When it comes to the hiring, management and retention of employees, there are plenty of departments that have an impact. However, the most widespread impact most certainly comes from the human resources department. If a human resources department is not doing their job well, the impact this mismanagement or lack of management is felt throughout the business because the people that are hired will generally not be the best and the brightest and the good employees that do come along are quite likely to get frustrated or disgusted and head for greener pastures. While the functional departments of a firm are important as are the other departments that impact each new hire and current employee, the human resources department is the power base for things like employee reviews, benefits administration and so forth.
Analysis
The main and primary reason that human resources is the most impactful when it comes to who is recruited, hired and retained for a company is that they are the designated gatekeepers for who is called for interviews, who is actually selected and the management of the employees at a high level when they are hired. If any of those steps in the human resources chain is done improperly, it can cause bad trends and outcomes. Just as one example, human resources needs to make sure that they are calling in applicants that are actually qualified for the jobs for which they are interviewing and they also need to make sure that the employees fit with the company culture of the firm (SHRM, 2016).
However, there is the more basic and much more important process of screening out applicants who are clearly not going to work such as people who cannot pass a basic screening interview, are fudging their resume or qualifications in the slightest or that are lying about other important things such as their criminal history and so forth (SHRM, 2016). Indeed, while the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has started to speak up about things like the hiring of ex-felons and so forth. At the same time, human resources must do what is best for the company when it comes to who is hired and who is not. The rub is that they have to be careful about doing so in a way that skirts or directly violates the law (EEOC, 2016).
There are honest questions from many people about whether human resources should even be the center of hiring and firing in a firm. There are some that suggest that it should be decentralized and fully (or at least mostly) handled by the functional managers or departments in question. However, others say that there is a danger in that because this could lead to each department handling things their own ways rather than following one unified and singular process, which would almost always be optimal (Remillard, 2011). There is also the danger of allowing people not trained in the laws and regulations surrounding human resources engaging in human resources activities. For example, there are questions and other behaviors that cannot take place in an interview as they are against the law. Asking questions about sexuality, family status, whether someone has kids, what their ethnicity is, how old they are and so forth are all huge red flags and such questions are typically disallowed because the lend credence to the idea that there is racism, sexism or some other sort of bias going on. Asking the wrong questions or excluding people for the wrong reasons can lead to litigation and lawsuits and this can ultimately hurt a company in a major way from a financial and/or reputational standpoint (Reed & Bogardus, 2012). As such, keeping at least the initial questions and answers for hires in the hands of human resources and training functional managers about what can and what cannot be asked is extremely important. For example, there are many people that have been caught (or at least suspected) of disregarding applicants based on having “ethnic” or “black” names. For example, someone named Tyrone would tend to be dismissed much quicker than someone named John. The potential problem for human resources departments is that if the applicant tries to call the company who did not hire him on that and the company does not have a good explanation (preferably documented in print prior to a complaint) as to why they did not choose that person, they might be in a spot of trouble (SHRM, 2003). Another commonly cited rift are questions about family obligations and how many kids someone has. This is also a likely minefield and should be skipped by any human resources professional that does not want their company accused or sued for being sexist (EEOC, 2013). Human resources departments, rather than being sexist or otherwise bigoted, can create and regulate things like flexible work arrangements and so forth so as to attract more high-end talent. As noted before, things like this should be centralized and the same across all departments. Not all jobs can be flexible and open to changes but many can be and this can be a boon to employees who are well-qualified but need a little flexibility in their work lives due to personal obligations (Landau, 2014)
Conclusion
The above just scratches the surface of what human resources can and should mean to a company. Human resources should absolutely have a seat at the table of power with any organization. Not being careful about who is hired, who is not hired, and why a decision goes either way can weight down a company or even cause it to spiral into obsolescence. A new generation of workers, those being Millennials, are coming into the workforce and they have certain expectations. Some of those expectations are not reasonable, but many are and they should be taken seriously (Fry, 2015). Concurrently, the Baby Boomers are starting to retire, but many are working later into life than prior generations and they have age-specific laws that protect them from being discriminated against (Wargo, 2015; EEOC, 2016).
References
EEOC. (2016). Enforcement Guidance: Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers with Caregiving
Responsibilities. Eeoc.gov. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from
https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/caregiving.html
EEOC. (2016). Facts About Age Discrimination. eeoc.gov. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from
https://www.eeoc.gov/facts/age.html
EEOC. (2016). Pre-Employment Inquiries and Arrest & Conviction. EEOC.gov. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from
https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/inquiries_arrest_conviction.cfm
Fry, R. (2015). Millennials surpass Gen Xers as the largest generation in U.S. labor force. Pew Research
Center. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2015/05/11/millennials-surpass-gen-xers-as-the-largest-generation-in-u-s-labor-force/
Landau, P. (2014). Flexible working is on its way – know your rights. the Guardian. Retrieved 5 May 2016,
know-rights
Reed, S. & Bogardus, A. (2012). PHR/SPHR. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Pub.
Remillard, B. (2011). Should Human Resources Be Responsible For Hiring?. Hire and Retain Top Talent.
Retrieved 5 May 2016, from http://www.impacthiringsolutions.com/blog/should-human-
resources-be-responsible-for-hiring/
SHRM. (2003). HR Magazine - February 2003: Study Suggests Bias Against ‘Black’ Names On Resumes.
Shrm.org. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from
https://www.shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/pages/0203hrnews2.aspx
SHRM. (2016). Morale, Productivity Suffer from Bad Hires. Shrm.org. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from
https://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/staffingmanagement/articles/pages/morale-productivity-
bad-hires.aspx
Wargo, B. (2015). Baby Boomers Can’t Quit: Still Want to Work After They “Retire”. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/buck-wargo/baby-boomers-cant-quit-st_b_7621540.html
