Behind the achievements of the numerous well-known companies there are untold stories of hardships and perseverance of every employee that become the driving force to reach the company’s vision and mission proving that without the human resource, the company or the business will be incompetent in the business industry.
Last July 5, 2019 I had a privilege to interview Ms. Jean F. Estrada, a former Human Resource Manager and now a Second Assistant Manager at McDonald’s Lucao District Branch Dagupan City, Pangasinan. For the interview, I prepared four questions for her regarding on what are the main jobs of a Human Resource Manager, what usual skills do Human Resource Manager prefer to aim effective recruitment, how Human Resource Manager manage employees, and ask for some pieces of advice to become an effective Human Resource Manager.
For my first question, I asked Ms. Jean what are the main job of a Human Resource Manager. And according to Ms. Jean the main job of Human Resource Manager is to hire people to work for the company in order to match the needs of the establishment. During the hiring process, the other jobs of the Human Resource Manager is to post job hiring, screening of applicants, giving examination for intelligence and attitude matters, interviewing the applicants, having on the job evaluation while observing whose employee/s fits the job, then giving list of requirements to the potential workers for the employee’s health safety and security, also scheduling of time availability of regular employees and part time job seekers to lessen conflict of schedules in the workplace. And when training period comes Human Resource Manager evaluates the performance of employees upon training together with the verification of other managers, they also train their co-managers in the workplace.
In my second question, I asked her what are the usual skills a Human Resource Manager are looking during job interview. If it soft skill, hard skill or both skills. And she stated that during job interview a Human Resource Manager looks for applicant who possesses both soft and hard skills because having high intelligence with poor attitude or low intelligence and good attitude is not a good combination at all; set aside intelligence issues and look for the willing individuals who aspire to work efficient and effectively. In addition, during job interview, Ms. Jean admits that their company prefer to hire young ones because they are more convenient and productive in the workplace.
For my third question, I asked her on what are the usual problems a Human Resource Manager encountered in the workplace and how they manage it. Based from Ms. Jean’s experience, the hardest job for a Human Resource Manager is maintaining the employees to stay (job retention), in response with this Ms. Jean handle it by taking care of the employee’s safety and security, treat them with best rewards system, give benefits and making job rotation plan for employees to avoid boredom and be able to learn new things inside the other areas of the workplace. Beyond this hardest job, there are other problems a Human Resource Manager could encounter like the following: • Work Performance of new employees - new employees are like “ningas cogoon” their job performances are not consistent, other new employee shows perseverance during their first week but when they become permanent already their job performance became poor.
• Absenteeism – other employee tends to do Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) and it really send headaches for Human Resource Manager because it results conflicts in time availability of other employees and sometimes the Human Resource Manager will be the ones who will fill the AWOL employees job to avoid problems inside the workplace. In response with this, the Human Resource Manager will give lectures on disciplinary action, suspension, warning or termination towards the employees depends on the number of absences.
• Attitude Problems - Human Resource Manager really need to be a keen observer not only on the newbie employee but for everyone including co-managers regarding their attitudes and behaviors. In response with the wrong behaviors and unpleasant attitudes of employees Human Resource Manager again will give lectures on disciplinary action, suspension, warning or termination towards the employees depends on severity of employee’s action.
• Sexual Harassment - these are isolated cases. In response with these case is lecture about serious disciplinary action, suspension or termination depends on the severity of situations.
For my last question, I asked for some pieces of advice that she can share to those who aspire to be a Human Resource Manager. And she shared these tips to become an effective Human Resource Manager. • Human Resource Manager needs to know how to treat employees and how to develop them. • Human Resource Manager must learn to boost the self-esteem of employees. • Human Resource Manager can be effective by giving contribution to the growth of the employees. • Human Resource Manager must be a keen observer. • Human Resource Manager must have lot of patience. • Human Resource Manager during an interview must learn be a good conversationalist to get to know the real personality of the applicant. • Human Resource Manager must learn to know the applicants by reading between the lines. • Human Resource Manager give importance and keep the interest of the company and also the interest of the employees.
With the information above and my learnings I conclude that enthusiastic personality, perseverance and compassion are the key to become effective Human Resource Manager in the workplace, both for the company and the employees because it is the combination of hard work dealing with the main job; an expression on how a professional handle different people with different attitudes and to
value the backbone of the business which is the employees who fuels up the company towards its victory.
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