Introduction to Human Resources Management

Matching the right person to the right job is the primary objective of any human resource manager. If you had a company of highly trained, well informed, and happy staff, you would control the best place to work in the whole wide world. To me, the best place to work is Santa’s Workshop. Think about this for a minute, everyone is working towards the same goal, everyone is happy, everyone is skilled in their respective positions, there are no personnel issues, there’s no calling in sick, there’s no tardiness. It is perfect. This is the goal of every human resources director.

But let us come back to the real world. Staff bring their personal issues with them to work. They bring financial issues, they bring family problems, and they even bring their poor personal habits too. Darn it, why can’t we have the Santa workshop? It is the job of the human resources director to minimize these issues and achieve cohesion within the workforce. How do we do this?

In any business operation, you have to identify the culture of the business and then identify the type of employees you are going to hire. From there you need to recognize the most likely problems and how you are going to address them. What works for one type of operation is not going to work for another. As an example, individuals hired by an engineering/architectural firm are going to work in a different culture than those of a landscaping business. There’s a difference in pay, a difference in education, a difference in the work ethic that exists that establishes a culture for the owner. All of these elements are driven by economic forces; the landscaping business is going to get younger and often less driven employees to work for them. The Engineering firm hires well educated staff that is at least beyond college age and these individuals are driven to excel in their work goals.

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As the human resources director, you need to identify these elements and lay out a plan to deal with the associated issues. How do you do this?

There are many tools to meet this goal. But there is one document that articulates this and becomes the book of law as it relates to personnel. The primary document is the policies and procedures manual. It is here that you address these issues and identify the proper ways to minimize and address problems. You document a hiring process, a training requirement, and how to deal with operational issues. The answers will be different depending on the nature of your business and the culture you work in from day to day. I will help you as we document and address these in future articles. It would be nice if it were a perfect world and we could work in Santa’s workshop, but that isn’t the case. So we have to plan ahead, expect the unexpected, and address this in a plan that allows for efficient and effective management of personnel. 

Matching the right person to the right job is the primary objective of any human resource manager. If you had a company of highly trained, well informed, and happy staff, you would control the best place to work in the whole wide world. To me, the best place to work is Santa’s Workshop.

As the human resources manager, it is your job to hire the right types of personalities and skills to perform the job. When you understand the work environment you will do a better job of filtering the applicants so you have the greatest opportunity for retention and efficiency. Act on Knowledge.