What are the Functions of Human Resource Management?



What are the Functions of Human Resource Management?

 As per Armstrong's (1997) definition,  "Human resource management is a strategic approach to acquiring, developing, managing, motivating and gaining the commitment of the organization’s key resource — the people who work in and for it.”

In general, human resource management is concerned with hiring, motivating and maintaining workforce within businesses.

Functions of Human Resource Management Includes:

· Managerial Functions

· Operative Functions

Managerial Function Includes:

1. Planning

One of the primary function where number & type of employees needed to accomplish organizational goals are determined. Research forms core HRM planning which also helps management to collect, analyze and identify current plus future needs within the organization.

2. Organizing

Organization of the task is another important step. Task is allocated to every member as per their skills and activities are integrated towards a common goal.

3. Directing

This includes activating employees at different levels and making them contribute maximum towards organizational goal. Tapping maximum potentialities of an employee via constant motivation and command is a prime focus.

4. Controlling

Post planning, organizing and directing, performance of an employee is checked, verified and compared with goals. If actual performance is found deviated from the plan, control measures are taken.


Operative Function Includes:

1. Staffing

2. Human Resource Development

3. Compensation & Benefits

4. Safety & Health

5. Employees & Labor Relations

6. Human Resource Research


Now each function is illustrated below-.

1. Staffing
The organization can become effective when it possess the qualified persons, who are designated for specific position along with the proper place & timing. This would make an organization to achieve its organizational objectives. Organization gets such qualified employees on time when its HR department performs effective staffing function. Following are the important activities of the staffing function of HR department.

01- Job Analysis

02- Human Resource Planning (HRP)

03- Recruitment

04- Selection


Job Analysis
In job analysis, systematic effort is made to ascertain the knowledge, skills & duties necessary to perform certain jobs in the organization.


Human Resource Planning (HRP)
Human Resource Planning is the systematic activity of staffing function of HR department, in which the requirements of human resource are reviewed in order to confirm that the required number of workers  with the require skills & knowledge are made available when they are demanded.

Recruitment
Recruitment is the systematic process of attracting & encouraging relatively large number of applicants to apply for the required jobs of the organization.

Selection
Selection is the final systematic process through which the organization identifies the best persons from a pool of applicants for the job that can effectively fulfil the required criteria of performing the desired duties in the organization.


2. Human Resource Development
Functions of human resource management include another important role of the Hr department in which the training & development of the employees is conducted along with the career planning. For this purpose, certain activities including performance appraisals are performed that identifies the needs for training & development of the specified employees. The training is designed & given to provide the employees with the required skills & knowledge for their current positions of the jobs. While development is much broader than training in which the future aspect of employees are covered by providing them sufficient & knowledge to perform more complex duties of future jobs.


3. Compensation & Benefits
The individual as well as the teams of employees can benefit from the human resource development which ultimately benefits the organization by improving its entire performance. The human resource development is not an optional activity but rather it the necessity of the employees as well as organization to cover the changing skills, jobs & technology of the world.


Career planning is much more advance activity in which the employee determine his career goals & then he try to point out the proper means to accomplish those goals. Organizations also use career development in which properly qualified & experienced people are made available to the organization when needed. The performance appraisals are prepared to check the performance level of the employees by analyzing the performed tasked.


3. Compensation & Benefits
The HR department has also responsibility to perform the function of compensation & employee benefits. The compensation is defined as all the rewards that are obtained by the employee as a result of his employment. These rewards may take any of the following forms.

Pay
The money received by an employee for performing his job.

Benefits
Benefits are those extra financial rewards that are received other than pay. Benefits include sick leaves, paid leaves, holiday& medical insurance.

Non-financial Rewards
There are also some non financial rewards that are availed by the employees & which are non-monetary in nature like pleasant working environment & delightedness of work performed etc.

4. Safety & Health
Safety & health is included in the functions of human resource management performed by the HR department of the organization. In this function the safety of the employees form serious accidents in working environment is ensured. Health is little different from safety in such a way that it is related to the normal physical & mental well-being of employees that make them free from the illness. The safety & health issue of the employees is very crucial for the HR department because employees are asset of the organization & their good health in a safe working environment ensures the increased productivity & effectiveness of the organization in the long run.

5. Employees & Labor Relations
The unionism of the employees is becoming popular for many years & now it becomes compulsory by law for the organizations to declare a union of its employees & bargain with the union on certain matters. If the employees of the organization wants to join the union, then the organization do not put pressure on them for prevention. Although unionism is an earlier concept which is also working in the private industry but still many organizations try to keep a union free environment because unions can become harmful for the organizations if they are not properly handled.

6. Human Resource Research
The human resource research is not nominated as a function of the human resource management, but still it is considered to be the one of the functions of HRM because it does not require cost for separate laboratory & provide effective solutions for many issues of the HR department.



Interrelationship of the HRM Functions

All the functions of HRM are interrelated with each other & a single decision of HR department can affect many areas of the organizations. So, management should keep focus on this fact while making certain policies & rules for employees.

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