Managerial Staff: Human-Resource Manager - Assignment Example

In responding to the question on the structure of the business, and his office, specifically, the interviewee insisted that he prefer HR project teams for the different duties and the initiatives of the store because they increased the accountability of employees. In a generalized way, he noted that there was limited reliance on cross-functional teams, which are often virtual, and where HR plays the dominant role. Further, he noted that his office is designed in a way that explores and engages the other functions of the store because that helps in making better team-based decisions (Conaty and Charan 74).

The roles and the responsibilities of the interviewee – according to them – vary from day to day. The interviewee noted that every day is a fully-engaged workload, where they engage in any or many of the following roles:  employee hiring, employee training, reviewing and managing employee relations and firing employees for different reasons. Other roles and responsibilities revolve around the management of employee benefits, payroll review, and management, administering employee follow-up and participating in organization-wide decision-making meetings (Conaty and Charan 34).

Above these roles and responsibilities, the interviewee reviews the human resources, to ensure that they have the required employees, and planning recruitment, where there are gaps. The officer engages in the 45-day review of new employees, together with the departmental managers, which helps improve their orientation and training. The greatest challenge to the HR manager and the organization as a whole is the management of the daily workload. This is a major area of a challenge for the interviewee; because he has to prioritize the work to be done first, out of the huge load, and delegating other duties to departmental managers and staff (Conaty and Charan 123).

For example, he noted that in the cases where there is a shortage of salespeople or an employee calls for a sick-leave. He is tasked with the challenge of finding a replacement that can meet the needs of the vacant office. The case becomes more challenging, when they have to call in, employees who are taking their off-days, because many of them are, usually, not willing to accept the duty. Hiring is also a challenge for the officer because getting the wrong candidates for the job can be disastrous to its progress.

The most difficult decision they made, while working in the store, was that of reducing the bonuses offered to salespeople and the employees in general. Following a detailed outlook of the financial position of the business during the past six months, they had reviewed the financial outlook on the business and noted that the profitability of the business was being adversely affected by the bonus plans (Conaty and Charan 44). The difficulty in the decision was major, because it was likely to force some employees to leave the business, and many others to lose morale and motivation.

The interviewee reported that they liked the roles and the responsibilities of motivating their staff, training new employees and allocating bonuses and other rewards to the employees. They noted that they liked that aspect because it helps in tapping the full potential of the staff. The areas that they dislike for the job are that of handling the frictional staffing of the business. These roles include refereeing in dispute cases, because of mismatched personalities; reporting to employees, about the reduction of bonuses, dismissing employees and reprimanding irresponsible workers, who are stubborn (Conaty and Charan 53).