Understanding Human Resources: How Do They Protect Both Employees and Employers?

Human Resources: The Business of People

Human resources refer to the business of people. When someone takes a job, they must fill out tax information, be made aware of company policy, be informed of their benefits and rights as an employee, be made aware of pay, and many other details that differ from job to job but are required by law in the United States. These are all human resource functions.

The Role of Human Resources in the Workplace

Human resources play a part in almost every area in the world of work. Human resource departments cover everything from recruiting, hiring, training, compensating, benefiting, and even terminating employees within a company. Human resource professionals are highly skilled and trained, and often specialize in one area, such as benefits or compensation.

The Importance of Human Resources in a Litigious World

In a world that has become very litigious, human resources have become a necessity to protect the interests of both employers and employees. It is very important for human resource professionals to stay abreast of employment law to ensure that a company is protected from legal action, as well as protect the rights of an individual employee.

Hi! Human Resources can be understood in various ways, depending on where you're looking from and how you want it to appear.

The term "human resource" refers to the "human capital" side of an organization. When you add the word "department," the term would refer to the group that manages the human capital aspects of the organization.

Functions and Responsibilities of HRD

The functions and responsibilities of HRD vary from organization to organization. The apparent trend is: the bigger the organization, the smaller the responsibility; the smaller the organization, the bigger the responsibility.

Why the Difference?

Bigger organizations tend to create specialized sections that focus on specific HR functions, e.g., Recruitment, Training, IR, Compensation & Salary Administration, Payroll & Timekeeping, etc. This is the reason why you have such terms as Recruitment Manager, Training Manager, etc.

Smaller organizations lump all eleven (11) critical HR functions into one HR Manager and a few staff. In some companies, the HR Manager is the whole of it, the entire HRD. The alleged universal ratio of HR staff vs. the number of employees in an organization is 1:100.

HRD's Expanding Role

In recent years, HRD is slowly eating up the administrative functions of an organization. In some organizations, the entire general administration function is already lodged under the HR Department.

Best wishes.

Ed Llarena Jr.

Managing Partner

Emilla Consulting

Well, we are moving fast from the "personnel" function to the human resource department. There is quite a philosophical way of looking at it. Basically, it comes from Western research where human capital is considered a core competence or an "inimitable resource." Management of this resource—i.e., selection of the resource, managing their performance through setting up performance parameters, rewards, and other interventions, etc.—comes under the purview of human resource management. It also comprises the psychological aspects to technical aspects of compensation, performance, etc., and then the linkage to strategy.

Sand_krish,

The good news or bad news is: HR is now more than just HRD. It is now incorporating some of the functions and responsibilities of General Administration or General Affairs, especially Admin Services. I have seen companies whose HR Officers are now called Services Manager, encompassing both HR and Admin.

Best wishes.

Ed Llarena, Jr.
Managing Partner
Emilla Consulting

Understanding Human Resources

HR is the set of individuals who form the workforce of an organization, business sector, or an economy. It is the division of a company focused on activities relating to employees, which includes recruiting, hiring new employees, orientation, and training of other employees.

Regards