Important Principles of Human Resources

Human Resources is the backbone of a company. This is because it takes care of the employees and without the employees, there’ll be no business. HR plays a significant and strategic role in managing individuals as well as workplace culture, especially through a cloud HR system. It should be imperative that the principles that run an HR team shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Andrew Carnegie, a famous industrialist, once said “take away my people, but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on the factory floors. Take away my factories, but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory.”

Keeping these wise words in mind, here are 5 important principles that an organisation’s human resources team should run on:

1. Recruit with Retirement in Mind

Hiring an individual should be done with retirement in mind. This means that when an HR recruiter employs an individual, he or she should do so based on the idea that this person will be with the organisation until retirement. HR should be prepared and willing to guide an employee from training and promotions all the way through to the time of their retirement.

2. Machines Serve People (Not Vice Versa)

In the past, companies would place more emphasis on the machine behind the man. Today, there is a growing recognition that people are the real power who drive an organisation forward. This means that HR needs to place emphasis on the importance of the workforce behind the tools.

3. Hire for Attitude

While skills matter, an employee with a good attitude can take a company further. HR leaders are therefore encouraged to emphasise attitude during the recruitment process because attitude leads to workplace engagement and success. If candidates possess good attitudes, then they will be willing to absorb knowledge, skills, and abilities faster than individuals who are skilled but have negative mindsets.

4. Hire Slow, Fire Fast

HR recruiters need to take their time when deciding on who they should employ. They need to consider which candidates have the right mindset, skillset, and toolset for each available position. But if they discover a few weeks down the line that they have erred by hiring a bad apple, then they must take the right steps to quickly remove the employee so that the individual’s bad habits do not spread.

5. Create Flat Organisations Rather Than Tall Ones

The generations who are entering the workforce today prefer the idea of working with partners than for bosses. This means that HR needs to help shed the idea of building businesses that have hierarchies with a bureaucratic mindset. Flat structures provide rank-and-file employees with the opportunity to have a greater stake in the success of the company. This means that they will work harder to ensure that this success is attained.

Though there are many principles of Human Resources, we have highlighted a few of the most important ones that apply to organisations today. It’s essential that HR practitioners and professionals are aware of these principles so that all stakeholders are treated fairly while they collectively work towards the well-being of an organisation.

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