Is There Really a Need for Human Resource Managers?

Have you ever emailed a resume to a company with high hopes about a job only to be disappointed by receiving a computer generated auto reply that said you were not chosen for the position? What happened to those days when we could speak with human resource managers directly about job inquiries? There were times if you saw a help wanted sign in the window and took it up to the manager your chances of being hired were very good. Now it seems like computers have reduced the workload of human resource managers. It really makes one wonder if we really need human resource managers at all.

Human resource managers are a very important part of the middle management team. They are responsible for hiring, payroll, and benefits. Making sure that the company/organization is fully staffed and properly trained use to be a top priority. Now human resource managers do not have as much responsibility as they use to. Human resource managers use to interview and hire job applicants. Now in most cases they are just responsible for employee benefits such as insurance, deferred compensation, and profit sharing. Most of the preliminary screenings of job applicants are done online. This is not good because human interaction is a very important factor in the hiring process. This is unfair to job applicants. There are still people who either don't have computers or those who have them and are not computer literate. It is impossible for a computer to thoroughly examine an applicant's work ability by means of an online job assessment. This process has to be handled with actual human intervention. Because of computers being used in the hiring process human resource managers have nothing else to do but employee benefits. Human resources is always concerned about reducing organizational budgets, maybe they should consider the possibility of downsizing their own department. If human resource managers are no longer going to be responsible for hiring people, they could reduce their immediate staff. It only takes one person to handle employees insurance, profit sharing, and payroll.

Human resource managers are no longer serving their true purpose. Their most important job task, which is hiring has been taken over by computers. Eventually human resource managers will be obsolete. If computers are already highly used in the hiring process I am sure that they will be used to perform many other job tasks in the future as well.