What is Human Resource Management?
Human Resource Management involves the recruitment, selection and management of the people who work in an organisation. The focus of Human Resource Management is to attract, select, train, motivate and compensate employees, while making sure that they comply with employment legislation. A team of professionals cannot be built by an early years’ service without good Human Resource Management. As a result, businesses with good Human Resource Management (HRM) have higher profits and better quality than businesses without or with poor HRM.
Benefits of Good Human Resource Management
Research shows that the human part of resources in an organisation makes up for approximately 80 percent of the organisation’s value, so good Human Resource Management is very important. Employees are a critical factor of any business. Successfully managing the human resource part of business can be important, even for very small businesses. After all, in a service economy, employees are part of the delivery of the product and service. Their performance, commitment and loyalty to the job are critical and can be enhanced through successful HRM. In the most general sense, HRM serves to motivate employees to top performance and maintain an organisational culture of high morale.
Main Elements of Good Human Resource Management
KCCC in recognition of the value, benefits and impact that good human resource management practice add's to early year’s services developed a Human Resource and Leadership Training Programme in Childcare Services with Orla O’Carroll of Orla O’Carroll Ltd., Training Mentoring and Skills Development. This training was provided to services in Kildare in 2014 and 2015. The programme has been a great success with strong positive feedback from participants. In 2015 this programme was developed further to incorporate an additional module on Communication and Assertiveness, as participants identified this as a training need.
The following are testimonials from participants on the Human Resource and Leadership Training Programme
I attended the HR training provided by KCCC and delivered by Orla O Carroll.
The training was presented very efficient and in an informative way suitable to my service.
I found the training so relevant to our sector, as at the moment our sector is changing so fast and communication skills are so important when dealing with the relevant stakeholders.
Effective communication can have such an impact on how we operate our service when dealing with practitioners, children and parents. 
Kathleen Cash, Tir na nÓg Early Years Care and Educational Service
I found this training very beneficial for the effective running of our service, it made me fully aware of having all policies in place
and up to date e.g. employment contracts. It also gave me the skills to manage and motivate staff in our service, it showed me the importance of regular staff meetings in order to deal with any problems as they arise, the value of appraisals, it has shown me the importance of induction procedures when new staff start as it covers all areas from our policies and procedures to working with parents and children, child protection and health & safety.
I established from this training that in order to be a good leader it’s very important to be a good communicator; it has given me the skills to be more assertive in managing our service to the best of my ability.
I have to say that from attending this Human Resources & leadership Training for Childcare Services there was so much to take in that I was never aware of, but with the help of facilitator Orla O’Carroll and Kildare County Childcare Committee this has helped me greatly going forward.
I have put into practice what I have learned and have had to address my weaknesses in order to improve my performance, every day there is something new to be learned but I appreciate this training going forward as it has given me to skills I require to do my job effectively.
Valerie Ryan, Little Angels Childcare
My name is Martina and I first opened the doors to my Montessori School in September 1993, since then I have participated in numerous amounts of programmes/courses, and every now and again one comes along and it makes me “sit up and take stock”. The KCCC Human Resources and Leadership Programme for Childcare Services is one such course. The facilitator of this course is Orla O’Carroll and from the second she introduces herself, you discover, a warm, friendly and very informative lady.
Unlike many of the other courses I have attended I found Orla’s approach to be different, she is able to cross blend abilities to the point that nobody feels left out. It doesn’t matter whether you employ one person or twenty people, Orla has the ability to pinpoint if a person is underachieving and she provides you with a set of “Working Procedures” that will allow you to run your business in such a way that you will be able to avoid unnecessary conflict, or ever have to face dire consequences. Orla enables you to understand the importance of policies and procedures and HR practices within your service.
I am now midway between KCCC and Orla’s Communication and Assertiveness Training and this course is a great follow up to the HR courses as it focuses your “Positives”. Orla believes in strengthening your self-esteem and this in turn empowers you to face both your private and business life in a far more positive way.
To Fidelma and all the staff of KCCC, thank you for your funding assistance as this enabled me to participate in these wonderful courses.
Martina Stokes, The Children’s Circle Montessori
LOOK OUT FOR THIS VAULABLE AND ENJOYABLE TRAINING IN 2016!!