How Conflicts Between Operations and Human Resources Happen

One of the most notorious aspects of the HR world is the conflict between operations departments and human resources departments. There are always issues where the line managers have and will always disagree with the human resources staff.

For instance, a problem often occurs concerning what operations managers, usually called line management, are responsible for and what is the main purpose of human resources staff. Whatever causes the friction between HR and line management, the company's business model should outline responsibilities and duties for their respective areas.

Authority and responsibilities

The friction between operations and human resources is based on the separation of duties and line of authority. In organisations where the human resources staff consults with line managers, the business model provides operations managers more command over their workers and greater freedom on workforce planning and staffing concerns.

Nevertheless, this type of model can result in disagreement or disaster if line managers aren't fully informed of human resources processes or if they have too much power in staffing matters. The level of authority given to line managers concerning human resources matters should depend on:

If they have a firm grasp of fair employment practices; and
If their leadership skills are excellent.

Constant conflicts between HR and operations can cause a lot of problems to the organisation.

Enforcement of workplace policy

Consistent application of workplace policies is one of the responsibilities of the HR staff. Hence, line managers who do not enforce workplace policies will have issues with the HR department. For instance, line managers will often ignore employee absenteeism just because the employee is a top performer.

Failure to enforce workplace policies will affect other employees and affect the organisation's ability to keep accurate records. Workers who see supervisors ignoring absenteeism for specific colleagues will exhibit signs of low morale and lacking motivation. Unmotivated employees with low morale are problems for HR, which is a cause of conflict between HR and line management.

Managing performance

Organisations assess employee strengths, weakness, training and development needs and determining employee compensation through performance management. But for line management, conducting performance appraisals is not something they love to do, apart from employee termination. Operation managers have some problems when it comes to performance management systems.

Managers fail to provide staff with regular, honest and candid feedback. Why? Because of the lack of preparation which causes problems with HR staff. The time HR staff spend constructing a performance management system will be seen as a waste of time when line managers don't even use the system.

The responsibility of HR

Another source of conflict between HR and operations is that many HR practitioners take their job seriously when it comes to:

Enforcing workplace policies
Managing staffing models
Providing advice to line management

Sometimes these HR practitioners take it too seriously that they start taking control of department functions that are actually the line manager's responsibility.

One way to solve this issue involves training line managers on how to perform employment-related tasks and to learn more about how to perform human resources functions, such as interviewing candidates and hiring the right person. The HR staff can then focus more on HR strategic management and less on the transactional and functional tasks the company can assign to line managers.

Workplace policy is a major source of conflict between HR and operations managers.

Managing the conflict

For some events of workplace conflict, training and development are critical parts in resolving problems between departments and their managers. The dispute that often happens between human resources staff and line management may not be easy to fix by merely holding professional development workshops, however.

It's crucial to design a business model that considers the organisation's products, services, structure and expertise of both human resources and operations managers. The business model should focus on organisational strategy and goals, and then clearly lay out the functions and expectations of human resources against operations.

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Source: Chron