Human resources
lastmod 2025-08-31created 2020-09-023 edits
Human resources are the people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, or economy. Human capital is sometimes used with the same meaning as "human resources," but human capital generally refers to a narrower effect (such as an individual's knowledge or economic growth). Other terms sometimes used in this way include manpower, talent, labor, personnel, and people.
An organization's human resources department (HR department) carries out human resource management and oversees various aspects of employment, such as compliance with labor law, employment standards, administration of employee benefits, and recruitment.
Activities
Human resource managers perform several functions in a company
- Determine employee requirements.
- Decide whether to use temporary staff or hire employees to meet these requirements.
- Recruit and train the best employees.
- Supervise work.
- Manage employee relations, unions, and collective bargaining.
- Prepare employee records and personal policies.
- Ensure high performance.
- Manage employee payroll, benefits, and compensation.
- Ensure equal opportunities.
- Deal with discrimination.
- Deal with performance issues.
- Ensure that human resource management complies with various regulations.
- Improve employee motivation.
- Mediate disputes internally.
- Raise employees' learned knowledge.
- Spread information throughout the organization for growth.
Managers must develop their interpersonal skills effectively. Organizational behavior focuses on how to improve the factors that make organizations more effective.