Role of the HR Department

Role of the HR Department: Top management generally recognizes the contributions that the HR program can make to the organization and thus expects HR managers to assume a broader role in the overall organizational strategy. Thus HR managers must remember the bottom line if they are to fulfill their role. Investment in sophisticated HR practices contributes to greater financial performance and productivity and to reduced turnover.

In the process of managing human resources, increasing attention is being given to the personal needs of the employees. The HRM Department activities influence both the individual and society.

Increasingly, employees and the public at large are demanding that employers demonstrate greater social responsibility in managing their human resources. Complaints that some jobs are revitalizing the lives and injuring the health of employees are not uncommon. Charges of discrimination against women, minorities, the physically disabled, and the aged with respect to hiring, training, advancement, and compensation are being leveled against some employers.

Issues such as comparable pay for comparable work, the rising costs of health benefits, day care for children of employees, and alternative work schedules are concerns that many employers must address.

All employers are finding that privacy and confidentiality of information about employees are serious matters and deserve the greatest protection that can be provided.

Where employees are organized into unions, employers can encounter costly collective bargaining proposals, strike threats, and charges of unfair labor practices. Court litigation, demands for corrective action by governmental agencies, sizable damage awards in response to employee lawsuits, and attempts to erode the employment-at-will doctrine valued by employers are still other hazards that contemporary employers must try to avoid.

The HR Role of Managers and Supervisors

Students who are now preparing for careers in organizations will find that the study of HRM will provide a background of understanding that will be valuable in managerial and supervisory positions. Although HR managers have the responsibility for coordinating and enforcing policies relating to the HR functions, all managers and supervisors are responsible for performing these functions in their relations with subordinates.

It is in such positions of leadership that the majority of students will be employed. HRM is therefore oriented to help you in managing subordinates more effectively, whether you become first-line supervisor or chief executive officer.

Discussions concerning the role of the HR department can serve to provide one with a better understanding of the functions performed by this department. A familiarity with the role of the HR department should help you to cooperate more closely with the department’s staff and to utilize more fully the assistance and services available from this resource.

The present status of HRM was achieved only after years of evolutionary development. You need to understand the forces that have contributed to this process and to become more aware of forces acting today that will have an effect on HRM in the future.