14 Role and Responsibilities of HR Managers in an Organization

In today’s competitive talent landscape, human resources (HR) is more vital than ever. The strategies, systems, and people that comprise HR departments play a pivotal role in attracting, retaining, and developing top talent at companies large and small. According to research, 58% of companies rely on human resources management to recruit and retain employees efficiently.

HR teams handle various tasks, from finding the right people to fill open roles to maintaining positive and productive workplaces. They are involved in nearly every aspect of the employee experience, from onboarding and training to compensation, performance management, and career development. HR ensures that companies establish compliant, ethical work environments and that policies and procedures align with legal regulations.

While often operating behind the scenes, there is no doubt human resources are integral to building company culture, maximizing employee satisfaction, and driving business results. But what exactly do HR professionals do day-to-day that makes them so essential? While specific role of hr manager, most HR roles center around different key responsibilities.

So, let’s get started!

Top 14 Responsibilities and Role of HR Manager

The human resources team is responsible for a wide range of responsibilities, including human resource planning, job analysis, hiring candidates, and retaining them, to name a few.

Let’s understand the responsibilities and role of HR managers in detail!

1. Human Resource Planning

The role of human resources managers is to plan and execute organizational objectives in collaboration with executives.

As such, they play a critical function in HRP, which involves identifying, preparing, and achieving business goals. It helps ensure an organization has the right number of employees with the necessary skills to meet its goals. This involves forecasting future staffing needs and ensuring that the recruitment and training programs can meet these needs.

HR managers also play a key role in succession planning and guaranteeing a pool of talent is ready to step into senior positions as they become available.

This proactive participation in planning enables HR managers to understand the activities required to support the company’s sustainable growth. This, in turn, empowers HRs to assign the right resources to the right project and ensures timely delivery.

The HR roles and responsibilities also include analyzing and acknowledging team leaders about their expected vs. actual results. They also help TLs better understand their target and create strategies to achieve them.

Pro-tip

The HR team must understand and prioritize their roles and responsibilities, which include recruitment, benefits administration, appraisal, etc. To excel in these areas, HR managers must stay updated with the latest trends and technologies and develop strong communication and interpersonal skills. Also, leveraging HR software solutions that automate routine tasks, streamline processes, and provide insights that inform decision-making will allow HR people to focus on more strategic initiatives that drive business success.

2. Job Analysis and Design

As mentioned above, human resource planning requires assigning the right resources to the right project. And if the right person is not in the organization, HR managers are responsible for designing the job analysis to hire them.

The job analysis includes –

• Job description
• Employee’s position in the organization
• Who should the employee report to
• Resources the employee will need to perform the job efficiently
• Individual data related to the post, such as technical skills, work experience, etc.
• Work schedule
• Salary, incentives, and other employee benefits
• Personal attributes, such as personality, values, and interests

In addition to this, the responsibilities and role of HR manager include the following:

• Job rotation: Transferring employees from one task to another depending on the requirement and their skills
• Job enlargement: Merging previously distributed (similar) functions into one job
• Job enrichment: Adding more responsibility and role of hr manager to an employee’s job 
• Creating high-performance working groups: Building teams to complete tasks that require high levels of performance

3. Hiring Candidates

Finding and hiring the right talent is a very complex process. Modern HR departments do more than post job requirements in portals to fill open positions. They develop strategic solutions to attract suitable candidates to fulfill the demands of the business.

An HR manager might also be responsible for a company’s employer brand reputation—or guiding the branding strategy. Employer branding is critical to communicating a company’s culture and work-life balance to potential employees. 

As more and more candidates search for open positions via social media, managing employer brand will likely overlap with an HR manager’s job duties. From screening potential candidates on job portals and social platforms like LinkedIn to interviewing them, the HR department has to follow an organized approach to hiring the best suitable employee for the organization.

Once an applicant is selected, HR professionals design offer letter documents, scan them to email them to the candidate, and conduct onboarding procedures. If a candidate backs out at the last moment, HR managers are bound to convince them to join the organization. HR managers must repeat the recruitment process to fill open positions if they insist on not joining.

4. Offboarding Candidates

When a top-performing employee leaves a company, it can be disruptive if not handled properly. However, with careful off-boarding and transition planning, the company can minimize negative impacts and gain some benefits.

• First, the departing employee should be encouraged to document their knowledge and train their replacement. This passing of the baton helps retain institutional knowledge and prevents productivity declines. The employee should feel good about making this contribution to the company on their way out.
• Second, HR should conduct exit interviews to understand why the employee is leaving and their overall experience at the company. This provides useful feedback for improving the retention of other top talent. HR can also understand whether the departing employee would consider returning someday.
• Third, the company should be on good terms with valuable employees. If the employee had a positive experience, they would be more likely to recommend the company to potential hires and customers even after leaving. HR should collect references and keep in touch.
• Finally, when top talent leaves to gain broader experience and new skills, they become stronger candidates to be rehired later. HR should keep a talent pipeline that includes alumni who understand the company culture and can make immediate contributions upon returning. Losing top employees is inevitable, but it does not have to detrimentally impact the company. A smooth transition can produce net benefits.

5. Training and Development

One of the major responsibilities and roles of HR manager is hiring the best candidates, and it is just half the job. First, the HR team must train and upskill them to maximize their return on investment. 

The Human Resources department is responsible for developing and administering training and development programs. Training and development programs are designed to improve employees’ performance and help them adapt to changes in the workplace. These programs can include classroom training, on-the-job training, and online training.

An onboarding video is one effective and time-efficient tool that HR managers can use to facilitate onboarding for new hires. It showcases the company’s mission and vision and includes practical information such as company policies.

To ensure that new hires, especially those whose first language is not English, don’t miss any critical details, adding subtitles to the videos can help them better understand and follow the content, resulting in a more impactful onboarding process.

The type of training and development new employees require depends on their experience.

For example, if they are freshers, managers might need to arrange skill-development training programs to ensure their work meets industry standards. For more experienced employees and managers, courses like presentation and public speaking will be more relevant.

However, if the new hires already have a few years of experience, managers might only need to train them about company policies.

HR managers are also answerable for the quality of training. For example, suppose most of the recruits cannot pass the assessments. In that case, it indicates that either the trainer or the training program is not compliant with the industry standard, for which the HR manager will be held accountable.

6. Design Workplace Policies

HR manager roles and responsibilities include designing workplace policies to reduce conflicts and legal issues and improve employee productivity. These policies are designed to protect the interests of both employees and employers alike.

Though workplace policies differ from organization to organization, the things it include remain the same in every company, such as –

• Standard operating procedures
• Anti-harassment and non-discrimination 
• Paid leaves, sick leaves, and time-off benefits
• Meal and break periods
• Time tracking
• Employee attendance and punctuality

HR managers must also comply with federal, state, and local laws while designing workplace policies. Some laws require managers to communicate workplace policies in writing. If you are an HR manager (or aspiring to be), stay on top of the local laws, including the national labor relations act, to avoid issues later.

Additionally, follow these best practices.

• Involve your employees in the early stages of developing workplace policies.
• Policies should be clear and concise, and easy to understand.
• Policies should be designed to achieve the desired outcomes and be flexible enough to accommodate changing circumstances.
• Implementation and enforcement of policies should be consistent and fair.
• Regular review of policies is necessary to ensure they remain effective.
• Create documentation of policies like Wiki pages, blogs, and guides that make information and policies more accessible.

7. Performance Management

General human resources manager roles and responsibilities are closely related to training, including examining employee performance records to identify the scopes of improvement and arranging training workshops to upskill them.

93% of employees say professional growth is a priority. You can create a positive environment and boost employee loyalty by allowing employees to learn something new and grow professionally.

Besides, improving your employees’ skills brings additional benefits to the organization. 

• First, they feel they are a vital part of the company
• Second, due to increased job satisfaction, they will give their best in each task

Source: Profit.co

That said, here’s how you can monitor employee performance

• Define the duties of the HR manager and the responsibilities each employee needs to perform daily.
• Keep track of employee productivity levels
• Compare employee productivity levels to company goals and objectives.
• Communicate with employees regularly to provide feedback and coaching.
• Encourage employees to set personal performance goals.
• Recognize and reward employees for meeting or exceeding performance goals.

The way you help employees improve their performance depends on the available resources. For instance, if you have a high budget, you can arrange for trainers to analyze and train them to achieve better results personally. If not, you can enroll them to attend conferences, webinars, online courses, etc.

What do you think? Isn’t performance a key role of an HR manager?

8. Maintaining Work Culture

HR roles and responsibilities shape and maintain organizational culture. Therefore, creating a positive impression of the company from day one is essential so the new employees know what to expect.

Besides, a person’s performance depends mainly on his working environment.

Therefore, you need to instill a certain level of comfort to eliminate any stressful atmosphere that might affect employees’ performance.

Having an open-door policy is vital so employees can communicate their problems freely. This helps improve employee job satisfaction and retain talent. 

Additionally, consider planning company events where employees can showcase their non-work-related talents like singing, dancing, mimicry, etc. It enhances the overall brand image and spreads positivity throughout the organization.

9. Resolve Conflict

In every organization, employees come from diverse backgrounds. And when people with opposite opinions meet, the chances of conflict rise significantly. Whether the issue is between two employees or an employee and the management, the human resources management has to mediate conflict resolution.

Source: Aihr

Besides, the HR manager must listen to both parties without being biased or judgemental. They also need to go to the root of the matter, which includes questioning other employees.

Depending on the type of conflict, HR managers also hold the right to fire an employee. However, this situation usually arises in cases of harassment in the office.

10. Ensure the Health and Safety of Employees

Employees are an important asset of the organization. Unless they are safe and healthy, they won’t be able to give their best to the company. Thus, HR managers need to ensure the health and safety of employees.

How you plan for your employee’s health and safety will depend on your company policies. For instance, HR managers must ensure they are coming and reaching safely for organizations that provide cab services to their staff. It usually requires them to track the GPS of company cabs, call the employee or driver, and keep a tab on the expected vs. actual arrival time. 

Other roles and responsibilities of an HR manager, in terms of the health and safety of employees, include:

• Arranging an on-premise doctor for emergencies
• Arranging an on-premise ambulance
• Setting employee health benefits
• Prioritizing educational training like health and safety courses for employee learning.
• Setting up a sick room in the office for employees to rest if they are unwell.
• Organizing fire safety training workshops 
• Ensuring the food in the canteen (if you have it) is hygienic

11. Handling Company Payroll Operations

Processing a company’s payroll involves many steps –

First, an employee’s gross salary or wages must be calculated based on their position, experience, qualifications, and hours worked. Following this, compulsory deductions like taxes and medical insurance must be withheld from the gross income. The net pay after deductions is the real take-home amount the employee obtains.

In addition to deductions, the payroll process also involves adding other components to an employee’s pay, such as bonuses, commissions, reimbursements, and benefits. The Human Resources team has to account for all these additions and subtractions to determine the final net pay for each pay period. They must also keep clear records of all the calculations and payments for transparency and accounting purposes.

Other aspects of payroll include:

• Ensuring all employees are paid accurately and on time per their employment contracts. This includes issuing paychecks, direct deposits, etc.
• Use time tracking software to monitor employees’ leaves, and paid time off and ensure these are accounted for in the payroll calculations
• The management of employee benefits, such as health insurance premiums, retirement plans, stock options, etc., involves calculating the corresponding costs and deducting them from employee paychecks.
• Staying up-to-date with all payroll legislation and ensuring the company complies with pay, deductions, taxation, record-keeping rules, etc.
• Addressing any employee payroll inquiries or issues promptly.
• Optimizing the payroll process for efficiency using payroll software, standardizing procedures, and minimizing errors.

12. Rewards and Incentives

HR managers must reward employees based on their performance and other factors like punctuality. The biggest benefit of rewarding workers is that it creates a desire for other employees to excel at their jobs in the hope of getting incentives.

Source: Hifives

Additionally, you can consider giving the power to employees to choose the type of reward they want. For example, let them decide whether they want a bonus, flexible work times, leave, etc. It will make them feel valued, increase job satisfaction, and boost productivity. 

You can also involve organizational stakeholders to decide on the rewards and incentives they’d like to give individual employees based on their performance. 

13. Maintain Employee Records

With numerous staff, HR departments must maintain detailed records for each person. Well-organized employee records serve many important purposes within a company.

• Employee records provide a history of each individual that can be referenced as needed, including personal details, emergency contacts, compensation and benefits, performance reviews, disciplinary issues, etc. Having these records easily accessible gives HR a complete picture of any employee.
• The records help identify skills gaps across the workforce. By reviewing each employee’s skills, experience, and development areas, HR can pinpoint organizational needs for training, recruitment, or other talent management initiatives. Keeping skills inventories up-to-date is crucial.
• Even after an employee departs, retaining their records is wise. Former employee information remains relevant for providing references, calculating pensions and benefits, documenting tenure, and defending legal claims. Storing past employee records makes retrieval easy while optimizing storage space.
• By analyzing aggregated employee records, HR can identify trends and patterns, empowering the department to make informed decisions based on data. Performance, retention, absenteeism, training needs, and compensation metrics can be compiled to guide policy improvements.

14. Promotions & Appraisals

The performance appraisal process aims to evaluate an employee’s performance annually, enabling managers to assess their progress and identify areas of improvement. The HR department plays a crucial role in ensuring the smooth execution of this process, which includes addressing any weaknesses and providing feedback to employees.

To conduct effective appraisals, the HR team should clearly understand each employee’s roles and responsibilities. Before starting the appraisal process, HR professionals should consult with different department heads to get insight into the duties assigned to each staff member, allowing HR to evaluate employees based on their strengths and assigned task performance.

Additionally, it is important that employees are informed of the evaluation criteria and that the process is transparent. HR should communicate expectations, goals, and measurement standards to all staff before appraisals. Employees can actively participate in their performance reviews with open communication and proper preparation.

Overall, successful appraisals depend on HR setting clear expectations, understanding employee responsibilities, and ensuring fair and transparent processes. With the proper foundation, reviews can provide constructive feedback to help employees continuously improve.

The Importance of HR Roles in Organizations

HR departments are indispensable in companies of all sizes and across all industries. HR professionals handle many critical responsibilities that contribute to a company’s success.

Recruiting and hiring top talent is one of the most visible HR duties and responsibilities of an HR manager. HR teams develop job descriptions, post openings, screen applicants, conduct interviews, make hiring recommendations, and onboard new employees. They ensure the company has the skilled people it needs to achieve its goals.

HR also manages employee relations and retention. They oversee workplace culture, resolve conflicts, administer performance reviews, provide coaching, and enforce policies. By fostering positive and productive work environments, HR helps reduce turnover and keep employees engaged. Human resources (HR) leverages data analysis to gain insights for strategic workforce planning and talent management.

HR duties and responsibilities of HR managers extend to nearly every area of an organization. The work HR professionals do behind the scenes is essential for building strong, successful companies with motivated, thriving employees. HR roles and responsibilities require employment law, training, diversity, and organizational psychology expertise. Despite being an often overlooked function, HR is one of the most fundamental components of any successful business.

Human resources teams handle multifaceted and far-reaching responsibilities. From talent acquisition to employee relations, compensation, development, and more, HR is indispensable in recruiting, supporting, and retaining the people who drive companies forward.

Bonus: Use Technology to Your Advantage

Modern human resource leaders make the most of technology to streamline their work. Whether you want to increase employee engagement, enhance employee training activities, or improve employee relations, the right HR tool can help you. 

You can also automate payroll processing, stay updated with legal regulations, understand the Civil Rights Act, manage internal complaints, identify training needs, and minimize change resistance from one platform! 

There are various roles and responsibilities of an HR manager that are critical to the overall well-being of the organization. Whether you’re one of those larger organizations with thousands of employees or fall in the smaller companies category, technology can be a game changer for your human resources department!

Conclusion

And there you have it – the top 14 responsibilities and functions of human resources professionals. From recruiting to training, compensation to compliance, HR plays a vital strategic role in organizations of all types and sizes. While specific duties vary, most HR jobs center around acquiring talent, supporting employees, strengthening company culture, ensuring legal compliance, and planning for the future.

Though they often operate behind the scenes, HR is essential for building engaged, high-performing teams and productive work environments. Human resources (HR) significantly impacts almost every part of the employee lifecycle and overall organizational experience. When HR functions are executed effectively, they drive employee satisfaction, enhance retention rates, and ultimately contribute to the business’s success.

To equip your HR team with the best tools and technology for success, check out SoftwareSuggest’s list of top HR management software. Investing in HR technology allows this critical department to focus on more strategic functions and support business objectives.

Hiba Ali

Hiba is an accomplished specialist in writing for Software as a Service (SaaS) and has extensive experience crafting compelling and informative content. With over two years of experience, she has honed her skills in producing various forms of content, including articles, blog posts, and more, all centered around SaaS. Hiba is dedicated to sharing her insights to assist businesses in leveraging SaaS to achieve growth and success.