HR vs boss: How to explain that hr role is important

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The HR department in every company plays a huge role, it is responsible for recruitment, looking for candidates for work. It is also a department that will introduce a new employee to its operating rules and support in the first days at work. HR Department cooperates with other departments to prepare each employee's development path and takes care of the development of their competencies. And what does it look like in a small company that bases its management model on a flat structure? Is such a department needed? These other questions are answered in the following episode.

In the last years, HR has grown from a primarily transactional activity to a strategicfunction. CEOs who understand that talent sets the company apart from the competition expect HR to expand its performance. What does this mean for HR professionals?

The central point of contact between the CEO and the HR are talent management, including succession planning. When talents decide how to differentiate themselves from the competition, HR must create a responsive organization and drive their own performance. This with the overriding goal of better responding to customers' needs and strengthening investor confidence in the company.

CEOs expect strategic support from HR in three areas:

Strategic understanding and business acumen

- Has HR understood how the business works or how it makes money?

- Does HR act with a strategic vision?

- Does HR management have the necessary experience and extensive instincts? HR needs to ensure that diversity and global differences are taken into account when making decisions.

- Can HR play the role of a real sparring partner (right to have a say, take a position, provide food for thought)?

- Is HR able to prioritize and focus on personnel investments?

Branding and corporate culture

- Does HR contribute to the transfer of the brand to the corporate culture?

- Does HR take on a balancing function at team meetings?

- Does HR manage not only individual talents and their abilities but also teamwork and company skills?

Leadership style and teamwork

- Is the HR capable of fulfilling its role on the executive team?

- Is HR a credible leader?

- How strong is implementation?

Does the HR enjoy the trust of the CEO?

Reality is reflected in this apparently high standard. HR has to “pull along” and support its success by focusing on business results instead of transactional tasks. This became particularly clear in an interview with two equally qualified candidates for an HR position.

Why is the HR manager important for the organization?

The right people in the right positions are key factors influencing the implementation of the company's strategy. Thanks to this, the company can achieve its business goals. In practice - the company must have effectively functioning structures, motivated and competent employees, and an organizational culture that supports business goals. A properly planned HRM strategy and its enforcement through strategic consulting are key tasks for the HR manager.

What character trait or skill is the most important in fulfilling this role?

HR is a person who should definitely like working with people. Communication skills, flexibility of thinking, long-term planning, and openness to changes are critical in an HR manager's work. You also have to show stress resistance and composure at many times.

Recruiting talent for the company

Never before has taken care of employing the best talents been such an important task, allowing it to influence the company's dynamic development and put it on the right track. Thanks to technology's progress, one employee who skillfully uses his knowledge can complete the task several times faster and more effectively than others. By acquiring such exceptional employees, the HR department increases the company's competitiveness in the market. The right choice of people can really be reflected in the company's financial results. So, business success largely depends on recruiting the right talent.

Onboarding and training a new employee

Commitment to responsibilities is the bread and butter of the first weeks of work for most new hires. The task of HR is to design the onboarding program in such a way as to help it acclimatize to the new organization in this important period and implement it as effectively as possible in the duties in a given position. A properly planned process will certainly have a positive impact on new people's work efficiency and prevent possible downtime at work, which impacts business results.

Development of employees' skills

To increase the team's competencies, it is unnecessary to recruit a new employee with the required skills. A faster and cheaper method may be to commission the HR department to organize appropriate training for current employees, thanks to which they will expand their competencies and will be able to perform new, more complex tasks. In this case, the HR department took care of its business needs and the need for employee development. And it is not without significance because a well-trained employee not only feels more confident but will certainly reciprocate the investment in his development through greater commitment and motivation to work.

Employee motivation

In this way, we smoothly move to motivating employees, because man does not live by the base salary alone. By implementing a motivation system in the company, the HR department provides line managers with tools that can motivate their subordinates and, at the same time, increase their efficiency. A properly designed incentive system allows you to reduce rotation in the company and improve employee morale significantly. Without this, line managers could only shake the employee's hand in a gesture of recognition after a properly completed task.

Proper organizational culture

Employees in companies are often a veritable Tower of Babel built of people from different backgrounds, with different experience and predispositions, different interests and priorities, of different ages. The HR department can effectively control these differences, and thanks to this, everything works smoothly. HR takes care of the structure in the company and orders the relationships between individual employees. HR introduces the rules by which conflicts are eliminated in the company; he reacts in problem situations in which interpersonal relationships are important. Understanding everyone and having the right work environment is a real challenge.

Why CEOs describe HR as the most difficult vacancy?

A competent, committed, and forward-looking HR improves the business result and improves the respective CEO's chances of success. Knowing about the HR department's central role, CEOs today rightly demand top performance from their HR. Swiss companies like to select successful executives within their organizations for this task. Their statements are clear: Many of them are convinced that HR is the most difficult job that they have had to deal with so far - precisely because it is where all the threads come together and a wide range of skills is required. However, if HR manages to meet strategic expectations, it will have a golden future.

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