Week 10 - Role of the Line Manager

Five benefits of line managers being more involved in HR activities are:

· Line managers are always available easily to all other employees therefore they are more suited to dealing with day-to-day matters and it is helpful to have line managers as it does not get the HR department involved so much.
· Line managers have a closer relationship with higher managers which means they can easily pass on messages and tasks to each other which is useful because it does not involve other departments and reduces the risk of messages not getting passed on or lost.
· As line managers are more accessible, the employees can easily talk to them about any issues at work but within the limits and this can be useful to employees as line managers can help them and give them the right advice without taking any further action.
· Line managers can learn from the skills they see around them with aspects such as recruitment and selection and this can help to broaden their experience and knowledge to move up the managerial line in a business and gain a promotion.
· Giving line managers more responsibility will help to motivate them as they will feel as if they belong to the organisation and have a key part to play to keep the organisation at its best.

Five drawbacks of line managers being more involved in HR activities are:

· Line managers may not be used to the workload of HR activities and therefore this may have an effect on their health such as their stress levels.
· As a line manager, they may not have that many employees to look after but if they start to take on HR work as well, they may not be able to deal with all the extra work and this work may be done to a poor level and not to their potential which will in turn have an effect on the business.
· Another problem is that because line managers are trying to deal with both their work and HR work, they may find it difficult to balance the two and therefore production levels may decrease.
· If they are not fully trained in HR, they may not be doing what is asked of them correctly and therefore they may cause problems for the organisation.
· HR has a lot of rules and if a line manager cannot live up to these rules and enforce things that cannot happen then this may cause problems for an organisation.

Line managers have a strong influence on how individuals do their job. Some managers encourage people to be responsible for their own jobs whereas others can suppress initiative through controlling or autocratic behaviour.
To encourage good performance from staff, managers need to:
· Build a good work relationship with their employees
· Treat all employees with respect so that they receive respect as well.
· Help to resolve their problems
· Ask for employee’s suggestions
· Appraise the employees so the employees strive to do better and are appreciated.
· Help and support employees to take more responsibility for how they do their jobs by coaching and guidance
· Build effective teams.

At my workplace, the line managers are always there in the same office as all the other call centre staff. This is useful because whenever there are any problems they are always at hand to talk to and help deal with the issue. The attitude of these line managers is one that comes across as friendly and caring yet they still have a desire to get all the work done. They are normally very easy to talk to and this is a motivational factor as it allows us employees to feel like we have somebody to talk to if ever there are any problems.

Here are some of the tasks and skills that Personnel and HR managers needs:
· Organise and co-ordinate the recruitment and selection of new staff.
· Design and implement staff appraisal systems and develop effective training policies.
· Advise general managers on disciplinary issues.
· Monitor employment legislation.
· Advise senior management on pay and conditions, retention rates and business policy affecting employee relations.
· Keep up to date with best practice in recruitment and selection.
· Maintain staff records.

I believe that my skills would be better suited to a line manager as I am a better listener. I would be able to help employees with their problems and listen to anything they want to talk about as well as resolving any issues they have. As well as this, I would be able to do all the other tasks that a line manager does. HR managers usually need to be able to motivate people and deal with the bigger problems but I think I would be better suited to being a line manager.

http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/maneco/general/rolefrntlinemngers.htm