Purpose of Human Resources
What is the real job content of the Human Resources department? What does the recruiter really do? Is this just a job about boring presentations promising bright future of the business? Or is it about talking to new hires and rejecting justified salary increases? Has the HR organization a real impact on the business? How does the HR Manager add the value to the business. Nevertheless, everyone has dealt with any HR professional once. Human Resources is usually the department to see the employee for the first and last time. However, the purpose of Human Resources is wider than just managing the employee life cycle. What is the purpose of Human Resources then? In summary, what makes leaders pay wages of HR professionals.
Today, many leaders speak about the human capital. They talk about employees as the most valuable assets of the organization. The leader always realize that there is no leadership without a great team. Each leader needs a help from Human Resources to build the best team possible. The HR team has to take over the ownership and responsibility for all people management practices and policies.
The modern and competitive HR Function still develops. We are in search of the best Human Resources Management concepts. That is true. There is no universal HR Model; each HR organization has to build itself to cover the requirements of the leadership team. The department dealing with the people management evolved almost as the last one. It was the job of managers before the creation of the specialized unit. It was created when the business needed another performance and productivity boost.
The competitiveness of the business is the ultimate objective of Human Resources. It is the role of HR professionals to introduce policies and practices that lead the organization to the future. They have to coordinate large initiatives with other business functions to ensure that employees can consistently maintain and increase the productivity and performance.
In addition, the competitiveness of the organization requires new innovative approaches how to attract, retain and motivate top talents. The pressure to introduce competitive Talent Acquisition practices is enormous. Moreover, employees can choose the employer of their choice. They do not have to wait for the promotion; they can be promoted anywhere else. The HR team has to introduce great goal setting procedure to provide meaningful jobs to the workforce.
The people management practices and the employer brand can be strong and solid foundation of sustainable competitive advantages of the business. It is a simple HR Marketing rule that the best one attracts the best ones. Top talents want to join the company that offers best career and personal development opportunities. It is the job of HR to design policies and practices allowing employees to grow. It acts as the retention tool, as well.
Employee Engagement becomes one of key HR priorities. The HR team has to support the full involvement of employees into strategic planning procedures. Employees have smart ideas how to make the business more profitable. Moreover, the purpose of the HR Manager is the protection of stuff interests. It is a key role of the department, and it creates some tensions with the leadership team.
In addition, the competitive business requires highly skilled and experienced workforce. Innovations and process improvements are the best performing sources of the competitive advantage. This is another area for Human Resources to excel. The department can prepare important development plans to upgrade skills and competencies. The HR Team adds the value by the development of skills and competencies of the workforce. It has been the key driver of the development of the HR function in organizations. It is the core role of Human Resources.
Human Resources still has issues with the proper management of clients´ expectations. Many business leaders are not satisfied with the level of services they receive from the Human Resources department. They expect to have a true strategic partner; they still employ an administrative support unit that is focused on the pure compliance. Sure, it is also one of key HR roles. However, it is not the one that is the most important.
A modern Human Resources function knows and understands its roles and responsibilities. It is a pleasure to meet business oriented HR managers who aim to gain the competitive advantage for the business. They enable managers and leaders do their job. They support leaders in finding innovative ways how to support the growth of the business. This one of Human Resources purposes.
More on the Purpose
Uncovering the purpose of Human Resources has to start with the current HR definition. Our business function made a great progress over past several decades. It has evolved from the personnel management department into a strategic partner of the leadership team. Also, the definition has changed over times.
Next, this section covers the true content of Human Resources. It describes the connection between the business strategy and duties of HR Managers. It sets boundaries to HR strategy development and it helps to manage expectations of internal clients. Each HR professional has to be able to explain the real content and deliveries of the department.
The HR Vision and Mission puts the purpose into the perspective with broader business priorities and initiatives. In addition, it discovers potential areas of the focus when the HR leader looks for quick wins. The HR team cannot play a passive role in the organization. It has to lead the implementation of strategic development initiatives including selected ones from the Corporate Social Responsibility.
The next chapter covers the impact of Human Resources on business results. This is the most tricky part because HR analytics is the least developed area. Providing right measures at the right time – this is a skill to learn. Most outcomes are intangible however we can measure them indirectly through productivity and performance measures provided by other units in the organization.
The competitiveness of the organization is a key objective of the modern HR organization.
