Human Resource: Areas of Investigation
- Job Satisfaction
- Cultural Diversity
- Protected Class Employees
- Compensation Plans
- Recruiting Strategies
In addition to personnel issues such as recruitment and training, there are several areas of human resources research that HR teams often partake in as well. Investigations help human resource staff improve HR procedures and processes, and this, in turn, helps to ensure that companies run smoothly. While there are many topics that HR teams may examine, five of the most common (and highly important) areas are discussed below.
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1. Job Satisfaction
One very important and common area of human resource exploration is job satisfaction. Employees perform their best when they are satisfied with their jobs. They are also more likely to be loyal to their employers if they enjoy their work. But just what makes employees satisfied with their positions? Exploring this query can help HR teams determine what employees need and want while on the clock. When exploring this area, human resource personnel may choose to conduct interviews individually or in groups. They may also examine similar businesses to determine what keeps other companies’ staff members happy and satisfied.
2. Cultural Diversity
Another area that is commonly explored by human resource professionals is cultural diversity. Not only are work environments becoming highly diverse, but with globalization, there is a need to understand persons of different cultures overseas as well. As an article published on the website known as Small Business Chron explains, understanding and managing cultural diversity is especially important for companies that operate in other countries. Exploration in this area often involves determining effective cultural sensitivity training programs for the workplace.
3. Protected Class Employees
Examining the procedures involved in eliminating discrimination among protected class employees is also a common area of exploration for HR departments. Typical things that are explored in this area include whether or not there have been discrimination suits filed against the company, how these problems have been handled, and whether or not solutions have been effective. Examining standard procedures and comparing them with effective procedures used by similar companies can help HR teams in this area as well. Since discrimination suits can pose serious consequences to businesses, this topic is highly important for companies both large and small.
4. Compensation Plans
Because appropriate compensation plans are among the many factors that can help to keep employees satisfied, this is another very common area of exploration for human resource personnel. Researching compensation plans typically involves examining job descriptions and comparing them with the going rate for such roles. It may also involve adjusting job descriptions, comparing salaries to that of similar roles in similar companies, adjusting compensation, and researching benefit plans by interviewing employees about what types of benefits they would like or need.
5. Recruiting Strategies
One of the most important jobs of any HR professional is to locate new talent that will benefit the company. Because of this, recruiting strategies is yet another common area of human resource exploration. HR teams must explore various options for locating top talent. They accomplish this by examining the company’s needs and the available pool of local job candidates. They must determine how they can reach this pool of persons, what platforms they should use to advertise open positions, and what would attract the best talent possible.
Human resource teams are responsible for much more than simply recruiting and training new staff members. They are also often responsible for researching various areas of interest that will benefit the company as a whole. Although there are many areas of human resources research, the five areas described above are some of the most common.
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