Human Resources Management Overview

Submitted By manders27
Words: 768
Pages: 4

Human Resources Management Overview
There are several components that make up an organization, such as accounting, finance, research and development, and marketing. At the foundation of the components that make up an organization is human resources management. Human resources management, previously referred to as personnel management, is interwoven into all departments and levels of management in an organization. Before one can begin to understand the depth of human resources management, he or she must understand what human resources management is, the primary functions of it, and how it contributes to strategic plans.
Human resources management is the part of the organization concerned with people (DeCenzo, Robbins, 2007). Human resources management is not only a staff or support function, but also incorporates into every manager’s job (DeCenzo, Robbins, 2007). It offers assistance to employees and the organization. Human resources management is responsible for selecting appropriate candidates and training the candidates accordingly to do his or her job effectively. Furthermore, human resources management is also responsible for motivating and maintaining capable employees. Human resources management is affected by several elements that include: technology, workforce diversity, level of skilled labor, continuous improvement programs, work process engineering, and ethics. Human resources management is strategic process. Although it consists of several elements, human resources management has two primary functions. First, human resources management provides support for the strategic direction of an organization (DeCenzo, Robbins, 2007). Second, human resources management is responsible for “representing and advocating for the organization’s employees” (DeCenzo, Robbins, 2007, p. 34). Through these two primary functions, human resources management helps organizations operate and thrive. Human resources management has an effective role in carrying out organization’s strategic plans. When organizations establish strategic plans, human resources management prepares employees for upcoming changes, helps employees who are affected negatively, and trains employees on any new methods an organization develops. Beyond assisting employees, human resources management also determines low-cost strategies for human resources practices and helps organizations reduce personnel costs while still offering employees amenities (DeCenzo, Robbins, 2007).
To understand better the importance of human resources management in an organization’s strategic plan, consider the following example. Amanda Hawk received an opportunity to work as a temporary or contingent worker at a medical office. The medical office developed a strategic plan to upload all patient medical charts to an online system and go paperless. The medical office hired seven contingent workers to carry out the task of scanning more than 10,000 medical charts and uploading them in the new system. Prior to hiring the contingent workers, human resources management helped the organization determine if hiring contingent workers would be more cost-effective than delegating the tasks to nurses when they were not with patients. The organization determined if the nurses carried out the task, the length of the project would almost double and nurses would most likely need to work overtime. This would not only set the project back, but also it would set the entire chain of medical offices back because not all charts were scanned into the system, thus