The term ‘Human Resource’ was coined in the year 1960 when jargon such as motivation, organizational behavior, selection process, managerial counseling, etc filled the space in work structure. Human Resources talks about the people who work for an organization and the department responsible for managing the employees.
The role of an HR in an organization is to provide a refined structure and serve as an engine by ensuring a smooth run on a day-to-day basis. They administer some important aspects of the business such as workplace culture, workplace safety, people management, employee productivity, employee benefits, policies, procedures, advisory functions, and so on.
Few Important functions of an HR in any organization
- Recruiting, Hiring, and Retaining talent- An HR manager has to be strategic while hiring new roles because the right person at the right job will yield productivity. They screen the applications and set up interviews with the managers and other authorities. They analyze the market and offer competitive salaries to the candidates. They onboard the new employees and explain the company policies, perform the paperwork, recordkeeping, and other hiring formalities. Employee retention is also looked at by them.
- Employee Engagement- Creating a vibrant work culture is important as it promotes the productivity and efficiency of the employees. An HR builds trust and leadership among the management and its employee, recognizes individual and group achievements, and resolves conflicts if any.
- Compensation and Benefits– Calculating a fair compensation rate (employee’s yearly salary, overtime pay, incentives, and other benefits) for every employee is yet another task of an HR manager.
- Training and Development- Companies offer a plethora of opportunities to an individual to upskill their existing talent, thus it is a role of an HR manager to provide training sessions to the employees.
Also Read: How to grow your career in Human Resource Management in 2023?
What is Human Resource Management (HRM)?
HRM is a broad term that defines the organization and the development of its employee in management. They focus on the areas such as recruitment, staffing, training, compensation, organizational benefit, and so on.
The purpose of human resource management in businesses is:
- Acquiring new employees- The HR management team recruits potential employees, oversees the hiring process, and brings them on board.
- Addressing current employee concerns- The HR manager deals with employee concerns such as pay, incentive, benefits, pensions, training, addressing peer pressure, and settling the conflict between employees, and other employees or managers.
- Develop skills and abilities- The HR manager is involved in the appraisal, promotion, and recognition of the talent of employees. They boost the quality and productivity of an organization.
Three major functions of Human Resource Management are managerial function, operative function, and advisory function. Managerial function refers to all human resource management activities such as planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling. Operative functions are directly linked with actual tasks and responsibilities of the human resource department of an organization such as recruitment, selection, job analysis, job design, performance appraisal, welfare program of employees, and so on. The advisory function of human resource management provides recommendations and guidance to an organization on all aspects.
Human Resource Management is a daunting role and not an easy function as it includes lots of responsibilities and duties. A few challenges faced by an HR manager are as follows:
- It is difficult to retain talented employees in an organization when they are offered better pay and job opportunities in the outside world.
- In today’s challenging world, there is a high demand for skilled labor so talent acquisition becomes a little difficult (finding the best person from the pool of candidates).
- The external environment significantly impacts organizations and their human resource in times of economic recession.
- The HR manager has to be effective and must hold a leadership quality to motivate their employees throughout.
Also Read: Executive Post-Graduate Programme In Human Resource Management from LIBA
Importance of Human Resource Planning
Human Resource planning allows a company to maintain a good relationship with the employees and hire the right person for the right job, having the appropriate soft, and technical skills to optimize their role within the company. It promotes the company to plan ahead about their goals and strategies by maintaining the continuous supply of a skilled labor force. Human Resource encourages a high level of employee engagement to yield productivity and success for a company.
There are four steps involved in human resource planning, each has to be performed in chronological order to develop a strategy and enable the company to retain the employee.
- The first step is to identify the labor supply, and know about the strength of employee, their qualifications, positions, benefits, and performance.
- The second step is to forecast the labor demand, the HR department looks at the promotion, retirement, layoff, transfers, etc of the employee.
- The third step is to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of labor depending upon the role and requirements of a company.
- The final step is to develop and implement a plan with a collaborative effort from all departments.
Human Resource Planning can be a challenging role as it needs to be flexible with short-term staffing challenges such as employees getting sick or going out on a vacation, and so on.
- The HR planning must ensure the best fit between the employees and their job, avoiding shortage and surplus.
- They have to deal with the conflicts between the employees and the managers.
The Human Resource department is the backbone of all organizations as they manage the most valuable resources, “employees” and “Future of the company” by ensuring proper documentation and talent acquisition. Companies are looking for suitable Human Resource Management solutions for attracting, managing, and retaining skilled resources. The professionals and the newbies working in this sector require continuous upskilling to evolve with the rapid business change and needs. There are some best human resource certification courses online that will help the candidates to keep in touch with the worldwide integration of analytics and human resource management, new age technologies like machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Here are a few suggestions of online platforms that will impart the knowledge of HRM, such as Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Alison, eCornell, and so on.
- The benefits earned from studying the HR certification course for the fresher are to enhance the skills and knowledge in the human resource domain, develop industrial knowledge, and create a great career opportunity.
- Benefits earned by the HR professionals from studying the course are to create a professional path for career growth, increase recognition, respect for the peer group, and better understand the future demand of the market.
- Benefits earned by individuals who change their profession to HR are able to discover new career opportunities, know the real-time human resource process, get job satisfaction, and so on.
Also Read: Executive Development Program In Human Resource Management from XLRI Jamshedpur
List of Best Human Resources Courses Online
here we have provided the list of top 6 HR online courses to look into:
- Free HR course by Oxford Home Study College- It is an online platform that offers a wide range of courses for both, beginners and professionals who want to add a brownie point to their profile. The course discusses human resource management, the basics of the recruiting process, and the development and training of employees.
- Preparing to manage HR by the University of Minnesota– The course offers knowledge on non-monetary benefits for workers, alternative strategies used in human resources, and HR managers as part of the working community. The introductory class is short and free of cost but in order to get the certificate one needs to upgrade to a paid plan.
- Human Resource Management by Harvard University- The course is specially designed for HR professionals, it puts emphasis on behavioral aspects of the workforce and people management skills. It is curated for working professionals and provides an in-depth approach to learning.
- SHRM certification- The course is best designed for HR professionals, it is of great value. It aims at making an individual more strategic and effective.
- Diploma in Human Resource by Alison- The course is available at no cost, it aims at empowering the candidates by teaching them about hiring, training, and other human resource roles and responsibilities.
- World-Class HR: 21st-century talent management by Udemy – The course focuses on performance management, employee retention, talent acquisition, and so on. It is suitable for HR managers, small business owners, new learners, and professionals.
These are several online HR management certification courses offered by globally renowned universities and websites which will help an individual to uplift their profiles with the best of knowledge from the experts. One can choose the course outline as per their requirements and eligibility criteria. Apart from these online courses, there are certain good institutes that offer an offline program for the human resource aspirant.
Since the last few years it has been noted that the demand for Human Resource professionals has been constantly rising, it is considered to be a good career opportunity with a decent pay scale. The aspirants aiming to build their career in the human resource domain should study an effective human development program as formal education to improve their critical thinking, productivity, and performance.
More Information:
All About Building a Career in HRM
How to Find Human Resources Job Opportunities?
Why Should I Choose a Career in Human Resource Management?