General HR Questions Relevant to Organization, Essay Example

What type of business is this organization?  In what industry does this business compete?

Red Run Golf Club is a traditional country-club style organization. It offers a range of services, facilities, and amenities for its members, including golf, tennis, and swimming. Red Run also offers a complete array of hospitality services, hosting a restaurant, several bars, and full-service banquet facilities. In addition to the golf facilities available for members, Red Run has also hosted a number of PGA tournaments and other special golf-related events.

How is the HR function or department organized to carry out the objectives of this organization?

Much like the amenities Red Run offers, the club has a fairly traditional HR structure. There is an HR Director who oversees the entire HR department, and the various department managers of the golf facilities, the restaurant and banquet facilities, and the tennis and swimming facilities each coordinate with HR to ensure proper staffing levels, develop and implement training programs, monitor worked hours, and other HR-related operations.

What was your role in the HR function?

I served as an intern in the HR Department, which allowed me to gain experience across multiple operational platforms.

Describe your job responsibilities

The position of intern in the HR Department does not have a specific or limited range of responsibilities. What I found rewarding about the internship was that I was given opportunities to offer ideas and implement a number of programs on my own. The HR Director had a list of functions that required attention from the department, and I was able to coordinate my efforts with the Director to focus on those that best suited my interests, while also being presented with challenges in which I learned new skills. This included such things as developing an entrance manual for incoming seasonal employees that provided information about the organizational culture, rules and regulations, and specific job duties. Other tasks related to new hires included the provision of training manuals, completion of insurance forms, and training employees on the MICROS system. As the end of the season approached, I was directly involved with coordinating retention programs and conducting exit interviews. Other tasks and responsibilities included assisting with weekly payroll, running reports related to work schedules and absences, and developing a spreadsheet for racking wages for tipped employees.

What did you learn about HR from working in this job?

The overarching lesson I learned from this internship is that HR serves as the heart of a well-run organization. Ultimately, any organization strands or falls on the strengths or weaknesses of its employees and managers, and there are myriad details that must be attended to every minute in order to ensure a smooth operation. Working in HR requires the ability to quickly shift gears in order to meet the needs and expectations of many different types of people. On any given day I might interact with everyone from full-time managers to seasonal workers at their first jobs, and it is imperative to understand how to react and respond to situations that are constantly changing.

How did your HR coursework assist you in performing the functions of your job?  If not, was there coursework that would have been helpful?

The most valuable part of the HR coursework is that it gave me a sense of the broad scope involved in working with people, such as the detailed functions of training, regulatory procedures, insurance implementation, and the other practical matters involved in HR.

What other functional area of HR did you learn about that weren’t directly related to your position? For each area, tell me a little bit about what you learned?

While my primary focus was HR, I had extensive contact with department managers and employees in each department. In a sense, all of their concerns relate back to HR in some capacity, but each department has its own specific concerns. For example, the hospitality-related departments (such as the dining and bar facilities) are particularly concerned with hiring and retaining employees who have strong people skills and who can deliver great service to the members and their guests. The groundskeepers, on the other hand, are less concerned with direct member contact, and more concerned with hiring employees who have specific skills related to their positions. I also gained insight into how an organization such as Red Run Golf Club has a broad array of stakeholders; unlike a typical restaurant or bar, the members of Red Run also have a sense of pride, ownership and involvement the organization. This gave me a new perspective on how the functions of HR extend far beyond just the matters of hiring, training, and retaining employees.

What is the relationship between the HR functions and other operations of the organization in the administration of HR policies and practices?

The HR Department is vertically integrated in the organization, and coordinates its efforts both with senior management and administration and the individuals department managers. While the HR Department develops and implements policies and practices, it is the responsibility of each department manager to oversee most day-to-day HR functions.

In your opinion, what is the perceived importance of the HR function or department relative to other functional operations of the organization? Give me an example to support your position.

The perception of the HR Department at Red Run is that it is a vital, integral component of the organization. In this field it is imperative that all employees represent the club well, so hiring and training are central to the organizational mission. Moreover, since many of the positions are seasonal and many employees are young, it is necessary to have a strong recruitment program. Red Run also hosts many visitors, both on an individual basis and in terms of the various tournaments and events that take place there. This requires that the coordination between seasonal and long-term employees is well-integrated.

What recommendations do you have (if any) for reorganizing the HR function?  Why?

For the most part I found that the HR Department functions remarkably well, especially in light of the fact that there is a significant amount of seasonal turnover. That said, it might be possible for the organization to focus more on retention by offering greater incentives to returning seasonal employees.