Human Resources Ideas

Your success in acquiring and managing human resources for your business may be the single biggest factor in whether your business thrives or fails. Human resources covers a broad range of practices but all of them relate to the processes, strategies and practices put in place to attract, hire and manage the people who make up your business.

What falls under human resources?

The major areas that fall under human resources are:

• Recruiting covers the business strategy for attracting talent and the hiring process itself.
• Compensation and benefits covers all staff remuneration issues, from salary negotiation to processing payroll.
• Training and personal development covers any practices designed to make employees more effective and valuable.
• Business/employee relations covers dispute resolution between you and employees and general employee relationship management.
• Discipline and terminations covers all corrective and punitive measures for employee misbehaviour and the process for ending their employment.

The larger the business, the more demanding and complicated the human resources practices will be. While a business owner with only one or two staff may be able to handle their own human resources, in large companies it usually has its own department.

What is the purpose of HR?

Human resources revolves around creating worthwhile business/employee relationships. This goes both ways - it ensures that employees are productive, profitable members of the business, and it ensures that the business treats all employees equally and fairly. Through the roles detailed above, human resources achieves a number of important business goals:

• Define the business purpose: part

Human resources and the law

There are many laws in place to protect both employees and employers. In Australia, these laws tend to favor the rights of the employee over the rights of the employer, so businesses must be careful to fulfill their obligations carefully. All new business founders have to ensure they understand the federal and state labor laws that govern wages, staff hours, overtime and record keeping.

The Australian Government provides resources for business owners, including best practice guides, here: http://www.australia.gov.au/information-and-services/jobs-and-workplace