What is human resources management (HRM)?

At its most basic, employee experience describes an employee’s perceptions and feelings throughout the entirety of the employee journey—from first encounters and onboarding, through to the time when they move on to other employment. HRM’s responsibilities extend across the entire employee journey as well, and include the following:

Human resources management during the recruitment stage focuses on developing reliable policies and plans designed to find the right people for the right positions. This responsibility can be broken down into four specific areas.

• Staffing-plan development
  To determine the personnel needs of the company, human resources management will assemble a staffing plan. This helps specify the number and skillsets of the employees a company will need to hire to adequately fill their needs and accomplish their goals.

• Hiring-policies development
  HRM will not only need to determine how many employees the company needs; it will also be responsible for developing and implementing hiring policies. Some of these policies may be designed to promote increased multiculturalism in the workplace.

• Recruitment
  Identifying, attracting and interviewing potential hires also falls within the responsibilities of human resources management. Finding the right people to fill open positions may involve teams of recruiters, a single recruiter or even recruiters outsourced from third-party firms.

• Selection
  Interviewing, negotiating with and finally hiring employees is the final step in HRM’s recruiting process.
  

There’s more to building an effective workforce than simply hiring the right people. Once the recruiting and selection process has found capable employees, human resources management must then begin helping these hires adjust to the social and performance aspects of their new job. HRM’s onboarding responsibilities include the following:

• New-hire orientation
  Often, the first step in acclimatising a new hire to their position is employee orientation. Orientation provides employees with basic information about the organisation and prepares them to fulfil their role in the company. Orientation is also an opportunity to cement a positive relationship, and can set the stage for ongoing employee satisfaction.

• Training and development
  While companies will often hire individuals for their skills and experience, most new hires will still require on-the-job training to perform their new functions satisfactorily. HRM’s responsibility is to not only instruct new hires in processes and expectations, but also to provide clear opportunities for ongoing development. Training must also include policy and legal training.

• Compensation
  Human resource management is responsible for ensuring that compensation is fair, enticing and meets established industry standards. In addition to determining salary for new hires, compensation responsibilities also include designating health benefits, retirement plans, paid time off, bonuses and anything else that an employee might receive in compensation for the work they perform.

With the right employees hired and onboarded successfully, HRM’s responsibilities shift towards retaining these employees within the organisation. While employee compensation and salary may play a key role in whether or not an individual chooses to remain with a company, often there are other factors to consider as well—company culture, hierarchy, personal relationships or issues with the job itself. To improve employee retention, human resource management’s responsibilities include the following:

• Employee assessment
  Effective human resources management understands that employee assessment should be a two-way street. Evaluating employee performance and offering constructive criticism can help ensure that employees have the best opportunities for success. At the same time, soliciting honest feedback—often in the form of regular surveys—gives employees a chance to evaluate the company in general and their managers in particular.

• Communication
  HRM has the responsibility of ensuring that communication channels are available and accessible for all employees. Effective communication provides a chance for dissatisfied employees to air their grievances and find solutions to issues before they reach the breaking point. Often, simply having the opportunity to vent will improve employee satisfaction.

Whether through voluntary resignation, involuntary termination or retirement, eventually an employee and their company will need to part ways. Effective offboarding exists to ensure that this process is managed correctly, legally and without leaving any loose ends. HRM’s offboarding responsibilities include the following:

• Exit interviews
  Exit interviews are a final, formal opportunity for organisations and employees to exchange information before separating. HRM is responsible for establishing an exit-interview process—usually a one-on-one meeting or employee survey—that allows for open, honest communication. A properly managed exit interview will help generate reliable feedback on how to improve the organisation, and allow a company and an ex-employee to part amicably.

• Separation paperwork
  Legal offboarding requires documentation. Human resource management has the task of ensuring that all separation paperwork is in order and meets legal and company standards.

• Coordination with IT
  As employees leave an organisation, their access to company IT tools and resources must be revoked. HRM coordinates with IT to ensure that this process is carried out, and that any and all company-owned equipment is recovered and accounted for.

• Final Payments
  HRM is responsible for ensuring that ex-employees receive payment for any outstanding work.
  

Tied closely to the employee experience, the workplace environment can have a major impact on a company’s success. The term workplace environment describes the locations and conditions in which an employee operates. This includes physical issues related to the office itself, as well as less-tangible concerns, such as processes and procedures. Human resource management’s workplace-responsibilities include the following:

Workplace policies exist to promote an environment conducive to productivity and equality. HRM is responsible for working with management and departments to identify the need for policies or policy changes, outlining these policies, seeking authorisation and finalisation for the policies, and then communicating the policies to the employees.

Policies may relate to dress codes, internet usage, disciplinary actions or any other issues that are relevant to the work environment.

An effective workplace environment cannot exist without reliable intra-office communication. HRM has the responsibility of establishing channels and coordination tools to promote clear, reliable communication throughout the work environment.

HRM is also closely involved with ensuring that businesses are adhering to applicable workplace laws and regulations. A well-run human resources management strategy helps promote vital compliance, and protects businesses and their employees from potentially devastating legal action. HRM’s legal responsibilities include the following:

One of the most important duties of human resource management is being aware of the laws and obligations surrounding employment and business. These often include the following:

• Discrimination laws
• Healthcare requirements
• Compensation requirements
• Worker safety laws
• Labour laws