Human Resources

Describe the role of human resources and impacts of HR on various dimensions of business?

Human resources is also referred to HR or HRM which is an expression used for the use of human capital to get the work done within the organization. It can be purely and simply defined to be an implementation of strategy for driving innovation, productivity and sharing prices by mobilization of workforce for achieving excellence. It is believed that the ability of the HR for adding value is completely proportional to the ability of leveraging on the tools which they have at their disposal. Going by the definition Human Resource can be defined as a set of individuals that make up the entire workforce of any organization, economy or a business sector (CSB 1995). For governing Human Resources, the three terms which are typically considered are:

1. Demographics: Includes characteristics, population, age, gender and social class of the individuals available for work.

2. Diversity: This is a variation and kind of people from different cultures, race, gender, or country work together.

3. Skills & qualifications: Industry has moved beyond the manual forms of operations to a much complex managerial professionalism. It means that there is a need for highly skilled graduates. Organizations need to offer financial rewards, community investments and other facilities for the human resources.

Human Resources is primarily concerned with issues for managing different people in an organization. The role of HR is as follows:

1. Conduct interviews and carry out suitable candidates for the company

2. Identify as well as meet training needs for the existing human resources

3. Ensure welfare of the employees and develop positive employee relations

4. Raise awareness for the current workplace legislations (Corostrand Berg 2009)

Going by the key strategic roles of the Human Resources it can be seen at the following levels:

1. Executive: As per this role the HR acts as a specialist in different areas which comprises of Human Resources and people management.

2. Auditor: Here the HR checks the other departments within the organization for ensuring that all the HR policies which comprises of Health & Safety, Staff Appraisal, and Training & Development, is properly implemented and abided by.

3. Facilitator: Under this role HR helps and facilitates the different departments for achieving goals as well as standards as proposed through the HR policies within the organization. It would involve training to be delivered on various issues which arise in different areas pertaining to people management.

4. Consultant: As per this role the HR advises the managers on the ways they wish to tackle different people issues in a professional manner.

5. Service: HR offers information for raising awareness and informing the different departments to the core functional areas in connection to the changes in policy (HRPA 2011).

Business Management in public sector since the early 1980s has encouraged for abandoning the bureaucratic traditions and becoming a much more enterprising and entrepreneurial organization. The area of HR, organizational policies as well as practices at both public and the private sectors remains different from various aspects. For instance traditional style of the paternal, standardized as well as collectivized HRM is much prevalent in the public sector when compared to the private sector. Further, the different activities which are related to the conventional state role for a model employer like staff training as well as promotion to equal opportunities is most likely to be found at public organizations. Principles and the approaches which are refined originally inside the large and exceptional private organizations need to be expected for translating into different settings. Studies and observations over the years have shown that HRM varies drastically in between the public & private sectors. However, it is evident that distinctions have become pretty low pronounced over a period of time. In other words it means that absence of some homogeneity doesn’t rule out the processes of convergence which is not complete. Recent studies in analyzing managerial reforms in local government has shown that embedding the new approaches along with dislodging the old ways is clearly a long term process coupled with the movements which is both forward and backward and comes with changes at different levels.

Role of Human Resources

Further HRM policies & practices might reveal that the 2 sectors are moving much closer to each other. The differences as identified above simply reflect the lag in adopting new management practices by the public agencies. The only reason for this is the fact that private companies are usually easily influenced by the management fads. One should also note that the extent of convergence among the public as well as the private business management also varies from different public agencies. Organizations which have been commercialized might be driven by the aspect of emulating the private competitors. Public organizations having a large number of new staff might also follow the private practices in a closer manner.

1. Diversity: Diversity at workplace is known to effect the development of the interpersonal relationships, the way in which supervisors and managers interact with each other and the manner in which employees related to one another. Human Resource functions like record keeping, recruitment and selection and the essentials of HR staff expertise are also effected by the scale of diversity within the organization. There are various ways in which diversity increases the HR responsibility and holds respective departments accountable for different functions as mandated by law.

2. Environmental: HR has a major role to play when it comes to administration, communication and implementation of safety policies. The HR needs to explain authority along with employees which safe environment simply is not a single responsibility of employers, but it’s for the employees too. Technicalities related to health as well as safety compliance usually requires the health and safety supervisor or may be a different consultancy for offering ensuring safety & health. HR acts as a link between employees as well as the consultancy or the officer (MU n.d.).

3. Technical: It is said that necessity is mother to all the invention. Due to this factor the changes, technical, personally skilled workers, machine operators and expert computer professionals are more than required in today’s scenario. Therefore, procurement of skilled employees and the increase in numbers for matching the change of job requirements is a very complicated task.

4. Government Developments: Trade Unions, Governmental Labor laws, and other policies are one of the critical compliance matters which each company needs to adhere to. HR is responsible for supervising and implementing the changes and compliance within the entire organization.

There are several critical factors which shape up the manner in which the decision and activities are performed by HR. Depending on these situations and the ground realities; the HR needs to take the best possible measures in favor of the organization.

• Economic Situation: Increased globalization has resulted in affecting the national economy of each country with respect to the changes to the international economy. In a country which is hit by recession, it might stimulate bargain among the unions and firms to become harder. Negative developments in economies results in undesired situations which leads to scenarios where the employment rates and sales decrease. Unemployment is expected to rise up and further lead to weakening of the social status of the employees. Moreover, stabilization and growth in the world economy would affect the national economy of a country in a positive manner (UMN 2004). Unemployment rates would further decrease, general wage as well as salary levels would increase and would result in a much stronger employees. It would mean that unions could get more through bargaining of rights for the employees. Top management of the firms will behave for the interests of the personnel as they anticipate increased revenues. HR policies of companies would change in an affirmative manner.
• Demographic and technological changes: Any change related to technology can be an element to offer a more appropriate infrastructure to the mental as well as physical human health. For explaining this further we can take the example of a development in the science where technology might make it easier for starting and setting up a better organizational structure. With progress, the income levels of business organizations would grow that could be expected for improving salaries for the employees. With increased use of technological alternatives as well as innovation at the business functions could create the positive image for the firms having increased revenues. Technological changes would also make that possible for improving the human resource functions like selection, training, recruitment, education, observation, performance appraisal, etc. Moreover, international developments in the field of HRM are much quicker to be learnt and implemented. Among the negative impacts, the technological changes could lead towards a decrease in the requirement of labor that is a result of lo employment levels. Hence, there would be a steep rise in demand for quantified workers and hence would lead towards an increase in costs for training and development (Genç KurtuluÅŸ Yılmaz 2014).
• Impact of government decisions on organization: It is very important for all the policies of HR for any organization to be in accordance with the requirements of legal bodies. Organizations would have to behave as per the regulations that are implementation of law and putting that into practice. HR implementations need to be adapted as per the regulations of different countries. Hence, differences in the HRM practices are dependent on the legislation as well as regulations of specific regions. Equal opportunity, industrial relations, occupational health, etc. are among the critical domains where the government decisions reflects the way in which HR practices need to be abided by. Legislation and regulations by the governments also has impacts over the functions as well as activities of organizations and hence over the decisions taken by the HR team. While identifying the importance of different governmental regulations and policies it emerges that it has a drastic impact on the training and developmental activities of the organization (Genç KurtuluÅŸ Yılmaz 2014). In UK, HR policies and regulations need to be as per the Labor Law, Unions Law, etc. Each business is expected to abide by the related law and regulation of each and every function.

Conclusion

Human Resources have always been and will be one of the major elements which could get the work implemented and operationalized at organizations irrespective of the size of operations. However, in the coming years it is expected that Human Resources would be aided by a range of tools and technological advances to facilitate in easier operations. Organizations would need to take care of different aspects which include training and development, career growth opportunities, employee satisfaction and fair rewards and remunerations in the coming future.

References

CSB (1995), Human Resource Management, accessed on 18^th March 2015, www.csb.gov.hk/english/publication/files/e-hrmguide.pdf

Corostrand Berg (2009), The Role of Human Resource Management in Corporate Social Responsibility, accessed on 18^th March 2015, https://corostrandberg.com/wp-content/uploads/files/CSR_and_HR_Management1.pdf

MU, Importance of Human Resource Management and Environment, accessed on 18^th March 2015, https://www.mu.ac.in/myweb_test/M.Com.%20Study%20Material/Human%20Res.%20Management%20-%20M.%20Com%20-%20I.pdf

HRPA (2011), The Role and Future of HR: The CEO’s Perspective, accessed on 18^th March 2015, https://www.hrpa.ca/Documents/HRPA_KB_CEO_Perspective_Research_Highlight.pdf

UMN (2004), Human Resources Roles and Responsibilities, accessed on 18^th March 2015, https://www1.umn.edu/ohr/prod/groups/ohr/@pub/@ohr/documents/asset/ohr_47458.pdf

Genç KurtuluÅŸ Yılmaz (2014), Environmental Factors Affecting Human Resources Management Activities of Turkish Large Firms, International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 9, No. 11; 2014, [accessed on 18^th March 2015]