Human Resources Management and Administration in the Legislature

Essentially, the purpose of Human resource management is to maximise the productivity of an organisation by optimising the effectiveness of its employees. This mandate is unlikely to change in any fundamental way, despite the ever-increasing pace of change in the business world. The basic mission of human resources will always be to acquire, develop, and retain talent; align the workforce with the business strategy; and be an excellent contributor to the business. Major human resources functions include human resources planning, job analysis and job design, recruitment and selection, orientation, training and development, performance management, compensation management, labour and industrial relations and employee health and safety. For all these functions the human resources specialists should develop strategies, policies, procedures and practices that will facilitate their implementation and maintain the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage.

Organisations generate a lot of data from the daily activities that are carried out. The information generated is then kept in records for effective decision-making. Proper management of records and information can help an organisation to be more responsive, efficient and flexible in the face of continuous and rapid changes. Leveraging on technology can enable organisations to produce quality information in terms of timeliness, comprehensiveness and accuracy, thereby minimising erratic decision making. This course is designed for officers working in the Parliamentary registry. It aims to impart knowledge, skills and attitudes that will enable them to effectively manage records and hence enhance productivity in the PSC. A poorly managed registry hinders any organisation from achieving its core mandate, creates loss of vital documents, creates unnecessary delays in locating documents, and portrays a general picture of chaos and disorder. This course is vital in redressing all these anomalies.

The human resource (HR) function of organisations is changing rapidly, reacting to the changes occurring in its operating environment and the rapidly evolving information technologies. Clearly, developments in the information technology field have affected the traditional HR functions and have created significant challenges for HR professionals in adapting technological innovations. To meet these challenges, many organisations have turned to information systems technology. These information technologies have led to a widespread implementation of human resource information systems (HRIS) that allow organisational staff to participate in information sharing and decisionmaking. The primary reason for the increased use of human resources information systems (HRIS) is that organisations believe that automating labor intensive HR functions will help them streamline processes, utilise employees’ talents and skills more effectively, and achieve their strategic objectives. Similarly, organisations contend that the use of HRIS can help attract, retain, and improve the productivity of non-managerial and managerial workers. HRIS systems have reduced administrative costs, and improved the accuracy and timeliness of many HR transactions. HRIS solutions are capable of transforming the traditional HR functions into a comprehensive human capital Course, delivering strategic, financial and competitive benefits. HRIS has recently become vital partners in developing and implementing organisation HR strategies. HRIS provides enormous potential for enhancing productivity of human resources in both public and private sectors. These benefits from HRIS to productivity can be categorised as tangible and Intangible (Barzegar, Araghieh & Asgarani, 2012).

Managing change and ambiguity requires strategic leaders who not only provide a sense of direction, but who can also build ownership and alignment within their workgroups to implement change. Strategic planning is an organisational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that  employees and  other stakeholders  are working toward common goals, establish agreement  around  intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the organisation’s direction in response to a changing environment. It is a disciplined effort that produces fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organisation is, who it serves, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future. Effective strategic planning articulates not only where an organisation is going and the actions needed to make progress, but also how it will know if it is successful.