HR manager plays a pivotal role to achieve organizational objectives. It is human resource/work people who perform task and achieve company goals.
So, human resource is a must in an organization. To get the right number and right kind of human resource at the right time of company need and to motivate, prepare and develop the human resource to perform task, the person in charge of such job, i.e., human resource manager is no less important in an organization than human resource at work.
HR manager is a guide, philosopher, friend, path-finder, path identifier, problem solver, competence maker of the human resource.
Ulrich (1997) has developed a model of multiple roles for HR professionals who focus ranges from long-term strategic to short-term operational, and activities range from managing processes (HR tools and systems) to managing people. Whatever the role HR manager plays, it helps growth and development of the people at work and organization as well.
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Learn about the various roles played by the HR manager in an organisation.
A: The pivotal role of HR Manager to achieve organizational objectives are:- 1. Advisory Role 2. Pro-Acting Role 3. Welfare Role 4. Developmental Role 5. Mediator’s Role 6. Social Upliftment Role 7. Counsellor’s Role 8. Spokesperson Role 9. Motivator’s Role and a Few More.
B: The specialist role of HR Manager are:- 1. The Service Provider 2. The Executive 3. The Facilitator 4. The Consultant 5. The Auditor.
C: Role of HR Manager in strategic management are:- 1. HR’s Role in Executing Strategy 2. HR’s Role in Formulating Strategy 3. HR and Technology.
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D: Role of HR Manager for meeting the requirements of employees and customers are:- 1. Administrative Roles 2. Operational Roles 3. Strategic Roles.
E: Important role of HR Manager in an organisation are:- 1. Business and Strategic Partners Role 2. Employee’s Advocate’s Role 3. Welfare Officer’s Role 4. Management’s Representative Role and a Few More.
F: Role of HRD Manager are:- 1. Identify Organisational Development Needs 2. Provide Inputs for Preparing Promotion Policies 3. Design Job Rotation and a Few More.
Additionally, learn about the role of HR Manager in mergers and acquisitions. Also learn about the role played by the HRD manager in an organisation.
Role of HR Manager in an Organisation
Role of HR Manager – Top 18 Pivotal Role to Achieve Organizational Objectives
HR manager plays a pivotal role to achieve organizational objectives. It is human resource/work people who perform task and achieve company goals. So, human resource is a must in an organization. To get the right number and right kind of human resource at the right time of company need and to motivate, prepare and develop the human resource to perform task, the person in charge of such job, i.e., human resource manager is no less important in an organization than human resource at work.
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HR manager is a guide, philosopher, friend, path-finder, path identifier, problem solver, competence maker of the human resource. Ulrich (1997) has developed a model of multiple roles for HR professionals who focus ranges from long-term strategic to short-term operational, and activities range from managing processes (HR tools and systems) to managing people. Whatever the role HR manager plays, it helps growth and development of the people at work and organization as well.
Role of HR manager is discussed in brief as under:
1. Advisory Role:
One of the major roles of HR manager is, to advise the top management in the matter relating to management and development of human resource, in order to achieve organizational objects. Looking to the company’s vision, mission and long range planning, HR executive advises the higher management to formulate appropriate HR policies, procedures which may create a perceptible change in the minds of the workers’ to help the transformational process of dynamism.
2. Pro-Acting Role:
HR manager ascertains the probable areas of conflict and differences between workers and management, identifies the factors that may create problems in future, forecasts the extent, quantum of loss that may occur and the department may suffer loss and takes remedial measures beforehand by way of developing organizational culture, climate, introducing system, mechanism, and does not leave any room to crop up problems, grievances.
3. Welfare Role:
HR executive looks to the welfare aspect of the employee’s viz., canteen, creche, rest-room, hospital, transportation, housing accommodation, school, etc. His one of the principal roles is to provide welfare facilities to the employees for their betterment and well-being.
4. Developmental Role:
Development of workers for attaining company goals is made by the HR manager through improvement of knowledge, skill, abilities, aptitude, attitude, value, beliefs etc. A dynamic organization needs dynamic employees and transformation of employee’s mind-set to the process of dynamism is possible only when all the potential areas for growth and development are reinforced.
HR manager takes all possible measures for growth and development of employees through formulation of HR policies in the matter of training, career planning and development, counselling etc.
5. Mediator’s Role:
HR manager works as a link personality between trade unions and top management in order to eliminate the differences of opinions cropped up in process of settlement of disputes. He takes initiative to sort out problems through collective bargaining/ bipartite negotiation process.
6. Social Upliftment Role:
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Organization is part and parcel of the society. As a societal member it has ethical and moral obligation to contribute to the society for its growth and development by way of taking necessary measures like creating and improving infrastructure, spreading learning institutions, providing medical facilities, generating employment opportunities. HR executive plays a vital role to give a proper shape in the formulation of suitable HR policies for the people in the society.
7. Counsellor’s Role:
Because of illiteracy and ignorance workers cannot take decision in their personal problems and they need advice to sort out such problems, viz. education of children, medical treatment, marital matter, family problems, etc. HR manager, as he comes close to the workers because of his nature of work, develops understanding between them and advises, guides the workers in right direction.
8. Spokesperson Role:
HR executive works as a spokesperson of the company especially, in the matter of depicting organization health, condition, strength etc. to the employees while negotiating for settlement of industrial disputes. He also acts as a representative of the workers when they are non-unionized/unorganized and cannot represent their case properly to the top management. Under such circumstances HR manager places their grievances, problems, demand to the top management for settlement/redressal.
9. Motivator’s Role:
One of the functions of HR manager is to motivate the employees to achieve their own goals, as well as organizational goals HR manager performs such role by way of introducing reward schemes. HR manager’s role of establishing mutual understanding, mutual confidence and mutual trust helps to motivate the employees to excel in the level of their performance.
10. Procurer’s Role:
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HR manager helps to procure the right number and right kind of people at the right time, to enable the company to run smoothly, effectively and efficiently and to achieve its goals. He facilitates formulation of a dynamic recruitment policy, designs and develops Test/Interview techniques, selection process, suiting individuals and organization requirement in order to find out the right persons for the required jobs. He makes a systematic, problem free procurement exercise when workers express happiness, satisfaction and a state of contentment.
11. Change Agent Role:
In changing scenario, workers are required to change their attitudes, belief, perceptible state, values to meet organization needs, requirement and expectation. In the age of stiff competition organization can survive and develop only if the workers are adaptive to change requirement. It is the HR executive who through establishment of sound human relation convinces the workers about the necessity of changing attitude, values to accept change role, as reinforced by introduction of OD programme, TQM concept, quality circle etc.
12. Maintenance Role:
HR manager plays a pivotal role to retain the dynamic, excellent, highly skilled workers by providing attractive compensation package, introducing reward management, career planning and development, welfare, fringe benefits and social security schemes. Suitable policies are formulated, programmes are designed, necessary measures are taken to implement schemes for growth and development of employees, with and through the active efforts of the HR manager.
13. Disputes Prevention Role:
HR manager takes remedial measures-curative and prophylactic to redress and prevent grievances, disputes in order to bring harmony and peace in an organization through introducing, grievance handling machinery, collective bargaining process, rational approaches to discipline management, quality of working life, participative concept and the like.
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HR executive creates congenial and conducive climate in the company by eliminating differences between management and workers and developing understanding on the basis of mutuality.
14. Executive Role:
HR manager plays an important role to execute the policies, programmes, decisions. Formulation and execution tasks are interwoven and equally important for achievement of organizational goals. HR manager acts as an executor of the policy decisions in the company, for smooth functioning and effectiveness of the organization.
15. Decision Maker’s Role:
HR manager is the supreme person to make decisions in respect of management and development of human resource. Organizational policies, programmes objectives concerning human resource are formulated by him.
16. Coordinator’s Role:
HR executive coordinates the task of developing, interpreting of HR programmes, policies which are put into operation by the line people, and develops a team spirit amongst them.
17. Strategist Role:
HR manager helps to accomplish business strategy of the organization through introducing and implementing HR strategies.
18. Monitoring Role:
HR manager acts as regulator/monitor to ensure, that HR policies, procedures, programmes, so formulated are monitored effectively to meet the objectives.
Role of HR Manager – Roles and Responsibilities
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It is important for the HR manager to place his role on the same lines as that of the organization. Within this environment, the HR professional has to be a strategic partner, an employee advocate, and a change mentor to be able to survive the changing environment. Depending on the size of the organization, an HR manager has the responsibility of looking at all the functions that deal with the needs and activities essential for people management.
Some of roles and responsibilities are as follows:
1. Recruiting and hiring – It is a process of discovering sources of manpower and employing effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate the selection of an efficient working force in an organization.
2. Training and development – These processes help in enhancing and enabling the capacities of people to build their strengths and confidence in order for them to deliver more effectively.
3. Competency development – Competency is a cluster of related knowledge, skills, and attitude that affect a major part of one’s job. It can be improved by means of training and development.
4. Organization development – It is an organization-wide effort to increase its effectiveness and viability, and move towards growth.
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5. Communication – It is an activity that involves conveying meaningful information. At all times, the HR must convey all relevant information to the employees.
6. Performance management – It focuses on improving the performance of the organization, employees, and various other services.
7. Employee relations – This is a concept that works towards bettering the relations among the employees, as well as between the employee and the management.
8. Coaching, mentoring, and counselling – It is a practice of supporting an individual and helping him overcome all his issues in order to perform better.
9. Policy recommendation – Policy recommendations help to streamline management practices and reduce employee grievances. For example, a manager who is more than 35 years and, who possesses a minimum experience of 7 years, is entitled to receive the benefits stated in the company’s administrative manual.
10. Wages, salary, and compensation benefits – These benefits are provided to the employees to keep them motivated towards their work and the organization.
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11. Talent management and employee engagement – It is a management concept that works towards retaining the talent by engaging the person in a way which would further the organization’s interest.
12. Leadership development – This activity refers to enhancing the quality and efficiency of a leader in an organization.
13. Team building – It focuses on bringing out the best in a team to ensure development of an organization, and the ability to work together closely to achieve goals.
14. Networking and partnering – It is also important to build relations with the external stakeholders, including the customers and suppliers for better business.
Role of HR Manager – 3 Main Roles: As Business Partner, Employee Advocate and Counsellor
The three main roles of HR managers:
Role # 1. As Business Partner:
In today’s times, HR managers in organizations function as strategic partners working closely with others to be able to contribute to the development and the accomplishment of the organization’s business plan and objectives. The HR business objectives need to be aligned to the overall strategic business plan and objectives.
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The tactical HR representative needs to be deeply knowledgeable about the design and redesign of work systems to make the organization a better and a more efficient place to work in. This strategic partnership impacts all the HR services including hiring, rewarding, recognizing, developing appraisal systems, and many more.
To be an effective business manager, the HR personnel should be business-minded, knowledgeable about finance and accounting, and accountable and responsible for cost reductions and the measurement of all other HR programs and processes.
Role # 2. As Employee Advocate:
As an employee advocate, the HR manager utilizes his knowledge and skills to promote people’s interests for organizational successes. This advocacy includes expertise in creating a work environment in which people choose to be motivated and happy. It conforms to the maxim—live happily and work happily.
An HR professional fosters effective methods of goal setting, communication, empowerment through responsibility, and builds employee ownership of the organization. Apart from these functions, he also helps in establishing a suitable organizational culture and environment in which people have the competency, concern, and commitment to serve customers well.
Role # 3. As Counsellor:
Though every manager in an organization performs the role of a counsellor in relation to the employees, the role is generally limited to solving minor problems. Human resource manager and other HR personnel are uniquely placed to perform the role of counsellors organization- wide.
An HR manager can perform the role in employee counselling in two forms — working as counsellor and providing training for counselling to line managers for effective counselling.
As a counsellor, an HR manager, having behavioural science background, can perform all functions of counselling. Because of his in-depth knowledge, he can identify and diagnose the emotional problems of employees and suggest suitable solution with a provision of continuous feedback. He can organize his department in such a way that he has required number of employee counsellors in his department.
In fact, most of the large organizations emphasize the appointment of professional counsellors in HR department.
HR manager can also develop counsellors from among the line managers for providing counselling. The need for training supervisors in counselling is more relevant so that they may take care of the emotional vulnerability of workers. Training for counselling may include sensitivity training, empathy training, and other behavioural training.
Role of HR Manager – Extremely Significant Role and Objectives
For HR Managers, the deliverables & expectations are quite diverse. The key HR Manager Responsibility areas to make HR role effective are constantly evolving based on the life stage of the business and organization. There are mandatory activities to be taken care of in Human Resource Department that forms an integral part of HR Function in any organization and then there are dynamic and variety of expectations that the organization has and the business has from Human Resource Department and the team that works as HR partners.
Role/Objectives of HR Manager:
While the role of an HR professional may not be glamorous, it is still extremely significant. A good HR team is capable of retaining the skilled manpower so that the business expands manifolds as the years advance.
It is a function of the organizations which is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer’s strategic objectives.
1. To frame a clear and easily implementable HR Policies.
2. To nurture and develop a motivated HR Team to meet business requirement.
3. To develop the collective knowledge of the HR team for handling complex and crisis situation arising due to dynamic and changing business environment.
4. To create a complementing’ skills based team’ so that various HR aspects can be addressed.
5. To plan and implement an effective HR Plan that aligns Business Plan and overall organization plan.
6. To execute manpower planning and budgeting & have a road-map for recruitment assignments.
7. To do manpower hiring as per the recruitment plan agreed along with the Business heads/department heads.
8. To keep ears open and reach out to all employees through communication with employees at regular intervals for gathering insights at workplace and taking feedback.
9. To plan and execute suitable interventions to keep the employees motivated.
10. To act as a business partner and provide dashboards/analytics to business heads/department heads to help them have a pulse of their team.
11. To provide employee development and counselling assistance to employees/team members to enhance employee performance and productivity.
12. To take adequate measures to retain good employees, and high potential employees.
13. To ensure ‘Statutory Compliant’ status at all times.
14. To carry out “Employee Engagement” initiatives to keep people together and make the workplace exciting, rewarding and engaging.
15. To drive an effective Learning and development agenda that impacts the employees and the businesses.
16. To evaluate and improvise the current HR Practices to keep with time and external benchmarks.
17. To update HR policies in line with the business and organization requirement.
18. To keep and update Employee Handbook with all relevant details and information.
19. To design, update and share SOPs of all HR processes.
20. To conduct periodical employee surveys to collate insights at workplace and in turn design employee interventions accordingly to address areas of concern.
21. To support and counsel business managers to effectively manage teams to ensure higher employee productivity.
22. To have an updated repository of Job descriptions for all roles in the organization along with measurable performance indicators for each role.
23. To maintain employee records and files in order for ease of reference, both On-line and physical copies of the records.
24. To communicate with employees and business heads for better alignment.
Role of HR Manager – Specialist Role: The Service Provider, Executive, Facilitator, Consultant and Auditor
Human Resource Management is a part of every manager’s job. In a dynamic working environment, the boundaries of any role cannot be clearly defined; therefore, the following should be considered only a broad outline.
The specialist role of the human resource manager takes a number of forms:
Specialist Role # 1. The Service Provider:
Managers need information to make decisions on various employee related issues like deployment of personnel. A Human Resource specialist can help by providing information on market statistics of personnel availability, pay rates etc. HR specialists can also interpret the complex labour laws and legislations that are applicable in day-to-day work.
This categorization of the work of a Human Resource specialist is not definite. There will often be an overlap between the different roles the HR professional must assume. For example, in the era of advice on legislations concerning employment, there is often little distinction between ‘service’ and ‘consultancy’.
Specialist Role # 2. The Executive:
Though Human Resource Management is a part of every manager’s job, yet Human Resource specialists typically carry out certain Human Resources activities like recruitment, compensation, etc.
Specialist Role # 3. The Facilitator:
A large number of organizational activities require a Human Resource professional to play the role of a facilitator. For example, Human Resource manager acts as a facilitator when training and development activities are planned and conducted and performance appraisals are done.
One of the responsibilities of a Human Resource specialist is to ensure that other managers who undertake such activities are well equipped to do so.
Specialist Role # 4. The Consultant:
Managers face many problems while supervising employees. These problems may be due to lack of motivation, lack of training, a job misfit or grievances related to pay. Managers seek the advice of HR specialists to resolve such problems smoothly. Thus, the Human Resource professional plays the role of an internal management consultant in this area.
Specialist Role # 5. The Auditor:
Human Resource specialists are responsible for ensuring that all members of the management perform their respective roles concerned with the effective use of human resources.
Role of HR Manager – 15 Most Significant Role: Reactive/Proactive, Strategist, Advisory, Conscience, Mediator, Representative, Innovator, Problem Solver and a Few More
1. The Reactive/Proactive Role – Today’s HR managers need to have reactive as well as proactive roles in the organization. They should not only provide regular day-to-day administrative, systems and support to the management, but at the strategic level their role should be more as a visionary, business partner, or more as a change agent or “internal consultant” so as to effectively develop integrated HR strategies, innovations and interventions.
2. Strategist Role – As strategists, HR professionals have the major responsibility of addressing long- term issues concerning the management and developing a strong and healthy employment relationship at the workplace as well as building an effective HR (Employability) Brand for the organization. They should also be considered as business partners involving sharing responsibilities with their line managers for the successful attainment of organizational goals and objectives.
3. Advisory Role – Advising, suggesting, counselling and helping people in discharging their responsibilities relating to grievance redressal, conflict resolution, employee selection, training etc.
4. The Conscience Role – To inform the management about the humanitarian approach-towards moral and ethical obligations to its employees.
5. Counsellor Role – To discuss various problems of employees relating to career, supervisors, colleagues, health, family, financial, social etc. and suggest means to minimize and overcome work stress.
6. Mediator’s Role – Resolving conflicts so as to effectively maintain industrial harmony.
7. Representative Role – To act as a representative of the organization so as to give an overall picture of the organizational operations to the employees particularly in case of industrial disputes or grievance redressal.
8. Innovator Role – HR professionals should have a strong acumen for creativity and innovation, so as to effectively introduce new processes and procedures which would contribute to enhance organizational effectiveness.
9. Fire-fighting/Legal Role – Grievance handling, settlement of disputes, handling disciplinary cases, collective bargaining, joint consultation, interpretation and implementation of various labour laws, contacting lawyers, handling industrial tribunals etc.
10. Welfare Role – To provide and maintain canteens, hospitals, educational institutes, office, clubs, libraries, conveyance facilities, cooperative credit societies, consumer stores etc.
11. Problem-solver Role – To effectively handle this role regarding various short range and long range problems of the company involving the interests of human resources.
12. Role of Change Agent – To convince workers and the management and take the lead in implementing changes in technology, organization, production and installing the organization development techniques etc.
13. Decision-making Role – To play a dominant role in the decision-making process, regarding both major and minor issues of the organization involving human resources.
14. Executive Role – Once decisions are taken HR manager plays a dominant role in executing those decisions and programmes.
15. Internal Consultant Role – HR professionals should actively take part in analyzing problems, diagnosing issues and proposing solutions for ensuring organizational effectiveness.
Role of HR Manager – In Strategic Management: For Executing Strategy, Formulating Strategy, Strategic Change in Technology
Under strategic management an HR has the following role to play:
1. HR’s Role in Executing Strategy:
Execution has justly claimed to be the heart of HR’s strategic role. A firm’s functional strategies should support its competitive strategies.
HR supports strategy implementation in many ways where of the important ones are:
(i) Execute Downsizing and Re-Structuring Strategies:
HR handles the execution of most firms’ downsizing and re-structuring strategies. It does so by outplacing employees, instituting pay-for-performance plans, reducing healthcare costs and re-training employees.
(ii) Identifying and Reducing Cost:
Strategy execution usually includes identifying and reducing costs for doing the work it uses value chain analysis. A company’s value chain “identifies the primary activities that create value for customers and the related support activities”.
Every business has a chain of activities, each of which contributes to designing, producing, marketing and delivering a product or service.
Each activity gives rise to costs. Managers use the value chain to visualise their firm’s strategic activities and as a tool to isolate and analyse the company’s strategic costs. By applying value chain analysis, HR managers discovers ingenious ways for delivering their own services more cost effectively.
(iii) Outsourcing:
Large firms are getting their HR activities done by outside suppliers and contractors which is outsourcing. Outsourcing is called by the name sub-contracting it is the process by which employers transfer routine or peripheral work to another organisation it has specialization in that work and can perform it more efficiently. Employers that outsource some of their non-essential work gain improved quality and cost savings.
The usual functions that are contracted to outsiders include mainly employee hiring, training and development and maintenance of statutory records are the usual functions contracted out to outsiders.
A number of strategic and operational motives has been outsourcing. From a strategic perspective, HR departments are divesting themselves from mundane activities to focus more on strategic role.
Outsourcing has also been used to help to reduce bureaucracy and to encourage a more responsive culture by introducing external market forces into the firm through the bidding process. It is found that at the operational level, outsourcing helps to save money.
2. HR’s Role in Formulating Strategy:
Formulation of a strategic plan needs identifying, analysing, and balancing the company’s external opportunities and threats, and its internal strengths and weaknesses.
HR plays the following roles in strategy formulation:
(i) Help in Environmental Scanning:
HR management can assist with what strategic planners call environmental scanning, identifying and analysing external opportunities and threats that may be crucial to the company’s achievement.
(ii) Formulation of Plans:
Formulating plans demands competitive intelligence and HR management can supply useful information. Details regarding new competitors’ incentive plans and information about pending legislation like labour laws or mandatory health insurance are some examples.
(iii) Internal Position Information:
HR also supplies information regarding the company’s internal strengths and weaknesses. Some firms even build their strategies around a HR-based competitive advantage.
3. HR and Technology:
Technology is a tool engine of strategic change. The practice of managing human resource is underwent a technological revolution. Everything is going online and the same is in human resource. During the past days working in personnel meant shuffling lots of paper about.
There was a form for everything and they all had to be filled in correctly. Someone had the job of transcribing, copying and filing the papers as needed, It was a time-consuming as well as exhausting task. But with the advent of IT systems and software, problems in management of human resources are resolved.
To a great extent basic HR systems, HRIS and internet, etc., have explained the problems of human resource management in following ways:
(i) Basic HR Systems:
HR can prove to be an enormously paper-intensive process. Conducting performance appraisals for employees and tracking the results for a company with forty or fifty employees, it is quite exhausting as the management time devoted to conducting appraisals can multiply into weeks.
It is at about this stage that most small-to medium-sized firms begin computerising individual HR tasks. To illustrate, e-HR in where ‘e’ stands for electronic, similar to e-mail and e-cards. It is a quick way of showing how electronic systems can render great help human resource management to become more efficient.
(ii) HRIS:
Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is a systematic procedure for collecting, storing, maintaining and retrieving data required by an organisation about its human resources and various activities that are relevant for their management.
The HRIS can be interpreted as is a method by which an organisation collects analyses and reports information about people and jobs. It applies to information need at macro- and micro-levels.
HRIS is generally, a data base system that offers important information about employees in a central and accessible location. When such information is needed, the data can be retrieved and used to facilitate human resource planning decisions.
(iii) Internet:
The internet has brought radical changes in the way of the HR departments’ doing their work. Internet has enabled the HR departments to shift some activities to online HR service providers. For instance, internet facilitates strategic control meaning types e-importance, e-recruiting, e-selection, e-learning, etc.
Role of HR Manager – For Meeting the Requirements of Employees and Customers: Administrative, Operational and Strategic Roles
HR managers while meeting the requirement of employees and customers, perform mainly three different types of roles.
Their roles are as under:
1. Administrative Roles:
The administrative roles of human resource manager comprises of the:
(i) Policy-Maker:
The human resource manager assists management in forming the policies governing the following talent acquisition and retention, wage and salary administration, welfare activities, personnel records, working conditions, etc. He also aids in interpreting personnel policies in an appropriate manner.
(ii) Administrative Expert:
The administrative role of an HR manager is to process and maintain-record. Some main examples the administrative nature of HR management are as under. Maintaining employee files, and HR-related databases, processing employee benefit claims, answering queries regarding leave, transport and medical facilities, submitting required reports to regulatory agencies etc.
(iii) Counsellor:
The personnel manager talk over various problems of the employees related to work, career, their supervisors, colleagues, health, family, financial, social, etc., and counsels them on minimising and overcoming the problems, if any faced by them.
(iv) Legal Consultant:
Personnel manager plays a vital role in the following: handling grievances settling of disputes, handling disciplinary cases, doing collective bargaining, enabling the process of joint consultation, interpretation and implementation of various labour laws, contacting lawyers regarding court cases, filing suits in labour courts, industrial tribunals, civil courts and other matters of the like nature.
(v) Welfare Officer:
Personnel manager is expected to be the Welfare Officer of the company. As a Welfare Officer he assigns and maintains (on behalf of the company) the following canteens, hospitals, crèches, educational institutes, clubs, libraries, conveyance facilities, cooperative credit societies and consumer stores.
(vi) Advisor:
The personnel manager carries out his functions by advising, suggesting, counselling and assisting the line manager in discharging his responsibilities related to the following. Grievance redressal, conflict resolution, employee selection and training. Personnel advice is inclusive of preparation of reports, communication of guidelines for the interpretation and implementation of policies, providing information regarding labour laws, etc.
(vii) Housekeeper:
Managing tasks like recruiting, pre-employment testing, reference checking, employee surveys, time keeping, wage and salary administration, welfare programmes, maintenance of records, etc. are included in the administrative roles of a personal manager.
2. Operational Roles:
These roles are strategic in nature and include the following under:
(i) Recruiter:
The growing cut throat competition for the people possessing requisite knowledge, skills and experience has made the job like a war. HR managers are expected to use their experience to good effect while laying down lucrative career paths to new recruits without, increasing the financial burden to the company.
(ii) Trainer and Motivator:
Apart from talent acquisition, talent retention is also crucial. HR managers ought to find skill deficiencies from time to time, offer meaningful training opportunities and bring out the latent potential of people through intrinsic and extrinsic rewards which are valued by the employees.
(iii) Liaison Officer/Linking Pin:
The HR manager is often deputed to act as a linking pin between the various divisions/departments of an organisation. He acts as a liaison officer in that capacity his function is to act as a contact for external agencies. The whole exercise is meant to develop rapport with divisional heads, using PR and communication skills of HR executives to the maximum possible extent.
(iv) Mediator:
The personnel manager functions as a mediator in case of a row between employees, groups of employees, superiors and subordinates and employees and management with the sole objective of maintaining industrial harmony.
(v) Employee Champion:
Traditionally, HR managers have been viewed as the ‘company morale officers’ or employee advocates. Liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation pressures have brought radical change in the situation dramatically HR professionals are expected to move closer to the hearts of employees in their own self-interest.
Delivering results preoccupied with placing people on the right job, charting a suitable career path for each employee, rewarding creditable performance, etc.
3. Strategic Roles:
The strategic role of HR management focuses on attention to enable ordinary employees to turn out extraordinary performance, keeping in view their ever-changing expectations. The key areas of attention is the area of global competition include effective management of key resources (employees, technology, work processes), while delivering cost-effective, value-enhancing solutions.
Role of HR Manager – As a Specialist, Source of Help, Change Agent, Discipline Maintainer and as a Controller
Role # 1. As a Specialist:
The HR department has staff relationship with other departments/managers in the total organisation. The HR department is responsible for advising management from Managing Director to the lowest line supervisor on all areas relating to the HR management and industrial relations.
HR department also performs various functions of employment, training and development. It represents management in many of the relationships that affect the organisation as a whole. It is also responsible for representing various workers’ problems to management.
HR department generally acts in an advisory capacity; it provides information, offers suggestions and is not responsible for the end results. The HR manager must exercise control very tactfully in order to win the confidence and co-operation of all line managers. He has to persuade the line managers to work with staff specialists and not against them. The authority of HR manager should derive from concrete HR policies and programmes and from the advantage and result of accepted specialised knowledge.
Role # 2. As a Source of Help:
In certain situations (when line managers lack skill or knowledge in dealing with employee problems) experienced HR managers assume line responsibility for HR matters. But it may be resented by the very managers who ought to seek staff assistance in meeting their HR responsibilities.
HR managers should earn the reputation and confidence of line managers of being a source of help rather than a source of threat to line managers. Staff assistance is likely to be effective when it is wanted rather than imposed.
Role # 3. As a Change Agent:
HR Manager should work as an enabler and change agent regarding HR areas and he should be familiar with different disciplines like management, technology, sociology, psychology and organisational behaviour as organisational adaptability, viability and development are dependent on human resource development.
So the HR manager should work as a consultant of an organisational development by providing necessary information and infrastructure to the line managers. Thus, the role of HR manager is more concerned with providing information and offering advice to the decision makers rather than making decisions.
Role # 4. As Discipline Maintainer:
An HR manager plays a crucial role in the maintenance of discipline in an organisation. He/she is involved in advising top management and assisting line management in the development of constructive disciplinary philosophy and then communicating it to all concerned.
He/she is also instrumental in the implementation of this policy, and he/she ensures that disciplinary action is fair and based on sound principles and that the principle of natural justice is duly followed. He/she is also instrumental in training executives and supervisors in handling disciplinary problems.
He/she is also expected to involve workers or their representatives in the formulation and implementation of disciplinary programmes. He/she is supposed to strive hard in inculcating positive discipline among the employees. He/she is also supposed to develop diagnostic skills so as to understand deep-rooted causes of symptomatic manifestation of disciplinary problems.
He/she is, therefore, expected to probe deeper into deep-rooted deprivation of needs and perceived blockages to achievement of certain goals in such cases. He/she is supposed to be a role model for others to emulate.
He/she has to play an important role in improving work culture and creating opportunities for self-growth for employees. All these prove that the HR manager has to play an important role in the maintenance of discipline in an organisation.
Role # 5. As a Controller:
Nevertheless, it is still true that effective HR executives advise on policies, help managers in implementing their programmes and provide service and exercise the monitoring and control function sparingly.
As other managers, the HR manager is also a line manager in relation to subordinates within the HR department. HR Manager is responsible for the success or failure of his department in contributing to the organisational goals. In most of the organisations the HR manager is responsible for supervising the activities of his or her subordinates, like employment manager, wage and salary manager, manager for training and development, industrial relations manager, etc. He or she is also responsible for the operations of HR manager at divisional and branch levels.
As the Chief of the HR Department, the HR Manager has to get effective results with the co-operation of all the employees working in the department and by showing the validity of the concept of the team work. The success of the HR department should be measured in terms of its contributions to the human resource programmes.
Role of HR Manager – Important Roles Played by an HR in an Organisation: Business and Strategic Partners Role, Employee’s Advocate’s Role and a Few More
The human resource manager should concentrate on dealing with the human problems of the organisation. Success of a human resource manager depends on his ability to solve management problems in dealings with human resources in the organisation.
Some important roles are discussed below:
1. Business and Strategic Partners Role:
HR Managers need to think of themselves as strategic partners. In this role, the HR person contributes to the development of and the accomplishment of the organisation wide business plan and objectives.
This strategic partnership impacts HR services such as- the design of work positions, hiring, rewards, recognition & strategic pay, performance development and appraisal systems, career and succession planning & employee development, working environment etc.
2. Employee’s Advocate’s Role:
As an employee’s advocate, the HR manager plays an integral role in organisational success via his knowledge about and advocacy of people. In this role, the HR manager provides employee development opportunities, employee assistance programs, gain-shoeing and profit showing strategies, due process approaches to problem solving and regularly scheduled communication opportunities.
3. Welfare Officer’s Role:
The human resource manager acts as a welfare officer in the organisation. He is concerned with provision of canteen, creches, transport, hospital and other services for the benefit of workers and their families.
4. Management’s Representative Role:
The human resource manager acts as representative of the top management. He communicates management policies and decisions to work force of the organisation because he has better understanding and vision of the company’s operations.
5. Intermediator Role:
The human resource manager often acts as intermediator in the conflict between groups of employees, employees, superior and subordinate & even between management and employees. In this way he creates industrial harmony and peace in the organisation.
6. Linking Pin Role:
He gives authentic information to the trade union leaders regarding the human resource policies and programs of the organisation and also conveys the views of the trade union leaders to the higher management. In this way he acts as a linking pin role between management and the trade unions (workers).
7. Change Champion Role:
Both knowledge and the ability to execute successful change strategies make the HR professional exceptionally valued. He creates change in other department and in work practices. Finally, he helps to determine how well his organisation is succeeding in all its endeavour.
8. Research Role:
As human resource manager keeps the all records about his all employees working in the enterprise, he undertakes research in various personnel areas such as- absenteeism, labour turnover etc., and conclude better measures for improvement to the top management.
Role of HR Manager – Role of HR in Mergers and Acquisitions
The term due diligence first emerged from the U.S. Securities Act, 1933. As per this act, it is the legal responsibility of dealers and brokers of securities to disclose all material information pertaining to securities to potential investors; else they may face the prosecution. Now the scope of the term due diligence has been extended to structured investigation on business issues in different type of situations, which also includes mergers and acquisitions.
In mergers and acquisitions usually a cross-functional due diligence team is formed, who investigates into target company’s businesses from several perspectives, both for adjudging whether the company is worth buying as well as to plan for the integration in the event the company is bought. HR due diligence has not become important, as people integration issue is important in any mergers and acquisitions process.
Before mergers and acquisitions take place, due diligence is conducted. Usually, a cross-functional due diligence team is formed to study the target firms business, using multi-prong approaches. The due diligence team review strategic position, financial data, operational systems and assets; legal matters involved, etc. to come to the basic answer whether the acquirer company should acquire the target company or not. Study on each of these areas is done for every function, including HR.
For HR due diligence, HR managers play the critical role using their skill and expertise. Sometimes organization’s requisite services of external experts. HR due diligence provides valuable insights pertaining to HR, like work systems and culture, employment practices, talent pipeline, employment practices, etc. Partnering with the internal team, HR can do this effectively. Time frame for HR due diligence vary depending on the size of the target organization, volume of documents that need to be studied, etc.
Some of the areas which are covered under HR due diligence are employment practices, policies, culture, compensation and benefits philosophy and plans, etc. In more details, employment practices and policies cover multiple areas for review like employment contracts, prevalent employment-related litigation, prevalent change in control issues (if any), employment structure and levels, unions and pending collective bargaining agreements with unions, contract labours, performance management systems, organization chart, employee relations environment, and any other potential issues that may have impact on the people integration subsequent to mergers.
When the target firm is international, scope of HR due diligence further expands to international human resource management issues, including cross-cultural issues, issues pertaining to immigration, etc. Also, HR in the due diligence process assesses the cost requirement for training and re-skilling, redundancies, etc.
For effective HR due diligence, HR has to focus on certain factors. Right at the outset HR has to acknowledge that mergers and acquisitions for the company is going to add value, else due diligence process will transpire to be more a fault finding approach.
HR manager plays many different roles and takes up various responsibilities depending on the size of the company, characteristics of the workforce, type of the industry and the value system of the management. In some companies the HR manager takes full responsibility of human resource activities.
In some other companies the HR manager may share the roles and responsibilities with managers of other departments such as finance, marketing, operations or systems. There are companies where the HR manager advises top-level management. In many companies, the HR manager makes decisions regarding staffing, training and compensation after the top management’s decision on relevant business issues.
Role of HR Manager – Important Roles of HRD Manager
Some of the important roles of HRD Manager are as follows:
1. Identify organisational development needs – To identify organisational development needs and initiate organisational development programmes with the help of internal or external resources.
2. Provide inputs for preparing promotion policies – To provide inputs for preparing promotion policies, incentive schemes, etc.
3. Design Job rotation – To design job rotation and such other developmental mechanisms, initiate and monitor their implementation.
4. Periodic reviews – Review periodically the development climate and quality of work-life all over the organisation and take corrective action. The HRD manager must remain in persisting touch with line managers, sensitive to HRD processes, and continuously keep renewing them in positive directions.
5. Evaluate – The HRD manager is the principal evaluator of the impact of the HRD programme on overall organisational efficiency. Within this sub-role, the manager bears the responsibility for the design, development, and implementation of programme evaluations besides cost/benefit programmes.
Each of these is used to determine the effects of learning on the employees and the organisation. HRD managers are also responsible for the evaluation of career development programmes and organisational development activities.
6. Management of organisational learning system – HRD bears the responsibility of improved performance and productivity through increased knowledge, competencies, skills and attitudes.
There it can be said that, HRD is about learning itself its effects on employees and its impact on the organisation. The manager of HRD is the key person responsible for the management of learning within the organisation and the development of programmes and activities that foster growth.
7. Organisational Integration of HRD – The manager of HRD must develop long-range plans included in the broad human resource strategy of the client system. This is inclusive of the development of an organisation-wide HRD programme that is a part of the everyday operations of the organisation. It is not enough to be a component of the organisation; HRD must be integrated into the fabric of the organisation as well.
8. Developing HRD Philosophy – To develop HRD philosophy of the organisation and to get the top management committed to it.
9. Review and Design of Appraisal System – To Review and design development oriented performance and potential appraisal systems.
10. Orientation – To orient the line managers to their role in HRD (in performance of appraisal, counselling, job rotation, training, etc.).
11. Communication – To get organisational value clarified and keep these to communicated employees.
12. Manage Training Function – Managing the training function if the training department is a part of HRD and providing inputs to it if it is generally separated.
13. Monitor the Implementation of Appraisal System – To monitor the implementation of development-oriented appraisal systems, counselling, etc., the function is to be performed through periodic surveys and corrective action.
14. Ensure Effective Functioning of Employee – To use data generated through appraisal and bring to the notice of the top management constraints imposed by organisational policies and procedures for effective functioning of its employees and assisting them as well as line managers in reducing blocks to effective functioning and increasing facilitators. The HRD manager functions as a catalyst.
15. Building Supportive Relations – To build and maintain supportive internal / external relations, the HRD manager must become a part of the organisational management team by attending meetings, making presentations, serving on a variety of committees, and writing articles and professional papers about the importance of HRD to organisational enhancement.
Besides, he or she must be constantly available to all individuals and groups within the organisation. HRD managers must also build and develop networks that communicate the importance of HRD and support its continued development.