Behaviours And Capabilities Of An Excellent HR Manager

1.What does this Capability Entail?

2.Why would it be Important for a Human Resource Manager to have this Capability?

3.Assume you are applying for a Graduate HR position, and Demonstrating this capability is one of the key Selection Criteria. What Evidence could you provide to Demonstrate you possess this Capability?

 

 

Australian Human Resource Institute (AHRI) is a national association representing people management professionals and human resource. AHRI has developed a “Model of Excellence.” It explains the behaviors and capabilities of an “excellent HR manager.” This model includes 7 major capabilities required for an HR practitioner. They are such as:

Business driven

A strategic architect

An expert practitioner

An ethical and credible activist

A workforce and workplace designer

A cultural and change leader

A stakeholder mentor and coach

Among all these, 3 major capabilities have been selected and 3 following questions have been answered. These three capabilities are such as business driven, workforce and workplace designer and cultural and change leader.   

1.Business driven

This capability entails that HR professionals have to be business oriented. They have to assess the skills and knowledge required for a job and analyze the performance outcomes of employees. After that, they need to communicate and use this information to establish and maintain working relationship and network. Barak (2016) stated that human resource professionals must have to work according to the organizational goals and objectives. They have to develop trust and confidence among employees so that they can provide maximum effort on their job.

Workforce and workplace designer

This capability entails that HR professionals have to respond in accordance to the challenges of workforce development and design. De Lange et al. (2015) mentioned that, HR professionals have to emphasize on performance management in their work force designing so that they can meet organizational objectives. In addition, HR professionals have the responsibility to make appropriate job analysis and design, reward, retention and reward strategies that can provide an efficient and talented workforce to an organization.  

Cultural and change leader

This capability entails that HR professionals have to be the leader of culture and change management decisions. Hence, maintaining cultural balance in the workplace, resolving cultural conflicts and taking change initiatives are significant part of the job roles of HR professionals. Fullan (2014) stated that in order to increase the efficiency of the workforce, HR professionals have to summarize their cultural decisions in short statement. As the cultural and change leader, HR professionals have to modify or redesign their hiring practices to reflect their stated values. They also need to develop matrices (applicable to every employee) to analyze between good and bad performance. Stone and Deadrick (2015) stated that, in order to remain clear about the cultural and change decisions, an HR manager needs to develop written standard.     

2.In order to meet all the organizational goals and objectives, within a given frame of time, an HR professional has to be business driven. It will help the HR professional to understand an organization and its strategies Moran et al. (2014). It will also depict the stakeholder management and help the HR manager to build strong relationship with both employees and customers. They have to gather, analyze and communicate essential information with employees to enhance overall performance of the organization. Storey (2014) added by saying that, HR professionals need to provide regular feedback to employees to increase their confidence and trust. It will help the HR managers to get positive outcome from critical conditions.

Fullan (2014) mentioned that, it is one of the major task of an HR managers to increase efficiency of the workforce. In order to do that, an HR professional has to be a good workforce and workplace designer. There are certain factors on which the HR professional has to emphasize. They are such as designing and development of hob posts according to organizational objectives. Developing proper standard and guideline for hiring, retaining and rewarding employees can help to develop a skilled and talented workforce for an organization. Proper workplace design and development can help to solve conflicts arise in the workplace and enhance communication between stages of the workforce. Sparrow et al. (2016) stated that, it can help to enhance overall efficiency and productivity for a company.  

Ulrich et al. (1995) stated that, majority of the multinational organizations have to face cultural conflicts as employees come from different cultural backgrounds.  On the other hand, Moran et al. (2014) mentioned that majority of the employees of any organization resist to any kind of change in the workplace. It is the responsibility of the human resource professionals to resolve all the cultural conflicts occur in a company and to take change initiatives. Fullan (2014) stated that HR professionals need to make their employees understand the benefits and emergence of change initiatives. They have to develop policies to resolve any cultural conflict occur in an organization. Written guidelines need to be developed in order prohibit any kind of discrimination related with culture and religion. Polices need to be developed in order to hire employees only on the basis of their qualification, skills and experience rather than cultures and religion. 

3.I am applying for the position of Graduate HR and I think that I posses all these capabilities. Previously, I worked as HR manager in company Tesco.  I am providing evidence from my previous job experience for all these three capabilities:

Business driven

I organized meeting with employees after every 3 months to communicate about the organizational goals and their performance objectives.

I assessed performance of employees in every 2 months and provided feedback on their performance.

I always encouraged employees to take challenge in their job and tried to boost up their confidence.

Workforce and workplace designer

I helped to develop appropriate standards and guidelines to hire employees. I advised my senior managers to rules for hiring employees. It was mainly based on qualification and experience rather.

I helped to develop standards of behaviors that every Tesco employee has to maintain at the workplace.

I advised to develop hourly incentive policy for over time working.

Cultural and change leader

I helped to develop a plan to provide behavioral and communication training to all Tesco employees so that they behave properly with each other. This training program was 30 days long. It helped to reduce the cultural conflict occurred in our organization.

 

During my 2 years of experience as HR manager in Tesco, I had taken various change initiatives. For example, I had taken initiative to increase CSR activity of TESCO. We had developed an environmental protection campaign to increase awareness among our employees and customers about the harmful impact of using plastic bags on the environment.

References

Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.

De Lange, A.H., Kooij, D.T.A.M. and Van der Heijden, B.I.J.M., 2015. Human resource management and sustainability at work across the lifespan: An integrative perspective. Facing the challenges of a multi-age workforce: A use-inspired approach, pp.50-79.

Fullan, M., 2014. Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John Wiley & Sons.

Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.

Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management. Routledge.

Stone, D.L. and Deadrick, D.L., 2015. Challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), pp.139-145.

Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Ulrich, D., Brockbank, W., Yeung, A.K. and Lake, D.G., 1995. Human resource competencies: An empirical assessment. Human Resource Management, 34(4), pp.473-495.