Free Human Resources Classes

Internet HR Courses

Free human resources classes let you gain the educational background and training to manage the human element in a corporate workplace. Personnel motivation and workforce retention are important to both small businesses and major companies alike, because the cost of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and (especially) training new employees is high. It's best to find good employees, manage them well, and keep them for the long haul. Human resources is a major part of any business's ability to retain their prized employees and managers. But you might be wondering what the mysterious HR department actually does around the office.

What Does "Human Resources" Mean?

If you're new to a corporate environment, you may not know exactly what the human resources department does at your place of work. Human resources or "HR" is a concept first discussed in the 1960s. Over the years, a number of terms were used to describe this function in corporations, whose main goal was to improve the workforce and gain a competitive advantage through improving the human element of the business. In time, the term "human resources" came to be the accepted name for this part of a company, first in America and later around the globe. These days, virtually any corporation is going to have an HR department. Though different business organizations have different methods of handling their workforce, below are the common functions of most human resource components.

Functions of Human Resources

• Employee Motivation and Morale-Building
• Retention of the Workforce
• Employee Record-Keeping and Confidentiality
• Workforce Analysis and Performance Management
• Conduct and Behavior Management
• Personnel Data Management
• Training and Development
• Employee-Industry Relations
• Workforce Awareness of Local, State, and Federal Regulations (labor laws)
• Business Development and Organizational Design
• Employee Benefits Package Management
• Employee Compensation and Recruitment

With the above information in mind, you'll see that many free online management college courses include training for human resources management. If you want to become a member of the HR department of the business where you work, ask your supervisor to provide you with the qualifications your company looks at when they hire for this career. Use these to build up your resume. If you want to train for human resources development and have no connection to a corporate workplace at the moment, you'll want to get a well-rounded HR education background which can translate to many different work environments.

Online Human Resources Courses

Now that you know what you're searching for in classwork, here are a few class ideas to get you started. You'll find plenty of human resources classes for students who don't have a lot of excess money, who don't want to run up huge student loans, or who want to study online for free. These are some of the best.

Training and Human Resources is an OpenCourseWare course from the University of California Irvine about the training process in a business. You'll learn how a human resources department develops, implements, and evaluates their training programs. You'll be given hands-on experience in lectures and class-room discussions, including sample HR training sessions in class.

People and Organization is an MIT undergraduate course for managers and human resource employees which explores the evolution of organizations and how people work inside them today. Tools researched in this course include teamwork, leadership, interactive exercises, simulations and problems to develop critical skills in negotiations.

Managing and Managing People is more of a course about management itself, but because of the personal aspect of honing people management skills, it can be a useful tool for human resources managers. You'll take a look at the concept of management itself, including the skills a manager needs, what a manager does for a business, and the development process of a good manager.

Business Culture takes a sideways glance at the concept of culture. Instead of looking at the culture in neighborhoods, cities, and nations, this course takes a look at the culture of organizations and corporations. Think of any business you've worked at and you'll realize this company had its own unique culture which guided how it marketed its product or service, how it handled customer relations, and how it handled relations between employees and management.

Recruitment and Management is a study of how companies and managers recruit new employees and hire from within to fill important management positions. This course is about decision making, evaluating employee performance, and creating policies for advancement in the company.