What Does an HR Operations Manager Do?

An HR operations manager oversees the HR operations, ensures smooth procedures, and supervises the HR department’s day-to-day administrative tasks. The tasks include checking the budget, implementing new HR policies, improving employee relations, overseeing recruiting, and more. In short, the HR operations manager maintains all internal HR operations.

The role of HR operations managers requires HR operations skills. A few of these skills include excellent communication, administration, active listening, and the ability to support a team. In addition, you must exhibit strong leadership skills that are fundamental for the manager’s post.

The HR operation manager oversees all the administrative workings of a human resources department. They must possess significant HR management experience.

To learn more via video, watch the video below. Otherwise, skip ahead.

This article tells you all you need to know about the HR operations manager’s role and duties.

What Are the Five Key Responsibilities of an HR Operations Manager?

The primary role of a human resource operations manager is to set goals for a particular company’s HR operations and track the department’s efforts to achieve those goals. They also review, approve, and provide any necessary modifications to the HR department’s budget. Moreover, they supervise the company’s database and HR system maintenance.

HR operations managers play a big role in overseeing specific tasks such as recruiting, talent management, employee management, labor laws, employee engagement and retention, employee satisfaction, and performance management.

Moreover, they ensure a healthy environment for employees and that the HR department’s workflow is cost-effective yet efficient. An HR operations manager ensures that the HR department performs its tasks while assisting other departments.

Understanding the job requirements when applying for a particular position is essential. Once you know the HR operations manager role, you can start training by practicing HR operations skills.

If you are interested in working in this role for a company, consider pursuing our top-quality HR certifications to increase your chances of gaining a well-paying HR operations manager job.

HR Operations Manager Responsibilities

An HR operations manager is responsible for reviewing the company’s human resources policies, employees, budget, systems, and administrative work. Therefore, the candidate must exhibit excellent management and communication skills to fulfill these responsibilities. The less communication gap between the departments and employees in a company, the more efficiently they can work.

Since HR operations managers deal with company employees as well as outsiders or third parties, they must exhibit excellent interpersonal abilities.

Leadership skills are another attractive quality that you must exhibit to qualify for an HR operations manager. The ability to lead a team, take HR initiatives, and develop creative ideas for improving the HR department’s workflows is a valuable skill. It opens doors to an organization’s growth and success.

Some of the primary responsibilities of an HR operations manager are discussed below.

1. Implement Company Policies

One of the primary responsibilities of an HR operations manager is implementing company policies. After all, it is significant for every organization to have rules and regulations. However, implementing those policies is even more crucial to ensure that the organization enjoys significant productivity while maintaining discipline because of laws, regulations, and guidelines.

The HR operations manager ensures that the company runs smoothly. They also ensure that the creation of these policies complies with the relevant labor regulations and regulatory legislation of a particular country. Therefore, the HR operations manager assures that the company does not experience any legal troubles.

2. Supervise the Recruitment and Employee Onboarding Programs

The human resources department handles all HR processes, such as recruiting, onboarding, or offboarding an employee. The HR operations manager plays a vital role in implementing these operations. They assist in looking for suitable candidates for a role, clarifying a position’s requirements, filtering out unsuitable applications, and arranging interviews.

Once that recruitment process ends, the next task is employee onboarding. The onboarding tasks include:

• Drafting contracts
• Getting them signed by the hired individual
• Negotiating salaries and benefits packages ability
• Handling all the other paperwork that comes with hiring a person

An HR operations manager oversees all these processes and ensures efficiency throughout the workflow.

The onboarding process also includes educating the new employee about the company’s vision, culture, goals, and many other aspects. Organizations demand that all new hires undergo training before they step into the job. Hence, an HR operations manager handles and guides all such processes.

3. Oversee Employee Offboarding

When a company lays off an employee or the employee wishes to resign or is retiring, the HR operations manager performs all formalities. Those formalities often include informing departments like the finance or IT departments regarding the employee’s exit from the company.

The HR operations manager interviews employees leaving the company to receive feedback regarding working conditions and improvements within the HR department’s operations. They also examine the employees’ relations with their colleagues and teams at different levels.

The offboarding process also includes transferring the responsibilities of the retiring employee to existing employees or a new one, and the HR department takes care of the paperwork. Therefore, the HR operations manager supervises all of these procedures and addresses personnel, too.

4. Monitor And Review Departmental Budgets

The finance department of a company drafts the budget, but it goes to the HR operations manager. They then ensure that the budget fulfills the HR department’s operations and administrative needs while considering all other necessary factors. The budget also includes the availability of capital to the HR department and business plans.

Organizations undergo budget cuts due to unexpected events. When such cuts happen, the approved budget must ensure the company can survive on lower allocations. The HR operations manager is responsible for this task and ensuring that the new funding is adequate for HR operations.

5. Overlook HR Operations Administrative Tasks

The HR department performs administrative HR tasks, and the HR operations manager supervises them. These tasks include maintaining files on employees’ data, monitoring other departments to ensure every employee is doing their job, handling compensation details and internal HR systems, and many more.

The HR operations manager oversees all departmental tasks and ensures that the systems run smoothly and efficiently. This particular responsibility requires a candidate with excellent leadership, time management, and communication skills.

Conclusion

Working as an HR operations manager helps gain professional exposure. It pushes you to think outside the box to bring new ideas to the company, resolve problems, and lead an HR team. The job is demanding yet fulfilling since it gives you space to grow and acquire many HR operations skills at once.

Qualifications are crucial for this job, and possessing the right skills and adequate experience makes you an appealing candidate when you send out applications. In addition, with smaller organizations, you get to experiment a lot while in the HR operations manager role. However, you should also aim to work for a large organization since the experiences you get there are unmatched.

FAQs

Here are some of the most common questions about the HR operations manager role and their answers.

What skills make you a competent HR operations manager?

To become a capable HR operations manager, it is essential to master certain core skills including communication, time management, and human resources management. These skills are foundational for executing effective HR processes and maintaining efficient operations within the HR department. A proficient HR operations manager ensures that the HR operations team operates smoothly and aligns with HR best practices.

Moreover, proactiveness and strong interpersonal skills are indispensable. These qualities enable an HR operations manager to lead confidently and take initiative, crucial in driving the team forward. Another vital competency is the strategic use of resources, including HR data, to optimize employee relations and departmental effectiveness. Mastering these areas makes the role more manageable and significantly boosts the performance of the human resources department.

What are some lesser-known details about the HR operations manager role?

The role of an HR operations manager can be incredibly demanding and occasionally stressful. For instance, managing a high volume of applications and making tough decisions when several candidates are equally qualified can be challenging. Additionally, an HR operations manager often faces difficulties in team collaboration, especially when disagreements arise among team members. In such situations, the HR operations manager must employ excellent problem-solving skills and best practices in employee relations to act as a mediator and restore harmony. This aspect of the role requires a delicate balance of professionalism and interpersonal effectiveness, which are critical in maintaining a productive work environment.

Why do organizations hire an HR operations manager?

Organizations hire an HR operations manager to ensure that there is a dedicated professional overseeing the daily operations of the HR department. This role is particularly crucial in larger organizations where the scope and complexity of HR tasks demand specialized knowledge and leadership skills. An HR operations manager plays a key role in integrating HR best practices and managing HR data to enhance overall productivity and maintain compliance with employment standards. This dedication to professionalism is expected in large enterprises and is critical in ensuring that the organization’s human resources needs are efficiently met, aligning with the strategic objectives of the business.

If you are new to Human Resources and are looking to break into an HR operations manager role, we recommend taking our HR Certification Course, where you will learn how to build your skillset in HR operations, build your people operations network, craft an excellent HR operations manager resume, and create a successful HR operations manager job search strategy.