Importance of Human Resource Development Manager | Required Skills

The human resources development manager is in charge of the design, management and follow-up of cross-functional HR projects, in relation to other functions or departments of the company. It is therefore an actor and driver of the social transformation of the company.  Human resource development manager is also known as, HR Project Manager and Director of HR development, etc.

Why Human Resource Development Manager is Important for Business

Design and management of HR projects

• Analyze HR activities and processes.
• Ensure a monitoring of the HR practices of companies of equivalent size.
• Collect with managers their vision and expectations of HR projects.
• Build the strategic HR project (s) by defining objectives, means, planning:
• Recruitment: definition and implementation of the policy, sourcing tools (search for candidates), application management, integration, internal mobility.
• Training: definition and implementation of the training plan, budget preparation, prioritization of actions, information on IORPs.
• Career management: setting up a GPEC, individual interviews, review of talent, and detection of high potential, preparation of career and succession plans, retirement balance sheet, preparation and updating of job cards.
• Compensation, benefits: market benchmarking, payroll monitoring.
• HRIS: Implementation of tools for reporting and evaluating HR actions (dashboards, databases)
• Diversity: Implementation of disability, senior, youth, gender equality, unemployed

Monitoring, support and evaluation of projects

• Track HR projects in progress.
• Advise and accompany the operational or functional managers involved.
• Measure the results; compare them with the defined objectives.
• Reporting to the hierarchy on the conditions of the projects.
• Analyze the obstacles encountered.

Possible Activities of Human Resource Development Manager

The HR manager can lead a project entrusted to an external expert (HR consulting firm, social law lawyers, outplacement consultant): define the brief, participate in its selection, lead internal working groups and / Or external, analyze the recommendations, set up the project in interface with the other HR frameworks (operational or functional).

It can also take care of the information of the employees concerning the projects that it pilots. It then moves closer to an internal communication role.

It may be responsible for conducting various studies and analyzes of HR issues (social balance, gender equality, senior plans, disabled people, etc.), being involved in the conduct of social relations, active monitoring of social movements for to inform IRPs and managers.

Variability of Activities

Depending on the strategy and the size of the company, the person in charge of HR development carries out projects of various kinds that he will lead or insure, which in turn affects his responsibilities and his profile.

It can combine transversal projects and more or less operational missions: for example, managing the human resources of a population or a subsidiary.

He may be in charge of a functional area of ​​HR development such as career management or training. His or her responsibilities are those of a human resources manager, a career management manager or a training manager.

It can also intervene on:

• Problems of redeployment and redeployment, in a context of downsizing, the merger of several companies. Its know-how is then more specialized.
• Implementation and creation of a unit with related activities: job definition, recruitment, management of trial periods, contract, etc.

For projects related to HRIS (for example, the implementation of an ERP and its HR module), its profile is that of a functional project manager with ISD. Depending on its capabilities and the organization of the company, its intervention may cover project management and project management.

In a group with an international presence, it can be entrusted to the definition of HR strategy in France. The HR development manager can also advise the HR vice president on remuneration policy, manage international mobility, and coordinate internal corporate communication.

Required Skills for Human Resource Development Manager

Technical Skills

Knowledge of the company, its culture, its competition, and the multicultural environment, technical functions and processes HR: GPEC, training, recruitment, personnel administration, remuneration and benefits, social legislation to inform representative organizations that regularly.

• Managerial skills to support operational managers.
• Economic and financial culture, ability to take charge and apply the concepts of profitability.
• Proficiency in computer tools (Excel, Word, PowerPoint …) and HRIS software.
• Legal baggage: labor law, training, or even a national collective agreement.
• Expertise on an area (working time arrangements, CSR) for certain projects.
• Conduct of transversal projects and functional management.
• Fluent English (international environment).

Personality Traits

• Ability to conceptualize to develop projects.
• Innovative skills and ideas.
• Dynamism to launch projects and make them live.
• Ability to accompany change in the company.
• Diplomacy to spare the sensibilities of each one.
• Sense of organization to manage several projects simultaneously.
• Pragmatism to be able to act and intervene in a concrete way.
• Openness to have a good vision of the situations and consequences of its decisions
• Geographical mobility as this position may involve frequent trips to sites (France, international).

Professional Evolution

• HRD
• RRH of a large structure
• HR specialists: recruitment, career management, training
• Head of consulting department (office)

Factors in the Evolution of HR Development Manager

The professionalization of this profession has made it possible to internalize missions that were previously entrusted to consulting firms.

The HR development manager must now have a strong commercial sensitivity, a customer culture. As an internal consultant and a business partner, he acts as an internal consultant to managers and operational staff. Within a shared services center, he puts his skills and those of his team at the service of several entities of a group.

In the majority of companies, the valuation of human capital (employ-ability, occupational mobility, employee skills management) is the main theme of the projects. As a vector for internal and external communication, it is managed in the interest of the employer brand and on a large scale thanks to collaborative web tools.

A manager who is attentive to monitoring and controlling the cost of projects, he has management and steering indicators that he manages in conjunction with the social management controller.

In some organizations, social dialogue is part of its mission: for sensitive HR projects (eg diversity), it is in frequent contact with the IRP and the social relations officer.