Who is responsible for personnel management?

The obvious answer to this question would be the “HR” Department or “People Function” but is it?

If tomorrow, you decided to start up a company you most likely won’t have an HR department. You will most likely make most of the decisions of whom to hire and what to pay them. Giving the amount of legislation surrounding employment owners will usually seek consultants such as Beagle HR to assist with managing their human resources.

For larger organisations, many will have an in-house HR department. Interestingly many employees believe that every aspect of HRM is the responsibility of those working in the function in the same way those work sales have the responsibility to get new customers and meet company targets.

The HR function will be responsible for putting policies and procedures in place to manage its workforce. However, this does not mean that high levels of organisational performance will follow. It’s the implementation and the interpretation of these that matter.

The HR function will not be directly managing employees of different business areas, such as the sales or marketing department. It is down to the supervisors, managers and directors of those departments that have those day to day relationships to manage their workforce.

Once upon a time, HR activities such as recruitment were conducted by the HR department now these activities over time have been devolved to line managers. It allows for faster decision and empowerment for those managers.

HR’s role in this is to provide support and guidance to the managers. For example, an HR advisor may sit and take notes with the hiring manager during a candidate interview. This type of HR allows more time to spent aligning the people management agenda with the strategic goals of the organisation. This approach relies on the line manager having the appropriate skills, knowledge and attitudes to manage and develop their staff effectively. It is HR’s role in this to ensure the managers have these skills and continually develop these skills over time.

It is the overall vision, values and ideology of senior management in an organisation that has a critical influence on the way Human Resource Management operates in an organisation. The status, role and profile of the HR function are influenced by the strength of the belief from senior management in what value human resource management can add to that organisation.

What do you think? Does everyone have responsibility for HR in an Organisation? Let me know your thoughts

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.5- Who is responsible for human resource management?

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.6- Why do you think human resource management (or personnel) was previously held in suchlow esteem in many organizations?

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.7- Do you think human resource management would have become more important even iflaws such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act had never been passed? Why or why not?

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.8- Identify several consequences of an organization’s failure to recognize that it’s humanresource management practices make up an interrelated system.

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Personnel management can be defined as obtaining, using and maintaining a satisfied workforce. It is a significant part of management concerned with employees at work and with their relationship within the organization.

According to Flippo, “Personnel management is the planning, organizing, compensation, integration and maintainance of people for the purpose of contributing to organizational, individual and societal goals.”

According to Brech, “Personnel Management is that part which is primarily concerned with human resource of organization.”

Nature of Personnel Management

  1. Personnel management includes the function of employment, development and compensation- These functions are performed primarily by the personnel management in consultation with other departments.
  2. Personnel management is an extension to general management. It is concerned with promoting and stimulating competent work force to make their fullest contribution to the concern.
  3. Personnel management exist to advice and assist the line managers in personnel matters. Therefore, personnel department is a staff department of an organization.
  4. Personnel management lays emphasize on action rather than making lengthy schedules, plans, work methods. The problems and grievances of people at work can be solved more effectively through rationale personnel policies.
  5. It is based on human orientation. It tries to help the workers to develop their potential fully to the concern.
  6. It also motivates the employees through it’s effective incentive plans so that the employees provide fullest co-operation.
  7. Personnel management deals with human resources of a concern. In context to human resources, it manages both individual as well as blue- collar workers.

Role of Personnel Manager

Personnel manager is the head of personnel department. He/She performs both managerial and operative functions of management. His role can be summarized as :

Functions of Personnel Management

Follwoing are the four functions of Personnel Management:


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The article is Written By “Prachi Juneja” and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team. MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider. To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.


Personnel management involves the administrative tasks that address the hiring and compensation of a company's employees. As a discipline, it aims to recruit and retain the quality workforce necessary for an organization to meet its goals.

Find out more about personnel management and how it works.

Personnel management refers to the business functions that deal with people, whether it's hiring them, paying them, or training them.

However, personnel management is a term that is falling into disuse, replaced by (or used interchangeably with) the phrase "human resources management." A company's human resources are its personnel—the people who are its employees. To manage them, many companies today no longer have personnel departments and instead have human resources departments.

Human resources management is often viewed as the strategic, effective management of a company's people, understanding them to be a company's most valuable resource. As such, prioritizing their development and success is vital to the success of the company as a whole.

Some consider personnel management to be more administrative in scope—focused on forms and paperwork—while human resources management more broadly endeavors to develop an organization's people and its culture.

For example, recruitment under a personnel management department might simply match job candidates and their resumes to a list of desired qualifications, checking off boxes in a list. But in a human resources department, hiring may be done by hiring specialists who have an in-depth understanding of the company's goals and requirements, sourcing hires who not only have the required skills but are also a great culture fit.

Or, in the case of new hire orientation, the focus of a personnel management department might be to ensure the paperwork is completed and filed properly, whereas a human resources department would ensure that the new hire felt sufficiently briefed as to their duties and responsibilities, focusing on setting up the employee for success. New employee orientation might even include a formal mentoring program. Or, it might involve opportunities for a meet-and-greet so the new employees get to know people they will be working with as well as those in different departments. 

Whether personnel management and human resources management are different in scope or interchangeable terms often depends on the organization's own viewpoint.

Government agencies and nonprofit organizations often still use the term personnel management to describe the administrative tasks associated with managing their employees.

  • Alternate name: Human Resource Management 

An organization's personnel management department typically is responsible for overseeing the administrative requirements of its employees.

Personnel management is typically responsible for:

  • Recruiting
  • Hiring
  • Determining wages and salaries
  • Administering benefits
  • Providing employee incentives
  • New employee orientation
  • Training and development
  • Performance appraisals

A company's office of personnel management may also be responsible for mediating disputes, developing and enforcing workplace policies, such as those that govern attendance, and ensuring company compliance with state and federal law.

For example, at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the government department responsible for managing federal employees, key functions include vetting potential new hires, developing human resources policies, and administering benefits such as pensions and health care. The department ensures oversight of various systems to make sure employees are in compliance with regulations and handles the adjudication of appeals when things go wrong.

Becoming a personnel manager or human resources manager usually takes several years of experience plus a bachelor's degree and, in some cases, a master's degree. However, this occupation is expected to grow by 7% over the next decade and brings a median salary of $116,720.

  • Personnel management includes the administrative tasks required to oversee an organization's employees, such as recruiting, hiring, and administering benefits.
  • The term personnel management is more likely to be found in nonprofits and government agencies; the term human resource management may be more common in the private sector.
  • Personnel management is sometimes viewed as the more administrative functions related to completing paperwork and similar prosaic tasks, in contrast to a view of human resources management as a comprehensive development of an organization's people and culture.
  • Personnel management is necessary whenever there are employees to oversee.

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