1. On the basis of your knowledge of the HR profession, its past and its future, advise your friends.
The principles and practices of the human resources profession today were developed over several centuries of labor management dealings and relationships. Some present-day problems are rooted in past practices that date back to the establishment of what started the practice of human resource management.
The need for more efficient, economical, and equitable management of the human resources in business and industry has never been as pronounced as it is today. do not have to worry about not having a job in the future. This human resource management need has been brought about by factors which inevitably affect not only the established structures and ways of doing things within the personnel area but also by the more meaningful and substantial task of managing an organization’s most important asset – the human resource.
Among these factors are: stiffer competition in business; rapid changes in technological, competitive and economic environments ( 2004); the explosion of technical and managerial knowledge; spiraling wage and benefits costs; increasingly complex government intervention in running the business through laws and regulations; the growing strength of labor unions and the felt need in many businesses to find better ways to manage rapidly changing tasks involving the coordination of many diverse specializations.
Traditional functions in personnel such as hiring, wage and benefits administration, and record keeping are still being performed. However, the scope of personnel management has been expanded to include strategic concerns such as, among others, career planning, organizational development, and community relations. This linking of personnel management with the process of achieving the organization’s strategic goal defines the qualitative leap into human resource management.
These factors just mentioned have no doubt been responsible for the emergence of the personnel function as a vital area in the implementation of corporate strategy. Increasingly, business firms are experiencing a very real change in attitude regarding personnel activities. As a consequence of these developments, the systems which now evolve should be responsive to today’s challenges.
As businesses and organizations grow, the functions and volume of work also increase and thus would need help in the management of the various functions. With the rise of large commercial and industrial organizations in the twentieth century, it became necessary to split the functions of the enterprise into the specialized activities or functional areas. Given that there are many factors precipitating the need for human resource functions and management, human resource students can be assured that they will be able to get good jobs in the future.
2. Should any of them rethink theirs plans to join the profession?
As explained in the previous paragraphs, the need for human resource functions and management is steadily rising. We are in an era of organizational revolution marked with rapid shifts in the workforce, changing corporate culture, and changing organizations. The role of human resource professionals is coming to the fore as firms continue to globalize at a pace. Information and communication technologies are transforming organizational structures and business processes, breaking down organizational and geographic boundaries. Businesses, whether large or small, are finding competition increasing at rapid rates as more and more competitors enter traditional markets through the use of technology that were once the preserve of national companies/enterprises. Businesses have realized that without attention to foreign markets and competitors their prosperity and very survival may be at stake (2004).
Given all these situations, the management of people has never been as important and crucial than ever before. Today, it is considered a central figure and the key to productivity and quality especially in a very competitive society. Students taking up human resource subjects do not need to rethink their plans to join the profession.
3. Will there be a profession? Should they make changes in their preparation for their careers?
The human resource function has evolved through many roles over the last hundred years and it must continue to evolve. In many ways, the future of human resource management is now. This is true even if it is still in its developmental stages, though some aspects of it have been around for some 100 years, or as long as there have been modern businesses operating in the global arena (2004). For as long as people are needed in business and industry and in any other organization, the management of personnel and human resources will always be an important unit of management and human resource students will always have a profession. Even small companies have learned to recognize the importance of sound personnel policies and programs which must be implemented and administered by men who have had training in personnel management and industrial relations thus recognizing the functions of personnel management. do not need to make changes in their preparation of careers. They can be assured that when the time comes for them to work, they will be able to get a good job in the field of human resource management. The only question that should be raised is whether these students have what it takes to be a human resource professional. If not, then it is better that they should make changes in the career plans. The question does not lie on whether there will still be a human resource profession, the question lies in whether the individual has what it takes to be a human resource professional.
4. Is it necessary to be a people person?
Since the human resource discipline essentially deals with people, it is only fitting that human resource professionals consists of individuals who are people person or people oriented. Beyond providing for a more conducive work culture, human resource department should genuinely adopt a people-centered approach. This is because the value of human resource amounts to the value of a person, given that the majority of adults commit 20 to 30 years of their most productive years for the benefit of an organization (1998).
It is important to remember that a human resource manager does not succeed by education alone. Personal qualities that specifically address to dealing with people are of paramount importance. The personal qualities regarded as important for success to personnel work include, among other things, the ability to communicate effectively, orally, and in writing. He or she must enjoy what is entitled of the position – he or she must enjoy working with people. The human resource manager must also understand individual attitudes, and prove equal to the problems of the employees and of the employer. The workers will depend very much upon the human resource manager for fairness and proper counseling and guidance; he or she must therefore have a pleasing personality and personal warmth and be approachable to the workers. It is definitely necessary for human resource professionals to be people-persons.
5. Do good accountants make bad HR managers?
Technically, good accountants do not necessarily make bad HR managers. However, given the differing nature of conventional accountancy and human resource accountancy, what could be good in the former could not be possibly good for the later. In a way, good accountant can make bad HR managers when they would follow the conventional accounting methods instead of that which is applicable to the human resource department. To further understand this, the field of human resource accounting has to be thoroughly explained and differentiated with that of the conventional accounting.
The field of human resources management has indeed undergone evolutionary changes from specializing in traditional functions to having greater roles in the life of an organization. One area which is revolutionizing human resources management is human resources accounting.
Human resources accounting is an attempt to estimate the economic contributions of personnel activities and the value of human capital. It is a likewise far flung approach from conventional accounting methods which treat people as “costs” to be minimized rather than to be optimized.
For instance, in the old way of human resource reckoning, training, and development, expenses are treated as costs, and as such, they could lessen corporate profits. Managers enveloped in this framework tend to think that expenditures for training and development should be therefore be put to a minimum.
(1989), one of the known proponents of the movement for human resources accounting said that it represents both a way of looking at human resource decisions and issues, and a set of measures for quantifying the effects of human resources management strategies upon the cost and values of people as organizational resources. Investors need information about their investment in human assets to assist them in making decisions to acquire, retain or dispose of stock. Yet financial statements are so limited in this regard. Conventional accounting treats investment in human resources as expenses, rather than assets and this results in distortions.
According to (1989), the following distortions occur:
Human resources accounting therefore provides vital inputs for more accurate and effective decision making with regard to all aspects related to personnel; acquisition, placement, training, development, and replacement of personnel. It helps monitor and quantify the costs and value of people. Conventional accountants must regard personnel components as assets, not as costs or liabilities, if they are to become good human resource managers.
6. Does advancement lie in seeking an entry level HR position?
Seeking an entry level human resource position opens many doors for the individual. However, advancement is not easily obtained. In light of the rapid shift in today’s organization, the skills required of human resource managers, beginners in the profession and even aspiring students in the discipline, have to be continually adapting and evolving to the field. Employers are placing greater emphasis on business acumen and are automating and outsourcing many administrative functions, which will force many human resource professionals to demonstrate new skills and compete for new, sometimes unfamiliar roles. Human resources management is a very dynamic field that a practitioner has to update himself or herself in all areas of advancement. This may be through associations, conferences, and seminars and from reading materials like journals, magazines, and books.
Those who aspire to leadership roles within the profession will have to become more strategic, more proactive, more involved in the overall business of their employer (2002). To assume a top position where the human resource professional must coordinate all of the activities involved in human resource management, and human resources relations, he or she must prepare for it and make sure he gets the necessary exposure in the technical phases of the job and proper personnel contact with top executives.
A human resource position is also a boundary-less career in which the options for improvement and advancement are limitless. The emerging notions of “internal” or “boundary-less” careers suggest that managers value an assignment for the opportunity it brings for skill acquisition, personal development and career enhancement, even though it may not help them advance within their current company ( 2004). The “internal” career involves a subjective sense of where one is going in one’s work life, whereas the “external” career essentially refers to advancement within the organizational hierarchy.
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