Written by: Moustafa El-HadidiEdited by: Mona Timor ShehataPublished by: Amira Haytham
As HR professionals we always see employees as our customers and that we are here to maximize their full potential. But if we place ourselves in their shoes we will find that they see the HR as:
− A person who is always seeking to deduct from the employee (lateness, performance evaluation, etc…)
− A person who always takes the company’s side against the employee and will always be in favor of the company.
− A person who is always behind a desk doing nothing and getting paid and we are the ones who are doing all the work.
Now back in our HR shoes and before we dive into the likely reason behind this common impression about HR, let us take a quick journey into the past and explore Human Resources’ history. The earliest documented appearance of something similar to HR was in China 2000 BC, where there was a person who took the attendance of the labor workers so they can get paid in the end of the month. Then it evolved between 1900 – 1970 to become Administration. At the end of 1970, it was discovered that administration functions are not enough to maximize the employees’ full potential, so it evolved to become SHRM until 1990. In 2000, we moved to SHRM & HRM.
China SHRM
Administration SHRM & HRM
Now back to current times, when an employee is newly hired the default process in many mid-sized organizations is the following :
1-Recruitment.
2-Personnel (Where they take all the needed hiring documents).
3-Training (Where the induction training is done and along the year training if any).
4-Payroll (The sweet salary at the end of the month).
Usually in this scenario, function is an isolated island for the employee and not much communication happens between each department. So who can we do to solve this issue?!
Imagine with me a city with two districts; we will call them:
1- Compensation & Benefits
2- HR Strategic
Now in the District of “Compensation & Benefits” let us raise some buildings and we will name them :
– Payroll.
– Social Insurance: If applicable in your country, I’m in Egypt so it is applicable
– Medical Insurance: Responsible for all the required clearance and approval for the private medical insurance if the company provides it.
– Benefits: All what falls under the umbrella of employee benefits such as discount cards, hotel offers…etc.
– Investigation: In some countries, the law states that it must be with the legal department, but if there is no law regarding that it is best to keep it under the HR; that way the employee if called for investigation will be more relaxed.
Now that we have finished the 1st district let us explore the 2nd district HR Strategic;
– Learning & Development: Since L&D is a continuous process it will have more impact on the employee rather than the traditional training department.
– Talent Acquisition: Once it replaces the normal recruitment function, it will help in reducing the employee turnover and also attracts the best talent in the market levering the company and its brand.
– Performance Management: All the major performance issues will be reported to the L&D Department along with Talent acquisition to help in reducing them and avoid hiring talent, who many have some of areas that need to be improved.
– Workforce Planning: With the rising demand of the department managers to hire and the hassle of the Man Power Plan, a dedicated department will be in charge of the man power plan and updating it according to the organization chart, that way the load will not be on the Talent Acquisition Department to verify each position requested and its available budget.
– Leadership & Development: Implementing a HiPO program or continuous development of the leaders is a huge load on the L&D Department, especially if you have a large number of employees. That way the Leadership & Development Department will dedicate its full capacity to develop the HiPO & current Leaders.
Okay, so now we should have a good fully-utilized HR department, but what If the employee needs help? Or wants to inquire about something?! Should he get lost among all those departments?
We will create an HR Help Desk department; their main role will be the main point of contact for the employee and they will handle everything internally.