Executive Summary
Human Resource Management is an aspect of normal operation and maintenance of businesses with regard to recruitment, development of benefit packages, compensations, and training. Sufficient number of staff members is opposed to the cost cutting tendencies clearly visible in business of the twenty-first century.
History of management shows the needs of companies considering financial and strategic requirements, the number of employees, and effectiveness of companies’ operation; meeting the needs does not necessarily lead to effective performance of the whole business. Key functions of the human resource department include hiring, promotion, benefits, and compensation with regard to financial and strategic plans of the company. Thereby, human resource management is centred on the relationships between the business and people.
Introduction
Human resource management is “designing management systems to ensure that human talent is used effectively and efficiently to accomplish organizational goals.” As a rule, companies hire human resource managers in order to manage the human resources which comprises numerous functions including hiring, promoting, and establishing appropriate benefit and compensation packages. When the company encounters new strategies that need some additional labour force, the human resource management department plans the vacancy to be obtained and hires a certain applicant that meets the company’s requirements and expectations.
The human resource manager should develop appropriate benefit packages regarding employees’ needs, performance effectiveness, and potential for competencies development. Thereby, the modern concept of human resource management differs greatly from the personnel management which existed in the twentieth century, and, moreover, from the nineteenth century role which presupposed the welfare personnel to establish provision schemes. The Figure 1 emphasises the major roles and objectives of the human resource management existing nowadays.
Human Resource Management
Changing role of the human resource management
The human resource management has been changing through decades because of changes in business activities and human aspirations in order to follow financial and strategic requirements of different types of businesses. As the business, approaches to business, strategies, and expectations were changing constantly; the management of certain activities required some changes as well. The earliest records about the concepts related to the human resource management can be found in the late eighteenth century when it was known as welfare personnel and dealt with “the provision of schemes…, unemployment, sick pay and subsidized housing for employees.” Thus, the changes in business were met accordingly and the human resources began to play a certain role in human activities.
After the World Wars the labour forces were highly required which caused the increase of the employment rate and the development of areas dealing with personnel. The post war period had changed the concept which become more personnel oriented and included recruitment, discipline, training, and other issues related more to the modern understanding of the human resource management than schemes. Every decade had its potential need that should have been met. Thus, the 1960s and 1970s were the decades when “human aspirations of senior people in companies and public sector operations tended to produce large staffs, with heavyweight bureaucracies and stagnant businesses.”
The 1980s became the period when the trade unions had no power to deal with conflicts because of the new legislation; therefore the conflicts, mutual dependence, and interrelations between businesses and employees came under the jurisdiction of the human resource management. As the twentieth century saw wars and depressions in economy and business, the changes were as frequent as the requirements in business which were predetermined by the current situations.
The businesses of the twentieth century were shaped according to the principle of magnificence when the larger companies hired more employees regardless their appropriateness and effectiveness of their performance. As the changes were encountered by businesses and the area of human resources, the twentieth century faced them as well which caused larger changes than before.
The late twentieth century had changed the tendency of large staffs and replaced it with a reduced number of employees who were able to perform the same functions as the numerous ones including a developed benefit packages, escaping the model ‘the more the better’ which was considered to be the most appropriate for the businesses of the mid-twentieth century. So, the employees were not hired only because the companies were large and profitable as all requirements should have been met in order to contribute to achieving of the common goal. From now, employees became a part of the great team and could demonstrate their effective performance as well as personal skills and competencies.
The twenty-first century can be regarded in terms of the reduced staff members that were necessary for normal operation and maintenance of businesses. Though some companies can perform their functions with a minimum of qualified employees, other business suffer crucially because of the cost cutting tendency. So, Human Resource Management became one of the most important parts of the business for it deals with cost cutting which should be applied to recruitment of a sufficient number of qualified employees without breaking the cost cutting tendency.
Key functions performed by the human resource department
As talented human resources are currently considered one of the basic aspects of effective performance of the whole company and profitability along with technological innovations and strategic planning, the human resource management plays one of the crucial roles in different types of businesses. “Classically, the task of personnel function has been to adapt personnel to pre-existing structures – the work organisation – conceived independently of personnel dimensions.”
Thereby, changes in the understanding and applying of human resource management influenced the whole concept, objectives, roles, and functions performed by the human resource management department.
The major activities and functions of the human resource management can be clearly viewed in the Figure 2. The human resource management has several roles which are considered to be typically performed by the human resource department. Administrative, operational and employee advocate, and strategic are the traditional roles for human resource department. However, the administrative role has been considered the most important one in the historical context, whereas development of strategic plans has become one of the human resource management functions in the twenty-first century.
The importance of people as the labour force has been realised and posted forward the prerogatives of the business management in terms of establishment of specialised human resource management departments. As the training and development of talented personnel can be considered one of the core aspects of the human resource management, it is necessary to establish close relations of the management and labour forces. As suggested by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the main HR functions are:
Hiring, promotions, reassignments, position classification and grading, salary determination, performance appraisal review and processing, awards review and processing, personnel data entry and records maintenance, consultation and advisory services to management and employees, conduct problems, performance problems, policy development, technical policy interpretation, work permitting immigration visa program, benefits (health care insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement, voluntary accidental death and dismemberment insurance, leave transfer program, tuition assistance plan, training opportunities, combined federal campaign), employee assistance referral, and workers’ compensation.
Thereby, the human resource management department is engaged into performing all these functions as they all are important for normal operation and maintenance of businesses based on the work of human resources. The first thing that the members of the human resource management department should do is to analyse the current situation in the company in terms of human resources and develop a strategy appropriate for the particular business. It is worth mentioning that not all companies are aimed at hiring talented employees (those who are obviously talented) or recruiting them from other companies for some businesses try to develop the potential in their employees and achieve the company’s growth by encouraging development of leadership competencies as well as peculiar skills.
As the economy develops, it involves changes in all areas related to business activities, including human resource management. Global business presupposes that the human resource management should be international as well; which means that the international economy and its distinctive features should be taken into account while developing human resource strategies while operating in the international arena. The main functions of the human resource management department include development of benefit package and other issues that involve financial aspects. Thus, the departments become closely connected because all of them are engaged into the operation of human resources and include different needs and expectations.
Stages of the recruitment process
The recruitment is one of the functions performed by the human resource management department. This stage is aimed at finding and hiring talented employees required by the company in terms of new strategies or development of the existing ones. The new employees are hired in order to perform functions which require certain skills that should be developed with the existing employees. While the existing staff members are engaged into performance of other functions that those suggested by the new company’s strategies, it is necessary to find, select, hire, and train new employees.
The stage that goes prior to the process of recruiting is the planning because the recruiter should be aware of the company’s needs, strategies, and requirements to the applicant. The available supply, in this respect, is the major means of measurement of quality and quantity of employees needed. As planning appears to be an important stage of every aspect of business, it is required while recruiting as well. Moreover, it is impossible and inappropriate to hire new employees without considering the companies strategies, plans, and expectations.
The stages of the recruitment process include the requisition for a new employee (the company should need an employee in order to hire him/her because the staff members should be effective in terms of achieving a certain goal existing in the company), selection of the most appropriate recruit out of several people applying to this position in order to choose the best applicant meeting the requirements of the company, induction to the current situation in the company, administrative functions, powers, and duties; training (especially when the applicant partially meets the company’s expectations), and placement.
The stages of the recruitment process can be performed by the company’s human resource management department or by outsourcing specialised recruiters that recruit appropriate candidates according to the company’s requirements.
As a rule, the first thing that should be done while recruiting new employees is to indicate the main requirements brought to applicants. Then the applicants should come to know about the new employees required by a certain company; this can be fulfilled through posting up a notice about the employees required or by looking through the databases where the résumés are available to the businesses. “The most common internal recruiting methods include: organisational databases, job postings, promotions and transfers, current-employee referrals, and re-recruiting of former employees and applicants.” Thus, the first stage presupposes that the applicant should learn about the vacancy and apply to the position.
The second stage of the recruitment process includes interviews, whereas some preliminary selection can be fulfilled via telephone calls and studying and checking the information from résumés. When the applicants come for the interview, the selection is performed (the most appropriate competencies and skills are selected out of several applicants). While selecting the most appropriate applicant, testing and further evaluation are involved because it seems to be impossible to thoroughly interview hundreds of people (if the company is large); in this case, tests appear effective enough to select the best candidate.
Thereby, when the candidate is selected, he/she is trained, evaluated, and inducted. The most important in the recruitment process is choosing the most applicable strategy in order to select good employees.
Conclusion
Business is a complex issue that has certain objectives and ways of achieving certain goals. As there are parts of the larger mechanism presented by departments, it is necessary to analyse the importance of the human resources and the department which deals with the management of labour force within different businesses.
As the changing role of the human resource management has shifted greatly the understanding of the importance of human resource management and functions performed by the human resource management department, it is obvious that every company includes employees dealing with human resources. Larger companies comprise departments engaged into recruitment, hiring, and development of benefit packages, while in small businesses consisting of about three employees the function of the human resource manager is performed by the director.
Recruitment is one of the functions performed by the human resource management department, while larger companies can outsource employees engaged in recruiting in order to recruit talented employees or employees that have a potential to development. As the main stages of recruiting are application, selection, and evaluation, it is necessary to fulfil certain tasks in order to hire the most appropriate candidate.
The first stage of the recruiting process includes application which presupposes that the company requires new employees on certain positions. The second stage focuses on pre-screening of applicants – the websites are considered to be one of the sources which can be used while searching for talented applicants. Finally, the selection out of several appropriate applicants leads to the evaluation of their skills and competencies and hiring one of them. Training may be needed for the new employee in order to make him/her aware of the functions that should be performed.
References
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 2010. HR: functions. Web.
Torrington, D., Hall, L. & Taylor, S., 2005. 6th ed. Human resource management. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education.
McKenna, E. & Beech, N., 2008. 2nd ed. Human resource management: a concise analysis. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education.
Bratton, J. & Gold, J., 2001. Human resource management: theory and practice. Mahwah, New Jersey: Routledge.
Mathis, R. L. & Jackson, J. H., 2007. Human resource management. Mason, OH.: Cengage Learning.
Armstrong, M., 2006. A handbook of human resource management practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers.
Pieper, R., 1990. Human resource management: an international comparison. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Pynes, J., 2004. 2nd ed. Human resources management for public and nonprofit organizations. San Francisco, CA.: John Wiley and Sons.
Briscoe, D. R. & Schuler, R. S., 2004. 2nd ed. International human resource management: policy and practice for the global enterprise. Mahwah, New Jersey: Routledge.
Cheese, P., Thomas, R. J. & Craig, E., 2007. The talent powered organization: strategies for globalization, talent management and high performance. London: Kogan Page Publishers.
Appendices
