7 Responsibilities Of Todays Modern HR Professionals

The role of human resources, or HR as it is commonly abbreviated to, has changed significantly over recent years. In the past, HR professionals were most commonly associated with business administration duties such as printing, copying, filing and organizing paperwork and payroll, as well as ensuring that staff members complied with business policies and company regulations. Thankfully, the role of HR professionals has changed and now, more than ever, making HR jobs in San Francisco and other cities in the US grow more in demand. They are intrinsically entwined into many areas of business operations, from the hiring process to the building of a motivational and positive company culture. Here are just 7 responsibilities associated with modern HR professionals today. 

1. Giving employees assistance with their careers
   Instead of just assessing employees against their current job responsibilities and judging their performance, today’s HR professionals have a more active role in helping people to advance their careers by giving them specific tasks to complete and developing personal action steps to help them achieve their goals. This attention to the career aspirations of the companies employees gives HR professionals insight into where they may be able to fill roles with internal applicants and helps to improve employee retention statistics by making employees feel listened to and valued. 
2. Help to lead change in the workplace
   Shaping the culture of an organisation is now commonplace amongst HR professionals. Their role as front and centre of company culture can help them to gain employee trust and minimise any resistance to company change. HR professionals tend to lead change initiatives such as new policies or regulations and support staff whenever they request a change to company policies. This means that many people within HR now have strong project management and people skills.
3. Providing emotional support
   With mental health awareness becoming more prevalent across organisations in recent years, HR professionals are now often one of the first people that employees are encouraged to meet with in order to discuss their issues or concerns. In addition to mental health, domestic violence has become so prevalent in many countries that many organisations now encourage their employees to seek help within the workplace if they themselves are suffering or they know someone suffering from domestic violence. This means that HR professionals are often also involved with the reporting and reconciliation of domestic violence cases.
4. Monitoring and dealing with workplace bullying issues
   Workplace bullying creates a toxic working environment and can be very harmful to those who experience it. Many employees may not feel comfortable speaking to their manager or superior about their experience of bullying and as such often turn to the HR department for help. This has led to HR professionals often being tasked with both sorting out any bullying claims but also eliminating both workplace bullying and cyberbullying altogether in order to maintain a safe working environment for the entire team.
5. Being employee advocates
   HR professionals have an integral part to play in the creation of a workplace environment which motivates and encourages employees to produce their best work, and they do this by being employee advocates. To create a culture of success and positivity HR teams employ certain strategies such as encouraging open communication between teams and departments, enforcing open-door policies, organising team-building events and monitoring regular goal setting. Positive workplace culture is not only beneficial for productivity but for the happiness and wellbeing of employees to, not to mention it helps with recruitment and employee retention.
6. Managing the recruitment process
   Human resources are responsible for a lot more than simply posting job adverts on job websites. HR professionals are increasingly also in charge of building and portraying a company culture and brand that will entice prospective candidates. The HR department will often oversee the hiring and employment process from start to finish, creating job descriptions, placing advertisements, screening potential applicants, interviewing them and ultimately onboarding successful candidates.
7. Acting as strategic partners
   In modern businesses human resources also serve as strategic partners, helping to determine company goals and execute company strategies to ensure that business targets are reached. By participating in company planning HR leaders gain valuable insight into business objectives and have an unrivalled understanding of the organisational activities needed to sustain business growth. This detailed company knowledge underpins many of the activities that HR professionals undertake such as helping them to plan and budget for any upcoming recruitment activity, helping them nurture current employees for internal roles that may arise, creating a company culture that will motivate employees towards achieving company goals and helping them to provide emotional support in times of stress.