In today’s business world, organizations are more and more dependent on the external and internal environment to be profitable. An organisation is only successful when management and workers are willing to bring their best accomplishment. Therefore it is very important to have a well-functioning human resource department in every organization, which also has an impact on the organizational performance. Human resource is a term with which many organizations describe the combination of traditionally administrative personnel functions with performance, Employee Relations and resource planning. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resources). Human Resources (HR) have never been more necessary. The competitive forces that we face today and will continue to face in the future demand organizational excellence.
By designing an entirely new role and agenda that results in enriching the organization’s value to customers, investors and employees, some of the HR Manager’s roles and responsibilities are as follows:-
Roles of HR Manager
Provide a range of services which support the achievement of corporate objectives as part of the process of running the organisation.
Enable the organisation to obtain and retain the skilled, committed and well-motivated workforce it needs.
Enhance and develop the inherent capacities of people – their contributions, potential and employability – by providing learning and continuous development opportunities.
Create a climate in which productive and harmonious relationships can be maintained between management and employees and ma which feelings of mutual trust can be developed.
Develop an environment in which teamwork and flexibility can flourish.
Help the organisation to balance and adapt to the needs of its stakeholders (owners, government bodies or trustees, management, employees, customers, suppliers and the public at large).
Ensure that people are valued and rewarded for what they do and achieve.
Manage a diverse workforce, taking into account individual and group differences employment needs, work style and aspirations.
Ensure that equal opportunities are available to all.
Adopt an ethical approach to managing employees which is based on concern for people, fairness and transparency.
Maintain and improve the physical and mental well-being of employees.
Responsibilities of HR Manager
Recruitment and selection
Recruitment and selection refers to the process of sourcing, screening, and selecting people for a job or vacancy within an organization. (
Recruitment) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Critical to the successful achievement of business objectives is the satisfaction of current and future skills and knowledge through effective recruitment and selection. In lot of companies, an HR manager plays a large part in the hiring duties in that he/she can eliminate bad candidates and determine who’s qualified to come in for an interview ensuring that the company consistently appoint quality people into value adding roles, which generate increased profitability.
Training/HR Development
Another responsibilities of the HR Manager is that each staff member whether new or old needs some sort of support during their employment. Thus HR will be able to guide staff with their career path and researching certain courses and learning institutes best suited to their work to develop all the necessary skills to achieve high results in the workplace that is development opportunities to enable employees to perform their job more efficiently. Encouragement is a big factor in job training and career courses to stimulate staff in their current role or to further their career options within the company, thus the company has less need to look to the open recruitment market.
Staff Welfare
HR managers are the voice of the employees as they are present at any team or company meeting to make sure any issues concerning the employees have, are taken care of. They are also responsible for training the respective managers in keeping up the morale of the employees and take care of any changes that need to be made. They discuss ways to improve employee attitudes and performance. They are very active in our daily operations and employees know that while HR is a tool of the company, they do serve the employees as well as they gives the employees an opportunity to address concerns about the company and about personnel issues.
Health and Safety
An HR Manager is the person responsible to promote a positive health and safety culture for the benefit of all our employees, visitors and so on and also is committed to creating and maintaining an environment where people can work safely with all relevant health and safety legislation and standards. HR Manager need to continuously develop, maintain and improve management arrangements to effectively organise, plan, control and monitor health and safety risks such as:-
Develop and maintain management systems that establish responsibilities, targets, monitoring methods and a review process of health and safety performance.
Conduct suitable and sufficient assessments of health and safety risks and implement appropriate risk control measures.
Provide health and safety information, instruction and training and where required job specific training for employees on health and safety issues.
Provide adequate arrangements for consultation and communication on health and safety matters to create a positive culture.
Provide and maintain safe and healthy workplaces including adequate welfare facilities.
Provide and maintain work equipment that is safe and does not create health risks.
Safely handle, store and transport hazardous substances.
Motivation of the workforce
Motivation is the will to work. In the workplace, motivation is what makes people want to work. This comes from the enjoyment of the work itself and from the desire to achieve certain goals that is earning more money or achieves promotions (Mancosa 2007:150). HR Managers are the best persons in place to make such achievements occurs. To be successful in an organisation, employees and managers should understand what causes different motivational levels, because the achievements of both personal and organisational goals are important. Motivation in a workplace can produce certain benefits such as:-
Better productivity – this will lead to lower unit cost of production and enable the firm to sell its product at a lower price.
Lower levels of absenteeism – employees are happy with their working lives.
Lower levels of staff turnover – means that less employees will leave the company thus reducing recruitment and training cost.
Good reputation – Happy workers give the firm a good reputation thus promoting the company.
Collective Bargaining/Industrial Relation
An HR person is the person capable of dealing with collective bargaining and has the power to conclude such bargain. Collective bargaining is the process whereby workers organize collectively and bargain with employers regarding the workplace. In various national labor and employment law contexts collective bargaining takes on a more specific legal meaning. In a broad sense, however, it is the coming together of workers to negotiate their employment. The aim of collective bargaining is to reach agreements.
Dismissal and redundancy
No matter what size or type of business a business is, if a company employ staff then there will probably come a time in which it has to let one or more of them go. Dismissing employees is a difficult and sensitive process, and should always be approached with caution. This is why an HR person is the right person to do it. Redundancy means that the job no longer exists. If a direct replacement is hired for the employee then it is not a reasonable case of redundancy. However, if an employee is made redundant as part of a need to reduce the workforce, and an existing employee moves into that job, that is still redundancy; as long as no vacancy or opening exists for the redundant job. The realisation of redundancies in the workplace can often cause a lot of damage to employee morale, so offering voluntary redundancies first can help soften the blow. Such situation is very embarrassing; an HR person will have to deal with such situation tactfully.