The Underlying Value of Human Resource Management Activities - Literature review Example

People Resourcing Discuss and critically evaluate the extent to which effective training and development within an organisation can assist its people resourcing activities Many successful organisations are in continuous evaluation of their people resourcing activities to maximise the contribution of the resourcing function. They also do this to establish whether improvements could be made in the process and to demonstrate that their human resource management activities add value to their company (Taylor et. al, 2003). Effective training and development can be seen as one of the main tools used by organisations to assist in people resourcing activities such as recruitment, selection, giving equal opportunities, creating diversity, having flexibility in employment, establishing performance management systems, giving reward, improving retention and reducing absenteeism. The process of training and development within an organisation starts from the recruitment process where many organizations have pre developed training modules for their new hires to ensure that a candidate can adjust through their training program to company needs (Landale, 1999). In recent times, human resource development within many organisations has taken up a major role in the overall development of the firm. Key elements that have matured in the past decade in people resourcing have been flexible hours, flexible pay structures, performance evaluations and cultural development. However, without an organisation’s investment in human capital through training and development, key resources within an organisation could become stagnant and even be seen as useless over a period of time. Effective training and development within organisations has assisted people resourcing activities by delivering positive business objectives, achieving administrative excellence and acting as a champion for people management (Gilley & Eggland, 1989). Training and development within in organization is usually taken up to initiate performance improvement in an employee or a group of employees. It is further on used as a tool to benchmark the status of the effort initiated for performance improvement (Pilbeam & Corbridge, 1992). Once effectively completed within the framework of an overall professional development program, training and development rolls on to succession planning which can help employees to be earmarked as eligible for a better role within the company. More reasons to deploy a training and development program can include the testing of a new operations programme or a new management system or even to train individuals to handle a specific situation within the company (McLagan, 1989). Training and development encourages employee retention and cultural adaptability as the employees are given continuous exposure to new developments within the organisation that have either taken place, or about to be enacted by the management. Many organisations that develop in-house training programs for their employees do so to achieve two main goals. The first is to improve the level of employee retention through the acceptance of the cultural environment of the organisation. The second is to improve the skill set which the employees come with in order to make them more productive (Armstrong, 2000). To achieve these specific goals, core training can be tailored to enhance diversity as it can be considered a competitive advantage for the organisation. Diversity training may be used to make employees accept each others views and beliefs thus leading to less friction between employees and giving them common grounds to work towards the betterment of the company. Diversity gives them a new viewpoint with which they may give more value to different cultures around the world and respect how people may have different perspectives on the same topic. Training in diversity creates a more comfortable environment for the entire workforce and employees’ performance may be enhanced with reference to people resourcing (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2002). Diversity training can also be supported with communication development within the workforce where they can learn to adapt and accept a variety of languages and customs. Organisations are not just culturally diversified but have also become open to both the sexes especially when it comes to higher levels of management which were previously often largely dominated by men. However, with this diversity other issues such as sexual harassment or unequal salaries may be observed. Many successful organisations try to incorporate sexual harassment training into their core development programs to discourage inappropriate behaviours (Kirkpatrick, 1983). The aim for such diversity training is to overcome any hesitations in the environment of the workforce which may hinder performance of an employee. In essence, people have to be seen for what they are and what performance level they can give to the company rather than what stereotypes are seen about their gender. People resourcing can be improved for managers if they continue to recruit and to develop employees based on their performance alone and not gender based biases (Stout,1995). Therefore, people resourcing itself can benefit from gender sensitivity. The situation with regard to this particular issue has improved tremendously over the last decade as more female employees have been inducted into the workforce. Organisations functioning in the consumer market often have a higher focus on providing training for their employees with regard to ethics and customer services. Today’s society has growing concerns and expectations about corporate social responsibility and how corporate engage themselves in improving the world we live in. Societies may want organisations to take greater responsibility towards the development of ethical values and a positive culture. Society may also want the positive image of the company to be reflected in the campaigns and the products created by the company since they may greatly influence the population and their lifestyles (Stout, 1995). For example, an automobile which is more ecologically friendly would perhaps be preferred by society as compared to one which creates a higher level of pollution if other things remain equal. Corporate social responsibility and individual ethics along corporate ethics have been a thorny subject for many companies in the past. The case of Enron in America, stands as a prime example of what could happen if corporate mismanagement is coupled with individual greed which leads to many people losing what they thought were safe investments. However, with the legislative changes and laws being created today to handle such issues, the changes coming to the corporate world have been a learning experience for many global organisations (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2002). As this learning develops, people resourcing may allow those individuals who have a greater understanding of the laws and ethics involved to come to the forefront of a company. Additionally, training with regard to customer services allows employees to have a greater understanding of the vision of the company within the constraints of the environment it is placed in. In terms of people resourcing, it can empower an employee to give help to a customer as much as s/he can within the limits of the leeway allowed to them. Organisations also train their employees on computer information systems to use the deployed information management program. Development in human relations is made integral to assist employees in managing stress and time along with training in clearing misunderstandings and avoiding or coping with conflict. Quality initiatives are formed in regular training programs throughout the employee’s growth within the organisation to make assist him/her take initiatives in total quality management, quality circles and help the organisation in the benchmarking process of process evaluations (Landale, 1999). Safety issues are also critical where working with heavy or sensitive equipment or hazardous chemicals and repetitive activities is routine. Safety training also guides employees to avoid assaults and practical advise on personal security. All the above training and development assistance for people resourcing provide benefits such as increased job satisfaction and improved motivation. Employees show higher efficiency in company processes which lead to financial gains for the organisation (Taylor, 2003). Training increases the capacity of employees to adapt to new technologies and methods with progressive innovation in strategies and products. Development and hands on training reduces employee turnover while enhancing the image of the company in the society as well as for new applicants. Risk of losing employees due to harassments and misunderstanding or work pressure is greatly reduced as well. Although training and development is a critical tool to assist people resourcing and specifically reducing employee turnover and developing performance benchmarks, it has its limitations. Training has to accepted by the workforce as a serious opportunity for growth and a progressive chance to make the organisation and their work smoother and efficient (Landale, 1999). In organisations, training days can be taken up as casual days of work or even a vacation if training is in the shape of workshops outside office space. It is at many times necessary to develop the sense of training in employees before any developmental program can be conducted. Organisations at the recruitment stage look fro applicants with strong learning abilities and their will to pursue new tasks (Gilley & Eggland, 1989). Even though development at the adult stage may be relatively difficult for organisations to pursue, deployment of regular training programs within the organisation can actually set the minds of the employees towards taking it more seriously. The need for training and development within an organisation has to be mutual because there are some factors that limit the affect of training. Training and development takes up time and most importantly money. It is a financial investment for the organisation and the need for training and the value added to the organisation after training is not always quantifiable as a monetary gain to the organisation as a whole (Johansen et. al., 1996). A dollar in training may or may not result in a dollar outcome the next month, the year or the year after that. Managers would especially have a tough time quantifying training and development for organisational culture development- which does not enhance any skills but is focused to nurture a better environment in the office. The results of this type of training can hardly be seen right after training and often take a longer period of time. Organisations also have to make a choice to either train their existing employees or to hire a resource already trained for the skills that are required. Organisations may have to calculate long and short term financial gains associated with both the options. Although training may work for a general skill set as using a computer information system, it may not provide the same result for someone to learn to develop that system (Rouda & Kusy, 1995). Technical and specialised skills limit training and eventually a new recruit is hired to take the position in the organisation. Even though training needs may be justified and outcomes may be quantifiable, organisations still feel the loss of an alternative that they could have gained with the same investment in human capital (Taylor, 2003). A thousand pounds invested in organisational training could have yielded a higher return if the capital was used in a different process. Choices make the organisation go round- especially when, such as the case of training and development, the results cannot be put down as an amount in pounds. However, the other issue relating to training still persists. To pick the right trainer, with proper evaluations and follow up and to exactly benchmark the process for training remains in the hands of the trainee and the trainer. To know exactly the situation right now of the process for development and to be able to judge the best level to take the organisation to remains a tangible debate. Judging the levels of stress, harassment, acceptance and even employee loyalty towards company which leads to employee retention are not quantifiable. Although flexible hours and varied pay structures answer to many people resourcing problems they may also on the other hand create natural discrimination and professional zeal among employees (Kirkpatrick, 1983). Training for development in organisational cultural may at times sound to be good but it can also result in apprehensions in employees of unnecessary focus on one gender or a group of people form a different part of the world. Sexual harassment training is at times taken negatively and is associated with favouring the women, at times, in the organisation. Training and development to assist in people resourcing activities has to be systematic and focused on the true evaluation of the process at the time. Without the right skills and targeted investment in learning, an organization may not be able to compete successfully (Taylor, 2003). The solution to many resourcing problems may require an extensively researched learning needs analysis and may lead to prevention of any pitfalls in the skill shortages and revenues for the company. Training and development with its limitations, however is critical in motivating and retaining employees (Rouda & Kusy, 1995). Since reward structures and other performance evaluations can at times be qualitative and cannot be quantified, employees may at times feel not been appreciated for the work they are doing. This would make them feel dissatisfied and they will hold many grievances against the management or the organisation. Low moral in the workforce will lead to poor performance and financial loss to the company. It will also make the employee turnover to increase, thus weakening the image of the organisation (Landale, 1999). More importantly, with a high turnover of employees, the organisation will have to re-invest in any other training they had fostered to develop the human capital over this period of time. With existing employees exiting a company and new ones coming in frequently, an organisation cannot develop a culture as well along with failure in management and growth. Developments within organisation such as skill training, recognising rewards, culture development and others are based on the need that an employee stays with the company. If exits and entries of employees are repetitive over a short time period within the organisation all efforts for gains are lost. A training and development program that will ensure employee appreciation through rewards and growth must be tagged within organisations (Landale, 1999). Furthermore, at the stage of hiring, it should be ensured that the applicant has the aptitude towards the job description and his personality suits the tasks that follow. These factors should also be considered at the later stage when an employee is given additional responsibilities and made to take up a different role within the organisation. Training and development helps employees retain their position in the organisation. It acts as a counsellor to the employee where they can be exposed to different aspects of their work environment and the required skill set to perform well in their roles. It enables employees to develop kinship to their organisation that leads to loyalty towards the company. It is necessary that at an early stage of hiring an employee they are informed hat job role does not limit them or their potential as a person within or outside the organisation (Armstrong, 2000). Human capital should be developed and, subject to organisational policy, in a meaningful relevant way that they will enjoy and seek, as an individual, beyond the job role, and beyond work requirements (Taylor, 2003). Furthermore, if the workforce can be encouraged and provided facilities to learn on their own through research and mentoring programs, they can naturally be inclined towards fields of their choice. These techniques are helpful especially when an organisation may consider choosing from within to promote one employee from one department to lead some other department. When people are helped to be developed as leaders, a much stronger and coherent alignment is developed between their jobs and their lives. Through this, organisations can give more meaning for people to work and make their environment an opportunity to perform better in their tasks (Armstrong, 2002). Furthermore, through systematic and adaptive training and development methods, an organisation can also build and strengthen platform and readiness for any amount of skills, processes, and knowledge development that an organization will ever need. The training needs within an organisation may not just be focused on recruits. Recruiters such as Human resource managers and line managers have to be integrated in the same training as well. Training of management and recruiters may directly or indirectly impact the revenues for a company. This aspect of the training in people resourcing may heavily impact on the success of retaining employees and hiring most suited new ones. Better trained managers can also be helpful in minimizing any litigation or other legal issues that may reflect in a financial loss or a bad relationship among the employees and employers (Taylor, 2003). Furthermore, training the hiring managers and recruiters along with all members of the recruiting team to make them understand and evaluate real job needs is most important. It will make them understand that the company needs top talent and which types of skills will they be looking for in an interview process to match the job description. The recruiters can create a performance profile that Creating a Performance Profile that describes the key performance objectives of the position is the critical missing piece in most hiring programs. This gets recruiters and the hiring team on the same page. A Performance Profile is how to attract the best and assess their motivation to excel, based on evidence. It may only takes two core questions to accurately assess any candidate for any job, from entry-level to senior executive. Then they will get proven techniques to close more offers based on opportunity, not compensation (Taylor, 2003). If the basic skills and knowledge training is properly fused with performance based rewards and training through facilitated learning and development for the person that goes beyond work skills, it will help employees grow within the organisation as valuable assets (Kirkpatrick, 1983). Organisations helping their employees to identify, aspire to and take steps towards fulfilling their own personal unique potential develop their human capital to be successful and may enjoy higher financial gains in the long run. Word Count: 3,118 Works Cited Armstrong, M. 2002, Employee Reward, CIPD Publishing Armstrong, M., 2000, Strategic Human Resource Management, Kogan Page Gilley, J. & Eggland, S. 1989, Principles of Human Resource Development, Addison-Wesley Johansen, K., et. al. 1996, The Business Focus of HRD Leaders: a picture of current practice, 1996 Academy of Human Resource Development Conference, Kirkpatrick, D. 1983, A Practical Guide for Supervisory Training and Development, Addison-Wesley. Landale, A., 1999, Gower Handbook of Training and Development, Gower Publishing Ltd. Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., 2002, People Management and Development: Human Resource Management at Work, CIPD Publishing McLagan, P. 1989, ‘Models for HRD Practice’, Training and Development Journal, vol. 43, no. 9, pp. 49-59. Pilbeam, S., Corbridge, M., 1992, People Resourcing: Hrm in Practice, Financial Times/PrenticeHall Rouda, R. & Kusy, M. 1995, Needs assessment - the first step, Tappi. Stout, D. 1995, Performance Analysis for Training, Niagara Inc. Taylor, S. et. al. 2003, People Resourcing, Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development Read More