The human resource department deals with a company’s most valuable resource: its employees. For this reason, HR – whether a one-man show or a fully-staffed team – is considered the backbone of an organization. Acting as a liaison between management and regular staff members is a core HR function, and so is helping companies achieve their goals by making sure that the companies hire and retain motivated and capable employees.
HRM Elements of Strategic Planning
Planning is one of the primary components of human resource management. It involves establishing goals and objectives and formulating, evaluating and selecting strategies, tactics and polices required to achieve these goals and objectives. The human resources department helps management plan for future growth and endeavors. It starts with analysis of the organization’s overall strategic objectives.
The HR department then uses the outcomes of these analyses to forecast the workforce demands for the business and how they can be achieved. HR staff members then develop and implement plans that aim to deliver the right number of people with the right mix of skills.
Recruitment And Selection
Choosing employees with the requisite capacity and skill is one of the other significant functions of human resource management. In fact, the Society for Human Resources Management lists talent acquisitions as one of the top five priorities for HR.
As companies grow, they must recruit a well-motivated workforce that can propel the organization to further success. HR recruiters use effective recruitment and selection processes to pursue prospective employees that blend with the company’s culture and have the skills and capacity to drive the company forward. The recruitment process involves identifying and defining business requirements, attracting prospective employees, and selecting and employing the appropriate people.
Compensation And Performance
To remain competitive in a highly flexible business environment, companies must offer salaries and benefit packages that entice the strongest applicants to come on board. They use their HR departments to develop these compensation packages, but the process can’t stop at offering excellent compensation packages. Companies also must retain their best employees, so HR departments develop performance measurements that can use to motivate, reward and retain these employees.
As part of the human resource management process, HR departments use a variety of tools to measure performance, including self and peer evaluations, targets for individuals or groups, and employee appraisals.
Training And Development
Training and development are significant components that the HR department uses to retain employees. These components improve the performance of a company’s workforce and allow employees to grow in their professions. HR departments must offer training programs that are consistent with the company’s business goals. To do this, HR managers identify deficiencies in employee skill sets and abilities. They then prepare action plans to assess how investment in training and development programs can help the organization meet its objectives. After they implement the action plans, the HR department monitors the progress and effectiveness of the program.
