It has long been recognised that the most vital ingredient in business success is people. It is people who have good or bad ideas, people who take good or bad decisions, people who perform well in their jobs well or who perform badly. As a result, the recruitment, the correct placement and the development of staff, as well as ensuring they harmonise with the ethos and culture of the company, is seen as key to ongoing growth.
In the modern organization these tasks are the responsibility of Human Resources. The fact that the department has been renamed (from the more impersonal 'Personnel') illustrates the wide understanding that success rests on this investment in human capital. Theories of Human Resource management are had a transformative effect on business culture in the past three decades, and have played an increasingly prominent strategic role.
Consequently, the profession has grown in stature, attracting the brightest talent and paying hefty salaries - understandable perhaps given that HR folk have a key role in setting pay scales. Modern business in short needs HR and the role it performs in order to function effectively.
If you are embarking or thinking of embarking on an HR career, you need to understand how HR works, what it does and how it dovetails with other business functions. You need to get up to speed on the theories of Human Resources that govern thinking in the industry and the analytical tools used in the job. The most efficient way to do this is through a good quality accredited course of study and there is a flexible and versatile range of HR courses online to help you get up to speed. The advantage of an online course is the total flexibility it offers, with students able to study when, where and at the speed they wish, whilst still receiving support and help from tutors via online learning environments such as Moodle.
Edexcel, an acknowledged global leader in business and management education, provides a range of HR courses designed to cater to the differing aims of people wishing to further their HR knowledge. Students may dip their toe into the water by taking a level 5 Award (consisting of two modules) or a Certificate (three modules). The shorter courses concentrate on taking a broad look at HR, the principles that guide the discipline and the basics of selection and recruitment procedures. It is possible to convert either of these qualifications into a full Level 5 Diploma, or an HND, by taking further modules. In later modules, students look more closely at how HR works alongside other functions such as finance to deliver strategic objectives, as well as studying in more detail how staff are developed and how industrial relations are managed.
For more information about the full range of online Edexcel courses, click here.
