The Role of the HR Function in Developing Strategies - Coursework Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Crisis Control Course: Date: Introduction Human Resource (HR) functions are continually being transformed to redefine the work of HR so as to enable the management to make a strategic focus on the conflicting issues of talent management as well as organizational capability to compete in the market. At the same time, organizations are required to regulate and manage the cost of their human capital and transactional work. It is quite clear that today’s HR professionals are obliged to face two major conflicting goals of reducing their costs and improving in service delivery at a retained workforce level.The capability to transform themselves from operational focus to a more strategic view, HR organizations becomes more competent to achieve both goals. As a result, HR organizations make their efforts to restructure internally through centralization and shared services, use technology enhance business processes and outsourcing.Since Consolidated Gold Mining Services (CGMS) seems to several problems such as poor cash flow caused by a reduction in sales, workforce redundancies and the fear to lose its human capital. It is imperative that the company focus on its future performance by formulating and implementing strategies to enable it position well to sustainably take advantage of predictable upswing within the economy (Stone 2010). The study examines how the Human Resource function can be enhanced to develop appropriate strategies to enable CGMS in reducing its costs whilst maintaining the desired level of human capital, the legal issues to be considered by CGMS Company in the attempt to change its employment arrangements to reduce the size of its workforce. This is important for the company to build a solid base on which more strategically enabled services can be provided. The role of the HR function in developing strategy to achieve the goals of reducing costs and maintaining the desired level of human capital Workforce analysis Although all employees at CGMS seem to be satisfied with their tasks, but the population has grown big which exposes the company’s weakness. It is important to note the company needs a strategic focus on the human resource rather than just relying on the good will and trust to effectively and efficiently manage its current workforce. The capability of a company to deliver its products and services on its strategic goals not only depends on the level of its staffing ability, but also on the employees’ skills. Therefore, it will be the function of HR at CGMS Company to map the goals of every department to the agreed staffing levels as well as skills mix that the company will need to retain. Additionally, the human resource will measure the progress against such targets so as to enable the easy alignment of employee performance with the strategic goals of the company (Sanjay 2011). The human resource management of CGMS will be required to develop and implement a HR plan as a focus to deliver the required number of people that are competent to run the business. As pointed out by Regan Badger, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) that the company seems not to value the role played by information systems in managing people but only relying on antiquated Enterprise Resource Program (ERP), it would be important for the company to introduce a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) module to help Stacey, the new HR Director to collect information on exactly what every employee is involved in for easy performance appraisals. In order for Stacey to execute the role of toe cutter as the HR, it would be necessary to have updated information on what every employee is doing (Stone 2010). Forecasting the workforce demand is an integral HR function. In order to integrate good HR plans, the human resource management of CGMS will need to make a realistically accurate forecast of its workforce size. However, factors such as the demand for available and new products, cost reduction initiatives, disposal of business and product closures, business organizational restructuring as well as use of new technologies should be considered. Forecasting the workforce supply based on the existing workforce, it will be important for the HRM at CGMS Company to take into consideration the scheduled changes to the existing workforce structure in terms of job rotations and promotions and impending exceptional factors such as the actions of its competitors that cause problems to staff retention. It is important to argue that by making a strategic comparison of both the demand and supply forecast workforce, HRM will possibly document a forecast of the net workforce size (Sanjay 2011). The strategic objectives for CGMS will be compared with the compiled forecast of net labor force size to identify a workforce gap. Since CGMS Company is at risk of imbalance labor force, its HRM will involve in the development of appropriate policies to close or manage the identified workforce gap. The human resource management will be obliged to develop plans for redundancy and to retain the staff it requires based on its business objectives, make recruitment and training plans on how many employees as well as what type of skills required at a given time frame. Forecasting the workforce demand would enable HRM at CGMS to focus on recruiting the exact or required number of employees to deliver its mining services, and thus controlling itself from growing big in terms of labor force more than expected since the situation exposes the company’s weakness in financial management. It is true in Regan’s view that the company should not only rely on good will and trust, but focus on proper management of its workforce. Workforce analysis would help to solve the main difficulty of CGMS on deciding whether to retain the existing size of its labor force and incur more costs, or reduce them as claimed by Peter. By the HR closing the labor force gap based on the results of workforce analysis, the problem of work imbalance such as reduced equipment orders and high demand for servicing will be solved. As Peter noted, it is important for the senior management to re-organize its operational activities, ensuring that the human capital of CGMS is preserved. However, strategic view of what will take place at the time of economic recovery should be the main objective as to why the company must ensure that its people are not allowed to go to the competitors (Wayne 2005). Strategic focus on the value-added In order for CGMS to maintain its reputation as a leading HR organization, the human resource management needs to look beyond the implementation of HR transactions and strategically focus on the value-added. This calls for the company to align HR and workforce planning obligations with the main business strategy to increase the profit margins as well as support the development of long-term goals. Optimization of the transactional processes is yet another critical area that the human resource management of CGMS should focus on to free resources so as to invest in strategies that will contribute to the growth its mining business and retain employees who exhibit consistency in their performance. The executive management of CGMS not only need to focus on making practical operational decisions , but also to develop strategic decision on how to make use of its competent human capital as well as protect them. The human resource management will play a great role in centralizing HR operations within the company’s shared-services environment to solve the problem of workforce imbalances. Thus, enhance both the efficiency and effectiveness of the human resource processes. This implies that organizations that are sustainably competent in managing their human capital, effectively reassess their business process so as to make a balance in the workforce while optimizing labor force efficiency, costs as well as service delivery in a more continually manner(Walker 2003). Human Resources Benchmarking Benchmarking is a critical tool that CGMS will find it useful in the company’s efforts to make a balance between cost-reduction efficiency as well as contributing to the value-added services. HRM should make accurate assessment of the company’s performance and make a comparison of the results obtained with those of its peers. Arguably, if well-managed the HR will be considered a dynamic part of the CGMS Company that could perform beyond the transaction-related focus to contributing more on to the margin growth as well as long-term operation of the company. Alignment of the human resource closely to the company’s mining business should occur at different levels. For example, centralizing transactional and talent or expertise-related processes in a center-of-excellence labor force setting will enable CGMS to provide its services to specific business units and localities. Effective control of outsourcing as a function of HR will be achieved if the human resource management of CGMS takes ample time to analyze business areas that may need to be centralized in-house, outsourced and decentralized in regard to the company’s unique culture (Boudreau & Ramstad 2006). In short, CGMS can only be considered as a best-run company in human capital management if fundamental practices and goals such as benchmarking of both processes and performance, alignment of HR with the general business strategy and goals, adoption of the shared services and consolidation of systems as well as optimization of transaction processes are considered. Legal issues to be addressed when deciding to reduce the size of the workforce Involuntary terminations are appropriate means to get workforce costs under control. Therefore, it is crucial that employers take into consideration some legal issues in their attempts to design involuntary workforce reduction program. This helps them to meet the headcount reduction needs whilst controlling their legal publicity. Although workforce reduction appears to be inevitable strategy within the downward economy, it has its own risks. Therefore, when an organization decides to carry out a layoff or possibly a huge reduction in force, it is vital to consider some of the legal issues that may arise. This implies that maintaining the legal compliance whilst making workforce reductions involves careful planning as well as ongoing vigilance in the process of execution (Nobile 1997). Since CGMS is faced with the problem of financial crisis due to work imbalances, the company may be forced to layoff a considerable size of its workforce. In such a case, it is important the company’s human resource management understand as well as seek advice on the Act of Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN)’s allegations. This calls for a 60 days early notice of a mass downsizing. This implies that HRM atCGMS Companywill be required to determine whether or not their reductions meets the WARN set standard to constitute the mass lay off. If so, the company will be required to provide 6o days notice prior to implementing the workforce reductions. However, other suitable state statutes which offer advance notice on mass redundancy should be considered (Harshman 2000). Discrimination is another important legal issue that CGMS will need to consider. It is imperative that the management make a careful assessment of the impact associated with Reduction In Force (RIF) on individuals in different protected capacities. This is because programs on workforce reduction generate various litigations by the affected employees. For example, some individuals may claim that certain category of people were selected on the basis that their protected characteristics such as race, age or gender caused disparate on those particular groups. CGMS Company will also determine whether or not their written vacation and paid time off (PTO) policies are applicable to making a decision to terminate employees in the attempt to achieve a RIF. Failure to conform to the legal requirement, the company will be forced to compensate employees for a considerable amount of the unused vacation or PTO pay immediately after the termination (Harshman 2000). As the human resource management at CGMS makes a review of the legal issues that may arise due to workforce reduction, the company must endeavor to calculate a standard risk analysis associated with individual release decisions on additional variables. For example, employees that will be downsized and provided with liberal severance benefits within the process of workforce reduction may opt to wage complaint against the company compared to the average employee dismissed. It is quite clear that the process of workforce reduction involves making hard decisions on which employees to fire. Such concerns should not hinder the HRM at Consolidated Global Mining Services from implementing the workforce reduction because creates a high-quality business sense. However, the management should ensure that the company becomes more cautions about the planning, implementation and documentation of the process of reduction in force (Nobile 1997). It is important to argue that although reduction in force provide short and long-terms benefits of economic significance to the company, the process proves to be one of the difficult events HR professionals should oversee. This is due to the economic as well as emotional impacts caused on employees, huge amounts of obligations expected to accomplish within a short period of time, the numerous and complex laws that ought to be observed. Therefore, CGMS must give thoughtful and more careful planning to ensure that compliance with the legal requirements is fully observed. This is important in controlling the adverse effects associated with workforce reduction, and thus minimizing the risks caused by lawsuits (Parisis & Sean 2002). It is in this view that HRM of CGMS be careful during its selection process to identify those employees to layoff. It is advisable that the management analyze the list of employees planned to send away together with the input of team set for legal counsel so as to determine whether or not patterns that may be used as grounds to claim of discrimination exists. CGMS Company should develop a communication strategy because employees selected for layoff would find it important to know the reasons as to why they are chosen. The management must be ready with a truthful, succinct and civil response to such employees’ inquiry. Similarly, HRM should have a discussion on the workforce reduction with the retained employees as a way to address any apprehensions while not guaranteeing job security in their future performance (Boudreau 2006). It is true in Tracey’s view that redundancies and layoffs would be legally justifiable because CGMS Company is over-staffed. Regan reported that for the past ten years the company had grown quite big due to increased number of employees which exposes its weaknesses, such as imbalances in work and financial crisis. Therefore, using redundancies and layoffs would prove to be legally justifiable as a means to reduce costs rather than focusing on good will and trust to manage its workforce yet the company is reported to be hemorrhaging huge amounts of money. Peter Newcomb, the Operations Manager also claimed that the main difficulty the company is faced with concerns whether to retain the current size of workforce and continue to incur more expenses, or dismiss them given the work imbalances. Furthermore, equipment orders have reduced yet demand for operational maintenance has increased (Stone 2010). Such conditions legally justify the need to reorganize or implement a reduction in force. Since redundancy affects individuals’ lives and occupations, clear and more transparent communication is vital. Therefore, HRM at CGMS will be required to make early and frequent communication with its workforce, making open to discuss the current situation of financial crisis. In doing so, the employees will be able to understand the reasons as to why they are laid off or dismissed. Conclusion Forecasting the workforce demand is an integral HR function because it enables human resource management to focus on recruiting the exact or required number of employees. By carefully making a strategic comparison of the demand and supply forecast workforce, HRM easily document a forecast of the net workforce size. Although workforce reduction seems to be an inevitable strategy within the downward economy, it has its own risks. It is vital to consider some of the legal issues that may arise when deciding to carry out a layoff. A thoughtful and more careful planning is important to ensuring that compliance with the legal requirements is fully observed. The process of workforce reduction involves making hard decisions on which employees to fire. While reduction in force provide short and long-terms benefits of economic impact to the company, the process proves to be some of the difficult events HR professionals should oversee. It is crucial that the management make a careful assessment of the impact of workforce reduction on individuals in different protected capacities. Dismissal of employees in regard to redundancy is legally accepted when a standard procedure for the action, for example, writing a notice to employees, identifying reasons as to why the dismissal is given, discuss with the employees about the dismissal and holding an appeal are followed. However, employers must give proper and justifiable reasons for dismissing their employees as well as follow a fair process. Bibliography Boudreau, J.W & Ramstad, P.M., (2006). Talent-ship and Human Resource Measurement Analysis: Strategic Organizational Change, Human Resource Planning, 29(1), 25–33. Harshman, E.M, (2000), Corporate Mentoring Programs: Legal Landmines? Journal of Employment Discrimination Law, Vol. 2, Issue 1. Nobile, R. J, (1997), Human Resources’ top 10 legal issues. A HR Focus, 74(4), 19-20. Parisis, G. G & Sean, F, (2002), The Rights of Employees Subjected To Reductions in Force: A Critical Evaluation, Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, 6, pp. 324–326. Sanjay, S, (2011), Decision Support Models in Supporting Workforce Forecasting, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. Stone, R.J (2010), Managing HRs, 3rd edn, John Wiley & Sons. Walker, W. J., (2003). (Eds.), Developing a strategic HR function. New York: The HR Planning Society. Wayne, F. C, (2005), Managing human resources: productivity, quality of work life, profits, McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Read More