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Whether you’re considering outsourcing your human resource management tasks or strengthening your in-house HR department, you need to understand exactly why human resource management is important. The human resource department is no longer the traditional “fire and hire” arm of an organization; today, it’s a central, indispensable part of any company that strongly influences the direction of the business. In this article, you’ll learn the main reasons why the human resource is the lifeblood of any type of business. Let’s begin!
It provides training and development services
Most employees hired by a company require training at one time or another, including those who are highly skilled. All employees need to receive procedures and policies of the company firmly as part of the on-boarding process. That helps everyone in the company remain on the same wavelength and avoid costly mistakes. Besides handling this process, the human resource department also manages ongoing employee development to keep the skills of the employees updated. Ongoing employee development is critical, as it helps the employees remain competent enough to keep bringing original and relevant ideas to the company.
They build and maintain the corporate image
As you know, having a positive corporate image can help you retain your customers and employees, and attract investors. Corporate image is a huge comfort factor for employees and customers, as it assures them that they’re working with the best. For years, private companies have been hiring professional human resource management services to boost their image. For instance, today, if a private foundation realizes that its image is not good enough, it would naturally consider outsourcing to human resources for private foundations prior to seeking out new investors. The human resources department works to protect the image, interest and success of the organization, and one of the ways it achieves that is by ensuring the employees are maintaining and promoting the company values.
It maintains the company’s organizational culture
Every company has a set of values, rules, beliefs, tradition and a vision that it has built over the years, which amount to its organizational culture. This culture is important, as it sets the expectations for how everyone in the organization should behave and work as a team. The human resource management department usually plays a critical role in influencing and maintaining the organizational culture within a business. It does so by establishing procedures, guidelines and specific standards that assist the employees understand and keep in mind the character and behavior that the organization requires.
It keeps the business on the right side of the law
A professional human resource management team always ensures that the organization is complying with the state and federal laws, such as employment laws. For instance, they make sure that the paperwork required to show that the organization’s employees are eligible to work in the country is completed. Moreover, they monitor the company’s processes to ensure they’re in compliance with the applicable laws for companies, such as those that receive government contracts. In this case, it means that if your company has a state or federal government contract, your human resource department will ensure nothing undermines the partnership by maintaining applicant flow logs, disparate impact analyses and written affirmative action plans.
It maintains proper safety and health
According to Forbes, in the U.S., the average cost of injury is $38,000 for the medical and legal fees only. Maintaining the right standards of health and safety in the workplace can help your business prevent unnecessary costs, low productivity and costly employee churn. Human resource management helps in keeping the workplace safe and healthy, and it does so by establishing sound procedures and policies.
What’s more, the human resource management department is tasked with ensuring that employees stay safe by keeping them aware of the risks involved in carrying out certain activities. For instance, if a business is involved in moving heavy equipment, the human resource department has to communicate to all the employees through posters and signs how to stay safe when they enter these high-risk areas, and the steps to take in case of an emergency.
Conclusion
As you can see, it’s important for any business to have a firm human resource management team. If you own a business, you need to make sure you invest enough in the HR department to keep your business strong and moving in the right direction.