By effectively managing your company's most precious resource – its workers – a well-run human resources department can provide structure and the ability to address business needs. Although there are multiple HR disciplines, each discipline's HR practitioners may fulfil more than one of the fundamental functions. Outsourcing HR activities or joining a professional employer organization can help small firms without a dedicated HR department reach the same degree of efficiency and personnel management.
HR serves a variety of vital functions in the organization. Recruitment, performance management, learning and development, and many others are among them. These functions are enumerated below:
1. Recruiting the Right People for the Right Job
The number of positions filled and the time it takes to fill those positions are two indicators of a recruiter's or employment specialist's performance. In-house recruiters, as opposed to organizations that provide recruiting and staffing services, play an important part in the development of an employer's workforce.
They post job openings, find prospects, screen applicants, conduct preliminary interviews, and coordinate hiring activities with managers who are in charge of ultimate candidate selection.
2. Maintaining the Environment Safe
The importance of workplace safety cannot be overstated. Employers are required to create a safe working environment for employees under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
Supporting workplace safety training and maintaining legally mandated logs for occupational injury and fatality reporting are two of HR's key responsibilities. Furthermore, to manage the company's workers' compensation difficulties, HR safety and risk professionals frequently collaborate with HR benefits specialists.
3. Relationships Between Employers and Employees
In a unionized workplace, HR's employee and labor relations tasks may be merged and handled by one person, or they may be handled by two HR professionals with specialized knowledge in each field.
Employee relations is an HR discipline that focuses on improving the employer-employee relationship through assessing job satisfaction, employee engagement, and resolving workplace conflict.
Developing management responses to union organizing campaigns, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, and delivering interpretations of labor union contract disputes are all examples of labor relations functions.
4. Benefits and Compensation
Compensation and benefits components of HR, like employee and labor relations, are frequently handled by a single HR specialist with dual specialization.
HR duties include designing compensation structures and analyzing competitive pay practices on the compensation side. A compensation and benefits specialist may also work with insurers to negotiate group health insurance prices and coordinate operations with the retirement savings plan administrator.
Payroll can be included in the compensation and benefits section of HR; however, many firms outsource administrative tasks like payroll.
5. Labor Law Compliance
Labor and employment law compliance is a crucial HR role. Noncompliance can lead to workplace complaints about unfair employment practices, unsafe working conditions, and general discontent with working circumstances — all of which can have a negative impact on productivity and, ultimately, profitability.
HR professionals must be familiar with federal and state employment laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and a slew of other statutes.
6. Planning for Human Resources
The most basic HR role is to understand the organization's future demands. What types of personnel does the organization require, and how many do they require?
Recruitment, selection, performance management, learning and development, and all other human resource functions will be shaped by this knowledge. Workforce planning is comparable to human resources planning. Both are concerned with where the organization is now and what it will require in the future to be successful.
7. Management of Performance
Performance management is critical for keeping employees productive and engaged. Good leadership, clear goal-setting, and transparent feedback are all essential components of effective performance management.
The (bi)annual performance review, in which the employee is evaluated by his or her boss, is one of the performance management tools. It also contains 360-degree feedback systems, in which the employee's performance is evaluated by colleagues, managers, subordinates, and occasionally even customers.
These types of tools can be really beneficial when it comes to delivering feedback. Performance management can also be used to bridge the gap between your current workforce and the one you intend to have in the future.
Learning and development is one of the most effective ways to create your future workforce (L&D).
8. Learning and Development
HR must make it possible for employees to develop the skills they will need in the future. This is also related to the first HR function we mentioned, which is HR's role in bridging the gap between today's workforce and the workforce that will be required in the near future.
Organizations have a predetermined budget for learning and development in the past. This budget is subsequently divided among the company's employees. This fee is required in several countries.
Companies having an annual pay bill of more than £3 million in the United Kingdom, for example, must pay a mandated rate of 0.5 percent for their employees' professional education. In other countries, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, L&D is the obligation of the company to look after its employees.
This is almost an unregulated region in the third group of countries, such as the United States. Regardless of regulatory differences, practically all companies recognize the importance of investing in their employees' (future) abilities.
The HR department is in charge of steering these efforts in the appropriate way.
9. Career Planning
Career planning, guidance, and development for employees, often known as career pathing, is the fifth function of Human Resource Management.
Employee engagement and retention are aided by demonstrating how their ambitions can be aligned with the company's future. Better succession planning, improved productivity, and a stronger employer brand are all advantages for the company.
10. Administrative Responsibilities
HR's administrative responsibility is its final function. Personnel processes and Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) are examples of this.
Promotions, relocations, discipline, performance improvement, illness, regulations, cultural and racial diversity, unwanted intimacies, bullying, and so on are all handled through personnel procedures.
To properly comply with the requests or overcome these problems, policies and procedures must be devised and implemented in each of these circumstances.
11. Personal Well-being
When employees have personal concerns, HR has a role in aiding and caring for them. When things don't go as planned, personal well-being is about assisting employees.
Employee performance, engagement, and productivity can be harmed by problems both inside and outside the workplace. As a result, a company's bottom line suffers.
Personal well-being initiatives coordinated by your HR department must focus on one-on-one communication with employees as well as cross-team and company communication.
For instance, a corporation may have an employee support programme through which anyone suffering from mental health concerns can receive counselling.
12. Labor Relations
Maintaining and nurturing ties with labor unions and other collectives, as well as their members, is another function of HR.
Unionization is still common in Europe, albeit it is on the decline. In 2018, 92 percent of employees in Iceland and 67 percent of employees in Denmark were members of a union. However, only 23% and 4% of employees in the United Kingdom and Estonia, respectively, were. In 2018, only 10% of employees in the United States were members of a trade union.
Maintaining excellent connections with unions will assist in promptly identifying and resolving possible issues, as well as in more difficult economic times when layoffs or other steps may be necessary.
Conclusion
The basic functions of HR extend far beyond hiring and payroll. From maintaining safety and compliance to nurturing talent, performance, and well-being — HR plays a vital role in shaping a positive and productive workplace environment.
