What Does a Human Resources Manager, Generalist, or Director Do?
Human Resources Generalists, Managers, and Directors, depending on the size of the
organization, may have overlapping responsibilities. In larger organizations, the
Human Resources Generalist, the Manager, and the Director have clearly defined,
separated roles in HR management with progressively more authority and
responsibility in the hands of the Manager, the Director, and ultimately, the Vice
President who may lead several departments including administration.
HR directors, and occasionally HR managers, may head up several different
departments that are each led by functional or specialized HR staff such as the
training manager, the compensation manager, or the recruiting manager.
Human Resources staff members are advocates for both the company and the
people who work in the company. Consequently, a good HR professional performs a
constant balancing act to meet both needs successfully.
The Changing Human Resources Role
The role of the HR professional is changing. In the past, HR managers were often
viewed as the systematizing, policing arm of executive management. Their role was
more closely aligned with personnel and administration functions that were viewed
by the organization as paperwork.
When you consider that the initial HR function, in many companies, comes out of the
administration or finance department because hiring employees, paying employees,
and dealing with benefits were the organization's first HR needs, this is not surprising.
In this role, the HR professional served executive agendas well, but was frequently
viewed as a road block by much of the rest of the organization. While some need for
this role occasionally remains — you wouldn’t want every manager putting his own
spin on a sexual harassment policy, as an example — much of the HR role is
transforming itself.
New HR Role
The role of the HR manager must parallel the needs of his or her changing
organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable, resilient, quick
to change direction, and customer-centered.
Within this environment, the HR professional, who is considered necessary by line
managers, is a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or advocate and a change
mentor. At the same time, especially the HR Generalist, still has responsibility for
employee benefits administration, often payroll, and employee paperwork,
especially in the absence of an HR Assistant.
Depending on the size of the organization, the HR manager has responsibility for all of
the functions that deal with the needs and activities of the organization's people
including these areas of responsibility.
Recruiting.
Hiring.
Training.
Organization Development.
Communication.
Performance Management.
Coaching.
Policy Recommendation.
Salary and Benefits.
Team Building.
Employee Relations.
Leadership.
With all of this in mind, in Human Resource Champions, Dave Ulrich, one of the best
thinkers and writers in the HR field today, and a professor at the University of Michigan,
recommends three additional roles for the HR manager.
HR Role: Business and Strategic Partner
In today’s organizations, to guarantee their viability and ability to contribute, HR
managers need to think of themselves as strategic partners. In this role, the HR person
contributes to the development of and the accomplishment of the organization-wide
business plan and objectives.
The HR business objectives are established to support the attainment of the overall
strategic business plan and objectives. The tactical HR representative is deeply
knowledgeable about the design of work systems in which people succeed and
contribute. This strategic partnership impacts HR services such as the design of work
positions; hiring; reward, recognition and strategic pay; performance development
and appraisal systems; career and succession planning; and employee
development.
To be successful business partners, the HR staff members have to think like business
people, know finance and accounting, and be accountable and responsible for cost
reductions and the measurement of all HR programs and processes. It's not enough to
ask for a seat at the executive table; HR people will have to prove they have the
business savvy necessary to sit there.
HR Role: Employee Advocate
As an employee sponsor or advocate, the HR manager plays an integral role in
organizational success via his knowledge about and advocacy of people. This
advocacy includes expertise in how to create a work environment in which people
will choose to be motivated, contributing, and happy.
Fostering effective methods of goal setting, communication and empowerment
through responsibility, builds employee ownership of the organization. The HR
professional helps establish the organizational culture and climate in which people
have the competency, concern and commitment to serve customers well.
In this role, the HR manager provides employee development opportunities,
employee assistance programs, gain sharing and profit-sharing strategies,
organization development interventions, due process approaches to problem solving
and regularly scheduled communication opportunities.
HR Role: Change Champion
The constant evaluation of the effectiveness of the organization results in the need for
the HR professional to frequently champion change. Both knowledge about and the
ability to execute successful change strategies make the HR professional
exceptionally valued.
Knowing how to link change to the strategic needs of the organization will minimize
employee dissatisfaction and resistance to change.
The HR professional contributes to the organization by constantly assessing the
effectiveness of the HR function. He also sponsors change in other departments and
in work practices. To promote the overall success of his organization, he champions
the identification of the organizational mission, vision, values, goals and action plans.
Finally, he helps determine the measures that will tell his organization how well it is
succeeding in all of this.
