One area where companies both large and small commonly outsource large areas of responsibility is Human Resources. Although every hiring company has a Human Resources function, it is usually only the tip of the iceberg with regard to how much Human Resources work is really being done on behalf of that company.

Even our largest firms, who may have the wherewithal to hire a full staff, recognize the value of outsourcing. Most of them will outsource certain Human Resources functions such as payroll. In this case, the payroll company keeps a database of the company’s employees with all the necessary data to process their payroll, such as withholding rates, social security number and other deductions. Each pay period the company forwards relevant period information to the payroll company. This would consist of hours worked, vacation or sick time used, new or terminated employees, etc. The payroll company produces the checks or deposits for each employee. It takes care of the tax deposits for the company and sending any other deductions from payroll to the proper recipients. It then sends W-2′s to employees at the end of the calendar year and provides the company with various types of reporting.

This kind of work takes a bit of processing power and would require each individual company to invest in expensive software to track everything properly and legally. It’s more efficient for a 3rd party to do it for many companies. Outsourcing reduces overall costs and increases efficiency and accuracy.

Another Human Resources function that is often outsourced is hiring. This can be done in different levels. For example, one company may hire an employment agency to do the initial screening of candidates just to make sure everyone the company sees meets a minimal set of requirements. The company will take the next steps of interviewing and choosing the new employee. In other cases a company could hire the employment agency to do the entire process and present them with their new employee. This is rare for permanent positions, but is often used for temporary employees.

The initial screenings are the most time consuming part of the employment process. Depending on the job, there could be hundreds or even thousands of resumes received for a particular job. Going through these to ascertain the candidate meets the minimum requirements for the job is not difficult work, but is time consuming and tedious. Rather than spend its time and money on this function, the company recognizes that paying others to do it is the financially sound thing to do. At that earliest stage of the process, the outsourcing firm needs only to know about the company and the needs for this position and, with their interviewing expertise, can choose excellent candidates without first hand knowledge of the company or working environment.

Outsourcing is a necessary component of a profitable company’s business plan. By choosing wisely, a company can be more profitable and efficient by letting other companies take some of the load.

The Human Resources department, which houses all the Human Resources jobs, is so important because it looks after the most important resource in the company – the employees. The Human Resources department, or HRD as it is commonly known, is the department that first contacts the employee, carries out the interviews, decides which employee is best for the company’s interests and finally hires them.

Searching for the Best

This is the most basic of the responsibilities of the HR Department. The searching is a umbrella term for an activity that comprises of interviewing, deciding, escalating the best resources to the required department heads, handling the financial aspect of the hiring and ensuring that the best resource joins the company within a logical time frame.

Retention of the Best

Once the company has hired the best resource, it is important that the resource feels like retaining themselves with the company. For this, the HR Manager and Department has to come up with several program and bring them forward to the management. This is another critical responsibility area of the Human Resources department.

Enhancing the Rest

It is not always possible to get the best of the resources. Sometimes, the company has to compromise and get the resource that is available in the market. In such times, it is the responsibility of the HR Department to ensure that the resource is honed and trained into becoming a kind of resource that adds more value to the company’s productivity. This also means that the company has to keep an eye of the progress of a resource in the company, so that they can inform the management about employees who are not up to the mark or do not seem as enthusiastic to work as the others.

Letting Go

All companies make good and bad decisions. It is only the companies that have the potential to take the bad decisions in their stride that will progress and move ahead with times.

If the company has made any bad decisions in hiring resources, it is the responsibility of the HR department to inform the resource about the same and ensure a safe and streamlined parting of ways between the company and the employee. The Human Resources Department will have to look into all the aspects pertaining to the company as well as the employee and ensure that the parting of ways is without incident for both the company as well as the individual.