Question

Review the five functional areas within the HR department and explain which one you think is most important and why. Which of these five functional areas works most closely with the rest of the business as a strategic partner and how might this change depending on the type of company? How do the needs of an organization decide what human and capital resources are required to be successful?

Answer 1

Human Resource department of any organization includes the different activities for instance staffing, recruiting, HRD, compensation, benefits, Safety and health, labor and industrial relations.

The main focus of the staffing activity is to ensure the availability of the manpower in the organization and attracting the best talent in the industry towards the organization. Human resource development indicates facilitating training and development opportunities to the manpower and it includes career planning, development, organizational development, and performance evaluation.

Compensation and benefits mainly deal with the salary and reward system of the organization so that the manpower can be motivated to fulfill the organizational goals.

Safety and health activity mainly deals with making sure that all the government guidelines are implemented to prevent any sort of industrial accident in the organization.

If we look at the different activities performed by the HR department, then the most important activity that can be termed as strategic is staffing or recruitment. This is due to the fact that if a correct individual is not appointed in a certain position then it will not only result in the economic losses but it can also hamper the productivity efficiency and long term objective accomplishment of the firm.

The modification in the workforce staffing totally depends on the nature of the organization for instance if an IT company looks to hire a worthy candidate then it must possess adequate IT expertise and knowledge. The nature of the firm will also decide whether there is a requirement of the capital resource in the form of equipment or it wants to build on a greater level of manpower strength.