This
article provides jobseekers with an understanding of how human
resources (HR) is the hub of an organization and how it is
structured. It will also help you to appreciate the job screening
process as well as each area of HR if you are considering
human resources for your occupation.
Human Resources is just what it says: resources for humans
– within the workplace! Its main objective is to meet the
organizational needs of the company it represents and the
needs of the people hired by that company. In short, it
is the hub of the organization serving as a liaison between
all concerned. Depending on the size of the company, the
HR Department might be called Personnel with a manageable
workforce that can be handled by a personnel manager and
a small staff. For larger, more complex organizations with
hundreds of departments and divisions, the task is much
more demanding, taking on a life of its own.
Some companies have more than one HR Department - Corporate
and Union. For example, a food service industry might have
a Corporate HR Department that oversees “white collared”
employees and an HR Department that oversees the “blue collar”
workforce with an emphasis on labor relations. With such
diverse needs, the organization will institute these two
HR Departments to manage the unique needs of both union
and non-union employees. Some of the many core functions
of the Human Resources function involves the following:
Organizational Development: To ensure its success, a company
must establish a hierarchal reporting system. Picture an
organizational chart with boxes representing each position
starting at the top with the first and single-most important
being the highest-ranking role. Following the lines, more
boxes are branched off to define each department head and
their direct reports. As the company expands, so will this
chart. The funnel of responsibility is critical to the efficiency
of a smoothly operating business entity in which there is
a clearly defined understanding of who is responsible for
what. This is what HR does for a company. They provide consultation
to a company’s management team to identify what the company’s
core business and culture is about, and proceeds to plan
and map the company’s organizational infrastructure to support
those needs.
Employee Recruitment and Selection Process:
There are many steps to recruiting and selecting qualified
employees. First, a department head must inform the HR manager
of an opening in their department. Then the HR manager must
obtain the job description to formulate a Job Description
Sheet for publication either internally, publicly, or both.
Then HR must field the (many) responses to that job announcement
to weed out the qualified from the unqualified applicants.
Once that is completed, the interview process must be coordinated.
This is a full time job! If one job ad generates 80 responses,
there’s a good chance that only 10 applicants are highly
qualified for the position. If the department’s hiring manager
were to interview the other 70 less-than-qualified applicants,
their department would come to a complete standstill because
there would be no time for anything else! That’s where HR,
a.k.a. Fort Knox, comes in. They prepare the job description,
contact the newspaper, run the ad, field the calls, faxes,
and emails, compile a list of potential candidates from
dozens of in-coming resumes, submit their list of potential
candidates to the department’s hiring manager for approval
and selection, contact the chosen candidates to set up preliminary
interviews, and interview the candidates! Yes, that’s right.
Preliminary interviews! Although most interviews are with
the hiring manager or their associates, not all applicants
get to meet with the department’s hiring manager right away.
It is not uncommon for a company to filter out those who
fail to impress the HR manager first. For those select few
who make it through, the HR manager schedules interviews
between the department’s hiring manager and potential candidates,
and follows up with the hiring process to establish the
new hire with the company. Not unlike the screening process
for American Idol, a job seeker needs to perform their best
to impress the “judges.” Employee Training & Development:
As a company and the requirements of a position evolve,
a company needs to take certain measures to ensure a highly
skilled workforce is in place. The Human Resources Department
oversees the skills development of company’s workforce,
acting as an in-house training center to coordinate training
programs either on-site, off-site, or in the field. This
might include on-going company training, outside training
seminars, or even college, in which case an employee will
receive tuition reimbursement upon earning a passing grade.
Ann Baehr is a CPRW and President of Best Resumes of New
York. Notable credentials include her former role as Second
Vice President of NRWA and contribution to 25+ resume and
cover letter sample books. To learn more visit
http://www.e-bestresumes.com
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