What are Human Resources? Focus on human capital

Every company is built on a fulcrum: Human Resources. It is the employees, in fact, who take charge of 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 profit depends on it.

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

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

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What are Human Resources? Definition

Otherwise defined by the English expression Human Resources or, abbreviated, HR, Human Resources corresponds to all people who perform a job 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 are also the set of skills and know-how contributed by corporate staff members to the growth of the business.

Within every company, there is a special department dedicated to the management of corporate Human Resources.

Human Resources department in a company

The corporate human resources department plays a key role in today's companies.

In fact, for some years now there has been a gradual increase in anthropocentrism in production processes. That is, a certain human-centricity has taken hold in the sense of preserving the physical and mental well-being of each individual in the workplace. This has led to the need to focus more on protecting the wellbeing of the worker within the company. For this reason, a department specifically dedicated to corporate human resources management has been implemented.

For example, it is well known that successful, top-ranking and dynamic companies invest large sums of money to optimise the organisation and care of their personnel to the highest degree. Within the human resources department there are various offices, all of which are responsible for the organisation and training of employees.

Human resources: why are they important?

Human Resources is crucial for ensuring a good corporate climate. In fact, it is the only department in a company that is responsible for maintaining the well-being of employees.

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

It is an established fact that satisfied employees are able to make a greater contribution in terms of productivity and efficiency to any business. The degree of motivation and involvement of employees in the company's causes, in fact, is directly proportional to the degree of job satisfaction.

For this reason, management should focus:

→ On the selection of personnel, which must be carefully evaluated from a human as well as a 'technical' point of view (relational and job-specific skills);

→ On the care of the company team, i.e. both its accompaniment from a training point of view and the care taken to ensure a certain degree of well-being.

Human resources: advantages

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

What does an HR manager do to benefit the business?

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

• Improving employee skills;
• Improving employee engagement and dedication;
• Increase the quality of team performance;
• Enable the recruitment of new employees who are competent both humanly and professionally and who can properly integrate into the corporate environment;
• Ensure that communication within the company takes place on a constant and smooth basis;
• Manage the workforce by providing direction to its operations: ensure that employees operate within the framework of the corporate culture and the Employer's brand.

Employment in Human Resources

The corporate Human Resources departments are divided into different sections. Within them, there are various professional figures, each of whom deals with different segments of the personnel management process, such as, for example:

• Identification of profiles needed for vacant positions within the company;
• Job offer creation;
• Selection of suitable resumes for the open position;
• Evaluating candidates and conducting interviews;
• Managing the bureaucracy involved in hiring new staff;
• Development of compensation plan and payroll;
• Managing On-boarding processes;
• Organising training courses, professional development of employees or company activities;
• Relocation of staff to different departments;
• Employee assistance: Management of grievances and complaints, as well as disciplinary, maternity, holiday and absence measures;
• Management of all employee-related documents;
• Collection and analysis of team-related data in order to facilitate employee evaluation and monitoring of the company climate;
• Mediation between employees;
• Dismissals, etc.

Human Resources: the skills needed

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

• Organisational 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;
• Resistance to stress;
• Critical and reflective spirit with regard to oneself and one's surroundings;
• Empathic skills.

In general, it can be said that the skills particularly appreciated in a Human Resources management context are Soft Skills, i.e. all human skills, also called transversal competences, that have an impact on the management of interpersonal relations within a given social or work environment.

Soft skills correspond to all communication and interpersonal skills of a person. In concrete terms, they can be translated as social intelligence in a broad sense, i.e. social and communicative competence towards other people.

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

For example, a legal background may be desirable, if the position involves handling bureaucratic aspects related to recruitment, counselling, employer's rights and duties, etc. On the other hand, psychological training might also be appreciated, if one intends to apply for a job in personnel selection or training. Training in economics and management is also in demand.

In fact, there are many training courses that can pave the way for employment in Human Resources. For this reason, if you wish to find employment in this field, it is worth reading the job offer very carefully. It will explain what kind of hard skills are desired for the open position.

Human Resources is the real, if hidden, workhorse of a company. A well-coordinated company team and an efficient human resources 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 will it be able to ensure the best possible care of the company's personnel and thus be truly competitive.