Human Resources (HR) is all about hiring, promoting, managing, training, and retaining talent in the human resources department. The HR functions in the department should be the hub for recruitment, placement, interviewing, coaching, and developing talent in all departments of the business. Human Resource management is a continuous process of evaluating, recruiting, inducting, providing orientation, training, imparting new skills, appraising the performance of personnel, determining compensation and giving benefits, maintaining proper relationships among employees and employers. It involves activities such as referral of candidates, interviewing of job aspirants, screening of job applicants, on-boarding training programs, creating an opportunity for growth, and developing supervisory skills.
The present economic trend and the demands of the market require a drastic change in the methods of human resource management. These changes have brought into being new strategies and newer technology that have resulted in the efficiency of the entire human resource management process. The professionals are involved in the processes that make them answerable to accountants, corporate executives, and government authorities responsible for HR policies, practices, and systems.
Key priorities for Human Resource functions in 2022
As a professional in Human Resources (HR) operations I am always asked what are the top key priorities for human resource management? When I answer this question many times the first answer I get is that these are things that are constantly being adjusted. While this may be true to some extent as human resource policies and programs are always being reviewed and altered it is not necessarily true in all cases. Let me explain.
Performance appraisal in HR functions
One important priority for the business was performance appraisal. One person who had been assigned the responsibility of this task would have a meeting with the head of that division a couple of times per year. Each time he/she met he/she would try to adjust the criteria to something that would bring the business closer to the goal of full appraisal returns but each time the head of that department approved these changes it would bring another set of adjustments that made it even harder to do the appraisals.
The point here is that no matter how hard we try to make our business process and system work it is humans who are the absolute root of the problem and when they don’t operate like they should there will always be trouble. So in reality, if you are looking at your human resource functions as key priorities for your company then you have already solved the problem of the quality issue long before it ever gets to that point.
Up-skilling and Reskilling Programs
The second priority might well be training. That’s right, training. You see, training is an inherent part of every successful organization or business and if your employees know how to perform the necessary tasks you give them then the rest takes care of itself. But often the people within the organization either don’t know how to do these tasks, or they are not motivated enough to make the effort to learn. As you go through your company’s processes and systems you’ll notice that at some point there is a need for training. And if you don’t have the right people in place to do this you’ll find yourself with a large group of unmotivated people that simply are not going to get the job done right. These unproductive people will create problems and issues for the company and the business as a whole.
So, when you are looking at your human resource functions as key priorities for your company you want to make sure that you have enough people to properly train them. They must also be equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to actually be effective in their job. Therefore what you’re looking for is a high-performing team that understands how to do their job and is fully trained in order to do so. In other words, there is a fine balance between being over-trained and undertrained. It’s really important that the human resource professionals within your organization understand how to properly handle situations and handle employees. The last thing you want is for your employees to be over-trained and your business to be understaffed.
Holistic Well-Being
When you are looking at your human resource functions as key priorities you need to make sure that you are also setting aside time for your relationship development. This is really important in order to keep things fresh and current. If you allow your employees to fall into a rut, develop negative employee relations, and develop a lack of communication you can potentially risk losing a large portion of your overall productivity. This can be extremely detrimental to your business as a whole and can lead to large expenses in your labor budget. So when you are looking at your human resources functions as key priorities you want to make sure that you set aside time for this as well.
Better Benefits and Compensation
One of the most important key priorities for human resource management functions is the ability to hire and keep on-staff the best qualified people possible. You want to make sure that you spend a significant amount of time on the interview process. You want to make sure that you ask questions related to the job responsibilities, skills, and experience that you are looking for in your new employees. You may want to consider some of the more basic questions such as whether or not they have worked in a corporate environment before and what their work duties were. You may even want to find out about the type of supervisor they worked for and what type of workload they experienced in the past.
Training and Development
Another of the key priorities for human resource management is training and developing your employees. As a manager you want to ensure that you are always meeting with your team and that you are constantly looking to improve on the way things are going for your company. Your employees are only as productive as the conditions in which they work. So you need to make sure that you are providing them with a work environment where they are free to learn and grow in their career and also in relationships with their supervisors and coworkers.
