The evolution of human resources from administrative function to strategic business partner

Human Resources Professional Interview Analysis

General Perspective of Human Resources and Conceptual Changes in the Field

According to the interview subject, human resource functions are no longer maintained as separate departments responsible only for processing payroll and employee transitions into and out of the organizations. Today, most organizations regard Human Resources as important components capable of adding value to organizations in crucial ways. Business organizations have realized that maximizing employee retention and minimizing employee turnover are critical to reducing overhead costs because of the cost of training new hires and because of the lost productivity during the transition. Today, Human Resources departments are perceived as playing important roles in that regard because they represent the first opportunity for business organizations to hire employees who are more likely to stay with their employers for the long-term and to add value to their operations.

Contemporary Hiring Processes

The modern approach to Human Resources integrates the entire process of recruitment, hiring, and new-hire training and coordinates the continual collaboration and involvement of operational departments with the Human Resources departments. Typically, the needs of the organization are determined by teams that include personnel from operational departments and Human Resources, such as where operational managers communicate their specific needs directly to Human Resources personnel to ensure that their hiring criteria are employed throughout the hiring process.

Operational managers provide detailed job specifications and descriptions of the knowledge, skills, and abilities that a successful candidate for the open position must demonstrate to maximize the likelihood of success in the organization and to minimize the chances that the organization will have to fill the same position again shortly. In that regard, operations management is also involved in providing the necessary information to assist Human Resources in developing recruitment strategies to attract the types of employees that they need. Operational representatives are often involved in connection with establishing the specific types of objective task performance and knowledge tests that Human Resources will use to identify the best qualified candidates from the field.

Ideally, by the time that Human Resources first publishes a job opening, the choice of where and how to publicize that open position, how to describe the position, and what initial criteria will be used to evaluate prospective candidates already reflects an ongoing joint effort between Human Resources and the department with that particular positional opening. Likewise, when Human Resources representatives conduct the initial interview, they are emphasizing the concerns and preferences communicated by those departments; and when they administer knowledge and skills tests to differentiate between candidates and to identify the best qualified, the tests and other instruments they employ for that purpose also reflect substantial input from the departments where the successful candidate will eventually be employed. Rather than having the hiring decision made independently by Human Resources, as often occurred in the past, today, subsequent rounds of interviews usually involve interviewers from the operational departments; they may even be conducted by the manager or supervisor to whom the successful new hire will be reporting directly. Finally, modern Human Resources departments maintain direct involvement in the process of providing new-hire training to help communicate the organization's values and needs to new employees.

Contemporary Recruitment and Applicant Vetting Processes

Technology, digital media, and social networking habits have changed the way that modern Human Resource departments conduct recruitment as well as the way that they confirm information provided by applicants and the way that they conduct investigations to identify any public information that the organization would benefit from knowing before making hiring decisions. For example, organizations sometimes utilize social networking platforms and announcements to current employees to advertise positions and to tap into the potential value of the personal connections. In addition to the standard background, criminal history, and credit checks, modern organizations now also conduct social media and general Internet searches to identify possible public statements and activities of prospective hires as part of the process of identifying those employees who best fit the organizational values and culture. This helps the organization reduce the risk of hiring those who do not but who might otherwise be hired as a result of their skills and the information they choose to furnish to interviewers.