HR is progressing very fast. More and more companies are now looking for HR Managers to manage their human assets and their issues. More people are coming in the field. Institutes have also emerged from no where teaching different HR courses. All is good, for me at least. I chose the field five years back and here I am with a Masters degree, specialization in HR and four years experience. During this period I worked in two places and gained experience. At both of the places HR was a new born department. I faced resistance from old employees and from top management too. Resistance from top management as they do not understand the true nature of HR. Everyone has his own concept of Human Resource Management. At one place the top management used to forward every problem to HR whether it had a link with HR or not. Production is not up to the mark, problem comes to HR. Security cameras not working, and problem comes to HR. It was difficult to convince the people at the top that these problems were out of the scope of HR. At one place employees used to disregard HR and at first looked liked it would be impossible to create the HR department over there. In the absence of HR department, its responsibilities are shared by other departments. When HR is created people feel that HR is trying to reduce their authorities and as a result conflicts start rising. What they don’t know is that HR will actually benefit them. They would get an organized organizational structure with proper grading, proper pay structures, promotion plans and employee compensation and benefits plans etc. There is a need to increase awareness among employees in other departments, top people, owners and directors regarding HR.

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What if a Manager comes to your office (HR), looks really crossed, complains about a particular subordinate regarding his unprofessional attitude, tardiness and frequent absences telling you to take the strictest action against the one. When asked that if he has counseled his subordinate regarding the matter, the answer is NO and then in the lunch time you will see both of them together hand in hand going out for lunch and taking more time than it is allowed, what would you do?

I think in this case you need to counsel both the Manager and his subordinate. In my opinion Managers are responsible for each and every action of their subordinates before anything comes in the boundaries of HR. The managers should come to HR for help when they see that they are unable to correct someone’s actions and when something is really wrong.

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