A decade ago, human resource management was simply concerned with recruiting, hiring and managing employees. However, this stream has evolved with time. It now entails several other aspects such as organizational culture, employees’ health and safety etc. The knowledge of HR components enables business managers to structure their business processes efficiently.
Recruitment and Retention
These procedures lie at the core of HR functions. It is the responsibility of the HR team to find qualified workers, conduct training for them, provide them incentives for various activities, and take steps for keeping them engaged with the company. They need to have a clear plan in place for bridging supply and demand, succession, and competency gaps. They also need to develop competency profiles of key job grades and devise plans for individual company positions.
Training and Development
All employees, regardless of their experience and qualifications, require some sort of training before they are able to put in their best for a company. People need to be educated about a company’s business model along with its policies and procedures. The onus of continual employee development also falls on HR. Continual training is required to keep employees’ skills updated.
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture reflects the vision, values, working norms, habits, preferences, and beliefs that a business organization espouses. The HR team plays a role in apprising employees of the value and belief system of a company. They are tasked with the formulation of policies, procedures and standards regarding employees’ behavior in the workplace. For instance, HR may follow a strict policy regarding the working hours of people or implement a flexible time management policy, thereby enabling employees to manage their own office hours. Organizational culture also defines how employees interact with one another.
Prep Work for Changes in Workflow
The business world is undergoing a rapid change. New technologies are emerging, clients’ requirements are changing in line with the fast-paced environment, and the finances of companies keep fluctuating. In this scenario, HR plays a major role in retaining employees and keeping a company stable. They help employees understand their role in the larger picture of the enterprise, thereby building bridges between different departments. HR also deals with changes in workflow and reassures employees when their company goes through a period of crisis.
Safety Issues
HR makes a workplace safer for employees through different policies and procedures. One of the functions of HR is to ensure employees understand the risks involved in certain activities. For instance, if construction work is going on in some part of the office premises, HR would put warning signs and posters instructing people what and what not to do. This brings us to the policy pertaining to accidents. It is also the HR's job to prepare a plan for evacuating employees in case of an emergency.
Wrapping Up
To sum it up, the HR's job is to conduct an environment scan to identify strategic HR issues, determine specific objectives and sets of actions, seek staff’s input on the efficacy of ongoing procedures, apprise human resources of their possible career path, allocate resources according to the priority of business functions, and do a string of other tasks as well.