Contribution to the success of the business is prime focus for every business function, HR is no exception, but sometimes it has to do a bit more as it primarily deals with the people who are responsible for the failure and success of the firm. The figure depicts that to enhance the organizational performance HR must support business efforts that focus on ultimate business goals of productivity, service, and quality.
Human Resource Management Activities
Contribution to the success of the business is prime focus for every business function, HR is no exception, but sometimes it has to do a bit more as it primarily deals with the people who are responsible for the failure and success of the firm. The figure depicts that to enhance the organizational performance HR must support business efforts that focus on ultimate business goals of productivity, service, and quality.
Human Resource Productivity
Productivity is the amount of output per employee, the increase in global competition, with businesses not confined to boundaries, continuous improvement of productivity has become even more important. Human Resources could be made more productive by organizational efforts, improved processes, flexible policies, better communication network, organizational structure and systems.
Human Resource Quality
Competitive advantage and organizational progress is highly dependent on the quality of product and services organization offers to its customers, High degree of positive association exists between Quality and organizational performance. Provision of better quality requires skilled employees with knowledge to make better use of resources at hand; this could be made possible through advanced, focused and improved training of the employees.
Human Resource Service
Better Service is driven by satisfied, committed and motivated staff, employees who feel insecure, stressed, overburdened, and those who complain about lack of knowledge at work, limited delegation and lack of empowerment would not be able to provide the service desired of them. Business Norms are witnessing a shift, Success today requires empowering staff to strengthen management and the organization, creating a culture of learning, knowledge sharing, innovation, liberating staff of traditional blocks that hinders flexibility, and learning. HR could help by creating a business where work is not forced, but is fun, creating a workplace where people love to contribute not required to add some value.
To accomplish the aforementioned goals, HR undertakes several activities that are mentioned in the ring next to the Goals in the figure. But these activities cannot be undertaken as exclusive, but are dependent on the environment and the organization. The HR activities are as follows:
HR Planning and Analysis
Human Resource Planning activities are initiative by the HR function of the organization to assess the current and future needs of people for the organization that would help the business achieve its goals. The key objective of this activity is to identify Human Resource who would add value to the business organization. A key component of this activity is to anticipate the forces that may influence the future supply of and demand for employees. Human Resource Information Systems could aid the HR planning activity of the HR business function, as it would provide accurate and timely information on HR, that could be crucial in HR planning. Data that is accessible and easy to understand enables HR planning and managerial decision making to be based to a greater degree of information rather than relying on managerial perceptions and intuition.
Equal Employment Opportunity
A major requirement for any business firm to be an equal opportunity employer, and this has a major effect on all other HR activities and is integral to HR management. This requires business to be sure that while recruitment and selection activities are undertaken all necessary procedures are inplace that would limit discrimination on caste, color, religious beliefs and any other association or demographics that could result in selection bias.
Staffing
Staffing is aimed at provision of Human Resources that would stimulate organizational progress and would catalyze the success of the business. Staffing is undertaken with the purpose of finding people who would add value to the business, those who would increase organizational capability. The foundation for staffing is Job Analysis, that highlights what workers do, From this, job descriptions and job specifications can be prepared. For details on recruitment and selection read the article Recruitment and Selection.
HR Development
Modern focus of HR is on Development, and it has to start from day 1. Orientation shall be carried out in a way where employee shall be briefed on the need for personal and business development, but importantly HR shall provide adequate resources for development. Training and Development function of HR is key to enhance Job Satisfaction, reduce staff turnover, enhance organizational culture, improve working practices, and create a workplace that thrive on knowledge creation and sharing.
Training is a necessity for both the individual and the business due to the immense change in business environment such as the technological changes, the way customers react to products and services, plus training is a pathway for development, this development would aid in preparing organizations for future challenges.
Compensation and Benefits
Rewarding people for their work in form of pay, incentives and benefits is termed as Compensation. Commitment and Motivation of the Employees depends a great on how refined the systems are and how well they empathize with the staff. High profit sharing business could include gain sharing/profit sharing programs that could help make the employees owner in the loss and profit, and could help in enhanced commitment on part of the staff.
Health, Safety, and Security
Organizational progress and prosperity is not possible without employees wellbeing. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) has made organizations more responsive to health and safety concerns. Safety is about making sure adequate procedures are in place that would minimize accidents and injuries at workplace whereas health is concerned with taking initiatives that would limit hazardous work with certain chemicals and newer technologies.
Employee and Labor/Management Relations
Respect at workplace is key to better working environment, Relationship between the Management and staff at all levels in the organization must be based on mutual understanding and respect so that organization and the staff prospers together. For this to happen Employers must understand the right of their employees on them and shall make sure that those rights and duties are fulfilled whereas employees must understand that they have certain obligations to fulfill towards the business, this psychological contract is basis of establishing a long term relationship that adds to the success of the firm.
References
Source: Mathis, L, R., and Jackson, H, J., (2010). Human Resource Management. 13th Edition.
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