Today’s Human Resources Function (Bradley W Hall,PHD)

Throughout history, virtually all breakthroughs required replacing a current model with a fundamentally different paradigm. Scientific examples include germ theory and the theory of relativity. Federal Express and Amazon.com are business examples of a paradigm shift, and W. Edwards Deming’s statistical process control is an example of a professional shift. In each case, these new paradigms emerged and completely challenged existing “truths.” The HR profession has yet to go through its paradigm change.

Think of today’s HR model as an engine with four elements:

(1) structure (i.e., who reports to whom, roles, and accountabilities),

(2) systems (i.e., performance measures, business reviews), 

(3) shared values (i.e., beliefs, values, culture), and 

(4) skills (i.e., talents, knowledge). 

What Are HR Audits? (Gary Dessler)

Human resource managers often collect data on matters such as employee turnover and safety via human resource audits. One practitioner calls an HR audit “an analysis by which an organization measures where it currently stands and determines what it has to accomplish to improve its HR function.” The HR audit generally involves reviewing the company’s human resource function (recruiting, testing, training, and so on), usually using a checklist, as well as ensuring that the firm is adhering to regulations, laws, and company policies.

In conducting the HR audit, managers often benchmark their results to comparable companies’. Sample measures (metrics) might include the ratio of HR professionals per company employee. HR audits vary in scope and focus. Typical areas audited include the following:

1. Roles and head count (including job descriptions, and employees categorized by exempt/ nonexempt and full- or part-time).

What Do The New Human Resource Managers Do? (Gary Dessler)

For much of the twentieth century, “personnel” managers focused mostly on day-to-day activities. In the earliest firms, they took over hiring and firing from supervisors, ran the payroll department, and administered benefits plans. As expertise in testing emerged, the personnel department played a bigger role in employee selection and training. New union laws in the 1930s added, “Helping the employer deal with unions” to its list of duties. With new equal employment laws in the 1960s, employers began relying on HR for avoiding discrimination claims.

Today, employers face new challenges, such as squeezing more profits from operations. They expect their human resource managers to have what it takes to address these new challenges. 

Let’s look at 10 things today’s HR managers do to deal with these challenges.

What are the components of an effective compensation system?

Compensation is the reward employees receive in exchange for performing organizational tasks. Compensation is direct and indirect wages.

Direct compensation includes wages, salaries and bonuses or commission.

Indirect compensation is paid as medical benefits, housing allowance and such others that are what part of direct compensation.

Design of a compensation program is significant in Personnel Management because of its direct influence on employees’ behavior and performance in the company. The components of an effective compensation system is, if salaries and perquisites are:

• Adequate :In line with what is paid in similar companies in the same geographical area. Salaries and perquisites should be similar to what is paid in the other companies for the similar work e.g. people working in the night shifts and doing similar hours and in the same geographical area should be paid equally otherwise they will shift for better salary or facilities.

• Equitable: Salaries and perquisites should commensurate with the effort put in not be less than the work and the ability used by the individual for hard work. Salaries should be equal to the work put in.

• Balanced: The compensation includes a reasonable combination of direct and indirect benefits.

• Cost Effective: Salaries and perquisites should be such that the company can afford to pay or should not exceed the benefits the company gets from the employees. The benefits should not be more than what they get, then only company will be able to make more profit.