If you’re considering going into human resources, you’re entering an area that’s of critical importance for every company.
Every company needs a great team to succeed, but HR management comes with many responsibilities beyond simply hiring the right people.
Here you’ll find details about the key responsibilities of HR management in today’s environment.
Recruitment and Staffing
Before you hire new team members, you need to fully understand the positions you’re hiring for. This involves working with department managers to understand the roles and responsibilities of their team members. This enables you to create the right job descriptions and requirements and to select the applicants with the right skills.
Then you have to put in place a recruitment strategy. Finding the right people is not just a matter of putting a job posting on job boards. You need to know which job boards are likely to have the type of candidates you’re looking for, and then proactively search for candidates to reach out to. This is particularly important in today’s job market when many companies are struggling to find the best talent.
Once you have a pool of applicants, you need to be able to analyse their applications and resumes to screen out the best ones. This is where understanding the roles that you’re hiring for comes in. You need to be able to home in on the applicants that have the experience and skills best fit for the role.
When you’ve got the field narrowed, you’ll conduct interviews, which is an art, not a science. You’ll need to have an interview strategy that will help you to fully assess the candidates. It’s important to not only understand their qualifications, but their motivations and values, so that you hire people who will be dedicated to advancing the mission of the company.
Finally, you’ll be overseeing the onboarding and orientation process. You’ll want to develop a system that prepares the new team members to get to work but also to feel comfortable in their role and work environment.
Training and Development
An important part of human resource management is training and developing employees to advance their skills. There are three main steps to do so.
Needs assessment
First, you’ll need to work with department managers to understand the training needs of their staff. Then you’ll need to assess the specific needs of the employees based on their current skills but also based on their career goals.
Design and delivery of training programs
Using the information gained from your needs assessment, you’ll design training programs that meet the needs of various groups of employees. Obviously, you can’t necessarily design specific training programs for each individual, so you’ll need to find common needs that benefit certain department teams or employees at a certain level. Then you’ll need to plan how to deliver the training and what resources you’ll need.
Finally, you’ll be responsible for implementing the training using your available resources.
Performance management and evaluation
Post training, you’ll need a system to evaluate the team’s performance on an ongoing basis. Has the training had the desired results? Has the team’s performance improved? Is additional training still necessary? You should have specific metrics to track that can answer these questions.
Compensation and Benefits
Of course, part of recruiting and retaining the best talent is offering appropriate compensation and benefits. Step one is working with upper management to determine salary and wage levels that will be competitive but that fit within the company’s budget. It will be up to you to research and recommend salary levels for certain positions, and then work with management to get approval.
You’ll also need to determine what benefit packages to offer, and then administer those benefits.
Then, the dreaded payroll must be handled. Often in an HR department, a specific team is dedicated only to benefits admin and payroll functions, and the HR manager oversees that team. Payroll and payroll taxes are complex, so this team must be well versed in payroll laws and stay up to date on changes in the laws at the federal, state, and local levels.
Employee Relations
Employee relations is arguably one of the most important functions of HR management. You need to make sure that people are happy in their roles and in their work environment. This involves having open communication channels with employees, and having policies in place to resolve issues and conflicts.
This is important in terms of maintaining a positive company culture in which employees feel valued and free to communicate openly with managers and with the HR department.
Part of employee relations is also ensuring compliance with all labor laws and regulations, including discrimination and equal pay laws. Non-compliance with such laws can lead to hefty fines and penalties and can even result in lawsuits.
Diversity and Inclusion
In today’s world, employees are seeking employers that value diversity and inclusion, and act accordingly. The responsibility of creating a diverse and inclusive team falls on all management, but HR management must set the tone by creating appropriate policies for the hiring process, and for how employees are expected to behave toward each other.
But it doesn’t stop there. HR must ensure that these policies are being followed and take action if they are not. This goes back to keeping channels of communication open, so that employees are free to report any issues of discrimination or unfair treatment by anyone.
Additionally, diversity and inclusion training programs need to be designed and delivered on a regular basis so that everyone coming into the company understands the policies and how critical they are to building a company culture that will attract a diverse team.
Conclusion
As you can see, human resources management is a big job! It’s also one of the most critical functions in any company. In today’s world, the best talent is not only attracted and retained by compensation. Emplyees seek companies that share their values, and that take measures to ensure a positive work environment for everyone. As an HR manager, you should take your responsibilities very seriously. It’s critical to your company’s success, and to the success and well-being of all the people that you hire.
