A Human Resource (HR) report is a strategic tool that highlights HR metrics and data about the organization's human resources and HT activities. Human resource management reports are important documents for shareholders and those who manage firms and corporations.
As a business or Human Resource Management student, you might be assigned to research and write an HRM report for a specific organization such as Google, Costco, Tesco, Amazon, Meta, X, Tesla, etc. If you are taking CIPD, you will most likely write an HR report.
In this in-depth guide, we highlight the practical details of writing reports in human resource.
A human resource management report, otherwise known as an HR or HRM report is a formal document that highlights the metrics and data relating to the workforce, HR practices, and HR policies of an organization. It focuses on aspects such as recruitment and selection, training, organizational performance, crisis management, communication, performance evaluation, appraisal, employee relations, and compliance with regulations, among other critical human resource (HR) aspects. It presents a comprehensive analysis of the HR functions to aid management in making informed and evidence-based decisions.
HRM reports are critical tools used in:
As a professional or student, you will encounter different types of HR reports, each designed to serve a specific purpose and ultimately unlock the full potential of an organization's workforce.
There are two main categories of HR reports: general and specialized.
General HR reports, including headcount, monthly, annual, and board reports, present every detail about the organization holistically. On the other hand, specialized or focused HR reports focus on specific aspects of the state of HR efforts to help stakeholders understand the depths of workforce management from certain lenses.
There are several types of specialized reports in HRM, each focusing on a specific aspect of human resource management. Let us explore each:
Unlike essays that have a similar structure across different disciplines, reports are subject-specific. A report in human resources management class might deal with a specific organization (case study – hypothetical or real) or a specific generalizable organizational problem.
If your professor or lecturer gives you a report format, it is always best to adhere to it. Also, if you are writing a general report, you should provide company information, details of the process and its background, incidences and discussions, and potential solutions.
If you are writing an in-depth report, it should feature a title page, executive summary, table of contents, list of figures, introduction, methodology (optional), process and background, discussion and findings, recommendations, conclusion, references, and appendix (optional).
The title page is the first page your audience interacts with when reading the report. Being the face of the report, it must bear information about yourself, your institution, your professor, and the assignment. If it is a real-life organization, you have to use a visually catchy title or cover page for your HR report. If you are a student, make sure to include the title of the report, your name, the name of your professor, university, or college, department, and the date of submission. It should align to the formatting styles such as APA, Harvard, Chicago, Turabian, Vancouver, or Oxford, depending on the specifics of the assignment.
Like most report executive summaries, you should highlight the key information about the report in this section. Ensure that the scope, objectives, problems, purposes, methodology (research methods and data analysis methods), findings, discussion, conclusion, and recommendations are included. The executive summary should just be that, a summary. It should be clear and concise. The target audience reading your report’s executive summary should be acquainted with the topic and its contents to interest them more in reading the entire report.
A detailed table of contents shows the respective sections of the report. The table of contents contains the sections, subsections, and links to the respective pages. Generate it using the word processing program you are using, such as Microsoft Word for Windows or Pages for macOS and iOS devices.
If your HR report concerns a real-world organization or business, you might need to include a few figures. You can include all the figures here or as part of your appendix in the later sections.
The introduction of the HR report should comprehensively provide information about the topic and scope of the report. Give a reason for your selected topic or HR issue and highlight the importance of having solutions for it. Connect your ideas to the organization's HRM and SHRM practices. You should also introduce the organization and give insights into its workforce.
Highlight the main aim of the report so that your reader connects your introduction to the rest of the paper. Here, highlight both the general and specific aims. It helps to define the scope of the paper.
The methodology section is optional. As such, some professors will need it included, especially if you have researched the organization of interest. In this section, present information about the methods of data collection and analysis that you used. If you used qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research, you should highlight it. Highlight how you requested permission from the organization and detail the approval and research processes. Some of the qualitative methods include observation, case studies, literature review, focus groups, case studies, ethnography, grounded theory, and phone interviews. The quantitative methods include surveys, content analysis, experiments, questionnaires, and structured observations. Focus on using the appropriate business research methods. Also, highlight how the data was cleaned, safeguarded, and analyzed.
If you are writing an HR report based on a case for a real company, it is important to give a background of the organization and processes or situations that happened before. Doing so helps you to convince the readers that the report is worth reading. You can include facts, including interviews with co-workers, internal memos, newspaper or magazine snippets, and emails as well as other relevant pieces of evidence that set the context of the report. If you are given a case study, read about the issue and include evidence from the case study document. This section applies mainly to writing a report based on secondary research. It then substitutes the need for a methodology section. We have seen the CIPD HR report assignments of this nature.
This section of the Human Resource report presents the results of the analysis. It reflects on the issues uncovered in the data collection of background stages. It also highlights the scope of the problem, using supporting statements of evidence.
You should report and provide evidence from peer-reviewed business journals, articles by credible institutions or qualified HR experts, government documents, or company documents. You should also give context to your findings by highlighting how they are relevant to current trends and changes in the business environment.
Present the analyses and interpretation of the available data. Draw meaningful conclusions and propose some remedies so that the workforce moves in line with organizational objectives.
This section, if done well, should convince your readers that your report is sound, which automatically earns you a great grade.
A great human resource report provides certain recommendations for the HR department. This is the call to action section of the report. Give a rationale for every recommendation you provide to prove its efficacy. Even when recommending, it is best to research the best practices for implementing the recommendations as have been applied by other organizations.
The conclusion section is the last written section of the report. Here, you should summarize the issue or problem, the solutions, and the recommendations. It should be at least 10% of the report’s word count.
This section of the report should contain supporting visual information such as tables, diagrams, pictures, questionnaires, and scripts for interviews; any document you used in your research. It contains materials that are otherwise text-heavy or could have taken up so much space when included within the report’s body. Creating a separate section helps to reduce the bulk of the report. You should include a number that the reader can reference when reading the report.
This is the very last section of the report. It contains a list of the sources used to write the paper. As a student, format this section according to the style you used to format and style the paper, such as APA, MLA, Harvard, Vancouver, or Oxford citation formats.
Some of the credible organizations you can cite in your HR report include:
These are top organizations in the USA, UK, Australia, and Canada.
According to our top HR Writers, dividing the phases of writing a report into three might make it easier for you, especially if you have a short deadline or a long deadline with other personal stuff to handle.
During the prewriting phase, you need to do three important things:
When writing the report, and assuming that at this stage you have your outline ready, focus on writing first and editing later. You are writing an informational report focusing on the HR management practices of a real or hypothetical organization. Therefore, having a concrete writing plan puts you ahead of the game.
Begin by writing the first draft of your report. Focus on filling each section as per the outline you developed. Include the main parts we have discussed above, including the title page, executive summary, introduction, methodology, background and process, discussion and findings, recommendations, and conclusion sections.
As you write, be mindful of your tone; it should be formal. We advise you to use straightforward language instead of using too much vocabulary or jargon that otherwise complicates the understanding of your report. It should be in plain and simple English. Develop the paragraphs of the body of your report meticulously, describing events and processes vividly. It is best to cite your report using appropriate in-text citation styles to qualify your claims and statements.
Related Read: The six stages of writing a perfect paper.
At this stage, you have something you can submit as a draft or use to seek feedback from your peers, professor, or professional editors.
After writing the report, take a short break to catch your breath. It could be hours or days without looking at the paper. Once you resume, read your paper aloud to identify minor and major mistakes. Countercheck the paper against the rubric if provided or the assignment prompt.
During the first reading, you should do it fast to help you identify the mistakes, typos, mismatches, and omissions in the paper. The second reading should help you check if the paper is devoid of mistakes.
You can use online grammar checkers such as Grammarly, Whitesmoke, or Hemmingway Editor, but do not turn on the AI-assistance feature as that would make your paper written by AI and might be flagged.
Pass your paper through plagiarism checkers such as Turnitin, SafeAssign, or any other institution that you use to avoid any form of plagiarism. If there are matches, paraphrase, rephrase, cite appropriately, edit, and proofread again.
As people who have written several reports for our clients, we have a few tips to help you succeed.
As you embark on writing your human resource management report, you should leverage your art of research, writing, and editing. It is never always going to be easy, especially if the report has a longer deadline and you have a lot of other stuff to do.
If you are having trouble choosing the best HR topic for your report, our experts can help.
That is where GradeCrest comes in. We have specialist report writers who have written many human resource reports both for students and for top organizations globally.
Our professional writers can assist you with the HR report writing process. We have experts who are keen enough to understand your unique needs and customize your report accordingly.
If you need affordable help with your paper, place an order by filling out the order form on our homepage.
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