What Is Human Resources Management?

Human resources management encompasses a wide range of tasks and duties that are integral to any business. HR managers oversee everything from employee relations to benefits and beyond. It’s a very important element of company culture, so finding the right people to handle it is pivotal.

When you’re searching for people to lead your human resources team, it’s key that you find people who can handle all the aspects of the job. Here are some of the main duties of human resource management:

Employee Benefits

Human resources management is responsible for navigating and presenting benefit packages to employees of a company. They maintain relationships with different vendors for health and life insurance, transportation benefits, and other standard programs – dental, vision, and sometimes even pet insurance. They explain the various options to employees and keep them abreast of necessary updates to their policies. They may even aid in an employee’s adjustment of their chosen benefits.

But the benefit programs human resources management are responsible for don’t stop there. They often manage sick days, paid leave (parental or otherwise), paid time off, flexible work options, and workers’ compensation.

Training and Onboarding

When a new employee comes into the business, it is the shared duty of human resources management and the new employee’s team to train and onboard them. While the team will teach the newcomer the details of their everyday duties, HR management will get them set up with employee portals, explain company culture, and answer any basic questions they may have about their role in general.

Human resources management will acclimate a new employee to the business and help set the tone, but the relationship will continue through their tenure with the company. HR management can train employees in new skills and technologies as they emerge, and educate employees on changing corporate culture. Whether that has to do with new legislation or improvements based on employee feedback, it is the role of HR to keep employees in the loop at all times.

Development and Upskilling

Similar to training and onboarding, human resources management will continue to oversee an employee’s development while they are at the company. This could include seminars, classes, or entire days dedicated to sharpening the skills of a team.

Whether it means walking employees through a new communication portal the company is adopting, or honing soft skills like communication and leadership, HR management will ensure that a business’s employees are always learning new things.

Employee Relations

Whenever you have multiple personalities working in close proximity to each other, you’re bound to experience some turmoil. Therefore, it is the duty of human resources management to mediate whenever there are interpersonal issues between members of an organization. Whether this is simply a personal bout or something as serious as harassment, HR management needs to take these situations seriously and respond in kind.

HR management is also meant to handle and oversee employee evaluations and performance management. If an employee is not performing adequately, for instance, human resource management and the employee’s manager can come together to set them on a performance improvement plan or take another route to improve the situation. They can also offer rewards an incentives for positive performance.

Recruitment and Hiring

On top of all of these duties, human resources management is also expected to attract, screen, locate, and engage with talented professionals to add to your team. This includes composing and posting job descriptions, reviewing applications and resumes, screening candidates, and setting up the appropriate interviews. Needless to say, it is a task just as time consuming and daunting as it is important.

That is why many businesses choose to take the burden off of human resources management and work with a professional recruiter to find the appropriate candidates. Michael Page has a team of expert recruitment consultants that have intimate industry knowledge as well as a large network of professionals and candidates to pull from. They can help take the pressure off of HR management and allow them to focus on other important tasks while they find you the ideal candidate for your open position.

If you would like to learn more about this process, reach out to one of our expert recruitment consultants today, or submit a job brief.