One of the departments that most people know very little about is the HR or Human Resources department.
The main question being, exactly what does HR actually do?
There is a significant difference between an HR department that doesn’t do much all year round and is only seen at the annual holiday party and an HR department that helps the organization to actually grow and thrive.
We will now cover a detailed description of the responsibilities of the HR department so that the requirements of employees are fully met.
Human Resource department defined
Basically, the HR department is made up of employees whose main responsibility is to manage the company’s employee and their entire life cycle. This means from recruitment, actual hiring, getting them onboarded, trained, fired etc. They are also responsible for handling all employee benefits. If you are interested in HR management role I would recommended seeing recruitment for HR managers.
What does this department do?
If you ask any staff member in the Human Resources department this question, they will typically talk about the unpleasant parts of work such as firing other employees, dealing with work violations, laying off staff etc. However, with that said, the purpose of Human Resources is to actually help and provide support to all the employees within the company. This makes the HR department an actual resource for the employees (humans).
The tasks that HR is responsible for on a daily basis include:
Finding and recruiting new potential employees
Human Resources need to have an excellent understanding of what the company requires and ensure that these needs are fulfilled when hiring for open job positions. Now, recruiting isn’t as simple as it appears and does not involve simply posting a job vacancy ad on a site such as Indeed. HR will need to fully analyze the market, speak with stakeholders and figure out budget.
After the role has been advertised, HR has to ensure that they are getting the correct type of candidates. When it comes to recruiting, it takes a lot of time and money. This is necessary to get the correct candidate that is capable of improving the company since the wrong candidate can have the opposite affect.
Employ the best candidates
HR has to actually arrange all of the interviews with potential candidates, coordinate with other parties as well as onboard the candidates that have been chosen to become new employees. They are also responsible for handling all of the paperwork that has to be done when a new person is hired. They also need to ensure that the new employee has the tools necessary to navigate their first day of work and onwards.
Handle payroll
Dealing with payroll is quite challenging. When it comes to every payday, taxes have to be accurately calculated as well as hours worked. Any expenses that have been incurred will have to be reimbursed and bonuses as well as raises will have to be added. You probably know how stressful it is to do your taxes on a yearly basis, so you can see how challenging it is for HR who have to calculate and pay these taxes for all employees every month or pay period.
Handle disciplinary actions
Sadly, since HR has to handle disciplinary actions, they get a bad reputation among other employees. If this isn’t handled correctly, it can lead to having valuable employees being lost, litigation and the company may even get a bad reputation. However, if disciplinary actions are dealt with correctly, then employees can be more successful.
An example of this is an employee who is often late to work and even after they have gotten warnings, they are still late for work on a regular basis. The HR department would then need to determine why this is happening. They may find that the employee needs extra resources or even counseling. By properly handling the situation, HR can avoid firing the employee which would involve the entire recruitment process to replace them. It is also a great opportunity to help that employee and even improve their career.
