Hr Roles And Responsibilities

HR Roles and Responsibilities

"Human resources is a term in which many organizations describe the combination of traditionally administrative personnel functions with performance management, employee relations and resource planning." (Wikipedia, 2007, Ð'¶ 1). Human Resource Specialist provide guidance and expert advice in a variety of areas related to human resource management. The specialists respond to, handle and address issues that have an impact on employees and their relation ship to and with other management. For example, performance improvement process, policy violations and investigations, compensation and training. During the past decade, companies have been downsizing, right sized, reorganized and globalized in a mission to become more competitive and more successful. "Human resources is fast gaining favor as the key to helping organizations deal with a rapidly changing competitive landscape and growing demands to better serve customers, to better differentiate themselves from competitors and to better deliver value to the bottom line." (Bundy, 1997, Changing role of human resources has vast implications, Ð'¶ 3).

As human resources management is undergoing the transition from a "personnel" office to partners in organizations, this leaves the career path a bit uncertain. Employers are placing a greater emphasis on business acumen and HR specialists are becoming more involved in the overall business by responding to trends in globalization, technology, diversity, e-business and ethics. To meet these challenges, organizations need to consider the HR function not as just an administrative service but as a strategic partner.

In today's business world, international experience has become critically important. Companies can no longer get away with operating loosely connected groups of businesses that happen to be located around the world, but must strategically integrate their activities. A global organization needs to understand cross- cultural differences both inside and outside the organization. "When it comes to business, the world is indeed becoming a smaller place. More and more companies are opening across geographic and cultural boundaries. While most have adapted to the global reality in their operations, many are lagging behind in developing the human resources policies, structures and services that support globalization. The human resource function faces many challenges during the globalization process, including creating a global mind set within HR group, creating practices that will be consistently applied in different location and offices while also maintaining the various local cultures and practices and communicating a consistent corporate culture across the entire organization." (Bernthal, Rioux & Wellins, 2007, p.4 Ð'¶1).

The use of technology in human resources has increased dramatically. The use of technology replaces paper-based, time-consuming methods. Human resource departments are loaded with personal, confidential and sensitive information. HR is also required to keep employee statistics, skills profiles, staff assessments,