HR Manager’s Core Duties
Being an HR manager is never easy as it involves working with individuals having their own problems in order to make the company more successful. If we speak about the peculiarities of their work, there is a plenty of practices that are helpful when it comes to workforce-related issues. Workforce planning belongs to the number of key notions within the field; it involves assessing and meeting all the needs of the company. For instance, doing workforce planning involves estimating the present goals stated by the company with reference to its present workforce situation (Armstrong and Taylor 216). Having analysed these goals, it is necessary to define which specialists should the company hire to fulfil them. Personnel managers should consider their training level, previous experience, and special skills.
As for succession planning, this HR practice involves a range of activities aimed at securing the future of the particular company. Once it is focused on key post holders of the company, it involves choosing those of them who can become its leaders in the future, and developing their leadership skills in advance. Succession planning is a long-term process that can involve many challenges; for instance, training potential leaders, personnel manager should also consider their desire to continue working in the company, and change the strategy if they have specific problems or want to retire (Gothard and Austin 273). As for career and development planning focused on individuals, it is a process that involves individual work with the specialists in order to define how their activity can be organized in the future considering their growing experience and professional skills.
Tools and Activities
In order to discharge these functions successfully, HR managers should know which particular activities and tools each of them involves. If personnel managers are to do successful work planning, they have to consider which steps are to be taken in order to engage labor. Having analysed specific needs of the company, they need to define what can be done to make the company more attractive for the professionals of such level. To do a successful workforce planning, HR manager is to develop a plan that will meet company’s expectations. It involves recruiting people who seem to be skilled enough to hold the positions, and organising trainings in order to help the employees to do their best at work. Besides, the specialist has to remember that proper planning involves consideration of external forces that can influence the situation; for instance, thorough market analysis is required to make the company competitive and attractive for new specialists. All these activities help the company to keep being successful considering changing situation.
As for succession planning, it may involve a variety of activities aimed at securing the company’s future. Succession planning should be a constant process as sometimes there are cases of employees’ death or other unexpected life changes. In order to start training the future leaders, one should estimate their potential and trainability by analysing the results of their work and their managers’ opinions (Storey 74). Then, leadership development trainings should be implemented. These practices will help the company to get more skilled and responsible employers ready to replace retiring post holders (Calareso 27). As for career development planning, it involves helping the employees to set their goals and fulfil them by increasing their professional skills and gaining the experience in problem solving related to the sphere. To perform the activity, the personnel manager may need to have conversations with the employees to enquire about their vision of the future, and consider the results of their work in connection to open vacancies. Besides, they may have to consider the skills that the employees lack to do their jobs better; to address the issue, the additional trainings can be provided. It will help the company to keep the employees motivated, to show that it cares about its workforce, and, therefore, get better results.
Downsizing Plans
Sometimes, there are uncontrolled factors that urge the company to decrease its activity. Consequently, in such situation it needs fewer employees. In this case, there is a need of a substantial and deliberate plan of downsizing the company. At first, assessment of the company’s needs is extremely important for downsizing the company without the risk to its successful performance (Brauer and Laamanen 1311). What is more, personnel manager should analyse the overall structure of the company and consider the roles of its units, and individual contributions made by the employees to the development of the company. Unfortunately, downsizing the company is never a pleasant experience as it is impossible without reducing the staff (Ho, Sambasivan, and Liew 101). To do that, the HR manager should define which employees are the most critical for the company, and decide the issue considering this information.
Practical Relevance
In the end, I consider the knowledge gained during the assignment to be extremely important as it helps to distinguish between the key practices in personnel management and define specific tools that help to reach the goals of the company. The knowledge that I have gained working out this assignment can become a basis that will help me to be a successful specialist in the future.
Works Cited
Armstrong, Michael, and Stephen Taylor. Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Kogan Page Publishers, 2014.
Brauer, Matthias, and Tomi Laamanen. “Workforce Downsizing and Firm Performance: An Organizational Routine Perspective.” Journal of Management Studies, vol. 51, no.8, 2014, pp. 1311-1333.
Calareso, John. “Succession Planning: The Key to Ensuring Leadership.” Planning for Higher Education, vol. 41, no.3, 2013, p. 27.
Gothard, Suzanne, and Michael J. Austin. “Leadership Succession Planning: Implications for Nonprofit Human Service Organizations.” Administration in Social Work, vol.37, no. 3, 2013, pp. 272-285.
Ho, Jo Ann, Murali Sambasivan, and Ee Yin Liew. “The Relationship between Job Insecurity, Shock, and Turnover Intention amongst Survivors of Organizational Downsizing.” Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, vol. 21, no. 1, 2013, pp. 101-114.
Storey, John. Leadership in Organizations: Current Issues and Key Trends. Routledge, 2016.