HR is responsible for the management of human resources in a particular organization or a company. Right from calling the candidates for recruitment, allocating them to the relevant job, traveling along with their official necessities up to their termination, the HR's role is magnanimous and significant. It is the prime objective of HR to prepare a task-based checklist so that the entire functionality is scheduled and flows in a professional path without any interruption.
Table of Contents
- What Does HR Do? 12 Key Responsibilities
- What is the HR Department?
- The 12 Key Functionalities of the HR Department
- Planning of Human Resources
- Recruitment of Employees and Selection Process
- Performance Management
- Learning and Development
- Career Guidance and Planning
- Evaluating Employees' Functions
- Benefits and Rewards
- Cultural Relationship and Unions
- Employee Participation and Communication
- Health and Safety
- Personality Development
- Administration Based Responsibilities
HR's roles and responsibilities are most confusing and complex where one cannot determine the extent of a particular role. It is diversified like a branch of a tree where three to four major functionalities branch up to different areas where the HR needs to focus. You know that there exist various sections of HR professionals who are specialized in their specific roles. For instance, the Technical HR looks over the recruitment and management of technical employees by satisfying their official needs, whereas non-technical ones have different responsibilities.
This blog will be traveling through the HR department and its 12 key responsibilities that reflect their growth contribution.
What is the HR Department?
The human resources department's responsibility is to handle the company's employees' life cycle, right from recruitment to termination. They also administer their conduct, adhere to the employees' office-based needs, and provide them their deemed benefits as per the company's procedures and rules.
The 12 Key Functionalities of the HR Department
The human resources department is instituted to support employees and handle recruitment, payments, training applicants, layoffs, and firing. Below are the key functions that the HR department undergoes on a professional basis.
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Planning of Human Resources
Identifying the future needs and planning in accordance is one of the prime motives of HR. A proper checklist with careful analysis of the previous year's performance will be handy for better planning. Identifying the flaws and reducing them, spotting the positive areas, and deducing the negative areas concerning recruitment, selection, induction, performance tracking, and termination will be the best strategy while planning for better performance ahead.
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Recruitment of Employees and Selection Process
It is a known fact that you will be facing HR right after the successful preliminary aptitude test. HR would be meeting with the candidates and ask some questions to know about the candidate's attitude, personality, and confidence. HR's prime responsibility is to check on the candidates and pick the highly qualified and potential candidates. A skilled HR can see the professionalism in a candidate. If the HR likes the qualities described above in a candidate, he/she will select the candidate and process through the next steps of the recruitment funnel.
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Performance Management
The job of HR does not stop after selecting the candidate and placing in the job. It follows until the employee completes the work term and leaves the company. In the meantime, it is the responsibility of HR to track the performance of the employee and report to the organization on a periodical basis in the form of a performance report. Performance management involves certain tools like annual performance review by the Manager, 360-degree performance assessment review from colleagues, subordinates, and even the customers. It helps in analyzing the overall performance of the employee to provide valuable feedback.
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Learning and Development
Technology is developing every day. It is learning and development that can bridge the updated employee from a routine employee. A professional HR should go for a knowledge-updated employee than a perfectionist in routine. That means HR is completely responsible for the knowledge enrichment of every employee based on their skill set. The HR should connect to the employees regarding the upgrade of their skills by arranging them to participate in skill enhancement programs and webinars. To be short, HR should connect the bridge of the workforce today with the workforce in the future with upgraded skills.
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Career Guidance and Planning
Even though the main responsibility of HR is to retain the employee, it is more significant when it comes to endorsing their career plan. The HR should respond to the employee's career path by synchronizing the job role with that of the employee so that he/she will have a better future ahead. In this way, the employee can whole-heartedly work for the company to align with their career path, enhancing its productivity in variable ways.
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Evaluating Employees' Functions
It is technical work for the HR as it involves research on various functions of the company that includes the availability of the workers, quality, employees' places in the job location concerning the educational qualification, job responsibility, and how much value they provide to the job at the organization, etc. The evaluation would put the employees into a ranking method that will help HR evaluate their performance and efficiency.
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Benefits and Rewards
Apart from the salary reward, an employee would love to work at a company that compliments the effort and offers gratuity. In that sense, HR should never miss identifying the milestones achieved by every employee in their sector and should indicate that to the head of that department for a professional reward associated with some secondary benefits falling within the company's purview.
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Cultural Relationship and Unions
Corporate culture is like a blockchain. It is secure and strong, with an undeniable database that needs to be shared and collaborated for the entire good. So, there is a need for cultivating relationships with other companies and members via unions and corporate associations. Maintaining a cultural relationship and unions will help to resolve potential hazards effectively. It is in the hands of HR to a conglomerate with the chain and makes the company run smoothly without any interruptions.
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Employee Participation and Communication
HR should be empowering communication between the employees and be well informed about active participation in activities. Employees would be of different characters, but it is the HR to bring out the best in an employee.
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Health and Safety
It is the area where the real challenge comes. Right from pre-employment health checks including drug testing to periodical checks on employees' health, HR should be keeping track of employees and their well-being.
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Personality Development
HR keeps track of the employees' personality development and their behavioral path and guides them accordingly. It enhances an employee's professionalism and molds them to be a greater professional in their upcoming endeavors.
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Administration Based Responsibilities
It does not include the administrative functions of the company. Rather it is about managing the employees that involve personnel procedures and human resource information systems. Personnel procedures include employee promotions, discipline, performance evaluation, and information system, and it is all about managing employee's data. They should follow these responsibilities within the purview of the company's policies and guidelines.
Final Words
The human resources department helps employees thrive by providing career growth, training and supporting employees, wellness, etc. Suppose the HR cares about the employees' well-being, there will be growth. The employees will feel comfortable reaching out to them in different circumstances such as discrimination or harassment, personal issues, advancement opportunities, etc. Hence, building the best human resources department contributes heavily to the company's culture.