02.The roles and responsibilities of HR Professional

 

         Over the past century, the term “human resources” has grown and changed significantly. HR responsibilities have moved beyond just administration and legal affairs to encompass a more comprehensive and strategic role in businesses everywhere. This shift has been slow but steady, and has led to a dramatic increase in the value HR professionals provide to any organization.
         Today, HR professionals play critical roles in policy development, onboarding, manager training, employee experience, digitalization, and much more. This article offers a deep dive into HR’s responsibilities.  
          HR professionals are responsible for managing the most valuable asset of any organization –its employees. The function and responsibilities of HR professional can be varied, in this article, we will explore the 6 main categories of HR responsibilities: Strategic planning, compliance requirements, growing the business, employee development, talent management, and preparing for the future.  
          Each category has its own set of HR responsibilities, but they are all crucial to the success of an organization. HR professionals must have a comprehensive understanding of each category and how they contribute to the overall success of the organization. From developing and implementing strategic plans to ensuring legal compliance, HR professionals must be able to manage and execute a wide range of responsibilities.
     

Strategic Planning & Business Alignment Responsibilities 

            The contribution of HR professionals to the success of a business cannot be overstated. To ensure that a company’s objectives are met, HR practices must be aligned with the overall strategic plan. This includes having the right people, with the necessary skills, in the correct roles. 

            HR collaborates with key stakeholders to create a strategic plan in line with the company’s vision and mission. As mentioned, HR is responsible for identifying workforce requirements needed to achieve goals and analyzing trends to ensure the right talent is in the right positions to succeed.

            Effective HR professionals work closely with business leaders to understand their goals, identify required competencies, and develop HR strategies that support these goals. These strategies may include recruitment and selection processes, employee development and training initiatives, and compensation and benefits programs.

            HR also designs performance management systems that support strategic goals. They establish metrics that align with the plan and provide regular feedback, facilitating employee improvement and contributing to achieving the company’s objectives.

Legal, compliance, and administrative responsibilities

            HR plays a vital role in ensuring compliance with federal and state labor laws, anti-discrimination laws, health and safety regulations, and other relevant laws and regulations.
            To achieve this, HR must keep up-to-date with any changes to these laws and regulations. HR must also develop and implement policies and practices that comply with legal and regulatory requirements. This may include policies on equal employment opportunity, anti-discrimination, harassment prevention, compensation, benefits, and working conditions.
             As part of HR’s administrative responsibilities, HR professionals maintain accurate and secure employee records, manage employee benefits, and oversee payroll processes. They ensure that employees receive the benefits they’re entitled to, including health insurance, retirement plans, and vacation time. Plus, HR makes sure that employees are paid accurately and on time, while checking compliance with tax laws and regulations. 

Growing the business  Responsibilities

       As a crucial player in helping businesses grow and reach their objectives, HR fulfills many vital roles such as workforce planning, recruitment, and selection.

• Workforce planning responsibilities

1. Definition of Workforce Planning:

   • Workforce planning involves analyzing, forecasting, and planning workforce supply and demand. It aims to ensure that an organization has the right people, possessing the right skills, in the right places, and at the right time to fulfill its strategic objectives.
   • By leveraging data, workforce planning aligns the workforce with business needs and goals. It empowers HR departments to make informed decisions about talent requirements.

2. Importance of Workforce Planning:

   • Appropriate Staffing: Workforce planning ensures that businesses are neither overstaffed (leading to excessive payroll expenses) nor understaffed (hindering meeting customer needs).
   • Business Goals and Strategic Plans: It helps achieve business goals, strategic plans, and avoids excessive overhead costs.
   • Roadmap for Success: Effective workforce planning creates a roadmap for achieving business objectives, translating strategic plans into actionable steps.

• Recruitment & Selection responsibilities

            Recruitment and selection strategies are also key components that need to be developed by HR professionals in close collaboration with business leaders. Recruitments and selection comprise one of the essential functions of human resources (HR). Although recruitment is often considered the first stage of the selection or hiring process, each is actually a separate and distinct process altogether. These two processes combined ultimately determine the quality of the employees in an organization.

Employee  Development Responsibility

           Employee development represents a fundamental component of HRM that provides workers with opportunities for advancement by enabling them to acquire new skills, improve job efficiency or work toward career objectives. By following diverse approaches tailored towards this goal, organizations can facilitate employee success within their organization. By investing in learning opportunities for employees companies foster long-term success as they remain competitive despite changing industry trends. 

        Additionally, HR is responsible for identifying skill gaps within the workforce and developing a training plan that addresses those needs. This includes job-specific training programs to bolster technical skills but involves professional development courses, too. These courses may cover soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and leadership, among others, to provide growth and development opportunities to employees and enhance employee satisfaction and engagement.

Talent Management Responsibility

            HR professionals are responsible for talent management; ensuring the organization develops and retains talented individuals.

• Employee Experience 

A major part of talent management involves creating a positive employee experience, which HR achieves through developing policies that foster a balance between work and life and offering professional growth opportunities.

• Performance Management

Another important aspect of HR’s role in talent management is performance management. HR works to develop effective processes for evaluating employee performance regularly, providing support for the individual and the team’s development. This process also helps in identifying high-performing employees and fostering their growth and development within the organization, supporting the company’s growth and innovation while increasing employee retention. 

Responsibility of Preparing for the Future 

        As businesses prepare for the future, HR professionals play a pivotal role in driving change by spearheading initiatives that enhance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), digitalization of HR, and the adoption of new work models. 

• DEIB Responsibility

        One of the most important goals for HR today is improving diversity in the workplace. But diversity is just one metric in creating a fair and healthy work environment. There are several more steps that companies and HR leaders need to take to improve organizational health. Thought leaders have created the acronym DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) as a framework for building a more fair and inclusive environment.

        Yet even in the age of information, with the world being more educated than ever before, organizations struggle to achieve DEIB. What’s more, the barriers to improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are not always matters of apathy or evil. Instead, there are often more complex, systemic issues that prevent people from succeeding and working together effectively.

• Digital HR Responsibilities 

              While none of HR’s prior responsibilities has gone away, HR departments today are under pressure to rewrite the rules by redesigning talent practices, from recruiting to leadership to performance management; by experimenting with digital apps; and by building a compelling employee experience. All this must be done with a focus on redesigning the organization around teams, implementing analytics and organizational network analysis, and driving a global focus on diversity, culture, learning, and careers. Digital HR is built on innovation and experimentation. As companies become networks and the employee base becomes both older and younger, new approaches are needed in almost every HR domain. Companies often now use hackathons, rapid design groups, and both prototypes and “minimally viable products” to roll out pilot HR programs.

Conclusion

In summary, HR professionals manage an organization’s most valuable asset—its employees—by balancing strategic planning, compliance, talent management, and future readiness. Their contributions are integral to achieving organizational success.

References

CHRMP

https://www.chrmp.com/15-key-roles-and-responsibilities-of-hr

The 15 Essential HR Responsibilities in 2024 - AIHR

The HR Guide to DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) (criterionhcm

www.nitsotech.com/blog/employee-development-in-hrm/

The digital transformation in HR | Deloitte Insights