Human resources are the people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, or economy. "Human capital" is sometimes used synonymously with "human resources", although human capital typically refers to a more narrow view (i.e., the knowledge the individuals embody and economic growth). Likewise, other terms sometimes used include "manpower", "talent", "labour", "personnel", or simply "people".
A human-resources department (HR department) of an organization performs human resource management, overseeing various aspects of employment, such as compliance with labour law and employment standards, administration of employee benefits, and some aspects of recruitment and dismissal.
HR Opportunities
Human Resource Management - Interested in human resource management, but not sure what it's all about? Human resource professionals are typically responsible for making sure a workplace is productive, harmonious and safe....
Human resource manager or assistants are in charge of many duties pertaining to their job, some of them include, the recruitment/new hire process, they post job ads, organize resumes and job applications, schedule interviews and assist in the process and ensure background checks. Another job is payroll and benefits administration which deals with ensuring vacation and sick time are accounted for, reviewing payroll, and participating in benefits tasks, like claim resolutions, reconciling benefit statements, and approving invoices for payment. The last job is regular maintenance, this job makes sure that the current HR files and databases are up to date, maintaining employee benefits and employment status and performing payroll/benefit-related reconciliations. In May 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor stated that human resource assistants earn about $38,040 annually and human resource managers earn about $104,440 annually.
Activities
A human resources manager has several functions in a company:
- Determine needs of the staff.
- Determine to use temporary staff or hire employees to fill these needs.
- Recruit and train the best employees.
- Supervise the work.
- Manage employee relations, unions and collective bargaining.
- Prepare employee records and personal policies.
- Ensure high performance.
- Manage employee payroll, benefits and compensation.
- Ensure equal opportunities.
- Deal with discrimination.
- Deal with performance issues.
- Ensure that human resources practices conform to various regulations.
- Push the employees' motivation.
Managers need to develop their interpersonal skills to be effective. Organisations behaviour focuses on how to improve factors that make organisations more effective.
History
Human resource management was only recently created before it was referred to as "personnel administration." In the 1920s, personnel administration focused mostly on the aspects of hiring, evaluating, training and compensating employees. According to an HR Magazine article, the first personnel management department started at the National Cash Register Co. in 1900. The leader, John H. Patterson, of the National Cash Register Co. organized a personnel department to deal with grievances, discharges and safety, and training for supervisors on new laws and practices after several strikes and employee lockouts. During the 1970s, companies experienced globalization, deregulation, and rapid technological change which caused the major companies to enhance their strategic planning and focus on ways to promote organizational effectiveness. This resulted in developing more jobs and opportunities for people to show their skills which were directed to effective applying employees toward the fulfillment of individual, group, and organizational goals. Many years later the major/minor of human resource management was created at universities and colleges also known as business administration. Now, human resources focus on the people side of management. There are two real definitions of HRM (Human Resource Management), one is that it is the process of managing people in organizations in a structured and thorough manner. This means that it covers the hiring, firing, pay and perks, and performance management. This first definition is the modern and traditional version more like what a personnel manager would have done back in the 1920s. The second definition is that HRM circles the ideas of management of people in organizations from a macro perspective like customers and competitors in a marketplace. This involves the focus on making the “employment relationship†fulfilling for both management and employees.
Origins of the terminology
Pioneering economist John R. Commons used the term "human resource" in his 1893 book The Distribution of Wealth but did not further build upon it. The term "human resource" was subsequently in use during the 1910s and 1920s as was the notion that workers could be seen as a kind of capital asset. Among scholars the first use of "human resources" in its modern form was in a 1958 report by economist E. Wight Bakke. The term began to become more developed in the 19th century due to misunderstandings between employers and employees.
The term in practice
From the corporate objective, employees have been traditionally viewed as assets to the enterprise, whose value is enhanced by further learning and development, referred to as human resource development.
In regard to how individuals respond to the changes in a labour market, the following must be understood:
- Skills and qualifications: as industries move from manual to more managerial professions so does the need for more highly skilled staff. If the market is "tight" (i.e. not enough staff for the jobs), employers must compete for employees by offering financial rewards, community investment, etc.
- Geographical spread: how far is the job from the individual? The distance to travel to work should be in line with remuneration, and the transportation and infrastructure of the area also influence who applies for a position.
- Occupational structure: the norms and values of the different careers within an organization. Mahoney 1989 developed 3 different types of occupational structure, namely, craft (loyalty to the profession), organization career path (promotion through the firm) and unstructured (lower/unskilled workers who work when needed).
- Generational difference: different age categories of employees have certain characteristics, for example, their behavior and their expectations of the organization.
Concerns about the terminology
One major concern about considering people as assets or resources is that they will be commoditized, objectified and abused. Some analysis suggests that human beings are not "commodities" or "resources", but are creative and social beings in a productive enterprise. The 2000 revision of ISO 9001, in contrast, requires identifying the processes, their sequence and interaction, and to define and communicate responsibilities and authorities. In general, heavily unionised nations such as France and Germany have adopted and encouraged such approaches. Also, in 2001, the International Labour Organization decided to revisit and revise its 1975 Recommendation 150 on Human Resources Development, resulting in its "Labour is not a commodity" principle. One viewTemplate:Whose of these trends is that a strong social consensus on political economy and a good social welfare system facilitate labour mobility and tend to make the entire economy more productive, as labour can develop skills and experience in various ways, and move from one enterprise to another with little controversy or difficulty in adapting.
Another important controversy regards labour mobility and the broader philosophical issue with usage of the phrase "human resources". Governments of developing nations often regard developed nations that encourage immigration or "guest workers" as appropriating human capital that is more rightfully part of the developing nation and required to further its economic growth. Over time, the United Nations have come to more generally support the developing nations' point of view, and have requested significant offsetting "foreign aid" contributions so that a developing nation losing human capital does not lose the capacity to continue to train new people in trades, professions, and the arts.
Development
Human resources play an important part of developing and making a company or organization at the beginning or making a success at the end, due to the labour provided by employees. Human resources is intended to show how to have better employment relations in the workforce. Also, to bring out the best work ethic of the employees and therefore making a move to a better working environment.
Planning
Administration and operations used to be the two role areas of HR. The strategic planning component came into play as a result of companies recognizing the need to consider HR needs in goals and strategies. HR directors commonly sit on company executive teams because of the HR planning function. Numbers and types of employees and the evolution of compensation systems are among elements in the planning role. Various factors affecting Human Resource planning Organizational Structure, Growth, Business Location, Demographic changes, environmental uncertainties, expansion etc. Additionally, this area encompasses the realm of talent management.
See also
- Activity-based working
- Chief human resources officer
- Employee offboarding
- Human resource accounting
- Human resource management
- Industrial and organizational psychology
References
External links
- Library resources in your library and in other libraries about Human resources