HR Organization Flashcards
The HR function is designed and structured to serve the?
Strategy of the overall organization as well as the HR strategy.
- have a strategic role. They are typically part of the organization’s senior leadership team, and, ideally, they report directly to the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief operating officer (COO). This structure creates the opportunity for HR to perform its strategic role. HR leaders bring information about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the organization’s strategy to other leaders and participate in the development of overall strategy. In addition, they develop and direct the strategy, priorities, and focus for their HR team. The leader of the HR function may have different titles, including chief HR officer (CHRO), HR director, or vice president of HR.
Leaders
- are responsible for units within the HR function, such as employee relations, talent acquisition, and organizational development. HR managers plan, direct, and coordinate the activities for their unit and provide input to the leader for HR strategy.
Managers
- (also known as functional experts) have expertise in specific areas such as compensation and benefits design, talent management, metrics, IT, occupational health and safety, organizational development, and workforce relations. Their role is to apply best practices in their discipline to advance the HR strategy.
Specialists
- (also known as HR practitioners) are familiar with all of HR’s varied services. Generalists may have expertise in one or more specialty areas of HR but are generally proficient enough in each area to provide sound advice and direction to employees and managers. HR generalists work closely with their specialist coworkers to ensure that the information and programs they are providing to their employees are accurate and complete. Generalists may also be embedded within countries or business units.
Generalists
- are more experienced generalists who are assigned to represent HR services directly to other business functions. HR business partners use a deeper understanding of the business—both the organization and the function—to find ways that HR can help functions achieve their goals. This requires many competencies, including Business Acumen, Consultation, Relationship Management, and Communication. These individuals can be key to demonstrating HR’s value throughout the organization.
HR Business Partners
All HR personnel located within the HR department; deliver services to the entire organization.
Centralized
HR staff within each function, business unit, or location carrying out required activities.
Decentralized
Headquarters HR is staffed with specialists who craft policies. HR generalists, who may be located within divisions or other locales, implement these policies, adapt them as needed, and interact with employees.
Functional
Allows organizations with different strategies in multiple units to apply HR expertise to each unit’s specific strategic needs.
Dedicated
Each business unit can supplement its resources by selecting what it needs from a menu of shared HR services (usually transactional) that the units agree to share.
Shared Services
Leverages strategic expertise to foster growth and continuous improvement.
Center of Excellence (COE)
Generalists who usually report to managers outside of the HR structure but indirectly report to HR and work to consult and help link their business area to the proper areas of the HR department.
Business Partners
HR staff report directly to HR senior management but also report to other departments through the senior management positions.
Matrix
Refers to the ability to attain support and resources from around the world, often via outsourcing.
Global Resources
Advantages: Provides more control and consistency across the organization.
Disadvantages: Can inhibit flexibility and responsiveness; can decrease effective communication.
Centralized
Advantages: Allows for more direct contact between HR and other functions and facilitates communication and responsiveness.
Disadvantages: Lack of consistency among HR policies and standards.
Decentralized
Advantages: Facilitates consistency between headquarters policy and practices and implementation in business units.
Disadvantages: Can isolate headquarters HR from business realities perceived by all staff and employees.
Functional
Advantages: Promotes strategic alignment between headquarters and units.
Disadvantages: Isolation of dedicated HR units and loss of shared knowledge and experience; may lead to duplications and inefficiencies.
Dedicated
Advantages: Offers expertise efficiently, reducing the load of transactional activity in favor of value-creating activity.
Disadvantages: Risks underuse of service centers when their existence is not widely known.
Shared Services
Advantages: Takes advantage of digital communications to create networks of experts in the organization.
Disadvantages: Similar to shared services, risks underuse when its existence is not widely known
Center of Excellence (COE)
Advantages: Allows business partners to acquire a deeper understanding of the business and enables HR to better support organizational efforts.
Disadvantages: Can be difficult to define roles and responsibilities for business partners, who may become a scapegoat from employees in both areas for issues that occur.
Business Partners
