What is human resource:

Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations. Human resources is also the name of the function within an organization charged with the overall responsibility for implementing strategies and policies relating to the management of individuals (i.e. the human resources). This function title is often abbreviated to the initials 'HR'.

Human resources is a relatively modern management term, coined as early as the 1960s - when humanity took a shift as human rights came to a brighter light during the Vietnam Era. [1]The origins of the function arose in organizations that introduced 'welfare management' practices and also in those that adopted the principles of 'scientific management'. From these terms emerged a largely administrative management activity, coordinating a range of worker related processes and becoming known, in time, as the 'personnel function'. Human resources progressively became the more usual name for this function, in the first instance in the United States as well as multinational or international corporations, reflecting the adoption of a more quantitative as well as strategic approach to workforce management, demanded by corporate management to gain a competitive advantage, utilizing limited skilled and highly skilled workers.

ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT IN THE ORGANIZATION

The Human Resources (personnel) department has staff relationship with other department / managers in the total organization. The personnel department is responsible for advising management from Managing Director to the lowest line supervisor on all area relating to thepersonnel management and industrial relations. Personnel department also performs various functions of employment, training and development. It represents management in many of the relationships that affect the organization as a whole. It is also responsible for representing various workers problems to management.

Personnel department generally acts in an advisory capacity; it provides information, offers suggestions and is not responsible for the end results. The personnel managers must exercise control very tactfully in order to win the confidence and cooperation of all line managers. He has to persuade the line managers to work with staff specialists and not against them. The authority of personnel manager should derive from concrete personnel policies and programs and from the advantage and result of accepted specialized knowledge.

As a Source of Help:

In certain situations (when line managers lack skill or knowledge in dealing with employee problems) experienced personnel managers assume line responsibility for personnel matters. But it may be resented by the very managers who ought to seek staff assistance in meeting their personnel responsibilities. Personnel managers should learn the reputation and confidence of line managers of

being a source of help rather than a source of threat to line managers. Staff assistance is likely to be effective when it is wanted rather than imposed

As a Change Agent:

Personnel Manager should work as an enabler and change agent regarding personnel areas and he should be familiar with different disciplines like management, technology, sociology, psychology and organizational behavior as organizational adaptability, viability and development are dependent on the human resources development. So the personnel managers should work as a consultant of an organizational development by providing necessary information and infrastructure to line managers. Thus, the role of personnel managers is more concerned with providing information and offering advice to the decision makers rather than making decisions.

As a Controller:

Nevertheless it is still true that effective personnel executives advise on policies that help managers in implementing their programs and provide service and exercise the monitoring and control function sparingly.

Responsibilities within Personnel Department:

As other managers the manager-personnel is also a line manager in relation to subordinates within the personnel department. Personnel Manager is responsible for the success or failure of his department in contributing to the organizational goals. In most of the organizations the personnel manager is responsible for supervising the activities of his subordinates, likeemployment manager, wage and salary manager, manager for training and development, manager-industrial relationsetc. He is also responsible for the operations of personnel manager at divisional and branch levels.

As the Chief of the Personnel Department the Personnel Manager has to get effective results with the co-operation of all the employees working in the department and by showing the validity of the concept of the team work. The success of the personnel department should be measured in terms of its contributions to the personnel programs.

The effectiveness of HR department can be gauged by the fact how smooth they conduct the negotiations with workers union without the workers resorting to strikes and how fast the periodic agreement (once in 3 or 5 years) is signed with them.

Key functions

Human Resources may set strategies and develop policies, standards, systems, and processes that implement these strategies in a whole range of areas. The following are typical of a wide range of organizations:

Maintaining awareness of and compliance with local, state and federal labor laws (Department of Labor federal labor law information)

Recruitment, selection, and on boarding (resourcing)

Employee recordkeeping and confidentiality

Organizational design and development

Business transformation and change management

Performance, conduct and behavior management

Industrial and employee relations

Human resources (workforce) analysis and workforce personnel data management

Compensation and employee benefit management

Training and development (learning management)

Employee motivation and morale-building (employee retention and loyalty)

Implementation of such policies, processes or standards may be directly managed by the HR function itself, or the function may indirectly supervise the implementation of such activities by managers, other business functions or via third-party external partner organizations. Applicable legal issues, such as the potential for disparate treatment and disparate impact, are also extremely important to HR managers.

The Importance of Human Resources Management (HRM) in Modern Organizations

Organizational Psychology holds that successful organizations do not owe their success solely to market realities and sustainable competitive advantages. Actually, there is a lot more. Successful companies are those that consider their human capital as their most important asset. Facts and figures are the quantitative elements of successful management, yet the qualitative, i.e. the cognitive aspects, are those that actually make or break an organization.

Human Resources Management (HRM) is the strategic management of the employees, who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the strategic objectives of the organization. Assuming that the employees of an organization are individuals with own mental maps and perceptions, own goals and own personalities and as such they cannot be perceived as a whole, HRM holds that the organization should be able to employ both individual and group psychology in order to commit employees to the achievement of organizational goals.

Aiming to enable the organization to achieve its strategic goals by attracting, retaining and developing employees, HRM functions as the link between the organization and the employees. A company should first become aware of the needs of its employees, and at a later stage, understand and evaluate these needs in order to make its employees perceive their job as a part of their personal life, and not as a

routine obligation. To that end, HRM is very crucial for the whole function of an organization because it assists the organization to create loyal employees, who are ready to offer their best.

The HRM activities in modern organizations are typically performed in communication with the General Management in an effort to provide a variety of views when a decision must be taken. In that way, decision making is not subject to the individual perceptions of the HR or the General Manager, but it becomes the outcome of strategic consensus.

The main goals / responsibilities of HRM are:

To retain low employee turnover rate by inspiring people to work for the company

To attract new employees

To contribute to employee development

To achieve these goals, Human Resources Management trains and motivates the employees by communicating ethical policies and socially responsible behaviour to them. In doing so, it plays a significant role in clarifying the organization's problems and providing solutions, while making employees working more efficiently.

On the other hand, challenges do not cease for the HRM. Modern organizations can survive in the dynamic, competitive environment of today only if they capitalize on the full potential of each employee. Unfortunately, many companies have not understood the importance of the human capital in successful operations. The recruitment and selection of the best employees is a very difficult obligation. Even companies that are voted in the top-ten places to work at, often endure long periods of hard work to realize that human element is all an organization should care about.

New challenges arise even now for the organization, and it is certain that new challenges will never cease to emerge. Therefore, the use of proper Human Resources techniques is a really powerful way for organizations to overcome these challenges, and to improve not only their quantitative goals but also their organizational culture, and their qualitative, cognitive aspects.

HR as a Competitive Advantage

The Opportunity

If managed effectively, the workforce, provides a very definite competitive advantage to those firms that are savvy and progressive enough leverage the HR department appropriately.

Human Resources Should be at the Core of Workforce Management

Human Resources (HR) should be at the core of workforce management.HR is the conduit for acquiring and retaining the necessary workforce through job satisfaction, security, compensation, training programs, appropriate and frequent measurement of the workforce, and finally providing flexibility with respect to the values of different generations of workers. HR should also take a leadership role in employee management communications. Too often, HR is seen as a cost center that ensures that payroll is on time and vacation tracking is accomplished.

HR’s Role- An Experience

By far, the best example of a factor contributing to employee personal growth and satisfaction that I have witnessed has been a culture that promotes a collaborative work environment. The downside to this is that it takes a lot of time, resources and discipline to convert a typical structured hierarchical organization to one that emphasizes collaboration.

Unfortunately, in this example, HR was seen as a roadblock to the corporation. Because they (HR) were not provided with the necessary tools to operate collaboratively in this organization and be allowed to change policies, the corporation was not competitive in the workforce arena. Although the culture was very enjoyable to work in, there was personal growth happening with many employees, and the amount and quality of work were beyond compare, the compensation options available (and other factors) were less than admirable.

The Solution

This particular corporation continues to operate under the assumption that they are keeping costs down by paying the minimum compensation necessary to acquire an employee. They think that people should be happy to have the job in the first place. They believe that people aren’t worth their pay. On an individual basis this can be true, but they can exist at any level within an organization. They need to be removed from the workforce, because they are taking money from the real workers. Corporations are better off with fewer exceptional people all making more money than they should, than to have the same or lower payroll costs with more people. To emphasize, it is better to hire one exceptional person at $60,000 than two average people at $25,000 each.

The result of this shortsightedness was that they could not acquire the folks with the necessary levels of experience, education and skill levels they required for corporate expansion. They subsequently opted to hire many consultants (and contractors) to accomplish their goals and objectives. HR was left

completely out of this decision. As if this were not enough, the company was still reticent to assist employees with career planning and the necessary follow on, quality training and additional responsibilities.

Human Resources Is Currently Failing to Fulfill Its Potential

Although HR should be at the core of workforce management, in many organizations they are not. HR Departments are typically staffed with people who do not have appropriate skills and are not given appropriate latitude to fulfill their objectives.

For the last thirty years, I changed jobs on average every two and a half to three years. Whenever I had an interview with a prospective employer, HR was always a roadblock, never an enabler. If I couldn’t get past the HR process to interview with the manager or supervisor I would be working with or for, I simply discounted the opportunity. And with good reason, I not once received a call back from any organization that allowed me to interview only with HR.

From the academic experience, it’s very clear what role HR could and probably should play in a firm. But that led to the obvious question – why are they NOT in the leadership position in the areas that are HR’s responsibility?

I am not sure that I can prioritize these reasons, because I am looking from the outside in. If I had been a HR person for a number of years, I could probably present a more informed argument and prioritize the list with some authority.

Reputation

The first and foremost reason is the reputation that HR has acquired over the years for being bureaucratic and ineffective. The “roadblock” perception is so ingrained that even senior management is in tacit agreement. The result is that whenever senior management becomes aware of the importance of selecting the right person for a position, candidates are handled directly by the stakeholders in the position and HR is avoided as much as possible. Another result is that HR initiatives aimed at training, motivation and retention are seen as “fluff,” and are not given sufficient funding to be effectively implemented.

Wrong People

The next problem, related to the first, is that the “wrong” people tend to work in HR. Because of low wages and an underestimation of the importance of an HR role, staff members are generally barely a step above an ‘entry level clerical’ skill and training level. These people (in my experience) are not strong and assertive or willing to stand up for the right thing in the face of senior management. Also, they are not knowledgeable in the many diverse areas of expertise now required in most organizations. And, as a result, HR principles are unwilling to involve other supervisors and managers as subject matter experts for interview during the acquisition process.

Leadership Positioning

HR departments are not involved in the organization’s strategic and leadership initiatives as they should be. It appears (and seems very logical) that HR should also be heavily involved and very influential in policy decisions involving HR oriented areas such as workforce acquisition and retention, job satisfaction, security, compensation, and training programs. They should also be involved in appropriate and frequent measurement of the workforce. Finally, HR should provide flexibility with respect to the values of the new and different generations of workers. In my experience, HR is a department that is isolated, dictated to, and kept “out of the way” as much as possible, and seen as a necessary evil that merely serves to prevent the perception of lack of compliance with any employment laws.

These three areas, although very general and fairly high level, seem to be the essence of HR management. The areas, when managed effectively, should provide a competitive advantage. With technology spread across all industries, there are few areas where products and services can differentiate significantly. Quality within both the product and/or service is, in general, the last point of serious contention in the market. In companies that are driven by people, HR should be the organization that can make a difference.

In the companies that I have had the pleasure of dealing with HR, (note sarcasm) that department seemed to be hamstrung. They have no idea of what questions they should be asking me, except for a possible script provided by someone, and therefore don’t have an idea on how to evaluate my answers. I don’t have any idea how they deselected me – I never have found out.

HR Can Be Strategically Improved

In order for HR to meet its potential, the senior management of an organization needs to have an understanding of the potential of the HR role. They need to communicate those expectations to the entire company on a frequent and regular basis. Most importantly, they need to demonstrate that commitment by devoting the time and resources to finding HR personnel with appropriate skills, give them the latitude necessary to do their jobs, and accept nothing less than excellent results in hiring, training, motivating and retaining quality people for all positions.

Reputation

This can be repaired through immediate senior management attention, focus and trust. This obviously means that senior management will insure that the “right people” are or become responsible for HR. Then provide the necessary corporate direction, focus and then stand back and trust the HR folks to do their jobs. There will be some rough spots initially, but with some time, attention and support from senior management, these will be resolved.

The Right People

The most interesting facet of HR in a leadership role – what is the “right stuff,” the right background, education and skills necessary for the department that is typically staffed with “paper pushers?”

We start by following the same rules that we wish HR to follow throughout the corporation. We hire the best, brightest and attract and motivate them in the same ways. These things must obviously come from

higher up in the organization. This should not be a problem in an organization that has provided HR with the direction we have discussed.

Leadership Positioning

Typically, one of the largest investments corporations have is personnel. With very little additional effort, and maybe some more investment in HR departments, as well as personnel, most corporations could have a world class workforce working for them.

This is the beginning of a world class workforce. By then investing heavily in the employees through proper compensation, and other job satisfiers, such as job security and extensive in-depth training programs, the corporation then has the basis for retaining the world class workforce through job satisfaction. Follow this approach with appropriate and frequent measurement of the workforce, while providing both a collaborative work environment and flexibility with the values of each of the successive generations of workers, and the workforce will attain personal growth and achievements beyond your wildest expectations. Although this may sound rather altruistic, I have seen various combinations of each of these attributes at work in different corporations – both large and small.

HR should be allowed, no, commanded to hire the absolute best people. Then set in place policies and procedures to attract, motivate, train and reward the best people. Then give the winners trust, independence, praise, freedom, and encouragement. Corporations that think they will save money by only hiring people they can afford will attain only mediocre results at best.

Corporate leaders – this includes HR as well, should know that people make things happen. If the people in a corporation are supported, trusted and respected based on performance, regardless of generation gaps; the corporation will have a high propensity to exceed all expectations. HR should have as part of its charter the wherewithal to ensure that these things happen throughout the corporation. One can only imagine the possibilities if these attributes were combined in one corporation.