The Main Problems Facing by HR Department

 

The Main Problems Facing by

HR Department

The Human Resources department (HR) is responsible for much more than making the contracts and paying the payroll with the help of the HRMS Software & Biometric System. Luis Suárez, Director of Human Resources at FCC, Environmental Services, explains that beyond «fleeting definitions, mantra concepts that may become fashionable at certain times, the fluctuations inherent to economic and employment crises (cyclical or exceptional) and technological contributions ", the" work "of HR has always consisted of three basic premises:" attract and retain the right people for each function within the organization; getting each person to do what they do best and in the most efficient way within the organization; and align the vectors of motivation of each person with the business objectives of the organization ”.

Managing human resources can be especially difficult for small businesses, as they lack the resources of larger organizations. Some small business owners manage human resources on their own or with the help of another staff member, even though the department's responsibilities include staff rights, complying with labor laws , developing relationships with employees, and professional development programs .

In addition, you have to take into account the number of laws that affect small businesses, so you have to be aware of which ones are applicable to each business and know all the changes.

But even in those cases where companies have a human resources department, there are many challenges they face. For example, at a technological level, since employees have to be up-to-date in the knowledge and skills in this section, which requires the Human Resources department to be in charge of ensuring continuous and optimal training of the workforce, or the company runs the risk of falling behind the competition.

Providing this training and supporting employees who want to keep up with technical changes not only benefits the company, but also helps employees feel like an important part of the business. The HR manager should identify the areas of the company where training is needed and offer HRMS programs (either on-site or abroad).

In fact, «the growing impact of the increasingly powerful branch of knowledge of« Big Data »will bring consequences that are hardly imaginable for the performance of the function, providing new information and revealing valuable relationships of causes and consequences that must be addressed from the function of HR, distilling the consequences within its own competence and serving as a scientific basis for the proposals to modify policies, procedures, practices and protocols ”, in the opinion of the head of FCC.

Global Challenges

According to a study conducted by PWc, the three issues chosen by the majority of respondents as the top three challenges were: change management (48%), leadership development (35%), and HR effectiveness measurement (27%). In Europe, the three challenges chosen by the respondents were: change management (48%), organizational effectiveness (36%) and personnel: hiring and availability of local workforce (34%).

Luis Suárez, Director of Human Resources at FCC, Servicios Medioambientales, has shared his vision of the work of professionals like him and the challenges they face. In his opinion, the main challenge of the HR function is “the re-alignment with the organization's objectives, which were also forgotten or at least relegated during the golden decades of the Spanish economy. Back to being a key factor contributing to the growth of the business and its profitability, from the attraction of the right professionals, the most efficient allocation within the organization and the alignment of the person's professional interests with the business objectives. Avoid everything that implies unnecessary internal bureaucracy, slow and inoperative protocols and procedures, complex tools and of doubtful contribution to the business, and focus on contributing to the pure production or business line our added value as a support function in all those questions that it is orphaned of knowledge or experience. 

Accompany the internal client in the search for the most efficient solutions; not trying to achieve the status of a strategic function by internal organization chart, but to promote the dynamics of active support to the business, to become truly strategic. Dismantle hierarchical decision-making super-structures and replace them with shared decision-making dynamics and collaborative work formulas, that take into account the real and effective participation of people, the multi-disciplinary knowledge to be integrated in the teams and the essential diversity (in the different axes of gender, origin, age, culture, etc.) of its components, to ensure the best possible solutions. Reduce (not eliminate) the constant appeal to leadership as an individual value or ability, or ascribe this leadership to the ability to motivate harmonious work teams, which manage to get the best of themselves out of each person with the greatest enthusiasm; the leadership of the own example and the admiration, in front of the image of the conqueror. Shackleton versus Lope de Aguirre, this is the humble task of our role.

New generations, times and skills

In the midst of the economic and digital transformation with the software like HRMS, HRIS & HCM that we are experiencing and with the imminent arrival of the millennial generation, the HR department has to be attentive to these trends, analyze them and prepare to face them. “But no actor in labor relations should remain outside the construction of the trend itself; Or in other words, I don't think the most appropriate verb is to "adapt" to trends, "explains Luis Suárez, adding that" one always has to play an active role and identify the levers of change to activate them.

In the most appropriate way, which does not always mean to unfailingly follow the current of opinion generated, and sometimes it expressly demands to contribute the impertinent value of the reasoned and founded discrepancy. And secondly because changes are rarely beneficial for all organizations, in all markets and for all types of business or activity sectors; What may appear to be a novel competitive advantage in a certain sector of activity can be a destabilizing element in other activities. And it is the obligation of the responsible people in each organization to analyze these changes or further afield, these trends, reflect on their impact on your own business, on the activity of your own organization,

Some of these changes have to do, for example, with the fact that in many industries or sectors of activity there are more and more temporary, freelance or project workers, but the feeling of belonging to their organization is also still in force in many workers. «It seems important to me to highlight the existence of both realities and the tension between them. At the end of the day, we must not forget that we are creating trends together; they cannot present themselves as an impersonal force of nature or of the economic order that is imposed on us as an unappealable slab. 

Therefore, it will be the obligation of all actors present in labor relations to assessment of these new forms of work, the identification of suitable areas for their development and the establishment of the appropriate legal framework that guarantees that, beyond productivity, competitiveness and economic efficiency, we are not building unstructured and increasingly dehumanized societies”, summarizes the Director of Human Resources of FCC, Environmental Services.