The Key Functional Areas of Human Resource Management

Introduction 

Human resource management plays a key role in the performance of an organization. This is the department that is charged with the recruitment and welfare of the employees. Employees’ motivation and performance is a key to the success of any organization. Happy and motivated employees will always work towards the goal of the firm thus enhancing productivity. Even as human resource department is concerned with ensuring that the organization has an efficient workforce for improved productivity, certain trends and challenges continue to emerge affecting the decisions of the human resource management. The human resource managers have to respond to these trends to enable the organization keeps on track with the emerging issues within the human resource department. Due to the ever emerging new trends in the workplace, HR department have been put to task to ensure the firm responds effectively to these issues. 

Key Functional Areas of Human Resource Management 

Human resource management has various key functions which it plays to enhance the performance of the organization. These key functions form part of the essential activities without which the organization success may be put at a stall. 

Recruitment and Selection 

Recruitment is the process of captivating, screening and selecting of the potential and qualified candidates which is usually based on the criteria for a particular job. Recruitment is used to attract qualified candidates and encourage the unqualified candidates to opt out willingly. Before the start of the recruitment process, human resource department must have proper staffing plans and know the total number of employees who are needed ( Bratton & Gold, 2017 ). Employees forecasting is usually dependent on the annual budget of the company as well as both the long-term and the short-term objectives of the firm. The processes of recruitment and selection of the employees are very crucial to all organizations because it minimizes the costs that can arise as a result of the mistakes committed when unqualified employees are hired. Similarly, firing and hiring of the new employees is yet another expensive process for the organization. Recruiting the right and most qualified candidates is useful for the organization because qualified staff help improves production thus promoting profitability. 

Under the recruitment and selection of the employees, human resource management is charged with staffing which includes the creation of the new job postings, determination of where to make an advert for the job, tracking of the flow data of the applicants as well as conducitng8 interviews for the candidates. In some situations, human resource officials can make the final decision on who to hire, while in other situations the supervisors have the final say on who gets hired. Human resource officials have to be knowledgeable about the law concerning equal employment opportunity requirements so that the firm can have an equal employment opportunity for all. Recruitment and selection are one of the most important elements of an organization. Wrong hiring will result in the employment of unqualified workers thus leading to poor quality work. 

Employee Training and Development 

It is the responsibility of the human resource management to provide the workforce with all the relevant tools, knowledge and skills necessary for providing the best services for the organization ( Storey, 2014 ). Fresh employees are given orientation and training about their work areas to ensure they are well equipped for the job. At the same time, HR department is responsible for providing employees with the relevant leadership training which can help them develop professionally. Proper and effective leadership is required for the newly employed staff as well as promoted managers and other employees. Opportunities for the professional development and promotional opportunities fall within the mandate of the HR department. Employees training and development is essential to ensure they get motivated and provide best services that can help the firm meet its goals. 

Workplace safety 

The safety of the workplace is the essential role of the HR department. The safety of the employees is very important in ensuring accidents and injuries in the workplaces are minimized. The HR department does this by ensuring that employees obey the rules and regulations specified in the occupational safety and Health Act. HR officials are also responsible for providing the support and organization of the workplace safety training as well as adherence to the rules and regulations of the Safety Act. The safety of the employees is useful to avoid lawsuits and costs that may result when employees get injured in the process of the job. 

Employees Compensation and Benefits 

The management of the benefits and compensation of the employees is the function of the HR department. HR functions help integrate the setting structure of compensation and appraising competitive pay practices. HR department is also responsible for the negotiation of the health coverage as well as retirement funds. Employees benefits are an essential factor in helping motivate the employees. A motivated employee can work dedicatedly towards meeting the goals of the organization. 

Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws 

The first federal equal employment opportunity law is the Equal Pay Act of 1963. This law advocated for equal pay for workers who perform the same task despite the gender ( Krislov, 2012 ). The law further protects employees from retaliation as a result of the complaints of any discrimination. For example, all employees at the Coca-Cola Company receive equal pay for the same work done. It is illegal for the employer to pay employees discriminatively based on their gender. Such discrimination is prohibited and punishable by law. 

Another equal employment opportunity law is the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. This law protects people of over forty years from being discriminated by the employers during employment ( Krislov, 2012 ). However, this law does not forbid discrimination of employees of forty years for employees of about fifty years. Discriminating employees of over forty years for the younger employees is illegal and punishable by law which can be in the form of fines and penalties. As long as an employee is qualified, that employee should be given equal employment opportunity and should not be discriminated based on their age. 

The third law is the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This law illegalizes the discrimination of the employees who are qualified but have certain disabilities. This applies to both government and public sectors in the United States. As long as an employee is qualified, such an employee should be given equal employment opportunity despite any disability or any other condition. This law is critical in the sense that it requires employers to reasonably accommodate any physical and mental limitations of people unless such conditions can have negative impacts on the running of the entity ( Krislov, 2012 ). For example, Coca-Cola Company has employed certain employees with disabilities of various natures. 

The forth equal employment opportunity law is the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. This law makes it illegal for the employers to discriminate the job applicants based on genetic information that can include a person’s genetic test as well as that of his family. It also prohibits discrimination of a job applicant based on a particular disease. The equally illegalize retaliation of the employees on the ground that they raised a particular issue that was contrary to the position of the management. 

Trends Affecting Workplace 

Aging Workforce 

Despite the fact that seasoned and mature workers can contribute significantly to the organization regarding knowledge, 8expertise, and experience, these group of employees presents certain challenges and issues to the HR department. The first major challenge of the aging workforce is the technological issues. While aging employees may be willing to stay current with the changing technology, they may not be computer literate posing a challenge for the organization. This group of employees may require additional training for them to fit into the modern technology. Such training may be costly and result in additional expenses to the company. For example, Coca-Cola Company trains most of its older employees on any new technology so that they are knowledgeable about it. Furthermore, aging employees are prone to certain health conditions as a result of chronic diseases. This affects their work as most of the tie they are absent to seek medical attention. This affects the productivity of the firm 

Diversity 

Employment diversity is the hiring of people from varied ethnic, racial, age, gender and religious groups. Most workplaces have become diverse forcing the HR department to identify means of leveraging the benefits to this diverse group and overcome any issues that may come as a result of such differences ( Patrick & Kumar, 2012 ). One of the major effects of diversity in the workplace is communication. Having many employees from diverse ethnic backgrounds may hinder efficient communication amongst employees, and this may affect the productivity and teamwork. There could be miscommunication which could result in workplace errors and mistakes that might attract huge losses to the organization. A more diversified workforce has been identified as one with more expertise and skills from the many various groups from certain backgrounds. However, it can result in conflicts more often among workers who could affect productivity. People with varied cultures are more likely to engage in conflicts especially if the cultures themselves are conflicting. For example, employees with different religious beliefs engaging in conflict over a religious issue. 

Skills Deficiencies 

Studies have shown that there is an increase in the gap between what the employers want and the skills that employees have. Competent employees what every employer wants. However, when most employees do not have the required skills, organizations are forced to hire and then train these employees, an activity which adds costs to the firm. Deficiency in the skills of the employees can be a huge challenge to the HR who must then devise means to ensure employees are well trained to acquire the necessary skills. Without the required skills, workers can commit a lot of errors and mistakes which can again add more costs to the company. For example, employees making the wrong data entry due to lack of data entry knowledge resulting in huge loss to the firm. 

Workplace Flexibility 

Employees always require a healthy work-life balance. This can be achieved if they have a flexible work schedule. Firms can use various methods to enhance work flexibility. One of the best way to ensure work flexibility is allowing employees to work a compressed worksheet ( Allen et al., 2013 ). In this strategy, employees can be made to work more than 8 hours a day for some days then have the rest of the days away from work. This can help employees be flexible with their work schedule thus promoting a healthy work-life balance. Another way to promote workplace flexibility is by allowing employees to take longer or shorter breaks or even break up their work days into smaller chunks. This can permit employees to have some days that they are free away from work thus enhancing healthy work-life balance. 

Conclusion 

Workplaces are constantly changing, and the human resource managers must be up to the task to respond to these changes. HR must implement all the requirements to maintain a stable workforce that will ensure the success of the organization. 

References 

Allen, T. D., Johnson, R. C., Kiburz, K. M., & Shockley, K. M. (2013). Work–family conflict and flexible work arrangements: Deconstructing flexibility.  Personnel psychology ,  66 (2), 345-376. 

Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017).  Human resource management: theory and practice . Palgrave. 

Krislov, S. (2012).  The Negro in federal employment: The quest for equal opportunity . Quid Pro Books. 

Patrick, H. A., & Kumar, V. R. (2012). Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges.  Sage Open ,  2 (2), 2158244012444615. 

Storey, J. (2014).  New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals) . Routledge.