Human Resources

Introduction

Human resources are the most important resources in any organisation. To succeed a business needs committed staff to meet its aims and objectives. Staff must be trained and motivated by the management to achieve their potential.

In small businesses with one or two employees the responsibility for the human resources usually lies with the owner. Other small businesses with a slightly larger workforce may have a designated person whose job is to look after issues relating to staff. Large organisations with many employees have a whole section called the personnel or human resources department.

It is the responsibility of the human resources department to ensure that the organisation recruits the correct staff, and that staff receive appropriate training to ensure that the business meets its aims. Therefore, this function is central to the success of the business. The human resources department has four main functions, these are: human resources planning, recruitment and selection, training and development and performance appraisal.

The diagram below shows the responsibilities of a typical human resources department in a large

company.

A human resources department must also be aware of its legal responsibilities towards the employees in the business. Several laws have been passed which protect employees from discrimination at work. Some of these are:

Equal Pay Act 1970-- this Act states that women and men should get the same pay and conditions for doing the same job.

Sex Discrimination Act 1975 -- this Act ensures that men and women are given equal status in terms of recruitment, dismissal, benefits or facilities. It doesn't relate to pay.

Race Relations Act 1976 -- this Act makes it illegal to discriminate against people at work in terms of their marital status, sex, race, colour, nationality or ethnic origins.

Disability Discrimination Act 1995 -- this Act states that employers cannot discriminate against people if they are disabled, and also that employers must make changes to their workplaces to accommodate the needs of disabled people (e.g. lifts and ramps for access or having special equipment to enable the hearing or visually impaired to do their jobs).

In this assignment, I am going to look at the main functions of a human resources department and show its importance to the business. I am basing my assignment on research I did at the human resources department of Hull College. Hull College is a large college employing approximately 270 full and part time staff who work in the areas of teaching, administration and support.

Human resources planning

Successful businesses carefully plan for their human resources needs, both in the short and long to do this, they usually create a manpower plan, which identifies their future manpower needs and terms of the skills and numbers of employees required. A manpower plan requires a large amount of data and information, some of which will be internal, and some external.

The first step a business could take is to look at its current staff and possible future needs. This should include:

* Identifying needs front the corporate plan - is the business expanding and taking on more work? If so can this new work he shared amongst current staff, or will new employees need to be recruited?

* Liaising with departments to look at their future needs - do they need more staff, or to train staff to cope with any changes in technology or equipment?

* Carrying out real - skills audits on staff to see if they are able to meet future needs. If not, then a programme of training could be implemented to give staff the skills and knowledge they need. Such work may uncover skills within the workforce that the business was not even aware of

Hull College has created a new post for an IT Development Manager. There are several things they need to consider before they start the process of recruiting. Firstly, they have to consider existing staff The IT Department at the College has four lecturers, one of which is the

head of the department, two IT support technicians who look after and set up the equipment, and an administrative assistant who does all the clerical work for the department. The IT Development Manager will take on the majority of the management and organisational work in the department, which has been carried out in the past by the lecturers.

The College placed an advertisement on the staff noticeboard, but none of the non-teaching staff at the College had the combination of management and IT skills necessary for the job, and the

lecturers did not want a non-teaching job. The College therefore has to look outside to find a

suitable person.

Using external labour market information is a good way for a business to look at the kinds of people they should recruit and it can then target its advertisements at the right people for the job.

Businesses can look at lots of different employment trends to see where the potentially suitable people might come from. Hull College would need to look at the information for South London, which they can get form SOLOTEC, the South London Training and Enterprise Council. SOLOTEC provide information and statistics on a wide range of employment trends.

Training and education

A business who is interested in employing a school or college leaver may want to look at how many young people leave school to work or go on to higher education. The overall staying-on rate in South London is fairly similar to the whole of London, but since last year there has been a decline in the numbers of young people who stay on in education.

Most young people want to stay on in education to get more qualifications or training. This means that employers who want 16 year old school leavers have less to choose from, but employers wanting 18 year olds with college qualifications or A levels have more to choose from.

Qualifications

A business may also want to look at the types of qualifications people have in the local area. The numbers