1. HRM Session 3 : Role of HR Executives
& Challenges to HR Professionals
Source : Personnel Management by Edwin B. Flippo (pg:10-22)
Sonali R. Saldanha, Asst. Prof (FMS ), NIFT - Mumbai

2. Role of HR Executives
 The Service Provider
 The Facilitator
 The Consultant
 The Auditor

3. Role of HR Manager
Administrative Role Operational Role Strategic Role
Policy Maker Recruiter Change Agent
Administrative Expert Trainer Strategic Partner
Advisor Developer
House Keeper Motivator
Counsellor Co-ordinator
Welfare Officer Mediator
Legal consultant Employee Champion

4. Qualities of a HR Manager
 Fair and Firm - in matters of promotions, demotions,
transfers, layoffs, enforcing discipline.
 Sense of vocation – To create a finer social and industrial
order in the organisation.
 Tact and Resourceful – in dealing difficult situations, have
a open mind, objectivity and adjustability
 Personal integrity – man who can be trusted allowing
fellow members to confide in him
 Sense of social responsibilities – social obligations to
various groups like shareholders, customers, workers,
suppliers, Govt etc.

5. Qualities of a HR Manager
 Sympathy and Considerate – concern for employee
welfare
 Knowledge of labour, constitution, Govt Policies, Acts,
economic conditions at a prevailing given time.
 Communication skill
 Advisor
 Problem Solver
 Mediator

6. Challenges faced by current crop of HR
professionals
 Changing mix of the work force
 Changing personal values of the work force
 Changing expectation of citizen-employees
 Changing levels of productivity
 Changing demands of government

8. Changing mix of the work force
 Increased no. of minorities entering
occupations requiring greater skills
 Are they equipped with required
levels of skills & education
 Increasing levels of formal
education for the entire work
force
 Jobs don’t match with the personnel
 Frustration, absenteeism, grievances,
turnover
 More female employees
 Is it better?
 Increased consumer spending
 Adaptability to unemployment
 Overall rise in productivity
 Increased tendency to acquire
professional education & training

9. Changing mix of the work force
 More married female employees
 More working mothers
 How best to help them
 Flexi hours
 Job sharing
 Child care
 Blue collar to white collar shift
 White collar employees do not tend to form unions
 Have greater expectation in terms of individual treatment
 Difficult of evaluate performances
 Leads to participative appraisal systems like “management by
objectives”

10. Surprise greetings
 As a working mother with an office in my home, I pride
myself on maintaining a professional image. One key to
that image is my answering-machine greeting, which is
often the first contact clients have with me. I worked on
making it sound upbeat and enthusiastic, and thought I
had succeeded until a friend left this message: "Judy, this
is Pam. I love your greeting, but do you know that you
can hear your little boy in the background saying,
'Mommy, I gotta go potty'?"

11. Changing personal values : Earlier days

12. Changing personal values : Now

13. How to tackle changing personal views
 Assign repetitive, less challenging jobs to those willing
 Pay for the skills possessed than skills demanded by job
 Fringe benefits
 Flexi time
 Flexible starting time usually a band
 Core working time where all are present
 Flexible leaving time
 Issues : no of hours worked, monitoring, customer confusion
 Benefits
 Enhanced productivity
 Reduced employee tardiness & absenteeism
 Improved moral & reduced turn over

14. Changing expectation of citizen employees
 External rights of citizenship penetrating business
enterprises
 Freedom of speech
 Whistle blowing
 When is it acceptable
 Proven desire to improve organization or protecting public
 Right to privacy
 How much to divulge while joining an organization?
 Organizations are prying on employees life
 Employee perceives invasion of privacy when
 personal info distributed without permission
 Personality info rather than productivity data is disclosed
 Personal info distributed to outsiders

15. Changing levels of productivity
 Productivity changes because of
 Laws & regulations regarding environmental protection, health &
safety .. Have increased cost of doing business
 New employees into business increased because of laws
 Influx of female & minorities makes productivity dive in the initial
periods
 Mangers having short term goals tend to concentrate more on
marketing and ignore vital research, development & new plant
investments
 Maturing economies shift from manufacturing to service and
achieving higher productivity levels in a service economy becomes
difficult
 Adverse relationships with labor unions
 Employee alienation & poor employee attitudes

16. Changing demands of government
 Government rules keep on changing regarding the
operative functions of HRM
 HR needs to keep himself updating and reacting
proactively
 Balancing organization objective and government
legislations becomes a challenge

17. Some more challenges for the
new age HR professional

18. HR Management Challenges
 Globalization of Business
 The threat of terrorism- How does this impact what we do?
 Economic and Technological Changes
 Occupational shifts from manufacturing and agriculture to
service industries and telecommunications.
 Pressures of global competition causing firms to adapt by
lowering costs and increasing productivity.
 Technological Shifts and the Internet
 Growth of information technology
 Changing demographics

19. Fastest Growing Jobs to 2010
ce: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov.

20. HR Management Challenges
 Workforce Availability and Quality Concerns
 Inadequate supply of workers with needed skills for “knowledge jobs”
 80% of manufacturing jobs report shortage of qualified workers
 Education of workers in basic skills
 Not enough specific skills, not enough technology skills
 Growth in Contingent Workforce
 Represents 20% of the workforce
 Increases in temporary workers, independent contractors, leased
employees, and part-timers caused by:
 Need for flexibility in staffing levels
 Increased difficulty in firing regular employees.
 Reduced legal liability from contract employees
 Boeing Strategy- manage employment cycles in suppliers and partners

21. Quality of work life
 QWL is the level at which the members of an org. can satisfy their
personal requirements through their experience in the org.
 Its main obj. is to focus on creating a good working environment as a
result of which employees work together in a cooperative way and
contribute their best in achieving the organizational goals
 Employee expectations are
 Fair & reasonable Pay
 Safer Environment
 Employee Benefits
 Job Security
 Job satisfaction
 Empowerment
 Career Opportunities