Every Line Manager Is an Hr Manager Essays

Every Line Manager Is an Hr Manager Essays Every Line Manager Is an Hr Manager Essay Every Line Manager Is an Hr Manager Essay Discussion on: Every Line Manager is an HR Manager Introduction â€Å"Slowly but surely, line managers are taking over the HR front line. Gone are the days when the first port of call for any people management query was the HR department. † – Lucy McGee (Personnel Today) This is partly because HR as a function has transformed over the past decade. Administration is often outsourced, legislation has become more complex, European Union regulations have to be understood and adhered to, compensation is now many-sided, and selection and development have become more sophisticated. HR is both more specialist and more strategic than ever. At the same time, the managers role has evolved as leadership skills have been recognised as being important for a high-performing workforce. People management no longer means filling a form at the yearly appraisal and a few friendly chats in the staff canteen. Spotting talent, motivating, coaching, giving feedback, and developing staff, are all constant, day-to-day activities. With HR departments focused on the bigger picture issues, and line managers actually managing the line, its vital these two functions understand each other. Thus the purpose of this paper is to examine the changing role and responsibilities of line manager, as well as possible implications of greater line manager involvement in HRD. Source: www. personneltoday. com The role of front line managers Front line managers are managers who are responsible for an employee or work group to a higher level of management. They are normally in the lower layers of the management hierarchy and the employees who report to them do not themselves have any managerial or supervisory responsibility (Hutchinson Purcell 2003). The people and performance research carried out by a team at Bath University found that front line managers played a pivotal role in terms of implementing and enacting HR policies and practices. They found that where employees feels positive about their relationship with their front line managers they are more likely to have higher levels of job satisfaction, commitment and loyalty which are associated with higher levels of performance or discretionary behaviour. Discretionary behaviour is defined as that which goes beyond the requirements of the job to give that extra performance which can boost the bottom line. Line managers also play the strongest part in structuring people’s actual experience of doing a job (Hutchinson Purcell 2003). The areas where front line managers make a significant difference to people management practices include: performance appraisal training, coaching and guidance employee engagement (involvement and communication) openness – how easy is it for employees to discuss matters with their front line manager work-life balance recognition – the extent to which employees feel their contribution is recognised. These are all areas where, although the process may be designed by HR, it cannot be delivered by HR. The front line manager role is crucial in a number of respects: in enabling the HR policies and practices, or bringing them to life in acting upon advice or guidance from HR in controlling the work flow by directing and guiding the work of others. However, line managers often have conflicting priorities and role overload. All managers need time to carry out their people management activities. The Bath research found that front line managers exercise a strong influence over the level of discretion that an individual has over how they do their job. Some managers can permit and encourage people to be responsible for their own jobs whereas others can stifle initiative through controlling or autocratic behaviour. To encourage the kind of discretionary behaviour from employees associated with higher performance, front line managers need to: build a good working relationship with their staff. They need to lead, listen, ask, communicate, be fair, respond to suggestions and deal with problems help and support employees to take more responsibility for how they do their jobs by coaching and guidance build effective teams. Many of the qualities and skills which are associated with higher quality front line management are around the behaviours of front line managers. It is not enough to educate front line managers in the behaviours required; organisations must also ensure they are developing the environment and culture in which front line managers are actively encouraged and permitted to exhibit the behaviours above. The Bath research found that organisations which had a strong shared culture with guiding principles for behaviour which were embedded into practice over time were more successful. To be good ambassadors of people management, line managers need, above all, self-confidence and a strong sense of their own security in the organisation. This, in turn, requires strong support and the appropriate training and development for those newly appointed in a line management role. Source: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development UK Implications of greater line manager involvement in HRD The perception prevails that a number of benefits exist in using line managers as developers of people (Gibbs, 2003). The following key arguments for devolution of HRD to line managers are provided by different scholars: allowing HRD decisions to be tailored to the real needs and circumstances at the operational level; improving employee relationships and the work environment; enabling more effective decision making because of the shorter lines of communication, and others. The main advantages presented in the scientific literature are summarized and discussed below. Firstly, a line manager’s role is critical in creating and stimulating the appropriate work environment supportive for learning (Macneil, 2001). It requires the promotion of positive attitudes towards continuous learning, since learning is not something that happens only during formal classroom training activities, but it is an integral facet of everyday working life. A line manager is expected to encourage the individual or team to take responsibility for how they will manage their own learning processes. It should happen through the provision of various opportunities for learning, for instance organizing meetings between employees with similar experience, creating mentor and job rotation systems, coaching, and others. Secondly, the research confirms that usually line managers lack knowledge and competence in human resource management (Macneil, 2001). Therefore, greater line managers’ involvement in HRD activities may lead to a development and transformation of the managers themselves and they would become more competent in managing people. This can also positively contribute to broader organizational change. Thirdly, line managers can help to improve the quality of HRD interventions by closing the gap between organizational performance and individual performance (Macneil, 2001). Line managers, rather than HRD specialists, are very familiar with the business context and both organizational and individual learning needs; therefore they should be able to address the most pressing learning needs. They are closer to the daily operations and customers. This gives line managers unique knowledge concerning organizational realities and needs, which can inform their understanding of the important issues and possible knowledge gaps. Without a systematic training needs analysis linked to the performance appraisal process it is unlikely that HRD will make a meaningful strategic contribution to enhancing organizational effectiveness. Identifying training needs arising from strategic goals, new technology and changes in the work process and linking it with performance appraisal process then becomes critical at the operational level for which a line manager is responsible. Despite the arguments provided above, recent research has shown that delegating HRD responsibility carries a number of challenges and risks and line management involvement in HRD work is not without complications (Reddington, Williamson and Withers 2005). It has been confirmed that workloads of line managers may marginalize their efforts in developing employees and they may not be able to pay sufficient attention to employee development. Performance criteria and reward systems are more likely to consider business results, than a longer term people development role. The responsibility for HRD is not very often included among line manager’s performance objectives. Also, it might be difficult for line managers to play two opposing roles of assessor and coach. Moreover, line managers are not specialists in HRD and may lack confidence, knowledge and organizational support to assume the responsibility for HRD. Senior managers must be highly supportive in HRD role of line managers and an incentive system should be developed to motivate them. Furthermore, acting as a HRD facilitator demands a coaching management style, as opposed to a directive management style. Lack of coaching skills and insufficient line management motivation for this role is reinforced by findings that the least popular HRD delivery mechanisms include coaching and mentoring. This may be due to the large commitment of time and resources needed, yet these methods have consistently been emphasized as critical contribution to SHRD (Garavan, 1995). It is important to emphasize here that the devolvement of HRD activities to the line does not mean that traditional HRD function should vanish or be abolished. It is about increasing the role of line managers in HRD, but not about taking over the HRD function from the specialists. There is little reason to believe that line managers can be better developers than specialists’ trained in HRD (Gibbs, 2003). The role of HRD specialists is also changing. HRD specialists are liberated from routine administration and can focus on strategic and change management issues. They should be recognized as HRD advisors instead of merely HRD providers. This calls for a partnership between line management and HRD specialists. HRD specialists should be able to offer regular support to line managers helping them to analyze performance problems, assess learning needs, develop individual learning plans and develop their own coaching skills (Garavan, 1999). Conclusion The consensus of the above discussion indicates that all line managers are indeed HR managers and it is critical that they hone there HR skills in order to be effective enough to get the best out of his or her subordinates. However it is also important to keep in mind that a balance should be maintained between these HRD responsibilities and the other day to day responsibilities of a line manager. References Personneltoday personneltoday. com/articles/2008/03/07/44780/hr-and-line-managers-speaking-line-managers-language. html