Why You Need Professional HR Officers And How Their Responsibilities Are Evolving? (Guest Blog)
Human resource is one of the most overlooked fields in a workplace. Did you know that in 70% small companies, the HR related tasks are being supervised by the business owner or an employee with other primary responsibilities? In such companies, owners don’t consider hiring Human resource professionals, even while knowing the fact that the people doing the task don’t have any prior HR training or experience.
Human resources tasks that can include abiding by government labor laws and regulations, managing disciplinary issues and administering employee advantages, are no different from practices such as keeping the books that different business owners could hand off to the right person but they do not.
At times, it is just because they are looking for chances to keep expenses as less as possible; therefore, if they have just a few employees they do not actually need to staff an in-house HR manager or outsource the HR responsibilities. Different entrepreneurs also find it difficult to assign.
HR Is Essential For Your Office:
It is extremely important for an office to have a well-skilled HR department if it aspires to stay employee-oriented and productive place, where staff s energized and engaged. Stated here are some of the benefits:
Employee Satisfaction
Human resources experts usually get the task to determine the extent of employee satisfaction, usually an ambiguous measurement to put simply. With carefully devised staff surveys, the focus groups along with an exit interview strategy, the HR experts determines what causes employee dissatisfaction and try to counter such issues to motivate employees.
Conflict Resolution
You cannot control the workplace conflicts, involving the diversity of work styles, behaviors, levels of experience and backgrounds among the staffers. An HR professional specifically skilled to manage issues related to employee relations can determine and fix the conflict between two employees or between an employee and a manager and re-establish positive working relationships.
Training and Development
HRs have the responsibility of assessments for the office's present workforce to find out the type of skills training important for refining skills and qualifications. Businesses at the outset or during growth phases can get advantages from assessing training needs of the present workforce. It's much more affordable than spending money on hiring extra staff or more qualified candidates. Moreover, training your current staff can significantly reduce turnover and increase employee retention.
Cost Savings
The cost involved in hiring new or replacement employee, such as training and ramp-up time, mostly turns out unreasonable for employers, particularly when it comes to the SMBs. When you have a well-structured recruitment and selection process, your HR professional can reduce the expenses demanded by advertising job postings, coaching new employees and recruiting new employees in the benefit plans.
Corporate Persona and Repute
It’s every business’s aim to be the employer of choice. If you don’t know about Employers of choice, they are the companies that gain industry recognition for how they treat their employees; they are the companies where almost every professional would want to work. If you want to be one such company, you should check if your HRs employ the most talented and deserving applicants, choosing the most suitable candidates and holding the most skilled employees.
Unwavering Ethics
Human resources guarantee the staff holds the company's philosophy and business values. Especially in the small businesses, creating a positive and unified work environment is important. One of the most important tasks for HR officers is to accomplish this is with judicious hiring decisions that determine desirable professional traits, along with an orientation and onboarding programs.
Performance Management Systems
HR professionals structure the performance management systems. If you don’t have an HR staff to create such a plan that measures performance, employees can stick in jobs that aren't appropriate for their capabilities and expertise. Moreover, the employees whose performance fall below the benchmark can continue on the payroll unnoticed, thereby wasting your money on low-performing staffers.
Sustainable Business
With the right succession plans that the HR officers develop, the company can easily determine the employees inherited with the requisite capabilities to lead teams within the company. This is a very important task as it can assure the organization's stability and upcoming structure for better success.
It is easy to overlook the importance of an HR team in a company, but without contributions in all such areas and without performing such responsibilities, the success of your company can get affected negatively.
HR Needs to Transform:
Time changes, trends change, necessities too, and so are the responsibilities. If the HR role in any company is not changing or conforming to the forward-thinking practices, it’s time for HR leaders to face tough questioning. Today’s companies cannot afford to let their HR department fail in contributing to lead modern thinking and enhancing the productivity.
In such environment, many of the job responsibilities of an HR have been transformed. The role of an HR professional must stay in line with the changing needs of the organization he or she has been serving. Organizations with a talented and advanced HR department are being much more adaptive, strong, and customer-centric.
HR As A Strategic Partner:
These days, many companies consider HR managers as an essential partner when it comes to business strategies. HR person as a strategic partner has a great role to play in the development and the achievement of an organization-wide business plan.
The HR professionals are also responsible for ensuring the acquisition of the overall strategic business plan. The strategic HR representative is profoundly well-informed about the structure of work systems in which employees thrive and contribute.
Such strategic alliance affects HR responsibilities like the design of work positions; recruitment; reward, recognition and strategic salary; performance development and appraisal methods; career acquisition and succession planning; along with employee development. In companies where HR professionals are connected to the business, the personal component of that company is considered as a strategic contributor to business accomplishments.
In order to be a prosperous business partner, make sure your HR staff members think like business persons, know finance and accounting as well as being responsible for cost cutbacks and the measurement of each HR related programs and processes.
You cannot give someone a place at the executive table unless he or she proves to be a business savvy who deserves that place.
HR as an Employee Counsellor:
HR executives have to play as an intermediary between employer and the employee. Where they are working for the benefit of the employer, they also turn out as an employee advocate. HR managers play an important role in organizational success through the knowledge about and support of people. This includes proficiency in how to nurture a work environment in which employees will be inspired, contributing, and happy.
Nurturing effective practices of determining the goal, communication and empowerment fortify employee ownership of a company. The HR professional assists in establishing the organizational culture in which staff has the concern, competency, and commitment to serve customers in the best way possible.
As an employee-supporter, the HR manager offers talent management strategies, employee support programs, employee development opportunities, organization development interventions, gain sharing and profit-sharing strategies, pending process approaches employee grievances and problem-solving and frequently scheduled communication opportunities.
The Bottom Line:
The continuous evaluation of an organization’s efficiency results in the need for a human resource expert to constantly succeed change. HR officers, at present, should possess both knowledge of and the capability of implementing successful change strategies. Being aware of the best ways to stay aligned with the change to the strategic requirements of the organization will reduce employee discontentment and immunity against change.
Organization development, the primary discipline for change management strategies, provides the HR person with extra challenges. Consciously assisting in creating the right organizational culture, supervising employee satisfaction, and assessing the results of organization initiatives also falls under the new domain of HR responsibilities.
Author bio:
Shirley Benson has been working as a career acquisition specialist in a private firm. She has been involved in numerous campaigns of careers counseling. She has earned her Accredited Life Experience Degree in Human resources management. Shirley has years of experience in the HR industry and does her best writing on career and HR related topics. When she is not working or writing, she is probably cooking, watching Game of Thrones and Narcos.