Personnel Departments

One key factor that characterizes a successful organization is the ability to manage the relationship between the overall business strategies, and the work of the HR/Personnel Department can be the main ingredient towards that venture. In this research paper we will look closely at the roles and functions of personnel departments and how they can improve their strategic value to the organization.

According to Ulrich (1998): "HR should not be defined by what it does but by what it delivers". This results in the enrichment of the organization's value to customers, investors and employees.

Hope Hailey (1998) in contrast believes that HR could be regarded as chameleon function. This diversity dictates different roles for the function and practices of people management.

As the origin of people, management are traced, there were somewhat curious oddity amongst many academic writers to assume the origin of the almost exclusively in the nineteenth century, Britain. Torrington et.al (2002) suggests that Personnel Management was initially derived from social reformers, such as Lord Shaftesbury and Robert Owen. Foot and Hook (2002) began their historical practitioner as "welfare workers" born out of the industrial revolution. A similar theme was also adopted by Holbeche (2001). Personnel Department was emerged from the desire of enlightened employers to either improve working conditions or in some cases, to avoid the onset of trade union representative of worker interest. Generally the tradition of welfare was aimed at improving the working conditions of the employees. The earlier roles however stated by Tyson Fell (1986) was drawn from building profession to identify three styles of personnel management, these were clerk of workers, the contract manager and the interpretation of existing agreements and contracts. However, these roles changed as a result of legislation, a shift in the intellectual climate away from post war collectivism and towards Individualism. Also the structure of the economy caused a change in the earlier roles of personnel departments.

As trade unions developed full representative functions for employees, personnel adopted representative role for management. These roles are as classified as:

* Administrative Role - Involving such activities as benefits processing and employee record keeping

* Operational Role - The department is required to develop and operate training, recruitment and safety programmes.

* Strategic role - The department is given a seat at the decision making table.

HR issues seem to be of second and third order importance, but truly speaking it is an important aspect in the overall performance in an organization. The culture of the organisation and the complexity of the policies will influence how a policy is introduced. For example, when it comes to communication, hard copies could be given to employees or put on notice boards, or 'soft' copies circulated by email or placed on an intranet. The communication process should be tailored to the organisation. HRM has encouraged the devolution of certain operational personnel tasks from personnel specialists to line managers; more generally, it has helped to promote the view that personnel have an important role in the development of the business and of business strategy.

It is important for policies to be:

* linked to business strategy, with a definite purpose for their creation

* complementary - working together to reinforce the company image

* flexible - able to adapt to changes in strategy and direction

* open and transparent

* suited in tone to the culture of the organisation

* developed through the involvement of employees and interested stakeholders

* communicated to all employees

* easily understood, written in plain English and containing no jargon

* accessible - in a format employees will use

* practical and enforceable, with logical implementation

* supported by managers, including support from senior managers.

The functions/policies of the personnel/hr department are

* Manpower planning; recruitment and selection;

* Employee evaluation, training and development, career development promotion etc.;

* Remuneration and benefits;

* Employee communications and consultation;

* Organization development (i.e. organization and job design, various approaches to securing higher employee involvement and motivation, opinion surveys and survey feedback, etc.);

* Personnel administration - contracts, attendance, turnover, medical and welfare facilities, safety at work, employee performance indices etc.

The type of organisation will dictate what policies are in place. As companies grow and develop, they need to introduce policies to ensure a consistent and fair approach - and to avoid wasting time by having crises dealt with in an ad hoc way. CIPD research has shown that by adopting 'bundles' of HR practices, employers are likely to improve business performance. Many employees have substantial discretion as to how to do their jobs. It is more likely that they will use their discretion positively if they feel that they are being fairly treated. The research found that adopting positive HR polices alone wasn't enough , the policies needed to be translated into practice to influence employees' behaviour. This translation and implementation by line managers is critical to the way in which employees respond to go 'the extra mile', for example, staying late to finish a project or going out of their way to deal with a customer problem.

There is evidence that there are a variety of roles/policies for personnel practitioners, but the carrying out of these roles appears to be a difficult and a complex activity. Torrington (1996) suggest that these challenges and difficulties arise from the specialists own confidence, identity and direction. For example, personnel practioners find themselves in an advisory role to line managers, but yet this advice, particularly where it relates to legal matters, simply has to be taken so that 'there is frequent uncertainty