Introduction
Every business firm or company has different internal organizations having a variety of functions. These organizations are interrelated and are working together to ensure the business firms their success in profiting from the market. The more functions each of the organization perform; the better is the performance of the company as a whole. This gives each of the companies their corresponding advantages and benefits from the market.
One of the company's basic organizations is the Human Resource Management, which is highly responsible with the maintenance of its employees. The Human Resource Management team does a variety of tasks and functions, and is crucial in its objective concerning the work and interests of the employees in the company. Oftentimes, we encounter the team working for the Human Resource Management during job interviews or job openings. The people behind this team are performing various activities such as recruitment, training, rewards, performance appraisal, and with the health and safety of the employees of a certain business firm or company.
This paper discusses the functions, importance and the management of the Human Resource Department in a company. In the different areas mentioned, only three aspects are given emphasis, which could greatly explain the various tasks being performed by the Human Resource in general. This paper includes the significance of Human Resource Management and its relationship with the other internal organizations or functions present in a company, namely the management function, procurement function, information, communication, finance, marketing, and the production function respectively.
Business Organizations and the Human Resources
It has been reported that business organizations perform eight basic functions, namely, the management function, the production function, the marketing function, the finance function, the communication function, the information function, the purchasing or procurement function and the human resources function ('How Good Procurement Affects Business Systems' 2006). The management function is concerned with the planning, organizing, directing, staffing, controlling and communicating for business operations, for each businessperson must understand the importance of different managerial functions for purposes of effective operations. With the production function, it is concerned with the transformation or changing raw materials into finished goods and services needed by customers, or the transformation of inputs. The marketing function is involved with ensuring that the transformed goods reach the final customers. Then there is also the obvious finance function as well as the communication and the information functions that every business enterprise has to perform, while the procurement or purchasing function is responsible with the uninterrupted flow of supply and requirement s needed in business activities ('How Good Procurement Affects Business Systems' 2006).
The last function is the human resource function, which is concerned with managing the people as an important business resource ('How Good Procurement Affects Business Systems' 2006). It has been reported that HRM or the Human Resource Management is the term increasingly used to refer to the philosophy, policies, procedures, and practices related to the management of an organization's employees (Sims 2002, p. 2). It is particularly concerned with all the activities that contribute to successfully attracting, developing, motivating, planning systematic approaches, and maintaining a high-performing workforce that result in organizational success (Sims 2002, pp. 2-3). In addition, it gives an increasing emphasis on the personal needs of the organization and its members, where the challenge is to create an organizational environment in which each employee can grow and develop to his or her fullest extent. In the desire of the Human Resources to make successful organizations, it aims at developing strategies for the total organization focused on clarifying an organization's current and potential problems and developing solutions for them. They are oriented toward action, the individual, the global marketplace, and the future, giving emphasis that nowadays, it is difficult to envision any organization achieving success without efficient HRM programs and activities (Sims 2002, p. 3).
Human Resources Management Functions
In maintaining and implementing balance between the employees' aspirations and the goals of a business firm, the company must generate the highly effective and efficient Human Resource Management. For the Human Resources Management to contribute to the profitability, quality, and other organizational goals of the company, it should be able to closely integrate careful planning and decision-making. To be able to do this, it must perform various activities such as recruitment, compensation or giving rewards, training or career development, performance appraisal, and health and safety developments.
Among the activities of the Human Resources Management, perhaps the most crucial is the Recruitment Process or the process of selecting employees, which involves the interviewing, recruiting, screening, and selecting the most qualified candidates, filling some positions through transfer or promotion, and temporary employment coordination (Sims 2002, p. 4). In addition, the author reports that recruitment is the process, by which organizations discover, develop, seek, and attract individuals to fill actual or anticipated job vacancies, or is a bridge-building activity, bringing together those with jobs to fill and those seeking jobs. With the increased complexity of positions to be filled and equal employment opportunity, the recruitment process requires sophisticated procedures to identify and select prospective employees (Sims 2002, p. 4). This means that the Human Resources Management must carefully determine the available job openings and the job qualification of the candidate, to ensure the organization's benefit. In its participation in maintaining balance, it serves to mediate the company and the new candidates. It upholds in itself the goals and values of the company, tries to search for qualified individuals having the same goals and values.
Moreover, most organizations have an ongoing need to recruit new employees to fill job vacancies when employees leave or are promoted, to acquire new skills, and to permit organizational growth (Sims 2002, p. 107). Given the rise of competition in the market, both the company and the prospective candidate employee must benefit from the situation by the efficient and careful decisions made by the recruitment team. The recruitment process is a very expensive process considering the costs of advertising, agency fees, employee referral bonuses, applicant and staff travel, relocation costs, and recruiter salaries. However, these costs will not be given much importance with making the right decisions from proper planning, for without accurate planning, organizations may recruit the wrong number or type of employees, and without successful recruiting to create a sizable pool of candidates, even the most accurate selection system is of little use (Sims 2002, p. 108).
Different internal and external factors influence the recruitment process. These factors contribute to the nature of the organization's recruiting activities, its strategies and philosophies, and other important features.
* Organizational Reputation. This is the most important factor affecting the success of the recruitment program, as the company projects a certain image to the community at large. This image influences its ability to attract qualified employees.
* Attractiveness to the Job. Jobs offered by the company that are considered as uninteresting, oppressive or unattractive will make the recruitment process difficult.
* Recruiting Goals. This is to optimize the pool of qualified applicants, and must yield employees who can be further assessed in the selection process, individuals who will be good performers, and who will stay with the organizations for a reasonable length of time (Sims 2002, p. 110-111).
* Recruitment Philosophy. This involves the depth of commitment to seeking and hiring a diverse range of employees.
* Labor Market Conditions. When organizations are not creating new jobs, there is often an oversupply of qualified labor (Sims 2002, p. 112).
* Labor Unions. The existence of labor unions can affect attracting employees, for bad reputation.
* Economic Trends. With a low economy, high demand for work follows, and more work for the Human Resources Management.
* Government Influences. This involves the benefits that an employee gets in rendering his or her services.
Another essential activity of the Human Resource Management is to provide a safe and healthy work environment. It has been reported that the legal, social and political pressures on organizations ensure that the health and safety of their employees continue to have a great impact on HRM practices, and part of this impact and concern is a result of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (Sims 2002, p. 7). Another source of change has been the societal concern about exposure to hazardous substances or stress in the workplace, which is being responded to by organizations by instituting accident prevention programs and programs designed to ensure the health and mental well-being of their employees (Sims 2002, p. 7).
It has been reported that in today's successful organizations, safety and health management concerns go beyond the physical condition of the workplace to a regard for employees' mental and emotional well-being and a commitment to protecting the surrounding community from pollution and exposure to toxic substances, which now involves the employees at all levels (Sims 2002, p. 307). In relation to accidents, the costs involved are directly related to the loss of production, which decreases output, damage or idle equipments, and products. Without the safe and healthy environment, employees become susceptible to illnesses, which present greater loss to the company. It lowers the morale of the employees, gives less favorable public relations, and presents a weakened ability to recruit and retain employees. It is only natural that employee morale will suffer in an unsafe environment, and if a member of a maintenance team is injured, the harmony of the team may also be impaired by the absence of the injured employee (Sims 2002, p. 308), leading to decrease in productivity and quality of performance. These problems could also initiate labor unions, which degrade the reputation of the company. A poor safety record is also harmful to an organization's public relations, deterring customers from purchasing a business's products or services (Sims 2002, p. 308).
Providing a safe and healthy environment entails providing good compensation, implementing child labor laws, and work for physically challenged individuals. Compensation entails pay and benefits such as wage and salary administration, job descriptions, executive compensation, incentive pay, insurance, vacation/leave administration, retirement plans, profit sharing, and stock plans. These bring a variety of perspectives to the employees to bear in deciding whether they are satisfied with the compensation they receive, thus making management of compensation a particularly challenging HRM activity (Sims 2002, p. 7). In the Human Resources Management's participation in maintaining balance between the goals of the business firm and its employees, fostering a safe and healthy work environment can help the employees increase their productivity, work well with their colleagues, and improve their performance, which are all helpful for the success of the company. The success of the company, thus, brings each employee shared success and stable work opportunities.
Sims (2002) points out that, performance appraisal is the process, by which an employee's contribution to the organization during a specified period of time is assessed (p. 197). It also measures the adequacy of their employees' job performance and communicate these evaluations to them, which leads the organization to determine appropriate rewards or remedial actions to motivate employees to continue appropriate behaviors and correct inappropriate ones (Sims 2002, pp. 5-6). Generally, organizations strive to do the following at all levels: 1) design jobs and work systems to accomplish goals, 2) hire individuals with the abilities and desire to perform effectively, and 3) train, motivate, and reward employees for performance and productivity (Sims 2002, p. 198). This fashion allows different organizations to diffuse strategic goals throughout the system, and evaluation of performance. This evaluation serves as a control mechanism that provides not only feedback to individuals but also an organizational assessment of how things are progressing (Sims 2002, p. 198). With the role of the Human Resources Management to maintain and enhance the company's workforce, it is important to develop employees so that they are using their fullest capabilities, thus improving the effectiveness of the organization (Sims 2002, p. 198).
Performance appraisals will be useful without stating standards in terms of organizational performance, which is possible through the performance management system. Sims (2002) reports that the purpose of performance management is to make sure that employee goals, employee behaviors used to achieve those goals and feedback of information about performance are all linked to the organizational strategy (p. 199). It consists of several parts:
1. Defining performance. It is a desirable to carefully define performance so that it supports the organization's strategic goals, for setting of clear goals for individual employees is a critical component.
2. Empowering employees. This is desirable to achieve better results.
3. Measuring performance. The key to this step is to measure often and use the information for corrections.
4. Feedback and coaching. With frequent feedback, employees will know their behavior and do something about incorrect ones.
The Human Resources Management must be able to develop performance appraisals to continually motivate their employees to work hard. It has been reported that today, successful organizations and managers treat the performance appraisal as an evaluation and development tool, as well as formal legal document (Sims 2002, p. 200). Emphasizing the positive accomplishments and deficiencies in the future and in the past helps the organization in drafting detailed plans for development. In addition, documenting performance effectively and providing feedback in a constructive manner, employees are less likely to respond defensively to feedback, and the appraisal process is more likely to motivate employees to improve where necessary (Sims 2002, p. 200). In the Human Resources Management's role to balance the goals of the company and its employees, the development of a standard performance appraisal process will help the whole organization to improve their bottom-line performance, up-lift motivational efforts, and resolve most moral problems (Sims 2002, p. 198), thus, increasing the company's productivity and quality of work performance. Moreover, the Human Resources Management can serve the organization the best way they can by ensuring the whole company that they are confident in using performance appraisal systems to achieve the company's goals and aspirations.
Conclusion
It has been reported that the Human Resources Management (HRM) has a variety of functions, such as deciding what staffing needs a company have, whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring that the personnel and management practices conform to various regulations (McNamara 1999). It is also responsible in managing employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies (McNamara 1999). It is involved with different activities which helps maintain the balance between the financial goals and the personal goals of its employees. The goals and strategic plans in relation to these activities must ensure the success of the company or the organization and must be in line with its long-term aspirations. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Human Resources Management plays an essential role in the success of the whole organization. Just the same, employees in the Human Resources Management team must be consistent with their standards, and uphold the same principles in their development to set as good examples for other employees of the organization. This would not only bring success to the team, but for the whole company as well.
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