Aspiring to become an HR professional? Then, you need to have a basic know-how of what all it entails. You can become an HR generalist or a specialist, depending on how you want to shape your career in hr field.
HR courses are offered in management degree courses, but you also have an option to sign up for human resources certification programs available online.
Also Read: Executive Development Program In HR Analytics From XLRI
What are the main functions of HR?
Before you start exploring the options, take a look at six main functions of HR to apply for the right course online.
Recruitment
Unarguably the most important function in the HR domain, it requires you to understand a company’s talent requirement, design job descriptions, lists the openings on various job portals, conduct interviews/assessment tests and selects the qualified candidates.
Employee Benefits
The scope of employee benefits encompasses salaries, incentives, perks and payroll management. These benefits are both monetary (base salary, cash bonuses) and non-monetary (flexible work hours, crèche, wellness policy), but they enhance the burden on the company’s balance sheet. So, this function requires you to strike a balance between keeping employees happy and reducing the cost to the company.
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Training and Development
There is a famous quote from Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford, “The only worse thing than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” The training grooms employees to acquire skills that the company needs to perform optimally. Training programs have to be conducted for both new hires as well as existing employees.
Performance Management
HR professionals are also responsible for managing the performance management program in their organizations. This requires you to establish goals and Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs) for each role in the organization and measuring the performance of employees against them. It also involves giving feedback to employees on their performance and taking feedback on what they expect from the organization.
Employee Relations
Since HR is all about managing people and keeping them satisfied, the function of employee relations gains all the more prominence. It is not only at the professional level that HR needs to think about employees, but also at making their personal lives better. Because happy employees equal productive and happy workplaces! You also have to look at conflict management and labour union relations.
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Compliance
Every country has labour laws and other regulatory compliances that make it mandatory for every organisation to follow. Or else, organisations may have to face the legal music. HR has to manage compliance concerning workplace safety, sexual harassment and discrimination policy and any other laws applicable.
The key job of the human resources department is to act as an intermediary between the organisation and employees and the above functions just enable that. Learn about all that and more by enrolling into a certification course in XLRI HR Management and get ahead in your career as an HR professional.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is defined as a strategic approach in acquiring, growing, managing and gaining the commitment of the organization’s vital resource- the employees. HRM guarantees the smooth functioning of an organization. HR management certification courses help HR professionals to formulate the right recruitment and retention policies and results in business growth for the company.
Importance of well-functioning HRM practices
In the modern era, companies are gravitating towards establishing people-centric policies. This approach pays enhanced dividends in terms of increased employee performance and decreased attrition rates. Robust application of HRM principles plays a vital role in allowing organizations and to achieve their objectives.
Also Read: The Benefits Of Human Resource Certification Course
HRM is an invisible force that binds all the components of the company to ensure smooth progress. When HR employees enhance their skills through HR management certification courses, the company will automatically undergo growth and expansion. Let us find out more about the individual functions of HRM:
Job design and analysis
Job design involves the procedures of duty descriptions and responsibilities of the job. HR professionals should formulate the traits of ideal candidates based on research and rationality. Job analysis involves outlining the job requirements, such as qualifications, skills, and work experience.
Human resource planning
The core function of HR is correctly anticipating the future needs of the organization. Knowing the workforce needs will shape the recruitment, performance management, and employee development policies of the organization. Human resource planning is similar to workforce planning. Both focus on the present performance of the enterprise and what is required in the future for the organization to be successful.
Recruitment and selection
The next HR function comprises attracting the right candidates to work for the organization and selecting the best candidates among them.
Attracting qualified candidates usually begins with the company’s brand. With a strong brand presence and the right sourcing strategies, HR personnel can pick highly -qualified and maximum-potential candidates. The implementation of technological developments in recruitment is swiftly taking place with different types of recruitment tools.
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Employee training and development
Imparting proper training, and designing the right trajectory for the professional development of selected candidates is a sacrosanct function of HR. The success of the company depends on the nature and quality of job training. The right training during the early years of an employee’s career determines the scope of professional advancement in the organization. HR management certification courses prepare aspiring HR executives for taking on bigger tasks and responsibilities.
Performance Management
Performance management is vital for making employees stay productive and engaged. High-level performance management involves clear goal-setting, good leadership, and open feedback.
Performance management tools include annual reviews. There are also extensive feedback tools in which peers, managers, and customers review the employee’s performance. HR management certification courses empower HR professionals with performance management techniques to shorten the skill gap between the workforce of today and the one, the organization needs for the future.
The checklist of HR functions for performance management includes:
Conducting performance reviews regularly to consider the positives and improvement areas of employees
Formulating an appropriate exit interview process to figure out why experienced employees wish to leave the company
Designing a suitable appraisal and compensation system that acknowledges and rewards the employees for their effort and hard work.
Also Read: Best HR Management Courses for Experienced HR Managers
Career planning
Also known as career guidance, this HR function helps employees to realize their ambitions in alignment with the company’s goals. HR professionals provide guidance and development support to employees for their effective engagement and retention. XLRI certifications offer high value to organizations in terms of better succession planning and higher productivity.
Function evaluation
This is a more technical role of HR that compares different job functions in terms of the quality, qualification, availability of employees, working times, job location, and economic situation. The thrust behind function evaluation is that similar jobs should be rewarded equivalently.
Rewards
Rewards like salary, career growth, learning opportunities, and recognition by leadership lead to a satisfying work-life balance and can have positive psychological outcomes for employees. For example, top-tier colleagues and meaningful job roles are highly cherished by employees. Rewards come under the scope of talent management which is intended to attract, motivate, develop, and retain top-performing employees.
Also Read: How to grow your career in Human Resource Management?
Industrial relations
HR is tasked with the responsibility of cultivating and maintaining cordial relationships with labour unions and other collectives. This will help to identify and constructively resolve potential conflicts. This will also be beneficial in dealing with workforce restructuring policies during the economic recession.
It is a vital function of HR managers to provide clear rules and regulations about labour relations. This helps in creating a proper framework for employees within which they need to operate. Communication of industrial relations policies across the organizational levels will create a cordial and harmonious work environment.
Health and safety
HR plays a significant role in creating and enforcing health and safety regulations. Integrating these regulations in the company’s culture is one of the vital functions of the HR department. Human resource managers have the responsibility to assist and take care of employees when they’re confronted with personal problems. A well-functioning HR department supports its employees when things don’t go as planned.
Administrative responsibilities
HR is in charge of streamlining personnel procedures and HR information systems. Personnel procedures involve the handling of employee promotions, discipline, performance management, regulations, and unwanted intimacies, cultural and racial diversity. HR management certification courses help organizations to devise policies and procedures and make sure that employees comply with the organizational guidelines.
Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) are utilized to store employee data. These systems need to be procured and by integrating data analytics, can be used for making better decisions.
Conclusion
HR professionals have an all-encompassing functionality. The ultimate objective of every HR professional is to establish a linkage between the employee and the organization. The main role of the HR department is to enable an exchange of ideas and best practices across different departments which results in a merit-based framework for employee advancement.
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