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Define human resource management and describe its functions.

Human Resource Management is a function within an organization which focuses mainly on the recruitment of, management of, and providing guidelines to the manpower in a company. It is a function of the company or organization which deals with concerns that are related to the staff of the company in terms of hiring, compensation, performance, safety, wellness, benefits, motivation and training.

Human Resource Management is also a premeditated approach to manage people and the work culture. An efficient human resource management enables the workforce of an organization to contribute efficiently and effectively towards the overall achievement of a company’s goals and objectives.

The traditional method of human resource management involved planned exploitation of staffs. This new function of human resource management involves HRM Metrics and measurements and strategic direction to display value. Under the influence of giving away the traditional method, HRM has got a new terminology called Talent Management.

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Functions of Human Resource Management

☆ Operative Functions

1. Recruitment: This is the most challenging task for any HR manager. A lot of attention and resources are required to draw, employ and hold the prospective employees. A lot of elements go into this function of recruitment, like developing a job description, publishing the job posting, sourcing the prospective candidates, interviewing, salary negotiations and making the job offer.
2. Training and Development: On the job training is the responsibility of the HR department. Fresher training may also be provided by some companies for both new hires and existing employees. This Fresher training is mainly done to make the employees up to date in their respective areas as required by the company. This function makes the employees understand the process and makes it easy for them to get on their jobs with much ease. During the process of the training and development, the results are monitored and measured to find out if the employees require any new skills in addition to what he/she has.
3. Professional Development: This is a very important function of Human Resource Management. This function helps the employees with opportunity for growth, education, and management training. The organization undertakes to sponsor their employees for various seminars, trade shows, and corporal responsibilities. This, in turn, makes the employees feel that they have been taken care by their superiors and also the organization.
4. Compensation and Benefits: A company can attain its goals and objectives if it can acclimatize to new ways of providing benefits to the employees. Some of the benefits given by companies are listed below for our understanding:
   1. Working hour flexibility
   2. Extended vacation
   3. Dental/Medical Insurance
   4. Maternal/Paternal Leave
   5. Education Reimbursement for children
5. Performance Appraisal: The employees of any organization will be evaluated by the HR department as per the performance. This function of Human Resource Management is to help the organization in finding out if the employee they have hired is moving towards the goals and objectives of the organization. On the other hand, it also helps the company to evaluate whether the employees needs improvement in other areas. It also helps the HR team in drawing certain development plans for those employees who have not met the minimal requirements of the job.
6. Ensuring Legal Compliance: To protect the organization this function plays a crucial role. The HR department of every organization should be aware of all the laws and policies that relate to employment, working conditions, working hours, overtime, minimum wage, tax allowances etc. Compliance with such laws is very much required for the existence of an organization.

☆ Managerial Functions

1. Planning: This function is very vital to set goals and objectives of an organization. The policies and procedures are laid down to achieve these goals. When it comes to planning the first thing is to foresee vacancies, set the job requirements and decide the recruitment sources. For every job group, a demand and supply forecast is to be made, this requires an HR manager to be aware of both job market and strategic goals of the company. Shortage versus the excess of employees for that given job category is determined for a given period. In the end, a plan is ascertained to eliminate this shortage of employees.
2. Organizing: The next major managerial function is to develop and design the structure of the organization. It fundamentally includes the following:
   1. Employees are grouped into positions or activities they will be performing.
   2. Allocate different functions to different persons.
   3. Delegate authority as per the tasks and responsibilities that are assigned.
3. Directing: This function is preordained to inspire and direct the employees to achieve the goals. This can be attained by having in place a proper planning of career of employees, various motivational methods and having friendly relations with the manpower. This is a great challenge to any HR manager of an organization; he/she should have the capability of finding employee needs and ways to satisfy them. Motivation will be a continuous process here as new needs may come forward as the old ones get fulfilled.
4. Controlling: This is concerned with the apprehension of activities as per plans, which was formulated on the basis of goals of the company. The controlling function ends the cycle and again prompts for planning. Here the HR Manager makes an examination of outcome achieved with the standards that were set in the planning stage to see if there are any deviations from the set standards. Hence any deviation can be corrected on the next cycle.

☆ Advisory Functions

1. Top Management Advice: HR Manager is a specialist in Human Resource Management functions. She/he can advise the top management in formulating policies and procedures. He/she can also recommend the top management for the appraisal of manpower which they feel apt. This function also involves advice regarding maintaining high-quality human relations and far above the ground employee morale.
2. Departmental Head advice: Under this function, he/she advises the heads of various departments on policies related to job design, job description, recruitment, selection, appraisals.