The importance of Human Resources :: Human Resources Essays

The true value of any company in any economy is its people. Could a company survive if it lost all of its equipment, all of its machinery or all of its office supplies? The answer to this question is absolutely, because the employees of the company would pitch in to make sure it survived. On the other hand, could a company survive if it lost all of its employees? These questions emphasize the importance and necessity of people in businesses because without them, the businesses would not be able to run. The importance of human resources is staggering and it acts as an advocate for the most important business resource, people. Without human resources, people would have no incentive or motivation to stay in there jobs I believe there is a clear relationship between the effectiveness of a company’s people practices and the company’s market value. Focusing on people definitely pays off; therefore strong human resource practices have the potential to increase a company’s productivity and profitability. The expanse of issues human resources deals with in a company is extremely large, effecting most if not all aspects of a person’s job. For example, compensation, benefits, harassment, hiring, job evaluation, leaves of absence, occupational health and safety, vacation, retirement, education and training are just a few of the topics human resource professionals deal with on a full time basis. Can you imagine working in a company where there was no person or group of people to turn to with a question or concern regarding your job evaluation or career path? What would happen if you felt you were being harassed because of your sex or race at work and there was no human resource department or policy in place against harassment? These questions stress the fact that without human resources in a company, employees would feel unimportant and discouraged as well as other negative feelings. There are endless scenarios that could show the disadvantages an employee would face without human resources and the policies and practices it follows that work to protect and benefit employees. In businesses, incentive programs are almost always coordinated through human resource departments. These programs are very important because they motivate an employee’s job performance or attendance for example. A popular incentive program is for attendance, in this program, an employee is rewarded for meeting certain attendance criteria, for example, not using any sick days in a calendar year.