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In his celebrated work “The Human Side of
Enterprise”, Douglas M. McGregor, an American Management
theorist, has defined human resources management as the task
of harassing human energy to organizational requirements.
The objective of the Department of Human Resources is to
maximize the return on investment from the organisation’s
human capital, while at the same time creating room for the
employees to attain other social and individual needs.
2.
From the fore-going definition, there can be
no gain saying that the
human resource is the most vital resource at
the disposal of any organization. This view equally
underscores the crucial role of the department responsible
for this resource in the scheme of affairs of any
organization.
3. In virtually all formal organizations,
the Department of Human Resources is traditionally and
conventially charged with five broad functions. These are
recruitment, compensation, performance, appraisal and
industrial relations. The Department has the responsibility
of ensuring that well qualified and competent hands are
hired to perform the various roles required for meeting
organizational objectives. Since the employees are out not
just to achieve organizational goals but also satisfy
personal needs, they need to be compensated for their
labours. The performances of employees need to be appraised
on a periodic basis to identify strengths and weaknesses.
High points attract rewards by way of promotion, while
weaknesses are remedied through structured training
programmes.
4.
The Department of Human Resources is one of
the three Departments created from the former rather
elephantine Department of Administration. The two others
are the Department of Administration and General Services
and the Department of Conference. The Department, along
with the Department of Finance, are under the supervision of
the Commissioner for Administration and Finance. Finally,
since disputes are sometimes inevitable in the
employer-employee relationships, the Department of Human
Resources puts in place mechanism for dealing with such a
situation.
5. As one easily recalls, the Department
of Human Resources is one of the new departments created at
the ECOWAS Commission in the wake of the recent
restructuring of the management of the Community
institutions aimed not only at enabling them play more
effective roles in the integration agenda, but also to
better adapt to developments in the international arena.
Given the enlarged structure (comprising a total of 25
departments) and scope of operations of the ECOWAS
Commission, the critical role of the Department of Human
Resources cannot be over-emphasized.
6. It is against this background that
proposals have been made for a departmental organogram
comprising a Director who will supervise a gamut of
operational activities organized into four Divisions. These
are:
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Manpower Planning and Recruitment
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Reward and Performance
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Human Resource Operations
-
Learning and Development
The Heads of Divisions are proposed to be
assisted by a total of twenty five Professional Officers and
a host of General Service and Auxiliary Staff.
7. Given the enormity of the tasks on the
ground, the need to speedily address the requirements of the
Department of Human Resources can hardly be over-stressed.
However, given the necessary logistics wherewithal, this
Department is poised to avail with ECOWAS Commission a
highly competent and well-motivated work-force who are ready
to give off their very best to achieve a genuinely
integrated and developed West Africa.
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