Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage - Example

Human Resource Management Name Tutor Course Date Introduction Human resource management is one of the most important departments in the running of a business. It assists in establishing a professional work force for the business and also helps in various other administrative and managerial assignments. There are various human resource issues that the department handles and executes the most appropriate solutions to the issues. According to Noe, 2000, the efficiency of the human resource department is evaluated by assessing the success of the business and the manner in which the HR handles human resource issues. The role of the Human Resource Manager is ever changing courtesy of the changing and increasingly competitive business environment. The realization that Human Resource Management plays a crucial role in the success of a business has also increased the responsibilities of the HR manager. Businesses that do not mind attracting or retaining gifted employees find themselves on the receiving end because their competitors take the opportunity to outshine them in the strategic recruitment in their human resource management. With the increase in competition, both locally and internationally, business firms must adjust and become more adaptable, resilient and customer oriented to ensure that they succeed. Due to the change in the business environment, the HR professional has to change to become a strategic partner, an employ supporter or advocate and a change mentor within the firm. The HR professional are responsible for influencing major decisions and policies in the business which determine the success or failure of the firm. The HR manager promotes and supports values, ethics, beliefs, and spirituality within the firm. In order to overhaul the existing trend on recruitment, selection and employ turnover in the manufacturing company, the HRM head must first assess the situation and determine the causes of the existing problems in the organization (Noe, 2000). Executive Information Systems (EIS) is one of the effective methods that the HR manager can use in the assessment of the progress of the organization and particularly the HR department. EIS is a term used for the unified collections of computer hardware and software that collects relevant data concerning the performance of a business for the purpose of assisting the managers in planning and decision making. Through the use of EIS, a company is able to assess its inventory, sales, and receivables for the purpose of appropriate planning (Kathy & John, 2001). The EIS also assists is detecting significant variations from the expected performance of a firm early enough to allow the managers make and implement the appropriate measures to curb the variation. This tool assists the HR department to contribute positively towards the overall organization strategic planning and the daily management of the firm. Because information is the basis of decision making in a business, there is always a need for an appropriate management control in the HR department. A good control system would facilitate the communication of the right information at the appropriate time and conveyed to the right people to take the necessary measures. The HR manager should use the Executive Information System to find the appropriate information to make the necessary decision in the department (Kathy & John, 2001). This will ensure that the HR head implements measures that will solve the eminent problems both at the policy level as well as the actual HR levels in the firm. Employee retention is very important to the overall performance of a firm. Employee retention begins with appropriate recruitment and selection strategies. The ability to select and recruit the appropriate personnel for a job, for a group or for the organization is important towards the control of employee turnover. This is specifically significant in the modern global labor market where cultural, national and religious diversity are prevalent (McCourt & Eldridge, 2003). The process of recruitment greatly determines the ability of a company to retain employees. Recruitment strategy describes the comprehensive mix of recruitment processes and sources aimed at defining targets and meeting the targets through hiring. It defines appropriate actions and measures to be taken by a business firm so that it can be the employer of choice for its target employees. A proper recruitment strategy defines the target group, means of approaching the group ad the recruitment sources as well as processes (McCourt & Eldridge, 2003). As mentioned, the HR head must implement an appropriate recruitment process to ensure a control of employee turnover in the organization. The recruitment process will provide the firm with a group of qualified job candidates from which sensible selection can be made to take the positions. This will ensure that the candidates recruited are competent for their respective positions and hence minimize the chances of quitting the jobs earlier than expected. Through appropriate HR planning, a firm can organize for job openings by analyzing future requirements and current staff levels. Appropriate recruitment should start by formulating the recruitment policy followed by HR gap assessment within the firm (McCourt & Eldridge, 2003). Job analysis is very important in ensuring that employees fully match with the requirements of the positions in which they are appointed. A proper job analysis should outline the job requirements, the responsibilities that need to be accomplished and the time frame. It should also outline compensation plans, selection and promotion strategy, future training evaluation and performance appraisals of a position. Some of the job analysis methods that the HR head should use include observation, assessment of reports and incident investigations, surveys and feedback from various stakeholders of the organization (McCourt & Eldridge, 2003). Job description is a document that outlines what an employee is expected to accomplish in a given position. It gives the details of the expertise and experience required and responsibilities of the job. Job description should also give details on health and safety issues, right to work issues and the firm’s non-discriminatory policies. The document is very important because it allows a candidate to assess the responsibilities required of them before they are placed into their respective positions. This will prevent poor matching of employees to their duties and consequently minimize employee turnover (Sandra, 2002). Personal specification outlines the expertise, experience, education and training required to do a job. Some jobs might require that the employees be screened or analyzed against specific databases (Storey, 2007). This is a very important phase of the recruitment process because a candidate appointed for a particular position should not only be fit for the post but also for the entire team and the firm. Qualities such as ability to operate in a group and fit in the firm’s culture are significant as far as employee retention is concerned. The HR head should ensure that the personal specifications outlined do not discriminate in terms of sex, age, culture or religion. The manager should ensure equity and adherence to equal opportunity and other relevant laws (Harris, 2000). The salary and other compensations in a company will depend on the kind of job and the availability of experienced staff. The amount of compensation should however be competitive and motivational. If paid poorly, the organization will risk experiencing high rates of employee turn over. Paying too much should also be avoided because it creates a tendency to stick to the job instead of excelling in it. Thus, employees should be given optimum compensation for their services (Harris, 2000). Organizations can outsource through specialized agencies or apply the in-house HR department to recruit. The decision should be based on the nature and volume of the job. When using the agencies, an organization should be cautions that the agency does not act on its self interest. This method is however advantageous in that agencies are always ready with employees with special skills and expertise (Tanke, 2000). In regard to attracting the best talents to the organization, the HR head must adopt modern methods in the recruitment process. Some of the issues that could be a challenge to the HR department include language, culture, beliefs, political factors and ethic matters. The HR manager should make efforts to align the company culture with the Australian culture to make the recruitment process effective. Other issue such as the local laws and the accounting practices should also be taken into account in the recruitment process (Tanke, 2000). Counseling is one of the top issues that the HR department experiences. The business organization expects the HR department to effectively deal with the workers and provide them counseling in different matters. The possible solution of these matters is to have many employee and staff meeting and to enhance the concept of conference in the organization. Another method is to educate and provide guidance to new workers so they could better comprehend the business environment (Tanke, 2000). The issue that the HR department experiences is the employee management issues which includes the hiring of workers and building a proper work force for the firm. The staff recruit is a major issue for the HR department as they would be responsible for employee performance. The possible solution to employee management includes adjusting plans and strategies according to which workers are judged and hired, established on comprehensive entrance test to judge the ability of the workers. In addition the HR department carries out several interviews with the employees to judge their abilities before appointing them into any position in the firm (Kramar et al, 2011). HR department experiences several issues concerning the administrative policies of the business organization. The department has to maintain their own administrative strategies and also establish plans and strategies to properly administer the workers in the firm and make presentation and reports to the business organization about the workers and the achievements made. The possible solution to the problem is to constantly monitor and update the HR administrative strategies and assess the effect of the administrative policies on the workers and their performance. It is also necessary that the department evaluates whether the employees co-operation and satisfaction with the HR policy in policy (Kramar et al, 2011). The HR department is responsible for training employees in order to meet their training needs and ensure that they match with their roles and responsibilities in the work place. The HR department should devise training session using planned work patterns to appropriately educate the employee about business activity (Kramar et al, 2011). Establishing an effective HR system that can enhance the achievement of organizational goals is vital to the functioning and success of a company in the highly competitive business environment. In the vertical integration approach, HR department is given a supportive responsibility of taking care of staffing and training of personnel (Kramar et al, 2011). Emphasis is laid on the achievement of organizational objectives while the HR is viewed as a means of achieving them. The HR should thus focus on enhancing competencies and skills necessary to achieve the organizational goals. The goals are first established and broken down as department goals. In the recruitment and section procedures, the major issues are matching the selection policy with the overall strategy, assessing the internal personal flow to suit the emerging business trends and matching the main personal and business strategies (Kramar et al, 2011). Training is very important towards matching of both new and old employees to their duties in various positions in a company. It involves enhancing skills and competencies required in various positions. Emphasis should not be placed on individual development alone but on the skills required by the organization in general. The worker should be encouraged to learn how things are done in their respective job (Legge, 2004). Through this, they will be motivated and encouraged to maintain their positions in the company and thus minimize employee turnover. Strict control and deadlines should be kept to enhance productivity of the workforce. The HR head should set precise reporting procedures and ensure that the procedures are followed at all times by all the workers (Legge, 2004). Employee selection is the first step after employee recruitment. It is defined as the process of placing right people to the right jobs. It is a procedure of matching the company’s needs with the expertise and qualifications of the people. The appropriate selection can only be done only where there is effective matching. By selecting the best people for a particular job, the company will get quality performance of the staff. A mismatch between the employees and their roles and responsibilities in the work place will not occur. In addition, the organization will experience a reduction in absenteeism and employee turnover challenges (Paauwe, 2009). The firm will also save time and money by selecting the appropriate candidates for the jobs on offer. The appropriate screening of the candidates should be carried out by the HR department in the course of the selection process. All the potential candidates for a particular job should be tested. Employee selection should be differentiated from employee recruitment. Recruitment is taken to be positive process because it motivates more people to apply for a position. It establishes a pool of candidates because it is simply sourcing of data. Selection is a negative process as the less qualified candidates are dropped. Recruitment thus precedes selection in the staffing procedure. Selection entails choosing the best person with the best qualities, skills and expertise to fill a position. The selection process has six main stages; preliminary interviews, application blanks, written tests, employment interviews, medical examination and the actual appointment (Paauwe, 2009). The HR head should blend re-engineering with the management of the department to increase the probability of retaining employees in the department. Al normative models of HR management point out on the significance of organizational design. The head should advocate for the ‘soft’ HRM mode which emphasizes on job designs that promote the vertical and horizontal compression of tasks and larger worker autonomy (Paauwe, 2009). The redesign of work organizations is associated with high performing work systems and high commitment management. The man features emphasized by this form of management include decentralized decision-making to line mangers and work teams and less hierarchical management structures. The model also promotes the use of information and technology in management, strong leadership and a culture that orients the employees’ behavior towards the accomplishment of the goals and objectives of the firm (Paauwe, 2009). Conclusion The role of the HR head must adhere to the needs of the changing business environment. Successful businesses are those that adapt to the quick changing business environments and those that are customer oriented (Golding, 2010). This cannot be realized in any organization where there is poor matching of new employees to their responsibilities and high rates of employee turnover. The HR head must organize the department wisely through planning, organizing, leading and controlling the resources at the department while acknowledging the prevalent trends in the business environment. In the increasingly difficult labor market, right recruitment and selection strategies will assist firms win and talented employees. Talented employees will most likely match well with their new responsibilities and hence achieve the set objectives of the department as well as the entire firm (Armstrong, 2006). Appropriate job analysis leads to a good job description which can attract the appropriate personnel for a job. Sourcing is also important and is normally guided by the nature and capacity of the vacancy. Bibliography Armstrong, M. 2006. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (10th ed.). London: Kogan Page. Golding, N. 2010 "Strategic Human Resource Management" in Beardwell, J. and Claydon, T. (2010) Human Resource Management A Contemporary Approach, FT Prentice Hall. Harris, M.M. 2000, What is being measured? In Eder, R.W. & Haris, M.M. The Employment Interview Handbook, Sage, pp. 143-57. Kathy, M. & John, M. 2001. Designing and aligning an HR system. Human resource Management, 11 (2), pp. 57-72. Kramar, R., Bartram, T. & De Cieri, H. 2011. Human Resource Management in Australia- Strategy, People, and Performance (4* ed.), Sydney: McGraw-Hill. Legge, K. 2004. Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities (Anniversary ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan/ McCourt, W. & Eldridge, D. 2003. Global human resource management: managing people in developing an transitional countries, New York: Edward Elgar Publishing. Noe, R.A. 2000, Human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage, London: McGraw-Hill. Paauwe, J. 2009 'HRM and Performance: Achievement, Methodological Issues and Prospects' Journal of Management Studies, 46 (1). Sandra, W. 2002. Implementing cultural change through human resources: the elusive organization alchemy? Edinburgh: Napier University. Storey, J. 2007 "What is strategic HRM?" in Storey, J. (2007) Human Resource Management: A Critical Text, Thompson. Tanke, M.L. 2000. Human resource management for the hospitality industry, London: Cengage Learning Read More