Managing teams

The most challenging part of your HR work is to manage complex teams. They could be multi-disciplinary, multi-organization and government/non-government combinations. Be aware that different groups bring different interests to the mix:

• Other kinds of requirements that they have to meet (e.g. government policy).
• Areas of professional expertise.
• Egos. Some will see themselves as naturally superior to other professions and will expect more (often unreasonable) power.
• Different schedules.

As you go, it is your job to:

• manage contract work
• manage financial and payroll relating to recruitment and staff development.
• manage any industrial relations issues are also yours to manage. You will find that most of the work is lower level dispute resolution and negotiation. In any case, follow your organization's policies and procedures and any legislative/regulatory requirements.

Address stress management as an ongoing issue. In some human services industries it is the largest OHS risk, so you should already have some something about it.

 

Train staff

As part of the change process, give your staff appropriate training.

You should have a PD system in place anyway, where you systematically identify skill needs and track any extra training that people are getting. It is a major expenditure in some organizations. In others, it has no major cost at all, especially if it is integrated into staff meetings, given in reading folders, or done in mentoring systems and buddy systems.

Make sure that individuals and teams can implement your organization's continuous improvement processes and support it. You will need to give them specific training.

 

Recruiting staff

You will first of all need to manage staff recruitment.

1. Start by identifying your organization's human resource needs and prioritizing them.
2. Recruit personnel:
1. identify resources
2. write selection criteria and processes
3. develop and implement strategies for sourcing appropriate candidates
4. screen and review applications
5. interview candidates
6. follow up referees
7. select candidates that best meet the criteria.
3. Give induction or on-boarding.
4. Initiate a performance management plan according to your organization's requirements and the new employee's work role.

See Performance management (Link opens new window.)

 

Questions

1. What makes good practice in human resource management? Explain your view.
2. What are the main workforce development issues, trends and practices in your industry?
3. Explain your organization's policies, procedures and principles for HR recruitment, development and management?
4. Explain the strategic goals of your organization. What implications do they have for current and ongoing human resource requirements?
5. Explain your approach to HR strategy and planning. How successful is it? Why do you think it works or doesn't work? What would you do to improve it?
6. How do you use diversity principles to advantage?