The Key Roles Of HR In The Organization
Human Resources (HR) manages the employee lifecycle, from seeking someone to fill an available position to sending that employee on their way to a long and happy retirement after a full and profitable career (or firing them six months down the line, which is much less preferable).
Whether referring to an individual, department, or outsourced solution, HR is responsible for managing an organization’s employees, ensuring they have what they need to fulfill the assigned tasks safely and within the law while receiving the proper remuneration as agreed in their contracts.
Although HR’s key roles may overlap, we will divide them into the following five categories as this can make it easier to explore and explain each role.
- Talent Management
- Employee Benefits and Pay
- Training
- Compliance
- Safety
Here Are Those Five Key Roles Of HR
1. Talent Management
Finding a candidate for a job can be as simple as posting an ad and waiting for the results to pour in. Finding an excellent candidate for a unique role, however, typically requires more effort.
HR is responsible for investigating the business’s needs and analyzing the job market to find the best recruitment approaches. It will be responsible for reaching out to potential candidates via various methods.
The HR individual or department will create ads for recruitment sites like Monster or industry-specific job sites. They will trawl the net and social media for prospective hires. And they will use their experience to leverage the power of Leadar to attract the most suitable business professionals.
As well as recruiting, HR arranges interviews and manages to hire, typically using robust HR software. HR software cuts out a lot of simple data entry, enables mass communications, and provides time- and labor-saving automation.
HR is also known for doing what might be considered some of the dirty jobs. As touched on earlier, your HR specialist or department takes care of disciplinary action, which may mean firing an employee.
2. Employee Benefits And Pay
Many people know HR as the people that process pay. This is one of the friendlier sides of HR. Indispensable to an organization that aims to keep its workforce happy, efficient HR ensures everyone gets paid promptly and fairly, making any necessary additions and deductions according to contracts, taxes, hours worked, and other variables. Administration platforms help streamline management of all facets of HR roles; click here to review Benepass benefits administration options.
Imagine what life might be like if you had to do your taxes every week of the year. Then realize it is only a bad dream but spare a thought for HR.
3. Training
While training is part of talent management, it’s worth giving it a discrete category of its own because it’s critical to organizational growth.
There are multiple ways to value an organization. Considering the value of its teams is an excellent one.
The first training that employees need is part of a business’s onboarding process. This might be a tour of the office and where to find vending machines (familiarising employees with their work environment and helping them feel comfortable can reduce employee turnover), but onboarding can last months, often involving structured training, two-way feedback, and evaluations.
Onboarding has the double benefit of:
- a) supervising, accelerating, and deepening learning, and
- b) facilitating feedback to improve employee satisfaction and productivity and improve future onboarding sessions.
If a happy, satisfied, and equipped workforce is productive, a trained workforce can take a business even further. Investment in employees not only improves and diversifies their skills to benefit the company but also makes them more loyal and likely to contribute.
4. Compliance
If there’s a form to fill in, there’s a good chance it’s from the HR department. HR has a legal responsibility to maintain up-to-date paperwork regarding the organization’s employees and to ensure compliance with various regulatory bodies, including in the following areas:
- Affirmative action planning;
- Business records and the personnel handbook;
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission documentation;
- Employee records;
- Employment policies;
- Health records;
- Payroll and benefits compliance;
- Recruitment, interview, and hiring documentation;
- Sexual harassment laws and training.
HR must always be up-to-date with the latest compliance requirements to help the organization function safely, smoothly, and within legal parameters. Furthermore, HR may be subject to an HR audit, so it’s wise to have this ship in perfect order throughout the voyage.
With the increased use of data and electronic devices, data protection is also a massive area of responsibility for HR. All data needs to be stored, processed, and, if necessary, transmitted with appropriate levels of security to protect data privacy.
5. Safety
HR is responsible for occupational health and safety, often organizing sessions and events for training, compliance with federal laws, and optimizing wellness among employees.
Health and safety training is critical, not only because an injured workforce is unproductive but because injured workers can lower an organization’s reputation. A firm with a bad safety record is more likely to be passed over by job seekers, making it more challenging to recruit the best talent and stay competitive.
The HR department takes care of making sure workers are trained well enough to perform their roles safely, the working environment is safe and secure, and the business is covered legally in the event of a health and safety incident or subsequent insurance claim.
Safety essentials that are the remit of HR include the following:
- Appropriate signage and security systems;
- Sufficiently robust written policies for all employees according to the nature of the business;
- Up-to-date and effective training, regardless of whether this can be developed and performed in-house or needs to be purchased or outsourced, including first aid and CPR;
- Risk assessment and risk tracking procedures to identify threats to employee safety and mitigate those issues.
Conclusion
Whether a business has many employees or not, understanding the responsibilities of HR can help keep the business operating efficiently, safely, and legally.
HR is sometimes one remote worker working part-time. Or it might be referring to a dedicated in-house team. Either way, investment in HR is a major investment in the life of the business.
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