job. Training program is also conducted for existing staff that have a lot of experience. This is called refresher training. Training and development are one area where the company spends a huge amount.
Performance appraisal: -
Once the employee has put in around 1 year of service, performance appraisal is conducted that is the Human Resource department checks the performance of the employee. Based on these appraisal future promotions, incentives, increments in salary are decided.
Compensation planning and remuneration: -
There are various rules regarding compensation and other benefits. It is the job of the Human Resource department to look into remuneration and compensation planning.
Motivation, welfare, health and safety: -
Motivation becomes important to sustain the number of employees in the company. It is the job of the Human Resource department to look into the different methods of motivation. Apart from this certain health and safety regulations have to be followed for the benefits of the employees. This is also handled by the HR department.
Industrial relations: -
Another important area of Human Resource Management is maintaining co-ordinal relations with the union members. This will help the organization to prevent strikes lockouts and ensure smooth working in the company.
The Human Resource Officer
The Human Resource Officer is responsible for providing support in the various human resource functions, which include recruitment, staffing, training and development, performance monitoring and employee counselling.
(The way that the position contributes to and impacts on the organization) The Human Resource Officer provides advice and assistance to supervisors and staff. This may include information on training needs and opportunities, job descriptions, performance reviews and personnel policies.
The position coordinates the staff recruitment process. The Human Resource Officer provides advice and support to supervisors and staff selection committees and ensures that they have accurate and timely information in order to make effective decisions.
Failure to provide adequate advice or assistance may result in lost opportunities for staff development, poor staff morale, financial loss to staffs for residents and a loss of credibility.
The primary objective of HRM is to ensure the availability of right people for right jobs so as the organisational goals are achieved effectively. The objectives are-
1. To help the organisation to attain its goals effectively and efficiently by providing competent and motivated employees.
2. To utilize the available human resources effectively.
3. To increase to the fullest the employee’s job satisfaction and self-actualisation.
4. To develop and maintain the quality of work life (QWL) which makes employment in the organisation a desirable personal and social situation.
5. To help maintain ethical policies and behaviour inside and outside the organisation.
6. To establish and maintain cordial relations between employees and management.
Human resources (HR) professionals conduct a wide variety of tasks within an organizational structure. A brief review of the core functions of human resource departments will be useful in framing the more common activities a human resource professional will conduct. The core functions are discussed below:
Figure: Functions of HRM
a) Staffing
This includes the activities of hiring new full-time or part-time employees, hiring contractors, and terminating employee contracts. Staffing activities include:
- Identifying and fulfilling talent needs (through recruitment, primarily)
- Utilizing various recruitment technologies to acquire a high volume of applicants (and to filter based on experience)
- Terminating contracts when necessary
- Maintaining ethical hiring practices and aligning with the regulatory environment
- Writing employee contracts and negotiating salary and benefits
b) Development
On-boarding new employees and providing resources for continued development is a key investment for organizations, and HR is charged with maintaining a developmental approach to existing human resources. Development activities include:
- Training and preparing new employees for their role
- Providing training opportunities (internal training, educational programs, conferences, etc.) to keep employees up to date in their respective fields
- Preparing management prospects and providing feedback to employees and managers
c) Compensation
Salary and benefits are also within the scope of human resource management. This includes identifying appropriate compensation based on role, performance, and legal requirements. Compensation activities include:
- Setting compensation levels to match the market, using benchmarks such as industry standards for a given job function
- Negotiating group health insurance rates, retirement plans, and other benefits with third party providers
- Discussing raises and other compensation increases and/or decreases with employees in the organization
- Ensuring compliance with legal and cultural expectations when it comes to employee compensation
d) Safety and Health
Achieving best practices in various industries include careful considering of safety and health concerns for employees. Safety and health activities include:
- Ensuring compliance with legal requirements based on job function for safety measures (i.e., hard hats in construction, available counseling for law enforcement, appropriate safety equipment for chemists, etc.)
- Implementing new safety measures when laws change in a given industry
- Discussing safety and compliance with relevant government departments
- Discussing safety and compliance with unions
e) Employee and Labor Relations
Defending employee rights, coordinating with unions, and mediating disagreements between the organization and its human resources is also a core HR function. Employee and labor relations activities include:
- Mediating disagreements between employees and employers
- Mediating disagreements between employees and other employees
- Considering claims of harassment and other workplace abuses
- Discussing employee rights with unions, management, and stakeholders
- Acting as the voice of the organization and/or the voice of the employees during any broader organizational issues pertaining to employee welfare
1.Strategic HR Planning and Analysis
a) HR Planning : Human resource planning is the continuous process of systematic planning to achieve optimum use of an organization’s most valuable asset — its human resources. The objective of HRP is to ensure the best fit between employees and jobs while avoiding manpower shortages or surpluses. The four key steps of the HRP process are analysing present labour supply, forecasting labour demand, balancing projected labour demand with supply and supporting organizational goals.
b) Job Analysis : Information is the basic material used by an industry for many kinds of job-related planning. Nature of job information varies from industry to industry, from department to department and from purpose to purpose. Information used for job analysis must be accurate, timely and tailor made. According to N.R Chatterjee, job analysis is the process of determining by observation and study and reporting pertinent information related to the nature of a specific job. Dale Yoder defined as the method used to determine what types of manpower are needed to perform the jobs of the organization.
c) HRIS
2. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)
a) Compliance
b) Diversity
c) Affirmative Action
3.Selecting and Hiring Employees
a) Job Analysis : Job analysis is a family of procedures to identify the content of a job in terms of activities involved and attributes or job requirements needed to perform the activities. Job analysis provides information of organizations which helps to determine which employees are best fit for specific jobs. Through job analysis, the analyst needs to understand what the important tasks of the job are, how they are carried out, and the necessary human qualities needed to complete the job successfully.
The process of job analysis involves the analyst describing the duties of the incumbent, then the nature and conditions of work, and finally some basic qualifications. After this, the job analyst has completed a form called a job psychograph, which displays the mental requirements of the job. The measure of a sound job analysis is a valid task list. This list contains the functional or duty areas of a position, the related tasks, and the basic training recommendations. Subject matter experts (incumbents) and supervisors for the position being analysed need to validate this final list in order to validate the job analysis.
b) Recruiting : Recruiting is a ‘linking function’ joining together those with jobs to fill and those seeking jobs. It is a joining process in that it tries to bring together job seekers and employer with a view to encourages the former to apply for a job with the latter. The objective of recruitment is to develop a group of potentially qualified people. To this end, the organization must project the position in such a way that job seekers respond. To be cost effective, the recruitment process should attract qualified applicants and provide enough information for non-qualified persons to self-select themselves out.
c) Selection : To select is to choose. Selection is a screening process. It is the process of picking individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill jobs in an organization. The basic purpose is to choose the individuals who can most successfully perform the job from the pool of qualified candidates. Selection starts after the recruitment process is over and job application has been received.
4.Paperwork and Orientation
5.Training and Development
a) Orientation
b) Training: Training involves the change of skills, knowledge, attitudes, or behaviour of employees. Although training is similar to development in the methods used to affect learning, they differ in time frames. Training is more present-day oriented, its focus is on individual’ current jobs, enhancing hose specific skills and abilities to immediately perform their jobs. Training is job specific and is designed to make employees more effective in their current job. Employee development, on the other hand, generally focuses on future jobs in the organization.
c) Employee Development
d) Career Planning
e) Performance Management
6.Compensation and Benefits
a) Wages /Salary /Administration: Wages and salaries are the remuneration paid or payable to employees for work performed on behalf of an employer or services provided. Normally, an employer is not permitted to withhold the wages or any part thereof, except as permitted or required by law. Employers are required by law to deduct from wages, commonly termed “withhold”, income taxes, social contributions and for other purposes, which are then paid directly to tax authorities, social security authority, etc., on behalf of the employee. Garnishment is a court ordered withholding from wages to pay a debt.
Wages and salaries are typically paid directly to an employee in the form of cash or in a cash equivalent, such as by cheque or by direct deposit into the employee’s bank account or an account directed by the employee. Alternatively, all or a part may be paid in various other ways, such as payment in kind in the form of goods or services provided to the employee, such as food and board.
b) Incentives: An incentive is something that motivates an individual to perform an action. The study of incentive structures is central to the study of all economic activities (both in terms of individual decision-making and in terms of co-operation and competition within a larger institutional structure). Therefore, economic analysis of the differences between societies (and between organizations within a society) amounts to characterizing the differences in incentive structures faced by individuals involved in these collective efforts. Incentives aim to provide value for money and contribute to organizational success.
c) Benefits: Employee benefits and benefits in kind (also called fringe benefits, perquisites, or perks) include various types of non-wage compensation provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries. Instances where an employee exchanges (cash) wages for some other form of benefit is generally referred to as a “salary packaging” or “salary exchange” arrangement. In most countries, most kinds of employee benefits are taxable to at least some degree. Examples of these benefits include: housing (employer-provided or employer-paid) furnished or not, with or without free utilities; group insurance (health, dental, life etc.); disability income protection; retirement benefits; day-care; tuition reimbursement; sick leave; vacation (paid and non-paid); social security; profit sharing; employer student loan contributions; conveyancing; domestic help (servants); and other specialized benefits.
7.Performance Appraisal : After an employee has worked on a job for a period of time, his performance should be evaluated. Performance evaluation is the process of deciding how an employee does his job. Performance here refers to the degree of accomplishment of the tasks that make up an employee’s job. It indicates how well an individual is fulfilling the job requirements.
8. Health, Safety, & Security
a) Health
b) Safety
c) Security
9. Managing Legal Issues
a) HR Policies
b) Employee rights and Privacy : Increasingly, employers are discovering that they need to know facts about their employees which may not be immediately apparent in the workplace – facts about their employees or prospective employees’ credit and prior histories, facts about their employees’ conduct in the workplace during “personal” or “break” time, facts about their employees’ use of e-mail or Internet, facts about their employees’ off-duty conduct, and facts about their employees’ medical conditions. Inquiry into these facts too often gives rise to claims of invasion of privacy by the employee.
Depending on the context of the inquiry, employers may need to balance the legitimacy of their need to know against the employees’ rights of privacy.
c) Union/ Management Relation
d) Company policies and legal issues
The managerial skills are-
1. Communication
Communication is arguably the most important skill a human resources manager must possess. A qualified HR manager needs strong written and verbal communication skills to handle daily tasks. Here are several examples of HR duties that require excellent communication skills:
- Salary negotiation
- Benefit explanation
- Conflict resolution
- Company presentations
- Employee handbook updates
Nonverbal communication skills are also essential. Nonverbal communication helps an HR manager determine whether people are uncomfortable, dishonest or confused during conversations or presentations. This is helpful when an employee files a discrimination claims or a potential employee undergoes a job interview.
2. Organization
It’s difficult to manage the needs of employees and business owners if you lack organizational skills. When an employee visits the HR office with a question or concern, the manager may not immediately know the answer. However, he or she should know exactly where to find the requested information.
Many HR managers organize information online as well as offline. That means there may be stacks of file folders with general company information as well as digital programs with sensitive data. Human resources managers often benefit from resource management software for payroll, employee schedules and benefit management. Business-oriented software streamlines HR management by providing important information on one convenient platform.
3. Tech Savvy
Gone are the days where HR managers would pound away on typewriters or draft performance reviews by hand. Many human resources professionals rely on visual planning software, digital spreadsheets and online databases to complete their job. A tech-savvy HR manager may also create PowerPoint presentations, update company blogs and track workplace analytics.
Going digital may even reduce the need for overtime. A whopping 94% of business professionals say that Visual Planning software helps them save time. Time management definitely matters in the HR field, as approximately 1 out of 3 HR managers works more than 40 hours per week.
4. Flexibility
Structure helps a business run smoothly, but HR management requires plenty of flexibility. Job duties vary daily, and unexpected issues may arise at any time. It’s impossible to predict when a workplace injury may occur or whether a benefit provider may abruptly change their policies.
5. Patience
If you’re a parent or you remember your time in elementary school, you’re probably familiar with tattling. Sometimes tattling involves a minor issue, such as someone sticking out their tongue or making a silly noise. Other times, complaints involve serious allegations regarding injuries or bullying.
This also describes the life of an HR manager. During an average workday, an HR manager may handle complaints ranging from “I don’t want to sit by Judy because she smells” to “Ross won’t stop touching me and saying I’m beautiful.” You may also have to deal with complaints about insurance and other benefit providers for your company or mediate conflicts between workers and their bosses.
All of this requires a calm, patient personality. Employees count on HR managers to handle their problems, whether they involve major concerns or trivial matters.
6. Negotiation
When an employee comes to HR management with an issue, they often believe they’re right, and the other parties involved are wrong. This is true whether the complaint involves pay, hours, job duties or another problem.
When issues like this arise, an HR manager diffuses conflict by negotiating with employees. The following situations may warrant negotiations:
- A new employee with extensive experience or a college degree requests a higher salary than the normal starting rate
- A current employee threatens to quit if they don’t receive a raise
- An employee wants to remain at the company but can’t handle the current schedule
- An employee refuses to work with a specific manager
In these situations, a human resources manager must negotiate compromises that benefit the company as well as the employee.
7.Ethical Actions
Human resource management requires ethical actions that preserve the integrity of all parties involved. However, that’s tricky because HR issues often involve gray areas without clear solutions.
A skilled HR manager must be able to make quick decisions when right and wrong answers aren’t obvious. These decisions must always protect the company and its employees. That means solutions must never involve favouritism, racism, sexism or other forms of discrimination or preferential behaviour.
8. Compassion
Many employees are terrified to request personal time, even when companies offer generous plans. Workers worry management might view them as lazy, irresponsible or uncommitted to their duties.
As an HR manager, it’s important to remember employees have lives beyond the workplace. When an employee confides they are taking time off of work, an HR manager shouldn’t judge or interrogate them. An HR manager should also treat employees fairly and respectfully if they complain about serious matters such as sexual harassment or racism in the workplace.
9.Commitment
In order to be successful, a human resources specialist should genuinely care about the state of the company. It’s difficult for an apathetic HR manager to provide guidance and resources to employees.
Dedication and loyalty are essential traits for HR managers. An HR expert must fully complete projects, resolve issues and address employee needs. Half-hearted attempts may make employees feel inadequate or undervalued, which could lead to high turnover rates. Even if employees stick around, they may not do their best work if they don’t feel appreciated or respected.
Human resource management requires more skills than traditional management. If you or your company’s HR manager lack the skills above, don’t give up just yet. Schedule training, install helpful software and establish goals for effective HR management.
ROLES-
The Human Resource Manager has been playing a variety of roles at different stages in the past, like that of a police agency, a legal defender of rights and a negotiator, a catering man meeting the welfare needs of the employees. But the theme has always been set by the thinking at the top-level management. Looking back at the historical manifestation of the role of a personnel Manager in industry, it may be said that by and large it reflected the top management ‘s own concept of the personnel function and the methods of managerial control they believed in. The personnel manager has been playing a variety of roles at different stages in the past, like that of a police agency, a legal defender of rights and a negotiator, a catering man meeting the welfare needs of the employees. But the theme has always been set by the thinking at the top-level management.
It is difficult precisely to relate the present-day functions of human resource manager to his role as conceptualized earlier. If the human resource management is what HR Managers do, the picture that emerges is indeed confusing, for what HR managers do can be compared to a Sunday morning jumble sale- a collection of incidental chores, firefighting tasks, welfare functions, and a watch-dog function.
As professor Chatterjee puts in: ―The personnel man first appeared as a low powered functionary who was no better than a files clerk or record keeper concerned with the payment of the dues of the workers. Out of this arose a kind of role as a liaison man or channel of communication between the boss and the man. To start with he was essentially an odd-job-man. Then came the next stage when he administered the welfare schemes which were being gradually provided for in the statutes. As the workers were organizing themselves into strong unions and industrial conflicts were multiplying the employer used the Personnel Man as a kind of trouble shooter or fire-fighting- either to advise him on how to find loopholes in the labour laws or other statutes so that the union demands could be resisted with a measure of legitimacy or to come to a settlement where concessions were inescapable. There was a tendency at this stage to make him responsible for handling all kinds of labour trouble. Gradually his work was realized as more of the nature of staff function rather than the line function; and that he was an expert rather than a controller or manager of men.
In the modern era, the HR Manager typically performs a variety of roles, such as the role of conscience, of a counsellor, a mediator, a company spokesman, a problem-solver and a change agent. He performs many miscellaneous roles in accordance with the needs of a situation, such as
1. The Conscience Role: Under this role, the HR Manager reminds the management of their moral and ethical obligations towards employees.
2. The Counsellor Role: Under this role he encourages the employees to meet him frequently for consultation and discussion of their mental, physical and career problems and at times even their family problems.
3. The Mediator Role: Under this role, he tries to settle disputes between labour and management as also those between an individual and a group. He is not only a peace maker but also serves as a liaison and communicating link.
4. The Spokesman Role: under this role, he works as a spokesman for or as a representative of his organization. This he is able to do as he deals intimately with many key organizational activities and functions and has a better overall picture of his company’s operations.
5. The Problem-Solver Role: He is a problem-solver in respect of issues involving human resource management and overall long-range organizational planning.
6. The Change- Agent Role: He serves as a change agent in respect of introduction and implementation of major institutional changes.
It has been now fully recognized that the basic role of the Human resource manager is ―the management of manpower resources. Such management is concerned with ―leadership‖ both in group and individual relationship, and labour management relations.
It effectively describes the process of planning and directing the application, development and utilization and is now considered as one of the four main functions, viz. Finance, production, marketing and human relations.
The functions of the HR Manager are very comprehensive and varied and are determined and influenced by such factors as the size, nature and location of organization, business or industry, its short and long term objectives, nature of industry and product, market conditions, degree of competitiveness among rivals, economic, cultural, political and legal environment, the structure of the executive and administrative officers, the mental makeup of the HR Managers, and the over-all organizational philosophy of business. The HR Manager undertakes all those functions which are concerned with ―Human elements‖ or ―relations in organization as well as in material elements‖. Whatever items are listed therein (as the functions), the main objective is to see that human resources are purposefully utilized for the optimum good of the organization and there should be meaningful co-operation for achieving the objectives of management. Expertise is brought together in a scientific manner and attitudes so created that motivate the group to achieve the organizational goals economically, effectively and speedily, and also fulfil and satisfy its physiological, psychological and social needs and realize its potential abilities.
The role of a HR Manager is been expanding and is strengthened by greater interest shown in human relation problems by specialists such as behavioural scientists, industrial engineers, social psychologists, labour and legal advisers, industrial and computer technologists- all of whose researches have enriched the field of HR Management, its functions changed their nature making them wide and humanitarian.
The ideal HR Manager is not a ―decision maker‖ but a counsellor not a ―collector of responsibilities‖ but ―an advisor‖ to help line management make more reliable personnel decisions. In any enterprise it is these ―line men‖ who determine the ―personnel climate‖ for the entire organization. If the HR Man can meet the challenge of ―staff role‖ he would make the most effective contribution to industry
1. Recruit candidates
HR needs to understand the organization’s needs and make sure those needs are met when recruiting for new positions. It’s not as simple as just throwing an ad up on Indeed: you’ll need to analyse the market, consult stakeholders, and manage budgets.
Then, once the role is advertised, more research needs to be done to make sure that the right candidates are being attracted and presented. Recruiting is a massive—and costly—undertaking; the right candidate can revitalize an entire organization, but the wrong candidate can upend operations.
2. Hire the right employees
Human resources are in charge of arranging interviews, coordinating hiring efforts, and onboarding new employees. They’re also in charge of making sure all paperwork involved with hiring someone is filled out and making sure that everything from the first day to each subsequent day is navigated successfully.
3. Process payroll
Payroll is its own beast. Every payday must have taxes calculated and hours collected. Expenses need to be reimbursed and raises and bonuses need to be added in as well. If you think it’s a chore doing taxes just once a year, imagine what it must be like to be in HR and make sure they’re properly deducted every pay period.
4. Conduct disciplinary actions
This responsibility may be why HR tends to get a bad rap. When navigated inappropriately, disciplinary actions can lead to the loss of a valuable employee and can even result in litigation or a poor reputation. But when handled appropriately, disciplinary action can result in the success of an employee.
For instance, if a company notices that a particular employee is routinely late and continues being late even after the employee has received several warnings, HR could step in and investigate the reason for the tardiness. It may be an opportunity to extend benefits such as counselling to the employee or offer additional resources to help the employee learn to be on time. Instead of taking on the cost of firing and then recruiting a replacement for that employee, it could be a learning opportunity that could enhance that employee’s career.
On the other hand, sometimes disciplinary action isn’t the best course to take and an employee should be let go. The best human resources departments know when an employee isn’t the right fit for a company and would be happier somewhere else. It’s up to HR to develop a strong enough relationship with managers and employees alike to identify the cohesiveness and health of a team.
5. Update policies
Policies need to be updated (or at least examined) every year as the organization changes. It’s HR’s job to make official updates to policies and to suggest changes to policies when they no longer serve the company or the employees. Sometimes a policy should be updated as a reaction to an occurrence. HR should always be included in and consulted with regarding these decisions.
6. Maintain employee records
Maintaining HR records is mandated by law. These records help employers identify skill gaps to help with the hiring process and to analyse demographic data and comply with regulations. They also contain personal details and emergency contacts for each employee.
7. Conduct benefit analysis
Staying competitive is of prime importance when trying to attract the best talent. A promising recruit may choose a different company with lesser pay if the benefits are more attractive. HR should routinely investigate similar companies to see if their benefits are competitive.
References:
- Personnel and Human Resource Management – A M Sharma (Himalaya Publishing House)
- Personnel Management and Industrial Relations- R S Davar (Vikas Publishing House)
- Human Resource Development and Management- Biswanath Ghosh (Vikas Publishing House)
- Personnel Management – C.B. Mamaria, S V Gankar (Himalaya Publishing House)
- Human Resource Management – AShwathappa
