How a Human Resource Manager Operates

Job description

In every organization, human resource manager plays a significant role in ensuring the success of the organization. The purposes of human resource manager in an organization are immense. In today’s business world, human resource managers act as business partners. They work in collaboration with organization’s stakeholders towards coming up with business plan that will help the organization meet its goals. In this regard, human resource manager, being versed with knowledge on how to improve business performance helps in identifying work positions, performance development as well as in hiring the right employees for specific operations within an organization. Another role played by human resource managers is being advocates for employees. He ensures that an organization promotes a working environment where each staff is happy and motivated. They also facilitates in employee empowerment thus leading to their commitment to organizational goals and objectives¹. HR managers regularly evaluate the performance of the business to determine if it is in the track towards attaining its goals. Hence, HR managers also call for changes within an organization to help it realize its goals.

Based on organization’s mission and vision, HR manager drafts organizational strategies aimed at helping it achieve its vision. In addition, the manager devises measures to be used in the organization in determining its success. Some of the key accountabilities of human resource managers include organizing for timely recruitment of qualified staffs, development and implementation of human resource policies and ensuring that there is effective communication in all levels of operations as well as among the staffs².

How human resource managers carry out key managerial roles

To effectively carry out their responsibilities within an organization, human resource managers begin by coming up with a plan on how they intend to implement their activities. To start with, they analyze their organizations to determine some of the human resource needs that the organization requires. To ensure that they motivate their staffs, they plan on how to come up with a method of giving incentives based on their performance. This motivates staffs thus making them strive to improve customer satisfaction. In addition, human resource mangers identify the required employee training and recruitment. This gives them an opportunity to plan for the right people to conduct the training as well as the right time for the training. They also plan for methods and qualifications to be used during staff recruitment.

After identifying all human resource problems affecting the organization, human resource managers now embark on organizing for ways of solving these problems. They come up with job descriptions for all activities within the organization so as to recruit the most qualified personnel³. They organize for staff recruitment and hiring process. Here, human resource managers identify the method to be used in recruiting and hiring staffs for all departments within the organization.

Human resource mangers are well versed with staffing processes. On identifying the various human resource problems facing an organization, they come up with staffing strategy. They organize for advertisement of the available vacancies so as to attract the most qualified personnel. On receiving applications from interested people, human resource managers select the most appropriate applicants. They organize for interviews and or tests to determine the most qualified applicants. At times, they ask all the applicants to fill some forms aimed at proving their competence⁴. Once they have obtained the right people to be employed, they organize for their orientation so as to familiarize with the jobs they intend to assume. They also organize for training and development to equip the newly hired staffs with relevant experience.

There are different costs associated with staff recruitment and hiring process, as a result, human resource managers control this by evaluating the recruitment process to identify and do away with some of the unnecessary costs. Evaluating the recruitment process also helps them determine the quality of new employees. They also determine the viability of staffs used in the recruitment process and change them if they are found not to be of any significance to the organization⁵. To control and improve the manner in which new recruits receive on-job training; human resource managers regularly measure their impacts on the organization. Human resource mangers conduct regular surveys within the organization to get feedback from employees regarding problems they encounter when executing their duties. Through this feedback, they look for the appropriate changes to be made in the organization so as to eliminate the problems.

Inherent challenge in the job of a human resource manager

The current nature of competition in the business world has led to human resource managers assuming the role of strategic partners. Currently, their main objective is recruiting and retaining the most competent personnel so as to overcome competition. In their day to day operations, they are confronted with numerous challenges among them coping with diversity in the workplace. Generally, business organizations employ people from different cultural and regional backgrounds. These employees carry with them diverse experiences which may be of significant advantage to an organization if well exploited. In most cases, it becomes hard for human resource managers to cope with this diversity⁶. Instances of HR managers having to go for further training to cope with diversity have been reported. Most of the human resource managers have been found to prefer categorizing their employs. In this approach, they organize their staffs based on their background. In this process, they are not capable of leveraging the diverse experience possessed by their staffs.

Eventually, their businesses fail to be competitive leading to limited profitability. Most of the human resource managers sticks to the mentality that what is practiced in their organizations is the best. This makes it hard for them to adapt to new ways of doing things hence being unable to embrace diversity in their organizations. Such managers use an old way of organizing and planning for operations within an organization which has for many years not been effective. They fear adapting new operation methods as they are not sure of their viability. Consequently, their businesses end up not making good use of diverse experience found within their staffs.

Effectiveness of human resource manager

There are different areas where human resource managers have been effective in conducting their duties. As a strategic partner, a human resource manger has been effective in coming up with appropriate methods of recruiting, hiring and retaining qualified staffs. The manger has come up with employee appraisal and reward systems which has helped in motivating employees. With staffs being rewarded based on their contribution to the organization, they have committed themselves to roes they are assigned in the organization making it grow. Through the effort of human resource managers, organizations are now capable of recruiting and hiring competent employees⁷. This is through using recruiting and hiring strategies that have been developed by these managers. By regularly evaluating and assessing recruitment process, they have been able to identify costs associated with the process and come up with measures to mitigate the cost.

Another area where human resource managers are becoming effective is in dealing with diversity at workplaces. They are coming up with different strategies which have proved to be effective in making use of diverse experiences possessed by employees. Human resource managers are currently identifying ways in which a diverse workforce can be of help to the organization based on its goals. As a result, they are now strategically organizing the various talents found within their employees to help in business growth. By introducing employee empowerment within organizations, they have allowed employees to make decisions on matters affecting their areas of specialization. Consequently, employees have reciprocated by unleashing their full potential to ensure that they attain organizational goals. HR managers have also come up with mentoring programs where staffs with diverse skills are brought together and educated on the importance of using their diverse skills in the organization⁸. This has eliminated chances of some staffs considering themselves as not being of any value to the organization. This has also helped in eliminating cases of communication barrier within organizations which were caused by staffs who considered them to be more superior in the organization. Staffs can now freely interact and share experience in different skills within organizations. This has helped organizations cut down on costs associated with hiring more staffs as it is possible to conduct job rotation among the available staffs.

Reference List

1. Asiko, S, Staffing process 2010, Web.
2. Chan, A, The challenges of human resource management 2009, Web.
3. Goya, A, Set of 20 key responsibilities of HR manager 2010 Web.
4. Healthfield, S, What does a human resources manager, generalist, or director do? 2010 Web.
5. Mawhiney, G, Creating and implementing a human resource management plan, 2007.

Footnotes

1. S, Healthfield, What does a human resources manager, generalist, or director do?, 2010.
2. A, Goya, Set of 20 key responsibilities of HR manager, 2010.
3. G, Mawhiney, Creating and implementing a human resource management plan, 2007.
4. S, Asiko, Staffing process, 2010.
5. Mawhiney, op.cit. Para. 6.
6. A, Chan, The challenges of human resource management, 2009.
7. Chan, op.cit., para. 8.
8. Chan, op.cit., para. 11-13.