Roles of Human Resource Management - Report Example

Roles of HRM Human resource management in an organization plays a number of crucial roles that see the smooth running of an organization at any given time. The roles are both supportive to the core functions of a business and can be independent, but all the same leading to the success of the business or organization. It is therefore important to look into the roles, where the first role is human resource planning in which the number and type of employees required to run certain duties and achieve the goals of the organization are determined. As such, human resource management ensures that the organization has an adequate number of employees to meet the demands of the organization based on ten level, skill and goals of the organization. Human resource management also plays a role in job analysis, where it looks at the specifics of the job and describes the nature of the job, as well as the human requirements that one should have in order to participate in the said job. This is important to the organization as it spells out what any given employee is expected to do as long as he or she is under the employ of the organization, and they gather information for the organization on the employees. The third role is staffing, where human resource management recruits employees after the job is analyzed and human planning are done, in reverse order. Recruiting draws suitable candidates interested in the job and evaluates them for the purpose of meeting the requirements of the job analysis, as well as human resource planning. In this case, human resource planning determines the goals and the people required to fulfill the tasks of the organization. With this in mind, job analysis is used to look into the staffing requirements in order for recruitment to occur successfully. In all the three roles discussed above, a number of roles remain affected by the influence of outsourcing and technology. First off, outsourcing affects the human resources planning role in an organization in that foreign organizations or subcontracted companies usually come in to conduct assessment and plan for the organization based on its needs and goals, as well as its power in terms of output. This is also affected by technology in that technology at times influences planning by eliminating the need for employees to fulfill certain tasks. Instead, technology is factored in to take over the roles that are usually conducted by employees leaving the slots redundant for human employment. Another role is affected by outsourcing and technology is staffing, where an organization does not directly seek to recruit and employ people to work for it, but instead go to staffing companies to recruit the best-suited employees for them. This is all based on the job analysis that they do, and that can be done by the same recruiting agency. Technology also takes over concerning staffing in that employees may need to be literate in certain fields of technology, as per the job analysis, making staffing a role affected by technology. Strategic human resource management Strategic human resource management is a key factor in business success owing to its relevance in meeting ten goals of an organization and its influence on the employees of the organization in question. Human resource management should be strategic in order to be aligned with the goals of the organization and to be integrated into the organization’s needs (Sluijs and Kluytmans, n.d). By having a strategic human resource management, an organization can plan its goals around the employees by basing everything it needs on the interdependence of top management and human resources. This way, the organization remains well informed on its own capabilities, and that which could be done to ensure the success of the organization. With this integration, strategic human resource management looks into the policies of the organization and tailors the human resource needs to be at par with all the goals of the organization. This is especially so in job analysis and staffing, where all recruitment and staffing is based on the goals and requirements of the organization, and evaluation is applied based on the same. This ensures that the organization monitors all the on-goings and potential improvements for the success or failure of its own operations. A strategic human resource management is also essential in organizational success since it looks into motivation and compensation issues, which seek to improve the overall performance of the organization. Gender based discrimination Gender-based discrimination in the work place is common in most cases, where it dominates many organizations, especially directed at women and not their male counterparts. Other than sexual harassment, there are different kinds of gender based discrimination issues that affect human resource in that they influence productivity and work ethics. One such issue is discrimination against certain genders in relation to being either male or female in that are denied employment in the organization. For example, women are largely not integrated into the labor market, which means that they find jobs with a lot of difficulty. In cases where women find work in these organizations, they are left to work as part times unlike their male counterparts who work on a full time basis. In addition, the wages or salaries for a similar amount of work done by both parties differs significantly in that one is lower than the others. This is especially so in the case where women have lower wages as compared to women in the workplace as they are paid at roughly between 50% and 65% of men’s wages. The issues of wages and lack of employment are two common gender based discrimination issues in organizations, without mentioning sexual harassment. There is legislation to cater for the issue of gender-based discrimination in the workplace, where legislation states that anyone discriminating against anyone in any way commits an unlawful employment practice. This puts federal law enforcement agencies on the case to investigate such incidences and come up with collective bargaining deals to ensure that they do not happen again (Bennett, 1992). Alternative work schedules Other than the conventional working schedules in the work place, there are alternative work schedules that vary largely. These exist for the purpose of efficiency and suitability to the business based on how it wishes to have its employees conduct business. One such alternative work schedule is flexible leave policies that allow workers to take their leaves on a flexible system. Such a system allows leave days to be accrued over a long time for both annual leave and sick days having worker use them as they see fit. Another system is one of compressed workweeks in which an employee works a full time schedule in fewer than five days, where an employee’s time is compressed into ten hours for four days in order to fill forty hours a week (Kossek and Michel, n.d). This creates an open day on either Friday or Monday, which they are off from work. Another alternative work schedule is the shift work in which employees work in shifts that are repeated throughout the day and have certain days off of work and is common in cases where the job involves 24/7 operations. The reason for the popularity of these alternative work schedules is the flexibility involved in that workers can choose and plan their time effectively, while the organization reaps the benefits in the form of efficiency and increased productivity as opposed to conventional schedules. Job satisfaction Job satisfaction refers to how contented an individual is with his or her job as they go about the process of executing their tasks and fulfilling their prescribed duties in an organization. On the other hand, organizational commitment is the product of job satisfaction, where an employee is satisfied or dissatisfied with his or her job, affecting how proud or how an organization stands in their view. This is concerning how much they are willing to do for the organization without receiving anything in return from the benefit of the organization. As such the two are related to each other a committed and satisfied workforce only works towards seeing that the organization moves from one height to the next in an upward trend since should the organization fail or be unsuccessful, the workforce is affected and in itself, it becomes unsuccessful. In addition, organizational commitment and job satisfaction are important in a workforce as it offers intrinsic motivation to work harder as opposed to people without job satisfaction. This translates to increased productivity and efficiency for the organization such that profits increase and wastage reduces, while accountability sees a rise (Celik, n.d). Employee engagement relates turnover in that it increases turnover by having employees enjoy their work, as they are involved in every aspect of their job. It also relates to turnover in that employees feel included thus they are satisfied in their job and are therefore committed to see the business succeed (Shore and Martin, 1989). References Sluijs, E. and Kluytmans, F. (n.d.). Business Strategy and Human Resource Management: Setting the scene. Retrieved from http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/rmpdf/1994/rm1994-036.pdf Bennett, M. (1992).Gender-Based Employment Discrimination in Japan and the United States. Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review. Vol. 15:149. Kossek, E. and Michel, J. (n.d.).Chapter 14: Flexible Work Schedules. Retrieved from http://ellenkossek.lir.msu.edu/documents/finalsept8newdoc.pdf Shore, H. & Martin, H. (1989). Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Relation to Work Performance and Turnover Intentions. Retrieved from http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~lshore/reprints_pdf/job_satisfaction_and_org_commitment.pdf Celik, C. (n.d.). Relationship of Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction: A Field Study of Tax Office Employees. Retrieved from http://ces.epoka.edu.al/icme/11.pdf Read More