The obvious answer to this question would be the “HR” Department or “People Function” but is it?
If tomorrow, you decided to start up a company you most likely won’t have an HR department. You will most likely make most of the decisions of whom to hire and what to pay them. Giving the amount of legislation surrounding employment owners will usually seek consultants such as Beagle HR to assist with managing their human resources.
For larger organisations, many will have an in-house HR department. Interestingly many employees believe that every aspect of HRM is the responsibility of those working in the function in the same way those work sales have the responsibility to get new customers and meet company targets.
The HR function will be responsible for putting policies and procedures in place to manage its workforce. However, this does not mean that high levels of organisational performance will follow. It’s the implementation and the interpretation of these that matter.
The HR function will not be directly managing employees of different business areas, such as the sales or marketing department. It is down to the supervisors, managers and directors of those departments that have those day to day relationships to manage their workforce.
Once upon a time, HR activities such as recruitment were conducted by the HR department now these activities over time have been devolved to line managers. It allows for faster decision and empowerment for those managers.
HR’s role in this is to provide support and guidance to the managers. For example, an HR advisor may sit and take notes with the hiring manager during a candidate interview. This type of HR allows more time to spent aligning the people management agenda with the strategic goals of the organisation. This approach relies on the line manager having the appropriate skills, knowledge and attitudes to manage and develop their staff effectively. It is HR’s role in this to ensure the managers have these skills and continually develop these skills over time.
It is the overall vision, values and ideology of senior management in an organisation that has a critical influence on the way Human Resource Management operates in an organisation. The status, role and profile of the HR function are influenced by the strength of the belief from senior management in what value human resource management can add to that organisation.
What do you think? Does everyone have responsibility for HR in an Organisation? Let me know your thoughts
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