To what extent it is important for a business to have a human resource manager? In modern business world level of competition is so high that we need to adopt a strategic pro-active approach to business activities. Strategy means evaluation, analysis and planning. It is so crucial to have a specialist decision maker to have possible right and accurate decision. This is normally the role of a manager. To make a difference as per competitors modern business need to focus on what they have specially.
If marketing plan, operational procedures can help to make a difference, the real main asset of a business organisation is its human resource. This is considered to be differentiation. A specialist is so needed to work on this crucial and highly strategic issue. We have normally two possibilities; the personnel approach and the human resource approach to workers issue. Because the personnel approach is bureaucratic, not flexible and because it focus on recruitment and selection without considering the need to adopt to be flexible and to train.
Modern business is gradually adopting the human resource, which is a pro-active, strategy, flexible, aware of the importance of evaluation and training and so more appropriate in a world changing constantly Human resource management is important because they are responsible of the recruitment and selection process i. e. attracting a field of applicants to fill a vacancy and selecting an appropriate person for the job.
Without a clear and agreed profile of the type of skills and so on that the firm is seeking, the selection process is likely to be unsatisfactory and will contribute to later problems like dissatisfaction, high staff turnover and a failure to make optimum use of resources. Therefore the HR manager will not only plan recruitment requirement but also will adopt the appropriate techniques to attract best candidates and choose the right one through several test available like IQ test, emotional test and among others. HR manager is responsible for the motivation of the workforce.
Motivation is defined as an influence that causes employees to want to behave in a certain way, motivation combined with ability results in performance. Performance leading to an efficient use of resources and benefiting of economise of scale resulting in lower cost therefore higher profits for the company. Furthermore the HR manager should be able to motivate his workers by fulfilling the needs identified by Maslow and hertz burg and try to eliminate the demotivating factors too. More often to ensure high productivity and efficiency, training program are offered to the new comers and performance appraisal too.
The emphasis on quality, competitiveness and employee participation coupled with the rapid pace of technology and other change, has raised the importance of training. Training is seen as a continuous process occurring throughout a working life. The benefit to the organisation of training staff will be seen in terms of increased in productivity and efficiency, reduce in cost, reduction in accidents, improved quality, developing a culture of learning, encouraging a culture of flexibility, easing skill shortages and planning for succession among others.
Furthermore training is not sufficient there should be performance appraisal i. e. a process whereby an individual’s performance is reviewed against previously agreed goals and where new goals are agreed that will develop the individual and improve performance over the forthcoming review period. The reasons for appraisal are improve current performance, increase motivation, and identify training needs among others. Furthermore the HR manager is also responsible to ensure a good communication network among all the workers of the company to avoid the problem of ineffective communication.
Communication refers to the exchange of information, ideas, opinion and feelings. Communication is effective when it is received and understood in the manner intended by the sender. But sometimes there are communication barriers and the message failed to be understood therefore the HR manager would have to set the appropriate communication network because communication failure has devastating effects in the company. Problems like bad decision making as a result of not receiving the correct information, low morale, misunderstanding leading to mistakes, poor quality work, lack of coordination among others will arise.
The Hr manager is also responsible for the negotiation among workers and directors for the good functioning of the business. Therefore it tries to find ways and solution about work that will benefit both workers and directors so as to avoid useless conflict like go-slow, strike among others. Therefore the human resource manager acts as a link between the administration of the business and the workers. One of their main objectives is to fulfil all the needs of the workers because they has realised that in today’s world workers are the most valuable assets of any company.
So we should encourage the latter to love their work and create that sense of belonging, which will make them, want to go to work. Yes the Hr manager is important for the following reasons: Organisation design and effectiveness; especially in relation to teamwork, communication, customer service and change management Resources; providing human resource required by means of recruitment, retention and training programmes Performance management; improving performance by means of appraisal Reward management; For example, linking pay with performance
Motivation; redressing jobs and devising rewards to motivate employees Commitment; The integration of the needs of the individual with those of the organisation Employee relations; Policies and procedures to encourage cooperation to the mutual benefit of all Flexibility; By means of multi skill, redressing jobs and new patterns of work Quality; as a way of life Culture management; Influencing behaviour and thereby attitudes by means of resourcing, performance management and reward strategies
But if it is true to say that human resource manager is important, as it has been shown above, we need to note that his importance is not exclusively the concern of the HR manager. All other managers have human resource responsibilities. Their role is also important we will note further that it is almost equally important to ensure business success the roles and activities of all other managerial functions marketing, finance and operations issues are important too.
