human resources

plural noun

|Updated on: 22 Jul 2018

Definition of human resources

1 : personnel 1a

hiring more human resources

2 : personnel 2

Human resources will contact you about your interview.

the company's human resources department

Recent Examples of human resources from the Web

To apply, visit the school district’s human resources website.

— scott travis, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Who can become a school guardian?," 13 July 2018
This is a guy who's been demoted by the FBI, who's been criticized by the FBI Director, by the Inspector General, demoted to the human resources and is under investigation for an ethics review.

— Fox News, "UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on NATO, Russia and Brexit," 13 July 2018
Strzok was then abruptly reassigned to a position at the FBI’s human resources division.

— alana abramson, Time, "3 Moments That Actually Mattered at the Peter Strzok Hearing," 13 July 2018
Friedland, who is white, later repeated the word with human resources staff trying to address the original incident, Netflix said.

— candice choi, chicagotribune.com, "Papa John is gone, but his image is still entwined with pizza chain," 12 July 2018
His dedication and commitment has been as integral part of the human resources team.

— hartford courant, courant.com, "Brian M. Kleinhen," 11 July 2018
Hornsey is head of Uber's human resources department and one of the firm's top spokespeople on diversity and discrimination issues.

— NBC News, "Uber's head of HR resigns following racial discrimination probe," 11 July 2018
Hornsey joined Uber from SoftBank, and previously worked in human resources at Google.

— hamza shaban and jena mcgregor, latimes.com, "Uber's HR chief resigns, reportedly after discrimination investigation," 11 July 2018
The school district’s human resources department processes all staff background checks by checking state and federal databases and submitting fingerprints to Accurate ID, a subscriber system, Staples said in a follow-up statement.

— emily k. coleman, Lake County News-Sun, "Newly hired principal gets $15K from Zion school district to resign before starting," 11 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'human resources.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of human resources

1915

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

Financial Definition of HUMAN RESOURCES

human resources

plural noun

What It Is

Human resources is an organizational function related to the procurement and retention of talented employees.

How It Works

All companies deal with human resources in some form or another, even if they don't have dedicated human resource departments. That's because human resources goes far beyond hiring; the function also deals with (among other things) maintaining morale within the organization; creating motivational compensation plans; creating and maintaining performance-appraisal programs; ensuring that important information about benefits, laws, and employment issues is disseminated; and helping employees maintain and develop their skills.

Sometimes the payroll function is part of human resources; sometimes it is part of accounting.

Why It Matters

Human resources recognizes that people are assets rather than liabilities in companies. In order to keep these assets optimally productive, human resources is there to make sure a company hires the right employees, fires the wrong ones, develops employees with potential, keeps everyone happy, and ensures that companies and employees are fulfilling their legal obligations to each other.

One can measure the effectiveness of the human resources function through various ratios such as cost per hire, employee turnover rates, training return on investment (ROI), and benefit costs per employee. However, human resources is as much of an art as it is a science because it deals with some of the more emotional aspects of labor management.

Source: Investing Answers