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What Is the Importance of Personnel Management?

Esther Ejim
Esther Ejim

The importance of personnel management is related to its relevance in the organization of an effective workforce. A personnel management department of any organization is responsible for human resources and human capital related issues, such as the identification of the manpower needs in the organization, the recruitment of the necessary employees to fill the identified manpower requirements, and exercises aimed at fitting the selected manpower into positions that match their capabilities. The importance of personnel management can also be seen in its efforts toward the improvement of the human capital.

When it comes to manpower planning, the importance of personnel management includes carrying out an analysis of the present and future manpower requirements of the company. A knowledge of the specific manpower needs will help the personnel department know the exact number of employees needed to fill open vacancies and also to make projections regarding the possible future manpower requirement of the company. This knowledge is also necessary for planning the different types of orientation and training for the different types of employees.

Personnel management allows a company to plan orientation and training procedures for new employees.
Personnel management allows a company to plan orientation and training procedures for new employees.

Another role of personnel management is the recruitment of the needed manpower utilizing the information gained during the process of manpower planning. The process of recruiting employees may be from within or external, which involves the use of employment agencies to supply both temporary and permanent employees as well as other forms of employee recruitment drives. For instance, a company could place adverts in different sources like newspapers, magazines and on the radio. It may also engage in direct college recruitments, where representatives of the company would organize job fairs on campuses for the recruitment of recent college graduates. Internal sources of employee recruitment include such processes as the promotion of employees within the organization, the transfer of employees from one division or department to another, and the reabsorption of ex-employees who may have been laid off during periods of downturns in the economy.

Some personnel training methods include workshops, training on the job, and other resources like conferences and seminars.
Some personnel training methods include workshops, training on the job, and other resources like conferences and seminars.

After the selection of the appropriate employees through interviews and various tests, the personnel department will proceed to conduct orientations for the new employees. This also includes an investment in the human capital of the employees through training and further personal development programs aimed at improving the performance of the various individuals. As such, another importance of personnel management is the increase in productivity and output of the workforce through training. Some of these training methods include workshops, training on the job, and other resources like conferences and seminars.

Discussion Comments

David09

@hamje32 - The biggest weakness I see in our organization is the improvement of human capital. Put in simple English, that means training.

Neither I nor any other technical support personnel received any training for our position. We were thrown into it, with minimal documentation.

Yes, we have a few “go to” people we can address our questions to, but they have stuff to do as well. In our company it’s sink or swim.

What’s ironic is that we offer training classes to our customers for our products, but the employees get almost no training. It’s a crying shame, really, and reveals misplaced priorities in my opinion.

hamje32

@NathanG - Sometimes they can’t find qualified people internally. I know a lady who was recruited by a big soda company using an aggressive campus recruitment program.

They interviewed her right out of college and hired her, putting her on a fast track to a management program. This is an intensive program, which lasts a year, where the she spends about sixty hours a week learning the operation of the bottling facility.

She travels with the drivers, meets sales people, visits stores, the whole nine yards. I asked her if there were people internal to the company who wanted the position and she said yes, but none of them had college degrees. What can you do - soften your requirements so that you can hire internally?

She had a degree in Business Management, which was the minimum requirement, a 4.0 grade point average, a high level internship experience and she had lived overseas as well. She was a slam dunk.

NathanG

@Mammmood - Personnel management certainly plays an important role in retention and external recruiting, but I think they should recruit internally first before they go externally.

I’ve seen it once too many times where a company will recruit for a position that another employee could have filled – and wanted to fill – and all it leads to is a sense of resentment towards the outsider when he comes on board.

That’s certainly not fair to the outsider, and it’s not fair to the internal employee either. I think personnel should be aggressive in seeking out internal job applicants for the position they are advertising for.

Mammmood

I believe that one important role personnel management plays is in retention. They don’t do this directly, obviously, but they strive to create an atmosphere where employees feel that they are working at their optimal potential and want to remain with the company.

Businesses have different ways of gauging where employees are at with the firm. I work at a small company and today we were given an anonymous employee survey to fill out online.

We were assured that it was anonymous, and we were asked to state how satisfied we were with our jobs, our pay, benefits, morale, suggestions for improvements and so forth.

The results of the surveys will be compiled and the executives and the personnel department will be having an executive retreat later next month where they will review the answers. The company is growing and so they want to make sure that they meet the needs of the employees.

Mykol

Has anyone ever worked for a company where the personnel management did a poor job of hiring qualified people?

I worked in an administrative position for a small insurance company. While my position did not require any selling, most of the open positions involved some type of selling.

If nobody is selling any product, there is no revenue coming in and the company cannot stay afloat.

The personnel management didn't seem to do a very good job of hiring good sales people. I know there is a certain amount of training that needs to be done, but they also have to have qualities that will help them be successful at selling.

The hiring choices that personnel management make are so important to the overall productivity of any company. If they hire people who are not well qualified for the positions they are placing them in, nobody really benefits.

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    • Personnel management allows a company to plan orientation and training procedures for new employees.
      By: Monkey Business
      Personnel management allows a company to plan orientation and training procedures for new employees.
    • Some personnel training methods include workshops, training on the job, and other resources like conferences and seminars.
      By: goodluz
      Some personnel training methods include workshops, training on the job, and other resources like conferences and seminars.
    • A personnel management department of any organization is responsible for human resources.
      By: Jeanette Dietl
      A personnel management department of any organization is responsible for human resources.
    • Personnel management can help ensure employee productivity.
      By: apops
      Personnel management can help ensure employee productivity.
    • Personnel management can ensure adequate staffing to meet workload demands.
      By: Photographee.eu
      Personnel management can ensure adequate staffing to meet workload demands.