In a typical nonunion HRM department, we generally find four distinct areas: employment, training and development, compensation/benefits and employee relations. Typically reporting to a vice president of human resources, managers in these four areas have specific accountabilities.
The Employment Department
The main thrust of the employment function is to promote the activities of the staffing function. Working in conjunction with position control specialists (either in compensation, in benefits or in a comptroller's office), the Employment Department embarks on the process of recruiting new employees. This means correctly advertising the job to ensure that the appropriate skills, knowledge, and abilities are being sought. After sorting through resumes or applications, the employment specialist usually conducts the first weeding out of candidates who applied but do not meet the job's requirements. The remaining applications are then typically forwarded to the line area for its review.
After reviewing the resumes, the line manager may then instruct the employment specialist to interview the selected candidates. In many cases, this initial interview is another step in the hiring process. Understanding what the line manager desires in an employee, the employment specialist begins to further filter down the list of prospective candidates. During this phase, candidates who appear to "fit" the line area's need typically are scheduled to meet with the line manager for another interview.
It is important to note that the employment specialist's role is not to make the hiring decision but to coordinate the effort with line management. Once the line area has selected its candidate, the employment specialist usually makes the job offer and handles the routine paperwork associated with hiring an employee.
The Training and Development Department
The training and development department of an organization is often responsible for a multitude of activities regarding training and developing employees. The training that occurs may be job-specific training or more developmental in nature (depending on whether or not line functions have their own trainers). Their focus, in either arena, is to enhance the personal qualities of the employees such that the improvements made will manifest into greater organizational productivity.
More importantly, the training and development members are often better known as the organization's internal change agents. The role of these change agents, or organizational development specialists, is to help the members of the organization cope with change. Changes that occur in an organization come in many forms. It can be a cultural change where the philosophy, values, and ways of operating are changed by top management. For instance, changing from a production focus of producing whatever the company wants and selling it to the public, to a marketing focus whereby what is produced and sold is contingent on consumer demand, requires a new organizational orientation.
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