What are Human Resources? Focus on human capital

Every company is built on the basis of one linchpin: Human Resources. It is the employees, in fact, who take charge of performing the tasks that will enable the employer to achieve its goals. For this reason, staff cannot be selected haphazardly, nor can they be mismanaged: the company's bottom line depends on it.

The management of workers must, therefore, be entrusted to professionals, who will take care of its recruitment, as well as its protection. But who are these professionals? The active personnel in this area are the managers of the Human Resources department.

Let's take a look together at what Human Resources are and what their basic functions are, why they are so important to a company, and what skills a candidate must possess in order to be considered relevant for employment in this area.

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What are Human Resources? Definition

Otherwise defined through the English expression Human Resources or, abbreviated, HR, Human Resources corresponds to the set of people who perform work within a company. Not only that, the term Human Resources also refers to an operational department within a company. At the same time, Human Resources is also the set of skills and know-how contributed by corporate staff members to the growth of the business.

Within each company there is a special department aimed at managing corporate Human Resources.

Human Resources Department in a company

The department dedicated to the management of Human Resources in a corporate environment plays a vital role in today's companies.

In fact, a gradual increase in anthropocentrism in production processes has been taking place for some years now. That is, a certain human-centeredness understood as the preservation of each individual's physical and mental well-being in the work environment has taken hold. This has resulted in the need to focus more on the protection of the worker's well-being within the enterprise. Therefore, a department specifically dedicated to corporate human resource management has been implemented.

For example, it is well known that successful, top-rated, and dynamic companies invest large sums so that the organization and care of personnel are optimized to the highest degree. Within the human resources department there are various offices, all of which are responsible for organizing and training employees.

Human resources: why are they important?

Human Resources is critical to ensuring a good business climate. In fact, it is the only department in an enterprise that is concerned with maintaining the well-being of workers.

But why is it important for employees to experience a good workplace environment?

It is a well-established fact that satisfied workers are able to make a greater contribution in terms of productivity and efficiency to any business. In fact, the degree to which employees are motivated and involved in the company's causes is directly proportional to the degree of fulfillment in the professional sphere.

For this reason, it is good for corporate management to focus:

→ On the selection of personnel, who must be carefully evaluated from both a human and a "technical" point of view (relational and profession-specific skills);

→ On the care of the corporate team, that is, both of its accompaniment from the training point of view and of the care to ensure a certain degree of well-being.

Human resources: benefits

Implementing a good HR management department can bring many benefits to the business.

What does an HR manager do to bring benefits to the business?

The responsibilities of HR that are useful to the business include, among others:

• Improve employee skills;
• Improve employee engagement and dedication;
• Increase the quality of team performance;
• Enable the hiring of new employees who are competent both humanly and professionally and who can properly integrate into the corporate environment;
• Ensure that internal communication within the company occurs on a consistent and smooth basis;
• Administer the work force by providing direction to its operations: ensure that employees operate within the framework of the company culture and Employer brand.

Employment in Human Resources.

The corporate offices in charge of Human Resources management are divided into different sections. Within them there are several professionals, each of whom is in charge of different segments of the HR management process, such as:

• Identification of profiles needed for vacant positions within the company;
• Job offer creation;
• Selection of suitable resumes to fill the open position;
• Evaluating candidates and conducting cognitive interviews;
• Managing the bureaucracy associated with hiring new staff;
• Compensation plan development and payroll;
• Management of On-boarding processes;
• Organization of training courses, professional development of workers or company activities;
• Relocation of staff to different departments;
• Employee assistance: handling grievances and complaints, as well as disciplinary, maternity, vacation , and absence measures;
• Management of all employee-related documents;
• Collection and analysis of team-related data in a way that facilitates employee evaluation and monitoring of the business climate;
• Mediation among employees;
• Dismissals, etc.

Human resources: the skills needed

As a very complex and diverse field, HR management in the corporate environment requires certain skills, such as:

• Organizational and planning skills;
• Strong human sensitivity;
• Ability to read social environments;
• Leadership competence;
• Creativity;
• Spirit of initiative;
• Enthusiasm and motivation;
• Communication skills;
• Decision Making;
• Strong propensity for Problem Solving;
• Stress Resistance;
• Critical and reflective spirit toward self and surrounding situations;
• Empathic skills.

In general, it can be said that the skills particularly valued in a Human Resources management context are Soft Skills, which are all human skills, also called soft skills, that have an impact on the management of interpersonal relationships within a given social or work environment.

Soft Skills correspond to all communication and interpersonal skills of a person. In concrete terms, they are translatable to social intelligence in the broadest sense, that is, social and communicative competence towards other people.

☝ If Soft Skills are a sine qua non of the HR person, equally central are Hard Skills. Hard Skills are the skills strictly inherent in a given profession. They can be defined as the technical skills and basic knowledge required to perform a given job.

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Human Resources: the training required

The field of Human Resources is very broad and varied. In fact, the skills required by Employers in this field are, as we have just seen, numerous and very diverse. For this reason, the Hard Skills required to perform the job may be completely different from each other.

For example, legal training may be desired if the position involves handling bureaucratic aspects related to hiring, counseling, employer rights and duties, etc. Instead, psychological training might also be appreciated, if one intends to apply for a job in personnel selection or training. In demand, then, are trainings in the fields of economics and management.

In fact, there are a great many educational paths that can open the way to employment in HR. For this reason, if you want to find employment in this area, it is worth reading the job offer very well. In it, in fact, it will be made explicit what kind of Hard Skills are desired for the open position.

Human Resources constitutes the real, if hidden, workhorse of a company. A well-coordinated corporate team and an efficient human resource management department are a competitive advantage for the company. For this reason, every company should strive to implement its own HR management department. Only in this way can it ensure the best possible care of the company's personnel and, as a result, get to be truly competitive.