What do you think are the biggest limitations that HR managers face?

A Board of Directors or a boss who can't make timely decisions. Example: the board of directors approves her to hire a 2nd employee for payroll. She creates the ad, but must have the ad approved by the board of directors. The next board of director's meeting isn't for another week and in the meantime, during the last board meeting, they question her as to why work isn't getting done (...still waiting on this new EE). The ad gets approved, she does many interviews, weeks have passed and she finds someone that's an excellent fit, but the board must approve this person. A week later the board meets and they don't like the candidate. She presents another person and they don't like that person either. All of this can take months and months and in the meantime, work isn't getting completed and she's feeling the stress from additional job duties.

I consider this micro-managing. If you hire someone to do a job, there must be some trust that they can do it effectively, not request to see every step of the way.

The main limitations are those that they impose or allow to be imposed on themselves in my view. There is always a chance for a good HR manager to contribute to the commercial success of a private company but many HR people just fall into the trap of being the HR police telling people what they CAN'T do.

Being seen as a cost to their organisations rather than a creator of value. It is our job to educate those above us as to how we can add value by maximising productivity and efficiency and reducing costs such as recruitment and compensation costs through HR strategies such as employee engagement, competency development, a positive culture and an effective structure, all of which need to be directly aligned to the company's strategy.

Question: “What do you think are the biggest limitations that HR managers face?”

Answer: Themselves.

HR Managers who don't or won't propose solutions to problems and provide a compelling financial case for the solution may well be ignored. Perhaps HR Managers need to know how to prepare a compelling business case?

Managers, including HR Managers, are often risk averse, and with good reason, since their executives are often ill-prepared to listen.

I agree with Richard and Bob that the main roadblock are probably the people themselves. Way too many HR practitioners are too conservative (as is the profession) at times and not looking for innovative solutions to problems using whatever resources the organization has provided.

limitation will essentially include awareness level for HR interventions, relationship management with line managers, size of the company and industry, budgets, and company HR strategy itself.