Evaluation of Human Resource Management - Coursework Example

Evaluation of Human Resource Management Introduction Human resource management is one of the key elements why a company still functions smoothly together with its employees. It has various roles that are very essential in improving the performance of a company. Hiring employees for different departments in the company is one of the key roles human resource management is doing. They are the ones who decide whether to seek help from independent contractors or directly hire employees. Human resource managers should make sure that the employees they are hiring are the cream of the crop or best of the bests. It is their responsibility to sort out people and make sure they hire the ones capable of contributing to the company. After hiring these employees, it is their role to improve the performance of the staff and make sure that their contribution to the company gets larger and larger as they prolong their stay in the entity. Moreover, the management should also make sure that the employees they hired abide by the rules set by the company and to know the demands of these employees to avoid conflict against the company. Aside from employee selection and hiring, the human resource management is also responsible for the benefits and compensation each and every employee is entitled of. The management has to make sure that they meet the needs of these personnel to avoid labour unions forming that ought to go against the company policy. According to McNamara [2005], small scale businesses do not usually have their own human resource management because they cannot afford to acquire either part-time or full-time help from independent contractors. These small scale businesses do the function and activities of the human resource management on their own. The managers of these small businesses have to monitor the employees they hired and make sure they follow the rules and regulations. Although they are small-sized businesses, it is also their responsibility to provide employee’s manuals to their staff to let them know the rules and policies and the rights that they are entitled of. In addition to what McNamara [2005] said, the human resource management have undergone some big changes over the past 20 to 30 years. Before, the human resource department was even called personnel department, which is in charge of just the employee paper works, hiring and giving salaries to personnel. However, drastic changes occurred which improved and gave a bigger responsibility to the management. This big change include staffing, personnel management, giving out extensive training to the employees, and ensuring that these personnel give out their maximum capability in fulfilling their jobs in the company. Although the human resource management performs a very difficult and essential task in the company, officers and departments with higher ranks ought to distribute the responsibilities of the management to the personnel’s different managers and perform their own process of improving their staff per department. This issue will be tackled thoroughly in this paper. What this paper aim to articulate is the high importance of having one department that is centrally responsible for the people development of all the employees in a company. To clearly explain the importance of the management, the vital roles of the human resource management will be discussed in the following sections. Human Resource Managent’s Vital Roles In a large company where they require a department which works to improve the over-all performance and satisfy the demands of the company when it comes to hiring people is the human resource management. Their role in making the company successful is very important for it is them who discretely build the company’s reputation by sorting out the best employees from the average. They do several processes that are essential in screening out and satisfying the demands of the employees they will hire. The following is the process they do in order to have quality employees that are capable of contributing to the company. Applicant Screening by Interviews. This activity is intended to gauge the future performance and capabilities of prospective personnel by asking some questions that are related to their personality and how this personality would fit to perform in the company [www.hr-guide.com, 2006]. Doing this activity will be quite advantageous for the company since it will help determine the abilities of the incoming employee and how large the contribution they can give to the business. It can also be used to measure the job knowledge of an applicant and what is the edge they have that other applicants do not have. In a job where it requires a lot of people relations, the communication and verbal fluency can be tested in doing the interview. However, it will be a little disadvantageous for in interviews, personnel who perform the activity might form stereotypes and against applicants. Since that interviews are subjective, it is not much reliable than tests that can also be given to the applicants. If this activity will be done by different departments who are in need of new employees, there will be inconsistencies when it comes to the hiring method of the whole company for it will be the different managers who carried out the activity. Inconsistencies in the interview performed and the evaluation done towards the applicant for the different managers have not undergone the same training received by the human resource managers tasked to perform interviews to the applicants. Personnel Selection. In personnel selection, it is typically done by using instruments such as work sample tests. In conducting this test, an applicant is required to undergo a certain simulation where the applicant will be faced with challenges and environment where they will be pseudo working as an employee to test their ability and capability in working in the company. An advantage of using this test is the high reliability of the result by letting the applicants experience the true working environment of the company. The accuracy of their ability to perform the job they are tasked to do is very high since the applicants cannot fake their performance and knowledge of the job. However, in using this type of test in selecting personnel appropriate for the company, it will be very costly for the company because they will be using a lot of materials to conduct this examination. The total performance of the applicant will not be measured by this test, especially if the task requires days to be accomplished [www.hr-guide.com, 2006]. Giving this task to the different department will not be as efficient as the execution of the human resource department. It is because of the time requirement to do this test. It will be very time consuming especially if the task requires long hours. Every department should focus on their field of expertise and testing the capability of the applicants is under the expertise of the human resource management. It is their responsibility to carefully select the applicants and designate them to the department where they will be most fruitful. That is the main function of the human resource managers, to provide the best employees to the department and give them a pool of great choices. Personnel Assessment. This type of activity differs in many ways. According to www.hr-guide.com [2006], this is a tool used in assessing applicants or employees regarding their career-related qualities to measure and test their behaviour and personality. Personnel assessment can be used in selecting, hiring, promoting, and training. Moreover, this assessment is also designed to gauge the values and capabilities of the personnel when it comes to the work environment of the company. Prediction of individual performance, longevity of residency in the company, potential in holding a managerial position, and satisfaction in the position they have will also be detected in using the personnel assessment tool. For the human resource management to perform this, they require several materials and skills. They have to perform observation to the applicants and employees, device different tests to measure their ability and capability, sift resumes and pick the applicants who they observed to be more competent against others, and perform medical exams and measure their physical capacity. If these tests and assessment will be done different per department, it will show inconsistencies in the company’s strategy of hiring personnel. Same as interview, department will acquire different method and use different tests different from other departments which may result in different qualities of employees getting hired. The process of hiring will not be uniformed in all departments of the company. There will be difficulties in the over-all assessment of the company when there are some employees who do not adhere to the qualifications the company require. Job Evaluation. Another task that is given to the human resource management is the job evaluation of the employees. Although it is the simplest to administer, sometimes it is hard to evaluate the employees according to their over-all worth to the company. It varies depending on their effort exerted in their job, their skills contributed to the company, the responsibility they are holding and how good they handle the responsibilities given to them by the executive officers. It will be very effective especially if the jobs under evaluation are just a small number [www.hr-guide.com, 2006]. On the other hand, it will be very difficult to assess individual performance because it can be subject to the human resource manager who is evaluating and the biasness they have towards a particular employee. Moreover, there is no benchmark where they can compare and contrast a performance of an employee. Therefore, they just use the past performances of other employees and compare the new performance to the others which are repeated for so many times already. Job evaluation can also be done by the employees’ respective departments. It will be a lot easier if the job evaluation will be done by the department heads because they have the most time to observe the work of their own subordinates. Although the human resource management can also perform this task, it will be more efficient giving this task to someone who is closer personally to the work environment of the employee under evaluation. By doing so, the department heads can give their evaluation to the human resource department Quality Assurance of Employees. The human resource management are responsible for keeping the standards of the employees in their companies. Quality assurance in terms of the employees is the continuous maintenance of the personality and workmanship of employees and their relationship to co-workers. The management should make sure that all the employees’ vision and mission are in line with the company’s own vision and mission. They are also responsible for the honesty and integrity of the employees that their company is paying. Theft and other forms of crime and misbehaviour against the company should be well monitored to keep the harmony of the workers in the company. It is very essential to keep the trust of the directors and heads of the company to their employees for them to work in sync and reach the goal of the company. In addition to the honesty and integrity exams applicants and employees should undergo, other human resource management also require the applicants and employees to have certain education and experience requirements. To maintain professionalism in the company, the department usually require applicants who finished a certain level of education or acquired a license in practising their profession. Experience in the job is also a big plus when it comes to measuring the ability and productivity of the applicant. By earning a number of years in work experience, it will be a lot easier for the human resource management to sift through the applicants and pick those that will maintain the quality the company requires to its employees. Leaving this responsibility to the managers of different departments might be a bit advantageous but will also be problematic. Advantageous in a way that they will be more sophisticated in picking out the prospective addition to their team; they are more knowledgeable when it comes to assessing the past working experience their department requires. However, inconsistency still plays a big role in giving out this task to the different department managers. Not only will inconsistency arise, it may also cause biasness in the employees they will hire. Department heads may be a little biased in picking out applicants who are not included in their departments’ stereotypes. CONCLUSION In a large-scale business, it is a requirement to have its own human resource management. This department is an essential tool in getting the best of the bests from the large pool of potential employees. With the skill human resource managers have, it will be a lot easier for the company to complete their roster of the best employees according to the quality they set for their company. Without the human resource management, it will be difficult for them to manage and monitor the improvements and contributions of the employees to the company. In addition, it is the responsibility of the human resource management to ensure the employees of the compensation and benefits that they will receive given that they perform well. Aside from the department heads, it is the human resource department who gives incentives to the employees to strive harder to further improve their performance in the company. It is them who are responsible for conducting tests and assessments in the promotion of employees and selection of applicants. Using their skills, they can train the employees to be more productive to reach the goal of the company. To conclude, it will be very difficult for the other departments to perform the task assigned to the human resource management for they are not appropriate to manage the employees especially if the department are not doing the same role as the human resource. For example, the marketing department would be dealing with other concerns such as looking for sponsors and developing strategies to make their campaign more effective. They are not much involved in employee satisfaction but are more inclined to perform activities that will satisfy the consumers and stakeholders of their company. References Black, B, [1999]. National culture and high commitment management. Employee Relations. 389-404. HR Guide [2006]. Retrieved on January 19, 2008 from http://www.hr-guide.com. Human Resource Management [2008]. 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