Hr Roles and Responsibilities

Human resource management includes recruiting staff and management for employment. In today’s society human resource management plays an important part of management because it influences all employees of the company. The main goal of human resource management should be to attract and maintain employees. However, many companies are having a hard time accomplishing this goal because human resource management is changing. In this paper, I will describe the changing role of human resource management in response to trends in globalization, technology, diversity, e-business, and ethics.

Today companies are finding it necessary to expand internationally to gain competitive advantages (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhert, Wright, 2004). This forces companies to hire employees in the foreign countries where they operate. Over the past decade, globalization has forced companies and their human resources functions to redefine their strategies so that they can face global challenges (Nazneen, 2006, p.62). The challenge that human resource management faces in developing their strategies are maintaining a balance between global standards and local flexibility.

Next, technology has changed human resource management. Because technology is changing rapidly, companies must monitor their employees’ skills and the company needed skills. There are new technologies that human resource managers must deal with: internet/intranet, client/server, CD Rom (Frantzreb, 1998). This is part of the computer which is a major use of information for managing human resources. Employee information and procedures and polices is on the computer. According to an article, the latest trend in human resource technology is a model know as “software as a service”, in which companies access business applications over the internet ( Klaff, 2006, p.4). This new software is gaining speed in workforce management. This new software provides a low fixed cost for companies and allows companies a better plan for technology expenses. Finally, technology will continue to grow. Human resource managers must be knowledgeable about technology.

The concept of diversity is evolving. With the changing marketplace and increasingly diverse labor force, human resource managers are faced with factors regarding diversity management. Diversity once referred to minorities and women. Today diversity also refers to people with disabilities, gay, and lesbians (Lockwood, 2005). These different groups have different needs, and these needs must be met. Human resource managers must be trained to deal with their needs and demonstrate commitment to workplace diversity by developing solutions when problems arise. Next, human resource managers have to deal with women and minorities taking over the labor force. Companies must ensure that human resource management systems understand that women and minorities can handle their jobs with knowledge and experience.

E-business consists of using the internet to conduct business (Noe et al., 2004). Companies now are required to hire employees who are knowledgeable. Employees working in e-business are entering jobs that did not exist before. This causes problems to human resource planning. The internet is changing the way human resources conducts business. The human resources department and information systems department will have to form an alliance so that solutions to business problems can be implemented. For example, some solutions are directed toward administrative functions performed by the human resources departments such as payroll and benefits. Some companies believe that the change to e-business can be accommodated by changing their organizational design. They choose to create a “dot-com” that handles their business. The “dot-com” offers an exciting work environment and implements decisions quickly. Dot-com is also considered successful for human resource management.

Ethics is a set of standards for judging right from wrong. Human resources

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