The Importance and Role of the Personnel Department

Personnel refers to all the people who work for a firm. Most large companies have special personnel departments which are responsible for employer-employee relations. The personnel department is a staff department, which means that it is not directly involved with produc­tion, but that it provides a service to the managers. The most important services which the personnel department provides are recruiting, that is, finding new workers or managers for the company, deciding which company applicants are most suitable for employment by the firm, and developing putting into use and implementing personnel policies and procedures for the benefit of good the company as well as the employees.

Most businesses continually need to recruit good personnel to replace workers who retire or quit and to fill new jobs created when the company expands. After management has determined the goals of the company and the positions needed, the personnel department must find qualified people to fill those positions. Depending upon management policy and the nature of the position, recruiting may be done internally or ex­ternally. Internal recruitment means that the person chosen for the position is selected from the current employees of the company. This is either by promotion or transfer. Promotion means an employee receives a job with more authority and responsibility than his present job. The employee usually expects to receive an increase in salary along with the & new position. A transfer refers to a job or department change for a worker. A transfer without promotion is a lateral transfer. It may involve different working conditions or different hours. Companies that recruit internally often promote internally, which means that the managers have worked their way up from lower positions. It may also mean that the company may hire new employees only at lower positions.

External recruitment means that the company is looking for new em­ployees from outside the firm. All companies do some type of external recruitment. If they are looking for employees with special training or education, they will often recruit at university campuses. They make arrangements with the placement office at the campus to interview graduating students. Sometimes they are seeking top level managers who they will recruit from other firms, often from their competitors. Other methods of recruiting involve the use of advertising in newspapers and professional publications, and even paying a fee or commission to an executive placement service.

Most recruiting involves a job announcement containing a description of the job. The personnel department produces a formal job description. If the firm is not well known, the job description may begin with some basic information about the company and its products. This is usually followed by the title of the position the company wants to fill, for example, Senior Design Engineer or Vice President in Charge of Fi­nance. Then the duties and responsibilities of the job are given, as well as where that position fits in the organizational chart (that is, who the person reports to and who the person supervises). Next appear the qualifications for the job, such as the professional training or skills needed. The salary and fringe benefits paid for by the company should also be mentioned. Finally, the job description will tell the applicant exactly what to do if he is interested in the position.

The personnel department should have a method for choosing the best candidate from among the applicants for the position. In some com­panies this may involve testing prospective employees. Civil service or government jobs often require applicants to compete with each other on written tests. Those applicants with the highest scores are selected for an interview. Other companies may assign points for certain items on the application form, such as experience or education. They may then total the points and select the applicants with the highest totals. After the applications have been evaluated, the best qualified applicants are in­vited to an interview. In the interview the applicant's personality and ability to work with others may be judged.

Some people feel the most important function of the personnel depart­ment is the development of personnel policies. For efficiency and fair­ness, a company should have a specific formal written procedure for dealing with its employees. Otherwise, decisions must be made on a case by case basis, and this could adversely affect employee morale. These procedures should state working conditions, salary scale, and fringe benefits such as paid vacation, paid sick leave, group insurance, pen­sion or retirement plan—all things received in addition to pay. Part of the policy may also include a procedure for notifying employees of openings or promotional opportunities. In addition, there is often a procedure for handling grievances, which an employee can use if he feels that he has been treated unfairly by the employer. All of these items may be part of a union contract between the employer and the em­ployees who are members of a union.