Day to day HR duties

Octavia Tsibes
Human resources is used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization and the department responsible for managing resources related to employees. Human resource management is a contemporary, umbrella term used to describe the management and development of employees within an organization which involves overseeing all things related to managing an organization’s human capital.

This department is very essential within any organization big or small, as it focuses on a number of major areas such as recruiting and staffing, compensation and benefits, training and learning, labor and employee relations and organizational development.

A normal day for me starts off with checking emails and then prioritizing urgent matters which may have popped up. Other day-to-day activities may include drafting new contracts, handling employee concerns, report writing, administering compensation, maintaining policies and HR records, handling the recruitment and selection process, performance management and sharing important information where needed.

Orientation process

A new employee’s first perception of the organization starts at how he or she is welcomed into the organization; thus, the department provide an introduction or orientation week where we provide guidance, training and share all necessary information to new employees. The orientation process is utilized to inform new employees on what the organization does. This provides an in-depth knowledge to employees regarding the organization and what the different department do and how they interlink in order to reach their objectives.

Employees are retained by enabling them to think, behave, take action, control their tasks and decision-making about their job in autonomous, independent, self-directed ways. Employees are encouraged to be involved in decision-making, team building activities, monthly meetings which includes brainstorming activities e.g. on arising projects, and the need to be initiative.

A positive work environment can be created through celebrating birthdays, rewarding achievements, send morning motivational quotes, hosting appreciation day sessions and quarterly braais. This empowers us to optimize the workplace so that we can get the best from our employees since it is about creating a positive physical and mental work environment for all staff.

People do not seem to understand the role of the HR department, it can not only acknowledge employee’s grievances or concerns without following company or organizations policies and procedures. Since employers would be more concerned on finding cost effective methods and solutions on running the organization whilst on the other hand, employees would have various concerns that would better their well-being, salary increases, working conditions and opportunities to personal development.

Some HR strategies that will still be trending for the next five years is online recruitment and networking, for example, social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook which have altered the way professionals build their networks. It appears that job seekers often feel more confident connecting virtually rather than entering a room full of strangers. This type of networking also allows connections to be made almost any time of the day. Another trend is the use of skype to carry out interviews across the world, and the use of online training, workshops and seminars.

Fransina Kashani

Human Resource Coordinator

The Society For Family Health