HR Manager - the changing face....!

Enough has been said about the changing role of the human resources manager in circa 2007 – from that of being an able administrator to a strategic advisory - who holds a crucial stake in the strategic and organic growth plans of the organization. While volumes can be written of what the qualities required are, a few amongst them would play a make or break role in this era of strategic HR.

Gone are the days when the HR manager was just a facilitator for recruiting manpower and an administrator of laid down policies/procedures. Now, the most sought after quality is a knowledge of the company’s product/services, overall understanding of the organization’s short term and long term objectives, the market share/mind share of the products/services in offer, the competition, and last but not the least the critical mass of skills that would form the backbone of the organization’s growth strategies. It is this understanding that would help the manager view things in perspective while deciding on what kind of recruitment plans will be relevant in the space the organization exits and devise the ‘compensation and benefit’/’talent acquisition and retention’ strategies for prospective employees. Benchmarking such strategies with the leaders/best employment practices will be a prerequisite to draw and retain talent for a growing company!

Also needed would be a thorough understanding of the short term and long term talent acquisition & retention needs of the various functional managers! A good rapport with cross functional heads and a grasp of their talent expectations would serve a long way in creating and implementing that winning HR strategy!

In the fiercely competitive and compensation driven market place today, with a host of talent attraction tools – huge performance incentives, fancy sign on bonuses, notice period buyoffs, attractive ESOPS and so on - , articulating a short/long term career growth plan for the prospective employee, based on clearly stated measurable performance, skills/knowledge that the person would acquire even while enabling/being a part of the company’s growth, clear promotion plans etc can be showcased as a key HR unique selling proposition.

All these apart, the HR manager will be required to be a good leader, great communicator and an essential team player, as, in growing organizations, - be it big or medium sized - the HR team will be responsible for putting all strategies into practice – so that winning organizations could be created and sustained.