Introduction
Organizing the recruitment and selection process and managing the needs of the company’s employees are vital parts of the human resources (HR) management. In order to select future employees, HR professionals need to determine the level of skills and abilities of the candidates. The stages of the procedure include developing the criteria that the candidates need to meet, reaching out and informing them about the vacancy, interviewing and testing them, and making offers to the most suitable of the candidates. Based on the methods and stages of recruitment and selection, there are different strategies for developing HR plans.
This paper’s objective is to explore the possibilities of various career paths in HR management and to explain how different strategic plans can be developed and implemented in this sphere.
Different career paths in the field of human resources management
The first possibility of career development in HR management is the job of a recruitment manager or recruitment agent. The process of recruiting and selecting new employees has multiple stages and, therefore, requires a number of specialists to conduct it. Firstly, the HR team and the specialists in the sphere of recruitment need to develop the criteria for selection. When the criteria are ready, the task of the HR manager is to reach out to the candidates. The recruitment agents need to engage in various recruitment resources, including specialized websites on the Internet, traditional advertisement, and professional networks in order to appeal to a larger number of applicants. After that, the recruitment specialists check whether the resumes they receive comply with the required selection criteria.
After the primary selection is completed, the recruitment manager contacts the successful candidates and organizes the appointments for further selection procedures. It is important to evaluate the candidates on the basis of their professional background, cognitive abilities, skills of conflict management, etc. Usually, the process of selection includes a formal, informal, or both interviews with the HR manager, the head of the department in which the candidate is going to work, and sometimes with the potential colleagues. It may be either a panel interview or a meeting of a smaller scale, but it is the task of the recruitment manager to organize it.
The results of different tests assessed by the professionals are also sent to the HR department. On the other hand, one of the recruitment agents’ tasks is to check all the references, qualifications and records that the candidates provide. On the basis of the collected feedback and results, reference checks and interviews, the HR manager and the department manager select a candidate for a job and make him or her an offer (Dias, 2011).
However, apart from recruiting and selecting new employees, HR management includes organizing pieces of training, managing careers, redundancies, retirements, vacations, various leaves, and benefits. The HR specialists are supposed to communicate with the employees in order to inform them about their rights, encourage them to obtain new qualifications in training, and get feedback about the HR-related issues. In such a way, a career in HR is connected with the matters of employee relations department, health and safety office, etc. Due to such cooperation, an employee with the HR qualifications may work in one of those departments (Cascio, 1986).
Analysis of developing and implementing different strategic human resources management plans
Working in HR management requires strategic thinking for dealing with such matters as compensations and benefits plans. In accordance with the company’s strategy and employment policy, the HR specialists develop and implement the systematic picture of the HR-related issues. Different organizations offer different packages to their employees. For example, some of them are prepared to spend more time, money, and efforts on professional training for the employees than others are.
There are also diverse systems of benefits for the workforce and, of course, different salaries and bonuses. The plan developed by the HR professionals needs to include the salary for the employees and to account for different possibilities for the maternity and family leaves, as well as health-related benefits. Moreover, when receiving the feedback from the employees, the HR managers need to accommodate the changes to the plan or find a suitable compromise to make the employees comfortable (Dias, 2011).
Another nuance in developing an HR plan concerns compensation management. The company’s plan on the issue of compensation needs to be consistent and fair. Different companies vary in their ways of managing compensations because of internal and external factors. The major internal factor is the strategy the company is using. It depends on the company’s size, policies, and market sector (Dias, 2011). Externally, the HR plans of a certain company are always compared to its competitors’ strategies concerning benefits and compensation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the major career paths in the HR management include working in the sphere of recruitment and selection or managing the employees’ compensations, benefits, payrolls, and other various aspects of everyday work. The HR plans for the different organizations are mainly defined by their corporate strategy and external market factors.
References
Cascio, W. F. (1986). Managing human resources. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Web.
Dias, L. (2011). Human resource management. Irvington, NY: Flat World Knowledge. Web.