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The personnel function is a vital part of all management. Whatever help or advice foremen or over lookers may receive from an expert such as an engineer, a work-study officer, or a welfare supervisor, the actual managing or directing of workers cannot be delegated outside the line organization. Where a personnel specialist is employed, his or her role and position in the hierarchy will differ according to the policy and practices of the company.
What is important is that the position should be clearly defined and understood. By way of illustration, two examples from the textile and clothing industry are given below: one concerns a large, full-scale personnel department and the other a welfare supervisor.
Firm A employs 1000 people, of whom approximately 60 per cent are women. The personnel department is in the charge of a qualified man, who is responsible to the board of directors. He has under him a female assistant, a male training officer, a state-registered and one other nurse, and a small clerical staff. The canteen is run by an outside contractor, but the personnel officer provides liaison.
The department, which grew in size as the organization expanded, was carefully introduced to all managers in the first instance, so that its services would be accepted and used throughout the concern. The personnel officer and his staff are consulted at all levels on all relevant matters and they cover the full range of personnel functions. The recruitment of all personnel is initiated in the department, where selection tests are given and preliminary interviews conducted.
The training officer arranges courses for all grades, which, with the exception of those for senior management, are undertaken in the mill's training department. Employment and training records provide a running commentary on the firm's manpower and are frequently consulted by the management. Health and safety are the responsibility of the state-registered nurse, who has the help of a doctor who visits the mill twice a week. The medical unit is an integral part of the personnel department, and a close liaison is maintained between the nurses and the personnel staff. The assistant personnel officer, who is a woman, not only deals with the female employees but also undertakes the arrangement of a wide variety of services, ranging from editing the firm's magazine to running a laundry for overalls and towels.
Sports and recreational activities in this firm are organized by committees of participants, but the personnel department takes an interest in them and helps with the clerical work. There is a works council, democratically elected from all sections of the mill, on which the personnel officer acts as secretary. He also accompanies the mill manager in negotiations with the unions. This is not a detailed description of all the responsibilities of this firm’ s personnel department, but it is perhaps sufficient to indicate its wide scope and to provide a contrast of its functions with those of the corresponding department in Firm B.
Firm B is a mill employing 400 men and women, the personnel services of which are in the hands of an -experienced but unqualified female welfare supervisor. She has a part-time clerical assistant; a cook-manageress is in charge of the canteen, and two of the overlookers are trained in first aid. Welfare supervisor engages all school-leavers and most of the female employees. She also assists the foremen and office manager in the selection of other workers. Training is undertaken in the departments by overlookers, but the welfare supervisor keeps a record of the progress of individuals. She looks after the first aid of the mill, although the two trained overlookers take over this duty on the evening shift or when she is away from the mill. Included in the welfare services here are help with convalescence, a mutual benefit and pension fund, the laundering of overalls, and a youth club, which has a varied programme of sport and entertainment.
There is no works council or magazine, but the welfare supervisor recently inaugurated a suggestion scheme. She claims to know every employee and is certainly known and consulted by both workers and managers. In both these firms, A and B, the directors receive an annual report on the work of the personnel department. This summarizes the tangible aspects of their responsibilities: the statistics of employment, training, labour turnover, absenteeism, and time-keeping; the number of accidents and the time lost that is due both to them and to sickness; the activities of the works council and of other standing committees; and an account of the varied happenings during the year with which the department has been concerned.
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