6 FUNCTIONS OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION

 

 

personnel management staff

 

 

 

Introduction:

 

It has been mention in the article that personnel management is concerned with getting the best staff for the organization and looking after them so that they would stay to do their best on various jobs. This statement is a summary of some functions of the personnel management or department. Functions are special duties of a person, department or an organization. There is no organization that can survive without personnel even if it has enough of other resources.

 

Because of the uniqueness of human resources, in big organizations, personnel department are created to offer special services for the purpose of goal achievement. This implies that the workers in the department are personnel specialist, performing personnel related functions. Personnel department therefore has the responsibility of ensuring that appropriate workers are brought and perform effectively and efficiently. As Mullins in (1996) put it, the effectiveness of any work organization is dependent upon the efficient use of resources, in particular human resources.

 

6 functions of personnel management

 

Below are the major functions of personnel management in an organization:

 

1.   Human resource:

Planning and employment : this involve the preparation of job description , contact with and development of all potential source of labor , recruitment of staff ,maintenance of employees records and control of statistics. Others are grading of employees and legislation concerning employment.

 

2.   Training, educating and development of workers:

This functions covers the training and induction of new employees, provision of instructors and training officers, development of potential supervisors and managers and encouraging further education through continuation schools. The functions also covers technical colleges and correspondence courses ,arranging programs of visitors for work tours ,provisions of libraries and meeting some legal requirement.

 

3.   Wages and salaries administration, including related reward system:

 

The aspect of these functions is the development and maintenance of the organizations wages and salaries structure. This is done with the observation of government current policy of pay. It is important that employees are involved. In wage administration, management works out system, which to workers are easily understood, directly related to effort, immediately linked to achievement and labor representatives involved. There are referent methods of personnel remuneration and the choice of the type to be used will depend on the organization. Other aspects of this function include job evaluation to control differential rates of pay, measurement of individual performance for incentives and merits rating by work study experts, running suggestion schemes and productivity bargaining.

 

4.   Industrial relation or employee relation:

 

Under this function, personnel management is expected to publish and interprets the organizations personnel policies , negotiate with trade union through recognized procedures for dealing with work place grievances and provide opportunities for participation and consultation so that all types and grade of employees may join in  the management of their organization. Publishing a staff magazine, controlling the notice boards and information bulletins, and representing the organization in negotiations that affects staff are the other aspects.

 

5.   Welfare, employee services, health and safety:

 club savings schemes, etc),  (long service grants), legal aids (consultation about individual personal or domestic problems), and assistance with accommodation and transport difficulty.

The function also allows for the provision of recreational and social facilities , health (medical examination of employees , keeping health records and visiting sick absentees), safety at work safety education.

 

6.   Organization design and patterns of work:

 

Apart from the objective, the availability of personnel also helps in structuring the organization. In the business organization, more transactions are performed, thus leading to more department, sections, and units as far as there are qualified workers and the resources.

 

In the organizational board, where a board is created, these functions are performed by the establishing unit, and should be mindful of the fact that workers are the ultimate image of the business organization. The appropriate and quality of activities in the organization depends on the quality of staff and how they are treated.

It is therefore imperative for all business organization managers to have a clear understanding of good working relationship and how to foster it. At the organization level , it is the responsibility of manager to identify areas of personnel needs and either to do something about or report to the appropriate executive board for action immediately. This is because the personnel is the life wire of every organization, and the implication are that they must be properly selected, positioned, trained and maintained.

For the business organization to use the personnel well to achieve it objectives, it is suggest that the organizational mangers should:

1.      Set goals or objectives  for the available materials.

2.      Develop realizable plans for the achievement of the objectives set.

3.      Clearly come out with the activities to be performed by individuals or groups.

4.      Make sure that the right people are available for the various jobs’

5.      Encourage the workers, especially the teaching staff, to use their initiatives.

6.      Use some incentives to motivate and stimulate high and qualitative productivity.

7.      Evaluate to find out whether the objective has been achieved.

8.      Take the necessary actions to remedy causes of failure, if any, or encourage and maintain sustainability.

An ideal organizational manager therefore should be able to identify and indicate both the needs of the personnel and the organization and use the personnel properly to satisfy these needs. The following measures for effective utilization of personnel in an organization are presented below:

1.      Involve staff in the administration.

2.      Recognition and reward of excellence

3.      Assigning responsibility for specific functions to personnel and ensuring adequate authority.

4.      Establishment of effective channel of communication to avoid confusion, conflict and lack of progress.

5.      Procuring sufficient working tools and materials.

6.      Assisting staff to improve their working skills.

7.      Paying attention to their material and social problems.

8.       Recognition of human worth and dignity of personnel members.

9.      Cultivating good working relationship between the staff and their managers.

10.  The organizations administrators should poses respectable characteristics such as, honesty, sociability, mutual trust and respect for his personnel and staff..

The tasks of organizational administration in personnel management are many. He can plan, organize, direct coordinate personnel, budget and report activities in relation to staff or personnel.