Human resources today

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The past two decades of market reality have proven the right to exist for modern human resource management services. Of course, there were some kinks. There were both periods of unbridled euphoria from fashionable tests, and bitter disappointment from the worthlessness of Western technologies in Russian reality.

In general, we can confidently say that the transformation of Soviet personnel services into HR departments (departments, and more often specialists in a single person) has been completed. No one disputes their necessity, usefulness and compliance with the new realities. New concepts have appeared and firmly established in society, including human resources, resumes, assessment, competencies, human resource management, outsourcing and many others.

Let's dwell on the first concept - human resources, or human resources (HR). In a broad sense, it means the totality of the labor resources of a country or society, in a narrower sense, the competent personnel of an organization. In domestic practice, the term "personnel" is often used as a synonym, although in Europe and the USA this term was used mainly in the middle of the 20th century. The term "human resources" characterizes the emergence of a new, more humane, paradigm in the contradictory relationship between the administration (owners) and employees. In Russia, however, the term HR has not been able to completely replace the concept of "cadres", so beloved by the notorious leader. Here, as nowhere else, the difference in mentality is visible. The word "cadres" means professional military, human resources are reminiscent of machines and mechanisms. The specificity of HR is as follows: it is the only resource that can carry out its work meaningfully and is capable of self-improvement.

Human resources have certain characteristics. Allocate quantitative indicators: structure and number of personnel. With the help of approved methods, the qualification and age and sex structure, turnover rates and absenteeism are determined. Qualitative indicators include: qualification or competence, motivation, potential and, of course, efficiency. Naturally, the former indicators are much easier to measure than the latter. This is the reason why the owners were somewhat disappointed in pro-Western technologies, when it turned out that their thoughtless "copy-paste" increased staff costs and did not lead to real returns.

Human resource planning is an important step for the integrated work of the entire company. After the development of the company's business goals, each structural unit makes the necessarya forecast of the need for personnel, which takes into account the composition, necessary competencies and the payroll of new employees. Based on the data received, the personnel department, using methods such as expert assessments, extrapolation and analysis of staff turnover, draws up a plan-budget for recruitment. The economic recession of recent years has convincingly shown the precariousness of such planning. The mobile world dictates new rules, proven techniques in selection and hiring, training and career development no longer meet the needs of the time.

Revolutionary methods using web-resources have appeared: electronic employment services, Skype interviews, remote access to the workplace. All this leads to a change in relationships: timid sprouts of partnership hatch through the usual directive style of management.