Human Resources Function Is Complex and Varied,

¶ … human resources function is complex and varied, consisting of multiple different task areas. The complexity of human resources is juxtaposed with the perceptions of human resources by employees. Employees often overlook key human resources and this occurs even at the management level. Today's human resources departments are moving towards a role of becoming a strategic partner (Barney & Wright, 1997) but there are often obstacles to this, including the perception that human resources is a line function and of minimal importance of the company to achieving its strategic mission. This paper will examine the perceptions that ordinary employees have with respect to the role of the human resources function within their organizations.

Methodology

The research for the paper was conducted using five family members of the author. These family members are of different ages, and work in different fields. The businesses relevant to this survey are electronics retail, banking, e-commerce, an architecture firm and a casino. After some initial demographic information and information about the firms was gathered, questions probed a few different dimensions of the human resources perceptions among the respondents.

The respondents worked with open-ended interviews. Those interviews were then coded and examined by the researcher to seek out trends in the responses. The final stage of the methodology is to build a report around the analysis. The null hypothesis for the report is that employees generally do not understand the value of human resources in their organization. The second null hypothesis is that generally employees are satisfied with the performance of their respective human resources departments.

The Survey Results

The five companies that were involved in the survey were all for-profit entities. One was a partnership and the others are corporations. The four corporations are all quite large in size, having full-time human resources departments with specialists who operate within the departments. In some cases, the human resources department was remote from the worksite. In the architecture firm, there was no full-time human resources department; all HR roles appear to have been taken by the Office Manager. None of the employees were in senior management positions within the company, and none worked in human resources. Therefore, it is concluded that all of the respondents were evaluating the human resources departments on the strength of their interactions with the departments. The respondent who works at the architecture firm was set aside, because the perception of the Office Manager may be personal, or unrelated to human resource tasks.

The first component of the survey was to test the first hypothesis.

The first hypothesis holds that the employees are generally unaware of what their human resources department does. To test this hypothesis, a series of five questions were asked to get a sense of the level of awareness the respondent has about the core tasks of human resources. The first question was open-ended, asking what roles that they saw human resources play. All four respondents replied hiring, termination and managing benefits. Only one cited performance evaluation, while another respondent cited compensation design. Core tasks such as dispute resolution, legal compliance, training, career path management or safety. These are considered integral components of the human resources function. The interviewer would like to have added to the survey who the respondent felt was responsible for the above tasks, especially training, since there is universal awareness of the training function but none of the respondents were able to recall that as a core human resources function

The following four questions asked if the respondents were aware of the work their human resources department does on legal compliance, dispute resolution, compensation management and in defining job descriptions. The responses were left open-ended. Most responses were scant and provided little evidence of insight into the human resources role. One response discussed the role of human resources in dispute resolution, and this was a unionized worker at the casino.

The final question asked "Do you feel that human resources plays a critical role in strategic management at your company?" On this question there were no responses other than lukewarm. None of the respondents could elaborate on how human resources contributed to strategic management at their companies

The second hypothesis was tested using a Likert scale of 1-5 (5 being most positive) and questions about the experiences that the respondents had with their human resources departments. The questions were as follows:

What is your overall perception of your local HR group?

Do you feel that the HR department adds value to your org?

How would you rate your own personal interactions with the HR group?

How would you rate the interactions your co-workers have had with the HR group?

What level of comfort do you feel in dealing with the HR group?

How likely are you to seek out the advice of your HR group in the future?

The responses are recorded here:

Question

A

B

C

D

E

avg

What is your overall perception of your HR group?

3

2

3

4

3

3

Do you feel that the HR department added value to org?

2

3

4

4

2

3

How would you rate your own interactions with HR?

3

2

4

5

3

3.4

How would you rate co-workers' interactions with HR?

3

2

4

4

4

3.4

What level of comfort do you have with the HR group?

4

2

4

5

2

3.4

Are you likely to seek out your HR group in the future?

3

1

3

4

2

2.6

avg

3

2

3.67

4.33

2.67

Analysis

The first question confirms the null hypothesis that most employees know little about what their human resources department does. Several core HR functions were overlooked in the responses entirely. There appears to be a perception that human resources does not make a strong contribution to the strategic management of the company. The roles that it plays are perceived as being limited to hiring, firing and benefits.

On the second null hypothesis, perceptions of the human resources department are generally mixed. There are few outlying responses, with the mode being 4. The three questions about interaction and comfort picked up the highest scores at 3.4 The lowest score of 2.6 was for the question about seeking out the HR group in the future. The null hypothesis was not conclusively confirmed by the research, as the mean response for all questions was 3.13, a moderate score at best. The consensus appears to be that the respondents knew little about their human resources departments. Consequently, the responses with respect to rating the human resources department are generally made on the basis of limited knowledge of the different contributions the department would have made.