Discuss three functions of a human resource manager

What is Human Resource Management?

Human Resource Management is the process of recruiting, selecting, inducting employees,

providing orientation, imparting training and development, appraising the performance of
employees, deciding compensation and providing benefits, motivating employees,
maintaining proper relations with employees and their trade unions, ensuring employees
safety, welfare and health measures in compliance with labor laws of the land and finally
following the Orders .
Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic approach to the effective management
of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive
advantage. It is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer’s
strategic objectives.
Human resource management is all about increasing employee performance to their highest
level corresponding to their role in the organization.

Every organization is made of people, HRM is all about acquiring services of people,
developing their skills, motivating them to the foremost level and making sure that they
continue to maintain their commitment towards the organization. In short, HRM is concerned
with the management of employees from recruitment to retirement.

Functions of a human resource manager

1. Human resources planning

Human resource planning requires understanding the business' current and future HR needs.
Human resources planning (HRP) is the identification and management of all of an
organization’s hiring needs. It involves accounting for an organization’s HR supply, future
demands, forecasting, strategy, and implementation. To be effective, HR must balance long
and short term staffing needs with business goals and the realities of the business climate.
Ideally, factors affecting HRP should be integrated in HR process management software.
Often companies use SWOT analysis or forecasting tools to uncover their needs.1
Steps to Human Resources Planning

1
www.pipefy.com accessed at 14:34 17/05/2020

1
There are four general, broad steps involved in the human resources planning process.
a) The first step of human resource planning is to identify the company's current human
resources supply. In this step, the HR department studies the strength of the organization
based on the number of employees, their skills, qualifications, positions, benefits, and
performance levels.
b) The second step requires the company to outline the future of its workforce. Here, the HR
department can consider certain issues like promotions, retirements, layoffs, and transfers—
anything that factors into the future needs of a company.
c) The third step in the HRP process is forecasting the employment demand. HR creates a gap
analysis that lays out specific needs to narrow the supply of the company's labor versus future
demand. Should employees learn new skills? Does the company need more managers? Do all
employees play to their strengths in their current roles?
d) The answers to these questions let HR determine how to proceed, which is the final phase
of the HRP process. HR must now take practical steps to integrate its plan with the rest of the
company. The department needs a budget, the ability to implement the plan, and a
collaborative effort with all departments to execute that plan.
2. Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment is the process of captivating, screening, and selecting potential and qualified
candidates based on objective criteria for a particular job. The goal of this process is to attract
the qualified applicants and to encourage the unqualified applicants to opt themselves out.

Before starting the process of recruitment, the companies must execute proper staffing plans
and should grade the number of employees they are going to need. Forecasting of the
employees should depend upon the annual budget of the organization and short-term and
long-term goals of the organization.

Recruitment and selection process is very important to every organization because it reduces
the costs of mistakes such as engaging incompetent, unmotivated, and under qualified
employees. Firing the unqualified candidate and hiring the new employee is again an
expensive process.

Recruitment selection refers to your organization's hiring processes, the recruitment of

applicants and selection from viable candidates for jobs within your company. Recruitment

2
and selection can be looked at separately, but looking at the entire process of hiring
employees is effective in gauging the success of a recruitment selection process.2

Sourcing

In a full life-cycle recruiting scenario, sourcing applicants or candidates means the recruiter
has to determine the best resources for identifying suitably qualified applicants. Sources for
applicants could range from online resume banks to university campuses to technical school
guidance offices. Sourcing candidates depends on the type of job, position or title, as well as
academic credentials or certifications. For example, sourcing candidates for hourly, food
service positions will be quite different from the sourcing for legal professionals, such as
paralegals and secretaries. Advertisements for hourly food service positions might be most
effective at the place of employment, as in a "Help Wanted" sign posted in the window for a
casual diner, while sourcing for legal professionals might be more effective on association
websites, such as the American Bar Association's career pages.

Screening

Screening applicants involves comparing employment applications and resumes to the job
description and job postings to determine which applicants meet the requisite qualifications.
However, applicants whose materials don't contain the references to specific job
qualifications shouldn't be immediately discarded. There might be an omission on the
applicant's resume that the recruiter needs to clarify before screening them out before the
preliminary interview. For example, if an applicant's resume indicates she anticipates
receiving her college degree in May 2012 and the recruiter screens resumes in June 2012, it
would be prudent for the recruiter to first confirm whether the applicant has her degree before
screening out, because it could be that the applicant has already received her degree and
thereby qualified for the job where a basic requirement is a college degree.

Interviews

Many employers conduct a series of interviews before selecting a final candidate. The first
interview might be a preliminary phone interview where the recruiter spends 20 to 30 minutes
talking to the applicant about the basic job requirements and verifying his work history.
2
www.google.com accessed at 14:32 17/05/2020

3
Assuming the applicant passes the first step in the interview process, he's likely to become a
candidate and is invited for a second-round interview. Second-round interviews typically are
face-to-face meetings with the recruiter, a hiring manager or a panel of interviewers.
Employers who conduct third-round or final stage interviews may have candidates meet with
the company's highest level of leadership, especially for management positions.
Alternatively, some employers engage staff in determining whom they feel is best suited for
the organization's culture. It's not unusual for a candidate to meet with employees who will be
colleagues or direct reports.

Selection

After the candidate passes the second- and possibly third-round interviews, it's time to make a
decision. If there's just one hiring manager responsible for selecting the best candidate, she
often will consult with the recruiter about the candidate's suitability from an HR perspective,
while the hiring manager shares her thoughts about job fit related to culture and professional
characteristics that appear in sync with the company's expectations. This type of exchange
between recruiters and hiring managers is productive in some work environments where
diverse opinions and feedback are essential to the organization's culture.

Final Steps

Once a job offer is extended to the candidate, the next and last steps in recruitment and
selection are process-intensive activities. The burden shifts back to the recruiter in
organizations that have dedicated HR staff. Recruiters are responsible for verifying the
candidate's previous employment, conducting a background check, calling references for
information that previous employers can't provide, scheduling drug testing and obtaining
documentation from the candidate that substantiates he's eligible to work for a United States
employer. In the event the first-choice candidate doesn't pass the final steps, the hiring
manager has usually identified a second-choice candidate so that they don't have to begin the
recruitment and selection process from the initial phase

3. Orientation

Many organizations do not provide a thorough orientation to the new employees. This is the
fundamental step to help a new employee to adjust himself with the employer and with his

4
new job. Employee orientation program should include the objectives and goals of the
organization and how the employee can help to achieve the long-term and short-term goals of
the organization.

Giving intensive orientation to the employee is one of the major functions of human resource
management. The program should help the employee to know his assigned duties and his
exact job description, job role, and the relationship of position to other positions in the
organization. It gives clarification to the employee to take an active role in the organization.