Since prehistoric times, there have been confident leaders, marshalls, and other personnel entrusted with looking after their troops and helping them achieve success on the battlefield.
These marshals and leaders had to look after their army’s ration supplies, food, clothing and ensure that they felt motivated and inspired for coming out triumphant in battles.
Today, such battles have diminished greatly, and the concept of leadership has expanded beyond the horizon of wars. However, there has been a growth of complex workplaces that pose modern management challenges.
Therefore, similar to the role of military leaders, human resource managers help manage employee workspaces by looking after their concerns and inputs.
Human resource management (HRM) works in cohesion with C-level executives and top decision-makers in the organisation that create a positive and relishing work culture wherein employees feel valued and looked after.
The department has undergone several changes. The recent ones are coming in the past couple of years with remote workplaces taking center stage, managing and assisting employees has become more complicated and complex.
Any workstation that utilises and thrives on the efforts of its employees and other workers must make it their top priority to maintain resources as an asset for their firms.
With the onset of gig companies, more and more people are attracted to working for corporations that help them be associated with organisations through flexible contracts instead of traditionally based parameters.
The significant rise of robots in carrying out operational tasks has also led to them being referred to as a part of “human resources”.
Why is Human Resource Management important?
What makes the HRM the bonafide department that guides firms towards success?
How are employees and managers integral to a corporation’s growth?
The questions listed above are bound to arise amongst new and upcoming managers taking control over HR proceedings.
These sectors of organisations are the most important ones since they directly work with people who can be the difference between ordinary or exemplary working conditions.
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The importance of human resources management can be outlined by the managerial standards a corporation has set for meeting its objectives and assigned task force put in place.
Young managers need to understand what rudimentary elements constitute this domain and how they fit in with these organisational models. Hence, learning about these separate areas can help define their roles and assist managers in rendering their focus towards these arenas.
Learning the Different Basic Sub-Domains of Human Resources Management
The world of human resource management can be thought of as a cupboard having seven different compartments that take care of various aspects that comprise HRM.
These subdomains can be called different cornerstones of HRM that help managers in canvassing effective HRM policies.
These separate functional areas of human resources oversee various administrative procedures that consider employees’ welfare and other associated sites. The beautifully laid out functional areas of HRM must be developed to better the employee’s output and motivate them to perform their roles diligently and with finesse.
Top 7 essential sub-domains that constitute Human Resources Management:
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Recruitment and Staffing of Employees
The first sub-section of human resources management deals with getting employees on board that fit the organisational junctures.
Hiring prospective employees is the role performed by a hiring manager who sifts through dozens of applications to find suitable candidates.
The HR managers utilise an applicant tracking system (ATS) that has a sophisticated algorithm for vetting employees’ applications. It consists of a keyword search to assist managers in pulling off applications that sit well with the ideal candidate’s job profile.
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Once the hiring manager goes through these applications and selects candidates for interviews, the HR department is contacted to conduct those interviews.
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Employee Benefits and Compensation
The employees need to be rewarded for their efforts and the revenues they bring to the organisational workplace.
Why are human resources important in corporate topographies since they draft action plans for offering benefits for employees. These benefits include health insurance, retirement accounts, health care flexible spending accounts, vacation time, sick leave, family leave, provident funds, amongst others.
This implies that human resource managers need to be familiarised with various employee benefit schemes, the most competitive insurance programs, vacation offers provided by different resorts, healthcare prices, and other employee compensation practices.
However, these employee benefits can be different for private and public sector companies and may change due to amendments in laws and regulations.
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Maintaining Employee and Labour Relations
Human resource managers need to display equality in showing proper work ethic irrespective of an employee’s involvement with union parties.
As per the union employees, HR managers need to understand and practice collective bargaining techniques. With non-union members, the human resource management must develop contracts for working personnel that are considered subcontractors.
Among the several HR roles that these individuals perform, managers need to carry out impartiality in drawing up contracts, negotiating details of what the company offers to its rewarding workers, and providing compensation benefits.
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HR professionals need to be skilled in negotiation processes and must always stand up for any partiality in dealing with employees involved in unions.
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Conducting Employee Training and Development
HR managers need to understand that their employees have been a result of real-life experiences, the country they were raised in, and many cultural influences that have led to the assortment of their existence.
The employee training and development practices are set up to keep working professionals up to date with the latest technological, theoretical, processing, societal, and legal shifts in industries.
These training and development models are installed in place to help employees learn, unlearn and upskill themselves in accordance with changing dynamics of their HR roles.
Several organisations have pre-defined budgets for L&D efforts. The funding developed is then distributed amongst employees, trainees, future leaders, and potential workers for receiving more training opportunities for growth in their domains.
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Succession Planning
Succession planning refers to the process of setting up contingencies in place when key personnel leave their jobs and filling in replacements for these vacant capacities.
Doing so in advance can help leading organisations in saving fundings and guarantee job continuity.
The basis of succession planning comes through performance ratings and L&D efforts set in place.
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The by-product of such resources leads to developing a talent pipeline, which can be thought of as a pool of talented candidates that are qualified to fill up senior positions in an organisation left vacant due to the dumping of previous employees.
The HR managers need to build and nurture this talent pool to excellent people management.
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Development of HR Information System
The HR information system refers to the tools and inventory deployed by the HR department in order to achieve its objectives and bring more business for their corporations.
The information system forms a pivotal part of human resource management that looks after different aspects that conform to HR space. It has all the elements related to recruitment and selection of candidates, utilise an Application Tracking System (ATS), a performance management software for monitoring employee’s work throughput, etc.
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The Amalgamation of HR Data with Analytics
One of the vital modern fundamentals associated with HR includes treatment with data and analytics. With the recent movement of data-driven practices in the HR world, there has been a shift towards making HR procedures more data and analytically strong.
Different HR roles need to track employees’ data on a daily basis for overseeing their outputs and helping them wherever they can in performing their duties.
The reports generated by data analytics in HR fields assist managers and advisors in looking over the current and past state of the organisation. It also helps in making predictions regarding strategies and internal processes that can lead to employee success.
The HR analytics process is described below:-
| HR Analytics Model |
| Step 1: Selecting Metrics and KPIs |
| Step 2: Defining Data Sources |
| Step 3: Leveraging an off-the-shelf tool |
| Step 4: Gathering a Team |
| Step 5: Setting up Data Infrastructure |
| Step 6: Developing a Predictive Model |
| Step 7: Building an Employee-Useable Interface |
| Step 8: Employee Training |
HR and its Sub-Domains: An Efficient Distribution of Human Resource Management
The information provided above showcases the various subsets of human resource management. The world of HR is a spaced-out field having different compartments for dealing with several facets of this unified space.
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Looking after employees’ benefits, compensation, training and developing them as per corporate standards, maintaining positive relations with unions, and other practices all make up for workers’ life cycle in corporations.
Moreover, along with carrying out these roles and responsibilities, HR managers need to possess certain outstanding personality traits for leading their firms towards success and growth-related areas.
8 Qualities of HR Managers that Takes an Average Workplace Towards Excellence
In terms of human resource management, there is a direct correlation between qualities possessed by managers and an excellent workplace. It can be further understood by the following equation:-
Positive HR Qualities = Healthy Employee Relations = Excellent Workplace
The above equation highlights the interlinking between qualities possessed by HR practitioners, thereby maintaining healthy employee relations and creating an excellent workplace.
As seen from the sections above, HR offers a diversified space of different arenas encompassing wide-ranging fields. For succeeding in these HR roles, professionals need to hone their skill-sets and build successful traits that can help in taking organisations from average to excellent levels.
Here’s a list of the Top 8 crucial qualities of HR managers that take a workplace towards excellence:-
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Proven Knowledge and Expertise in HR
Perhaps the most vital traits to possess are in-depth knowledge and expertise of functions that govern HR domains.
In addition to having a bachelor’s and master’s degree in management and specialisation in Human resources, aspiring professionals need to display an outright willingness to stay abreast of the latest developments and trends in this sector.
Together with this expertise and knowledge, managers will be able to handle challenges successfully.
The art of acing human resource management lies in a solid groundwork done to get insight into its different concepts, principles, and underlying aspects.
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Moreover, experience always adds up to one’s job profile and can help managers in getting better, well-paying HR roles.
Therefore, any young and aspiring manager looking to make their way towards this career path needs to understand this domain’s basics and focus on getting experience throughout their journeys.
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Ability to Multitask
An average workday in the life of an HR manager involves a variety of tasks and activities.
A look into a manager’s life could look like setting up employee retention strategies in the morning, sorting out internal fights and issues amongst employees, sanctioning maternity leaves for one of the “expectant” workers, and sorting out through candidature applicants.
It’s a role that requires attention to minute details and an internal drive to make the corporation a better place for working.
At the core level, managers carry out heaps of tasks that significantly impact employees’ welfare and the company’s outputs.
The interconnection between different tasks carried out by managers has a direct result on future strategies for firms. However, the finesse with which HR personnel performs various tasks simultaneously is also vital for managing human capital and other resources.
Adopting a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for dealing with a variety of activities and prioritising different tasks could assist in dealing with several issues strategically at the same time.
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Must be Able to Manage Gray Periods
The HR role isn’t the one that is a bed of roses and easy to work with, instead truth be told, HRM deal with several issues that fall into “a grey area”.
It could be dealing with workplace harassment, racial discrimination, fights ensuing between employees or their team managers, time off for leaves, and others.
The trick to successfully dealing with grey periods is to have astute decision-making skills and trust one’s gut feeling about something. If the first thought is that something doesn’t sound right, then pretty much it could be the case.
Human resource management has its own fair share of crests and troughs that must be tackled smartly and by having a proper backup plan in place in case of failures.
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Furthermore, taking decisions regarding sensitive issues must be done rationally and not emotionally. There could be instances when there’s an error in judgement, but managers need to nip in and make well-informed decisions.
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Must Abide by Ethics
Rule number 1 for becoming a successful HR manager is to believe and abide by organisations’ strong sense of ethics. The managers working with HR need to be a corporation’s heart and soul.
This implies that managers need to follow the company’s policies and must at all times maintain confidential information.
Earning the trust of both employees and managers can help carry a strong sense of ethics.
A company never does anything or commands its troops regarding any activity that goes against its ethos and values. HR managers in their work lives must display the same strong sense of ethics, principles, and values.
Managers being ambassadors for their corporations must uphold their values and ethics while carrying out their tasks.
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Need to Display Leadership Skills
The HR domain demands its personnel to take up different roles; amongst these, managers need to carry forward the part of leaders.
These managers, just like troop marshals, need to be one the forefront of any new policy. With no instruction manual and no given blueprint to measure oneself against, managers need to rely on themselves for leading their corporations.
Managers need to instil in themselves that they are viewed as leaders and not merely business partners. Leaders must be skilful in handling challenging and down periods by keeping the morale of their employees high during these times.
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Successful managers know when to shift gears and take up the role of leaders for unifying their employees and taking them on board for achieving different tasks.
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Become a Great Communicator
Communication and interaction are crucial parts of any HR role. They are one of the main traits that separate a good manager from a great one. Human resources managers are considered the “voice of the organisation” for delivering messages across the organisational chains.
HR managers need to communicate with both employers and employees comprehensively to delegate tasks and give out instructions.
A subset of communication lies in the ability to negotiate with employees and sort out any differences that might be there within corporations.
There are specific strategies that can help in building communication A-game for HR managers- by adopting a style of a speaker that professionals admire and practising aloud and giving inputs at employee’s gatherings.
Skill-sharing and teaching others to communicate openly can be beneficial while networking with individuals from similar domains.
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Flexibility in Approach
“Be water, my friend; empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup; it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
The wise and deep words mentioned above by Bruce Lee suggest how a flexible mind can help a person grow and become a force to reckon with in dealing with challenges.
HR managers need to read this message and adopt flexibility in conducting their duties and be curious enough to explore new things that are taking place in managerial departments.
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By allocating time and resources in networking for uncovering new issues can be a great initiative to become more aware of surroundings. Sponsoring company meetings and other industry groups at companies can be a practical way to allow staff members to gel well with others.
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Don’t Shy Away from Taking Risks
Ask any successful manager, leader, or CEO how they made it big? A spontaneous reply would be “taking risks”. There’s a freedom associated with taking risks and putting oneself out of comfort zones for achieving results.
Taking chances and then moving forward might seem challenging but proves to be rewarding in the long run. HR managers have the power to take calculated risks and put themselves in challenging conditions for seeking out profits.
Reaching out to individuals who never got the chance to work for large corporations and heading special boot camps are ways to take practical risks.
These traits define a successful HR manager, but sometimes they get confused regarding certain other aspects. The next section offers FAQs that will help in clarifying doubts.
Human Resources Management FAQs
Q. What are the three aspects of HRM?
Ans: The three aspects are acquisition, development, and termination.
Q. What is the qualification required for an HR post?
Ans: Bachelor’s degree in HR or business management.
Q. Are HR Certifications Worth It?
Ans: Yes, HR roles are in high demand now and certifications in Human Resource Management provide the necessary intel.
Q. Which degree is best for HR?
Ans: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources offered by a lending institution, or the one you deem fit to your learning expectations.
Q. Who can work with an HRMS?
Ans: HR managers and organisational leaders can use an HRMS system.
Q. How to handle hiring for two job positions?
Ans: By mentioning job openings in HRMS and enlisting further details.
Q. How to get HR training?
Ans: Look for online courses that offer in-house training for enrolled students.
Q. How many years does it take to complete an HR degree?
Ans: A bachelor’s degree might take 3-4 years to complete.
Q. Is the HR role domain-specific or flexible?
Ans: It depends on the corporation and its needs. Some smaller companies might have flexible roles, while for larger firms, roles can be domain-specific.
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