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HR role insights

A guide to understanding the responsibilities and requirements of popular HR job roles

HR Manager

Importance of the role and key functions

Human resource managers play a pivotal role in developing, cultivating, and communicating the organizational culture by creating and reinforcing norms, values, policies, and behavioural benchmarks that adhere to the company’s vision, mission, and objectives.

They lead the HR department taking up the strategic role and overseeing all the activities related to talent management, learning and development, performance and compensation management, conflict resolution, employee relations and career progression ensuring the development and compliance with workplace policies driving a comprehensive HR service.

Furthermore, they contribute to the overall effectiveness of the business by sustaining a positive workplace environment ensuring the engagement, inclusion and wellbeing of employees, and encapsulating a supportive, optimistic, and collaborative workplace culture which ultimately increases employee performance, satisfaction, and retention. The role of HR managers is quite diversified and hence is framed into six key dimensions as follows.

Talent management

HR managers identify the talent needs of their respective companies and devise a talent acquisition and management strategy that serves as a guide for the recruiters to look for potential candidates. The managers also work with the recruitment team to create JDs (Job Descriptions) and JS (Job Spec) which helps in further screening the talent for interviews and hiring decisions ensuring that the potential candidates are the best fit for the job and the organization.

Apart from executing an efficient hiring process, HR managers also organize training and development sessions for the employees as a talent development, engagement and satisfaction strategy which enables the employees to attain competitive skills and hence adds to the retention ratio of the company.

Payroll and benefits management

HR managers work with the performance management team and oversee the development and efficient implementation of payroll policies, compensation and benefits plans ensuring that they align with the legislature, and are equitable and fair. For example, they oversee the compliance of payroll policy with the minimum wage rate administered in the UK labour laws. Besides, they also advise the HR team on matters related to health insurance, employee leaves, pension plans and training benefits.

Liaison between management and employees

HR managers are liaisons between C-suite management and employees ensuring to streamline two-way communication as a part of maintaining employee-employer relationships. For example, they communicate employee concerns about performance benefits with the higher management suggesting potential solutions to alleviate the concerns. Likewise, they also communicate any policy changes and essential training and development programs suggested by the higher management with the employees.

Conflict resolution

HR managers act as mediators between the two conflicting employees or management and employees. They ensure that both the conflicting parties have an opportunity to communicate their concerns or stories maintaining the decorum or discipline of the workplace, whilst aiming to find a mutually agreed upon solution to de-escalate the tension. In the case where conflicts escalate, HR managers are also responsible for taking the necessary disciplinary actions.

Qualifications and training paths

  • Bachelor’s or/and master’s degree in business administration with a specialisation in HR whereas post-graduate degree will fast pace the transition to managerial level.
  • CIPD certifications levels 5 and 7 are offered by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK for all entry-level and experienced HR professionals.
  • At least 4-5 years experience working in an HR generalist role and familiarity with the benchmarked protocols of all the dimensions of HR management including recruitment, T&D, performance management, conflict management and many more.

Useful skills

  • Excellent verbal and written communication and negotiation skills to carry out all the functions in an effective manner ranging from connecting with the top talent to communicating with the management and other stakeholders.
  • Competitive administrative expertise and familiarity with various task management tools including Trello, Google Calendar, Slack, Hub staff etc. As well as HR management systems such as the popularly used Workday https://www.workday.com/

Expected benefits and salary range (UK)

An average annual salary for an HR manager is £38, 285 which may range from £27k for beginners to £53k and above for experienced professionals in a managerial role.

The benefits vary depending on the company’s size and preferred compensation package where HR managers may attain healthcare coverage, bonuses, annual incentives, flexible working hours, working from home, pension, profit sharing, employee leaves starting from 25 days and transportation allowance as key benefits.

Interested in other career paths in HR? Learn more about these popular roles.

Learning and Development SpecialistTalent Acquisition ManagerEquality, Diversity, and Inclusion Lead

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