The role of Human Resource Management (HRM) has evolved from what was a predominantly administrative function. The services provided by human resource management professionals are more diverse than before and extend far beyond recruiting, terminating, paying employees, and building the company culture.
Today HR managers are required to successfully manage employees on-site, in hybrid, and fully remote roles. They need to be aware of current legislation, employee entitlements, business obligations, policy documentation, and be responsible for employee training and career development.
Business owners and executive management rely on HR managers to enhance employee engagement and create a safe and positive work environment where employees feel valued, adding to the attainment and retention of high calibre employees.
A role within a role
The main role of human resources is to manage people, help them develop and achieve greater performance. They understand employee motivation. That engaged employees are more productive, take fewer sick days, and have higher retention rates.
HR managers are also seen as counsellors. The people both management and employees go to for advice.
If an employee is having an issue with harassment or bullying, they raise their concerns with HR. If a business owner or manager needs to make an employee redundant or take disciplinary action due to misconduct, it’s HR that advises on their legal obligations and ensures they follow a fair process.
A critical function of HR is helping business owners and managers meet compliance and protect the business against Fair Work claims.
HR managers need to have visibility across the entire business. They are responsible for:
- Understanding the career goals of employees and aligning them with the vision of the company.
- Identifying the right people for the right role to build high-performing, productive teams.
- Employee wellbeing.
- Facilitating social engagements to improve employee morale.
- Providing employees with opportunities to learn new skills through training and development programs.
- Promoting diversity and inclusion initiatives across the workforce.
Performance management
In HR, performance management is one of the most critical and difficult aspects of the role. It is designed to assess and address when an employee is not meeting the essential requirements of their job. If an employee is performing poorly (for example, regularly failing to hit key performance indicators), a HR manager in conjunction with the business owner or the employee's manager, may consider developing a performance improvement plan (PIP).
This is a plan of action developed to address the performance issues and provide an opportunity for the employee to improve their performance in achievable steps.
As part of a fair process, the employer should identify the performance issue, inform the employee and provide further training where appropriate.
It's important to remember that performance management should only address the requirements of the role, not employee behaviour. Misconduct is not the same thing as poor performance and needs to be handled in a completely different way.
Creating culture
In addition to assessing skillsets for a specific role, human resources bring new people into the business.
Apart from the right education and required experience, they look for people who fit the company culture. These potential employees will be happier, more engaged, productive, and stay longer than those who aren’t the right culture fit.
New employees who are the right culture fit will embrace company objectives. They will seek out new opportunities, undertake training, even when it’s not required, and look to develop new skills to advance their career.
Employee onboarding, training, and retention
Supporting employee growth and professional development goes a long way to helping the success of your business and retaining top talent.
After employees are onboarded, performance management is a key component of HR management. It assesses the tasks employees perform and how they complete them meets with the expectation of your business.
Weekly check-ins and performance reviews throughout the year, enables you to identify top performing employees and where other employees could benefit from additional support.
Creating documentation
Human resources policies form the foundation of performance, expectations and conduct of employees towards their job, colleagues, and customers.
If you’re a business owner with multiple employees, you need robust and legal HR policies in place to help protect your business. The problem is creating HR documentation that’s legal and compliant is a time-consuming and complex task requiring specialist knowledge.
The expert team at Peninsula can tailor your employment contracts, HR policies, procedures, employee handbook, and more.
Why businesses outsource HR management to Peninsula
Businesses of all sizes and industry sectors are choosing to outsource HR management as part of their financial strategy. The salary for one experienced HR manager could be $140,000 or higher per year.
As a business owner, outsourcing HR gives you access to advice on compliance, modern awards, wages, leave entitlements, enterprise and industrial agreements from an entire dedicated team of HR experts.
With the resources you save outsourcing HR to Peninsula, you can reinvest in areas that help build your business and drive revenue. This could be new equipment or technology to increase productivity, training, or headcount.
To discover the many benefits of outsourcing your HR management and having access to specialist HR advice 24/7, speak to one of the Peninsula team today.
This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute as business or legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. It does not take into consideration your specific business, industry or circumstances. You should seek legal or other professional advice regarding matters as they relate to you or your business. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Peninsula Group disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions contained in this information or any failure to update or correct this information. It is your responsibility to assess and verify the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of the information in this article.