Recently, I was talking with some friends about the role of the person in charge of personnel in the organization, since frequently, and especially in small companies, the functions of the Chief of Personnel converge with those of the coordinator or Manager of Human Resources.
And it is that, if we measure it from the structural point of view, the person in charge of Human Resources, be it the Manager or Coordinator, is the one in charge of planning, directing and coordinating all the tasks related to human talent in a company. While the Chief of Staff is the one who carries out the daily management of the workers, the supervision of the working day, the schedules, compliance with regulations, among other functions.
I remember the time I was an internal legal consultant for an Organization, with more than 400 employees and more than 250 companies, and I became very close friends with both the Human Resources Manager and the Personnel Manager (the latter depended on the structure level of the first), who told me that his role was that of the company’s villain in front of the employees, since he had to stand up for the less pleasant decisions in front of the staff. Compared to the role of the Manager, which was the one that she presented to the collaborators, all the benefits that were granted to them. In this way he represented “the villain” and the Manager “the hero” of the film.
In smaller companies, where their size and budget do not justify creating the role of HR Manager and Chief of Staff separately, the HR Coordinator or Manager must perform both tasks. This is where you have to tread very thin, because I have found cases in which the HR person has a lot of empathy with the workers and is weak when imposing sanctions or even just putting character before them.
Some companies choose to hire a company or person under the figure of outsourcing or outsourcing, to help them with everything related to personnel, which can sometimes represent a good option, but in others, due to issues of cost, time and lack of sense of belonging to the company, is not the best option.
But let’s see or summarize the functions of the HR Manager and the Personnel Manager, to make a distinction of what should be the focus of each one’s work, so that they contribute the best to the organization.
According to BBVA, the HR Manager has the following functions:
- Personnel organization and planning: consists of planning the templates in accordance with the organization of the company, designing the appropriate jobs, defining functions and responsibilities, anticipating the needs of the personnel in the medium and long term, analyzing the remuneration and promotion systems intern, among other tasks.
- Recruitment: is the set of procedures aimed at attracting competent candidates for a job in the company. These recruitment techniques can be internal, if they consist of attracting candidates from people who are part of the company’s staff; or external, if the candidates are people from outside the organization.
- Selection: this function is very important, since one of the determining factors of the success of a business activity is the correct choice of the people who will work in the company. A complete analysis must be carried out of everything that the candidate brings to the job, and for this he must go through a series of selection tests.
- Career plans and professional promotion: staff development can be implemented through career plans, with programs in which people can acquire the necessary experience, and then be able to progress in the organization’s structure.
- Training: the training of workers allows company personnel to adapt to the changes that occur in society, as well as to technological advances, since the company must provide training for the development of specific tasks that have to be carried out within the same, depending on its objectives and plans.
As for the Chief of Staff, the Peruvian Ministry of Education, through the Local Educational Management Unit, has very well defined the following functions:
- Plan, coordinate and evaluate the work of the team in charge.
- Direct the elaboration of the technical documents that are the responsibility of the workers, such as: attendance regulations, punctuality and permanence of the personnel, and internal regulations of the institution.
- Issue reports and/or opinions on the files or petitions.
Direct and evaluate the formulation of documents such as: tables for assigning personnel and nominative of the entity and Educational Institutions, calendar extensions, and updating of the working population. - Direct and evaluate the effectiveness of the formulation of the Single Remuneration Form, bonuses, subsidies, reimbursements and accrued.
- Guide the preparation of Resolutions on: personnel displacement actions, remuneration matters and benefits, subsidies, among others”.
Whether through the creation of an internal structure to be in charge of HR, or through the hiring of a company or person via outsourcing, the work of the person who guides and supervises everything related to the workers is essential within of a company regardless of its size.
In general, the daily operation absorbs the attention of the owners or managers of the companies, leading to a lack of attention from the staff, as if it were a joke, being really the most important part in any organization.