DON MARIANO MARCOS MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY

SOUTH LA UNION CAMPUS

COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES

Agoo, La Union

Five Functional Areas of Human Resource Management

Staffing
Achieving organizational objectives requires having the proper number of employees with
the appropriate skills. Staffing accomplishes this objective through four tasks. The first
task is job analysis, which examines specific job functions in determining the skills,
duties and knowledge required for each position. The second task is ensuring that the
required numbers of employees, with the appropriate skills, are available when needed
organizations engage in Human Resource Planning (HRP). The third task is recruitment,
which is the process of attracting enough skilled people to apply for jobs in the
organization. Fourth, the last step in the staffing process, is selection. This involves
choosing the best suited individuals to fill the open positions in the firm.
Human Resource Development (HRD)
Six functions, including training, development, career planning, career development,
organization development and performance appraisal, make up Human Resource
Development (HRD).
Training: is a process designed to provide employees with the
knowledge and skills needed for their present job. Focusing on
long-term learning needs is development. The ongoing process of
career planning sets career goals for employees and identifies the
means to achieve them. Career development is a formal approach
used by firms to ensure that people with the proper qualifications
and experiences are available when needed. A planned process for
improving the firm by developing its structures, systems and
processes to improve effectiveness and achieving desired goals is
Organizational Development (OD). And finally, performance
appraisal is a formal system of review and evaluation of individual
or team task performance.
Compensation and Benefits
Compensation includes all rewards that individuals receive as a result of their
employment. Pay is the money that a person receives for performing a job. Additional
financial rewards other than base pay include paid vacations, sick leave, holidays and
medical insurance, and they are called benefits. Non-financial rewards are non-monetary
rewards, such as enjoyment of the work performed or a pleasant working environment.
Safety and Health
Employees who work in a healthy and safe environment are more likely to be
productive. Safety involves protecting employees from work-related accidents and
injuries. Health activities seek to prevent illness and provide for general physical and
mental well-being.
Employee and Labor Relations
Business firms are required by law to recognize a union and bargain with it in good faith
if the firms employees want the union to represent them. This is still true despite the fact
that the private-sector membership has fallen to 9 per cent.
Personnel management involves two categories of function:
1. Operative Function-The operative function essentially belong to such activities
concerned with procuring, developing compensating, utilizing and maintaining an
efficient work force.
Procurement-Procurement means recruiting the required number of employees
with due qualification and experience keeping in view the importance of achieving
the objectives set before the organisation. It is mainly concerned with hiring the
right people, in the right place, at the right time.

Development- Development means activities meant to increase the efficiency and

skills of the workers through training and education of employees. It includes
activities like training, seminars, group discussions, education etc.
Compensating-Includes activities which deal with the method and standard of
remuneration and terms of employment.
Utilizing- Utilizing means using the services of the employees to the best possible
extent. It includes incentives schemes and includes schemes for sharing the profits
from higher productivity.
Maintaining- Aims at maintaining good working condition for the employees. it
includes preparation and implementation of health schemes, safety systems etc.

2. Managerial Functions- The managerial functions includes activities like planning,

organizing, and coordinating, directing and controlling the employees. They are
performed by all types of manager including personnel managers.

Planning- A plan is a pre-determined course of action to accomplish the set

objectives, it specifies what and how operative personnel functions are to be
performed.
Organizing- Organizing calls for grouping of personnel activities, assignment of
different activities to different individuals.
Co-ordination- co-ordination is concerned with harmonious and unified action
directed towards a common objective. It ensures that all groups and persons work
efficiently, economically and in harmony. Person-to-person communication is most
effective for co-ordination.
Directing- Directing involves managing managers, managing workers and the work
through the means of motivation, proper leadership, effective communication as
well as co-ordination. A personnel manager must develop the ability to command
and direct others.
Motivating- Motivation is the key to successful management of any enterprise. A
personnel manager must inculcate in the workers a keen appreciation of an
organizations policies.
Controlling- Control is the process of measuring actual results with some standard
of performance, finding the reason for deviations of actual from desired results and
taking corrective action when necessary. Thus, controlling enables the realization
of plans.

The significance of these two varieties of functions is that one function cannot work
without the others. The personnel manager has to blend the two to the desirable extent.
Importance of Human Resource Management
An organization cannot build a good team of working professionals without good Human
Resources. The key functions of the Human Resources Management (HRM) team include
recruiting people, training them, performance appraisals, motivating employees as well as
workplace communication, workplace safety, and much more. The beneficial effects of
these functions are discussed here:
Recruitment and Training
This is one of the major responsibilities of the human resource team. The HR managers
come up with plans and strategies for hiring the right kind of people. They design the
criteria which is best suited for a specific job description. Their other tasks related to
recruitment include formulating the obligations of an employee and the scope of tasks
assigned to him or her. Based on these two factors, the contract of an employee with the
company is prepared. When needed, they also provide training to the employees
according to the requirements of the organisation. Thus, the staff members get the
opportunity to sharpen their existing skills or develop specialised skills which in turn,
will help them to take up some new roles.

Performance Appraisals
HRM encourages the people working in an organisation, to work according to their
potential and gives them suggestions that can help them to bring about improvement in
it. The team communicates with the staff individually from time to time and provides all
the necessary information regarding their performances and also defines their respective
roles. This is beneficial as it enables them to form an outline of their anticipated goals in
much clearer terms and thereby, helps them execute the goals with best possible efforts.
Performance appraisals, when taken on a regular basis, motivate the employees.
Maintaining Work Atmosphere
This is a vital aspect of HRM because the performance of an individual in an organisation
is largely driven by the work atmosphere or work culture that prevails at the workplace. A
good working condition is one of the benefits that the employees can expect from an
efficient human resource team. A safe, clean and healthy environment can bring out the
best in an employee. A friendly atmosphere gives the staff member job satisfaction as
well.
Managing Disputes
In an organisation, there are several issues on which disputes may arise between the
employees and the employers. You can say conflicts are almost inevitable. In such a
scenario, it is the human resource department which acts as a consultant and mediator
to sort out those issues in an effective manner. They first hear the grievances of the
employees. Then they come up with suitable solutions to sort them out. In other words,
they take timely action and prevent things from going out of hands.
Developing Public Relations
The responsibility of establishing good public relations lies with the HRM to a great
extent. They organise business meetings, seminars and various official gatherings on
behalf of the company in order to build up relationships with other business sectors.
Sometimes, the HR department plays an active role in preparing the business and
marketing plans for the organisation too.
Any organization, without a proper setup for HRM is bound to suffer from serious
problems while managing its regular activities. For this reason, today, companies must
put a lot of effort and energy into setting up a strong and effective HRM.