The Human Resource Management (HRM) professional is an officer specifically involved in the management of employees who work in an organization. The body of employees is referred to as the Human Resource (HR) of the organization hence the title. Initially, management of employee affairs was considered and handled as part of the other management factions but with the evolution management, human resources management has grown as an independent professional pursuit (BPP Learning Media, 2013). The duties and functions of the human resource professional in any organization whether public or private are so vital that it now enjoys an absolute indispensability complex.
The initial obligation of the HRM professional is to the employer. It is the duty of this officer to ensure that the employer gets the best value for the enormous amount commonly spent on labor. The HRM professional is, therefore, invaluable during the hiring process, the management of the employees, the restructuring of the employees to enhance productivity, and other related obligations. An employer ought to feel secure that the HRM professional has the employer’s best interest at heart.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
This obligation comes on several levels including task or work design, which entails the designing specifics of the content, methods and relationships at the place of work in order to balance productivity, and employee satisfaction. The HRM professional should be able to analyze both what needs to be done and who is doing it, and then create modalities to rhyme the two. Special consideration should also be made for the fact that as human beings and not machines, there are issues relating to the employee that have nothing to do with the employer such as sickness, childbirth, bereavement and fatigue related issues (BPP Learning Media, 2013). These should all be factored in in the work design.
The HR force also requires training no matter how well educated and experienced they are since the formulae, nature and manner of working keeps on changing even as the world transforms. A good HRM professional should be able to train the HR force on the simple issues and also recommend formal training for specific members of HR team when expedient in the interest of the organization. Whereas training is expensive, an untrained workforce costs much more to the employer.
When the employees are hired and trained, the next step is to manage the returns of their work through performance management process. This involves the development of well-established ways to access the productivity of a particular employee’s efficacy while taking into consideration all the independent and underlying factors. It is also during the subsistence of employment that legal issues emerge with regard to the employer-employee relationship. Legal issues give the HRM professional a dual obligation; to ensure that the work environment adheres to all laws and rules of labor relations to avoid litigation and advising the employer or the employer’s legal team on how to react to labor relations legal issues as and when they arise (BPP Learning Media, 2013). This advisory obligation also extends to other non-legal but labor relations related emergencies that may arise.
Employee advocacy is also a core obligation and it involves the representation of the needs, complaints and concerns of the employee to the powers that be. If the employees see the HRM professional merely as a tool of the employer, it will reduce the HRM professional’s capacity to control the HR body and by extension harm efficiency and productivity since work force is only effective when controllable. Further, a happy HR force is a more productive HR force. The fear of losing a job is less effective as a motivation to employee than the love for the job. The HRM professional is a bridge between the employer who is pursuing the best quality and quantity of productivity and the employee who is pursuing the best possible working conditions. An effective HRM professional is the one who ensures trust and cooperation from both parties contemporaneously.
Reference
BPP Learning Media (2013). Human Resource and Management : Course Book. London: BPP Learning Media.
