It is the responsibility of the Human Resources Functional Area to find the correct person for the job and ensure that s/he is able to work to the best of his/her abilities in a safe environment. Human Resources' main responsibilities are listed below.
Recruitment means ensuring the business has a workforce that is suitable for its needs. In order to recruit the best possible employees the business must advertise the job and then select the right person using the information obtained from application forms and interviews.
Retention means keeping hold of the workforce. Once the business has a good workforce it will want to keep it otherwise it will have to go through the trouble and expense of finding new employees. It can encourage its staff to stay by offering good wages, a pension plan, perks (from free lunches to company cars) and long holidays.
Dismissal will occur when the business no longer requires a particular worker. This may occur if the employee is not doing his/her job well or if s/he carries out a serious offence (such as stealing from the company). If the business no longer requires a worker because of a fall in demand for its product (as may occur during a recession) or a new form of technology allows the task to be done more cheaply, it can make staff redundant. This form of dismissal simply means the worker is no longer needed rather than s/he was doing his/her job badly.
There are other ways of leaving a job, for example, retirement, going on to another job by choice or promotion.
The company will specify the working conditions of the employees, and this will include the normal hours of work, number of days holiday they can take, holiday pay and sickness benefits. Favourable working conditions help motivate employees to work harder and will therefore help the company to achieve their aims and objectives.
It is essential that the workers are able to learn the skills they need through training and development and are able to progress in their work by being given promotion. It is in the interests of the business to provide training so that employees will become more efficient at their jobs. Offering employees promotion will help the business to retain staff as they feel they can work their way up through the business and gain greater pay and respect.
These will protect the rights of the employees and act on their behalf in a variety of situations such as pay negotiations, redundancy payments and unfair dismissal.
It is the responsibility of the business to ensure that its workers and customers enjoy a safe and healthy environment.