While the technological revolution and a booming economy have meant greater opportunities to many in the workforce, it has also brought incredible challenges for human resource professionals. It is these human resource professionals that are charged with the responsibility of keeping companies stocked with highly qualified, well-motivated employees. And they face that challenge in what has become a seemingly hostile environment, at least for Human Resource directors.
It used to be that an HR professional could recruit through traditional means, find people who have worked hard at developing their skills, who had a strong sense of loyalty, and who came from a large pool of potential applicants.
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Not so today. With unemployment at its lowest ebb, with technology providing new resources for applicant and company alike, and with skill requirements changing almost as quickly as computers are upgraded, it would simply be an understatement to suggest that human resources has become an increasingly challenging field.
We explore a number of human resource issues in this special section, focusing on the use of the Internet, and how human resource professionals are coping with a tight labor market.
While many of the medium to larger size companies in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts have sophisticated human resource departments, many companies, smaller ones in particular, don’t. The job of human resource director is left to the company’s chief executive or someone with other duties who has been assigned the task. That makes the job even that much more difficult, but no less essential.
A strong human resource director or department can be critical in recruiting and retaining the highly skilled employees necessary to help a company grow in a more competitive, global marketplace that is being shaped more and more by the changing technology around, no matter what the field.
We hope in this section we provide some resources that prove helpful to all those charged with the responsibility of managing the company’s human resource needs.
Franklin S. Prosnitz
Editor
