HRM BASICS
MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES
What exactly is HRM? The acronym is for "Human Resources Management", but this is an all-encompassing term. Many businesses, both large and small, no longer have a personnel director or manager.
This role has been broken down into many others, given the wide-ranging disciplines involved in the strategic management of the employees and staff of a business, towards the goal of making the company more productive and profitable.
Here are some functions that are adopted by an HRM department:
* Hiring and Recruitment
* Firing and Discipline
* Workforce Planning
* Time Management
* Training and Induction
* Health and Safety
* Payroll
These functions are generally all handled directly or monitored with HRM software. For example, payroll is a function that's essentially dedicated to software, and time management is often associated with project planning and Gannt charting which ensures that different parts of a project come together at the correct time, with the least mount of time being wasted while one party waits for another to complete their function.
Tighter employment legislation over the last 40 years dictates that businesses have to keep very detailed records. Business computers are now powerful enough to store and manipulate every aspect of managing a workforce; from maintaining detailed employee databases to recruitment and payroll functions.
To sum up: The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities; importantly: Deciding what staff needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these roles; hiring and training the best employees, makig sure they are high performers, and ensuring your personnel and management practice conforms to a wide range of rules and regulations. Activities also include deciding upon employee benefits and salaries, maintaining employee records and personnel policy. Such policies are often distributed in the form of employee manuals, and issued to all staff.