Human Resources: An Overview

Human resources is a huge field that covers everything and anything to do with people as a business resource. It includes such diverse areas as recruitment and selection, training and development, remuneration and benefits, conditions and opportunities, retirement and redundancy, outplacement and counselling. It is an area of constant change with legal, cultural, ethnic and other diversity issues presenting new challenges daily.
Many people in the Armed Forces see themselves as trained and experienced in personnel issues and the development of the skills of their workforce. There is no doubt that this is true to a large extent, with superb training - in terms of what it is designed to achieve - and that the recruitment, selection, career management and appraisal processes demonstrate a genuine commitment to people. However, many people find that the gap between Service and civilian practice is greater than they imagine, and it can also be difficult to manage 21st-century expectations in a Service environment.
In areas like leadership, recruitment, training and personal development, the Services' record is a strong one and they could fairly claim to be among the market leaders. However, the unique demands of Service life leave many people unfamiliar with topics such as disabilities, trades unions, job-sharing and some of the finer points of employment law.
There is nothing new in much of this. The mixed workforces and more civilian-style working environments that the more technical parts of the Services have managed for years clearly call for a different approach than that adopted by units firmly focused on operations. Individuals quite prepared to react instantly to orders when necessary expect to be part of a consultative process under less extreme circumstances.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is the principal UK body that represents the human resources function. There are other organisations that cover specific areas, but the CIPD takes the lead in people management as a whole. It was formed through an amalgamation of the Institute of Personnel Management and the Institute of Training and Development, with the conditions for joining this new institute tightened considerably as it became more professional.
With over 116,000 members in the UK and Ireland, the CIPD is the largest professional body in the world for managers who are responsible for people. There are training centres close to most major military concentrations, and the qualifications can be obtained through open and flexible learning programmes, which are well suited to a Service lifestyle.
CIPD standards have been developed at three levels.
1 Support level Certificates in: