The World of People Finding

The World of people finding

The primary function of human resource management is to increase the effectiveness and contribution of employees in the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. An organization's success increasingly depends on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of its employees. Without out them they would surely fail. Particularly, how a company is run and how they treat their employees and customers help set the core competencies, which distinguish one organization from its competitors. This paper is intended to give an overall view of how important Human Resources re to a organization, by looking at the people involved, the laws that effect, and the methods used in Human resource management.

PEOPLE

With today's workforce becoming increasingly diverse and organizations doing more to maximize the benefits of the differences in employees, Human Resource managers are fast becoming a driving force in an organizations prosperity and vitality.

“Around the world, managers are beginning to recognize that human resources deserve attention because they are a significant factor in top-management strategic decisions that guide the organization’s future operation.”(Ivanacevich 2007)

HRM has been identified as one of three crucial elements a firm must have to be effective. According to the text the other two are: (1) mission and strategy, and (2) organizational structure. Organizations rely on HR managers seek out and hire individuals who will fit into the plan outlined in the other two elements. These people must fit well in the organizational structure and be able to achieve the goals set forth by top managers. For as stated in the lesson text even the most capitol-intensive, best structured organizations need people to run them. (p.09)

People have always been central to organizations, they enhance its strengths and weaknesses and in recent years their strategic importance has been growing in today's business world. An organization's success increasingly depends on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of its employees. Particularly as they help establish a set of core competencies which distinguish one organization from its competitors.

LAWS

One of the basic forces influencing Human Resource Management today are the various laws that have been passed over the last 50 years that influence how an employer can hire, manage and fire employees. The legal framework that has been created by the various laws, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity laws, the Age Discrimination Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act provide a useful structure upon which the HRM of a company can base specific policies. These laws represent how HRM must treat potential and actual employees.

Equal Employment Opportunity laws (EEO) prohibit specific types of job discrimination in certain workplaces. EEO laws are enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), whose task is to resolve charges of discrimination and interpret the meaning of the first great EEO law Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based upon race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Not all cases can be prosecuted, because the agency still does not have the power to issue directly enforceable orders. (p79).

A second law that has far reaching effects on HRM is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) sought to provide equal employment opportunities for the 43million Americans who “had one or more physical or mental disabilities” (p.77) and whom society had tended to isolate. In 1991 Congress found that some of the previous Acts had not defined discrimination effectively. So the Civil Rights Act of 1991 sought to alleviate this situation. One of its major provisions was to provide for monetary damages in the case of intentional employment discrimination. (p.75) This provided further dissuasion against discrimination as well as creating a monetary compensation to the individual who had been discriminated against.

These acts provided a framework within which human resource managers could guide the complex roles of general employment and labor relations as well as the difficult task of letting employees go when necessary. HRM can be shaped to provide an excellent support structure for employees while representing a middle-point between management and employees. Thus, while HRM is responsible for providing information on all the different benefits and rights that an employee has, it is also often the main point at which disciplining of employees for poor performance or other problematic behavior occurs. These Laws alleviate any ambiguity or discrimination in these matters.