Challenges before HR



Human resources managers have three aspects of responsibility to the organizations that employ them. Unlike other departmental managers whose responsibilities focus on running their departments and respective teams of employees, HR managers are responsible for the HR department functions, supervising the HR staff and ensuring that the organization's entire workforce is cohesive, engaged and productive.

Compliance

Ever-expanding legal considerations, legislation and federal and state laws make compliance an important aspect of running an HR department and determining the extent to which certain laws apply to each workplace. One of the challenges that HR managers face includes staying abreast of the changes and ensuring that the department's strategy coincides with its legal obligations. For example, the Affordable Care Act contains health care reforms that have a serious impact on the way some employers will provide coverage for their employees. The act requires many employers to calculate and report the dollar value of health benefits for employees on their W-2s, according to Ted Lewkowicz, a lawyer who specializes in employee benefits and tax law. In an August 2012 column for HR Specialist, Lewkowicz reminds HR professionals that they're responsible for ensuring that their companies adapt to the changes that the ACA brings. Compliance-related issues require collaboration among HR leadership, compensation and benefits specialists and HRIS, or human resource information systems, specialists. If HR managers drop the ball related to compliance, they put the organization in serious jeopardy.

Perception

Improving employees' and leadership's perception of HR is a challenge HR managers have faced since around the 1980s, when human resources began its evolution from an administrative role to a more substantive one. Personnel administration--responsible for collecting employees' time sheets, processing payroll and scheduling open enrollment for employee's health coverage--is now a strategic business partner accountable for creating a workforce that meets the organization's needs. Executive leadership's perception of HR has to improve so that HR managers can participate in determining the direction of the company.

Employee Relationships

Many workers equate going to the HR department with going to the school principal's office. That suggests two challenges for HR managers--that employees feel there's a parent-child relationship in the workplace, instead of adult-adult relationship, and that nothing good can come out of a visit to the HR department. To convince employees that HR is an employee advocate as much as it is an advocate for the company, HR managers have to devise ways to put a face on HR, so to speak. HR managers are challenged to get out of the confines of the HR department and get to know employees. For organizations that operate 24/7, this means that HR managers or their staff need to be the face of HR around the clock to let all employees know that HR is there to address their needs.

Budget

Because HR departments are revenue-producing, HR managers frequently have to justify budget allocation and the return on investment in HR spending. Just saying that money for HR activities support the organization's most valuable resource--its people--isn't nearly enough to get the kind of budget that supports all of the functions that HR managers would probably like to do. Aside from the basic items related to recruitment, selection, benefits and payroll, HR managers who lobby for extras like costly workforce assessments, employee opinion surveys and advice and counsel from subject matter experts sometimes are denied the amount of money they request. Even training is sometimes considered an extra and unnecessary expense, though it can have a direct impact on maintaining the organization's talent and employees' skills. And, it's not just private sector HR managers who feel the strain of requesting bigger budgets. Public sector HR managers with the federal government report that budget constraints tie their hands, making it virtually impossible to offer salaries that compete with private sector jobs. In an August 2012 column for FedManager.com, human capital officers who participated in a survey about HR challenges reported that the federal government compensation structure is far less competitive and, as a consequence, they can't hire the most talented workers.

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