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Human resources: Resource for all times

Ancient Chinese and Greek civilizations were aware of the importance of human resources as far ago as 2000 B.C. The Chinese adopted employee screening and the Greek practiced apprenticeship to optimize the use of human potential for a given task. Mankind has always considered the potential of human beings as perhaps the most important asset. Even during pre-historic period, tribal leaders, who were supposed to lead hunters, were screened on certain criteria. During recent times, the emergence of modern industrialism brought the need for  training  managers and employees for meeting  production goals. In more recent times, when manufacturing industry has been overtaken by service industry, the role of human resources has gained much more prominence. Service industry desires fine quality human resources to carry out complex operations aided by technology.  The advent of computer and the Internet have taken the demand for quality human resources to the pinnacle. The Internet era demands highly skilled human resources in virtually every sphere of life. Be it in business, banking, health, education or hospitality. Businesses and corporations, small and big,  have special departments for managing their human resources.

Management of  the precious resource

The all important  human resources of organizations and corporate entities need to be chosen with  care and managed  well. The human resources department is responsible for recruitment, selection, training and retention of the employees. Human resources department,  HR in short, collaborates with management  and ensures  legally defensible recruitment and selection processes. It also develops strategies to attract qualified and talented candidates for the recruitment process, select the most appropriate  and  retain the best employees for the organization. With increased competition among businesses and corporations for attracting talented employees, the human resources departments are forced to employ  innovative means to retain the talent. Despite such efforts, attrition is a reality of the day. Therefore,  the processes of recruitment and retention  continue  throughout  the lifetime of the organization.

Employment is  a legal relationship between the employer and the employee. The employer is bound by a set of rules to fulfil certain conditions to enable  the employees perform their duties. Likewise, employees must  perform to the best of their abilities  keeping in view their job descriptions and organization policies.  This relationship can breach if any of the parties fails to abide by the rule of the game. This relationship comes under pressure at times when the going gets difficult for the organizations, i.e., when the economy slows down.

Human resources make or mar

Human resources are precious to every organization. In fact, the quality and reputation of organizations are determined by the human resources they  possess and  nurture,  and not by  the balance sheets showing their assets and liabilities.  At times, it is the same human resource that causes  downfall of certain organizations.  Human resources are thus a double edged sword  that every organization needs to handle with care and responsibility.