Leadership Essentials: Aligning HR and Structuring Organisations

essential leadership skills

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Last updated on April 26th, 2024 at 10:54 am

Creating a proper organisational structure is a very important aspect of every business. an organisational structure with competent leaders helps the company to grow and reach greater heights. It helps companies to design a framework as to how tasks should be allotted to each employee and every department, how much resources they shall be provided with and who will manage them.

It is the responsibility of human resources to create and implement an effective organisational structure that will govern who will manage the people and how the resources should be circulated within the organisation. A senior leadership program can help individuals become better HR leaders so that they can benefit organisations with their skills and contribute to organisational development.

Read on to learn how one can acquire essential leadership skills and how it is important to design a proper organisational structure.

Role of Human Resources in Deciding Organisational Structure 

Every company needs an organisational structure due to the fact that it creates the foundation for assigning and distributing work and handling resources. Alongside managing the people that function within the organisational framework, the management of human resources is essential to its creation and execution. 

The significance of HR professionals in organisational structure is of utmost importance. They can support organisational advancement by employing different and innovative methods. Let us understand, what is the role of HR in designing an organisational structure and how it contributes to the overall development of a company.

What is an Organisational Structure?

Organisational structure refers to the layout or foundational structure of a company or the various departments of a company. It defines the hierarchy within an organisation by defining various positions such as general working professional roles and specialist working individual roles. The organisational structure basically throws light on the chain of command and states who will report to whom and how each employee shall work within their capacity.

Additionally, organisational structure dictates whether decision-making should be centralised or decentralised. A competent organisational structure may serve as a foundation for beneficial effects on the business as a whole. It integrates with the corporate atmosphere and is meant to attract and reserve the best employees by creating positions where they can take leverage of their finest suit. This helps the employees and the company to advance as a whole. Organisational structure assures rewarding employment and an ongoing sense of responsibility and commitment.

A solid postgraduate leadership certification can help you learn how to structure organisations effectively. 

XLRI Senior Leadership course

How Human Resources Establishes Organisational Structure?

The HR department of every organisation is an integral part of the major internal decision-making process. Wondering how HR professionals move from a service-oriented approach to an executive-level strategy? That happens by linking the role of HR professionals with organisational structure.

Firstly, one needs to set clear goals regarding the various teams within an organisation and what strategies should be employed to achieve those organisational goals. Without defining clear objectives, it becomes vague as to what the employees should achieve. 

The following are the key roles that human resources play in deciding organisational structure:

Onboarding competent workforce 

The HR department of an organisation plays the most important part in hiring the right and most efficient people who become the part of organisational structure. The HR recruits and retains the right employees for specific job roles. Additionally, it is their responsibility to design various training programmes to guide and nurture the employees so that a growth atmosphere is created within the company.

Creating work hierarchy

Preparing subsequent generations of competent employees and powering them with the knowledge and resources necessary to be successful. Is a key HR role. it is the responsibility of the HR department to create and set hierarchical roles for the various positions within an organisation. it helps the employees to have clarity on whom they should report and whom they should take orders from.

A strong employee hierarchy within a company enhances the performance standards, ultimately making the business more productive and efficient in the work they do.

Building future leaders

Another important HR role in creating an organisation structure is recruiting exceptionally talented technical personnel and promoting their growth. This allows the organisation to grow as well as the employees feel benefited as they reach higher positions. 

HR lays the cornerstone of preparing future leaders by giving them a chance to the junior employees to reach higher positions and become senior executives. They assume such roles to strengthen the valuable propositions and healthy competition within the organisation.

Establishing better management

HR has a duty to train and empower supervisors and managers on how to handle and nurture talent more effectively. The human resource department has to design various educational programmes for the line managers so that they can perform to the best of their abilities and deliver fruitful results.

This will ultimately help the company to define an effective organisational structure which will improve the management within the company. Managing the employees proactively is a major role that HR has to play.

Enhancing communication

Maintaining a chain of communication throughout the company is another vital role that the HR department has to play. Creating a proper line of command and maintaining effective communication channels enhances the organisational structure.

Strengthening the capacity of managers and leaders to interact and communicate, motivate employees and acknowledge cultural diversity is what HR has to do. The HR department needs to ensure that there is a balance between the work, communication and cultural background of the employees.

Change management

Establishing an organisational structure for companies and navigating through various changes when required is very important and is done by HR. It is the duty of the HR to ensure that the employees and the organisation as a whole are adaptable to changes. For this, various change management principles are applied in the required departments when commodities get more complex.

Change management is crucial for building an organisational structure that is adaptable to changes and has the potential to grow.

Workforce planning

Combining employee planning, workforce, engagement, and career strategies is a far-fetched role that HR has to play so that employees are able to find job opportunities more effectively. HR can offer employment to the individuals in the company to sit for job openings within the company. This helps the organisation to save costs of hiring and the particular employee is also promoted to a higher position to assume a different job role.

This allows the HR team to cut company costs on the hiring and recruitment process as well as appointing talented and right individuals to higher positions.

Streamlining the decision-making process

With technology, the HR team has also started to incorporate various analytical metrics and models so that they can design the best plans and programs for the employees. Integrating simulations, statistical analysis, data mining, parameters and various tools that support decision-making have started to become a part of various companies. 

Using such tools allows HR to streamline the distance-making process and understand what exactly are the needs of the employees and what they can do to improve them. Also, employee satisfaction can be tracked with weekly or monthly feedback reports from the employees.

Introducing new technologies

Leveraging and working with newly developed technologies, such as smartphones and tablets to present training and development is also what HR teams have started to do. It improves the quality of programs that are considered by the company in order to educate employees about new technologies. This helps the company to be advanced and stay updated with new and effective technologies.

The HR department has started to include these technological measures within the organisational framework. Such scientific inclusions help to boost the utility of big data in managing employees.

Individuals who want to excel in human resources and learn the fundamentals of organisational structure may take up an effective senior leadership program. Such an insightful course will help individuals to become successful future leaders. 

HR’s Own Organisational Structure

The HR has an organisational structure for itself, which governs how the HR department will be constituted and what significant positions should be there in the hierarchy. The organisational structure of HR is essential given that it provides a platform for aligning resources to the targets set forth in the company’s strategic plan. The internal organisational structure of the HR enacts the values and social norms of the company as a whole.

Top HR personnel enticement, participation, involvement, and retention are all significantly affected by the organisation’s structure. Consequently, prospective company performance is going to be determined by the job and tasks that human resource professionals do. The effect stretches beyond the human resource division itself.

One of the most important factors is that the role of HR, organisational structure and organisational development are closely related to each other. These are major concepts that determine the success of a business and it is vital to know how these parameters create an impact on one another. Businesses thrive for organisational development and creating a good foundation of organisational structure with competent HR professionals is a major step towards that direction.

An effective organisational structure can also help with business turn-around management, which is quite crucial for reaching solvency or corporate renewal processes. A postgraduate leadership certification can help you learn more about the organisational structure of HR departments.

Essential Components of Organisational Development in HR

The role of HR in creating an organisational structure is unmatchable. Here are some of the key aspects of HR’s role that help to elevate organisational structure:

Needs assessment

The aspect of needs assessment includes identifying and assessing skills, knowledge, development, abilities and potential. An employee should uphold to cope with the ever-evolving needs of a company. This component encompasses analysing the present scenario and needs of the organisation as well as filling any gaps and inefficiency in the performance of an employee. This, in turn, will help the organisation to grow.

Advantage: Hiring decisions are made more effectively when the skills and attributes needed to succeed in a particular role or team are thoroughly established.

Training and development

Providing employee training and development is a crucial aspect of developing the skills of the employees who constitute the workforce for the organisation. It is the duty of the HR team to design effective training and development programmes to develop the knowledge, skills, abilities, and technical capabilities of the employees. This encompasses both on-the-job training sessions and formal training programmes. These programmes also help in the overall personality development of the employees. 

Advantage: Allowing the employees to develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities will automatically benefit the company with enhanced efficiency, output, effectiveness, productivity, etc.

Career planning

Programmes for career planning and advancement Support employees in structuring and progressing their careers within the company. This entails highlighting the potential professional pathways and offering opportunities for growth and development. Career planning allows the development of employees as well as the organisation as a whole.

Advantage: Hardworking employees who dedicate themselves to the success of a business are the beneficiaries of advancement and career development opportunities.

Performance management

Performance management is a very powerful technique for fueling organisational growth. The human resource team sets performance standards for employees as well as various teams so that they can evaluate the performance performance and also provide feedback on the same. This helps companies to recognise the competent employees and the ones who are lacking get valuable feedback on their performance.

Advantage: Training for performance management helps to ensure that the employees are in conformity with the organisational standards and expectations while demonstrating their highest potential and efforts.

The role of HR is certainly very important in integrating employees to work as a team. They assist employees in acquiring new skills by designing interactive and effective training programmes. To excel in the field of HR one can enroll themselves for a senior leadership program that will teach individuals how to become a good leader in the competitive corporate world.

How Does Human Resources Related to Organisational Development?

There are numerous organisational development procedures that are associated with human resource management activities. Establishing sustainable and effective organisational development necessitates the implementation of strategies and regulations such as talent management operations, setting objectives, performance oversight and appraisal mechanisms.

While human resources primarily concentrates on the practices of the employees, organisational development pursues a more holistic and broader methodology. Organisational development can operate at every level of an organisation by employing techniques and mechanisms that include job design, private and public interventions, organisational design etc. The three levels at which organisational development functions are individual, group and organisation. However, HR tends to be a lot more functional because the spotlight is perpetually on issues of strategic importance.

The functions of organisational development are closely related to that of HR operations. It can be observed in corporate advisory services, company strategy, or in the services department. External strategy professionals additionally employ organisational development techniques in change management programmes. 

The company plan of action, consisting of the organisational goal, principles and division is the cornerstone of both HR and organisational development. Both of these concepts lay forth the procedures necessary for implementing the concepts into action. 

The organisational development strategies related to HR are very effective. Gaining competency and proficiency in these may prove to be extremely beneficial for those working in human resources. Acquiring a comprehensive understanding of organisational development permits one to identify and assess which element of fundamental HR duties need more attention, this ultimately helps the organisation become more productive altogether. A comprehensive approach for resolving these problems has been presented by organisational development.

Positions to Consider in the HR Department

Not every HR professional will have the exact same capabilities and drawbacks. It is very crucial for companies to choose and recruit a minimum of some different job positions with the right kind of employees. Such professionals shall effectively support the other employees and, ultimately the organisational structure of the company. 

Organisations may recruit such people based on the size of the organisation, the line of business, the flow of work, the scale of productivity, and so on. Generally, these are top positions within the HR department and people with a considerable amount of experience and acquired education via a senior leadership program should be preferred. 

The following are some of the job roles within the HR department that companies should hire professionals for:

Chief HR officer

The chief human resources officer (CHRO) is a crucial C-suite level employee in the HR department who is frequently seen in big-sized or moderate-sized businesses. CHRO in some organisations is also known as the vice president or VP of the HR division. 

The CHRO is the head of the HR department and exercises complete control over the particular division. The CHRO decides how the HR department will function within the organisation, what positions should be created, what will be the hierarchy, who will report to whom, what will be the chain of command etc. 

In recent years, this job position has also been popularly known as the chief people officer because the HR division established a greater priority on people or individuals.

HR director/HR manager

HR is similar to any other robust section of a company and hence it also requires proper management. An HR manager or director is the person who is in charge of managing the HR department. The HR manager reports directly to the chief human resource officer in large companies, but in the case of mid-sized or small-scale companies, this job position generally operates as the top HR post of the company.

For the purpose of handling issues, they established a division and began implementing workplace norms which foster a secure working environment. This is a major HR position that every organisation requires in order to maintain management within the organisational structure.

Recruiter

A recruiter is very important to identify and onboard new talent. Possessing expertise in human resources among the new hires is advantageous. A recruiter is someone who is in charge of the hiring process. Hence, having an understanding of the place of employment and the relationships among different individuals is a valuable quality that a recruiter should possess.

The HR department ought to offer recruiters comprehensive guidelines and recommendations regarding how to choose candidates who are not only competent but also likely to achieve success in their current positions. Recruiters and managers interact frequently throughout the recruitment process.

HR exports/HR specialists

Employing HR experts/specialists who specialise and focus on specific HR elements can often be beneficial as a company evolves and develops. Generally, HR specialists are important to aid specific human resources concerns such as HR data management, training and development, payroll benefits management, promoting cultural diversity and so on.

HR admin assistant

Bringing in administrative assistants solely for HR could be a great idea based on the magnitude and scope of the company. They are experts in handling and resolving employee grievances in order to maintain a reliable record of everything that unfolds in the work environment.

This professional works best when it comes to an argument or dispute and then arises a necessity to evaluate routine operations at work.

These are some of the most important HR positions that companies need to fill. However, a company needs to constitute an HR team depending on the specific goals, needs and budget of the organisation.

Summing Up

Sustainable organisational structure, organisational development and innovation necessitate the invaluable contribution of human resources professionals toward the company. HR is in charge of handling employee performance, job planning, education and growth, parting the knowledge of new technologies, needs assessment etc. Every aspect related to the individuals working within the organisation is looked after by the HR department within the organisational structure.

If you want to become an organisational leader and in pursuit of that, looking to acquire the essential leadership skills, consider enrolling for the Postgraduate Certificate in Senior Leadership by Imarticus Learning. This senior leadership program will help you acquire essential leadership skills along with the knowledge that you need to manage and lead a huge organisation. 

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