The field of Human Resource Management (HRM) is expanding beyond previous traditional roles and functions. Many organizations around the world have realized the need to ensure that HR Managers add more value through their HR organization.
The latest means of ensuring this is through the addition of oversight functions to their current work.
Traditional role for HR Managers
The typical responsibilities for HR Managers are largely administrative (Talent Management, Learning & Development, Updating the employee database, Rewards Management etc).
These roles have become routine. Executive management has increasingly queried the value of their human resource function, thereby leading to HRM budget cuts and under appreciation of HRM efforts.
Oversight functions were borne out of the need to show HRM’s ability to innovate and add value.
What Oversight Functions mean
The concept can mean a scenario when one looks at a particular thing and fail to notice a mistake, that can mean to oversight. In another context, it can mean when someone performs a supervisory role over others, to oversee their activities, and monitor their progress.
How organizations Operate from Top to Bottom and Bottom to Top
Any organization that must achieve great things, will have a system of operation. From the leaders in an organization, they must be able to impact on the other employees in positions lower than them, demanding that they become responsible, and focus on the job. Also, those at the bottom end of the hierarchy within the organization, must ensure that they perform their roles as expected of them, so as to improve the organization, on the larger scale.
What ways HR Managers exercise Oversight functions
HR Managers exercise their oversight functions in many ways, as it pertains to maintaining relationships with clients, regulating the attitude of employees towards work, compensation benefits, career auditing, bringing training benefits, and many more. These responsibilities can in no way be handled by the HR Manager alone, this is why the HR Manager delegates responsibility to some employees, for which after they get their feedbacks through, he then oversees their responsibility.
The Importance of HR Managers Oversight Function to the entire Organization–
There exist a lot of responsibilities that an HR Manager should perform within an organization, which may include staffing, budgeting, recruitment, relating with clients, and a whole lot more. All these are essentially important in any organization, but the most important of all is their oversight responsibility. This is important as it makes the employees and the entire organization to perform their duties as expected of them due to the supervisory role on ground as they will be asked to give an account of their progress.
Here are some benefits of this oversight functions:
- Performance Improvement– Talking on performance improvement, it means that, the HRM oversees the affairs of the employees, enabling them to perform in an effective way, knowing that they will give account of their activities, either quarterly or yearly, as it is done, depending on the organization.
- Potential for Leadership– This oversight functions does not just refer to the HRM alone. The HRM delegates responsibility to the heads of various departments, so they can at the end give account of the progress made in their various departments. Doing this delegation will instill in them the drive to lead, making them to grow to become individuals that can perform excellently well.
- Improved Learning Opportunity– The oversight functions will enable the HRM to learn from different departments of the organization on how they handle their activities. This can be done when other organizational team members continually give feedback based on what their department does and how it works for the collective good of the Organization. It will then help the HRM to have a broadened idea about how to exercise this oversight functions adequately as expected
On a conclusive note, it is important to emphasize that the role of HR Managers evolving into them performing an oversight function, will bring more benefit to organizations as it instills a mind of responsibility from the employees to perform their roles accurately, even as the organization progresses.
