Hr Management Essay

Submitted By pappalardo1981
Words: 908
Pages: 4

Running head: hr management

HR Management

Michael Pappalardo

Cardinal Stritch University

Professor Bell

MGT 445

August 19, 2013

The Human Resource role is a very critical function in any business to ensure success and prosperity. Some of the responsibilities of a human resource manager would be employee relations, recruitment, training and development, retention, and compensation and benefits. Even though there are many aspects of the human resource role, the primary responsibility should be employee relations. One part of the employee relations category is to be an advocate for the individual by protecting his or her rights as an employee. The employee relations aspect of human resources is responsible for investigating and resolving workplace issues as well as preserving the employer-employee relationship by developing an effective employee relations strategy. An effective employee relations strategy contains specific steps for ensuring the overall well-being of employees, which includes having a safe work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment. Human resource managers are sometimes the primary contact for legal counsel in risk mitigation and litigation pertaining to employee relations matters.(Mayhew, 2013) An example of this is ensuring employers and employees are well trained to workplace policies to minimize misinterpretation or misunderstanding of company and federal policies and laws. Many of the laws and policies that have been established over the last several decades have been instrumental to ensuring and protecting employees’ rights. Some of these laws and orders include but are not limited to: the 1964 Civil Rights Act, several executive orders ensuring equal opportunity, Equal Pay Act of 1963, Age Discrimination Act of 1967, Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, Civil Rights Act of 1991, and Americans with Disabilities Act.(Dessler, 2013) These acts and orders have been established and set in place for the purpose of protecting employees individual rights, ensuring that the employer does not take advantage of any single employee. The human resource function needs to ensure that the employer is following the laws and orders put in place to safeguard the employee from unfair practices and conditions. If employees feel like they are not being treated fairly, then lawful action could be taken against them or employees could try to form a union or bargaining unit to fight for the employees’ rights. The next priority for any human resource manager should focus around the recruitment, training and development, and retention of the employees. One way to help guarantee the success and growth of an organization is to recruit top talented individuals to help achieve a company’s strategy and vision. It is very important to obtain the right individual for the right job. First you have to look at what skill set and education the job requires, and then find a solid candidate pool to interview from. It should be up to human resources to pull the candidate pool together by using various recruiting methods and techniques. This can be achieved by using media outlets such as web based sites or can also be done by visiting universities and colleges to recruit right out of school. Once a candidate pool is selected, then it is up to human resources to find a well versed, cross functional group to interview the candidate for employment based off how well they match up to the job description profile. Once a solid applicant has been found and hired on to the company, then it is the responsibility of human resources to have an adequate