A human resources department is an essential part of any company, as it plays an active role in almost every area of the company. The main focus of the department is to keep the company strong, successful, functional, and free of costly litigation from lawsuits through sound policies and actions for handling personnel matters.

Recruitment

Employee recruitment, including interviewing and selecting new hires, is a responsibility of the human resources department. This also includes monitoring personnel resources to determine when recruitment is necessary to benefit the company.

Training

Training new hires and continuing the education of established employees is a role the human resources department fills. Ongoing employee training is essential for a company to maintain its level of professionalism and skill. The department finds or creates various types of training, such as safety classes or customer service courses, to ensure that the staff is properly educated.

Employee Benefits

Management of employee benefits includes offering and processing application and claim forms, as well as distributing booklets and other information about the benefits programs. The human resources department is also available to answer questions an employee might have about his benefits.

Performance and Incentives

The human resources department is largely responsible for creating and tracking performance reviews, and administering company incentives. Bonuses, raises, transfers, promotions and demotions are typically determined by performance evaluations, so proper reviews are important tasks of the department.

Staff Database

A staff database includes all of the information a company needs on every employee, such as personal information, job responsibilities, training, benefits, discipline records and performance assessments. The human resources department manages this database so that all employee information is readily available when needed.

Quality of Work Life

The human resources department actively works to improve the quality of work life by creating and implementing programs and policies such as sick leave, vacation time, the opportunity to purchase stock options, profit sharing, job sharing, day care services, and various incentive opportunities.

Legal compliance to the various labor laws is a responsibility of human resources. This includes informing all levels of employees about the federal and state laws, such as information on breaks, lunches, overtime, minimum wage, safety, a drug-free workplace, and discrimination.

Public Relations

Building public relations is a part of establishing a company as a contender in its field. The human resources department plays an active role in building public relations by arranging business meetings, seminars, and official gatherings to assist in establishing the company with other businesses and the target market.

Future Forecast

The long-term management of a company is essential to the success of the business. The human resources department evaluates the future of the business and creates strategies, plans and goals to ensure that the business has the resources necessary to be successful in the long term.

Protection

Overall, the human resources department protects the interest, image and success of the company in every way possible by complying with various laws, executing administrative processes, and creating policies in the most cost-efficient manner.