How to Write a Report in Human Resources Management: Things to Know about HR Reports

Writing guide
Posted on June 23, 2021

Reports in human resources are important for business holders and those who manage corporations and firms. One should definitely know problems that exist within the company and how to make employers work efficiently. One can deal with weekly, monthly and annual reports. They are perfect assistants in finding out key information that reveals problems and ways of their solution. Reports in human resources management answer the following questions.

What are the problem areas?

HR reports help to learn about problems with staff within the company. Due to that, one can track problem issues through analysis and find the best way for their solution. Businessmen can control the situation and choose effective methods to keep successful employees.

Are there any risks inside the company?

Some employees can tarnish the reputation of the company and lead to serious losses. To this category belong 5 categories of people who:

  1. are absent too long during the day regularly;
  2. miss workdays;
  3. provide low-quality service or products;
  4. discriminate against other co-workers;
  5. act as instigators.

What opportunities I can find to improve the income and functionality of the organization or company?

Early diagnostics and monitoring discover conflicts and problems that can affect the organization. Thanks to that, the organization handles the situation and turns disadvantages into advantages.

What is the strategy?

It is very important to know who to hire and who to fire. A well-developed strategy of recruitment and analyzed data about the hired workers help initiate long-lasting and effective cooperation between employers and employees. Consequently, it will guarantee better results and cohesion of the staff.

What can I predict?

Having annual and yearly HR reports businessmen can predict long-term and short-term goals. When one knows one’s strength, the planning will be simpler and more effective.

How to improve communication?

Internal and external human resources should have access to the updated information of the company through real-time dashboards. That will make the communication throughout the company more comfortable and effective.

How to Write a Report in Human Resources Management: How to Choose Topics

Reports in human resource management help to maintain accurate records of employees, identify the best and the worst members of various teams, improve the working environment, and solve conflicts and problems connected with the staff’s quality of work. A student can select a topic that is up-to-date and can intrigue the target audience. Below you can see sample topics in HR management.

  • Team Building: How to Create Favorable Working Environment but Not to Lose Business Grip;
  • How to Minimize Negativity and Create Friendly Atmosphere at Workplace;
  • Is Carrot and Stick Motivation Effective in the XXI Century?
  • Sexual and Race Discrimination inside the Staff: Is It Harmful and Should One Punish the Best Employees for That?
  • How to Retain the Best Employees and Make the Worst Ones Quit;
  • How to Find ‘a Mole’ Who Can Lead to Team’s Breakdown;
  • How to Create Advantageous Admission Policies.

The best option is to select a company, study its current situation, and select the topic that can help in human resources management for the chosen object. For example, an organization suffers losses because of quitting. Consequently, a student should suggest an effective solution that will retain employees.

How to Write a Report in Human Resources: Required Structure to Follow

Unlike essays that preserve almost the same structure for its different types, a report depends on the subject. A report in human resources management can deal with a definite case or present a problem and comment on its solution.

The first type of HRM report is simpler and smaller. It introduces the problem within the company, provides details of the process and its background, discusses the incident and concludes everything. After that, a manager decides what to do to resolve a problem.
The second type of HRM includes more sections and can vary depending on the content. As a rule, it has a title page, an executive summary, an introduction to the report, discussions and findings, recommendations, a conclusion, and a reference section. Sometimes a college demands to include additional sections. You can read about all the possible sections below.

Title page

It is the face of the report. The title page usually has the full name of the university or college and department. Then it presents the name (title) of the report and information about the student. It is important to mention the date (sometimes only the year).

Executive summary

Executive summaries serve to reflect the key information of the report. They summarize the scope, purposes, findings, methodology, conclusions, and recommendations. The executive summary does not give details. A person reads it to become acquainted with the topic of the report and see if the presented data will be worth paying attention to.

Table of Contents

Detailed reports turn out to be lengthy and need a table of contents to guide the reader through the paper. It must contain names of each section and pages.

List of Figures (if required)

If a student is going to discuss the case of a concrete organization or company, he or she should mention information about key figures or parties. If the topic does not deal with some organization, a student will not need to create the list.

Introduction to the report

The introduction gives information about the topic of the report. Students explain the reason for the chosen topic and expectations concerning the solution to the problem connected with the management of human resources. If the report deals with a concrete case, a student should mention participants.

Methodology (if demanded)

Sometimes students are asked to discuss methods they have applied in the process of report creation. There are two types of methods: qualitative and quantitative. The first one deals with interviewing, case studies, literature review, and focus groups. A student uses words to present the results. The second method deals with content analysis, surveys, experiments, and observations. Students use numbers to express the results.

Process and Background (if necessary)

In case a student reports on a case that happened in a particular organization, it will be necessary to provide a background of the process and alike situations that happened before. To sound more convincing, one should add some facts like mails, messages, scripts of an interview of co-workers, etc.

Discussion and Findings

This section reflects the key priorities of the report and ways of a possible solution for the existing human resources management problem. Students should support statements with facts and examples of other cases that happened in some organizations, companies, and firms. Pieces of evidence let the report sound convincing and prove that a student has conducted thorough research.

Recommendations

Reporters should give the most suitable and effective recommendations. It is also important to explain and sum up each recommendation to prove its efficacy.

Appendix (if required)

This part provides supporting information in the form of tables, diagrams, pictures, and scripts of interviews. Such materials can make the text heavy and prevent a student from proper formatting. Consequently, it is easier to create a separate section for them, where each one will have a number. A student should not forget to cite them in the paper and link them to the definite number.

Conclusion

It is a summarizing of the discussed problem, ways of its solution, and recommendations that can help to prevent alike situations in the future.

References

This part gives the list of the applied sources. Students must remember to include each source they have read or cited. These might be dictionaries, various websites connected with HRM, cases, and other related information. Literature must be reliable. Look at the list of useful websites where you can take some information for your report.

Students should remember to format the bibliography section properly. There are 4 major formatting types: MLA, APA, Chicago, and Harvard.

Today the Internet is full of useful tools that help students format academic papers. They are called generators and offer different formatting styles. A person has to select the required format and insert basic information like authors’ surnames and initials, date of publication, the title of the source, and pages (if it is an article in a magazine or a book). After everything is ready, generators need a couple of seconds to present a ready reference. In case it is a web source, a student just copies and pastes the link and a generator fills in the information and provides a reference.

How to Write a Report in Human Resources Management: After-Writing Tips

An excellent report must have catchy content and proper formatting but no grammar mistakes. How to achieve this goal? Professional writers give 5 tips that can help to write a compelling report in human resources management.

Read, Check, Edit, Read Again and Improve

Mistyped words and missed punctuation marks are not welcomed in academic writing. Moreover, everything must be logically connected and clear. To make it real, one should proofread the text twice to be able to find mistakes. The first reading will assist in finding misspelled words, misses comas or wrong punctuation marks, revealing an irrational sequence of facts, etc. The second reading lets a person see if everything is perfect and nothing makes you doubt. For example, some facts might sound unconvincing or confuse the reader.

Use Online Grammar Checkers and SEO Analyzers

Students can search for online editors and SEO analyzers that might point to mistakes and identify the density of the words, keywords, readability, and other important issues. Grammarly and Hemingway applications show what sentences and words to correct, what to add and to delete, how to improve the report and its readability.

Plagiarism Checkers

It is hard to write an academic assignment without good samples. One can find them in magazines, journals, or websites devoted to academic writing or reports in human resources management. Why is it sometimes dangerous to learn someone’s reports? A person risks plagiarizing them.

The easy way to compose a report is to take a template, replace the information with your research, and present it to the college. The easiest way is to copy the ready report and just change the author’s name. This method is called plagiarism. College professors and tutors often ban such papers and can even expel a cheater from the college. Subconsciously, a person can apply typical expressions and extracts when dealing with samples that are available around the world. The report can have something unique but its contribution might be not essential.

What do colleges do to find out the uniqueness of the paper? They use online grammar checkers. They scan papers and the program shows the percentage of the uniqueness. You can also use such tools to find out whether your report is original or not.

Formatting

What does it mean to format a paper? It means that students must use definite margins, type of font, spaces, size of the font, structuring, and presentation of the sources. Consequently, a person has to study the requirements of the demanded format and make the report ‘look’ correspondingly.

Students must also remember to use headings and subheadings to improve the readability and let readers catch the idea of the paper due to logical thematic sections.

Consult Professionals and Fill in the Gaps

Professional writers can assist in reporting. There are writing agencies who can consult in report writing and suggest good ideas for the title selection. Many students have already succeeded in reporting and can help you do the same. In case you have some questions, you are not to be afraid to ask for a consultation.
One more important thing is to make sure that the report does not have information gaps. For example, you can report on the case of racial discrimination among popular American companies. The report will fail if it does not present enough supporting facts. If there is a page or word limit, it will be better to create diagrams and tables using statistics. Numbers can erasure the target audience in the importance of the presented information.

References:

  1. Leonard, K. (2019 8). How to Write an HR Report. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/write-hr-report-45947.html
  2. Top 50 Websites for HR Professionals. n.d. Masters in Human Resources Degrees. Retrieved from https://www.masters-in-human-resources.org/50-online-resources-for-hr-professionals/
  3. What is an HR Dashboard & HR Report? n.d. AIHR Analytics. Retrieved from https://www.analyticsinhr.com/blog/hr-reporting-hr-report-hr-dashboard/
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