Human Resources (HR). Every company has an HR team, department, or designated individual, but what does it actually do?
When people think of HR, they probably think of huge businesses with massive teams of individuals who are tasked with keeping a watchful eye over employees, ready to strike in case somebody makes a mistake or steps out of line. This is far from the case, however.
Also, many people don’t think about HR in the context of smaller businesses. After all, why would a small business with only a few employees need a dedicated HR team or designated HR professional?
While the role and functions of HR may differ between organizations, it always plays an important part in their day-to-day operations. Although each HR team is different from the next, one thing is for sure—its job isn’t to make the office “lame”, despite what Michael Scott may have said in The Office.
Key Human Resources (HR) Functions
According to John Storey, the writer of Human Resources Management, A Critical Text, HR is a distinctive approach to employee management. It seeks to achieve a competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a committed and capable workforce, using an integrated array of cultural, structural, and personnel techniques.
Let’s break that down into five of the most important HR functions and how they help to keep an organization moving forward.
1. Human Resource & Workforce Planning
The number one HR task is all about knowing and preparing for the future needs of the organization. They need to be able to confidently answer questions like:
- What kind of people will the organization need in the future?
- What talent will the organization benefit most from?
- What is staff turnover like and how many people are likely to be needed?
Knowing this helps HR staff shape recruitment, talent acquisition and selection, performance management, learning and development, and all other critical HR functions. Human resources teams use a variety of tools—an example of one being org chart software—to help them visualize human capital and anticipate changes.
2. Employee Recruitment & Onboarding
When talent gaps are noticed and/or staff begin to leave the organization, it is down to HR teams to attract new people to work for the organization and select the very best candidates.
Attracting the right people involves an element of ‘branding’. An organization needs to look like an attractive place to work, particularly if the organization operates within an industry with an inherently bad reputation. With a strong employer brand and the right sourcing strategies, HR teams attract the most suitable candidates for the job. It is then a case of sifting and sorting through these candidates to settle on one who will take on the job.
It doesn’t stop there, though. It is often down to HR teams to onboard new employees, introduce them to the organization, and ensure they know who’s who. Again, this is something that org chart tools work wonders for!
3. Performance Monitoring & Management
Monitoring and managing performance are essential in ensuring that an organization’s employees stay productive, engaged, and on target. Good performance management isn’t just about closely watching employees, though. It is just as much about good leadership, clear goal setting, and being receptive to feedback and criticism.
HR teams conduct performance management through various ways and means, the most popular of which is the periodic performance review where employees are reviewed by their line managers.
4. Learning & Development
HR teams enable employees to develop the skills and competencies that they not only need for their job roles but their futures, too. This is an essential responsibility and is somewhat related to the first HR function we listed. By facilitating learning and development, HR bridges the gap between today and tomorrow’s workforce.
To visualize skills gaps and potential candidates for further development, HR teams need to be able to easily develop and access a top-down view of the organization. This can be achieved through the use of org charts that map out a firm’s human capital and what each individual employee’s skills are and where further training could be delivered.
5. Rewarding Employees
Rewarding employees for their hard work and dedication is something that can never be missed. If HR teams fail to recognize and show appreciation to employee achievements, this can have devastating effects.
Rewards often include the obvious—salary increases and bonuses—but can also be extended to be far more than financial. For example, career opportunities, growth opportunities, feedback, autonomy, simple recognition, and extra time off or holiday, etcetera, are all rewards that employees will value.
Using Org Charts for the Best HR Management
Org charts and org chart software are perfect for HR teams that want a simple, top-down view of their organization’s workforce. With this, it becomes much easier to make informed decisions, conduct workforce planning, new employee onboarding, and deliver learning and development, among other things.
If you are interested in trying a tool that you can use to make intuitive org charts for use in these processes and beyond, look no further than Organimi.
Our cloud-based org chart tool is easily deployable in organizations both big and small and can be customized to a high degree to enable seamless use with or alongside your existing tools, processes, and workflows.
Sign up for a free trial today!