Why HR is Important for All Businesses

Human Resources (HR) covers many areas related to staff:

• recruiting, screening, interviewing and placing workers
• training & development of current employees
• development of workplace policies
• employee compensation and benefits administration
• staff retention
• disputes and mediation
• dealing with laws affecting employment

This is not an exhaustive list, but it does cover the key roles expected of the HR department. Let's look at each role a little closer.Recruiting, Screening, Interviewing and Placing Workers
This is HR's best known role. In fact, many people wrongly think that his is ALL HR do! it does show what an important role hiring is though. Who you hire has a massive impact (positively or negatively) on the company. Hiring the right person for a job vacancy can have a hugely positive impact to the company. Conversely, hiring the wrong person can have a catastophic and costly effect. Knowing the difference between the "right" person and the "wrong" person goes beyond whether they can simply carry out the job or not. Other attributes must be looked at: What are their future plans? Can they work in a team, and have experience of doing so? Would they fit into the work culture being fostered in the business?

Training & Development of Current Employees
It's important that all employees have their skills kept up-to-date. If they are required to use new software (for example), then it's HR's role to ensure employees are trained appropriately.

Development of Workplace Policies
Essentially, every employee needs to know what the "rules" are - how they should conduct themselves, how they are protected by the company, what the dress code is, disciplinary process, holiday/vacation policy, etc. It's vital that the details of these policies are easily accessible and easy to understand to avoid future potential disputes.

Employee Compensation and Benefits Administration
This covers salary, holiday pay, sick pay, company benefits.

Staff Retention
It's very costly to re-hire, therfore staff retention is hugely important. Of course, it's not just the time and money cost to re-hire, but that morale within the ranks of the company can drop when they see people leave. Staff retention involves identifying problems that employees might be facing that are causing them to feel demotivated. It could be any number of things including poor relations with fellow workers, a dispute with their manager, they would prefer to work slightly different hours, are forced to attend too many meaningless meetings. There are myriad reasons why an employee could ultimately want to leave the company. It's up to HR to identify these issues and resolve them, if possible.

Disputes and Mediation
Disputes are unfortunate, but inevitable. When they can't be avoided, HR need to act as mediators between the parties to hopefully ensure that the dispute can be sorted in-office. HR should be the mediators since they are the department most aware of company policies and external employment laws.

Dealing with Laws Affecting Employment
The HR department must always be up-to-date on the latest laws affecting employment, and communicate these laws to every employee in the company to ensure that they are kept up-to-date themselves.

Article kindly provided by mbhrconsulting.com