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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.


 

 
 


he role of the HR professional is changing. In the past, HR managers were often viewed as the
systematizing, policing arm of executive management. heir 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 ² you wouldn¶t want every manager putting his own spin on a sexual harassment
policy, as an example ² much of the HR role is transforming itself.


 


he 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

 raining

 Œrganization Development

 Communication

 Performance Management

 Coaching

 Policy Recommendation

 Salary and Benefits

 eam Building

 ºmployee Relations

 Ñeadership

With all of this in mind, in V



, 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.

 
 




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.

he HR business objectives are established to support the attainment of the overall strategic
business plan and objectives. he tactical HR representative is deeply knowledgeable about the
design of work systems in which people succeed and contribute. his 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.

o 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.

 

 

 

As an employee sponsor or advocate, the HR manager plays an integral role in organizational

success via his knowledge about and advocacy of people. his 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. he 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.

 
 
 
 

he 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.

he 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. o
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.





 
Management guru om Peters once joked that if you want to insult a Human Resources director
ask him if HR stands for 'Human Remains.' he fact is, HR is a universally misunderstood
discipline whether you are a large or small company. But bringing in an HR presence into your
growing business could be one of the most sensible decisions you ever make. Find out why

Increasingly HR is more professional than ever before (its institute ± the still rather antiquated
sounding Institute of Personnel and Development - was recently given Chartered status). It
doesn't require a huge leap of imagination to see HR theory - recruitment, retention, training and
culture development - is something you will want turned into practice.
So, what sort of person should you really be looking to hire, what do they do, and what, most
importantly, will they cost?

What does a HR manager do?

he problem smaller growing businesses have is that they will usually need someone who can do
all these things to one degree or another, and possibly have expertise specific to that firm¶s area
of growth, for example relocating or restructuring. Sue Shipley, principle consultant at HR
recruitment consultancy, Œdgers Ray & Berndston, says "What HR does is a factor of the
maturity of the business and it's requirements. Finding a simple pay and benefits administrator is
a lot easier than an HR person who can formulate organisational development and that's when
the role starts to become more strategic."

For most growing businesses, the role expands as the company grows. Nicola Alcorn, now HR
manager for lastminute.com, remembers how she was poached and hired on a permanent basis
after she had been brought in as a consultant from Resource Solutions to meet some critical
hiring decisions when the firm was much smaller. Now she devolves recruitment responsibilities
to business managers while she has the much larger task today of managing the entire payroll.

Vicky McFarlane is an associate director at Courtenay Search and Selection, a firm which
specialises in finding HR specialists. She says: "It's still the case that the dynamic that
determines a HR person's pay and responsibility is the number of people in the business. If you
haven't got many employees you can't do things like succession planning, training, and strategic
development, all the aspects that start adding value to a company beyond basic payroll and
recruitment. If you've only got 50 people you shouldn't be hiring anyone too qualified."




 



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Ahh, excellent question. (See, now I'm much less crabby since I no longer have 10.5 pounds of
baby pummeling my ribcage.)

Having supervisory experience can mean a broad range of things and certainly not all supervisors
have hire/fire authority. And many people who technically have hire/fire authority can't say boo!
without 14 layers of people signing off.
For the record, I think all hiring and firing decisions should be made through consultation of the
direct manager, his manager and HR, but with the direct manager having greater input. Most
managers don't have great management skills and it's helpful to have input.

But, that is not your question. Your question is for your resume. I'm not a recruiter and I'll tell
you that on my resume it states "managed team of."

I don't know what type of organization you worked in. Generally, I think for situations where
you managed professional level people, hire/fire authority is assumed. If you are managing in a
retail or restaurant or factory environment a "supervisor" may not always have hire/fire authority.
So,in that situation you'd want to make it clear.

I think a more interesting thing to note on a management resume for another management job
would be not only your role in hiring and firing, but in developing. I want a manager who knows
that a big part of her responsibilities will be to develop.

Is there a better word than fire? I don't think so. But I would talk about hiring, firing and
developing employees. hat is, of course, if you did all those things.




 
 
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he Human Resource Manager's job includes duties and responsibilities that ensure JDs, in
general, are prepared properly, that is, ensuring effective job descriptions are prepared.

If you are the HR Manager, it means verifying that every employee's job contributes towards
accomplishing the mission and objectives of your organization.


 $"%
hese are some of the criticisms.

 It often happens that there is a failure to link job duties and responsibilities to business
objectives.

 ºmployees' duties and responsibilities are not updated to reflect changes to duties and
responsibilities.

 hese do not truly reflect the strategic roles of employees.

 hese are mere lists of duties and responsibilities withoutconsidering how the jobs can
contribute towards accomplishment of the overall objectives.

 hese cannot accommodate dynamic jobs. hey are more suitable for routine jobs.

 In some countries, job descriptions have male gender-bias. his may not count as
effective job descriptions.

It has been said that automation is affecting the way JDs are drafted. It is also argued by some
quarters that organizations that prepare generalized JDs undermine traditional JDs.
Some even believe that there will come a time when job descriptions are no longer required or
relevant.

However, the preparation of JDs will remain an important HR activity as long as legal
provisions, management needs and industrial relations considerations require the existence and
preparation of such documents.

Ñ&' 

 
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Until that time comes, if ever it comes, ensure that the task of preparing JDs is carried out
properly.

Preparing effective job descriptions is part of strategic human resource management. Ñink these
to the accomplishment of your organizational strategic plan.

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