HR Management Responsibilities

A HR management team is responsible for many important aspects of employee satisfaction including staff training, working environment, and employee relations. It’s a multi-faceted role, made all the more difficult by the fact that today’s worker moves jobs more regularly than previous generations: as many as 51% of employees are actively searching for a new job opening, and 35% of workers have switched companies within the last three years.

In this environment, the HR management team has a significant role to play in strengthening employee retention and ensuring that workers feel fulfilled and appreciated in their roles.

If HR management is carried out in an effective manner and employee satisfaction is given adequate attention, it will help to bridge the gap between employee performances and the organization’s strategic objectives. This means an efficient HR management team should be capable of aiding company turnover and giving businesses an edge over their competition.

Functions of Human Resource Management

Recruitment

Recruitment is one of the most important components of HR Management and covers everything from the identification of a staffing need to the filling of it. Depending on the size of a business, recruitment responsibilities will fall on various individuals. If a senior or specialized position is being filled, the HR department may have specialist HR recruiters dedicated to sourcing prospective employees with the right skill set.

Other organizations will use only a single recruiter, while in small outfits the hiring manager is often responsible for recruiting. HR managers most commonly reach out to prospective recruits via advertisements, job boards, and social media sites.

Induction

An employee’s first impression of an organization has a significant impact on their integration within the team and how well equipped they are to carry out their new role successfully. If the induction process is not carried out effectively by HR management it will impact revenue, absenteeism, and employer brand.

Some essential topics for HR management to cover during induction include:

• Company policies and procedures
• Company culture and ethos
• Employee responsibilities
• In-house systems
• Code of conduct
• Company history
• Compliance training
• Understanding the service or product

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement and its role in the workplace should be of major importance to HR management. This is what is used to measure the sort of devotion that employees have to their job or position, as well as towards co-workers and company culture.

HR serves as the main facilitator of employee engagement due to its role as a mediator between workers, managers, and executive leadership. Strong employee engagement is vital as:

• Companies with engaged employees tend to have higher profitability rates.
• Engaged employees who perform at a higher level have a more natural interest in their job.
• The engaged worker is more likely to pay attention to company communications, including safety notices.
• Organizations with engaged employees experience 41% less absenteeism, which can have a substantial impact on a company’s bottom line.

Training and Development

Staff development can be termed in a number of different ways including ‘Training & Development’, or ‘Learning & Development’. However, at its core is the notion that companies, in order to remain competitive, need to equip their employees with ongoing education. Ensuring that this happens is another role of HR management and includes:

• Providing orientation to new employees: Introducing new employees to their jobs and providing the necessary training and guidance.
• Evaluating skills and performance gaps: Assessing individual and team skill gaps and performance issues to provide timely feedback and develop a plan to remediate concerns.
• Assigning ongoing training activities: Even when employees have the skills to perform well, the company may not remain competitive if employees don't receive ongoing training to expand their skills.
• Preparing employees for future roles: Career development is useful in helping employees plan a career path so they can fill future job openings with the company.
• Improving organizational processes: If organizational processes are enhanced, the company will operate more efficiently, improve quality, and reduce costs.

Duties and responsibilities of a HR Manager

Employee Relations

It is the HR manager’s responsibility to recognize that employees are complex individuals that possess varying needs, wants, and desires within the workplace. Good individual and collective staff relations between workers and their employers will raise levels of employee engagement, which in turn, will result in increased employee performance and company competitiveness.

To that end, the HR manager is there as a liaison between the organization and employees to make sure that employees are kept well-informed of relevant knowledge and that they are represented by the HR team in any decisions that may impact them.

Employment Law Compliance

The HR manager is also tasked with ensuring the business is complying with employment legislation. From offering positive working conditions to guaranteeing fair work practices, the HR team is responsible for keeping a company in line with workplace laws. This is a role that can change often as legislation can be tweaked sporadically if new cases or scenarios come to light.

Health and safety

Promoting workplace safety is a further responsibility of the HR manager and comprises:

• Ensuring the organization complies with all health and safety legislation.
• Confirming employee safety training is kept up to date and that workplace safety records are maintained.
• Protecting all other individuals within the premises including customers and visitors.
• Establishing control measures to store explosive/flammable/dangerous substances.

Compensation and Benefits:

When dealing with compensation and benefits, the HR manager is tasked with devising compensation strategies, performance management systems, and compensation structures, as well as negotiating pay and benefits packages with potential employees.

Overall, it is clear that HR management plays a significant role in the continued success of organizations. Not only does it have an important role in the training and development of employees but it is also responsible for other essential components including monitoring job performance, offering appropriate compensation, and managing labor relations.

Therefore, to stay ahead of competitors, maintain low employee retention and continue to increase turnover, it is vital for businesses to have a capable HR management team in place who understands the importance and significance of employee satisfaction and fulfillment.