Functions of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions mainly lie in the field of personnel management. The Ministry is the Chief formulator of policy in the field of personnel management for all organizations of the government of India. It coordinates the implementation of the different aspects of the personnel management policy including administrative vigilance, reservation of services and posts for the Indian Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and other specialised categories, joint consultation and compulsory arbitration, staff welfare, pension administration, administrative reforms and public grievances redressal.

The Ministry of Personnel is the nodal personnel and administrative reforms agency in India. On its personnel side, the Ministry formulates policies relating to recruitment, training, promotion, employer-employee relations, service conditions etc. in the civil service. Staff welfare, discipline and morale in the civil service and integrity in administration also form part of its portfolio. It manages the All India Services and certain other Central Services and formulates training policies and programmes in the field of public administration. The Department of Public grievances determines policy and coordinates issues relating to (a) redress of public grievances in general and (b) grievances relating to Central Government agencies in particular. The Department of Pension and Pensioner's Welfare is responsible for policy and coordination of matters relating to retirement benefits to Central Government employees.

The Ministry looks after all administrative matters relating to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Administrative Tribunal (AT), Union Public Service Commission, Staff Selection Commission, the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, and Institute of the Secretariat Training and Management, New Delhi.

It may be noted that among the various functions of the department, training of personnel is the most important. The Department serves as the nodal agency of the central government for training. It has been instrumental in identifying, formulating and implementing a large number of training programmes for officers involved in the priority development sectors. In addition, it has been making concerted efforts towards ensuring result-oriented training. Other functions are Cadre Management and Review, Training and Recruitment.

The miscellaneous works of the department include functions like devising machinery for joint consultation and compulsory arbitration to resolve disputes between the government and its employees, staff welfare, progressive use of Hindi language in official work, etc.