HR soft and hard
Currently, virtually every major company has an HR department, i.e. a human resource management department. Colloquially referred to as the “right hand of the boss”, which directs him to the best solutions improving the quality of professional life in the company.
An HR employee deals with many aspects – from development issues to purely personnel matters. In much larger companies, HR specialists deal with soft HR and hard HR separately. How do they differ and what exactly do they mean?
Human resources
Human resource management is a very important element in the structure of the company, which falls within the scope of management and the broadly understood organization, the responsibilities of which include recruitment, encouraging professional development, and dismissing employees.
The HR specialist deals mainly with administrative activities – HR and payroll services covering the scope of employment contracts, keeping personnel documentation or settling holidays, sick leaves and benefits. The direct duties of HR specialists also include preparing documentation related to the course of employment, calculating salaries and reporting to relevant offices.
The human resource management department is a kind of bridge between employees and their superiors. The HR specialist must take care of a very good atmosphere in the company and catch all its potential problems. It is not only recruiting candidates for a new position, helping to manage the company. The HR department makes sure that every employee knows their rights and that all work is carried out in accordance with the law. Moreover, depending on the company, an HR employee has many roles that we are often unaware of on a daily basis.
HR soft
As we have presented, an HR employee has a very wide range of duties, which is why employees of this department must have skills in many areas. In addition to an appropriate education, additional knowledge in psychology, sociology or finance and economics is also important. Depending on the predisposition, an HR employee should be assigned to soft HR or hard HR.
Soft HR is related to everything that is called the quality of work of our employees. Beginning with ensuring that each position is held by the person most suitable for it. Therefore, for soft HR, among others dealing with the recruitment and selection of candidates.
Soft HR also includes all tasks encouraging professional development of employees. HR specialists observe what motivates employees and what can improve the efficiency of their work. Soft HR is the broadly understood care for a good atmosphere in the company and help in its best management. Therefore, soft HR also includes employee appraisals and designing career paths for employees.
HR hard
Hard HR is slightly different from soft HR – specialists in this department mainly deal with tasks related to human resources, administration and payroll. This is dealing with signing contracts, checking documents and all formal matters for compliance with the law, as well as calculating remuneration and all kinds of formalities related to holidays and non-working days.
Hard HR is distinguished (compared to soft HR) by the ability to work on special software and knowledge of the law.
The duties of a hard HR specialist also include regular training of their skills in the field of legal regulations and accounting as well as HR and payroll matters, with which they must be constantly up to date.
Hard HR also includes: all formalities related to the termination of an employment contract, issuing employment certificates, preparing and supervising personal files, settling the company’s accounts with all offices or cooperating with state offices and institutions.
Working in the HR department, regardless of the specification, whether it is soft or hard HR, is in fact cooperation with many departments from accounting to administration. Regardless of the size of the company, working in the HR industry is one of the most important jobs.
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