10 Key Responsibilities of HR Professionals

HR is the glue that holds companies together. It’s the driving force behind recruiting, onboarding, managing the people side of a business, and ensuring employees are familiar with policies and procedures that apply to themselves and overall operations. 

But if the role of HR professionals is still a bit vague, you may need further insight into their key responsibilities. That’s exactly what this article will unpack. 

1) Talent Management

Talent management is the strategic process of hiring the right talent for the company and nurturing them in a way that helps them achieve an optimal level of productivity and performance. All while keeping organizational goals in mind. This process can manifest in a variety of ways: 

• Identifying talent gaps in the company
• Onboarding new hires 
• Developing necessary skills
• Motivating talent to achieve new goals 

A good HR manager will help a company source the best talent for the job and ensure they have everything they need to thrive in their careers. In doing so, they’ll boost the performance and credibility of the organization. 

2) Employee Management 

Similar to talent management, employee management involves making sure employees have everything they need to perform their jobs well. However, employee management focuses more on the person as a whole, rather than just their job output. 

As an HR professional, part of the job is to provide support, resources, and feedback for employees. This includes answering questions or concerns regarding company culture, job expectations, performance, and more. 

One of the best ways for HR to manage employee behavior is to use employee monitoring software. Using monitoring programs that track everything from browser activity to productivity, HR can effectively keep tabs on employee growth and compliance. 

3) Performance Management 

A healthy, profitable business needs high performing employees. And that’s what many HR professionals are tasked with overseeing. 

HR managers can conduct performance reviews and give performance feedback. Plus, they can make recommendations to other managers about which tasks or responsibilities are best suited to an employee’s capabilities. This ensures a consistent and balanced overall performance rate. 

An HR manager may also be tasked with administering hearings for underperforming employees and presenting high performing employees with recognition or reward. 

4) Implementation Of Policies And Procedures 

Every business has its own policies, procedures, and code of conduct to ensure operations run smoothly, legally, and comfortably for everyone at the office. Part of HR’s responsibility is to not only implement these workplace procedures but also to make sure everyone recognizes and understands them. 

5) Employee Development 

Even the most experienced, high performing employees need access to support and resources for bettering their performance and career trajectory. Providing opportunities for learning new skills and improving existing ones forms part of healthy employee development. 

It’s essential for organizations to help employees grow their skill sets and further their career trajectories. This will help to strengthen the business and ensure employees feel driven, engaged, and fulfilled in their job roles. 

These career development opportunities may involve business travel. If a corporate travel planner is not available the HR team may play a part in business travel planning. In these cases, HR professionals may be responsible for managing booking flights and hotels to ensuring compliance with travel policies and procedures. They will also ensure that employees are safe, productive, and compliant when traveling for work.

6) Employee Training 

Employee training programs are a crucial aspect of any business these days, and HR professionals are typically the ones to organize and implement them. Some of the training programs an HR professional might implement include:

• Onboarding training 
• Compliance training
• Teamwork training
• Technology training
• Soft skills training

Employee training can be implemented in person. Or, they may take the form of software program sessions monitored by a supervisor or manager. HR can also provide training for employee-related marketing campaigns, such as an employee advocacy program—all of which can get monitored by high quality HR management software.

7) Benefits and Compensation Management  

Compensation management refers to the process of determining an employee’s appropriate salary and benefits, such as health insurance, paid leave, or retirement. 

Employees from different departments and hierarchical rankings typically have different benefits packages. This means someone needs to assess each individual employee when the need arises—and that’s what an HR manager does. 

If an employee falls pregnant, gets sick, or decides to retire, HR professionals will perform an audit to make sure everyone gets the benefits they’re entitled to. 

8) Legal Compliance 

There are general laws and policies every business must abide by, and HR is responsible for making sure they’re adhered to. Staff in the HR department are also responsible for building and implementing company policies in a way that employees can easily understand and conform to. 

In the instance of HR needing to conduct an investigation on policy violations or employee misconduct such as stealing company resources, misuse of time, etc., employee monitoring software and employee management software are a game changer.

Through these systems, HR professionals can gain insights into employee computer activity and employee history, such as security compliance and performance records. The software can also identify if an employee is an insider threat or poses a risk to data security.

9) Staffing Audits 

Staff audits are the first step HR managers take towards assessing labor issues in the workplace. There are a number of reasons why performing staffing audits are essential for any functioning enterprise. 

• Bringing employee records up to date 
• Developing a clear system for early retirement and severance options
• Filling in critical personnel data gaps 
• Improving subsequent workplace analysis 
• Assessing time tracking, scheduling and work hours
• Establishing effective record-keeping procedures

Staffing audits typically involve assessing a wide variety of organizational data. Employer records, work schedules and time sheets, benefits information and personnel behavior can all come under scrutiny. This can help to pinpoint issues and improve the productivity, efficiency, accuracy, and legal compliance of a company’s staffing body. 

10) Risk Management 

Last but not least, a major component of typical HR responsibility includes risk management. Such risks relate to the rate at which a company hires, retains, manages, and lets go of employees. Additionally, they relate to the regulation of employee behavior and compliance procedures. 

HR risk management focuses on predicting likely outcomes. This allows them to mitigate precarious situations and prevent unwanted problems from occurring. 

Conclusion

While the exact roles and functions of an HR professional may vary from company to company, these ten responsibilities cover all the basics of what makes HR professionals so integral to a healthy organization.

From recruitment to performance management to retirement and everything in between, HR makes sure that the humans behind the business have their needs met and their behavior in check. 

With the support of employee monitoring software, HR professionals can approach their responsibilities with even more accuracy, efficiency, and ease. Not only will this improve overall operations, but it will also make life in the office better for everyone. 

Article by Jerry Zheng