6 April 2020

What is personnel management and how important is it?

two people converse at an office desk, one holding a pen, both surrounded by documents and a laptop.

Table of contents

Personnel management is one of the fundamental tasks of any human resources department in any company. It encompasses all the tasks related to human capital management The company's own management, from employee management to employee selection and training. 

What is personnel management?

Broadly speaking, personnel management can be defined as the administration of relations between employees and the company. This, of course, covers a wide range of activities, from recruitment and legal aspects, to the management of holiday-related aspects, the management of the work leaves of absence, The Commission's work in this area has been carried out in a number of areas, including payroll-related issues. 

What personnel management is for

Personnel management is a necessary task for the normal functioning of any company, especially in the case of large companies with a large number of employees under their responsibility, as it is necessary to have an efficient and effective personnel management system. streamlined and standardised personnel management that allows to solve all the aspects related to its management. Personnel management makes it possible to organise and simplify the processes related to the relationships established between employees and the company, thereby increasing the efficiency of workers and the human resources department and, consequently, the productivity of the company as a whole. 

As mentioned above, personnel management covers a wide range of activities. Some examples of these most frequently performed activities that fall under personnel management include the following:

  • Drawing up employment contracts
  • Controlling the employee's entry into and termination of employment with the company
  • Carrying out the payment of salaries corresponding
  • Create and manage employee files
  • Identifying the needs of employees
  • Processing employee applications 
  • Keeping records of working hours 

Common mistakes in personnel management

When it comes to personnel management, there are certain mistakes that are commonly repeated during the implementation of personnel management. Some of the most common are the following: 

  • Underestimating the impact of good personnel management
  • Lack of professional and suitably qualified staff in the human resources department
  • Failure to properly classify employees 
  • Insufficient documentation on employees or internal personnel management processes
  • Excessive management activities or activities that are not standardised according to a protocol.
  • Lack of communication between the human resources department and the employees.

Benefits of good personnel management

Good personnel management is linked to a increased employee satisfaction and, consequently, with a higher productivity of these. In fact, good personnel management makes it possible, among many other elements, to adapt what the company offers to the specific needs of each employee. 

A good example can be found in the Flexible Compensation, The new system, an option that allows workers to convert part of their salary into tickets that can be used for various activities and, in this way, increase their purchasing power. This task is executed by the human resources department, and is an example of how good personnel management can help to respond to the specific needs of each employee in a personalised way.

Edenred Spain

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