Human resources is used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization and the department responsible for managing resources related to employees.
Whether you are running a small business or a large business, it is not a bad idea to make sure your business and employees are protected by either having an HR rep on your team or hiring an outside firm to make sure that all things like recruiting, hiring, training, and firing are all taken care of as well as possible.
One reason why the human resource department is important is that they look after the recruitment needs of the company.
Employee recruitment, which includes interviewing and selecting new hires, is typically the responsibility of the human resources department.
This also includes determining when recruitment is necessary for each department as well as if the hire is a benefit to the company.
When hiring new employees, it is not merely looking at the candidates’ resume, the human resource department also has to interview them and make sure that the potential candidates are able to fit with the company’s culture.
What does Human Resources Do?
Ask any employee what an HR department is, and you’ll get an answer that primarily deals with the most uncomfortable aspects of work: HR violations, layoffs, and firing. But the truth is that human resources is there to support employees.
It’s quite literally a resource for humans. Some of the things that an HR department can do are stuff like recruiting new employees. HR understands what a company needs and goes out and recruits the candidates that they deem are the best suited to fit in with a company.
Once those recruits go through the interviewing process, HR will complete the hiring process with you in the decision-making process as well.
Another aspect of the business that HR can help out with is the processing of payroll. That is something that no business enjoys doing and HR can help burden your load on that one.
HR can conduct disciplinary hearings for employees that stepped out of line and they can maintain your employee records. The biggest thing HR can do for you and your company is make your life easier.
Instead of having to do everything yourself, HR will help manage the load when it pertains to anything involving your employees.
Building the Best HR Department
The human resources department heavily contributes to a company’s culture: If HR is toxic, employees will be discouraged and less likely to consult HR for help, either with career-related issues or personal ones.
However, if HR genuinely cares about the well-being of employees, the culture will be one of openness and growth. Oh, and want to make your employees even happier? Offer pet insurance and 6-month maternity leave.
If you are a smaller company with few employees, HR management software is another possible route as it will take care of all the payroll, benefits, and maintaining employee records for your business.
The human resource department does not sit around after hiring and getting the new employees settled into their roles and duties.
They are constantly working to improve the quality of work life by creating and implementing programs and policies such as personal and annual leave, daycare services and other various incentive opportunities.
Their job is to ensure that the employees are not finding it hard to come to work just because their regular babysitter is sick or it is the school holidays and no one is available to look after their children.
Even though it is the employees’ family issues, when employees are given options and choices, they would find coming to work with ease; especially when they know their employers are concern about them as an individual.
Conclusion
Human Resources is something that you should take advantage of when you own a business.
While you may be thinking to yourself that you are just a small business with few employees, there are still benefits to having even just an HR software that will take care of the smaller things.
If you run a bigger company, you do not want your culture to go bad and have your company crumble from within. So while HR is not the most fun thing to talk about, a good HR group can go a long way in helping a company grow.
