Illustration of the HR management responsibilities of line and staff (HR) managers

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Cooperative Line and Staff HR Management: An example.

Exactly which HR management activities are carried out by Line managers and by Staff managers?

There's no single division of responsibilities we could apply across the board in all organizations, but we can make some generalizations.

For example, in recruiting and hiring, it's generally the line manager's responsibility to specify the qualifications employee need to fill specific positions.

Then the HR staff takes over. They develop sources of qualified applicants and conduct initial screening interviews. They administer the appropriate tests. Then they refer the best applicants to the supervisor (line manager), who interviews and selects the ones s/he wants.

Some activities tend to be HR's alone. For example,

60% of firms assign responsbility for preemployment testing exclusively to HR

75% assign college recruiting to HR

86% assing HR insurance benefits administratin

84% assign HR exit interviews and

88% assign HR Personal/ HR recrod keeping

But employers split most activities, such as employment interviews, performance appraisal, skills training, job descriptions, and disciplinary procedures, between HR and line departments.

Figure 1-3 will be posted later.

Figure 1-3 illustrates the typical HR-Line management partnership. For example, Hr alone typically handles interviewing in about 25% of firms, but in about 60% of firms, Hr and the other hiring departments both get involved in interviewing.

In summary, HR management is an integral part of every manager's job. Whether you're a first-line supervisor, middle manager, or president, or whether you're a production manager, sales manager, office manager, hospital administrator, county manger (or HR manager), getting results through committed people is the name of the game. And to do this, you will need a good working knowledge of the human resource managemen concepts and techniques.

FROM LINE MANGER TO HR MANAGER

Line managers in area like production and sales may also make career stopovers as staff HR managers.

A survery conducted by the Centre for Effective Organisations at the University of Southern California found about one-fourth of U.S. large businesses appointed managers with no HR experience as their top HR executives.

Reasons given include the fact that these people may find it easier to give the firms HR efforts a more strategiv emphasis, and the possibility that they may sometimes be better equipped to integrate the firm's HR efforts with the rest of the business.

However, most top HR executives do have previous Hr experience. About 80% of those in one recent survey worked their way up within HR.

About 37% were in employment/ recruitment, and so were mostly involved in activities like recruiting and selecting employees. 30% were in labor relations Union- Management), and 27% worked in training and development.

The other basic HR functions the top HR executives came from include compensation benefits, EEO/ affirmative action, human resource systems (HRIS), and safety. About 17% of these HR executives had earned the Human Resource Certification Institute's Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) designation, and 13% were certified professionals in Human Resources (PHR).