What Does HR Actually Do? 10 Key Responsibilities
When you are in an organization, surely you must find the HR department the most confusing department in that whole organization. The thing with the HR department is that everyone in the organization knows they are important but very few of the people who work in the organization know why the HR department is important.
So what does HR do?
You will notice a great difference between a healthy human resources department that positively impacts the growth of the organization and a distant HR that only shows up during the company holiday party but hides near the basement archives. Below is a rather deeper description that talks about what the HR department does or what they are required to do to serve and meet the employee's needs. You will see if the HR department of your company meets the requirements of a healthy and exceptional HR department upon reading the descriptions below.
Let us first know in simple terms what an HR department is. Well, in short, the human resources department can be defined as a group that has responsibility for managing the life cycle of the employees, that is, recruiting, firing employees, onboarding, training, and hiring, and the administering of the benefits of employees. The responsibilities of an HR are a lot similar to facilities management in the sense that they both look after the wellbeing of an organization.
What do human resources do?
You might want to conduct a study and find out from any employee what they know about an HR department and the answer that you will get will tell you that they deal with some uncomfortable work aspects, like violations, firing, and layoffs. But the fact is, the human resources department works to support employees. That is why it is referred to as human resources
1. Recruit candidates
There has to be an understanding of the needs of the organization by the HR department and those needs ought to be met during the time of new position recruitment. It is not as easy as it might seem, it involves more, there has to be a need for market analysis, budget management, and consultation of stakeholders. After the role has been advertised, what is needed to be done is more research to see to it that those attracted are the right candidates and they must be presented to the management. Recruiting a new person is rather an undertaking that is costly and massive because the right candidate can greatly help the organization, otherwise operations will be disturbed if the wrong candidate is picked.
2. Hire the right employees
HR is also responsible for the arrangement of interviews, onboarding new employees, and coordinating hiring efforts. They also make sure that all the paperwork is filled out that is involved when someone is being hired and to see that there is successful navigation of everything starting from the first day to the following days.
3. Process payroll
Payroll is not simple as it might seem. Taxes must be calculated and collected following every payday that occurs. There has to be a reimbursement of the expenses and the addition of the raises and bonuses. If you find it tiresome to do taxes once a year, what more for a human resources manager? And to make sure there are enough deductions.
4. Conduct disciplinary actions
This is one of the responsibilities perhaps if not the responsibility that gets the HR hated by some employees. Upon inappropriate navigation, loss of valuable employees can arise from such disciplinary actions and a poor reputation or litigation might arise from this. But in the case of appropriate action, disciplinary action will usually lead to the success of an employee.
For example, a company might see that there's a certain employee who is fond of coming to work late, and in the case that the employee continues to be late even after receiving several warnings, this is where the HR steps in and investigates the reason for the tardiness. This maybe would be the perfect time to have the benefits of the employee extended like the counselling of the employee or additional resources might be offered to encourage the employee to be on time. This might be taken as a learning opportunity that could encourage the career of the employee rather than choosing to take the path of incurring the cost of firing and replacement recruitment of that employee.
In other instances, disciplinary actions might not be considered the best path to take, and instead, the employee should just be let go of. HR which is effective in the way it conducts its iterations will know if an employee is bad for a company and if the employee would perform better somewhere else. In normal cases, it is not easy to let go of an employee. It all comes down to HR to make sure a strong relationship is developed with the managers plus the employees to make sure that the team is cohesive and healthy enough.
5. Update policies
Every year the policies of the company need to at least go and update, or if not just to undergo an examination, and this can be done annually in the case there is a change in the organization. HR now comes to see to it that official updates are made, and changes can be suggested if they no longer serve the company or the employees. There are at some points which might cause policies to be changed. HR should always be included in and consulted with regarding these decisions.
6. Maintain employee records
The law states that HR records have to be maintained. The records play a role in helping the employers identify Skill gaps which prove to be helpful when it comes to the hiring process, and analysis of demographic data while complying with the regulations. The personal data and emergency contacts of every email are contained in the HR department.
7. Conduct benefit analysis
Staying competitive is of prime importance when trying to attract the best talent. A promising recruit may choose a different company with lesser pay if the benefits are more attractive. HR should routinely investigate similar companies to see if their benefits are compatible. For instance, your organization may consider including pet insurance in its list of benefits (because let’s be real: pets can have a major effect on the happiness of your employees).
8. Organizational Development
This deals with interventions that aim to make an organization more effective. The interventions include job analysis, and job design, and macro-level activities like organizational design processes, and change.
9. Survey Management
This survey is conducted every year in the organization by HR. This process of surveying the attitudes of employees is very efficient as it helps in getting an understanding of where the organization stands, what kind of attitudes the employees have, and how better people management can improve productivity. The HR needs to own the whole survey management in general making sure that all the collected data points are aligned before being sent out, and collected in a central database. This will prove effective as the attitudes of the employees will be accurately managed, and the fatigue arising from the survey will be reduced.
10. Employee Promotions
Another responsibility of HR is to set rules for the promotion. It's a must that promotions must be based on seniority and merit. This is a fair and effective way of making sure people who are performing well in the organization are the ones getting promoted. Procedures have to be put in place by HR so that there should be internal movement of talent through promotions. Promotions should not be based on the current performance but also predicted future performance.
When to contact human resources
An effective HR department needs to be interacting with its employees. While developing the onboarding procedure, new employees have to be educated on when to contact the human resources manager and what resources the HR has to offer. The HR department must regularly arrange one on one consultations with the employees to keep track of their comfortability in their roles, career progression, and any other issues which might be faced by the employees.
Upon knowing the responsibilities above, employees must feel comfortable to contact their HR departments in these, and situations like these.
In the case that you have gone through harassment from your colleagues and this might include your manager.
In the case that you want to know about benefits, like company-provided health insurance, or rights guaranteed by law
When you have experienced a change in personal circumstances like childbearing, needing to reduce hours, etc
When you are experiencing questions when it comes to advancements when it comes to the company
When there is a need for a third party to work through work-related issues.
Building the best HR department
The culture of the culture is greatly influenced by the human resources department. If an organization has toxic HR, the result will be employees getting discouraged and there will be fewer chances of them consulting HR for help in any way.
In the case that HR is effective, and cares about the well-being of employees, the company will have a culture of openness and growth.