Purpose and Role of Human Resources

Business owners know that having the best product on the market is not the only thing needed in order to sustain success. If there are holes in the business in the area of employee motivation, performance, and productivity, then there is sure to be a dip in the success of the company. This is when a strong human resources (HR) department is needed because this is when they shine. Ellard Williams, Incorporated has found itself in the position where a series of organizational mistakes, blunders, and mismanagement has affected the profitability of the company. The paper will examine Ellard Williams, Inc. by presenting the purpose and role of human resources in a large manufacturing organization and by assessing the five most important duties of an effective human resources department, detailing how these duties specifically support and enhance the organization’s ability to meet strategic objectives.

The HR department once took a seat at the back of the table while the rest of management did its best to help guide the company to success. Times have changed, and companies are realizing that the HR department can be used for so much more than just paperwork and compliance training. In a large manufacturing organization, HR can be used to identify, select, evaluate, promote, and retain the most talented employees (csuglobal.com, 2018). This can be done “by analyzing the capabilities of the organization, participating in the determination of the organization’s future, and then ensuring organizational employees are trained and motivated to contribute towards this future” (csuglobal.com, 2018, par. 4). This type of involvement not only gives HR a seat at the table but ensures their duties and responsibilities are critical to the overall success of the organization.

Staffing

Staffing is a critical element of the human resources function. It is defined as the process of acquiring, deploying, and retaining a workforce of sufficient quantity and quality to create positive impacts on the organization’s effectiveness (Heneman, Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Hiring the right people will help the organization meet its strategic objectives.  Activities involved in acquiring the right people are determining how many and what types of people are needed, establishing KSAOs (knowledge, skill, ability, and other characteristics) needed to perform the job effectively, creating external job campaigns, using selection tools to evaluate the KSAOs that applicants possess, selecting the most qualified applicants, and extending attractive job offers (Heneman, Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Once the top talent is hired, HR’s job is still not done.

Deploying new and existing employees can be like a game of chess, it is complex, but the right moves can lead to a victory for the organization. Externally, it is not always clear exactly where new employees will work, geographically speaking, or what specific work unit they will work in (Heneman, Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Internally, this means knowing when to move existing employees when the time for promotions, transfers, and new project assignments arise. The importance of deploying ties in with retention. An outflow of employees is inevitable in any organization. This can happen involuntarily on the part of the employee, for example, due to termination. It can also happen voluntarily where the employee initiates it, for example, an employee finds a new job outside of the organization. The HR department should have a process in place to minimize turnover, as it can be very costly for the organization and can slow down the activities in place to meet strategic objectives (Heneman, Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). When turnover does happen, the HR department should be ready to deploy new and existing employees to the vacant positions. This will ensure the loss of an employee is only a minor speed bump that will only slightly slow down progress and not create a detour where progress is severely slowed down due to the need for a new plan to be developed.

Development

Five Most Important Duties and Responsibilities of an HR Department

Employee development begins with the onboarding process the day an employee is hired. A proper onboarding process helps boost employee engagement. Gallup has linked a correlation between engaged employees and an organization’s profitability, turnover rate, safety record, absenteeism, product quality and customer ratings (shrm.org, 2017). In order for employee development to align with the organization’s strategic goals, HR needs to meet with upper management to ensure they understand the strategic importance of a proper onboarding process. Many people assume the onboarding process is just the first 90-day period where new employees get set up on payroll and sign all the necessary forms, but it is actually a comprehensive process that can take up to 12 months (shrm.org, 2017). HR should be sure to get the process started right away and have a plan in place to track it along the way.

There are three key areas of employee development that specifically deal with the onboarding process. First, the company profile should be covered. These include, going over the company mission and values, organizational culture, etc. This helps employees understand the importance of the organization’s strategic objectives from the start and helps to gain early buy in to the cause. Second, legal and policy review should be covered. This includes Form 1-9, benefits enrollment, policies (e.g., anti-harassment, nondiscrimination, etc.), security information, and employment-at-will. Getting to the finish line is important but getting there the right way is just as important. Covering these areas will ensure employees know how to achieve the organization’s objectives the right way. Third, workgroup, such as meeting with supervisors to cover work expectations and standards, meeting with co-workers, etc. Building relationships with co-workers early on helps employees to utilize their resources when needed.

Compensation

Job satisfaction is one of the top reason’s employees will either stay or leave their employer. One way to keep employees satisfied in their role is by having a competitive compensation plan. Compensation levels should be set to match the market and this data should be pulled on a regular basis to ensure accuracy. Beyond wages, HR should work with upper management to ensure an attractive benefits plan is in place, such as group health insurance. If employees feel that they are rewarded when the organization succeeds, then they will work that much harder to help meet the organization’s strategic objectives.

Safety and Health

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, there are five basic needs that inform behavior and one of those needs is safety (Richards, 2015). This means employees should not have to worry about perceived threats, such as bankruptcy, a hostile work environment, or high turnover (Richards, 2015). The last thing an employee should have to worry about is whether or not the company they work for will still be around tomorrow. HR should assess how employees are feeling and adjust as needed. When employees are able to focus solely on their work then their productivity will be that much better for it.

Workplace disagreements between employer-employee and employee-employee are bound to happen but HR should have a process in place to ensure they minimize disagreements and have a process to follow when disagreements arise. According to Sutanto and Kurniawan (2016), labor relations impacts job performance when problems such as difference of work, age and demographics arise. When these issues are not addressed and fixed it can slow down productivity and will hinder employees from being able to help the organization achieve its strategic objectives. HR can implement programs to ensure employees feel that they are part of a team. HR can also work closely with unions to ensure the lines of communication are open. This can help to minimize the escalation of any issues.

Conclusion

The paper examined Ellard Williams, Inc. by presenting the purpose and role of human resources in a large manufacturing organization and by assessing the five most important duties of an effective human resources department, detailing how these duties specifically support and enhance the organization’s ability to meet strategic objectives. Ellard Williams, Inc. has an entire department dedicated to helping it fix its issues in employee motivation, performance and productivity and that is the HR department. Unfortunately, it has not used this department effectively and the company is seeing the negative consequences in the form of lost profits. The HR department should be focusing on five key areas: staffing, development, compensation, safety and health, and employee and labor relations. If executed effectively, each of these core functions will help Ellard Williams, Inc. achieve its organizational strategic objectives.

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