The Role of Human Resource Management in Fair and Equal Treatment of Employees - Essay Example

Running Header: The Role of HRM in Fair and Equal Treatment of Employees Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction In the recent past, Human resource function in many of the modern organisations has become very critical in achieving company success. Such responsibilities as recruitment and retention of qualified employees, ensuring their enthusiasm, satisfaction at work, high level of productivity and training and development of employees alongside ensuring fair and equal treatment fall with the Human Resource Management (HRM) function jurisdiction. All these elements are taken into consideration since many organizations have come to recognize human resource as a very important asset to the company. This perception has continued to hold true in everyday life and across the board (Schneider et al 2004, pp. 3). It is very common that an organization without human resource is deemed to fail. Perhaps this is because the change of business and its movement from one level to another depends on the succession procedures that exist within the human resource that ensure movement from one level to another. In addition, as the human resource function helps the business to grow, it’s also expected to do the same for the individual employees who work for the company. Based on these scenarios, HRM has become a corner stone within the business structure and it allows for much reliance of different business activities on the human resource team to execute day to day business operations. In general, HRM in a business environment is responsible in managing relationships that exist between different groups for the overall good of both the company and the employees according to Brown (2003, 21). On the same line questions have been raised on the responsibility of HRM in ensuring respect for others and protecting individual rights as constituted in the fair and equal treatment of employees’ practices of an organization. The objective of this review is to establish the role of HRM in ensuring fair and equal treatment of employees in modern business organizations. HRM contribution in fair and equal treatment of employees Truly one way in which an organization can hurt its operations is by either not relating well with the human resource department or by mishandling the employees at its disposal. In the contemporary business, competition has continued to evolve every now and again and thus causing many of the current global organizations to be very cautious of the ways in which they acquire and make use of the human resource which many of executive officers with that it can make you prosper or fail depending how you handle it (Brewster et al 2011, pp. 137). I think this is because the human resource forms the final executors of the company’s objectives and to a great level they can influence their success or failure. In addition, human resource is used a face of the company to its clients and customers as well as business partners. With this regard therefore, for the company to make good use of its employees, then it’s obliged to treat them well by ensuring their needs are taken care of very well. Even though many companies have made major steps in addressing different employees’ needs which include good monetary pay and other incentives such as providing day care centers for the workers’ kids, it is has not been easy to meet all employees needs. However, listening and trying to do the best is the most important step a company can making managing employees’ needs. As much as the human resource department may embark in creating guidelines and policies how individuals should do their job, its also wise to provide support and appreciate the overall effort the employee puts in to his work (Dewe and Cooper 2007, pp. 141). This way I do believe the worker will feel more comfortable and will consider his employer as one of those individuals not only seek to benefit themselves but also ensure personal development from the employee perspective. Ethics is a very common term in an organization setting and more especially in the human resource function. This is because it seeks to explain the level to which the company lives for its values. In an organization, the company may decide to uphold integrity, professionalism and respect for all people as part of its values. The effort to live for these values depends on the individual willingness to respect them as demonstrated by Shirom et al (2008, pp. 1371). As a matter, of fact the HRM within an organization more than any other function is obligated to ensure that individual rights are respected as the company seeks to achieve its objectives. Ethics demand that organizations through their human resource functions are expected to ensure fair treatment of all its employees from the onset of recruitment through training and development without discriminating individuals based on their diverse backgrounds (Fleetwood and Hesketh 2008, pp. 237). The HRM team in the contemporary global business community is expected to work as an agent of change by ensuring that legislation on moral conduct and fair treatment of employees at workplace is fully adhered to. This can be done by moderating the organizational standards against those that are provided by law to ensure the greatest good for all workers. In other words, the HRM team is expected to oversee the conformity level of its policies to those outlined by state law. The objective of doing this is to ensure fair treatment of all workers. However, it is always important to note that the law itself may not be fair as it’s not always to cover and address all issues that surround employee management across the board. At the same time it may also not provide a detailed guide for action. In this sense therefore the term ‘ethics’ makes a lot of sense. Being a philosophical branch that is being used to analyse what is wrong or right, could help determine the role of HRM in ensuring positive conduct or behavior. The work of the HRM therefore is to work on improving existing regulations so as to come up with more relevant policies that could be used to ensure justice for all by Sparrow (2012, pp. 2404). In recruitment and selection of employees, the HRM is expected to enact policies and procedures that justice, fairness and equity for all potential employees. This is to ensure that no single candidate is discriminated from being considered for recruitment as long he meets the minimum criteria. By doing this, the HRM will be providing equal opportunity for all. The criteria for selection ought to be relevant and up to date and should demonstrate realistic nature of what the company wants to achieve so as to avoid a situation where the applicants are left guessing if the criteria for selection was real fair or discriminating. This is an act of morality as it seeks to create a level playing ground for all potential employees. Generally speaking, it’s the policies and procedures enacted by the HRM function that will ensure fair and equal treatment of all incoming employees (West 2012, pp. 54). Reward management is also an important aspect of HRM in ensuring that there is fairness and that there is one uniform policy that no element of discrimination when rewarding individual commitment and dedication to the company (Johnson 2003, pp. 142) This follows after it has emerged that many of the organizations do not have one uniform policy that is applied when allocating pay and other benefits to the employees. It is the responsibility of the HRM as it seeks to enact policies for rewarding employees to make sure there is some connection across all functions and across industry. This follows the level of awareness employees have with regard to what their colleagues in the industry get in terms of reward. Its is expected that as companies seeks to determine policies to guide their rewarding, to find out what is happening in the rival companies in order to come up with a more appropriate system that does not discriminate on individuals (Hodgkinson et al 2009). It is also the responsibility of the HRM to ensure that during employee development and promotion, all company workers are given equal opportunities and that each and every person is allowed to access the available information on development opportunities. This will help do away with any notion that may be available about the criteria used to promote individuals. It’s expected that HRM practices should be transparent and should give promotions to those workers who deserve them based on qualification, experience and individual capabilities in performing certain tasks. In an ideal situation promotion and development should be based on merit (Hesketh and Fleetwood 2006, pp. 201). However, in many occasions this has not been the case as top management try to influence promotions awards based on the existing relationships which accelerate such vices as nepotism, corruption or even political influence. In this case, fairness and equality treatment could only be reached if the employees are made aware of the criteria applied by the HRM team as an affirmative policy to ensure that no single factor can stop fairness and equality from prevailing (Robinson et al 2007, pp. 52). In the recent past, the issue of work-life balance has dominated on the debates on the role of HRM in enacting fair work terms for all employees so as to make sure that as long as the workers continue to put effort to the business, opportunities are also provided to meet personal life obligations. In other words, the work environment should not be so stressing up to a point where individuals do not have enough time for their families. This is scenario is likely to be common in middle-level managers and junior employers who in many occasions find themselves working for longer hours than expected. The role of the HRM is to ensure that employees’ needs are not compromised at the expense of the employers as illustrated by Chung, et al (2012, pp. 2333). It is always fair that as the company seeks to enhance its productivity it also take into account the specific needs employees have in different areas of work. Further, the HRM in this case is expected to come up with a policy that allows for flexibility at workplace. This could be possibly achieved by ensuring that all employees are allowed to work within the reasonable number of hours per day and incase one is required to work for an overtime it should be done based on special arrangements (Brewster et al 2007, pp. 47). Bullying and harassment at workplace is one of the common sources of imbalance in fairness and equality. Bullying and harassment can take various forms and can involve different individuals. For instance, at workplace it’s very likely that bosses may demand their juniors to do certain tasks which are not within the post description. Further, bullying is also likely to occur in situations where the juniors do not comply to their seniors even though not right. In such situations, the employee is either forced to resign or shifted to another section as he seen as an obstacle to the boss even though he may be right on his stand. However, the common form of harassment and bullying at workplace is the one that involves gender. In this case individuals discriminate and harass their counterparts of the opposite sex and demand for favors in order to have their requests accepted as argued by Richter et al (2011, pp. 2471) Conclusion This review was about discussing the role of HRM in ensuring fair and equal treatment of all employees at workplace. In the modern business society, HRM is very critical in enacting different policies that could see the employer ensure fair and equal treatment of all its employees irrespective of his background. In general, HRM is important in playing a mediation role between the employer and the employees. Conflicts are very eminent between employers and the worker and from the research findings; the major source of these conflicts is mistrust that exist between the employees and the employer. From this sense therefore, as the HRM seeks to advise the employer on what are the rights of the employee, it’s assisting in making known the employees’ plights to the employer. In general, the HRM plays the role of advising the employers on the needs of the workers and ways in which fair and equal treatment can be achieved at workplace. References West, MA 2012, Effective teamwork: practical lessons from organizational research,  3rd Edition,  Chichester, The British Psychological Society. 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