MBA in Human Resource
It is the end of a business year; everybody has been given a task to write appraisal. Everyone is thinking how to make it appealing, they’re so tensed, struggling with words, writing, re-writing, a never-ending cycle. Amidst all this chaos, there’s only one person who sits in his/her office, sipping coffee and relaxing, that person is called an HR.
The genie in a bottle, whose job is to observe quietly all year long and then come out of its lamp and do the sweeping.
Lucky isn't it? You can be this lucky too if you choose Human Resource Management.
First things first...
What is HRM?
Human resource management (HRM) is the method of employing, training, and developing, compensating people. It also comes up with strategies to retain people so that the useful ones don’t leave the company. Over the years, the job of an HR has undergone severe change, initially it used to be sending birthday gifts or cards to every employees, arranging office outings, planning activities or games, processing payroll, and making sure forms are filled out. Now, HR has moved ahead of this, not completely though, they still do all of this but now also overlooks who stays in the company and who doesn’t, who has the calibre and who is a dark horse. They now have a say in the company’s plan of hiring people, they chalk out the initial selection procedure, they do the first round of interviews, they do the initial sweeping, runs a background check, and send in the best one for further interview.
Why is it important?
HR is important. Period.
It is important because a company is divided into several sections, not everyone can look at everything. You can’t expect a chairperson or a CEO to the initial round of interviews for an assistant or an associate. They do the high-level jobs, so does that mean there’s no hiring for associates or assistants? Nothing like that, here comes in the HR. HR is supposed to be aware of the requirements of the company, staff wise, do they need more people, do they need to fire some people, HR keeps an eye on this. If the company requires more people, they give out an advertisement on several sectors and wait for the applicants. They then do the initial interviews before sending them to managers for final one. Once chosen, they make sure to collect all the important documents of the applicant and file them, they then put them on a payroll and make sure they get paid. It is a tasking job.
Other than administrative work, HR is also engaged into motivating people by including fun activities, games, company outings etc. They act as an agony aunt and must be secretive about it. They must be aware of the laws supporting the employees. They also make sure every employee gets a birthday card, and no employee is unaware of self-appraisal time.
During the year end, they again have a bunch of appraisal to review before they finally submit their report and suggestions about who gets the cake (we mean pay raise) and who gets to leave, if any.
The Role of HR
HR has several roles in the company, and we have lined up a few for you.
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Employment
People are required in a company to do the job. No matter how forward the world becomes, humans are irreplaceable. Which is why, employment is the biggest task of the HR. Employment includes:
- Creating a plan:- This plan includes the question how many people they need to hire based on the cost.
- Creating atmosphere of multiculturalism at work:- Multiculturism is increasing day by day as there are people from different backgrounds working in a company.
- Recruitment:- This means they must look for people to fill out the positions at the company.
- Selection:- This includes interviewing and selecting the suitable person. Salary negotiations also fall in this. After this, they will be undergo training and development and finally start their tenure.
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Development of Workplace Policies
Companies must ensure that their fairness and equality in the workplace, hence they need to develop policies for that. HR is responsible to develop these policies. They must see the need of a policy, think, develop, seek opinions on the policy, write, then tell the policy to the employee. The policies should affect all the departments of the workplace. Some of the policies include, Dress Code, Time off policy, Discipline, Internet usage, Work ethics, etc.
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Preserving
Preserving means motivating employees so that they stay with the company. Pay is of course a major factor when it comes to withholding an employee but there are other factors as well such as, team challenges, challenges with manager, workplace culture and environment, problems with the job they are performing.
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Compensation and Benefits
HR must make sure that the compensation being given to the employees are fair and meet the standard and is able to retain the employees. Also, they need to make sure that the pay is balance with the job they are performing, this also includes if an employee is with the company for 20 years, their compensation would be higher than a five year old employees. Compensations include, salary, insurance, medical, tuition fees, vacation, sick leave, etc.
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Training and Development
As soon as they hire a new employee, they need to make sure he/she is well versed with their role in the firm. HR plans training and development programs for the new employees so that they learn about their job and in result perform well which is for the benefit of the company. Every employee gets a training period during which they are usually given mock work. Training also builds confidence and motivates the employees to do well. Training includes, building confidence, work ethic, communication skills etc.
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HR As a Career
Being an HR is mostly a dream for many management students. Be aware it is not a cakewalk though. An HR must give many hours to the company, you might think they live life king size, but they also work for it. An HR gets paid well. Initially it might be less but there are chances of pay increase. An HR is a good job overall if you’re good at administrative and managerial work. Also, you need to be a people’s person because HR must be surrounded by people, the foundation of their entire work is people. So that means you cannot just bark at them when you feel like, an HR must maintain his cool even in the toughest time. Employees mentality surrounds on getting paid on time for all the hard work they are doing and getting appreciation for it, an HR has to make sure that no unnecessary delay happens in the salary and should also time and again pat his employee's back.
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Topics Covered
- Strategic HRM
- Leadership and Ethics
- Cross Cultural HRM
- Analytics and Digital HR
- Managerial Economics
- Industrial Psychology
- Finance
- Portfolio Management
This sums up our HR article, we hope it has given you some idea about the job of an HR. Weigh in all the pros and cons and select the HR career path if you wish.