Workforce Management as HR Role

The workforce management is a difficult area in each organization. The efficient allocation of the workforce is always a result of the healthy conflicts and many analyses done by Human Resources and Finance. HR did not manage the workforce in the past. In the modern organization, HR is responsible for challenging the efficient allocation of workforce. HR has to set basic rules for the workforce allocation and job creation rules.

The workforce management requires a deep knowledge of the business processes, needs knowledge of the value added by different processes in the organization. The workforce management is not just about the number of employees in units. The workforce structure is also extremely critical. The structure of employees is the main driver for the personnel costs of the company. The personnel costs can be a main barrier for building the competitive advantage. The role of HR is discovering the obstacles and making the structure of the organization as lean as possible, allowing it to react quickly to changes in the external environment.

Why is workforce management critical?

The HR Role is in maximizing the value of the human capital employed in the organization. The right workforce structure is extremely valuable as it keeps the personnel expenses at the optimum level. The competition on the market is tough, and higher personnel expenses can represent a serious competitive disadvantage.

HR should not create any job position, which is requested. HR has to challenge managers to operate with the smallest possible workforce. The creation of the new job position is easy, but it is extremely expensive at the end. Adding a new employee to the payroll is a fixed cost, but the value added is always unsure. HR should challenge the business need, and it should challenge the job content of the new vacancy in the team.

HR is cross-functional. HR has to collect all job descriptions reflecting the reality in the organization. HR Role is in pointing the potential double resourcing for the same activity. HR should identify overlaps in the organization.

The role of HR in Workforce Management

Human Resources is responsible for setting the basic principles and rules. HR has to set the job creation process. HR has to set the job evaluation process. Each new job position has to be critically assessed as the internal equity is kept.

HR has to set the challenging process for the establishment of the new job position. The HR Role is in making the final decision tough, but the decision has to be based on facts collected during the whole new job creation process. The HR Business Partner should not act as the advocate of the manager in Human Resources. The HR Business Partner has to challenge the manager to deliver a high-quality evidence for the final decision.

HR has to prepare baseline workforce structures. The rules for the creation of the new managerial job position have to be clear, and all managers have to follow them. The workforce structure should be kept lean as much as possible. Everyone blames HR when the new job position not fully compliant with the general rules is created.

The HR Role is in protecting the shareholders’ interests. HR protects the workforce structure and manages the efficient personnel expenses budget. It is the role of Human Resources.