As time goes by and the business world becomes ever-more complex, all its facets come under great scrutiny all in an attempt to make it leaner, more efficient, and up for the challenges at hand. Being such an integral part of any company, Human Resources is one of the topics that end up discussed very frequently.
After all, if the employees are the most valuable asset of one company, the department whose main goal is scouting, hiring, and managing this workforce has to have a profound influence on its destiny?
With that in mind, we have to ask ourselves are the traditional HR methods even suitable in the corporate world as complex as the one we have now? How do size, industry, and location influence the HR process? Is it possible to adapt the old strategies to new necessities?
Hard questions… Let’s see if we can provide some answers.
The role of an HR manager
So, let us start untangling this mess by defining the role of Human Resources in the context of the modern business landscape. In some other times, the role of an HR manager was primarily concerned with the hiring process. The complexities of the present-day corporate world helped HR evolve to a much more comprehensive role that now includes:
- Training employees and guiding their careers
- Developing integral business procedures
- Advocating for employees in conflict situations
- Managing payroll and welfare benefits
- Taking care of the adherence to local and federal laws
As we can see, as much as HR retains a critical place in the hiring process, this sector has branched into the role of mentorship and management. The companies that want to attain an optimal level of employee satisfaction should keep this in mind.
How does the size of a company affect Human Resources
Keeping all the things we have mentioned in mind, we have to ask the question are all these goals truly attainable across the business board? According to recent research, small businesses account for 99.9% of US businesses employing roughly 60.6 million stateside workers. This makes the backbone of the USA economy.
That begs the question, though, do the companies that employ under 50 workers even need to keep a full-time HR department? In most cases, the answer is no. The work environments as small and as intimate like, for instance, a puppy supplements shop or a health food store can handle the issues like payroll, and training through other departments. Immediate concerns like conducting interviews and hiring can be solved with the one-time use of third-party HR specialists.
Having a comprehensive HR strategy and employee development program is something you should try to develop regardless of the size of your organization.
In contrast to these small and medium companies, we have large corporations that sometimes employ hundreds of workers and extend their operations far beyond national boards. Aside from the regular challenges, the HR managers working in such companies need to address the problems like translating the company’s welfare and benefit programs to remote positions and foreign national legislation.
Also, in this context, you will encounter a much greater focus on requirements like sub-department and communication management.
Does location influence an HR process?
This is a very important issue to take note of because while good HR practices can be successfully used in different industries, and contexts, the fact remains that some regions simply have a tendency of luring in the specific industries and appropriate talent profiles. In this case, we can use the example of chemical and manufacturing centers like Texas or developing IT hubs like Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Berlin.
Since the hiring and other HR challenges in this regard lie mostly in the field of breaking down the highly focused recruitment pools, the HR managers playing against the market odds can break down this circle with practices like campus recruiting, flexible promotion policy, diverse hiring practice, and long-term social media engagement strategies.
The effect of the native industry on the HR process
Last but not least, we would like to mention that different industries have different built-in goals and therefore benefit the most by using adapted HR strategies. For instance, the IT and tech companies put a very high focus on the qualities like innovative thinking and fresh perspective so they often choose to start the employee engagement process early on and groom the talents through the company ranks.
Other businesses that rely more on manual labor and craftsmanship don’t have the benefit of letting the employees climb through the ranks in such a manner and usually hire workers with a high level of expertise to maintain optimal productivity. Being as inclusive and well-spread as it is, the retail sector puts a very high focus on anti-harassment and anti-discriminatory practices.
Although the baseline values are the same for all these angels, the companies that want to attain the best possible HR results need to be aware of the small nuances that come associated with the native industry.
In conclusion
We hope this short breakdown helped you get a better understanding of HR in the modern business framework as well as pointed out some important considerations you need to keep in mind to make this incredibly important asset work to the advantage of your company. As time goes by and the corporate world becomes more complex, it is becoming more evident that old one-size-fits-all solutions are no longer suitable for managing tasks as important as HR. The issues we pointed out above are a perfect place to start ironing out these wrinkles.
The HR Tech Weekly® 