HR Manager Interview Organization Information Term Paper

What is the role of HR Department in your organization?

According to the HR Manager, the role of HR Department in Washington Mutual is to handle the responsibilities relating to performance management and workforce planning. The company's HR Department also acts as a steward to the company's brand and change agents.

To what extent is the HR Staff/Deparment involved in strategic business planning? Please explain.

The HR staff and department is strategically involved from a workforce planning prospective. Whenever there is a hiring need, departmental change, or a position that needs to be created, everything starts from the HR department. They look at various factors internally and externally before proceeding on the processes that will meet the needs of the company. One factor that the HR department considers in their business planning is the budget of the company.

In your own opinion, what are some of the most pressing human resource issues faced by organizations today? Why?

The HR Manager considers technology as one of the most pressing human resource issues that is faced by organizations nowadays. According to him, keeping up with the systems that run the back office HR functions such as payroll, compensation, and benefits, is a responsibility that some companies are better in doing. The HR Manager mentioned this in relation to the damaging effects that outdated systems and automations would cause if a company, particularly the HR Deparment in this essay, will not comply to the maintenance of such technology.The HR Manager stated that You could have slow systems, manual as opposed to automated systems creating a higher headcounts and low employee morale if the systems are causing medical benefit issues or pay period problems. Technoloy will also allow your company a more efficient way to keep records, to track performance, and to reward good performance.

What was the most difficult organization problem faced by the HR Department in the last 5 years? How was it resolved? Why?

According to the HR Manager, one of the most difficult problem that was faced by Washington Mutual was their objective for growth. It took them a lot of resources to launch a market. The company learned from the first couple of their market launches. The problem was that they tried to build branches and hire company personnel at the same time. To resolve this, Washington Mutual developed a new market team of some dedicated internal employees whose main responsibility was to travel to the new markets and utilize their expertise and experience with Washington Mutual get a jump start on the recruiting, staffing and training efforts. This staff of people would eventually hire their replacements and would either go back to their home market or move on to the next new market. This blue print resulted to the company's success and has enabled….....