Abstract
Human Resource Departments have grown a lot over the years, and have expanded their job duties to include things such as law knowledge in the workforce, ethics, training, etc. This paper will discuss how globalization, technology, diversity, e-business, and ethics have helped steer HR into that direction.
HR Roles and Responsibilities
Human Resources used to be seen as a department that solely tracked employee records. Over the last few years they have evolved into so much more due to changes in globalization, technology, diversity, e-business, and ethics. They are now responsible for things such as benefits, law interpretation, job descriptions, incentives, hiring processes, etc. The many sects that Human Resources can be identified with can be seen in Figure 1 (Noe, Hollenback, Gerhart, & Wright 2003).
Figure 1 Human Resource Management Practices
(Noe, et al pp. 5)
Globalization has drastically affected the way that companies conduct their businesses. Due to the fast and vast expansions, more and more companies are discovering that they need to keep up to date with the numerous employment laws in different states, and even countries. The majority of HR departments have adopted this task. They keep track of things such as the different wage and hour laws for the different regions where employees work.
Globalization has also affected the typical hiring process. Instead of just advertising open positions in local newspapers, companies can now post positions on numerous websites such as hotjobs, craigslist, monster.com, etc. Advertising can now reach more people to get a better pool to interview from. This was all made possible thr ...