Interview of HR General Manager of the Organization - Assignment Example

Answers to 3 questions of HR General Manager for the organizations listed The primary concern that currently plagues the Armidale Hospital in Australia relate to the problem of personnel finding and management in light of the fact that there is an increasing shortfall of staff when it comes to hospitals around the world. The trade-off that most healthcare institutions have to make at present is to do with the price of healthcare vis-à-vis growing costs associated with hiring trained workers. Again if RNs are not hired there does a problem of quality have to suffer which is bad news for the organization in the long run as well. A satisfied human resource is valuable and has no alternative. Human beings’ needs are dynamic and therefore to satisfy those the health care organization has to be dynamically thinking. Only then our most important customer, the patient, can get his just need fulfilled. Employee's growth and development should be the result of both the employer’s responsibility and the employee’s initiative. In spite of providing all the help and resources if certain human resources can’t be molded to fit into the organization’s needs, the organization should not hesitate to leave them behind. As organization utilize strategic human resource management, practices targeted at the increase of employee retention and performance, management scholars continue to investigate both the discrete and the combined effects of human resource management on these organizational outcomes (Wright and Snell, 1998). One such HRM function that continues to receive considerable attention is compensation. While an organization’s compensation strategy has in general been found to predict organizational performance research is suggestive of the fact that an organization’s ability to attract, motivate and retain employees while simultaneously increasing performance through its compensation policies is contingent on a myriad of contextual factors (Brown, Sturman and Simmering, 2003). In industries such as healthcare, the availability and variability of desirable employee skill sets and competencies demanded by jobs requires a flexible compensation strategy that is able to address both performance and bottom-line cost issues. The healthcare industry is currently being buffeted by strong environmental forces that influence compensation strategy. Indeed as the costs of providing health annually increase at more than double the rate of inflation, hospital administrators find themselves in a precarious position. First they must ensure that their hospitals provide high-quality care to patients which necessitates the procurement of cutting edge technology. However this adoption of technological innovations requires hospital administrators to devote scare financial resources to these costly areas. Second, coupled with the costs of providing quality health care is the acute shortage of highly trained and highly specialized personnel such as registered nurses. The fact that there is a worldwide shortage of registered nurses is a well-documented fact and has in fact led to a massive worldwide recruitment effort to not only attract qualified RNs but to also retain their services (Upenieks, 2005). Increasingly hospital administrators rely on attractive compensation practices to achieve these goals the reliance of compensation to achieve these goals reinforces the explosion of costs associated with quality healthcare an leaves hospital administrators with few options for restraining costs without decreasing the quality of care. One option available to hospital administrators for confronting this dilemma is the implementation of integrated HR practices, in the case of hospital administrators, integration recruitment, staffing an compensation practices for the achievement of hospital performance goals, whether clinical or fiscal provides potential solutions to these fiscal and human capital problems, to combat the acute shortage of RNs, hospitals frequently hire licensed nurse practitioners an unlicensed yet trained mostly trough technical and vocational schools, nurse assistants. Moreover this mix of skilled and trained RNs with less skilled and less trained LPNs and NAs does not appear to significantly decrease the overall quality of care provided to hospital patients. A presumed added benefit to hospital administrators utilizing this type of staffing strategy is that LPNs and NAs earn considerably less direct compensation as compared to RNs. Moreover, this staffing strategy allows hospital administrators to offer larger starting salaries to RNs to attract them in a market that is globally competitive. Research to the topic seems to argue that organization implement a high cost pay strategy to ascribe increases in employee performance and retention. Through a simulation designed to demonstrate the usefulness of utility analysis for relative wage strategy decision making Klass and McClendon (1996) fond that the lag strategy was most effective at low organizational levels because of the benefits afforded by other strategies did not justify their costs at these levels. Specifically other strategies are inappropriate because the impact of average and above average employees is limited by characteristics inherent in lower level positions (Boudreau, 1991). Also, it was found by Hunter et al (1990) that productivity difference between average and above average employees nearly double in high versus low complexity jobs. Specifically as job complexities tend to increase, above average employees become more and more productive. Above average employees productivity increases because their ability helps them effectively manage the discretion and autonomy that frequently accompany job complexities. Above average employees may be more effective at high organizational levels because employee discretion and autonomy which are correlates of job complexity increase by organizational levels. Therefore at high organizational levels, the cost of above average employees may be justified because of difference in their organizational impact, compared to that of average of below average employees. Where human resources are concerned, given the fact that most health care is ultimately delivered by and to people, a strong understanding of the human resources management issues is required to ensure the success of any health care program. Further human resources initiatives are required in many health care systems, and more extensive research must be conducted to bring about new human resources policies and practices that will benefit individuals around the world. At the hospital, which is part of the larger global healthcare industry the primary problem at present relates to manpower, skilled and trained, along with the kind of compensation that should ideally be offered to them. In this context, the idea is that the hospital should focus primarily on manpower that is more skilled than the rest even if it means higher compensation given the fact that this would allow the hospital a higher rate of correct RN retention. Qantas Airways: In the case of Qantas Airways, the most important question related to the management of personnel that arose recently was in the light of the problem with the accident and the following issues of passenger management. Also, with the introduction of new technology at the airports around the world, there is a problem with a better team of trained personnel who are adept at dealing with the new system while being hospitable to the passengers. In this context, the following coloumn will deal with the training requirements that ail Qantas at present. The philosophy of training in the context of this case would be centered on not just the improve skills for the current job but also to prepare the employee for future responsibilities. Job rotation and participation in cross functional or cross divisional tasks can get rid of the feeling of stagnation and boredom that seems to have set in (Charvatova and Veer, 2006). The idea is to give the employee a new challenge, continuously helping him evolve thereby adding greater value to the organization’s resources with the same amounts of inputs. There is also a certain amount of stress that needs to be laid on promotion from within the organization itself, thereby help remove the feeling of alienation and disillusionment from the staff.    There is no real sense of purpose or a strategic outline behind the manner in which human resources or the people working in the organization are managed. There is major discontent within the members of the organization and yet the carrier has been number 1 in its niche field for over a decade and a pioneer for others in more ways than one. What this shows is sharp business acumen on part of the owner but this does not 9in any way reflect on the competency of his man management skills. Managers are regarded as being high handed and autocratic. Training is obviously not provided to the staff regarding work specifications given the fact that there are complaints from customers about the unfriendly and inefficient nature of the airline staff. There is zero recognition of the approach that needs to be adopted while dealing with customers. Finally there is general job dissatisfaction within the ranks of the staff. This is due to absence of learning and promotion opportunities. The performance evaluation criteria and processes need to be related to broad contributions. In addition to individual evaluation, performance appraisal by peers and based on team performance should be made a more common feature. The broad based contributions can be captured in what is known as the 360-Degree feedback mechanism. Finally, the key to using compensations and benefits in building a mutual investment oriented employee relations process is not focused merely on increasing the absolute pay or benefits but communicating preferred behavior and accentuating long term investment in employees. Family friendly benefits are one way of doing this.   The approach of the manager deciding everything needs to be replaced with what is known as the mutual investment approach. From the very outset, there has to be a communication of the value of long term loyalty and commitment to not just the task but to the job (Losey et. Al., 2005). Every recruit needs to be made aware of the inducements that are on offer. This can be achieved by following a process initiated by peer recruitment and team based interviews. The idea is to ensure that the new comers fit into the organization and its culture and are not taken just in order to fill a vacant position. This in fact is the sum of the Demming principle.   On-the-job training and off-the-job training Training can be classified into two essential formats: On the job training and off the job training. On the job training is a structured process conducted at the employee’s work area to provide the employee with the knowledge and skills aimed at the performance of job tasks, It is an ongoing process that is designed mostly to help the employee in gaining greater competence and overcome barriers to the improvement of performances. On the job training experiences would include coaching understudy programs and assignments job rotation, lateral transfer, project and committee assignments and staff meetings. Training means increasing the temporary and necessary skills of the new employees. it is two types on the job and off the job. Bohlander and Snell (2009) identify off the job training as training in which employees learn his work by attending seminar, meeting, conference or by viewing. He is not allow to work on floor till he become expert in all the necessary field. These would include methods such as conference or discussion methods, classroom training, programmed instructions, computer based training simulation, closed circuit TV, tele-training and interactive e-learning. Off the job experiences include analysis of case studies, management games, role-playing and behavior modeling.   The final thread to the programme would be the implementation of the skill perfection session, in essence an extension of the repetition or the discussion session. The idea is the improvement of the overall skill set. The idea here is to help the workers gain practicable knowledge of the skill that has been acquired, through implementation in practice that which has been taught in theory. This session, as all of the skills training sessions, should be modified and made culturally appropriate by working with language and cross-cultural trainers. As language skills permit, Trainees should be encouraged to record and describe their observations in the host language. The practice sections can take place throughout training; all of the practice should not directly follow the instruction. As skills permit, revisit parts of the session, teaching the structures of technology implementation and doing practical effort. BHP (both Australian division and including overseas operations) The first function would be the management of human resources which would hinge on the effectiveness with which BHP is able to deal with the balancing the employee strengths in terms of outsourcing work, setting up jobs for locals and the movement in domestic workforce which would in most cases turn out to be expats and would manage the roles of leadership at the initial stages. The issue at hand for companies that are increasingly global along the lines of the operations that presently characterize BHP, the need is primarily the better management of a workforce that is global more than local.   Expatriate management is one aspect of HRM practices. Situations of foreigners working in third world countries would be bound to cause problems. With foreign investment continuously increasing, this has resulted in a high growth of foreign workers and will be likely to continue to increase. Expatriates are sent by an organization on a temporary work assignment in another country from their home country (Breaster, cited in Selmer et al, 2000). Expatriate management occurs special position in the global context given the fact that there was an issue of the crux of the work being done having been outsourced.   The management of the business in the context of the internationalization of the company and the fact BHP, now is a multinational, there would, first and foremost have to consider the management of the multitude of variables that would characterize interactions and management equations. One can identify stakeholders in the general terms in the following light: 1.      the most important and oft talked about stakeholders are the shareholders of a given company, their interest lie in the dividends and capital growth in the context of the share investment in the company 2.      Management and employees are the other most important group in terms of stake-holding given the fact that they are ones affected in terms of job security, prospects and pay by the [progress of the company 3.      Consumers and Suppliers 4.      Banks and other financial organizations lending money to the business. 5.      Governments– This particular group would also be of real significance here given the fact that the issue at stake in the context of the Google case was of direct relevance to the Chinese government. 6.      Pressure Groups – who are interested in whether the business is acting appropriately towards their area of interest.   Features of the globalization process under the due course of the new regime requires that there is an increased sense of rationalization of product lines and supplier chains, organizational restructuring which would automatically involve processes such as outsourcing and non-strategic functions, more focused R&D systems upgrading and integration and downsizing that flattens hierarchies, distributes strategic decision-making more widely and devolves a more widely and devolves operational authority to lower organizational levels (Heckscher, 1995). Retructring of work organization and workplace relations,, often fired by notions of best practice encouraged by the introduction of new technology has followed from this greater drive for efficiency. Ideally, a strategic approach to the management of human resources would mean an integration of HR strategies and goals with the overall goals and results that the company hopes to achieve in the future (Schuller and Jackson, 2007). This would in turn help employees identify their purpose in the organization, help in the better understanding of individual roles and purposes that contribute to the overall health of the organization. The basic precepts of strategic human resource management have a natural affinity with the ‘resource based view’ of the competitive advantage in the strategy field (Barney, 1991). The idea is that sustained competitive advantage can arise from a firm’s resource base. This also means that decision making cannot be done in isolation but needs to be in line with the overall working culture of an organization. The system of feedback needs to be perfect.   There should be an effort made on part o the organization to make decisions regarding organization and performances within the organization keeping mind global, national and local environments and related factors (Das and Waqar, 2007). A basic review of an idea human resource management system in a given organization would mean three basic things: 1. Use of in service training methods and tools with a healthy system of promotion that ensures employee job satisfaction and growth within the working environment. 2. The recruitment process needs to be carefully devised and should be based on merit and suitability to the post 3. Management and motivation of employees by using the basic principles of strategic human resource management. There needs to be an objective work setting. This means in simple terms that there need to be correct people at the correct job. This implies that recruitments should be conducted on the basis of merit and aptitude, someone with zero PR skills for example should not be placed at a position dealing directly with customers. The organization needs to be made up of people that understand what it takes to be part of the aviation and hospitality industry. The idea is to hire people who know their job and take pleasure in doing it. At present the administrative system is highly inflexible and impervious to change that originates at the bottom rungs (Ostroff, 1999). The manner of change imitation and execution is top down oriented. This should be altered and made in to a bottoms-up approach giving the commonly the advantage of knowledge from the ones who deal with problems on an everyday basis first hand and second this would help in the filtration of an integrationist trend within the  organization as a whole reducing levels of discontent and subsequently rates of attrition. Reference: Wright, P. M., and Snell, S. A., (1998). ‘Toward a unifying framework for exploring fit and flexibility in strategic human resource management’. Academy of Management Review. 23(4). Pp756-772. Brown, M. P., Sturman and M. C., and Simmering, M.J., (2003). Compensation policy and organizational performance: The efficiency, operational, and financial implications of pay levels and pay structure. Academy of Management Journal, 46, 752-762. Upenieks, V. (2005). ‘Recruitment and retention strategies: A magnet hospital prevention mode’. MedSurg Nursing. 14(2) pp21-28. Boudreau, J. 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