HRM

Human Resource Management

Assignment: 02

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Question: 01 What is an HR activity? Elaborate 7 major HR activities.

Activities in the Human Resources Department

Human resource departments are responsible for a wide variety of activities across a number of
core organizational functions

HR Activity
Human resources (HR) professionals conduct a wide variety of tasks within an organizational
structure. A brief review of the core functions of human resource departments will be useful in
framing the more common activities a human resource professional will conduct.
The core activities can be summarized as:

1. Staffing
This includes the activities of hiring new full-time or part-time employees, hiring contractors, and
terminating employee contracts
Staffing activities include:

 Identifying and fulfilling talent needs (through recruitment, primarily)

 Utilizing various recruitment technologies to acquire a high volume of applicants (and to
filter based on experience)
 Terminating contracts when necessary
 Maintaining ethical hiring practices and aligning with the regulatory environment
 Writing employee contracts and negotiating salary and benefits

2. Development
On-boarding new employees and providing resources for continued development is a key
investment for organizations, and HR is charged with maintaining a developmental approach to
existing human resources.
Development activities include:

 Training and preparing new employees for their role

 Providing training opportunities (internal training, educational programs, conferences,
etc.) to keep employees up to date in their respective fields
 Preparing management prospects and providing feedback to employees and managers
 3. Compensation
Salary, Non-financial rewards and benefits are also within the scope of human resource
management. This includes identifying appropriate compensation based on role, performance,
and legal requirements.
Compensation activities include:

 Setting compensation levels to match the market, using benchmarks such as industry
standards for a given job function
 Negotiating group health insurance rates, retirement plans, and other benefits with third
party providers
 Discussing raises and other compensation increases and/or decreases with employees in
the organization
 Ensuring compliance with legal and cultural expectations when it comes to employee
compensation
4. Safety and Health
Achieving best practices in various industries include careful considering of safety and
health concerns for employees.
Safety and health activities include:

 Ensuring compliance with legal requirements based on job function for safety measures
(i.e. hard hats in construction, available counseling for law enforcement, appropriate
safety equipment for chemists, etc.)
 Implementing new safety measures when laws change in a given industry
 Discussing safety and compliance with relevant government departments
 Discussing safety and compliance with unions
5. Employee and Labor Relations
Defending employee rights, coordinating with unions, and mediating disagreements between the
organization and its human resources is also a core HR function.
Employee and labor relations activities include:

 Mediating disagreements between employees and employers

 Mediating disagreements between employees and other employees
 Considering claims of harassment and other workplace abuses
 Discussing employee rights with unions, management, and stakeholders
 Acting as the voice of the organization and/or the voice of the employees during any
broader organizational issues pertaining to employee welfare
 6. Human Resource Research
Although human resource research is not listed as a separate function, it pervades all HRM
functional areas, and the researcher’s laboratory is the entire work environment.

The last of the HR basics revolves around data and analytics. The last half decade, HR has made
a major leap towards becoming more data-driven.
Human Resource Research activities include:

 An easy way to keep track of critical data is through HR metrics or HR KPIs. These are
specific measurements that answer how a company is doing on a given measurement.
This is referred to as HR reporting.
 This reporting focuses on the current and past state of the organization. Using HR
analytics, HR can also make predictions about the future. Examples include workforce
needs, employee turnover intention, the impact of the (recruitment) candidate
experience on customer satisfaction, and many others.
 By actively measuring and looking at this data, HR can make more data-driven decisions.
7. Interrelationships of HRM Functions
This says that every HRM function or activity is interrelated with other activity or function.
Interrelationships of HRM Functions activities include:

 All HRM functional areas are highly interrelated.

 Management must recognize that decisions in one area will affect other areas.