The Primary Function of Human Resource Management - Term Paper Example

 The Primary Function of Human Resource Management Systems processes are an important part that HR plays in the overall organization, especially with one of the most critical systems a company has, their employees. The development of a talented pool of personnel and the retention of those personnel is now becoming one of the primary focuses of the HR department. Systems are being put into place that attract, retain, and develop talent. These systems also have the double-duty of keeping the job itself interesting and exciting for the staff. Programs such as those that rotate employees between different kinds of units within the organization and those that encourage directed learning as well as promoting inter-agency communication across the entire company are being increasingly viewed as having paramount importance. Furthermore, Human Resource department must develop a system of recognition and reward for the staff in regards to their contributions to the agency. While there is still some truth to the image of the HR department as keeping track of birthdays and other events for the betterment of the morale of the staff, HR is now developing into a much more sophisticated part of the overall business network. In fact there is bound to eventually be a complete split between the duties of the “file clerk” aspect and the duties of the director of the department. …the Society for HR Management (SHRM) Global Forum report on "The Maturing Profession of Human Resources Worldwide" (2004) showed that over half (54.8%) of HR professionals say the most frequently encountered obstacle to career advancement is HR's not being held in high esteem by the organization. One thing is certain, HR is evolving and the profession will either be driven reactively by external changes or will more proactively define its own future. (Vosburgh, 2007, p. 13) Much as there is now accepted a split between the accounting and the finance department in any organization (Boudreau, 2005; Boudreau & Ramstad 2006; Ivancevich, 2006). In fact at present even in the smallest of companies there is a difference between the bookkeeper and the finance director that seems to go without saying. One of the first steps in bringing HR into a more productive and strategic part of the business model is to make the same type of paradigm shift in separation of functions. While many HR professionals today still struggle to get a seat at the business table, the HR profession in the future should continue to evolve and take more responsibility for overall organizational effectiveness. To do this the HR professional will need to become better at utilizing systems thinking and systems measurement. (Jamrog, and Overholt, 2004, p. 54) Talent, for lack of a better term, is one of the most strategic parts that HR is playing in the current business model. “Talentship” is a term being used to describe this new paradigm in the creation of a more far-reaching strategy for Human Resource Planning. Similar to the roles between finance and marketing, HR is now also being asked to help companies’ research and locate another critical component, the market for talent. Using the same analogy, a company cannot succeed if their finance and accounting team is not successfully pared with their sales and marketing team. In fact over time there have been regulatory and best practice applications that have helped to further cement this finance-marketing relationship. However, in HR the guidelines are a little fuzzier, and in fact are usually only to be found in individual policies and procedures and certainly in some academic and business journals. “Organizational decision processes and tools employed in the talent market are far less mature and refined than those used in finance or marketing” (Boudreau, 2005, p. 18). Now more than ever companies need professional practices in place in order to align their business needs with greater effective decision making in the acquisition of talent. Every day more organizations recognize that their people are a source of competitive advantage. As a result, HR departments are evolving from playing a merely administrative role to becoming "strategic partners" responsible for contributing to the achievement of business objectives. This evolution requires that new ways of defining and assessing HR success be developed. Traditional operational measures of internal efficiency are not sufficient. HR departments must now be able to demonstrate the value of their strategic contributions. (Cabrera, and Cabrera, 2003, p. 31) Here is the crux of the new paradigm for HR: this department needs deliverables to be more clearly understood by the company as contributing to the success of the bottom line. While the exact dollar value has often been difficult to truly measure in the performance of small numbers of satisfied employees as opposed to large numbers of underpaid and under trained, disgruntled employees, there are now other factors that businesses are coming to realize have a greater long term impact. (Ivancevich, 2006) This impact is along three axis of responsibility, corporate, social and environmental, otherwise known as the three P’s: People, Planet and Profit. This has been viewed with more and more interest as the “Triple Bottom Line” (TBL) that many larger and more responsible business are adopting (Colbert and Kurucz, 2007). Now that the deliverables include social reporting as well as financial, there are certain openings here that HR is now filling. Companies have seen that the only way to achieve sustainability in a global economy is not only to adopt TBL reporting, but the realigning their business strategies accordingly so that each part of the bottom line is addressed. In other words, the strategy of the HR professional is now focused upon building Human Resource Planning systems that proactively anticipate and support both internally and externally sustainability-framed business strategies. But more importantly these strategies need to substantively connect both human and organizational building schemes (Colbert and Kurucz, 2007, p. 27). Apart from talent as part of the HR domain, another aspect of talent, that of knowledge management has also become a prime responsibility of the HR department. In fact many researchers into the emerging change in dynamics view HR as becoming less person-centered and more knowledge-centered in their approach to their contribution to the overall organization (Ivancevich, 2006). This is often a substantially different approach to the management of resources, especially when it comes to the career development of staff members. In this respect the emphasis is on the community as a whole and the service aspect is towards sharing and the generation of knowledge among the entire organization as opposed to only the individual. However, there is also the potential for vast development of that same individual in such an arena as well. HR will need to have better guidelines in place for individuals in this new atmosphere (Ivancevich, 2006). However, there are and will always be two main components that the HR department of any organization will cover. The first is comprised of management, leadership and employee motivation and the other is the traditional realm of HR practices which include performance appraisal, training, recruitment and selection, as well as compensation management (salary and bonuses) (Ivancevich, 2006). In this regard payroll is usually located within the HR department in some respect and there is a certain amount of crossover between HR and the Finance area of any company in this regard. By linking together profit, people and environment when deciding what a company is setting out to accomplish, there is a greater investment in what might be now called ecosystem of profitability. By training, educating and appreciating staff, greater staff retention and staff loyalty and involvement is usually the result (Ivancevich, 2006). There are many steps required to make this realization such as, an analysis of capabilities within the organization, a review of leadership practices and key leadership competencies and the values of the agency must also be clearly defined. But one key concept that is germane to the entire success of the company is an ongoing and open dialog between department, personnel and HR. HR is often called on to mediate disputes and bring the regulatory labor laws to bear on supervisors and employees alike. In instances of sexual harassment or other forms of intimidation and unfair treatment, HR is responsible for following company procedures and guidelines when resolving these issues. In fact, HR needs to assure that the correct polices and procedures are in place so that the staff can adequately assess their position and know where to bring their grievances when in trouble. Legal pro-activism is a primary responsibility of HR and must be thoroughly addressed in both the policies of the company and the training of the HR manger. If the correct protocols are not in place, the company is left open to litigation and lawsuits from staff members, severely impacting the bottom line (Ivancevich, 2006). In this sense HR certainly plays quite a strategic role in the safeguarding of the company and its ethical and moral stature, as well as its finances. Certainly the most important role that HR has in any organization is the continually monitoring and development of staff and the maintenance and improvement of the pool of talent that is available to the organization. While this may at times seem to appear as the mere juggling and explanation of benefits, it also has the more complex functions of training, development and most importantly, retention. As time moves forward the creation of a greater pool of happy and motivated employees will certainly be the primary responsibility of the human resource department. References Boudreau, J. W. (2005). Talentship and the New Paradigm for Human Resource Management: From Professional Practices to Strategic Talent Decision Science. Human Resource Planning, 28(2), 17-27. Boudreau, J. W., & Ramstad, P. M. (2006). Talentship and HR Measurement and Analysis: From ROI to Strategic Organizational Change. Human Resource Planning, 29(1), 25-31. Cabrera, A., & Cabrera, E. F. (2003). Strategic Human Resource Evaluation. Human Resource Planning, 26(1), 41-52. Colbert, B. A., & Kurucz, E. C. (2007). Three Conceptions of Triple Bottom Line Business Sustainability and the Role for HRM. Human Resource Planning, 30(1), 21-33. Ivancevich, J. (2006). Human Resource Management, 10th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Jamrog, J. J., & Overholt, M. H. (2004). Building a Strategic HR Function: Continuing the Evolution. Human Resource Planning, 27(1), 51-66. Vosburgh, R. M. (2007). The Evolution of HR: Developing HR as an Internal Consulting Organization. Human Resource Planning, 30(3), 11-16. Read More