6 Characteristics and Challenges of Human Resource Professionals

Pragya Dheer

Learning Outcome:

The HR manager is usually a top ranked person in a company. He heads a functional personnel activity at the corporate level. In the HR field manager or executives operates at several levels and the tasks and responsibilities vary according to the level and status of the HR managers or practitioner. It is important to note that many different roles and responsibilities can be performed by the HR manager depending on the size of the company, the characteristics of the workforce, the industry and the value system of company management. The HR manager may take full responsibility for human resource activities in some companies, whereas in others it may share the roles and responsibilities with managers of other departments such as finance, operations or information technology. In some companies the HR managers advices top level management, in others the HR managers may make decisions regarding staffing, training and compensation after top managers have decided relevant business issue.

6.1.  Characteristics/ Role of Human Resource Professionals

_{Fig 6.1. The Role of Human Resource Managers}

6.1.1. As a specialist:

Human resource managers is an expert. As a specialist, he advises the heads of different functional departments on various aspects of human resource management such as human resource planning, recruitment, selection, orientation, training, appraisal, compensation etc. With his counsel & suggestions, functional managers can perform these functions successfully. The human resource managers should provide information, suggestions & assistance in such a way that he is considered a source of help rather than a source of threat to line managers.

6.1.2. As an Information source:

The human resource manager provides valuable information about labour market, labour & other related areas. Such information is necessary for the formulation of proper policies & procedures about human resources. He serves as a record keeper & researcher to provide the required information.

6.1.3. As a change agent:

The human resource manager can serve as an internal change agent to initiate & spearhead necessary improvements in human resource practices. As a consultant, he can provide necessary infrastructure & support for organisational development. He helps in introducing & implementing major institutional changes in the organisation. He is an innovator in human
resource matters.

_{Source: https://changeagents.org.uk/skillschange-agent}

6.1.4. As a Controller:

The human resource manager assists line managers in effective implementation of human resource policies & programmes. His advice & service is essential for monitoring & controlling the progress. As an arm of the top management, the human resource managers ensure that the human resource policies & procedure approved & adopted by the management are being consistently carried out in all the department.

6.1.5. As a Liaison Man:

Very often the human resource manager is asked to act as a linking pin between different departments/divisions of an organisation.

6.1.6. As Welfare Man:

The HR manager looks after the safety, healthy, canteen, creche & other welfare activities of the company. He is treated as a housekeeper & “the catering man”. He also observes the specific provisions of the industrial laws with regard to welfare of employees.

6.1.7. Act as a Problem Solver’s:

He is a problem solver in respect of issues involving human resource management. In union-management relations, he acts as fire fighter & as a shock absorber. He acts for management against trade unions activities. He helps to remove disputes & conflicts between employer & workers. He plays the mediator role to settle disputes between labour & management. He is a peace-maker.

6.1.8. Act as a Spokesman:

As the HR manager deals intimately with many key organisational activities & functions, he acts as a spokesman for his concern. He represents his organisation because he has a better overall picture of it. He gives information & facts about it to the outside groups.

6.1.9. Act as a Productivity Man:

The HR manager is considered an expert in human relations. He is regarded as good motivator & positivist. He is expected to understand the various needs & aspiration of his employees. Hence, he can boost up productivity by satisfying their wants. He can meet the challenges of fast changing industry society.

_{Source: http://www.fournierhealthmanagementsolutions.com/increase-employee-productivity-levels/}

6.1.10. Act as an intellectual:

The HR manager possesses the skills to articulate, understand & communicate personnel matters. He can conduct fruitful discussions. He can foresee the personnel problems & has the mental ability to deal with his people in an intelligible manner. He has the ability to draft agreements & frame policies.

6.1.11. Act as an Educator:

The HR manager must be interested in learning & also in achieving growth. He helps human beings to grow & realise their full potential. He provides opportunities for his employees to learn & to assimilat new ideas. He also reminds the management of their moral & ethical obligation towards employees.

_{Source: http://amovita.com/2016/07/24/are-you-a-level-six-leader/}

6.1.12. Act as Humanist & a Visionary:

HR manager has deep faith in human values. He performs his duties with sensitivity & empathy. He ponders on his social obligations towards organisation. He has the ability to reasonably forcast future events & evolve its vision to meet the coming challenges.

6.1.13. Act as a Leader:

HR manager is basically concerned with people & groups of people. He presents his ideal behaviour & sets his own example. He inspires his employees & motivates them towards better performance. He has social skills to harmonise the various interest groups. He integrates the individual interests with organisational goals.

6.1.14. Act as a Discriminator:

An HR manager has the ability to discriminate between right & wrong & between justful & unjustful. He is a good observer of right conduct & has the capacity to spot talents amongst his people.

6.1.15. Act as a Strategic Partner:

It is an important role in which he aligns HRM strategies to business strategies so the company can execute its competitive strategies.

6.1.16. Act as an Administrative Experts:

HR manager designs & delivers efficient & effective HRM systems, processes & practices. These include systems for selection, training, developing, appraising & rewarding employees.

6.1.17. Act as an Employee Advocate:

This role entails managing the commitment & contributions of employees. It should be noted that no matter how skilled workers may be, if they are alienated or angry, they will not contribute their effort to the firm’s success, nor will they stay with the firm for long. Thus, the role of employee advocate is of great importance for firms seeking to gain competitive advantage through people.

6.1.18. Act as a Human Capital Developer:

HR manager ensures that employees are continually developing the skills & capabilities they will need to be successful in the future.

6.1.19. Act as a Functional Expert:

He deals with the administrative practices that are central to what the HR department offers the organisation (recruitment, selection, payroll etc.) Thus, the human resource manager plays a variety of roles depending on the needs of the particular organisation. As the conscience keeper of the organisation, he reminds managers of their moral or social obligations to employees. As a counselor, he advises on physical & mental health of employees. As a mediator, he helps to maintain industrial peace. He acts as a liaison & communicating link between management & labour. As the representative or spokesman of his organisation he deals with the public. He also serves as a problem solver on human relation assisting line managers in diagnosing & soving problems.

_{Source: http://www.capspire.com/allegro/}

Basically, the job of human resource managers is the management of human resources. He is basically an adviser or controller rather than a decision-maker. He is there to assist, advice, counsel & guide the line executives in the performance of human resource function. However, within his own department, the human resource managers performs a line function by directing the activities of his subordinates & in service areas like factory canteen.

6.2. Status of Human Resource Manager:

Over the years, the position of human resource manager has changed significantly. In the early days of industrialization, he was considered a second class officer in his organisation. But today human resource manager is treated as a philosopher or specialised practitioners. Evolving status of human resource manager is given below:

6.2.1. Policeman:

The earliest position that the human resource manager occupied was that of a policeman. Management believed that workers dislike work & avoid responsibility. Therefore, they need to be directed, controlled & coerced. The human resource manager was used as a watchdog to enforce prescribed regulations. When the employee agitated, shouted, slogans & held gate meetings, a man was needed to discipline & control them. The human resource manager was required to handle law & order problems within the industry.

_{Fig. 6.2. Status of Human Resource Managers}

6.2.2. The Law Man:

With the establishment of Welfare state law & regulations were enacted to protect & promote the interests of employees. Employers felt the need to study & interpret labour law to assess their legal obligations and to represents them before the law enforcing agencies. In the legal battle with workers human resource manager become an employer’s advocate. He was required to issue charge sheets & hold inquires against workers.

6.2.3. The Liaison Man:

With the passage of time trade unions become powerful. Employers required someone to deal & negotiate with the union. The human resource manager was asked to take over the job. He also become a shock absorber & a scapegoat. He was now & then misunderstood, ridiculed but again recalled.

6.2.4. The Catering Man:

Some enlightened employers began to provide welfare facilities like canteen, crèche etc to workers in addition to their legal obligations. The human resource manager began to administer these services.

6.2.5. The Welfare Man:

Under section 49 of the factories Act, a welfare officer has to be appointed in specific factories. He is expected to handle labour aspects like recruitment, welfare aspects like housing & industrial relations aspects like collective bargaining.

6.2.6. The Productivity Man:

Today, human resource manager is considered an expert in human relations. He is expected to improve productivity by fulfilling the economic, social & psychological needs & aspirations of employees. In the years to come, human resource manager will have to meet the challenge of a fast changing post-industrial society.

6.3. HR’s Professional Competencies:

It is essential to know what knowledge & which abilities are necessary for HR professionals to become successful. For the last 25 years, the Human Resource Competency Study (HRCS) is undertaken by the RBL group led by Professors Dave Ulrich & Wayne Brockbank. The Round six of the HRCS, 2012 defined a clear model for competencies needed by high performing HR Professionals & departments.

_{Fig 6.3. HR Competency Model, 2012 by RBL Group led by Dave Ulrich}

6.3.1. Strategic Positioner:

HR professional think & act from outside/ in. HR professional are aware of & are able to translate external business trends into internal organisation actions. They understand the general business conditions (eg; social, technological, economic, political, environmental & demographic trends) that affect their industry & geography. They target & serve key customers of their organisation by segmenting customers, knowing customer expectations & aligning organization actions to meet customer needs. They also co-create their organization’s strategic response to business conditions & customer expectations by chelping frame, & make strategic & organisation choices.

6.3.2. HR innovator & integrator:

Effective HR professionals integrate innovative HR practices into unified solutions for the business problems. To do so, they must know the latest insights on key HR practice area related to talent sourcing, talent development, performance management, work & organisation design, & leadership brand. They must also be able to turn these unique HR practice areas into integrated solutions that match business requirements.

6.3.3 Change champion:

HR professional need to make an organisation’s internal capacity for change, match the external pace of change. As change champions, HR professional help in making the changes happen at institutional(changing patterns), initiative (making things happen), & individual (enabling personal change) levels. To bring upon the change at these three levels, HR Professional play two critical roles in the process.

1. Initiating change, means that HR professionals build a case for why change matters, overcome resistance to change, engage key stakeholders in the process of change & articulate the decisions to start change.

2. By sustaining change, HR Professional institutionalize change through the organizational resources, organization structure, communication & continuallearning . As change champions, HR professional partner to create organization that are agile, flexible, responsive & able to make transformation happens.

6.3.4. Technology proponent:

In recent years, technology has changed the way in which HR people think & their work. At a basic level, HR professional need to use technology to more efficiently deliver HR administrative systems like benefits, payroll processing, healthcare cost & other administrative services. In addition, HR professionals need to use technology to help people stay connected with each other. This means that technology can be used to improve communications, to do administrative work more efficiently, & to connect inside employees to outside customers. An emerging technology trend is using technology as a relationship building tool through social media. As technology exponents HR professional have to access, advocate, analyze, align technology for information, efficiency & relationship.

6.3.5. Capability builder:

An effective HR professional creates a strong & an effective organisation is not a structure or a process; it is a distinct set of capabilities. Capability represents what the organisation is good at & is known for. HR professionals should be able to audit & invest in the creation of organizational.

_{Sources: https://www.clickinsight.ca/training/customanalytics-training}

6.3.6. Credible activist:

Business leaders build personal relationship with HR professional who do what they promise, build personal relationship of trust, & can be relied upon. Being a trustworthy advisor helps HR professionals to earn positive personal relationships. As activists, HR professionals have a point of view, not only about HR activities, but about business demands as well. As activists, HR professional learn how to influence others in a positive way. Some have called this HR with an attitude.

6.4. Challenges/ Responsibilities of HR Professionals:

HR Manager’s responsibilities can be divided into 2 categories:

(i) General Responsibilities

(ii) Specific Responsibilities

6.4.1. General Responsibilities:

6.4.1.1. To contribute to Business goals: only recently the HR manager is held responsible to contribute to profitability, quality & other business goals through enhancing & supporting business operations.

6.4.1.2. Personnel Administration: The HR manager is solely responsible for outplacement, labour law compliance, record keeping, testing, unemployment compensation & some aspects of benefits administration. The HR manager is most likely to collaborate with other company functions on employment interviewing, performance management & discipline & efforts to improve quality & productivity.

6.4.1.3. To build a Competitive Organisation: Regarding the responsibilities of HR manager, one research study concluded that “human resource are being transformed from a specialized, stand-alone function to a broad corporate competency in which human resource & line managers build partnerships to gain competitive advantage & achieve overall business goals.”

6.4.1.4. To create High Performance Work system: Today’s HR manager has a responsibility to focus on productivity & performance. Today more globalisation means more competition & more competition means pressure to lower costs & to make employees more productive. Hence, HR managers recognize the need to focus on performance. Effective HR manager can improve employee performance in particular through the use of technology & by instituting high-performance work systems.

6.4.1.5. To Perform social Obligations: Since society’s expectations regarding appropriate treatment of its citizens are constantly changing, the personnel manager has an important responsibility to perform social obligations. According to Edwin Flippo, these include:

1. Ensuring that expectations concerning the quality of work life are met;

2. Ensuring that the organisation is incompliance with appropriate laws & regulations affecting employees; and;

3. Participating in the design & execution of periodic social audits.

6.4.1.6. Other General Responsibilities:

(i) To develop the HR strategy as an integral part of the business strategy

(ii) To contribute to creation & catering of shareholder value &, for this purpose, creating strategies to facilitate cash generation.

(iii) To take top management or the CEO of the organisation into confidence while formulating the HR strategy.

(iv) To reorient the processes, priorities & skills of the HR department to facilitate & support the HR strategy as to value creation.

(v) To administer & coordinate programmes spanning several functional area.

(vi) To oversee the implementation of organisation human resource policies.

(vii) To advise line managers on human resource issues

(viii) To head a functional personnel activity at the corporate level

(ix) To translate corporate strategy into HR policy & to coordinate the policy throughout all divisions.

(x) To link corporate policy & strategy with HRM

(xi) To have input into organisational goals, especially as these goals affect or are affected by personnel activities & to consider HR opportunities & limitations in establishing overall organisational directions.

6.4.2. Specific Responsibilities: In providing specialised help & services, the human resource manager performs the following responsibilities.

6.4.2.1. Line Responsibility: The HR manager directs the activities of these people in his own department & in related service areas.

6.4.2.2. Coordinative Responsibility: Human resource managers also coordinate personnel activity.

6.4.2.3. Responsibility to Assist & Advice: Assisting & advising line managers is the main responsibility of the HR manager. It is the heart of his job. It is performed in this way:

(i) He advises the CEO to better understand the personnel aspects of the company’s strategic options.

(ii) He assists in hiring, training, evaluating, rewarding, counseling, promoting & firing employees.

(iii) He has to administer the various benefit programmes such as health & accident insurance, retirement vacation & so on.

(iv) He helps line managers comply with equal employment & occupational safety laws & plays an important role in handling grievances & labour relations.

(v) He is responsible to carry out an imovator role, by providing up-to-date information on current trends & new methods for better utilising the company’s employees or human resources.

(vi) He helps to define how management should be treating employees.

6.4.2.4. Other specific Responsibilities: HR manager performs the following other functional & specific responsibilities:

(i)	Attraction	·     Identifying job requirements ·     Estimating the people and skill mix requirements
(ii)	Employment and Recruiting	·         Interviewing,   recruiting,   testing, temporary labour coordination.
(iii)	Training and Development	·         Orientation, performance management, skill training, productivity enhancement.
(iv)	Compensation	·         Wage and Salary administration, job description, executive compensation, incentive pay, job evaluation.
(v)	Benefits	·         Insurance, vacation leave administration, retirement plans, profit sharing, stock plans.
(vi)	Employee Services	·         Employee assistance programme, relocation services, outplacement services.
(vii)	Employee and Community relations	·         Attitude surveys, labour relations, publications, labour law compliance, discipline.
(viii)	Personnel records	·         Information systems, records.
(ix)	Health and safety	·         Safety inspection, drug testing, health wellness.
(x)	Motivation	·         Developing the techniques that reflect the needs of each individual and job satisfaction.
(xi)	Assessment	·         Evaluation of behaviour, attitudes and performance.

6.5. Professionalisation of Personnel Management:

_{Source: http://papershark.co/professionalism-in-the-workplace.html}

The following are some suggestions to improve personnel management profession in India:

1. The employers & the organisation having professional men should give the same status as extended to other professions, and give the personnel man’s advice the same weightage as given to others. The areas in man-management should be left to be handled by personnel managers & they must be allowed to contribute their utmost in the formulation of sound personnel policies.

2. The trade unions must recognise this profession as a speciality in the area of man-management & deal with accordingly. Firmness with fairness must replace the practice of appeasement of the trade unions without creating any misunderstanding

3. The government must also professionalize personnel management in the public sector, which is supposed to be the model forother to follow. The government should reduce its involvement in the day to day relationship of workers & managers & should encourage
   bipartism to play its role in its fullness. It should remain the watch dog to restrain, direct & guide the parties as & when required.

4. On the side of the management themselves, it is expected that personnel management should read the writings on the wall. It must be able to identify the goals of theorganisation with those of theirs, by appreciating the needs & aspirations of all others.

Summary:

A successful human resource managers required educational, personal and professional qualification. The human resource manager performs the role of conscience keeper, counsellor, mediator, spokesperson, problem solver and change agent. The status of human resource manager has changed over the years from that of a policeman to that of productivity man.

References

1. C.B. Gupta, “Human Resource Management – Text and Cases”, Sultan Chand and Sons, Fourteenth Edition 2012, Pg. No. 2.7 – 2.10.
2. Biswajeet Pattanayak, “Human Resource Management”, PHI, Fourth Edition 2014, Pg. No. 13 – 15.
3. G.S. Sudha, “Human Resource Management – with cases and problems”, RBD, Edition 2009 – 10, Pg No. 3.1 – 3.10.
4. C.B. Mamoria, S.V. Gankar, “A Text Book of Human Resource Management”, Himalaya Publishing House, Seventh Edition 2014, Pg. No. 53 – 54.