HR Dilemmas: How Do Line and Staff Roles Impact Leave Approvals and Appraisals?

Hi,

Would you please put your valuable comment on the following HR issues:

1. Is there line and staff authority/functioning existing in every organization?
2. Which department will be considered under line functioning?
3. Does the HR Manager have any right to approve or reject the leave application of line staff where the Line Manager handles disciplinary matters, performance appraisals, and leave issues?
4. What is the definition of job decoding, career planning, and succession planning?
5. What is the standard format for Performance Appraisal?

Thanks and best regards,
Mahmud

Hi Mahmud,

Line functions are basically the teams that exist primarily for the attainment of organizational objectives, and Support functions are the teams that support the Line teams in achieving organizational objectives. Hence, Line & Staff functions exist in ALL organizations.

Line functions are basically the teams that exist primarily for the attainment of organizational objectives, for example, software teams in an IT organization.

Respective managers have primary rights on leave, PA, disciplinary action of subordinates, whereas the HR Manager needs to ensure that processes and policies framed by an organization are followed and always needs to support Line Managers for any guidance and advice.

Job Decoding - My fair idea on Job decoding is that "the process of translating job-related instructions or information into codewords of a given technical language or code".

Career Planning - Planning a long-term career path for an individual in an organization by Manager/Management, especially for top performers.

Succession Planning - Training or preparing individuals to be promoted to higher levels, especially in top-level management. Career Planning focuses on individuals as a retention strategy, and Succession planning focuses on Positions to be occupied in the future.

Attaching two documents on PA, and this is the format shared by Anshu Goyal in CiteHR. You can also browse for more formats in CiteHR.

Do let me know whether this info suffices you.

Thanks & Regards,

GVS.

Hi Gayathri,

Thank you very much for providing your valuable opinions in response to my queries.

Would you please clarify the following issues:

1. In organizational management, which functioning is being observed i.e. Line functioning, Staff functioning, or both Line and Staff functioning?

2. Could you explain the difference between Orientation and Induction? Please provide a checklist along with the process.

3. Can a Job Description containing information such as employees' designation, location, reporting authority, job summary, major duties and responsibilities, education, qualifications, and experience enable the employee to properly discharge his/her duties?

4. Would it be a wise decision to assign job targets/career goals to each employee, the performance of which will be evaluated on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis?

5. What is the best method/system to evaluate employee performance? Please provide a sample.

6. If an employee's grievance is handled by the respective manager of the department, is it necessary for the HR department to intervene directly? How does the HR department handle employee grievances?

7. How can a standard payroll/salary structure be established? What is the process for determining basic salary, house rent, medical allowance, conveyance, and overtime?

I would greatly appreciate your valuable comments on these matters.

With best regards,

Mahmud

(Note: Spelling, grammar, and formatting have been corrected without altering the original meaning of the text.)