FACILITATOR Or DECISION MAKER

HR is a facilitator or decision maker.... i was asked this qs in an interview...how could i have answered it?

A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion. The HR therefore a human link between the management and employees in terms of implementing policies, addressing grievances, and resolving conflicts. HR cannot be a decision maker because it cannot take any decision without the consent/approval of the management.
Avinash Tavares
Management Trainer & Life Coach
<link outdated-removed> ( Search On Cite | Search On Google )

HR is the decision maker after discussing and get concurrance with both employees and the employer after taking up all the
precaution steps to avoid conflict. In fact HR is one way ahead of decision maker by foreseeing all problems

thanks avinash. but when it comes to hiring a candidate or resolving conflicts dont they act as decision makers too? i answered in the interview they are both but couldnt convince the interviewer..

Kritika,
I beleive HR personnel never take final decision until the dept manager confirm or approved the candidate.
Example - If a candidate needed in warehouse, thus HR personel and Warehouse manager both take interview, if candidate not satisfy warehouse manager then he will not selected. (At same time if candidate satisfy HR personal even then he cant hire him)
And incase of Conflict even he needs to discuss with respective Dept manager or supervisor, before coming for final decision.
Lets see what our other members comment on same.
Thanks,

Hi Kritika,

Like Sayeed said, i dont think the hr take any decision to hire. They follow policy. When I train students in interview I tell them that once a candidate has satisfied technical requirements,the candidates by default clears the interview. What ive observed is that only when the candidate does something really stupid, only then he is rejected( eg cant tell what the companys Vision is or doesnt know the CEO or fakes his certificates) Therefore I believe that hr only make sure the candidates satisfy a given criteria. One cannot call that decision making in an intellectual/broader sense because hr follows guidelines for decision making, they cant decide to change the guidelines.

The point here is that in India, sad to say, HR is more like a nanny to the employees. Nanny do get to decide certain things about the child but it is no where near the role of a mother. In the developed countries, HR is allocated a sizable budget. That is why they can organize a week long residential training for their employees in stuff like Mind Mapping, Lateral thinking etc. In India, training is limited to the basics such as team building and presentation skills and a decent stress management workshop takes months to finalize.

Unfortunate but it happens

Avinash Tavares

Management Trainer & Life Coach

<link outdated-removed> ( Search On Cite | Search On Google )

Dear Avinash:
Nicely presented and explained. I simply agree with you that HR is a Human-link between the Employees & Management. Also, They SHOULD act as facilitators and SHOULD'NT be Decision maker. We, the HR personnel forget many-a-time that we are playing role of "Effective Support Service Providers" OR "Service Suppliers" and should work behind the curtain.
Regards.

HR manager or executive will be a facilitator not a Decision maker....
He always have to follow the company policies and has to facilitate the employees according to the organization policies.....
Decision making will be in the hands of board of directors or proprietor or organization head...

Hi :
I would like to add here though HR is not empowered to take decisions in most of the companies yet HR can play a pivotal role in influencing or steering the course or setting a direction for the decisions taken by top management. Infact this is a more crucial role than being a decision maker. Guyz in today's time HR is a key contributor to the bottomline and a valued partner.

In my point of view hr is both facilitator and decision maker, but outof 100 % persay, i will rate 90% hr as facilitator rather than a decision maker.
Hr are the one who finds out lots of people related issue and give recommendation to management that which issues are the critical one and can adversaly impact the buisness.