Roles and Functions of the HR Office in 21st Century.

Roles and Functions of the HR Office in 21st Century.

Long gone are the days when the HR function used to be handled by one person. The infamous “HR Lady” has now been replaced by a full pack of specialists in diverse HR functions. HR now seems to be the catch all when it comes to any facet of employee relations and company culture. Also, in the current employment environment, what constitutes Human Resources continues to evolve on a daily basis.

Lets take a look at the HR function in a typical large company. It may seem like the world’s most strenuous job sometimes, but there are definite benefits. Once we go through the list, you may realize that a job in HR may be the hotspot for career advancement and even provide semi-security from the unemployment surge.

HR Function and its roles and responsibilities

Ok. First up are those brave and valiant souls we call HR Generalists. The front line of an HR office, they deal most with the company’s employees and are responsible for many of the day to day operations. Their duties include:

- Explaining to a tenured employee why they have no more PTO (Paid time Off) time available.

- Researching and explaining the complex web of employee benefits.

- Assisting with interviews.

- Receiving and processing the fifty million possible types of employee forms.

- Payroll – Generating & Maintaining the effective, errorless payroll every single time.

A tenacious Recruiter is also critical to any HR department. Responsible for attracting and recruiting top talent, this person has their hands full. Also, guess who catches the heat if the employee from Hades makes their way through the screening process? Yep, you guessed right. This keeper of the gate is up to her elbows in:

* Sifting through a thousand and one resumes (some abysmal) and cover letters.

* Conducting phone screenings and scheduling interviews, in addition to listening to about a million voice messages.

* Walking raw recruits through computerized testing. Hey, didn’t her application say she was proficient in all Microsoft applications?

* Wading through qualifications, making offers, counter-offers, and pitching the company’s benefits.

* Maintaining a smile all day long at the local job fair. Someone buy that poor girl a Starbucks.

Trainers are also on the front line of shaping the organization. Critical to individuals at all levels of the organization, a successful training team is invaluable. They often have their finger on the pulse when it comes to the needs and complaints of the employees, and are invaluable in planning new initiatives. Perhaps one of the most undervalued positions, these folks:

* Conduct new-hire orientation and training. Someone has to get those raw recruits into shape.

* Support the functional departments with process training

* Shape the company culture through the use of soft skills and collaborative training modules.

* Provide an ear for frustrated employees.

* Perform the miracle of getting Susie in inventory control to become proficient in Microsoft Excel.

HR Managers are the glue that keeps it all together. Tasked with overseeing Generalists, Recruiters and Trainers, HR managers also have to ensure that the goals and objectives of Senior Leadership are being implemented across the organization. This can be a tightrope to walk, but the successful Manager knows how to maintain the delicate balance. Some critical responsibilities are:

* Ensuring the smooth running of the HR office.

* Gaining buy-in from the operations Managers and Supervisors for new policies.

* Conducting town hall meetings to disseminate new programs and guidelines to employees. Anyone hear crickets?

* Administering assimilation or team building exercises.

* Overseeing recruitment efforts.

* Developing incentive programs.

* Investigating claims of racism, sexism, and every other ism you can think of.

* Listening to the never ending list of employee issues and complaints.

* Everything else under the sun.

All jokes apart, HR is one of the most versatile and hardest working functions of any organization. They impact every aspect of the company and are stewards of its vision. HR engages in leadership and management development, employee counseling, community outreach, and a whole lot more.

By working in Human Resources, you gain a diverse skill set that can be transferred into so many other positions. A company simply could not function without your expertise and dedication. So the next time you feel down about your job, remember that HR runs the show.

If Bad Hires Squeaked!

If Bad Hires Squeaked!

It might seem like a rather odd time to write an article on hiring when so many companies are not. Determining the need to improve upon one's hiring process, and making the changes, is something that can be done right now. Consistent marginal performers presently on board got there somehow. They weren't good hires that suddenly changed after their start date. Poor performance can be traced back to incorrect assessments and the ill-fated decision to hire. Yet many companies only address poor performance with employee counseling and discipline stopping short of fixing the real problem - how they got hired.

* How Effective Are Interviewers At Hiring High Performers?

When the economy is robust and the unemployment rate is low, the supply and demand model favors the applicant, not the employer. Companies can struggle just to fill all their openings. However, hiring High Performers does not require a flood of applicants. If you do need more, you can always get creative. In any labor market, one of the best ways to increase the pool to choose from is to turn your current employees into extended recruiters. Create a referral bonus program and get the word out. Make a big deal about each bonus you pay and it will catch on. But even with quantity, there are times we mistakenly hire poor performers thinking they're good choices. The opposite occurs as well. Without realizing, we say, "No Thanks!" to applicants that would do a good job. More important than a quantity of applicants is our ability to accurately recognize quality. Discerning the difference between who is motivated to do the job and who is motivated to get the job involves more than just assessing a candidate's skills. Without knowing how to properly identify the best, many unskilled interviewers are forced to rely on their gut to tell them which candidate is best. This produces good results sometimes and bad results other times. Improving your selection process involves improving the effectiveness of your interviewers.

* Many people believe that their years of interviewing experience automatically make them an effective interviewer.

This one is my personal favorite. The biggest roadblock to improving hiring is convincing interviewers they need training. More managers come to workshops kicking and screaming in defiance, stating they have too many important things they need to be doing, but leave professing it was the most valuable training they ever had. If a company is already filled with top performers, then indeed, interviewer training is unnecessary. However, if you track and review hiring stats, many companies find they have too few top performers. And, it's no wonder. Typically, 80% or more of those making the hiring decisions have had little or no formal training on how to hire the best. For those who have had some training, it's usually just the legal do's and don'ts, and some interviewing basics.

Many interviewers bring with them what they learned at prior jobs. When one company asked their interviewers to send copies of their interview guides to HR, they received 75 different ones. There was no consistency. Another company had a standard interview format but their training focused mainly on how to keep the company out of litigation. They provided no specifics on how to hire high performers. Since the full cost of bad hiring are typically not tracked, it's hard to say which costs more - poor performers or lawsuits. It's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil, even if both wheels need it. If only bad hires would squeak a little louder.

* We track time-to-hire and cost-of-hire but we don't track quality-of-hire or quality-of-turnover.

Are we saying fast and cheap hires are always good? Do we really not care about the quality that comes into and goes out of our company? In many companies, there is a lack of accountability for the costs associated with each poor performer hired. It's not tracked. There is no line item on a P & L for the lost productivity and sales from hiring a substandard employee. If there were, hiring would suddenly become more important. If a manager's bonus was tied to his staffing effectiveness, you'd see him seek out the training. Both the cost and the time-to-hire are valuable pieces of information, but what matters most is the quality of hire.

Low turnover numbers, without taking into consideration job performance, can be deceiving. It all depends on who's leaving. Turnover should be tracked not by voluntary and involuntary, but rather by percentage of high performers who move on. Effective exit interviews should be used to gather the "real" reason top performers leave. Only accurate feedback can result in changes that improve retention. Luring back the departed best is always a good way to increase a company's High Performer percentages.

If you'd like to improve your hiring effectiveness, here are some things you can do now:

* First, gather as much past department, or company, hiring results as possible. Break current employees into three performance categories: High, Average, and Poor Performer. Current evaluations can be a simple way to do this. Then divide the total number in each category by the total number of company employees, to determine your percentage in each group. It doesn't include recent turnover but it will give you a baseline to compare future hiring results with. Many company percentages create a bell-shaped curve with 20% on each end and 60% performing at an average level.

* Take the time to survey those currently involved in your company's employee selection process, as well as those being groomed for promotions involving this responsibility. Find out in detail about prior training, i.e., legal, basics, behavior-based, etc. Since years of experience does not always equal good hiring skills, knowing who needs training and who doesn't may be tough to determine. True effectiveness is determined by an interviewer's results and without prior statistics it can be hard to calculate. Many interviewers tend to embellish on their successes and forget the rest. Establishing an across-the-board training program that gets everyone on the same page may be what is best.

* Track effectiveness going forward. Have each interviewer sign-off on their decision to hire. Create a simple form (contact Hire Authority if you need assistance). Turnover numbers should not lump top performers with the poor performer turnover. It should be broken into at least two groups: those rated average and above who left, and those rated lower. Include the interviewer(s) responsible for the hire. Hiring will never be 100% effective. Every interviewer will have a mis-hire now and then. For those responsible for several, make additional training mandatory. Every job opening is an opportunity to fill the position with someone who will outperform the one before.

Ref: CAROL QUINN