Why Is Human Resource Management Important to All Managers?

Why are these concepts and techniques important to all managers? Perhaps it's easier to answer this by listing some of the personnel mistakes you don't want to make while managing. For example, you don't want to:

• Hire the wrong person for the job
• Experience high turnover
• Have your people not doing their best
• Waste time with useless interviews
• Have your company take to court because of discriminatory actions
• Have your company cited under federal occupational safety laws for unsafe practices
• Have some employees think their salaries are unfair and inequitable relative to others in the organization
• Allow a lack of training to undermine your department's effectiveness
• Commit any unfair labor practices

One can do everything else right as a manager--lay brilliant plans, draw clear organization charts, set up modern assembly lines, and use sophisticated accounting controls--but still fail, by hiring the right people or by not motivating subordinates. On the other hand, many managers--presidents, generals, governors, supervisors--have been successful even with inadequate plans, organizations, or controls. They were successful because they had the knack of hiring the right people for the right jobs and motivating, appraising, and developing them.