Core Functions and Trends in Human Resource Management

Core Functions of Human Resource Management

• Strategic Management: Working with other parts of the organization to create and carry out plans to provide quality goods and services.
• Workforce Planning: Identify jobs that capture the tasks employees need to accomplish.
• Development: Measuring employee performance.
• Compensation and Benefits: Paying employees fairly.
• Employee and Labor Relations: Working with labor unions.
• Health and Safety: Establishing procedures to prevent injury and accidents.

Strategic and Functional Perspectives in HR

Effective human resource management requires a combination of strategic and functional perspectives.

Human resource roles involve people and processes. Part of the human resource professional role is spending time interacting with employees individually. For instance, employees usually contact an organization’s human resource department with questions about retirement benefits, health concerns, and harassment policies. Another part of the human resource role focuses on developing organizational processes aimed at hiring and motivating talented workers.

Short-Term and Long-Term HR Activities

We can also look at human resource roles by contrasting long-term and short-term contributions.

Short-term activities generally involve day-to-day projects and focus on conducting surveys, maintaining databases, and counseling employees.

Long-term activities are more strategic in nature and include developing organizational strategies, managing change processes, and planning ways to create new skills.

Key Human Resource Roles

1. Functional expert role: A human resource role concerned with providing technical expertise related to functions such as hiring, training, and compensating employees.
2. Strategic partner role: A human resource role concerned with providing inputs that help an organization put its competitive strategy into action.
3. Employee advocate role: A human resource role concerned with looking out for the interests of employees and ensuring that they are treated fairly.
4. Human capital developer role: A human resource role concerned with facilitating learning and skill development.

Essential HR Competencies

5. Business knowledge competencies: Knowledge and skills in areas of general business, such as finance, accounting, marketing, and operations planning.
6. Human resource practice competencies: Knowledge and skills applied to carry out actions such as recruiting, hiring, training, and compensating.
7. Change management competencies: Knowledge and skills applied to help an organization grow and adapt to new conditions.

Important Labor Trends Affecting HR

• Population trends: Demographic trends related to the characteristics of people in a certain population.
• Labor force trends: Trends concerning the number and types of people who are working or looking for work.
• Employment opportunity trends: Trends concerning the types of jobs that will be available in the future.
• Education and training trends: Trends concerning the knowledge and skills workers will need in the future.
• Globalization trends: Trends concerning the process by which companies move from doing business within one country to doing business in many countries.

Workforce Diversity and Globalization

Workforce diversity, particularly older workers, women, and members of minorities, is a key trend. Job growth is expected in the fields of health care, education, and human resource management-service sector.

Globalization will require human resource departments to create processes that effectively manage people working in various foreign countries.