The Role of Human Resources

 The Role of Human Resources

Human Resource Management Day to Day You h

ave just been hired to work in the human resource department of a small company. You heard about  the job through a conference you attended, put on by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Previously, the owner of the company, Jennifer, had been doing everything related to human resource management (HRM). You can tell she is a bit critical about paying a good salary for something she was able to juggle all on her own. On your first day, you meet the ten employees and spend several hours with the company owner, hoping to get a handle on which human resource processes are already set up Shortly after the meeting begins, you see she has a completely different perspective of what HRM is, and you realize it will be your job to educate her on the value of a human resource manager. You look at it as a personal challenge—both to educate her and also to show her the value of this role in the organization. First, you tell her that HRM is a strategic process having to do with the staffing, compensation, retention, 

training, and employment law and policies side of the business. In other words, your job as human 

resources (HR) manager will be not only to write policy and procedures and to hire people (the administrative role) but also to use strategic plans to ensure the right people are hired and trained for the right job at the right time. For example, you ask her if she knows what the revenue will be in six months, and Jennifer answers, “Of course. We expect it to increase by 20 percent.” You ask, “Have you thought about how many people you will need due to this increase?” Jennifer looks a bit sheepish and says, “No,I guess I haven’t gotten that far.” Then you ask her about the training programs the company offers, the software used to allow employees to access pay information online, and the compensation policies. She responds, “It looks like we have some work to do. I didn’t know that human resources involved all of that.” You smile at her and start discussing some of the specifics of the business, so you can get started right away writing the strategic human resource management plan.

The Role of HRM

Keep in mind that many functions of HRM are also tasks other department managers perform, which is what makes this information important, despite the career path taken. Most experts agree on seven main roles that HRM plays in organizations. These are described in the following sections.

Staffing You need people to perform tasks and get work done in the organization. Even with the most sophisticated machines, humans are still needed. Because of this, one of the major tasks in HRM is 

staffing. Staffing involves the entire hiring process from posting a job to negotiating a salary package. 

Within the staffing function, there are four main steps:

1.  Development of a staffing plan. This plan allows HRM to see how many people they should hire 

based on revenue expectations.

2.  Development of policies to encourage multiculturalism at work.Multiculturalism in the 

workplace is becoming more and more important, as we have many more people from a variety of 

backgrounds in the workforce.

3.  Recruitment. This involves finding people to fill the open positions.

4.  Selection. In this stage, people will be interviewed and selected, and a proper compensation package will be negotiated. 

This step is followed by training, retention, and motivation.