Research Applications

Research Applications

HRM/558

Research Applications

Each company has different goals but they all wind up being the same in the end and that is running a successful company. The human resources department must understand what goals the company has in order to conduct reliable and valid research. Human resources must ask the questions such as why is the company wanting research done? Do they want a better employee pool to hire from? Do they want compliance information? Do they want to know why the employee turnover is so high? Do they want information about the competition? It is important to understand what demands and goals are expected from the research so the right questions are asked. Primary and secondary data sources are great information tools for any research questions that need to be answered. Although they are great data sources, human resources must verify that the information gathered is both reliable and valid.

Goals of Research

Typically the goal of research is to find the answers to the questions being asked. Research is not any different in human resources. The purpose behind research in human resources is the find the answers to questions such as the questions listed above. How to get a better hiring pool, why is employee turnover so high, what is employee turnover like at the competition? In this case high employee turnover will be used to narrow down how research works. The goals of research in this case are to determine why employee turnover is so high. So the questions needing to be asked are not only to the current staff of the company but also to previous employees of the company. The goal is to determine what can be changed in order to lower employee turnover. The company must understand weaknesses in order to accomplish the goal.

Primary and Secondary Research

Primary research is designed to answer specific questions and data is gathered directly from the market or field (Devault, 2013). Primary research can consist of different things like interviews from past and present employees. It can also consist of surveys and observations of current workers. A great example of primary research would be entrance and exit surveys of employees. When an employee works for a company, the company can send out surveys to the employee to see what the opinion is of the work conditions. This can be a completely anonymous survey so employees do not feel targeted. This can also be done when an employee leaves the company. In order to improve, the company must understand why employees leave.

Secondary research is information that is gathered from other sources such as newspapers, internet, and references. Both primary and secondary research is important for human resources to gain all the