The role of a Human Resource department has changed hugely over time. Historically seen as a compliance or administrative function, the emergence of strategic human resource management is now adding real value to organisations.
We have identified three key roles that HR play, all of which are essential to employing a team, but the greatest value can be found in the third, strategic element…
1. Administrative Support
In may organisations HR support consists of administrative work:
- Placing job adverts
- Arranging interviews
- Vetting checks
- Issuing contracts
- Receiving sick notes
- Processing starters and leavers
- Notifying payroll of pay increases
This is all valuable, essential work, and in many sectors can require specific knowledge and training (eg for example recruiting into education or care). And an of course delegating these administrative tasks frees up leadership time to focus on their own roles.
2. Operational People Management
The role HR plays is more operational, dealing with people management issues as they arise:
- Training
- Interviewing
- Employee queries on a range of subjects from maternity leave to pensions contributions
- Employee relations such as poor performance, disciplinaries, redundancies and grievances
- Policy writing
- Implementing legal changes such as NMW, grandparent’s leave or furlough.
- Frequently added are GDPR and H&S
Again, in this role HR practitioners need specialist training and an understanding of the employment law which underpins many of the processes that need to be followed. This is vital work which needs to be done within any organisation.
Strategic Human Resource Management
While the administrative and operational HR roles are essential, the most value from your HR team comes from the strategic element.
- forecasting the organisation’s people needs in view of the organisational goals
- continuously monitoring and adjusting people management and leadership systems to maximise impact
- ensuring people management strategies work together to drive the behaviour and climate needed to meet organisational goals
- attracting and securing the best talent who has the most appropriate skills for the work needed at the appropriate time
- ensuring structure, quality, the evolving nature of work, culture, values and commitment move the organisation forward towards its vision.
Strategic HR: A coherent, planned framework for employees to be hired, managed and developed in ways that supports an organisation’s long-term goals. CIPD
Sadly, less than 20 percent of HR pros act as strategic partners to the organisation, possibly because we are spending our time and focussing our attention at the administrative and operational levels.
In addition, HR is still seen as a predominantly a female field, stereotyped as ‘touchy-feely’. This gender divide is compounded by the fact that that women are underrepresented in the boardroom; Delloitte’s most recent study showing that women hold less than 17% of board seats. This leaves a slim chance that many of those women are HR specialists.
How do we get there?
The answer? We believe that to elevate HR practitioners to the strategic level, we need to develop our leadership skills, increase our commercial awareness, our assertiveness and influencing skills.
To hear more or enter into our HR mentoring programme, call on 01582 252500 or get in touch through our contact form.