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Changing HR role
Life in Workforce Management
Changing HR role
Share your stories of workforce-management success in contributing to your business' bottom line, as well as your tales of business bloopers and blunders.
Hi .. I joined a 100 ee company in July as HR Director to establish and formalize an HR office which had previously been handled by anyone who had a spare minute! Since then, I have had to do two layo
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Forums » Topic Forums » Life in Workforce Management » Changing HR role
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Changing HR role
posted at 12/11/2001 1:11 AM EST
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Posts: 13
First: 12/11/2001 Last: 3/21/2005 |
Hi .. I joined a 100 ee company in July as HR Director to establish and formalize an HR office which had previously been handled by anyone who had a spare minute! Since then, I have had to do two layoffs and we are now at 40 employees in two locations.
I have resigned, since I don't feel they need an HR Director .. I have been unable to drive any programmatic work or organizational effectiveness or development work .. survival means day to day administration, which means paperwork related to health and bene's, and that isn't up my alley, as it were. A risky step to voluntarily leap into the unknown at this juncture, but after 9/11, life is too short to spend on benefits paperwork. I have two questions for this audience: is this shift in the HR role becoming common or widespread? if so, what do/can we do about it? and/or how are you responding? A consultant told me the see HR coming adrift from it's moorings and I'm interested in other perceptions from within. Thanks! |
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Changing HR role
posted at 12/11/2001 6:20 AM EST
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Posts: 99
First: 6/22/1999 Last: 12/11/2001 |
I joined a company a couple of years ago in the same situation. I was being brought in to build the company and the HR department. 5 months later we downsized to less than 50. The President of the company didn't share salary information with me (only the Finance Manager could have it), I wrote the employee handbook which sat on his desk for almost 9 months without being approved and the Chief Engineer felt that he could treat his employee's in any way he wanted. So I too left. In the hiring process I've seen management want to have HR in a strategic position but once you are there, it has turned into what can I get away with that won't hurt us. Best practices go out the window. I recall a few years ago the headline of Workforce Magazine touting the "new HR" and how we were now looked at as a strategic partner and were taking our place in the management ranks--no longer paper pushers. But old habits die hard and it's up to us in the HR community to keep our focus and show the corporate world we are an integral part of the business team. |
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Changing HR role
posted at 12/26/2001 8:16 PM EST
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Posts: 43
First: 11/26/2001 Last: 1/1/2004 |
I have a different perspective. I have been in HR for the past 5 years, though not in the ranks of a director or president. I was heading HR for the entire division with a strength of about 550 employees. In this role, I have always been a part of any committee (top level) formed to devise new strategies / frame new policies. Infact, I have even been in the fore front of an auditing team that was looking into the reasons why we were failing (Not from the HR angle, more from the business angle as a whole). I have also seen that it does make a difference. The same organisation is today without a HR team (part of the downsizing exercise). I understand from my ex-colleagues that the organisation is in chaos. There is no role clarity, lack of proper structure (there is one on paper), lack of ownership and lack of proper communication. The organisation is sinking.
The HR function is definitely a strategic function, but must be empowered and given a place as a strategic partner. This is the task of the organisation leader. |
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Changing HR role
posted at 1/3/2002 7:58 PM EST
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Posts: 495
First: 9/30/2000 Last: 8/19/2011 |
There has certainly been a shift in HR as companies are right/downsizing, and reacting to the economy.
The HR role is very significant, and goes far beyond assisting employees who have had the misfortune of losing their jobs. HR is not "coming adrift from its moorings", but is playing a more significant role in strategic alignment with the business. It's not all about "paperwork", it's about aligning the service to the time. Businesses are starting to rely more on the value HR adds as opposed to the stereotipic recruiting. There are several initiatives we undertake that validate our functions, such as retention, turnover, recognition, etc. HR also plays a significant part in contract negotiations and initiatives to enhance morale. Don't let this experience hold you back from the awesome benefits of this field. HR is ont its way up, not down. |
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Changing HR role
posted at 1/8/2002 12:45 AM EST
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Posts: 1
First: 1/8/2002 Last: 1/8/2002 |
Hi - I guess you would be appalled at my "to-do" list every day which includes helping my employees find housing, pay traffic tickets, get bank accounts, as well as interviewing, hiring, firing, disciplining, rewriting the employee handbook, payroll, writing training manuals, job descriptions, checking on insurance cards and coverage, finding doctors and dentists who speak Spanish and/or Arabic, talking to doctor's offices about coverage and bills, sending flowers to funerals of employee family members - in short to do whatever it takes every day to assist my employees, make their lives a little easier and making them feel as if they are important to the company and to me personally - which they are! That's my job description as HR manager (we call it People Services, I take the job title literally)as I see it. There's never a dull moment. |
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Changing HR role
posted at 1/8/2002 1:14 AM EST
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Posts: 1
First: 1/8/2002 Last: 1/8/2002 |
I too, have a multifaceted position. Even though I am an H/R Director, my generalist knowledge is applied on a daily basis. I have experienced major downsizing within the organization, which I now feel moving forward, my skills and knowledge are still esential to work on building morale and hopefully going back into a hiring mode. I am part of an executive team and now more than ever my input is of value and respected. If the perception of a Director is one that does not handle paperwork or the day to day functions, perhaps a career change may be in order. The role of H/R is changing, but is still essential to help build a solid organization. |
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Changing HR role
posted at 1/8/2002 3:38 AM EST
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Posts: 1
First: 1/8/2002 Last: 1/8/2002 |
I think the role of HR in an organisation is essential as organisations are made of people. Probably a very simplistic view of the subhect matter but at the end of the day they are the organisational components which make you or break you. I have experienced what happens to an organisation when a change in focus in HR happens and I think that if the focus of being a strategic partner shifts and the central role played by HR in an organisation is ignored then the organisation is most probably going to sink. Unfortunately a lot of senior managers tend to look too much at the financial aspect of the business forgetting that people account for a large amount of the variance effecting that bottom line. The wise few who have realised this tend to do much better than the rest. |
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Changing HR role
posted at 1/8/2002 4:06 AM EST
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Posts: 1
First: 1/8/2002 Last: 1/8/2002 |
As an HR Consultant of 20 years I have noticed that as companies delayer they put far greater pressures on Employees and managers. However the general culture today is for greater quality of life - and there is a collision coming somewhere.
One recent job ad offered "an exciting challenge" and a senior manager commented to me that they were probably looking for someone that doesn't know any better. In today's climate, can the work/life balance be achieved??? |
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Changing HR role
posted at 1/8/2002 4:34 AM EST
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Posts: 2
First: 1/8/2002 Last: 1/8/2002 |
I too have a story to tell about my bad experience as an HR Manager who developed the HR department from a filing cabinet with duties accomplished part-time by a customer service person to a full-fledged HR department within a 2 year period. The privately-owned company, of 250 employees plus,was being run by a young engineer who not only did not know what HR did, but did not have much business acumen. At first, he gave lip service to the HR function, but slowly came to give me less and less importance as the HR Manager. He refused to listen to my legal recommendations, best practices, etc. He always commented that we should only do what we could get away with legally. Our organizational culture eventually became one of mistrust, backstabbing, and conflict. While he allowed me to input great HR influence involving motivation, recognition, discipline, etc., our work environment was fantastic. He laid me off the other day for a rather bland reason. In letting me go, he gave no thought as to who would manage benefits, oversee legal problems, and the like. I have a PHR in Human Resources, a degree in HR, and am completing a masters in OM. He brushed those credentials off as mere papers that brought with it little knowledge. Due to his ineffectiveness as a owner, the company probably will fold shortly without HR leadership involved. Too bad, his inlaws that turned over the business to him will be greatly saddened by his loss. Don't think that HR can't make a difference. Next time, check out your future employer as carefully as some employers check you out as a job candidate! |
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