. In simple terms, the Human Resources administration of an organization is the collection of all the work done by the Human Resources department. This department surely does have its hands full! Considering the breadth and sweep of functions it performs, Human Resources administration calls for a certain level of what may be called “general specialization”.

Jack of all, master of all

We use this term to denote both the vast swathe of functions HR performs, as well as to the specialization each requires. The role is akin to that of a consultant physician, who is expected to have in-depth knowledge of each body function, while also being someone who has more than cursory knowledge of each of these. In simpler terms, we could say Human Resources administration is about being the “jack of all”. To facilitate our understanding, we could alter the second part of this expression to “master of all”!

What are Human Resources administration functions?

In a broad sense, everything that HR does is part of Human Resources administration functions. Some of these are:

·         interviewing candidates for filling up positions

·         conducting job induction and orientation programs

·         ensuring that the employee is being given the right information about the organization

·         making sure that the facilities are being extended to the employees

·         taking care of payroll and other benefits such as insurance and other related ones

The role of outsourcing

A new development has been doing the rounds in Human Resources administration, and that is outsourcing. The opening up of the economies of a few third world economies a couple of decades back coincided with the explosion of the Internet. Each complemented and fueled the other, with the result that some organizations are considering outsourcing as a major tool for easing their work.

Pros and cons

The most important benefit of outsourcing is that it brings about huge cost effectiveness. It allows greater efficiency, as HR professionals can outsource their peripheral, routine tasks and concentrate on their core areas. On the flip side, it calls for greater vigilance. To ensure that work is carried out as required; Human Resources administration has to put several processes in place, all of which can be time consuming and expensive. The organization has to decide based on its individual needs about whether to go ahead with outsourcing. If it does; it needs to think of the extent to which it needs to do this.

References:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-human-resource-administration.htm

http://www.citehr.com/242071-core-hr-administration-functionalities.html