HR Department:
The worst everywhere, the best it should be
Human Resource Management, perhaps the most discussed section of the business organizations.
Most of the companies or owners think that HR Department is a Cost Centre, and not a profit Centre. Actually it is not. Invest in the people is the best way than you spend lot of money for Marketing & Advertisements.
Here I put some points which will help you to know the route path on how HR is important to the company and how much it is related to the company’s overall policy and how it is helping to achieve the goals.
Vision and Mission
A company will have certain goals and objectives or Vision and Mission. The aim of the company is to achieve this goals or the consistent achievement of this goals.
Vision will be answers to these questions:
1. What we should get out of this project?
2. What we are aiming with this project?
3. What is the overall result we are expecting
Mission will be answers to these questions:
1. How we reach the aim?
2. What is our motto behind such aim?
3. What are our constraints to achieve such vision?
Now, that is our aim. The Director Board, Management and employees are appointed to achieve this aim, to realize this mission and vision.
Short term and Long term achievements
If the goals are not near and far reaching, it has to be bifurcated into Short term achievements and long term achievements.
The Board of Directors (That should include a team of 6-8 people, who can monitor the activities, and they will be the final word. It also comprises CEO and COO and invitees when meeting). The Board of Directors is the overall custodians of this mission and vision and to watch the company is moving towards the aim.
Manpower Planning
Board of Directors to achieve their aim, will appoint CEO, COO and other key positions, whom they think, as integral part of achieving the goals. CEO and COO are the key positions to make strategies and plans to achieve short term and long term goals.
To implement these plans, so as to achieve the goals, we need workforce. Work force the most important as they are our dependence to achieve the goals. Here where, Manpower planning is coming.
Manpower planning is a work of CEO and COO to achieve the goals. This gets approved by the Board and handed over to the HR Department to recruit.
Recruitment
HR Department is the custodian of preparing Job Descriptions for these positions in coordination with CEO, COO other department heads etc…, and then starts recruitments.
In each step, it is ensured that we are getting the right person to suit the position. Recruitment is more concentrated on Vision and Mission and short term and long term achievements. So the cost of recruitment is less considerable when considering the achievement of Goals.
Up to this stage, Do you think HR is very much important as it is part of the organization to achieve its goals?
Until now, we said that how HR strategically important to achieve the goal. Now we reached the recruitment stage.
Performance Management:
Once the employees recruited, we need to ensure that the employee is performing according to the expectation, thought while proposing this position in the manpower planning. Here where HR Department coordinating with departments to bifurcate the Job Descriptions to yearly task and targets. These task and targets appraised annually of half yearly.
Training & Development:
While managing the performance, we usually notice that, there are certain gaps in the performance of the employee in his skills and expertise to perform full-fledged as visualized while preparing manpower plan. These skills can be provided by analyzing the training needs and planning training & development plan for the employee. This training is also to achieve the goals. This is also done by HR Department.
Compensation Management:
When employee is recruited his salary and other benefits has to be reached on a monthly basis to his account. So all the claims, benefits, salary, insurance has to be managed in proper way. This is also HR work
Leave, Grievance handling and Employee retention:
Employees are human beings and well trained employees are the source of the company to achieve its aims. So retention of an employee is important as separation of one employee will invite additional cost of recruitment, and loss of talent and expertise. For this purpose, his leave has to be managed in a proper way, his grievance to be handled in a proper way and a lot of offers has to be made for the employee. This is also HR work. Frustrated employee’s productivity will be very less compare to a motivated employee. An employee friendly company’s employee retention rate is high that may reach to 10-15 years
Administration
All the other issues related to paper works, documentation, legal formalities related to the company, stationery management, transportation management, accommodation management, inventory management, facility management are the works of the administration section, it also HR head ache.
In short, HR is the backbone of a company. The most important thing to notice is that, HR is not a powerful position to make decisions. But HR is the custodian of company policy and procedures. If HR asks the employee certain things, it is not actually from HR. it is from the management. But, in my experience, always HR department is blamed by the employees in many of the organizations, knowingly or unknowingly that they are only a mirror that reflect the company over all policy and code of conduct.
