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What Is Involved in Managing Human Resources?
In the world of business, there is nothing more important than having a plan in place to manage the people aspect of the company. This is most often referred to as managing human resources. It helps a company grow over time as the right kids of skills and people are added to the team.
It’s common sense in business that without skilled and productive employees, it can be nearly impossible to reach objectives. Having a plan in place to attract, recruit and integrate quality employees into a company and then further developing their skills in line with the company mission statement is the challenge of managing human resources.
Managing human resources means maintaining the careful balance between employees and business operatives. The human resources team can generally handle the sensitive employee-employer relationship by keeping the lines of communication open and addressing any issues before they become problems. In addition, the human resources managers must get inside the minds of upper management to truly understand what the human resources plan should include.
Many companies take a theoretical approach by recognizing the unique talents and qualities that each employee brings to the table. In this approach, leaders are identified who can develop new ideas into successful ventures for the company vs. dictating to employees how and when things will occur and then expecting them to conform. This can be an effective way for companies to manage growth and find more avenues for company growth.
Some companies use an external source of managing human resources by contracting with a human resources consulting or staffing firm. This can be a cost-effective means for managing human resources that takes the pressure off of a central human resources manager to handle every aspect of dealing with the legal and ethical challenges that often accompany employee matters. Using a human resources consulting firm can also bring additional insight to company leaders as the consulting firm often has many years of experience with managing human resources at successful companies.
Human resources management is seen by HR practitioners as a more innovative form of handling personnel than previous ways of doing things. In past times, outside of hiring, firing and payroll, companies did little to actually manage the day to day employee issues. This attitude has changed as employee rights have expanded and employment laws continue to adapt to the needs of present day working professionals. Human resource management is now looked at as meeting work-life needs of employees in order to produce happier, more productive workers.
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![A human resources manager may conduct interviews.]()
By: imageegamiA human resources manager may conduct interviews. -
![Human resources management is seen by HR practitioners as a more innovative form of handling personnel than previous ways of doing things.]()
By: chaginHuman resources management is seen by HR practitioners as a more innovative form of handling personnel than previous ways of doing things. -
![Human resource managers should be versed in conflict resolution techniques.]()
By: WavebreakmediaMicroHuman resource managers should be versed in conflict resolution techniques. -
![Human resource managers may be responsible for leading new hire orientation sessions.]()
By: kanzefarHuman resource managers may be responsible for leading new hire orientation sessions.
Discussion Comments
I think one of the most important jobs of a human resources manager is integrating new employees into the team. I'm sure we all know how stressful it is to be a new hire at a company, especially if all the other people have been there for years.
If a human resources manager can let the new employee in on the corporate culture of the business and help them get settled, I think that could go a long way.
Also, as the article mentioned, I bet it's really helpful if human resources does a thorough assessment of the new hires skills. Then they can let management know where their strengths are. I think it helps if the rest of the employees know that the new person is making a valuable contribution.
@JaneAir - Good point. One other thing I've noticed regarding managing human resources is that some managers really stink at making hiring decisions.
I work at a small office, so we don't have anything like a human resource department or a human resource person. The chain of command is pretty much the insurance agent, then the employees. There isn't any middle person, and all the employees are at the same level.
Anyway, my boss has made some pretty silly hiring decisions. I think if we had an actual human resources professional, we might get more quality people working at the office.
I think it's good that companies are putting more of an emphasis on managing their human resources these days. I don't know of any business that can run without people, you know?
Also, I've seen time and time again that happy employees are more productive. If you make sure that you get employees that are a good fit for the company, this can go a long way to keeping them happy. Then if you have a human resources department or person available to handle employee concerns, this will boost morale even further.
I used to work in the staffing industry and often we would fill jobs for many of these human resources departments of different companies.
Since many of these jobs were technical in nature and a little harder to fill, the human resources department manager would tell us about these open positions and often set up an interview with our candidate and the department manager that the candidate would be reporting to.
This really freed up the human resource manager’s time and allowed her to focus on other important aspects of her job. Some people in the field of human resources specialize in one of these areas like recruiting, benefits administration, or payroll.
I have had friends that worked in the staffing industry and took positions with companies as a human resources generalist or a recruiter. They usually worked for smaller companies and the work was not as fast-paced as the staffing industry work was which was something that a lot of people liked because working in the staffing industry required working with very tight deadlines and fifty-five hour weeks were not uncommon.
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