The Role of the HR Function - Assignment Example

The role of the HR function Table of Contents Introduction 2 Evaluation of the role of the HR function and it’s interaction with line managers in organizations 2 Conclusion 5 Reference 7 Bibliography 8 Introduction Organizations ranging from manufacturing to hospitals struggle in order to attain sustainable improvement in the market. The inter-relationships and complexities of such organizations require that the improvement efforts are self reinforcing and broad. This need has generated initiatives from the human resource departments in organizations. While a number of factors affect the organizations in varying extent, the managements keep changing their strategies and policies accordingly in order to cater to those changes. There has been increasing recognition of the human capital as important assets of the organization. Some of the main challenges that HR departments are confronted with are acquisition of new technologies, new skills, incorporating social values, deteriorating conditions of work, etc. The project makes an assessment of the major roles of HR and their importance in the organizations (Abella, 2004, p.2). Evaluation of the role of the HR function and it’s interaction with line managers in organizations The basic function of HR in a variety of technical, complex, analytical tasks is to support the internal HR services in the department. The department conducts various duties apart from recruitment and selection, compensation plan administration, classification, affirmative action, position control, benefits administration, and personnel policy administration, labor contract. Besides it is also required to handle such responsibilities as interpretation, processing and tracking of grievance, labor and employee relations, acting as the chief negotiator for the agency’s contract/s performance appraisal tracking, and also a wide variety of activities (Wolper, 2004, p.282). One of the major roles of HR functions is to manage line management. The HR departments have the responsibility of communicating the roles of the line managers. There is also an increasing requirement for the personnel activities to be measured against the costs involved and the value that they add. The HR plays the main role in measuring the balance between the above aspects (Hiltrop, Despres & Sparrow, 1995, p.3). Team development and management account for another important function of the human resource departments in organizations. This is done starting from the process of recruitment, selection, management, promotions, staff development etc. Recruitment involves looking for the right candidates according to the requirements of the organization. This includes choosing candidates according to their education qualifications, setting the job roles and job descriptions etc (Association of African Universities, 2006, p.7). This might include making job announcements, application packets and announcements. They also have to work closely with the hiring supervisors for developing the selection criteria and tools, for identifying, coordinating and monitoring the skill related test processes. They also assist the hiring supervisors for creating the questions for the interviews (Bohlander & Snell, 2009, p.491). Incorporating training facilities account for an important role of the HR managers. With the world making rapid technological advancement the need for up gradation of knowledge and skills has also increased simultaneously. Thus the need for training and development programs has also increased simultaneously. Research reveals that organizations investing in training and development programs have attained greater efficiency and productivity as compared to organizations making lesser investments in the same. The role played by the human resource departments is to recognize the skill requirements of individual employees as per the level of expertise required for the jobs. Also the requirement of infrastructure for the training programs are decided b the human resource managers. The effectiveness of such programs is determined by the appropriateness of the skills identified and the nature of training that is imparted (Sharma, Sharma & Devi, 2009, p.6). The HR departments have the important function of developing socially responsible initiatives. This is considered as important because the internalization of the Corporate Social Responsibility in any organizational culture requires the appropriate appraisal of behavior, appreciation and rewarding of the same. Otherwise organizations might not be able to inculcate it in all the employees because of the lack of positive reinforcement (Bernardin, 2008, p.491). Responsible Management practices equal opportunities, whistle blowing, diversity management, redundancy, human rights, harassment gives additional credibility to the corporate social responsibility initiatives in the organization. There is no doubt about the fact that protecting the human rights like prevention and denial of the social and legal rights of the workers is an extremely crucial issue under Corporate Social Responsibility. Companies like Infosys, Wipro, Dabur, and ICICI have also designed whistle blowing policies for providing protection towards employees who became aware of any unethical practices that were going on in the organization, covering a wide range of issues and subjects and demonstrating their positive approach towards the unethical practices (Vandekerckhove, 2006, p.145). Human Resource management does not remain confined to social sciences, and needs such knowledge and skills in the other disciplines like marketing and communication, operations, management of information systems, economics, and finance. Organizations might also make investments in training programs which can enhance the HR practitioners’ business acumen. In such a condition the HR practitioners would be more comfortable with taking up the roles of strategic partner As such; HR practitioners will be more comfortable in the role of strategic partner and is seen as an important ally by the line managers and the senior management (Armstrong, 2010, p.10). The human resource departments may also play the role of business partner model. It is important to ensure that the role of HR is aligned with the role of the business. The role of HR professionals is to be part of the business and not merely being partner of the business. The HR Manager of Standard Chartered Bank, has mentioned that human resource professionals consider themselves pride for being considered business partners of the businesses. It means that the HR departments are considered to be an integral part of the development of the company’s development strategy. In such cases HR professionals are given the strategic role of formulating and implementing HR strategies in conjunction with the management colleagues which are aligned with the business objectives of the organizations. However, the starting point of such strategies is the business itself and includes the customers, competitors and other issues of the business. The HR strategy is then derived from the challenges to create a possible and real solution to the problems (Armstrong, 2010, p.24). Conclusion It is apparent from the study that the role of HR is vast which includes a wide variety of responsibilities and roles. Most important of them is the departments’ role in formulating strategies that aligns with the goals and objectives of the organizations. This includes identifying the staffing needs and the requirement of employees in the organizations to meet specific purposes. The training and development of employees also comprises one of the key responsibilities of the department for upgrading the skills and expertise of employees. They are also required a wide variety of performance issues and ensure that the management and personnel policies and practices are implemented with conformance to the various labor rules and regulations. Their activities also include managing approaches towards employee compensation and benefits, maintaining employee records and personnel practices. Besides the above functions the HR professionals are required to implement and maintain corporate social responsibilities in the organizations. This is considered to be one of the primary aspects of the department as they are responsible for developing and maintaining the culture of the organization. They set the appropriate behaviors and culture in the organization which everyone is to follow. In whichever activities the HR departments undertake, they are to ensure that the sole objective of attaining the organization goals and objectives are met and that all strategies are aligned towards the same. Reference Abella, V. O. (2004). The HR Function of the Future. [Pdf]. Available at: http://marino72.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/the-hr-function-of-the-future.pdf. [Accessed on June 24, 2011]. Armstrong, M. (2010). Armstrong's Essential Human Resource Management Practice: A Guide to People Management. Kogan Page Publishers. Association of African Universities. (2006). The Role of Human Resource Development and Management. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www2.aau.org/wghe/gender/toolkit/Toolkit-module3.pdf. [Accessed on June 24, 2011]. Bernardin. (2008). Human Resource Management 4E. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Bohlander, G. & Snell, S. (2009). Managing Human Resources. Cengage Learning. Hiltrop, J. M., Despres, C. & Sparrow, P. (1995). The Changing Role of HR Managers in Europe. [Online]. Available at: http://skema.academia.edu/CharlesDespres/Papers/297294/The_Changing_Role_of_HR_Managers_in_Europe. [Accessed on June 24, 2011]. Sharma, S., Sharma, J. & Devi, A. (2009). Corporate social responsibility: the key role of human resource management. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.saycocorporativo.com/saycoUK/BIJ/journal/Vol2No1/article9.pdf. [Accessed on June 24, 2011]. Vandekerckhove, W. (2006). Whistleblowing and organizational social responsibility: a global assessment. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. Wolper, L. F. (2004). Health care administration: planning, implementing, and managing organized delivery systems. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Bibliography Andrews, R. (2003). Research questions. Continuum International Publishing Group. Byrnes, M. A. & Baxter, J. (2006). The principal's leadership counts!: launch a Baldrige-based quality school. ASQ Quality Press. Cook, K. S. (2007). Trust and Distrust in Organizations: Dilemmas and Approaches. Russell Sage Foundation. 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