5 key roles of HR
A human resource department that’s effective can provide organizational structure along with the ability to meet the needs of your business by managing your employees, who are the most valuable asset in your business.
HR departments typically comprise several disciplines, but the HR practitioners often undertake more than 1 of the 5 key duties: training and development, talent management, compensation and benefits, compliance and workplace safety.
1. Talent management
The HR department’s talent management team typically covers a lot of ground. What were previously distinct areas of the department have now been rolled up under one umbrella. The talent management team is the one that recruits, hires, supports, and retains employees.
Recruiters are the key players in developing the workforce in any company. They post positions on job boards, source candidates through social media and job fairs, serve as the first-line contacts when screening candidates, conduct the initial interviews, and coordinate with the hiring manager that makes the final decision.
The recruiter’s success is usually determined by two important metrics: the number of positions they are able to fill in a given year, and the time it takes them to fill those positions.
Employee support or relations is the area of the talent management team that focuses on strengthening the relationship between the employer and employees. HR practitioners in this role study job satisfaction, organizational culture, employee engagement, and resolving conflicts in the workplace.
If the organization’s workforce is unionized, the employee support team also works on labor relations, which includes negotiating of collective bargaining agreements, providing responses to the union organizing campaigns, as well as interpreting labor union contract questions.
Talent management even has HR managers whose focus is workplace planning and management. It includes succession planning along with retention efforts across the business. Once an employee retires, resigns, gets sick, is laid off or fired, or passes away, the workforce planning team springs into action.
2. Compensation and benefits
While a single HR professional can handle the compensation and benefits roles in smaller companies, the duties are typically split up in companies whose workforce is larger. HR functions in compensation include evaluating competitors’ pay practices along with establishing the compensation structure. The compensation department also creates job descriptions in tandem with department managers and even handles succession planning.
When it comes to benefits, HR practitioners can be responsible for negotiating group health coverage rates with insurance providers or coordinating with the company’s 401(k) administrator. Payroll is also included in the compensation and benefits area of HR, but companies often prefer to outsource this function to a payroll service provider or bookkeeper.
Companies that don’t outsource usually put payroll practitioners in a separate team that works on the tactical process of generating payroll while the compensation team focuses mainly on planning and strategy.
3. Training and development
All companies want to see their employees succeed, which is why they provide them with all the necessary tools. The tools are not necessarily physical such as laptops, software or tools for a certain trade; they may include leadership training, new employee orientation, managerial training, as well as personal and professional development.
Training and development is a key component of the HR team. Depending on the employee role played at the company, the training team might be responsible for developing instructional programs that impact the success of the business directly. Today, numerous universities and colleges offer degrees in training and development; an instructional design would be helpful in this role too.
4. HR compliance
Compliance is an integral component of HR services. Labor and employment laws tend to be highly complex, and having a team that’s devoted to monitoring this constantly evolving landscape is essential to keeping companies out of trouble with the local, state, and federal governments’ laws.
If a business is out of compliance, it may result in employees of applicants filing claims based on discriminatory employment and hiring practices or hazardous working condition. The compliance team needs to have a good understanding of employment laws such as the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and various other rules and regulations.
5. Workplace safety
Obviously, all companies want to provide employees with a safe place to work, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970 actually mandates that employers provide workers with a safe working environment.
A large area of focus for HR is developing and supporting safety training as well as maintaining the federally mandated logs in case injuries or fatalities occur at work. Furthermore, this department usually works hand-in-hand with benefits specialists to manage the company’s Workers Compensation filings.
