HR Department and its formation

The formation of an HR Department

Introduction

Human resources management is the sum of all operations that handle all employee-related matters such as employment, training, compensation, policy development, and retention strategies. Human resource management has undergone significant changes over the last twenty years, making the field much more important in organizations today (Blaga, 2020). In an organization, the human resources department accomplishes the following functions: human resource planning, handling job analysis, recruitment and administration of job interviews, the appointment of human resources, orientation, training, compensation, assignment of benefits and incentives; employee evaluation, retaining employees, career planning, quality of work-life improvement, employee discipline, sexual harassment eradication, human resource auditing, maintenance of the industrial relationship, employee welfare, and advocating compliance with city, state and federal laws (Joshua, 2019).

HR professionals plan and execute all human resources management (HRM) practices. For example, HR professionals decide a company's selection process by choosing between multiple selection exercises or adopting a sequence of activities to determine qualified candidates. Such a sequence could be asking applicants to complete an application form, sitting for an employment test, and then be invited for an interview with the HR professional and the line manager. The HR professional also orchestrates each activity at any stage of a selection process by performing actions such as creating the application form, sourcing the selection test from a test publisher, and devising the interview questions to be used during the selection (Joshua, 2019).

HR professionals evaluate the effectiveness of all HRM practices by evaluating and monitoring all executed practices. For example, an HR professional will assess the usefulness of employment tests, the success of training programs, and the cost-effectiveness of all executed HRM practices. HR professionals also complete performance appraisals and provide formal training programs for employees. HR professionals also work as consultants for other parts of the organization and give line managers advice related to HRM-matters, such as handling a problematic employee (Bartram, Cavanagh & Hoye, 2017).

Major roles of Human Resources Team

The major function of the HRM is the recruitment and onboarding of new employees. The HR professional manages the otherwise tedious recruitment processes, reducing the time and the expenses needed to complete the process. The importance of the HR department in recruitment is heavily marked by the significant effect wrong recruitment can have on a business. If too few people are recruited, there will be a shortage of labor; but the expenditure will fail to match the revenue if too many people are recruited. Hiring the wrong candidates can also affect a business as the organization will be composed of incompetent individuals who will not provide the service being paid for. The HR department also conducts the onboarding process to set up recruits in a new environment. The onboarding is the sum of all activities from hiring, welcoming, orienting, and adapting a recruit to the organization's culture. The onboarding of a recruit improves employee engagement and increases employees' retention (Joshua, 2019).

The HR department is responsible for developing systems for evaluating employees. The systems developed create periodic ratings of an employee's job performance through annual evaluations, disciplinary warnings, and improvement plans. The HR department also trains supervisors who will provide unbiased feedback on workers' performance to the employer. The HR department works to create a cohesive work environment that allows employers to engage workers personally. This can encourage workers to perform better, creating an advantage for the organization (Joshua, 2019).

Another role of the human resources management department is developing and maintaining a positive business culture in the workplace. The business culture influences engagement, job satisfaction, and employee retention. The business culture is influenced by the following: the employee's pay, training and development of employees, performance management, onboarding, and a definition of its values (Joshua, 2019).

The HR department encourages effective communication within an organization to improve cooperation, employee engagement, innovation, creativity, and fosters better client relationships. HR services that handle compensation and benefits analyses identify areas for improvement in the employer's compensation structure. An employee's compensation structure's improvement presents a greater appeal to an employee and promotes employee retention (Bartram, Cavanagh & Hoye, 2017).

One more role of the HR department is to create awareness and ensure compliance with all local, state, and federal labor laws. This duty saves a company the legal hassle and expense of engaging legal counsel to fight lawsuits or settlement claims of unfair employment practices. A defense action against legal battles is particularly important for a small business that might suffer financially due to litigation expenses or suffer a reputation loss due to the claim. Such a defense has to be considered even for small businesses as a business with 15 employees, or more is subject to federal labor and employment laws. HR has to ensure that all the employer's policies follow the labor laws, from ensuring that equal employment opportunities exist to smaller matters such as coffee breaks. The money saved by the business from averting potential lawsuits and settlement claims from employees and applicants will serve to grow the business' wealth, reputation, and competitive advantage (Bartram, Cavanagh & Hoye, 2017).

Importance of Human Resources

The HR department is essential in creating an employee-oriented and productive work environment that engenders a high employee engagement level. The HR department defines the business culture of the environment, spreading out business values among the employees. HR also oversees the management of talents in the organization by collaborating with other managers to effect management development, performance management, define career paths, succession planning, and other facets of talent management. The HR department introduces new ideas and practices into the organization and relies on other managers and executive staff to establish them (Barnes & Adam, 2017).

The HR department recruits and improves an organization's workforce. The department works with hiring managers to achieve this objective. The department also conducts additional exercises to improve the workforce quality, such as training, employing a systematic hiring process, recruitment planning process, fostering interview expertise, and monitoring new employees' selection. The department oversees employees' salaries by recommending market-based salaries to managers to determine the salary range in an organization. The HR department introduces and executes various employee benefits programs and strategic compensation plans as incentives to retain valuable employees (Barnes & Adam, 2017).

HR develops strategies to ensure the achievement of an organization's objectives. By engaging the employees in programs and processes, the department can pave the way for any organizational change, such as a changing mission or vision. HR also fosters cohesiveness between an organization's members by ensuring that ceremonies, celebrations, field trips, and team-building exercises all occur. Other employees can implement these events and activities without the help of the HR department. Still, the HR leader is in charge of monitoring the budget and providing committee oversight (Barnes & Adam, 2017).

The HR department is instrumental in resolving workplace conflicts between employees and management by advocating executives on more effective ways to work with particular employees. HR takes on the role of advocate, coach, and mediator to build successful workplace interpersonal relationships and enhance productivity. The functions of the HR department, which might not be very overt, are extremely vital to an organization's success (Blaga, 2020).

Contributions of HR efforts to productivity and competitiveness of companies

The alignment of human resource strategies has been verified by numerous studies to increase the chances of achieving business goals and improving business performance. Such studies also indicate that leveraging human capital enhances growth, promotes the achievement of objectives, and provides a competitive advantage through an organization's positive business culture. Such companies that leverage human capital to enhance development have well-grounded HR departments that align with the companies objectives. The employees are enticed to continue working at the same organization for a long time, actively contributing to the organization's financial growth through the application of experience and high work enthusiasm. Companies that do not possess clear people to plan will not enjoy these advantages and risk losing or never obtaining a competitive advantage (Naznin & Hussain, 2016).

During the 1980s and early 90s, American and European companies' business environment became quite turbulent and often unpredictable. Due to the increased competition from Japan and other international companies which offered high-quality goods at lower prices, American and European companies faced a major business challenge. Many companies were forced to adopt coping strategies such as mergers and businesses that could not keep up experienced takeovers or closures (Naznin & Hussain, 2016). This sudden change in the business environment caused massive job losses. Unemployed workers were forced to work part-time and become multi-skilled to compete in a fiercer business world. The role of the personnel specialist gained more significance during this time. The personnel specialist was required to change responses from reactive ones to proactive ones, which apply a strategic approach to managing personnel rather than a routine one to prepare for any eventuality in the unpredictable business environment (Noe et al., 2017).

The changes in consumer preferences such as taste, fashion, and quality of goods, compelled organizations to seek improvements to turn out products that reflected the purchase price. To achieve this improvement, production systems had to be upgraded, processes had to be made more efficient, and employees had to increase performance. Managing the human aspect involved employing the best people from the labor market and providing incentives to ensure that workers will render high-quality service to the organization. A high-quality service could only be achieved in an enabling environment that promotes creativity and innovation. Accommodating the new demand prompted changes in recruitment and selection criteria, staff development, and reward systems. These changes also affected a change in a personnel specialist's role from that of completing personnel functions only to an added duty of providing support services to other departments to perform personnel functions (Now et al., 2017).