“

The hardest challenge being an HR manager is that sometimes you have to be the LAWYER, the JUDGE and the HANGMAN.” — Hassan Choughari

“…while extraordinary products and unique services still afford a competitive advantage, the one advantage that stands the test of time… is people.” — Mark Salsbury

“Do you believe in life after death?” the boss asked one of his employees.

“Yes, sir,” the new recruit replied.

“Well then, that makes everything just fine,” the boss went on…

“After you left early yesterday to go to your grandmother’s funeral, she stopped in to see you!”

In our final review of Human Resources Management in organisations, let us step back and have a final look at the high-level roles this function has to master. We will be guided by the Business Management page on the BBC website:

Executive role

In this role the HR department assumes the position of expert and specialist in all areas that have to do with Human Resources or people management. This role has been evolving into greater importance as recent writers have been espousing the use of the term CHRO — chief human resources officer.

Charan, Barton and Carey, in their

Harvard Business Review article “People Before Strategy: A new Role for the CHRO” believe that there needs to be more congruence with research findings that CEOs generally see the management of their human capital as a top challenge, yet they also see the HR function in the organisation as the “eighth or ninth most important function in the company”. In other words, organisations should “put their money where their mouth is!”

In keeping with previous organisational shifts where the head of the Information Technology function moved from being just the IT manager to CIO, and the functional head of finance and accounting function became the CFO, the head of HR now needs to be called the CHRO – the chief human resource officer.

This may seem symbolic, but it emphasises that the person heading the HR function belongs to the C-suite along with the CEO and CFO, and more recently the CIO. It also underlines the critical importance of employees as still the superior means for a firm to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

There is a caveat, however. This one is debatable, but Charan, in his

Harvard Business Review article “It’s time to split HR,” believes that typically HR personnel are more process-oriented and spend inordinate amounts of time focusing on “personnel benefits, compensation, and labour relations,” and so are not much help in analysing why people and other aspects of the organisation do not meet business performance goals.

His solution is to split HR into the admin roles and separate that from the strategy roles. Of course, that elicited howls of protest from other HR researchers and practitioners!

Facilitator role

The HR department needs to provide facilitation and training to the managers of other departments on the HR policies in the organisation and ensure that those practices are in keeping with acceptable HR behaviour.

The facilitator role is also such that the centralised training function in the organisation typically sits under HR. So if there is a training centre/school where structured training courses are offered, the HR department typically also manages that.

There will also arise periodically various issues related to people management and employee relationship that will require HR to employ its expertise in assisting the department managers.

Relating with unions is another area that requires special knowledge and skillsets, which again typically reside within HR. In this and other areas it is better if HR takes the pre-emptive or proactive approach and thoroughly trains the other managers to know, appreciate and apply HR best practices before serious mistakes are made.

Even though not recommended, sometimes it is still apt to cite well-worn clichés, and so in this case, “Prevention is better than cure!”

Additionally, the HR department needs to stay abreast of evolving legislation that will have an impact on the behaviour of staff in general.

So, for example, the advent of the Sexual Harassment legislation (the bill was tabled in parliament in December 2015) will need the HR department to activate its training arm “big time” because based on entrenched cultural practices (even though silently abhorred by those on the receiving end) many employees could end up on the wrong side of the law if they are not adequately trained.

It is especially important in this case, because if the bill becomes law in its current state, the organisation will be held liable if “reasonable” steps are not taken to prevent case(s) of sexual harassment within the organisation.

And by the way, just to prepare readers, sexual harassment in the bill has as its focus the “sexual advance,” which in addition to the explicit request for sexual favours, also includes “the making of sexually coloured remarks, or sexual advances, sexual suggestions or sexual innuendos” .

Unless HR does some training, many of our workers will get caught via the “suggestions” or “innuendos” aspect of this legislation.

Audit role

By default the HR department is the owner of HR functions like recruitment, compensation, training, separation, and staff appraisals; as well as policies related to health and safety, and general employee well-being.

Having said that, we remember that employees typically are scattered in disparate departments and reporting to several different supervisors, managers and directors, many of whom only have a nodding acquaintance with HR procedures, policies and practices.

As stated before, it is therefore necessary for HR to train these managers in the relevant appropriate HR policies and required behaviour. Furthermore, it is also necessary that HR acts as auditor and ensures that policies and acceptable practices are being adhered to.

Consultancy role

Again the HR department should typically be the expert on all things HR in the organisation. On a side note, by default you will realise that the HR staff need to themselves be thoroughly trained in HR roles, functions and best practices.

Not only that, the HR staff must appreciate that they need to constantly upgrade their skills and participate in forums and other activities with HR personnel from other organisations from various industries.

Service role

The role of service provider actually seems to significantly overlap with the other roles. However, the perspective is necessary, as other employees and managers in the organisation need to realise that the HR department provides a service function to the other functional areas in the organisation.

They serve by providing information on various matters, and since they are also typically tasked with looking out for the general well-being of staff, they will have to provide at least basic advice on even potentially tricky areas like retirement planning.

They should also be able to refer staff to other bodies, even external ones, that can provide greater levels of expert advice like in the areas of financial planning and even counselling issues, etc.

Dr Kenroy Wedderburn is an MBA part-time lecturer. Send your e-mails to drkwedderburn@gmail.com.