Why any Business should invest in a Human Resources Department for optimised Business Operations
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Perhaps the most underrated department of companies, the human resource division is as important as any, arguably even more important than any other part of the organization.
From trying to select qualified personnel from a large crop of the labour force to ensure each staff performs at their optimal level, HR’s functions are vast. In the past, companies like Amazon, Yahoo, and Gravity Payments have suffered massive losses in their profits because of poor human resource management.
So, this very minute, we’ll be looking at the roles, objectives, and importance of the HR personnel in an organization.
8 Functions of the HR Personnel
Attempting to exhaust all the functions and roles of the human resources team of any organization is more or less synonymous with seeking to drain the Grand Canyon with a bucket.
But for the sake of our readers, we shall examine their most critical functions.
1. Organizational Planning
The famous saying goes, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” and it certainly applies to most companies. It is, therefore, a primary function of the HR team. The team plans with other management members to devise plans to solve problems that may arise in the organization.
For example, imagine a company like Microsoft or any big engineering company has consistently had issues with electrical faults affecting their products – without proper planning, someone might not recruit the right person to fix the recurring problem.
2. Recruitment
Recruiting the right person could be the difference between a company making millions or going bankrupt. In many big organizations, HR makes the error of putting square pegs in round holes. In recruitment, hiring a staff member without the right skill or cultural fit might be crucial. When this happens, productivity and performance are affected.
Recruitment in any organization entails a lot of steps and processes to get the right person with the right skill and qualifications. The processes include:
- Planning: As explained above, this entails finding out problem areas in the company and working on possible solutions.
- Sourcing: After identifying the problem positions in the company, the next step would be to search and source for potential employees that fit such a solution. You can use email finders to speed up the search for candidate contacts.
- Screening: Screening differs from interviewing. After recruiting enough potential talent, the next step would be to scan the respective CVs and applications and select suitable candidates.
- Interviewing: This step is pretty straightforward, right? After choosing a few from the screening stage, the next step is interviewing each candidate.
At the end of the interview, the HR team could then make an informed decision about the person(s) the company should hire. After the interview stage but before the onboarding stage, you must be able to write responses such as welcome emails or rejections.
3. Training of New and Old Employees
Companies task the HR departments with training new and existing staff. Because of the advancement in technology and improvements in how we conduct business, skills and knowledge become obsolete fast. It then becomes paramount for the workforce to be brought up to speed and educated on new practices so as for the company to remain relevant in the ever-changing world.
Besides this, the HR department educates the new staff on existing practices and guidelines within the company to make sure staff are knowledgeable and experienced.
4. Tracking Employee Performance
Each organization monitors employees or departmental goals within the company. It’s the responsibility of the HR department to ensure that each employee is performing at the required level to achieve such objectives.
Organizations track by setting tasks for each employee to help the organization’s growth. A higher percentage of tasks accomplished signifies that an employee performs at a high level which in turn makes the business more successful.
5. Settling Disputes Between Employees
Conflicts in any organization in which humans are present are unavoidable. There could be a conflict between co-workers or between a supervisor and their subordinate, and this conflict can be unhealthy and impede the company’s progress. So, it becomes imperative for the Human Resources department to nip conflict in the bud before it spreads.
6. Disciplinary Measures for Staff
Each employee in any organization is prone to the inevitable lapse in concentration or wrongdoing. Coming late to work, improper dress code, poor hygiene, and not performing duties are but a few of the misdemeanours that might exist in the company.
The HR department must ensure that such misdemeanours are at the barest minimum by enforcing strict penalties and fines for each wrongdoing and tracking staff’s performance.
7. Overseeing Employee Benefits
Most modern organizations these days have various benefits and compensation that accrue to each employee. It could come as their monthly remuneration, health insurance benefits, vacation plans, or any other form of reward. It is the responsibility of the HR team to prepare a suitable benefit plan for each employee and manage it accordingly.
8. Ensuring Employee Happiness
Last but certainly not least on our list is ensuring employee happiness.
Happy employees will increase their commitment to work, increasing the company’s productivity. It, therefore, becomes vital for the HR team to know how to manage and ensure that the employees are engaged enough to perform their functions at the highest level.
As we said earlier, we have countless functions that the HR team performs, and examining each of them would be exhausting, even for you, our readers, but the above 8 are the most encompassing of all.
Now that we have broadly examined the functions of the HR department, we shall look at the advantages and some disadvantages that may accrue to the company from having an HR department.
Top 3 Advantages of the HR Department
1. Increases Productivity
When a worker is highly motivated and appropriately trained, they are productive.
2. Reduces Employee Turnover
Employee turnover refers to the cost of hiring and training new employees. With a functioning HR, the attrition rate reduces.
3. Overall Company Peace
As earlier stated, the HR department helps to resolve conflicts and disputes within the company. By doing this, they promote and ensure peace within the company.
As with every phenomenon on earth that has advantages, there are also disadvantages. Human resource isn’t an exception, so in our last and final section of this article, we shall examine some demerits of applying HR in organizations.
Top 3 Disadvantages of the HR Department
1. High Cost
High Cost is perhaps the main reason most organizations neglect the Human Resources department. Executing HR in any organization entails allocating a substantial portion of the budget to its numerous functions and operations.
2. Time-Consuming
Another argument against human resources management application in most organizations is the number of hours consumed performing HR tasks. Most of these tasks do not contribute directly to the bottom line.
As earlier stated, HR performs training functions. Many employees believe some training is not useful and are better off performing other productive activities.
3. Uncertainty
An employee might wake up one morning and decide he no longer wants to work with the company, and this leaves the company red-faced, as the hours and money put into their training go to waste. Other disadvantages include conflict of opinion or a lack of employee data privacy.
Conclusion
This is where we conclude our ideas. Even though there are some disadvantages to HR, the advantages of adopting it in any organization far outweigh the demerits. Each manager, entrepreneur or business owner would be wise to prioritize having a Human Resources Department.