| The Human Resources Management function and Human Resources Development profession have undergone tremendous change over the past 20 years. Many years ago, large organisations looked to the "Personnel Department," mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organisations consider the "Human Resources Department" as playing a major role in staffing, training and helping to manage people so that people and the organisation are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner. The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or non-profit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have -- and are aware of -- personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have. We at PIPT differentiate between Human Resources Management (a major management activity) and Human Resources Development (a profession).
|
