Chapter 1 - Human Resources Management PDF

LEARNING MANUAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: AN OVERVIEW HEIYAN VON P. LAPPAY INSTRUCTOR  CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: AN OVERVIEW A. Human Resources Human Resour...

LEARNING MANUAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: AN OVERVIEW HEIYAN VON P. LAPPAY INSTRUCTOR  CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: AN OVERVIEW A. Human Resources Human Resources (HR) plays an essential role in any organization by ensuring the right talent is hired, developed, promoted, and supported to help achieve organizational goals. Human resources are all the people who work for or contribute to the organization in one capacity or another. Together, these people make up a company’s workforce. They can be full-time or part-time salaried or hourly employees. In this view, HR recognizes that employees are a company’s most valuable asset. Hence, they execute an HR strategy to create a supportive and engaging work environment that values employees’ contributions and wellbeing. Human Resources is both a function and a department within an organization. As a function, HR covers the processes, practices, and strategies to attract, develop, and retain employees who contribute to the company’s overall success. As a department, it is responsible for managing HR activities from recruitment and onboarding, compensation and benefits, learning and development, performance management, and employee relations to separation or retirement. HR is vital in aligning the organization’s business objectives and employees’ needs and aspirations. Through workforce planning, talent management, succession planning, and applying other HR best practices, HR professionals ensure that the organization has the required talent to keep operating and meet its long-term goals. They maximize employee capabilities that will help drive organizational success by identifying the skills gaps, creating L&D programs, and implementing performance management systems. A.1. Non-Human Resources And then there is a relatively new, non-human element to consider when we talk about human resources in the context of the workforce: robots. Machines and robots are increasingly involved in day-to-day work in all industries, and the interaction between the human and the machine is becoming increasingly important to the organization’s success. While these machines are not considered ‘human resources,’ there is a case to be made that they should be included and considered in some way as they are a part of the workforce. B. Human Resources Management Human Resources Management (HRM) is a systematic approach to managing the company’s workforce to help meet organizational goals. Managing Human Resources involves overseeing all aspects of HR, such as hiring, training, compensating, engaging, promoting, and retaining employees. HRM encompasses various functions, including recruitment, compensation, and employee development, to support and engage the workforce effectively. For example, if you hire people into a business, you are looking for people who resonate with your company culture as they will be happier, stay longer, and be more productive than people who don’t. Another example is engagement. Engaged employees are more productive, deliver higher quality work, and make customers happier. This means that if HR can find ways to make employees more engaged, this benefits the company. Overall, HR Management’s role extends beyond administrative functions. It is instrumental in shaping the company’s strategic direction and fostering a thriving, inclusive, and high-performing work environment. Effective Human Resource Management (HRM) is essential for businesses of all sizes and starts with knowing the basics. The HR department aims to provide the knowledge, tools, training, legal advice, administration, and talent management crucial to supporting and advancing the company. This is what Human Resource Management boils down to: optimizing organizational performance through better management of human resources. B.1. Importance of Human Resources Management HRM involves various activities, processes, and policies – tied together in an HR strategy – that aim to align a company’s workforce with its strategic (business) objectives. As such, effective Human Resource Management is integral to any organization’s success and plays a role in the following: 1. Attracting and retaining talent: The HR department creates a comprehensive talent strategy that helps the organization recruit, develop, and retain the right people. 2. Enabling managers: Managers play a crucial role in employee retention and success. HR is there to equip managers with all the tools, resources, and support they need to help their teams flourish. 3. Driving strategic planning: HR works with senior leaders to keep the HR strategy in line with the organization’s objectives. This enables the HR team to identify talent gaps and create workforce plans to then proactively find the right talent for the right position. 4. Fostering organizational culture: HRM plays a vital role in shaping and cultivating the company’s culture by establishing the values, norms, and behaviors that correspond with the organization’s mission and vision. 5. Creating a productive work environment: A positive work environment is good for employee productivity, which, in turn, is critical to the success of the business. Various HRM practices, therefore, aim to implement effective performance management systems, set clear job expectations, and provide regular feedback, among other things. C. The Seven HR Basics When we talk about Human Resource Management, several elements are considered cornerstones for effective HRM policies. These cornerstones are: 1. Recruitment & Selection. Recruitment and selection are the most visible elements of HR. The goal of the recruitment and selection process is to find and hire the best candidate for the job, with the former focusing on attracting potential candidates to apply for the role and the latter focusing on evaluating and choosing the best candidate among the applicants. The recruitment process usually involves the following steps in some shape or form: Preparing: Vacancy intake with the hiring manager Write job description Creating job adverts Sourcing:  Sourcing candidates Checking the existing talent pool Keeping the hiring manager informed Screening: Screening resumes Phone screening Giving a realistic job preview The last phase of the recruitment phase has some overlap with the selection process, which then continues as follows: The job interview An assessment References and background check The hiring decision Job offers and contract (Preboarding and onboarding) 2. Performance Management. Organization’s performance management practices play an important role in creating a productive and positive work environment and keeping employees engaged. According to a report by the HR Research Institute, 67% of leading organizations in performance management experienced increased employee performance, compared to only 16% of so- called performance laggards. Performance management is the second HR Management cornerstone. It is a set of processes and systems aimed at developing employees in a way that enables them to perform their jobs to the best of their ability. Employees who are empowered to their full potential, improve the efficiency, sustainability, and profit margin of a business. The goal of performance management is threefold: To help employees build on skills that enable them to perform better in their roles To reach their highest potential To boost their success while accomplishing the strategic goals of the organization. Effective performance management is based on a continuous conversation between employees, their managers, and HR. A strategic and systematic performance management process combines verbal and written components that take place throughout the year. It involves the following actions: Establishing clear expectations Setting individual objectives and goals that align with team and organizational goals  Providing different types of feedback Regular performance conversations, such as performance reviews and performance appraisals Evaluating results. Important decisions regarding an employee’s career, such as promotions, bonuses, and dismissals, should be linked to the organization’s performance management process. 3. Learning and Development. Learning and development (L&D) is another HR fundamental and an essential part of an organization’s overall people development strategy. Put simply, L&D is a systematic process that enhances people’s skills, knowledge, and competencies to improve their work performance. Learning involves acquiring knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes that result in better job performance. Examples of what learning activities can look like include: Reading blogs, articles, or books Hands-on experimentation Peer learning Lunch and learn sessions Attending seminars, conferences, or webinars Development evolves around broadening and deepening a person’s knowledge in line with their individual, long-term professional goals. The idea here is to grow job-related abilities and expand someone’s potential for future opportunities. Activities focused on development include: Coaching Job shadowing Leadership training Mentoring L&D helps employees to reskill and upskill. It is typically led by HR, and a solid learning and development program can be very helpful in advancing the organization toward its long-term goals. This approach allows employees to bridge skill gaps and grow into leaders. A well-known framework that connects performance management with L&D activities is the 9-box grid. Based on people’s performance and potential ratings, HR and the manager can advise on various development plans in consultation with the employee. 4. Succession Planning. Succession planning involves planning contingencies in case key employees leave the organization. It is about proactively identifying top performers and potential leaders and getting them ready to fill (senior) positions as soon as someone leaves. While crucial for the continuity – and  sometimes even the survival – of the business, many companies of all sizes still don’t have a solid succession plan. Succession planning is a complex process and if you want to navigate it successfully, keep the following three things in mind: Critical roles only: Succession planning focuses on roles that are vital to the organization’s competitiveness and continuity, especially senior leadership roles. Key talent: Unsurprisingly, for those critical roles, only top performers and potential leaders (usually internal candidates) are selected to be mentored and developed. Continuity: The ultimate purpose of succession planning is to ensure that someone else is ready to take over immediately when someone leaves to maintain business continuity. 5. Compensation and Benefits. Another fundamental component of HR management is compensation and benefits, often called comp & ben. Fair compensation is critical in attracting, motivating, and retaining employees. Compensation and benefits consist of all the monetary and non-monetary rewards employees receive from their employer in exchange for their labor. Examples include: Salary Bonuses Insurance Retirement contribution Childcare benefits Flexible working options Getting comp and ben right is important for two main reasons. On the one hand, making a solid, attractive offer is key to attracting the best talent. On the other hand, comp & ben and related taxes can account for up to 70% of business costs, highlighting the importance of balancing this with the organization’s budget and profit margins. HR should, therefore, closely monitor the state of compensation and benefits at their organization. A final thing to note here is that employee satisfaction is mainly driven by what they perceive as fair rather than by how much someone is paid. How employees feel about the company’s pay philosophy and process is more likely to impact their outlook than the actual pay. So, in addition to offering decent compensation, HR teams may want to start paying more attention to how pay transparency works and how to manage compensation perceptions at their company. 6. Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS). The two final HR Management basics are not HR practices but tools to improve HR. The first one is the Human Resources Information System, or HRIS. Most HRIS solutions support all the HR processes and practices we discussed above. Sometimes, however, the management of these functionalities is spread out over different HR systems. For example:  HR professionals often use an Applicant Tracking System, or ATS, for recruitment and selection to keep track of applicants and new hires For performance management, a performance management system is used to keep track of individual goals and insert performance ratings In L&D, organizations utilize the Learning Management System (LMS) to distribute learning content internally, and other HR systems are used to keep track of budgets and training approvals Compensation specialists often use a payroll system There are digital tools that enable effective succession planning. According to the annual Digital Employee Experience Audit, 30% of companies still use more than ten different HR systems. The bottom line here is that there is a significant digital element to working in HR, which is why we need to mention the HRIS when talking about the basic components of HRM. 7. HR Data and Analytics. The final HR fundamental revolves around data and analytics. In the last decade, HR has made a significant leap towards becoming more data driven. The HRIS is essentially a data-entry system. The data in these systems can be used to make better and more informed decisions. An easy way to keep track of critical data is through HR metrics and/or HR KPIs. These are specific measurements showing how a company performs on a given indicator. This is referred to as HR reporting. This type of reporting focuses on the current and past state of the organization. Using HR and people analytics, HR can also make predictions. Examples include workforce needs, employee turnover intention, the impact of the employee experience on customer satisfaction, and many others. HR can make more data-driven decisions by actively measuring and looking at this data. These decisions are more objective, which makes it easier to find management support for them. D. Evolution of Human Resources Management What Human Resource Management looks like today – and what is expected of HR professionals – is vastly different from what it looked like a hundred years ago. From around 1900 until the 1940s, for example, HR teams were mainly expected to keep employees healthy so that they would remain productive. During the 1980s and 1990s, HR departments ought to focus on motivating and engaging the workforce while modernizing their HR practices through technology implementations. What we’ve seen from 1990 onwards, and still see today, is that HR is expected to be a strategic partner and able to align the business agenda and the HR agenda. As for the (near) future, and as we enter the digital-human era of work, things will shift further, and even more will be expected of HR teams. They will have to guide the organization to adapt to workforce changes and redefine the working relationship between talent and employers.  E. Human Resources Management Skills To strategize and execute HR initiatives, HR professionals need to possess the following skills: 1. HR specific skills, including: HRM knowledge and expertise Administrative expertise Employees experience expertise 2. Business acumen, including: Commercial awareness HR strategy creation and execution Advising 3. Soft skills, including: Communication skills Active listening Proactivity 4. Digital & data literacy, including: HR reporting skills Being analytical and data-driven Command of technology F. Strategic Human Resources Strategic Human Resources, or Strategic Human Resources Management, refers to a more advanced approach to aligning HR strategies with the organization’s overall strategy and objectives. In HR strategic planning, the HR department works closely with the management team and business leaders to study current and future staffing requirements, determine skill gaps, and enforce HR tactics that will attract, grow and retain the most talented individuals. It includes reviewing organizational and HR metrics to measure HR initiatives’ effectiveness on business results. It could also involve staying updated with the latest technology developments and market trends to ensure the company stays relevant and competitive. Strategic Human Resource Management aims to align the focus of HRM with business to achieve objectives through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using a range of cultural, structural, and personnel techniques (Storey, 1995). These techniques include hiring, promoting, and rewarding employees, building and maintaining high-performance work cultures, and organizational design to add value and achieve a competitive advantage. Strategic HRM centers on creating a talent management framework that drives behavior and culture to support an organization’s long-term business goals.  The concept of Strategic Human Resource Management was developed in the 1990s – mainly through work by Storey, Schuler, Wright and McMahan, and Boxall and Purcell – and popularized in the 2000s. This was triggered by Dave Ulrich’s challenge for the HR profession. HR had become “often ineffective, incompetent, and costly; in a phrase, it is value sapping.” Today, Strategic HRM is an essential part of the HR function, particularly for large and rapidly growing organizations. However, there is no specific strategy that guarantees success, and Strategic HRM is constantly evolving. That’s why organizations must create their own strategy that aligns with their specific context, culture, and objectives. Continuous monitoring then allows them to build on and improve it. F.1. Traditional HRM vs Strategic HRM HR management was traditionally considered a task-oriented administrative function. It was distanced from what business leadership was doing and primarily reactive. It met employees’ needs as they arose. However, it wasn’t in touch with where the company was headed and didn’t anticipate what might be coming. For example, traditional HRM would answer employee questions about HR policies, but it wouldn’t create policies based on the company’s long-term goals and find ways to engage employees with them. With a strategic HRM plan, HR teams operate more proactively because they are integrated with business strategies. They understand and center their pursuits on the company’s objectives. This involves planning and taking action to ensure the organization has the workforce it needs to achieve its goals. For instance, instead of hiring based solely on immediate needs, HR will recruit people whose talents and experience can also meet future demands. This is possible because HR is part of the leadership team and is fully aware of what the company wants to accomplish in both the short and long term. Caitlin Weiser, Consultant at Red Clover HR, explains: “Aligning HRM with overall business strategy is about understanding what employee behaviors are needed to support long-term business goals. By identifying these behaviors, HR can make strategic process improvements, create incentive programs, set KPIs, and provide learning and development opportunities to drive results.” F.2. Strategic Human Resources Management Examples Companies that embrace strategic HRM enhance their HR practices to better support business performance. Let’s look at how this plays out in the real world. Here are examples of how three different organizations have put SHRM into practice: 1. Nissan. A business goal to differentiate itself from competitors prompted Japanese auto manufacturer Nissan Motor Corporation to foster a corporate culture that empowers employees to innovate its manufacturing processes.  Nissan applies a continuous improvement framework called Kakushin. This philosophy challenges assumptions about operating in a certain way and embraces brainstorming and analysis to make changes and move ahead. Employees are encouraged to find ways to continually improve methods for getting work done. With the business objectives and the Kakushin method in mind, HR leaders can focus HR practices where they need to be: Recruiting the right talent, and Building a secure workplace environment where employees feel entrusted to meet challenges with autonomy and fresh ideas that drive achievement. 2. Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Brigham and Women’s Hospital is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. They recognize that “great patient care begins with great people “. The organization’s strategic HRM efforts primarily target creating a healthy work-life balance for employees. HR helps to provide childcare for employees who are caring for children or the elderly, as well as back-up childcare in case of emergencies. The hospital also assists with home health services, nursing home placement, and support groups to reduce stress. What’s more, employees who earn below a certain threshold get subsidized tuition rates. In general, the hospital actively encourages employees to balance their work responsibilities with their personal lives and maintain their health and wellbeing. 3. Sainsbury’s. Sainsbury’s is one of the leading supermarket chains in the UK. The company has been an innovator when it comes to all aspects of the business. They opened their very first “worker academy” almost a century ago, pioneered self-service shopping, and recently invested in raising all its retail staff’s salaries to £11/hour. The retailer works hard to ensure that its employees are empowered to offer customers a great experience. Sainsbury’s training academies are responsible for training team leaders and store managers in technical and behavioral skills to boost their confidence, create a more positive employee and customer experience, and help them advance in their careers. 58% of colleagues who are in the Leading Sainsbury’s program will get a promotion within 9 months of completion. The company has also ditched the requirement for a CV when hiring for retail colleague roles, creating more opportunities for people who may lack the education or employment history traditionally required by other employers for similar roles. F.3. Importance of Strategic Human Resource Management Reaching success is more likely when the whole company is working toward the same goals. When HR is tuned into leadership’s big-picture plan, it can have cohesive structures in place to support and engage employees in ways that will make it come to fruition. Strategic management of human resources adds value in the following ways:  Connecting employees with organizational goals – The Strategic Human Resource Management process ensures that HR practices, policies, and strategies link employees with the company’s path to accomplishing its broader organizational objectives. Gaining a competitive advantage – Knowing exactly where leadership wants to take the organization allows the HR department to focus on the skills and abilities people need to do the work it takes to get there. Through effective talent management, training, and development, SHRM can lead to a more competent and skilled workforce that yields a competitive edge over rivals. Adapting to change – A strategic approach to HRM means continually looking ahead, allowing organizations to anticipate and quickly adapt to changes in the business environment. Plans can adjust to accommodate technological advancements, market shifts, or evolving workforce demographics. Meanwhile, HR supports, motivates, and communicates with employees throughout the adjustments. Enhancing employee performance – Strategic HRM determines how employees add value and facilitates performance management systems that ensure they are motivated, well-trained, and properly evaluated. HR can implement methods for addressing employee weaknesses and reinforcing their strengths, leading to optimal job performance and productivity. What’s more, it can strive to improve performance through improved employee wellbeing. Driving business growth – With its emphasis on proactive planning, SHRM identifies gaps in current resources and forecasts future workforce needs. As a result, the organization is equipped with the necessary human capital to launch initiatives, enter new markets, and drive growth. Improving operational efficiency – A strategic approach to HR is about meticulously designing roles, responsibilities, and workflows to specifically suit the company’s human capital needs. This clarity streamlines operations to reduce redundancies and boost overall efficiency, directly contributing to better business performance. G. Human Resource Functions HR performs numerous Human Resources functions in an organization. Let’s go over the 12 key HR functions: 1. Human Resources planning – The systematic and data-driven practice of optimizing the company’s workforce. The goal is to ensure the company is adequately staffed with the right people to avoid surpluses or shortages. 2. Recruitment and selection – Attracting and hiring applicants that are best for the job, which involves many steps: writing job descriptions, screening resumes and shortlisting candidates, conducting job interviews, creating job offers, and onboarding the selected candidate. 3. Performance management – The ongoing process of managing the employees’ performance and development in alignment with the company goals. It includes communicating and clarifying job responsibilities, expectations, and priorities.  4. Learning and development – Providing opportunities to develop the employees’ skills and knowledge to improve performance, which ultimately leads to both the individual and company’s success. 5. Career planning – Also called career pathing, HR provides guidance and ongoing support to help employees progress in their career, whether vertically (promotion) or horizontally (lateral transfers). Internal mobility helps organizations improve employee engagement and retention while reducing hiring costs. 6. Function evaluation – HR staff compares the different teams of the whole HR operation, which includes the quality and the availability of employees, job location, working hours, the economic situation, other job responsibilities, and how much value a job contributes to the organization. 7. Rewards – An integral part of Human Resources duties, rewards are an essential motivator for employees. They can sometimes be the primary reason employees choose one company over another. Rewards include salary, perks, and benefits like health insurance, remote work, and performance-based bonuses. 8. Industrial relations – Maintaining good relationships with labor unions and other collectives and their members help in detecting and resolving potential conflicts before it escalates, especially during challenging situations like layoffs. 9. Employee participation and communication – HR delivers relevant and timely information to employees. Maintaining open and honest communication fosters an environment of trust and support, which is vital to employee retention. 10. Health and safety – A critical part of HR responsibilities is ensuring employees work in an environment compliant with health and safety guidelines to avoid injuries, illnesses, and deaths. 11. Wellbeing – Another key function of HR is looking after their staff’s mental, physical, and financial wellbeing because people work best when they feel best. This may include implementing wellness initiatives to address mental health, for example. 12. Administrative responsibilities – Performing administrative work like maintaining the HRIS where employees’ information is stored. H. Importance of Human Resources The Human Resources function plays a pivotal role in the organization for various reasons. Let’s look at some of them. HR: Facilitates strategic workforce planning to align talent with business objectives. Executes effective talent acquisition processes to hire the best talent for the right position. Helps foster a positive organizational culture by implementing practices that improve employee engagement and retention. Administers employee benefits and compensation that enhance employees’ satisfaction and financial security.  Can roll out initiatives to boost employee productivity by launching learning and development programs, performance management tactics, and incentive programs to motivate employees to do better. Can help the organization save money by optimizing recruitment processes or decreasing employee absenteeism or turnover. Can boost employee morale by effectively managing conflicts, concerns, and grievances. HR ensures compliance with employment laws and regulations to protect employees’ rights. HR supports organizational development by building organizational capabilities and improving processes and strategies. I. Human Resource Value Chain HR value chain demonstrates the connection between HR Management activities and processes, HR Management outcomes, and the organization’s strategic goals. Carrying out HRM activities results in positive HRM outcomes, which leads to achieving corporate objectives. HRM activities and processes – Daily tasks performed by HR, such as recruitment, training, and talent management. How well these activities are done indicates the efficiency of HR, and the goal is to achieve certain outcomes. HRM outcomes – HRM activities and processes aim to improve employee engagement, retention, competency levels, and performance, as well as decrease absenteeism. These are the HRM outcomes. Organizational objectives – Success in achieving HRM outcomes positively impacts the company’s ability to attain its strategic goals the company. These goals add value to the business and put the organization more viable in the long run. J. Human Resources Examples What does the Human Resources function look like in practice? Here are two examples of what HR does in two well-known organizations: 1. Google. Google is renowned for its innovative HR practices that have earned it a reputation as one of the best places to work globally: Flexible work arrangements – The company offers flexible work hours and remote working. They even permit their workforce to work on their projects for 20% of their time. These work arrangements promote work- life balance and increase creativity and innovation. Moreover, Google evaluates their employees’ productivity not by the number of hours worked but by results and contributions. Data-driven HR – Google uses people analytics extensively in its HR practices to make informed decisions. They leverage data to gain  insights into their workforce, identify trends, and tailor HR strategies accordingly. Google’s People Innovation Lab (PiLab) conducts research around “making work better in and outside of Google” and shares their findings with the world. For example, the company’s Project Oxygen analyzed massive amounts of internal data and determined what makes great managers, incorporating the findings into the company’s manager development programs and sharing their recommendations publicly. 2. FedEx. FedEx designs their HR strategies, policies, and initiatives to align with the principles of their ‘People-Service-Profit’ philosophy, ensuring that employees’ well-being and development are prioritized to drive excellent customer service, contributing to the company’s profitability. The company defines the three components as follows: People: Putting people first means valuing employees as the company’s most valuable asset. Service: The focus on delivering exceptional customer service and ensuring that customers’ needs are met with efficiency and excellence. Profit: By caring for its people and delivering outstanding service, FedEx believes it will generate long-term profitability and sustain business success. Prioritizing employee development and satisfaction has enabled FedEx to maintain an engaged and motivated workforce, leading to higher productivity and lower turnover rates. The focus on customer service resulted in higher customer satisfaction levels, strengthening FedEx’s reputation in the logistics industry. By emphasizing long-term profitability through a well-supported workforce and exceptional customer service, FedEx has experienced steady growth and financial success. Additionally, the PSP philosophy has helped shape a positive company culture where employees feel valued and committed to giving their best for the customers and the company. K. Human Resource Department HR department carries out HR functions like recruitment, rewards, and HR planning within an organization. The structure and responsibilities depend on the company’s size, structure, and industry. Small businesses (10-99 In small companies, an HR professional employees) handles all HR functions, such as recruitment, performance management, compensation, and benefits, employee relations, and HR administration. Their responsibilities are more tactical and administrative like: Writing job offers and employment contracts  Handling logistics when onboarding new employees Managing payroll Document company policies, guidelines, and processes They typically report directly to the CEO but may also report to the COO or Head of Operations. Mid-sized businesses (100-999 For mid-sized companies, HR duties may employees) expand to include training and development, employee engagement and culture, and HR strategy and planning. For example, they: Develop employee wellness or recognition initiatives, Implement different learning and development programs, Conduct workforce planning, and Plan and execute organizational development strategies to support the company’s growth and future needs. The Human Resources department may be headed by a VP of HR, who will manage an HR Director and a Director of Talent Acquisition. The directors may lead teams of managers and specialists. Large businesses (1,000+ In large organizations, there would be more employees) staff with more specialized functions in managing the complexities of a large and diverse workforce. HR scope broadens further to include strategic workforce planning, employee retention, diversity and inclusion, HR systems and technology, and HR strategy and leadership. For instance, the HR team would perform the following duties: Skills gap analysis Employer branding Recruitment marketing Succession planning Compensation benchmarking Managing HR software Change management  Executing DEI initiatives Successful execution of these functions would require a more complex HR organization. Roles could include Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Chief Diversity Officer, HR Business Partner, HR Analyst, Training/L&D Director, and Employee Relations Officer in addition to the HR Managers, HR Specialists, HR Generalists, and other roles like recruiters, sources, and payroll specialists. CHRO is usually part of the executive team in large organizations, reporting directly to the CEO. K.1. Human Resource Department Structure