HR Job Functions

(a)Recruitment Team (Sourcing, Hiring, Staffing, Talent Acquisition Etc)

Lets start with Recruitment Team. This team is also known as Sourcing or Hiring or Staffing
or Talent Acquisition team in various organizations. They are “Sales People” within HR
Department. Their main role is to get “Best of the Talent” available in the market. Hence,
they need to know what exactly they are looking for. Their role starts with “Talent
Requisition” raised by the respective department…and ends only with Induction of the New
Hire. In between, he needs to prepare the Job Description, Identify the Competencies
required, Identify the source for hiring, Interview the candidate, Coordinate the interview
with the respective department and complete the documentation.

The recruitment team in the firm is not performing at its full capacity because this type of
divisions require a large team in order to gather information to make the assessment tests
and select the most suitable person for the required vacancy without any favoritism or
biases so I think the judgment should not depend only on the manager of the recruitment
team

The various competencies that one must have to be a part of the Recruitment Team are as
follows:

1) Should have excellent knowledge about the Business of the Organization.

2) Should also be aware of the competitors in the same industry.

3) Need to identify the various resources for hiring and select the best one based on “Cost
Effectiveness” and “Urgency”.

4) Should have clarity of competencies that he is looking for and also have clarity on the
role a new hire is expected to play.

I am sure…if we take care of the above-mentioned competencies in Recruitment Team…the

others (missed out) competencies will take care of themselves. Clarity of concept is
important. I have seen recruitment managers who are working as Zonal Managers and are
not even aware of the distinction between headhunting and sourcing. The responsibility of
the recruitment team…actually ends on the day of Induction and from there
onwards…”Employee Relation” and “HR-Generalist (Operations)” Team takes over.

(b)HR-Generalist (Operations) Team

This team is actually a backbone of the HR-Department. The job-responsibility of this team
starts on the day of Induction with Joining Formalities. The various roles that they are
expected to perform are:

1. Joining Formalities

2. Handling Employee Database (Both in Soft Form and Files Management)

3. Leaves and Attendance Management

4. Handling the payroll

5. Managing advance Salary, Ad Hoc Bonuses, Loans

6. Confirmations, Performance Appraisals, Performance Management

7. Liaison with various government organizations for Employee Provident Funds, ESI and
other Retirement Benefits

8. Exit-Interviews

9. Full and Final Settlement

Competencies Required

1) Attention to details is a must have quality

2) Self-Motivated

3) Should have updated and accurate database…on any hour of the day.

4) Should be good in coordination.

5) Should be prompt…and fast enough in his actions.

(c)Employee Relations Team

This team is like a “Spokesperson” of the HR-Team. They are the bridge between HR and
Employees. They are the “Policy and Strategy interpreters”. An effective “Employee
Relations Team” can actually control the Attrition Rate of the organization. This team is
expected to play following roles:

1) Handling all the queries of the employees. Be it related to Salary, Leaves, Attendance,
and Transfer etc.

2) They are also expected to explain the various policies, strategies and benefits to
employees.

3) They are expected to stop all type of rumors and misleading communications.

4) They should motivate the employees on day-to-day basis.

5) They are also expected to give constructive inputs to Training and Development and OD
Team.

6) They play an important role in “Employee Engagement” …winning the trust of the
employee and hence can help the organization in controlling the attrition rate.

7) It is for this team to ensure that the employees in the organization should not leave the
organization for reasons other than salary.
Competencies Required

1) Highly Matured

2) Level Headed

3) Should be well versed with the business of the organization and its policies.

4) Assertive but not aggressive.

5) Should be empathetic but not emotional.

6) Highly Motivated.

7) Should be highly professional…in the sense, that if this team is active…employees will be
sharing all type of doubts…concerns…information with this team…they are not expected to
misuse the information. Should not play politics…by sharing their information with others.

8) Should be crisis manager.

Compensation and Benefits Team

This is fairly new role for HR-Professionals. The role of this team…changes, with the growth
of the company. His main role is to ensure that the employees of the organizations take
maximum salary and befits to their home and lose less to Income Tax.

He is the person…who decides how much to pay to the person; what all benefits to entitle
him…based on the market rate…keeping the competitive edge in the industry. He is the
person…who actually announces the annual increment for an organization.

This team is expected to perform following roles:

1. Job Analysis

2. Job Evaluation

3. Grading

4. Competency Mapping

5. Salary Surveys

6. Benefits Survey

7. Benchmarking

Competencies Required

1) Should have excellent Business and Industry knowledge

2) Should be aware of competitors…and their Compensation and Benefit Programs

3) Should be good with labour laws.

4) Should also be good in Income Tax Provisions…related to Salary and benefits and also
Economics.

5) Should be excellent in Statistics and Cost Accounting.

Another problem in the hr department is that both the operation and employees relations
divisions are merged in one division so their roles are diminished and become limited to
handling pay roll, managing the employees attendance and leaves, Handling Employee
Database (Both in Soft Form and Files Management) , Full and Final Settlements so
gradually and in indirect way this division has transformed in personnel management and its
main concern is to make record keeping function and ignoring Confirmations, Performance
Appraisals, Performance Management , communication at different levels of the organization
all these difficincies make it an urgent matter to separate this divison in to two independent
ones and to give stress on the idea that human resource management is how to handle the
employees issues in a qualitative way.

(D)Organization Development – Training and Development Team

As a Country is known by its people…an organization is known by its employees and hence
it is the responsibility of this team to “Develop the Employees” of the organization. If there
is any gap in “Competency Mapping” in terms of knowledge and skills required for a
particular position…it is for this team to bridge those gaps.

So, it can be training for soft-skills…other skills…new technology or it is development of

Personality…leadership development…or high-education. Hence, the development of the
company in particular and that of its employees in general…is responsibility of this team.

If you are good in speaking…does not qualify you for being a trainer. You may be excellent
as a Public Speaker and worse in training. Being a good speaker is just one of the “Must
Have” traits for trainers but not the only trait required. There is something a trainer is
expected to do before the delivery…(Training Need Identification) and there is something he
is expected to do after delivery…(Measuring the Training Effectiveness).

Competencies Required

1. A deep and thorough understanding of Human Behaviour

2. Positive in thoughts, approach and personality

3. Should be very good in communication. Should be rich in vocabulary.

4. Should be empathetic.

5. Clarity of thoughts is must.

6. Should be good in linguistics

7. Should have positive body language.

You need to take out Tonnes of Sand to get few Grams of Gold…hence the role of a trainer
is to get Gold.

You need to dive into the ocean to get a Shell with a Pearl…hence he is expected to be to
that diver.

(e)HR Coach and HR Mentor

This is one of the roles, which is an outcome of New Economy. Though being a “Mentor” is
not a full time job…”Coaching” can be. We can place HR-Coach above HR-Director but below
HR-President. Just like a Cricket Coach, whose role is not only to improve the batting or
bowling…but also fielding, physical fitness, mental toughness and overall involvement of the
each player…the role of HR Coach is to increase the overall productivity of all the above-
mentioned sub-functions of HR Department. Hence, he cannot afford to say that I don’t
know about Recruitment or Compensation & Benefits etc. He is the centre of the HR-
Department and all functions revolve around him. His role is not very sophisticated one but
very tactical.

Competencies Required

1) Experience. This is the one role where…prior experience is must.

2) Business and Industry Knowledge is Must.

3) Should be a Hub of Knowledge and should know HR in its totality.

4) Very influencing, inspirational and highly motivated personality.

5) A true leader.

6) Should be accountable, innovative, responsible and at the same time…should not be

emotional…should not get tensed up and should not create panic. In Short, a level-headed
person.

Conclusion

This is just an attempt to distinguish between various roles that an HR Professional can play
in New Economy. There is a lot that a HR Professional can do.