Human Resources Planning Recruitment and Deployment - Case Study Example

Case Study: Aerospace Components Ltd (ACL) Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Overview 3 Task 4 Factors Related To the Provided Scenarios 4 Task2 6 Critical Evaluation of the Choice of Human Resource Policies 6 6 Benefits of Successful Implementation of HR Policies 9 Task 3 13 Barriers to the Implementation of the New Strategies 13 Measures To Overcome the Barriers of the Implemented Strategies 13 References 16 Task 4 20 Overview The Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) refers to the process of implementing human resource strategies in relation to the business strategy to attain pre-determined goals. This process involves strategic planning, and it is an integral part of human resource management. SHRM is the process which creates a link between the strategic objectives or goals and the human resource to enhance the performance of the business and the culture of the organisation. It also helps to improve the competitive advantage and the flexibility of the business to attain the organisational objectives through recruiting, selecting, training, and rewarding a person (Schuler & Jackson, 2009). The major objective of the study is to highlight the different concepts of SHRM and the various factors related to SHRM in the context of the case study of Aerospace Components Ltd (ACL). The study would include an analysis of the concepts of SHRM. The paper would also include successful implementation of the HR policies and strategic human resource management. Task 1 Factors Related To the Provided Scenarios The Strategic Human Resource Management is a function of utilising human activities in a strategic manner with various modes of strategic planning. To pursue this method, the human resource managers need to be trained enough and should be efficient. There are certain factors which impact the practice of the SHRM process and these factors also relate to the scenario four (The HR Department) and five (HR Practices) of the case study. The factors are as follows: Competency of Human Resource Manager Competency is one of the qualities that a manager needs to possess. A human resource manager should comprise due competency regarding the business, the change management process and also regarding human resource management. The human resource manger should focus on the various HRM factors such as, recruitment, selection, training, appraisal and compensation among others. While focusing on the business the human resource manager should focus on the various strategies and planning. In case of change management process within the organisation, the human resource manager should focus on the several changes brought into the business process or within the organisation (Civil Service Branch, 1995). In relation to the case study, the HR manager was not efficient enough to perform the HR jobs and she had failed to work on the given HR policies and also the payroll activities. Finally, another person had to be selected for the the post of the HR manager. Education of Human Resource Management The human resource managers are required to be well educated. They should have adequate diploma or degree with valid certification. The qualification and the education of the human resource manager affect the SHRM practices at various levels. The proper education of the HR manager reflects the quality, the experience, the attitude as well as the efficiency towards work of the HR manager. ACL has suffered for the inefficiency of the HR manager as the designated person has shown her fear and incompetency towards work and the HR manager of ACL had always ignored the given responsibilities to her. These can emanate as a reason of her lack of education and competence towards handling such a scenario in the organisation (Civil Service Branch, 1995). Experience of Human Resource Manager The experience of the human resource manager also influences the SHRM practices. The HR managers should have certain experiences in the field of human resource and also regarding employee management. It helps the human resource managers to practice SHRM effectively. The experience of the HR managers matters a lot in case of performing HR jobs. In the given case study, the HR department of the company was ineffective due to the inefficiency of the HR manager to handle the HR policies of the company. She was not even able to handle the payroll activities. The less experienced HR managers would affect the organisational activities as well as the human resource management (Civil Service Branch, 1995). Age of the Human Resource Manager The age of the human resource manager is also an important factor. The human resource management process focuses on the age of the manager. It has certain scales of performance and responsibilities based on the age of the human resource manager. The age of the HR manager reflects the performance and the efficiency to work within the organisation. In relation to the case study it would not be wrong to suggest that the HR department was not enough effective to perform better HR function. The organisation did not have much balance regarding the age of the employees. The employees of the age group 50-60 would possess better experience of work though with lesser efficiency and the young age group of employees would be more energy efficient. ACL has a major proportion of employees who are 50-60 years or more which would allow the organisation to be less efficient in case of performance compared to the young employees of the organisation (Civil Service Branch, 1995). Task 2 Critical Evaluation of the Choice of Human Resource Policies The HR policies are diverse for different organisations. There can be several different HR policies in an organisation. The HR policies includes aspects like, recruitment, training and development, travel plan, leave, grievances, office management, attendance, administrative procedures, and working hours and days among others (McConnell, 2005). Recruitment Recruitment is the process of hiring people for an organisation according to the organisational need. A company has its own hiring department and hiring managers to employ people for the company based on the specified qualifications, quality, potential and efficiency (Association of College and Research Libraries: Ad Hoc Task Force on Recruitment & Retention Issues, 2002). Leave Leave is the process when an employee takes a break from the regular working hours. It leads to absenteeism of that particular employee. An employee can take leave from the organisation based on the company policies (McConnell, 2005). Office Management Office management involves various activities within the office such as employee’s performance, employee’s behaviour, office rooms, office documents and its uses and the maintenance within the office territory (Schneier & Jackson, 1994). Training and Development Training and development enhances the performances and the skills of the employees. It also increases the knowledge of the employees regarding new and existing matters. Proper training method helps the candidates or the employees to cope up with the company policies, procedures and the work culture (Schneier & Jackson, 1994). Working Hours and Days Working hours and days determine the time period of work for every individual in an organisation. The employees are expected to work on the determined working days within the given working hours according to the company HR policy (Business & Legal Reports, Inc., 2006). In relation to the given case study, it can be noticed that the scenario 1 (management style) includes the undisciplined working habits and working hours of the employees. According to the scenario, the employees play football at the workplace within the working hours. The company should also apply certain strict rules and regulations for the employees who would fail to reach the determined target of their performance in the company. The company should also apply certain disciplinary actions against the misbehaviour of the employees as it was found that the employees of the given company steal office products for their personal use (Business & Legal Reports, Inc., 2006). The other scenario is the scenario 2 (Flexibility), where it was identified that the employees of the company is not well trained and were not even prepared for the job rotation within the organisation. In case of holidays and sickness of the employees, the company has no probation of rotating the job responsibility from one to the others. Every single employee has their own work stations and machines but they are not trained enough for the emergency purposes where one employee can work on other’s machine. It hampers the flow of work within an organisation. In relation to these problems, the company should introduce certain policies regarding training and development for the employees to learn out of their assigned job responsibilities. There should be certain rules in relation to the leave of the employees so that an employee cannot take leave without informing the company. The implementation of the stricter rules would enable to reduce the rate of leaves taken by the employees (Kouhy & et. al., 2010). Benefits of Successful Implementation of HR Policies An effective strategic management involves four stages of planning of the human resource functions of an organisation. The four discrete stages are as follows: environmental scanning or situational analysis, demand forecasting of the human resource, supply analysis of the human resource and developing the plans to take actions regarding gaps between demand and supply of the human resource (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2008). The first stage of the planning process identifies a particular situation or an environment and its threats and opportunities. The human resource planning should always consider the circumstances of the particular environment. In the second stage of the human resource planning, an organisation should focus on the demand forecasting of the customers and the organisation should also hire workers based on those forecasts. The SHRM also focuses on the quality and the skills of the labour. It should also include the effective recruitment of the staffs, which is certainly a tough job, especially in a dynamic business environmental situation. The next stage of SHRM planning is to identify the pattern and the amount of the present employees regarding their knowledge, skills and quality to utilise them for the company benefits as well as for the outsourcing of the skilled labours. SHRM maintains an inventory of skills. This inventory includes the characteristics, knowledge and the names of people for the internal supply of labours. And the fourth stage is to identify the gap between the demand and the supply of the workers in the future. In the fourth stage, SHRM takes necessary actions to fill this gap. An organisation faces a problem when the demand of workers is higher than the supply of workers and the organisation has to make the existing workers work even after their working hours. In this case, ACL needs to hire new people to overcome the tough situation (George Fischer Ltd, 2007). There are certain procedures which can be implemented to have an effective strategic human resource management. The procedures involve strategic fitness, where the strategic planning of the human resource should match the business planning of an organisation. It also includes the high performance management, which involves the better performance of the labours with regard to quality, productivity, and growth and customer services. Next procedure is the high commitment management, which includes better commitment among the employees and the officials. The other procedure is the high involvement management. In this procedure, a company ensures the involvement of the employees in various matters within the organisation. It provides a desirable ambience where the employees and the managers can share their opinions regarding organisational matters (Alok, 2006). The HR policies contain the various factors such as recruitment, training and development, office management, attendance and leave among others. All these policies would help the given company the opportunity to evaluate the performance of the employees by implementing these policies. These policies would help to enhance the skills and the knowledge of the employees. These policies would also help to make the employees disciplined and committed towards their work. ACL would get the assistance from the HR policies to increase the value of the strategic planning and the performance level of the human resource of the company (Bach, 2000). In ACL, they had a misbalance of the demand and the supply of their workers. The potential the company was not meeting the requirements of the company. Aerospace did not even focus on the proper analysis of the situation or the environment of the workplace. The company was running losses due to the improper activities of SHRM such as they had no involvement of the employees in any kinds of decisions. The company did not have good relations among the employees and the managers. The performance of the employees of the company was not at all helping the organisation and its need; rather it was hampering the both. By implementing the above mentioned HR policies to ACL, the company can overcome the given problems regarding the organisational activities related to the human resource management. These policies would also help in increasing the strategic objectives and the planning of the human resource (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2010). HR policies offer an accessible link between the human resource management and the strategy of the business. The HR policies would help ACL to analyse and to identify the threats and the opportunities from the external sources which can be harmful or beneficial to the company and its performance. Good HR policies would help the company to provide with strong business strategies and would also help to have a clear vision for the future. HR policies help an organisation to enhance the competitive intelligence which is helpful to generate strategic plans for a business. It also benefits in recruitment, in motivation and in retention of people. With the help of good HR policies, the company can retain and improve the level of competent labour. It helps to address the development related issues in a systematic way. The HR policies help to provide useful information related to the company and regarding its weaknesses and strengths. It also helps in meeting the customer’s expectations effectively. HR policies assure to obtain high productivity and it also assists in ensuring the business related surpluses with the help of competency (Schindler, 2012). Task 3 Barriers to the Implementation of the New Strategies There are several barriers which an organisation face to implement various strategic activities. The barriers include poor relationship among different levels of the human resource, the poor adaption of the new strategies and poor adaptability towards the new methodology among others. The strategic implementations regarding human resource is completely performed by the upper level of the management. Due to the incompetency of the managers at senior level, a company would face difficulties to take proper strategic plans. ACL would face several problems if there is no effective union for the workers in an organisation. Rapid changes in the structures of ACL would lead to certain problems (ADP, 2007). Measures To Overcome the Barriers of the Implemented Strategies There are certain measures to cope up with the barriers of the implemented strategies. ACL would face problem regarding their human resource management due to implementation of new strategies. Certain strategies and policies have been proposed to the company to overcome those problems. Certain measures are taken to overcome the barriers such as proper HR practices within the organisation. Also the role of the HR manager has to be improved to prevent all kinds of barriers and issues regarding HRM. Implementation of the HR Practices to Prevent Barriers The best practices of human resource comprise certain factors such as, compulsory meetings with the managers of various departments and the producers. The human resource practices involve compulsory and planned meetings with the managers and the producers regarding the needs related to the performances, the training and the development of the workforce of the organisation. Recruitment is also a part of the HR practices which involves the idea of hiring an appropriate candidate according to the needs. The best HR practice includes the management style of open book, where the managers share all kinds of financial contracts and the information with their employees so that the employees get aware of the decisions taken. It also helps the employees to learn the business and its procedures. The other practice of HR is paying bonuses to the employees or similar kind of compensations to motivate and to encourage them for their given performances, which would benefit the company to get better performances from the employees in the future. 360 degree feedback of the performance management is the other practice of human resource, which involves the feedback of the employee performances from the superior and vice-versa which is considered as one of the best methods to get the best out of the employees regarding performances and their skills. Feedback from the seniors, either teaches the employees about new methods and procedures or it motivates the employees to do better in the future. All these practices of human resource make the implementation of SHRM effective (Escola Nacional De Administracao Publica, n.d.). In ACL, the management style has no involvement of the employees. The organisation has no proper training for their employees. The company is also lacking feedbacks to the performance of the employees. One of the reasons for ACL to face huge losses and employee turnovers was lack of interesting compensation structure for the employees. They did not even have any mandatory meetings among the producers and the managers. All these factors caused real problems to the company. It would not be wrong to say that ACL can surely improve in future with the help of proper implementation of HR practices within the organisation (Deb, 2006). References Alok, D., 2006. HR Planning, Recruitment And Deployment (Challenges Related To Recruitment Policies, HR Policies And Practices). Background. [Online] Available at: http://www.m2iconsulting.com/Documents/HR%20Issues.pdf [Accessed January 09, 2012]. Association of College and Research Libraries. Ad Hoc Task Force on Recruitment & Retention Issues, 2002. Recruitment, Retention, And Restructuring: Human Resources In Academic Libraries. Association of College & Research Libraries. ADP, 2007. Overcoming the Barriers to Strategic HR Management. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://www.adp.com/tools-and-resources/case-studies-white-papers/~/media/MASWhitePapers/MASWhitePapersProtected/ADP_StrategicHR_WP.ashx[Accessed January 09, 2012]. Business & Legal Reports, Inc., 2006. 5 Tips for Creating HR Policies That Hold Up in Court. Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Bach, S., 2000. Hr and New Approaches to Public Sector Management: Improving HRM Capacity. Workshop on Global Health Workforce Strategy. [Online] Available at: http://www.who.int/hrh/en/Improving_hrm_capacity.pdf [Accessed January 09, 2012]. Civil Service Branch, 1995. Human Resource Management. Publication. [Online] Available at: http://www.csb.gov.hk/english/publication/files/e-hrmguide.pdf [Accessed January 09, 2012]. Deb, T., 2006. Strategic Approach to Human Resource Management. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. Department of Practice Learning, 2005. Using a Model of Reflection. Skill for Success. [Online] Available at: http://www.health.bcu.ac.uk/dpl/nursing/Placement%20Support/Model%20of%20Reflection.htm [Accessed January 09, 2012]. Escola Nacional De Administracao Publica, No Date. The Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management on Organisational Success: The Public Sector and Multiple Goals. Abstract. [Online] Available at: http://www2.enap.gov.br/mesa_redonda/downloads/daley_vasu.mpsa02_PPM.pdf[Accessed January 09, 2012]. George Fischer Ltd, 2007. Human Resources Policy. Public. [Online] Available at: http://www.georgfischer.com/public/leitbilder/human_resources_policy.pdf [Accessed January 09, 2012]. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2010. Human Resource Management Strategy. Executive Summary. [Online] Available at: http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/annual09/MAA0003409p.pdf [Accessed January 09, 2012]. Kouhy, R. & et. al., 2010. Management Accounting, Human Resource Policies and Organisational Performance in Canada, Japan and the UK. Butterworth-Heinemann. McConnell, J. H., 2005. How to Develop Essential HR Policies and Procedures. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2008. Human Resource Policy Guidelines. Policy. [Online] Available at: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/hr/policy/HRPolicyGuidelines.pdf [Accessed January 09, 2012]. Schuler, R. S. & Jackson, S. E., 2009. Strategic Human Resource Management. John Wiley & Sons. Schneier, C. E. & et. al., 1994. The Training and Development Sourcebook. Human Resource Development. Schindler, 2012. Schindler Group Human Resources Policy. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://www.schindler.com/group_kg_chr_hrpolicy.pdf [Accessed January 09, 2012]. Task 4 In relation to the above study, I would like to state that I have got significant support, motivation and guidance from my tutor while preparing the paper. My tutor has helped me with the guidance to collect different sources and references to follow and it was of immense help to me. I would like to acknowledge my tutor for the encouragement given to me, as it was impossible to prepare the paper without the guidance provided by my tutor. Alike the guidance from the tutor and the feedback provided for the proposal also helped me to improve the quality of my study. The overall learning, which I have obtained from the assignment, has developed my idea about the topic of the paper. The strategies I have followed in preparing the paper, can somehow relate with the Gibb’s Reflective Model. Source: (Department of Practice Learning, 2005) To prepare the study, in the process of development of the action plan, I have collected various sources like journals, books and scholarly articles. I have gone through the topic of the paper and also studied various journals and books regarding human resource management. At the initial stage, I was a little confused regarding the process to follow in preparing the assignment. With the help of my tutor, I have developed an outline for the paper and then studied the various sources to get a clear idea about the factors relating to the assignments. I have analysed the factors and their implications in the field of human resource and evaluated those factors. This paper helped me to learn about various aspects regarding strategic human resource management. The assignment also helped me to increase my confidence and to improve my analytical power. Read More