What is human resources? Definition, functions and types

What is human resources
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Who chooses the qualified personnel to work in a company?

This decision is made by the human resources department, but what is human resources, what are they for and why is this department necessary?

The human resources department is something that cannot be missing in any company or business, no matter how small it is, but what is human resources?

It has a series of activities and tasks to perform that make it an essential position in any type of work.

What is human resources management?

Human resources, or its abbreviation HR, is one of the main departments of companies, which have the function of managing everything related to the personnel that enters, works and leaves the company.

When talking about human resources, many people think of the group of people in charge of the hiring, and firing of personnel in a company and although they are right, there are many functions that are not known of this department as talent management, onboarding, employee productivity measurement and employee relations.

So what is HR in a company?

It is the department belonging to the business administration sector, where the selection, recruitment, hiring, retention and dismissal of employees from different sectors of the company is performed.

It directly benefits administration of a company.

To work as an HR professional you probably have studied related careers such as psychology, business administration, sociology, labor relations, law, business management or economics.

Human Resources Functions

Despite being one of the main departments visited by potential candidates to work in a company, very few know the specific HR functions and what is the role of human resources department has in a company.

HR can help in different aspects of a company or organizations.

To better understand the functions of human resources, we will list the activities that the department performs and examples of human resources:

These activities belong to differentiated work teams within the HR responsibilities, so it is important to know the types of human resources that are present in the management of a company.

HR managers are implementing the best human resources software for small businesses like Oyster HR or Freshteam to improve their processes.

Types of Human Resources Departments

For this purpose, we will list examples of human resources deparments.

Health and safety human resources: Personnel trained to enforce occupational safety and prevention standards.

Training and development human resources: This department responsible for managing the company’s personnel with all the courses, evaluations and training programs.

Human resources of personnel recruitment: In this management, the analysis of available vacancies in the company, the possible candidates and the correct entry of personnel to the company is carried out.

Risk management human resources: In this case, trained personnel from the human resources department are in charge of locating possible problems in the company and providing solutions.

Human resources of labor relations: A correct management among employees and a good performance is managed and observed by the staff of this department.

In this way, we realize that the HR department in a company has many more functions than selection and recruitment of personnel, even more so when the company is large and has a broad management of personnel.

If you are still wondering what is human resources? Keep reading the section below to better understand why it is necessary to have an HR department in a company.

Why is the HR department necessary?

The importance of human resources is based on the number of functions it performs as a department in a company.

It is one of the sectors with greater management within an institution and they are usually in charge of solving general problems of the company.

Why is the human resources department necessary?

HR managers are needed for the correct management and administration of a large group of people within an organization or a company through standardized guidelines and fair regulations.

Without the human resources department, most of the companies would be managed under a great chaos, since they would not know the problems that afflict the different departments, the problems between the personnel could not be solved and the administrative management would have many failures.

What is sought with the human resources department, is to maintain order, proper management, obtaining trained personnel and avoid wasting time with people without knowledge or values to relate to different people.

Normally, the human resources department is integrated by professionals in human resources or organizational psychologists, who are experts in personnel selection through job interviews and psychological tests for the knowledge of the work personality.

In conclusion, what is human resources? Professionals trained to select and train another group of professionals. It sounds very simple, but it is one of the most indispensable departments in companies.

Although nowadays, a series of specialized software and programs are used in the selection of trained personnel for certain vacancies in companies, a person’s criteria and intuition can be the key to accept the right person or better handle a personnel problem.

A company, no matter how small it is, is constituted to a great extent by the human capital or personnel working in it, that is why it is necessary to have a group of people who know the importance of making the company grow and that the quality of work and management must be maintained over time.

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