The most important asset of an organization is its human resource, i.e. its employees and workers. The Human Resource Management activities include the activities of recruiting, training and development, performance appraisal, compensating, rewarding, and ensuring the safety and welfare of the human resource. In this article, we will see the top hr activities.
LIST OF TOP 11 HR Activities
1. Alignment and integration of organization plan with the human resource requirements
The top-level management must ensure that the HR activities and requirements are considered while preparing the organization plan to achieve the organization’s overall objective. The integration of the plan with human resource requirements is essential because the execution of plans in their intended manner depends on the effectiveness and efficiency of the human resource.
2. Planning of human resource
Human resource is a vital factor of an organization that needs planning for its procurement and deployment. The dynamic business environment where the technology is bringing new changes in the organisation’s way of working has made it necessary to plan HR activities properly. The HR management must anticipate the kind of human resource needed by the organization and accordingly plan for the procurement criteria, salary, training and development, appraisal, performance bonus, promotion and other benefits to applying to its human resource.
3. Recruitment of human resource
The organisation’s employees must be carefully recruited as their performance is directly linked with the organisation’s success. The HR activities include conducting a recruitment process for selecting the most eligible candidate who can add value to the organization. The human resource management activities include a personal interview, aptitude test and other methods to evaluate the knowledge, learning ability, leadership qualities, teamwork spirit and other parameters.
4. Regular evaluation and monitoring of performance
Another core human resource management activity is to keep a check on the performance of the employees continuously. The HR management shall perform activities to monitor and compare the employees’ performance and the target performance and take corrective actions to fill the gap. The flow of communication and information among the management and employees shall be free to achieve better and timely results.
5. Taking steps to keep the employees motivated
Human resource management activities shall also focus on maintaining and increasing the motivation level of the employees. The employees shall be timely, rewarded for achieving targets within the predetermined deadlines. Monetary benefits such as bonuses, incentives, promotion, and non-monetary benefits like the best performance award, recognition, and creative innovation can keep the employees motivated to give their best for the organization.
6. Training and development
The continuous updating of the knowledge and skills of the organisation’s human resource is an important factor for its success in the long run. The development of human resource is an important activity performed by human resource management. Regular training of employees enables them to actively update themselves with the changing needs of the business environment.
7. Rewards and compensation
Employees shall be adequately rewarded for their efforts through justified salary, bonus, incentives and other monetary benefits. Non-monetary benefits like the best performance award, recognition to creative innovation, trophies can keep the employees motivated to give their best for the organization. This human resource activity is crucial as if the employees are not happy with the compensation and benefits that they receive for their work, and then it can adversely affect their performance.
8. Ensuring safety and well being of the employees
The human resource management shall perform all activities which are necessary for ensuring the safety and well being of its human resources. It is the organisation’s responsibility to provide a healthy and safe work environment, proper safety measures for work that require exposure to hazardous situations and adequate health care facilities for the employees and their families.
9. Organization development
This management activity involves preparing a strategy as per the nature and size of the organization to build a working environment where employees can give their best efforts. Effective coordination and cooperation among the human resources employed at different levels of the organization results in the development of both the employees and the organization.
10. Involving the employees in the decision-making process
The management shall keep the employees well informed about the organization’s functioning so that they can effectively participate in the decision- making process. The support of the employees’ union can help in encouraging the participation of skilful employees in decision making.
11. Providing job security and growth opportunity to the employees
Human resource management is necessary for the organisation’s growth, but it should also contribute to the professional development and growth of the individual employees.
CONCLUSION
An honest, hardworking and skilled employee is the most valuable asset of an organization. Thus HR activities must be planned and performed in a manner such that it contributes to creating maximum value for both the employee as an individual and the organization as a whole.
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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!