Human Resources

Human Resources – An outline from The Australian Financial Review Case Studies with Business News
For most large organisations, the human resources function plays a crucial role in the overall performance of the business. The human resources department acts as a 'business partner' to other areas of the organisation and for this reason must be aligned with the business strategies of the organisation.

The objective of Human Resources is to maximize the return on investment from the organization's human capital and minimize financial risk. It is the responsibility of human resource managers to conduct these activities in an effective, legal, fair, and consistent manner. Human resource management serves these key functions:

Some of the key contributions the human resources function makes to the success of the organisation are:

Recruitment Strategy Planning
Hiring Processes
Selection
Training and Development - Human Resources involves training and developing employees to reach their maximum career potential. This also enables the company to benefit from its employees' improved skills and knowledge
Performance Evaluation and Management - Human Resources provides a strong performance-based reward system, e.g. compensation, bonuses and promotions, to ensure that employees are performing at their optimum and that they are adequately recognised for their efforts. Human Resources is often responsible for creating and managing the tools used by managers to measure employee capabilities
Promotions
Redundancy
Industrial and Employee Relations
Record keeping of all personal data.
Compensation, pensions, bonuses etc (Human Resources in liaison with Payroll
Confidential advice to internal 'customers' in relation to problems at work.
Career development
Providing systems and tools for managing human resources processes

The Human Resources Department plays a key role in driving people capability and is responsible for ensuring that this formula is followed throughout the organisation.

For companies that have franchise operations as part of their business model, it is important to have consistent human resources practices in both company operated and franchised businesses. For this reason, human resources practices between an organisation and its franchise partners are determined using organisational standards and consultation. In the consultation process franchise owners are encouraged to provide feedback on human resources and training practices.

A key responsibility of the human resources team is often to ensure that company values or principles are firmly entrenched within the organisational culture.

The Australian Financial Review Case Studies with Business News provides case studies on leading organisations’ human resources practices. These include:

Coates – ‘The Coates Way’
Yum! Restaurants – ‘Training and retaining great employees’

For more information, or to order a copy of the resource, please contact:

Australian Business Case Studies
168 Lomas Lane
Lovedale NSW 2325
Tel: 02 4991 5577
Email: info@afrbiz.com.au

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