The Basic Roles of the Human Resources Practitioner - The roles of human resource practitioners vary widely according to the extent to which they are generalist (e.g., human resource director or HR manager), or specialist (e.g., head of learning and development, head of talent management, or head of reward), the level at which they work (strategic, executive or administrative) the needs of the organization, the context within which they work and their own capabilities.
The role can be proactive, reactive or a mixture of both. At a strategic level, HR people take on a proactive role. Research conducted by Hoque and Moon (2001) established that: ‘The growing number of specialists using the HR title are well qualified, are more likely to be involved in strategic decision-making processes and are most likely to be found in workplaces within which sophisticated methods and techniques have been adopted.’ As such, they act as business partners, develop integrated HR strategies, intervene, innovate, and operate as internal consultants and volunteer guidance on matters concerning upholding core values, ethical principles and the achievement of consistency. They focus on business issues and working with line managers to deliver performance targets.
In some cases they play a mainly reactive role. They spend much of their time doing what they are told or asked to do. They provide the administrative systems required by management. This is what Storey (1992a) refers to as the non-interventions’ role, in which HR people merely provide a service to meet the demands of management and front-line managers. The basic roles of the human resources practitioner are described in more detail below.
1. Service provision
The first basic role of human resource specialists is that of providing services to internal customers. These include management, line managers, team leaders and employees. The services may be general, covering all aspects of Human Resource Management: human resource planning, recruitment and selection, employee development, employee reward, employee relations, health and safety management and welfare. Alternatively, services may only be provided in one or two of these areas by specialists. The focus may be on the requirements of management (e.g., resourcing), or it may extend to all employees (e.g., health and safety). The aims are to provide effective services that meet the needs of the business, its management and its employees and to administer them efficiently.
2. Guidance and advice
To varying degrees, HR practitioners provide guidance and advice to management. At the highest level, this will include recommendations on HR strategies that have been developed by processes of analysis and diagnosis to address strategic issues arising from business needs and human, organizational or environmental factors. They will also provide advice on issues concerning culture change and approaches to the improvement of process capability – the ability of the organization to get things done through people.
Guidance will be given to managers to ensure that consistent decisions are made on such matters as performance ratings, pay increases and disciplinary actions. At all levels, guidance may be provided on HR policies and procedures and the implications of employment legislation. In the latter area, HR practitioners are concerned with compliance – ensuring that legal requirements are met.
3. The strategist role
As strategists, HR professionals address major long-term organizational issues concerning the management and development of people and the employment relationship. They are guided by the business plans of the organization but they also contribute to the formulation of those business plans. This is achieved by ensuring that top managers focus on the human resource implications of the plans. HR strategists persuade top managers that they must develop business strategies that make the best use of the core competences of the organization’s human resources. They emphasize, in the words of Hendry and Pettigrew (1986), that people are a strategic resource for the achievement of competitive advantage.
4. The business partner role
HR practitioners as business partners share responsibility with their line management colleagues for the success of the enterprise and get involved with them in running the business. They must have the capacity to identify business opportunities, to see the broad picture and to understand how their HR role can help to achieve the company’s business objectives.
As defined by Tyson (1985), HR professionals integrate their activities closely with management and ensure that they serve a long-term strategic purpose. This is one of the key roles assigned to HR by Ulrich (1998), who stated that HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy execution and that ‘HR executives should impel and guide serious discussion of how the company should be organized to carry out its strategy’. He suggested that HR should join forces with operating managers in systematically assessing the importance of any new initiatives they propose by asking: ‘Which ones are really aligned with strategy implementation? Which ones should receive immediate attention and which can wait? Which ones, in short, are truly linked to business results?’ But there is a danger of over-emphasizing the glamorous albeit necessary role of business or strategic partner at the expense of the service delivery aspect of the HR specialist’s role. As an HR specialist commented to Caldwell (2004): ‘My credibility depends on running an extremely efficient and cost-effective administrative machine… If I don’t get that right, and consistently, then you can forget about any big ideas.’ Another person interviewed during Caldwell’s research referred to personnel people as ‘reactive pragmatists’, a view that is in accord with reality in many organizations.
5. The innovation and change agent role
In their proactive basic role of human resource, HR practitioners are well placed to observe and analyze what is happening in and to their organizations as it affects the employment of people, and intervene accordingly. Following this analysis, they produce diagnoses that identify opportunities and threats and the causes of problems. They propose innovations in the light of these diagnoses that may be concerned with organizational processes such as interaction between departments and people, teamwork, structural change and the impact of new technology and methods of working, or HR processes such as resourcing, employee development or reward. As innovators they have to be experts in change management.
Adopted from: Armstrong, M (2006), a handbook of human resource management practice–10th ed., CIPD, London
The role can be proactive, reactive or a mixture of both. At a strategic level, HR people take on a proactive role. Research conducted by Hoque and Moon (2001) established that: ‘The growing number of specialists using the HR title are well qualified, are more likely to be involved in strategic decision-making processes and are most likely to be found in workplaces within which sophisticated methods and techniques have been adopted.’ As such, they act as business partners, develop integrated HR strategies, intervene, innovate, and operate as internal consultants and volunteer guidance on matters concerning upholding core values, ethical principles and the achievement of consistency. They focus on business issues and working with line managers to deliver performance targets.
In some cases they play a mainly reactive role. They spend much of their time doing what they are told or asked to do. They provide the administrative systems required by management. This is what Storey (1992a) refers to as the non-interventions’ role, in which HR people merely provide a service to meet the demands of management and front-line managers. The basic roles of the human resources practitioner are described in more detail below.
1. Service provision
The first basic role of human resource specialists is that of providing services to internal customers. These include management, line managers, team leaders and employees. The services may be general, covering all aspects of Human Resource Management: human resource planning, recruitment and selection, employee development, employee reward, employee relations, health and safety management and welfare. Alternatively, services may only be provided in one or two of these areas by specialists. The focus may be on the requirements of management (e.g., resourcing), or it may extend to all employees (e.g., health and safety). The aims are to provide effective services that meet the needs of the business, its management and its employees and to administer them efficiently.
2. Guidance and advice
To varying degrees, HR practitioners provide guidance and advice to management. At the highest level, this will include recommendations on HR strategies that have been developed by processes of analysis and diagnosis to address strategic issues arising from business needs and human, organizational or environmental factors. They will also provide advice on issues concerning culture change and approaches to the improvement of process capability – the ability of the organization to get things done through people.
Guidance will be given to managers to ensure that consistent decisions are made on such matters as performance ratings, pay increases and disciplinary actions. At all levels, guidance may be provided on HR policies and procedures and the implications of employment legislation. In the latter area, HR practitioners are concerned with compliance – ensuring that legal requirements are met.
3. The strategist role
As strategists, HR professionals address major long-term organizational issues concerning the management and development of people and the employment relationship. They are guided by the business plans of the organization but they also contribute to the formulation of those business plans. This is achieved by ensuring that top managers focus on the human resource implications of the plans. HR strategists persuade top managers that they must develop business strategies that make the best use of the core competences of the organization’s human resources. They emphasize, in the words of Hendry and Pettigrew (1986), that people are a strategic resource for the achievement of competitive advantage.
4. The business partner role
HR practitioners as business partners share responsibility with their line management colleagues for the success of the enterprise and get involved with them in running the business. They must have the capacity to identify business opportunities, to see the broad picture and to understand how their HR role can help to achieve the company’s business objectives.
As defined by Tyson (1985), HR professionals integrate their activities closely with management and ensure that they serve a long-term strategic purpose. This is one of the key roles assigned to HR by Ulrich (1998), who stated that HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy execution and that ‘HR executives should impel and guide serious discussion of how the company should be organized to carry out its strategy’. He suggested that HR should join forces with operating managers in systematically assessing the importance of any new initiatives they propose by asking: ‘Which ones are really aligned with strategy implementation? Which ones should receive immediate attention and which can wait? Which ones, in short, are truly linked to business results?’ But there is a danger of over-emphasizing the glamorous albeit necessary role of business or strategic partner at the expense of the service delivery aspect of the HR specialist’s role. As an HR specialist commented to Caldwell (2004): ‘My credibility depends on running an extremely efficient and cost-effective administrative machine… If I don’t get that right, and consistently, then you can forget about any big ideas.’ Another person interviewed during Caldwell’s research referred to personnel people as ‘reactive pragmatists’, a view that is in accord with reality in many organizations.
5. The innovation and change agent role
In their proactive basic role of human resource, HR practitioners are well placed to observe and analyze what is happening in and to their organizations as it affects the employment of people, and intervene accordingly. Following this analysis, they produce diagnoses that identify opportunities and threats and the causes of problems. They propose innovations in the light of these diagnoses that may be concerned with organizational processes such as interaction between departments and people, teamwork, structural change and the impact of new technology and methods of working, or HR processes such as resourcing, employee development or reward. As innovators they have to be experts in change management.
Adopted from: Armstrong, M (2006), a handbook of human resource management practice–10th ed., CIPD, London