What is the role of the human resources department in protecting employee rights?

What is the role of the human resources department in protecting employee rights?

  HR departments have a responsibility to protect employees’ interests to a point because this is in the interest of any organization as a whole. We have previously discussed how employee dissatisfaction causes major problems with productivity. Therefore, the HR department needs to work to avoid employee dissatisfaction and make managers’ expectations for employees clear, but also employees’ expectations for managers clear as well. Employees need to feel that they are being listened to and that managers’ expectations are clear. It is the HR department’s responsibility to ensure that these two employee needs are met by the company. Perhaps most importantly, the HR department has the responsibility to ensure that the company and management make legal decisions. This means decisions that do not involve prejudice based on gender, race, etc., and decisions that do not violate contracts with employees. Still, the HR department is part of a system whose responsibility is to maximize profit, so the HR department only has a responsibility to make sure the law is followed and that employee interests are met so that productivity is maximized.