Author: Becky Leighton

Digital transformation is crucial in the ability to stay relevant in any industry. As technology moves the world forward, it’s important for businesses to move with it otherwise it risks losing out on opportunities, broader audiences, and successful marketing and sales.

At the root of it, digital transformation is the integration of new technology into systems and strategies in a business. This results in more efficiency and a better system overall within the company. With digital transformation driving systems forward in an organisation, customer support and value offering improves too, which helps advance the business in both the ability to market itself and offer the best products successfully.

Is digital transformation important?

The short answer – yes absolutely!

The longer answer – it’s crucial for a company, especially if involved in the online space or in any tech industry, to adopt and implement digital strategies into its operations to stay as efficient as possible and offer customers the best at the end of the day. Here’s why digital transformation is important: 

Offering on-demand and fulfilling instant expectations

Customer service is – and should be treated as – the backbone of the success of a customer-related business. Building a loyal customer base relies on offering them the best and treating them as valuable individuals rather than a price tag. 

Integrating digital solutions to improve customer relations through streamlined systems is one way to promote positive customer service. 

In this case, working with the information technology and dev departments is essential and improving and scaling systems sustainably is important to develop the right processes which can last and evolve as the business grows.

Efficiency and employee operations

Digital transformation in the form of tools and systems can make a remarkable difference in offering easier systems for employees to work with. 

Better software can mean more room for productvitity – but only when implemented correctly. Small transitions with training and active communication are crucial for any digital transformation to be successful. The right digital tools can help administer convenience across all departments from finance to HR, project management to operations.

Data and customer security

Security is one of the consumer’s biggest points of concern when shopping or engaging online. If a company can offer a strong sense of security in their systems, focusing on updating their strategies and maintaining protocols and processes, there will likely be more loyalty and customer retainment. 

This is where digital transformation takes a step towards smart technology, with tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. As this technology is becoming more and more widely accessible, companies would benefit from exploring and considering rolling out the tech in a smooth, secure way to capture security as a focus point.

Easier communication and strong business partnership

Starting internally, a company’s communication systems can be enhanced incredibly by making use of digital software. With tools that are able to adapt to the company’s culture and scale as the business grows, it can save a lot of time and effort having the right lines in place for employees and management to communicate clearly across their teams.

From there, communication and partnership growth can be improved through digital software. This leaves more time to actively seek new avenues in the business. For example, a retail-focused company could partner with a tech business to offer a new product.

Digital transformation in your business

Taking the right approach to digital transformation is crucial in a successful implementation. Taking a digital program to explore the practical and theoretical strategies to lead your business to a more digital platform puts you in good stead to ensure systems run smoothly and the digital disruption doesn’t cause chaos. 

Digital transformation is more than just “digitising” operations in a business. It requires talent, coordination, cooperation and a team dedicated to driving change. But not just any change – a shift in the company in a way that the future of the organisation sees real long-term benefits.

The digital transformation in a company happens across all different departments but it occurs in four different domains or elements within each department. The right strategy takes each domain and makes small, powerful changes to align the different domains and the changes happening.

The four domains in digital transformation are:

Technology

Understanding technology and the immense benefits it can bring takes insight and knowledge. Aspects of new tech, such as the Internet of Things, blockchain, and AI, are still complex to many and the implementation of it requires careful consideration. 

However, when technology is adapted correctly into a business, it can contribute significant transformational opportunities which can lead to better systems, smoother operations and a better allocation of human resources. 

For technology to help drive digital transformation, it’s important for the relevant department – such as the IT team – to have the time and resources to work on helping implement the right tools. If the IT department is tasked with making sure urgent operations to keep systems running and don’t break, digital transformation will be a long arduous process. However, if they’re awarded the time to work on improving operations through new tech, the future of the company will enjoy the longer-term benefits.

Data

Possibly unsurprisingly – most companies today aren’t able to say with confidence that their data standards are up to scratch. This is mainly because of a lack of priorities in the field. With basic quality, security and analytics, data maintenance can be a breeze. Digital transformation in this domain requires placing individuals into the proper roles with carefully considered responsibilities. 

With focus, the digital transformation of data can become qualitative and reduce the resources needed to work through it. It means ensuring that there’s a team with a combination of both broad and deep knowledge in the field to set up the right practices that the whole company can work with.

Process

All transformation, whether digital or others, requires a shift in thinking and practices. It means looking at what you want to achieve and working back to how that can happen as seamlessly as possible. If an overhaul is necessary, it might be worthwhile dismantling systems to rebuild them to go forward with the objectives in mind.

Setting up the right processes means looking at how all systems work together and fitting in a shift aligned with the end-goal.

Organisational change

Digital transformation – a successful one at least – requires the buy-in from the individuals in the organisation. People don’t often like change – especially if they don’t understand it. So careful navigation of this is crucial. 

Organisation change in digital transformation means looking at the culture of the company and how a digital transformation might affect this or how it might need to shift. This domain requires strong leadership skills, excellent communication, and a quality change management strategy. 

Setting up the systems and developing the skillset

To have the best digital transformation or chances at setting up changes in your company, give yourself the best chance. Through research, online learning about digital transformation, and investigation of how best to implement change, you are more likely to see success!

Without the employees, an organisation wouldn’t be able to operate. A staff force is necessary to handle product development, content creation, service management, customer support, marketing, finance, administration, logistics and anything you might be able to name. Because of how important the employees are in an organisation, the team behind looking after the employees is just as crucial to get right. Having the right Human Resources and HR management can help bring out the best in a team and scale and grow an organisation effectively.

HR management has different areas to operate within and work in to ensure the right staff is hired, the current staff members are looked after, supported, and the wrong behaviour is appropriately responded to. 

The five main areas of HR management are:

Hiring, recruitment and onboarding

This is arguably the most important area in Human Resource Management. Hiring the right staff to fit the company beyond just the job description is crucial for company culture and the overall wellbeing of the team’s atmosphere. With a good team working well together, systems tend to run more smoothly, productivity lives at peak performance and people operate beyond their duties. To recruit effectively and ensure the right candidates are hired, the HR team must:

• Understand the company culture and values of the organisation;
• Align the job specifications with the needs of the department;
• Advertise job openings and schedule interviews with suitable candidates;
• Perform background checks and reviews for the selected candidates;
• Send letters of confirmation to selected candidates and issue rejection letter to unsuccessful applications;
• Ensure the onboarding process is conducted with the relevant departments for the role. This leads to necessary paperwork, training and induction to the company.

Training and development

The Human Resource Management department is responsible for overseeing that training and development takes place to induct a new hire to the team successfully. These programmes are designed to help the new employee understand the company better and identify where their skills might be put to best use while learning new skills to perform better overall. 

Once training has been completed for the employee, the work of the HR team is not yet complete in this area. It’s important to gather feedback from the new staff member regarding the training and development programme. In this way, it’s easier to identify what aspects of the training work well and where improvements can be made.

Compliance management

Compliance and regulation management is one of the key areas of responsibility that an HR manager must undertake. This helps ensure that the organisation doesn’t face any penalties as a result of failed regulation and audits. The HR department must maintain their knowledge of current laws and changes in regulation, such as wage law, employee benefits law, anti-discrimination and harassment laws. 

Staying updated in this area means the HR processes will remain legal and any compliance audits will go smoothly.

Employee satisfaction

If a staff team finds satisfaction in their work and in the team, there’s much more room for good, productive work culture. This means making sure the culture is healthy as well as looking for opportunities for the employee to grow and develop new skills. 

The employee experience in a workplace is crucial to get right as it can help staff retention and it keeps a positive work environment which leads to open communication and a culture of trust and transparency.

Sustainable and actionable workforce planning

It falls to the HR department to ensure that any goals and objectives of the organisation are consistent. This allows the company to look towards the future and meet any needs that might arise as well as devising strategic approaches to strengthen any areas in the staff dynamic and develop processes that build strong team units. This also helps employee retention and leads to organisation growth.

Developing strong HR management practices

If you’re looking to improve your HR management, consider how to work actionable steps into the above areas within your organisation. Taking a short course in Human Resource Management is also an excellent way to develop and hone your HR skills and build a strong culture in your company!

When it comes to project management, the ideal is when systems are streamlined and operations are efficient. Sometimes, though, spanners throw themselves in the works and problems need solving. Having a sound risk management strategy in place helps mitigate problems from causing tremendous damage to the operations and can help maintain smooth systems running.

What is risk management?

In a nutshell, risk management is the process of making decisions that will reduce any adverse effects that risk might cause on a company. 

There are different ways to define risks, but essentially it is anything that might disrupt the efficiency or well-being of the company or employees. A risk required addressing and the method of resolving it depends on the risk itself. For example, some risk management strategies involve accepting the risk and looking for ways to exploit the possible effects, while others look to reduce and avoid the risk entirely from having any effect on the organisation. 

Read more: What are the risk management strategies?

By offering the right attention to protecting a company from risk, the company can prevent the loss or harm from risk. This can be financial, human resource-related or operational. The best outcome is where risk is diminished and business can continue either as normal or, where possible, in a better capacity than before.

What is a risk in business?

At the basics, a risk presents an opportunity for either a loss or gain. When it comes to a loss, we generally refer to the risk as “exposures”. Defective products, unacceptable service, fires, a lack of health and wellbeing in the employees are all exposures. These result in some form of loss to the business operations which requires resolving. A risk that might be a gain is seen as an opportunity. Some financial risks could result in a gain that leaves the organisation in a better space than before. While financial risks might lead to gain, it’s also important to recognise that they might yield a loss if things don’t go according to plan. 

What is risk management when it comes to project management?

Risk management specifically in project management refers to the process used by project managers and traffic coordinators to mitigate potential problems that could affect the project’s operations. This means pre-planning, problem-solving and considering any adversities that could impact a project’s schedule and success ahead of time. Risks and issues are different and require a different sort of attention. Issues are bound to happen and the problems associated require planning to reduce the impact. Risks, however, are events that might occur and require planning against the odds instead of against the issue. 

The project manager and the risk manager need to work closely together to reduce the risks that might occur in a project’s life cycle and limit any damage that could be caused. 

Why is risk management important?

Without risk management, a company has no support or protection against the possibility of a negative impact from a risk. Risk management is crucial to safeguard against any events which can disrupt operations. The main aim is to make sure the company stays running successfully and risk management is in place to ensure this happens as much as possible.

Risk management is crucial in managing business operations, making sure that things are in place to deal with anything that might halt or hinder streamlined systems. Putting the right risk management strategies in place is beneficial not only to mitigate risk in general but also to add a layer of protection to a business. Risk can be treated as something which could threaten both business operations as well as the ultimate success of the company. 

Four risk management strategies to implement in your operations in your business include:

Risk management strategy

1. Avoidance

To avoid risk, things need to be prepared as such. Risk avoidance in risk management means putting safe-guards in place to ensure that something goes wrong, there is something that can mitigate the damage and minimise any harm caused. This can be for business operations, financial health, the well-being of employees and a number of aspects in a business.

For example, having a fire-safety plan is contingency against the harm of staff members if there’s a fire. Contingency planning requires foreplanning and full, comprehensive thought into how things might go wrong and how to draw up a solution for the possible negative scenarios. 

This means considering all the information at hand, and researching possible outcomes if something happens. From there, analysing the information and coming to a point of solution is crucial. It’s also important to have active communication around the risk and the solution across the relevant parties.

2. Acceptance

There are risks which are not worthwhile looking for solutions or changing operations to try and avoid or mitigate. Risks which require acceptance are generally more inconvenient than significantly damaging to the company. 

The choice to accept risk is a decision that should only be made after analysing all the possible information. From there, it’s important to conclude that the risk is not worth trying to avoid.

Once accepting that risk is not worth resolving, it’s important to consider any contingency plans against the possible fallout of accepting. Plans to deal with the result if the risk becomes a negative scenario should also be considered.

3. Mitigating the risk

Risk mitigation is the process or reducing the risk if a scenario turns negative. It goes hand-in-hand with risk acceptance. This is because it is often linked to trying to minimise the outcome of an unfavourable situation.

Risk mitigation should occur in conjunction with precautionary strategies and risk preparation. This is because it is so closely linked to the possible negative outcome. For example, having contingency plans as part of staff training is a part of risk mitigation. It not only trains staff how to react in a scenario but also positively enforces that there is a plan if the “worst case scenario” occurs. This also helps offer peace of mind to the workforce.

Risk mitigation is different from risk avoidance because the process is not trying to eradicate the risk entirely. Rather it’s the approach of reducing the impact the risk might have.

4. Risk exploitation

Risk in most cases is worth trying to reduce. There are some scenarios, however, where risk might come with the possibility of positive opportunity. Looking for ways to exploit risk and explore opportunities to reward from risk can be a fantastic way to deal with risk, but if things might not go in the way hoped, it can be difficult to circumnavigate the negative consequences.

Risk exploitation is most common in financial strategies and can yield profitable scenarios if things go according to plan.

A business manager exists in a company to oversee and supervise the operations and employees. Looking at a business management salary requires looking at the position and the experience of the manager first. But before that, we will consider the function and duties entailed in the role.

What does a business manager do?

The main role, from a broad standpoint, is to ensure things systems are not only working as they should, but also that they are streamlined and running as smoothly as possible. The more efficient operations are in a business, the more the task force and the management team has the time to focus on building and working on new products and projects. 

The main role of the business manager is to manage individuals in the company and lead them to perform in their roles with the best resources available.

The responsibilities of a business manager

While the business manager wears many hats, the overall responsibility is over the management of the business. This doesn’t mean owning the business, necessarily, but it takes a great number of responsibilities into account. To ensure the business is set up for the best chance of success, the business manager should:

• Establish and look for new opportunities to grow in both the current market and possibly other markets while maintaining the focus on the best-performing products and services.
• Consider and constantly evaluate and check-in with whether systems are aligned with the company’s goals and objectives.
• Hire, recruit and develop new employees.
• Train and upskill current employees for both their benefit and for that of the company.
• Perform regular evaluations of the systems in place to identify any problems which need resolving or to pinpoint where there might be areas of improvement needing to happen.
• Craft and put business strategies into place to meet the needs of the employees designed to achieve the goals the company has set out.
• Develop and stick to a reasonable and comprehensive budget while ensuring or delegating regular budget analysis and resource evaluation.

How much do small business managers make?

Business management salary and how much a business and operations manager might make depends on several things. The average salary depends on the role and position, the industry and the experience of the manager.  

On average, however, the salary of a business owner or operations manager according to PayScale is R430,000 per year. This, at a base average salary, is around R36,000 per month before tax.

At the following levels you might expect the following:

Junior level business management: R201,000 per year//R16,750 per month

Early career in business management: R356,000 per year//R29,660 per month

Mid-level business management: R443,000 per year//R36,900 per month

Experienced and senior-level business management: R558,000 per year//R46,500 per month

To get to a senior level takes years of work and effort and upskilling in your career. Taking short courses in business management is one way to rapidly increase your skills and get the opportunities to gain more knowledge in your field. If you want to progress in your career and earn professional promotions, taking advantage of opportunities to learn is an excellent way to put your career in good stead.

Is business management a good career?

As a broad position, having a business management career can set you up for work in any field and industry depending on your experience. If managing individuals and exploring ways to improve systems and find efficient ways of managing operations, then a business management career is perfect for you. From a financial perspective, earning a business management salary can be extremely lucrative depending on your industry, your experience and your expertise.

Human Resource Management (also referred to as HRM) is the operation of all things related to the management of the employees of a company. This includes recruiting for a company, selecting and introducing employees, providing training, development, evaluating the performance of employees, agreeing on and arranging compensation, offering what benefits are reasonable, motivating for employees, ensuring that the relationship between employees and trade unions are healthy and ensuring that all things related to the employees within the company are within legal compliance.

What is HRM?

Human Resource Management also involves the management of the human resources related to internal and important interdepartmental functions such as:

• The procurement, development, and wellbeing of all human resources within the company.
• Helping to achieve and encourage reaching individual and social objectives within the company to achieve organisational goals.
• Establishing and maintaining strong team spirit, teamwork and a healthy company culture.
• The ongoing process of ensuring individuals are healthy and thriving in the company.
• Communicating concerns tactfully and professionally about or for employees.
• Acting as a bridge between employees and management should there be an issue that might need a resolution. 

One full-time professional Human Resource Manager or staff member is required once a company’s staff force hits a certain number (which varies from country to country). In South Africa, one full-time HR manager is needed for 50 employees in a company.

The purpose of Human Resource Management 

The main purpose of the HRM is to make sure the employees in the company are able to do their tasks in the most healthy, efficient manner possible. This means ensuring that the culture is fruitful for effective work. It also means making sure that the right person is in the right position to perform ideal work and gain a sense of belonging with the company. This takes “function” and “fit” into consideration when recruiting. Making sure the team works well together isn’t only about the work. The HR manager should work hand-in-hand with department management to make sure all human resource-related systems are running as smoothly as possible.

The ten “Cs” of Human Resource Management

Putting the main purposes and functions of Human Resource Management into the “10 Cs of HRM” would leave us with:

• Cost effectiveness, 
• Competitive, 
• Coherence, 
• Credibility, 
• Communication, 
• Creativity, 
• Competitive advantage, 
• Competence, 
• Change, and 
• Commitment. 

These, developed by HR management expert Alan Price, all work together to form a strong framework for human resource management.

What does a Human Resource manager do?

While the idea of an HR manager might be the person who has to deal with the uncomfortable aspects of looking after people in a company (such as HR violations and disciplinary warnings), the main purpose of the HRM is to support employees. 

The main tasks and duties an HRM will undertake include:

1. Recruiting candidates

Recruitment lies in the hands of the human resource department, but ideally the process should go with the manager of the hiring department. This process includes understanding the needs of the organisation, the position that needs to be filled, analysing the market, conducting consultations with relevant stakeholders, considering budget and advertising in the right space to the right audience.

Once the position has been advertised, more research needs to be undertaken regarding the prospective candidates. Ensuring that the right candidates go through the next round is crucial. This means considering the requirements and previous work experience and going through the references to see whether the candidate might be the right fit.

2. Hire the right employees

Once the recruitment process begins, the follow-up hiring process follows. This means arranging interviews, coordinating with management and stakeholders, negotiating budget and finally onboarding and training new employees. The hiring process includes all paperwork necessary for the legal contract involved in hiring a new employee to protect both the company and the employee in the future.

3. Processing the payroll

Payroll and expenses are a world of their own. Working hand-in-hand with the finance manager, the human manager undertakes the payroll process. This includes calculating taxes, overtime, hours, employee expenses that might need reimbursing and raises or bonuses should they be necessary to process. 

4. Conduct any disciplinary actions

This is where the uncomfortable nature of Human Resource Management comes into play. If there is a necessary disciplinary action that needs to take place, it needs to be navigated appropriately to avoid the potential loss of valuable employees or undue legal action against the company. If handled well, disciplinary action can lead to an overall healthier and stronger task force and possibly improved well-being of the individuals in a team. 

5. Updating necessary policies

Regulations and policies need to be evaluated consistently, especially as the organisation grows or changes. Maintaining and updating the policies to ensure they are relevant to the company are within legal requirements is crucial to avoid ramifications unnecessarily. Some policies might need updating as a reaction to an event or occurrence and  the HR manager should ensure this happens.

6. Maintaining effective employee records

Keeping accurate up-to-date records for HR is not only important, but it’s legally required. These records help employers and recruiters consider and identify any gaps in skills or experience to make the hiring process run smoothly. Updated and accurate records also help analyse any data to comply with regulations related to demographics or similar. Moreover, if there is an emergency, having the accurate information for employees is critical.

7. Analysing and offering attractive benefits

A company that is recruiting needs to ensure they are offering competitive benefits to attract the best candidates. Accepting less pay for better benefits might be what it takes to encourage a candidate to work for a company instead of another. HRM should conduct investigation often to explore what possible benefits they can add aligned with the company’s vision. From there, they should explore what the options might cost the potential employee in terms of pay and resource accordingly.

What  does Human Resource do to support employees?

Human Resource exists to offer support to the employees of a company. Protecting their well-being is a crucial component in the career. The following are four ways HR can help support the needs of the company’s employees:

1. Encouraging career growth

If an employee sees an opportunity to grow in a company, they’re more likely going to stay and develop their career path at the company. Keeping an employee in a company and allowing them to grow with the company is not only better for business and avoids unnecessary expensive training of new staff, but it also promotes good work ethics in the company. If a person sees the possibility of a promotion, they’re encouraged to work harder and invest time and energy to see growth in the company. Human Resource is there to help support employees realise the potential and guide their long-term future in the company.

2. Encouraging continuous training

Career growth and upskilling requires additional training sometimes. If there’s the potential to up skill by receiving additional education or taking online short courses, it might be worthwhile seeing if the organisation can foot the bill. Here’s where HR can step in to help pitch to the shareholders or management that additional training is ultimately beneficial to both the employees and the company. 

3. Working with management and supporting employee-related decision 

Human Resource can help management learn as well as helping develop employees. With training and support, HR can help provide the right resources and guidance to upskill management in their processes and protocols. This helps ensure that teams and departments are running as smoothly and as healthily as possible. This could involve formal training and management retreats, active resources and weekly sessions.

4. Promoting and supporting all-round wellbeing

Employees face different situations both inside and outside the office. It’s important to recognise the need for not only professional wellbeing, but all round health of an employee. The HR should identify ways to support employees through circumstances which might need assistance. This could be health issues, pregnancies, adoption, familial crises or a number of other life events which might need encouragement.

The functions of Human Resource Management

The main functions of an HR manager include:

1. Talent hiring and recruitment
2. Onboarding and hiring processes
3. Training and development management
4. Performance appraisal and evaluation
5. Workforce engagement and employee interaction
6. Payroll and compliance management
7. Regulation management

Other managerial functions of the HRM include:

• Planning
• Organising
• Directing
• Controlling

The types of Human Resource Development 

HRM Development is a framework designed to help employees enjoy the development of the skills and abilities which leads to the efficiency and effectiveness of a company’s output.

Human resource development, or HRD, includes a variety of different functions and activities, such as:

• Performance management, evaluation of employees work, and development and training to increase skills from the review.
• Employee coaching and training.
• Mentoring and frequent check-ins.
• Succession and progressive planning.
• Tuition assistance and learning further.

Organisations have the opportunity for human resource development, both internally and externally. HRD can also be considered a formal or an informal process and it initiates as soon as any new employees are onboarded. For example, 

Informal learning approaches to Human Resource Development include:

• Coaching for and by the management team.
• Informal mentorship from more experienced employees to junior staff.
• Collaboration of the HR team with more highly experienced and trained colleagues.

Formal learning approaches to Human Resource Development include:

• Formal traditional online or in-classroom training.
• College courses and online degrees.
• Planned and meditative organisational change and practices.
• Internal training courtesy of staff members or provided by paid consultants or facilitators.

Think about it like this: If an employee is hired and receives formal training from the staff as part of the introduction process, they grow in their skillset which is then implemented in the work provided to the company. From there, the company maintains training and more opportunities for formal education in the field arise. The company pays for further training and the employee not only learns more to practically implement in the company, but they can also teach new or younger staff members the knowledge and training gained from the formal education. The more they learn, the more opportunities they discover to learn more and the advanced knowledge dives deeper into the company.

This is an accurate description of how more and uniquely tailored learning can positively impact an individual and the company. It’s also a fantastic demonstration in how the Human Resource team can be effective in making that upskilling happen.

What is the main purpose of Human Resource Development?

The key reason behind putting an HRD framework in place is to ultimately improve all knowledge and skills of the employees in a company. This step begins in the hiring of new employees and continues as the employee remains learning within the company. 

The key takeaway from an HRD is that an employee usually enters an organisation with only basic levels of skills – especially when at a junior level – and the training to perform their tasks effectively rely on training and development. When a new employee enters a company at a mid or senior level, the training and knowledge gaining is still essential to progress in the company as well as to align with the company culture and industry gain. 

Therefore, the main purpose of HRD is to train employees further and ensure that their effectiveness in the company is continually growing. It can be seen as similar to coaching as a sport’s team would be. The more information and training gained by each team member, the better the team will perform overall. If the whole team is receiving the ideal training for their positions, the more smoothly systems will be able to run and the more success the company will be able to see.

At the end of the day, the Human Resources Development framework has one goal: To employee and develop better, stronger employees.

Strategic Human Resources Management

Strategic Human Resource Management refers to the manner in which the Human Resources team coordinates with the consistent and overall business goals with the end intention of improving business opportunities. This means a focused effort on making distinction between the company and the competition.

The strategic Human Resource Management highlights how important it is for the individuals within the company to excel for the company itself to excel. Businesses which tend to place an emphasis on the strategic Human Resource Management tend to see more alignment across the company from the HR team to the employees and across management and shareholders.

The main struggle with strategic Human Resource Management is that it is simple in theory but often difficult to execute practically. With budget, resources and other roadblocks that tend to get in the way, creating and sticking to strategic HRM can be difficult to maintain. However, it’s important to consider the overall aim and potential of HRM and how the development can lead to overall improvement in the organisation.

Types of Human Resource Management

The most common types of Human Resource Management positions are:

1. Human Resources assistant

The assistant to the Human Resources director is crucial in helping streamline processes, making sure things run smoothly and ensuring things don’t slip through the cracks. The main duties of an HR assistance includes administrative tasks, aiding in filling out documentation related to absentees, terminations, evaluation and performance reviews, grievances and all relevant information pertinent to the employee and work force. The HR assistant might also aid in the recruitment and hiring process with tasks such as writing descriptions for jobs, coordinating with references and liaising with possible candidates.

2. Human resources coordinator

The Human Resource coordinator is important to help facilitate HR programs and functions. Similar to the HR assistant, the coordinator works with and under the direction of the HR director. The tasks the HR coordinator is involved with include ensuring all schedules and training plans are coordinated and that development programmes for the employees are set up. Coordinators in the HR department also help in researching trends and practices in the industry to make sure that all policies, protocols and processes are up to date from both a legal and an efficiency standpoint.

3. Human resources specialist

Similar to the job or employment specialist, the HR specialist is involved in the recruitment and hiring process. However, the difference between the two is that the HR specialist is usually employed in-house for a private company or agency whereas the employment specialist is usually an outsourced resource. The specialist is involved in the process of screening, interviewing and placing new employees into the opportunity which will work best for them and the company.

4. Employment specialist

Employment specialists or job placement specialists generally dedicate their time to the hiring process in a Human Resource department. As specialists in this process, they have thorough knowledge about aspects such as job descriptions, hiring requirements, salaries, competitive benefits and overall matching people to the position. Recruitment is the forte of an employment specialist and they often venture to job fairs and professional organisations to find the perfect candidate for a company. 

5. Full-time recruiter

Dedicated recruiters in the HR field tend to work either in-house for corporations where there is often a need to hire new employees or for recruitment agencies who work on behalf of the hiring company. As a recruiter, the role is specialised in sourcing the very best candidate to fit the role, the company culture and the industry as a whole. A recruiter often spends most of their time posting the relevant job descriptions, reviewing candidates, verifying whether the candidate is a fit and contacting possible hires to meet management or the HR team for interviews. The recruiter is also often involved in salary and benefit negotiations.

6. Recruitment manager

Similar to the full-time recruiter, the recruitment manager is involved mainly in the recruitment and hiring process for a company. This involved more extensive work in sourcing, interviewing and initial training of a candidate. The recruitment manager can also research and implement software or data metric to make the process of hiring the right candidate as smooth and simple as possible. Having a clear understanding of regulations and legal issues involved in hiring is another necessity for a recruitment manager.

7. Human resources generalist

The Human Resource generalist is like the jack-of-all-HR. The generalist is involved in administrative tasks that ensure the HR department continues to operate like a well-oiled machine. Their tasks include managing daily operations, overseeing departmental policies, considering all programmes and protocols in place and designing opportunities to train employees. They are also involved in making sure the company is compliant with regulations and organisational development to ensure the safety and welfare of employees.

8. Employee relations manager

The employee relations manager is important in the company to ensure that the workplace has a harmonious and consistent positive culture. The employee manager is tasked with addressing negative behaviour that might need intervention – handled in a legal and compliant manner – as well as increasing a positive atmosphere in the company.  The employee manager should boast excellent communication skills in order to deal with any negative situations that might arise with the utmost tact.

9. Director of employee relations

The directors of employee relations management is also referred to as the director of employee experience. Someone in this position is highly skilled in building business strategies centred on employee wellbeing and problem solving any HR dilemmas that might arise. These directors work hand-in-hand with executives to build programmes and exercises to harness the best culture for the team and improve and enhance employee satisfaction.

10. Labour relations specialist

The labour relations specialists are the legal gurus of the HR department. This role involved dealing with labour laws and liaising with trade unions. They are experienced in dealing with economics, wage analyses, and bargaining data and collate information across legal issues relevant to the company. With information at hand, the labour relations specialist also advises other HR staff and management on best practice and programmes for the company. 

11. Human Resources manager

The HR manager is the person who heads up the entire HR department. This position is most prevalent in larger companies where a team of HR personnel is needed. The HR manager is tasked with ensuring that the team members in the Human Resource department are working efficiently and have all the resources they need to carry out their own tasks. The HR manager liaises with other management across departments and often handles more sensitive issues and exit interviews. 

12. Director of Human Resources

The HR director is highly experienced in managing HR departments and working with Human Resources. The main objective of an HR director is to supervise the company’s HR department from top to bottom including all budgeting resources and personnel assets. With years of experience, the HR director reports to the CEO and works with other directors in the company. Another key goal of the HR director is to ensure that the company is building its employees to tap into peak profitability through important training and employee development.