The functions of personnel management may be classified into two categories:

(A) Management Functions

(B) Operative Functions

(A) Management Functions

Management functions of the personnel department may be as under:

(i) Planning:

Planning is a fundamental function of personnel management. It involves deciding in advance what is to be done, where, how and by whom it is to be done. While planning, an office manager projects a course of action for the future aimed at achieving desired results for the organization as a whole and each department within it. Thus merely ascertaining the future is not planning till it is followed by making provision for it. Planning then is just a rational approach to the future.

(ii) Organisation:

It is used in the sense of an enterprise or a business unit. As a matter of fact, it is referred to as the social system encompassing all formal relations and yet another useful way of looking at organisation is to consider it as an essential function of personnel management. In operational sense, organisation may be considered as consisting of division of work among people and co-ordination of their activities towards some objectives.

(iii) Directing:

It is the managerial function consisting of all those activities which are concerned directly with guiding, influencing and supervising the subordinates in their jobs. It is thus performance oriented. Some elements of the directing function of personnel management are:

(a) Supervising the work of subordinates to ensure that their performance conforms to plan.

(b) Maintaining discipline and rewarding effective performance. (e) Issuing orders and instructions.

(d) Motivating the subordinates to direct their behavior in a desired pattern.

(iv) Controlling:

Controlling as a function of management