HR Operations: An Essential Guide to Roles & Responsibilities

75% of high-performing HR teams report high employee engagement. An effective HR Operations function is a key part of such a team, ensuring the efficient execution of HR processes that directly impact the employee experience.

HR Operations is an indispensable part of every HR department. What exactly does HR Operations do, what are their key responsibilities and main goals? Let’s dive in.

What is HR Operations?

Human Resources Operations, also known as HR Ops, is the department that supports the entire employee lifecycle and assists your team in their day-to-day tasks. The scope of HR Operations is multi-faceted. It plays a crucial role in developing a company’s people strategy to reach its business goals. HR Operations is a part of an effective HR service delivery model.

A Microsoft study has found that 41% of the global workforce “is likely to consider leaving their current employer within the next year”. With the ever-changing economy and labor market we live in, HR Operations has never been more necessary to the success of your organization.

What is the difference between HR Management and HR Operations?

HR Management and HR Operations serve distinct yet complementary roles within an organization’s Human Resources framework.

HR Management is the strategic arm, focusing on aligning HR policies and practices with the company’s overall objectives. This role involves overseeing key areas such as performance management, learning and development, succession planning, compensation and benefits, and leveraging HR data and analytics to inform decisions. The aim here is to develop and maintain a workforce capable of meeting current and future organizational challenges, fostering a positive organizational culture, and ensuring long-term growth and sustainability.

HR Operations primarily focuses on the practical, day-to-day activities that support the HR department’s functioning and the organization’s workforce. This includes managing payroll, ensuring compliance with labor laws, maintaining the Human Resource Information System (HRIS), and overseeing the onboarding and offboarding processes. While it might seem heavily administrative, HR Operations also plays a crucial role in executing strategic initiatives, such as improving employee engagement, developing structured onboarding programs, and facilitating a positive work environment.

It’s important to note that the roles of HR Management and HR Operations differ depending on the organization’s size.

Key responsibilities of HR Operations

• Administration: The HR Operations team is responsible for many administrative tasks that keep the business running. These tasks include payroll management, staff data entry, and maintenance. They are also responsible for maintaining the human resources information system – also known as HRIS. This program is used to track and maintain all HR-related data, such as employee contracts, non-disclosure agreements, compensation, employees’ personal data, and more.

• Compliance: Compliance is one of the most important tasks your HR Operations department is responsible for. They make sure that, legally, your organization is aligned with country-specific labor laws when tasked with things such as hiring, workplace rules, and employee treatment. HR Operations outlines the HR compliance policies that need to be followed internally.

• Recruitment: If your organization is large enough to have a recruiting team, HR Operations will focus on headcount planning. That is, making sure there are enough people in the organization so that the business runs well, but not too many people that you waste resources. If you have a smaller organization and no dedicated recruitment team, HR operations will pick up everything from advertising, interviewing, and making job offers to candidates.

• Onboarding: OfficeVibe’s Employee Engagement report found that 69% of employees are more likely to stay with their company for at least three years if they experienced great onboarding. HR Operations develops a structured onboarding program. They support managers in delivering a positive onboarding experience to their new team members.

• Employee relations:Employee relations (ER) refer to a company’s efforts to manage relationships in an organization. HR Ops focuses on preventing and resolving issues between coworkers and management. They also concentrate on understanding how your staff feels about their job, company environment, and overall well-being.

• Offboarding:Offboarding happens when an employee has either decided to leave the company or was fired. It involves administrative tasks like ensuring the employee returns company property, notifying IT and payroll about personnel changes, and preparing any paperwork the employee might need to sign. Offboarding also involves exit interviews, which are conversations between the employee, manager/HR, and the leadership team. During this chat, HR Operations is looking for feedback from the leaving team member on how to create a better work environment and employee experience for the current and future employees.

The main goals of HR Operations

1. Building a sustainable organization: Your company will only thrive when you have a sustainable growth plan. HR Operations’ goal is to ensure that your organization has a headcount strategy, succession plans for leadership roles, internal talent development goals, and career management. Without these strategies, your company cannot adapt quickly to external or internal changes.
   
2. Working on improving employee relations: When employees have strong, supportive relationships with their coworkers and managers, the entire company benefits. Numerous studies show that happy employees are more productive and will stay with your organization longer. The goal of employee relations is just that – to make sure your staff works in an environment where they can thrive and will have support if any issues pop up between coworkers. HR Ops goes about this by creating clarity for employees with what is expected of them and how to work within the company’s structure. They might also be present during performance reviews and feedback sessions, among other things.
   
3. Implementing and maintaining HR best practices: In short, HR best practices are universal processes and techniques that provide organizations with increased business performance results, regardless of the company’s industry. HR Ops is responsible for implementing and monitoring HR best practices in different departments of your organization. That way, they’re ensuring that the company is on track to achieve its goals.

Roles in HR Operations

HR Operations encompasses a variety of roles that ensure the smooth execution of daily HR activities and support the broader strategic goals of the HR department and organization. Here are some key jobs within HR Operations:

HR Operations Manager

If you are looking to build out or even create an HR Operations team in your organization, a great place to start is with the HR Operations Manager. The HR Ops Manager is responsible for overseeing the execution of HR processes and technologies that help to deliver an efficient and effective employee experience. In larger organizations, they may also oversee a team of HR Ops Specialists who focus more on the day-to-day tasks.

What does an HR Operations Manager do?

• Overseeing the daily activities of the HR operations department
• Leading HR operations activity from onboarding through to offboarding (including managing the communication of employee benefits package, identifying opportunities for process improvement, exit interviews, and analysis of data)
• Ensuring compliance with all pre-employment checks
• Ensuring employee records are maintained accurately in line with data privacy regulations
• Implementing new company policies
• Organizing inclusive team and social events to build a strong culture
• Developing an innovative and impactful operations function
• Designing, monitoring, and improving HR processes, policies, and technologies
• Acting as a first point of contact for all employees in the business
• Supporting managers with light people challenges before they are escalated to the HR manager
• Managing communications across the organization
• Reviewing and approving budgets
• Management of all internal HR systems (including HRIS)
• Acting as a role model for HR team members, coaching and developing where appropriate
• Occasionally supporting the Senior Leadership Team with ad hoc requests

HR Operations Manager skills & competencies

• Analytics translation
• Delivers through technology
• Employee relations and labor
• HR technology and digital proficiency
• Conflict management
• Problem-solving
• Building trust
• HR operations and administration
• Setting direction
• Interpreting context

HR Operations Manager salary

The salary for an HR Operations Manager varies depending on the location and company in question. According to Glassdoor, an average annual salary range is $68K – $116K in the U.S. and £42K – £60K in the U.K. Most employees in this role have built up 6-7 years of work experience.

HR Operations Manager career path

HR Operations Managers often progress into roles such as Talent Manager, HR Manager, Shared Services Manager, HR Director, and Chief People Officer.

HR Operations Specialist

An HR Operations Specialist focuses on strategic development, departmental efficiency, or employee management, which are the primary specialized areas within HR operations and administration. They may oversee salaries and benefits, develop and implement policies related to departmental workflow, support the entire employee lifecycle, support recruitment efforts, improve employee relations, and ensure HR is following best practices.

This role is particularly helpful in organizations because it enables the HR department to manage more complex workloads effectively.

An HR Operations Specialist usually works under the direction of more senior HR members, such as an HR Operations Manager.

The average salary for an HR Operations Specialist is around $73,800 per year in the U.S. and £38,000 annually in the U.K.

HR Operations Analyst

An HR Operations Analyst is responsible for evaluating existing HR processes and systems, pinpointing areas for improvement, and developing new solutions to improve efficiency across the organization. They also play a key role in developing and maintaining HR reporting, analytics, and general HR operational support.

Data and analytics are a huge part of an HR Operations Analyst’s job, and they will spend significant time preparing, producing and analyzing metrics, reports, and dashboards.

The average salary for an HR Operations Analyst is approximately $64,300 annually in the U.S. and £35,300 in the U.K.

HR Operations vs HR Generalist

As a department, Human Resources is quite broad and has many different roles and responsibilities. Therefore, it is easy for people to get a bit confused about who is responsible for what. You may already have an HR Generalist in your company – typically, they are the first HR hire an organization makes. They have a lot of various responsibilities and cover many HR functions such as HR administration, recruiting, compensation, and benefits, among other tasks.

While HR Generalists handle a broad range of daily HR tasks, HR Operations also focus on strategic improvements, such as optimizing HR processes and integrating new technologies to reduce administrative tasks. In other words, beyond day-to-day activities, they also focus on enhancing operational efficiency and effectiveness.

To conclude

No matter the size of your organization, HR Operations is an integral part of your company. Not only do they support your staff’s lifecycle and assist in day-to-day tasks but, they also integrate that into a strategy to achieve your company’s business goals.

Whether you have one HR Ops Manager or a dedicated HR Ops team, these team members will support your company through an HR Operations strategy. This includes building a sustainable organization, improving employee relations, and implementing and maintaining HR best practices – all while strategically optimizing workflows and implementing new technology to support the Human Resources department and broader team.

FAQ

Operations in HR (also known as Human Resources Operations and HR Ops) are a department focused on supporting the entire employee lifecycle and assisting the general HR team with everyday tasks. They play a significant role in developing an organization’s people strategy to help it meet its short and long-term business goals.

HR Operations focuses on optimizing and managing the internal processes and systems of the HR department, ensuring smooth day-to-day functioning. In contrast, Human Resources Business Partners (HRBPs) act as a bridge between the HR department and other business units, providing strategic HR guidance and support to align workforce strategies with business objectives.