Human resources (HR) is the function within a business that is responsible for all things people-related. That includes recruiting, selecting, hiring, onboarding, training, promoting, paying, and firing employees and independent contractors. Employment documentation such as contracts and handbooks, induction, learning and development, training, redundancies, performance management, workplace investigations, grievance & disciplinaries, interviewing, mediation are some of the key tasks carried out by HR professionals. HR is also the department that stays on top of new legislation guiding how workers need to be treated during the hiring, working, and firing process. HR is considered by many business strategists to be the most important of all company resources. That’s because employees can gain new skills, thereby increasing the size of a company’s competitive advantage over time. Other resources simply don’t have that capacity.
