The Strategic Planning of an Organization and Human Resources Management - Essay Example

RUNNING HEAD: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT – RECRUITMENT Human Resource Management –Recruitment Submitted by: XXXXXXX Number: XXXXXXX of XXXXXXXX Introduction: Human resources plays a very important role in every business and if the finance if regarded as the heart of a company, the human resources can be referred to as the blood of the company. The strategic planning of an organization depends on the Human Resources Management to a great extent, as HRM plays an important role throughout the life span of an employee in the organization, including recruitment, training, development and retention. Human Resource Planning: Human resource planning is the process of ensuring that the right person is at the right job at the right time. According to Vetter, 1967, ‘the process by which management determines how the organization should move from its current manpower position to its desired position. Through planning, management strives to have the right number and the right kinds of people, at the right places, at the right time, doing things which result in both the organization and the individual receiving maximum long-run benefits’ (Jackson & Schuler, 1990). There have been several businesses in the current economic environment who have made several changes in the human resources being used within the company to ensure that there is no wastage of resources and better levels of cost cutting as well. As mentioned earlier, the human resource planning consists of four main steps these include, recruitment, training, development and retention. These are discussed in the following sections: Recruitment: A company having a strategic vision will require a continuous supply of resources (personnel). These needs are then communicated to the HR management as and when the requirements arise. A thorough job analysis is then conducted by the HR. (Bach, 2005). According to Barber (1998), effective recruitment is essential for an organization’s success, thus after the job analysis phase, the job specification or behavioural competencies are understood, and people with the appropriate skills who would meet the requirements are acquired. It is the role of the HR management to ensure that the resources recruited strategically fit into the organization and contribute positively towards achieving the strategic vision. Selection Process: Once the employers have advertised the job description and have received the applications from the prospective applicants, the next step for the employer is to decide the selection process to be used to choose the right applicant with the best skills and ability to fit into the company and adapt and accept the company’s culture and contribute to the company’s growth. While choosing a selection method the employers need to ensure the method is reliable, useful and valid. There are numerous different methods that can be used to select employees for a job however the most commonly and oldest method remains the interview. This is used alone or even in combination with additional methods (Shackleton and Newett, 1991). Pre Selection Methods: The first step of selection is normally where the company filters out from the received applications and CV’s. Most of the people are selected out of this process. The employer will need to use the CV’s which contains the applicants work history and past experiences. It is assumed that a person’s future behaviour can be predicted using his past experiences. This information is traditionally used in a subjective manner (Wingrove et al, 1984). This will help the employers filter the applications based on the experience, qualifications and other skills. These needs to be the first step to ensure the right candidates are selected for the next step which is interviews. Interviews: This forms the second step for the selection process. Interviews involve the employees and employers in a face to face meeting, where the employer can get a better understanding of the employees experience and the leadership qualities. The employers can use situational interviews which involve giving the employees with a hypothetical situation and asking for what the employee might do in the situation. This is very useful since it is assumed that intentions are good predictors of the behaviours (Latham et al., 1980). The responses are then graded by experts on a basis of one to five, one being poor and five being excellent. Apart from the hypothetical scenarios employers can ask questions based on the previous experience of the employees as well as what the employees can contribute to the company. Psychological testing: This is one of the most important selection steps and is getting very famous among almost every company. These tests are created to test the prospective employee’s general intellect, skills, analytical skills etc. This gives a clearer image of the employee’s abilities. These are the main steps that would require conducting as employers to ensure the right candidates are chosen for the position. A detailed question and answer session at the interview is the ideal way to select the candidate for the a job however this is different for different positions. Retention: Every organization, irrespective of the existence of a retention problem, should have a retention plan. In many cases the retention plan is developed by the Human Resources Management by collecting data from attitude surveys, salary surveys, training needs analyses and exit interviews (Heery and Noon, 2001). This way, the HR management ensures that the company does not lose any useful resources due to the oversight of the needs of the employees. Training and Development: As said earlier, it is essential that the employees recruited must strategically fit into the organization. The HR management devise the training methodologies and strategies, after careful consideration of the job specifications and the way in which the new employee will contribute towards the strategic goal of the organization (Reid and Barrington, 2001). It is the Hr management’s responsibility to “ensure the integration of personal and organizational development for employees” (Bach, 2005, p224). Keeping the employees motivated is a crucial element to ensure the success of the organization. The HR management acts as the medium giving many opportunities for the employees to develop themselves by acquiring new skills and engage themselves in the continuous learning process. Employee Performance Management: The role of HR does not stop with recruitment and training. The performance of the employee has to be continuously monitored in order to ensure that the hard working employees who have contributed to the company’s success are rewarded and are motivated to continue the good work. Looking at the process in a broader perspective, the main objective is to link the business strategy to job performance (Bach, 2005). Regulatory Compliance: The HR ensures that any employee is not affected by discrimination of any kind and is given all what he/she rightfully deserves. The employers are obliged not to discriminate and promote equality which is enforced by the HR management. This plays an important role in maintaining the corporate social responsibility of the employer (Heery and Noon, 2001). This will create a best employer image for the organization which is strategically important. Compensation and Benefits: Within the organizations, the management of reward involves two elements – reward decisions and reward processes. HR management has to make the key strategic decisions which concern the level and distribution of pay and also the extent and form of employee participation, training, monitoring and review (Heery and Noon, 2001). The modern HR department manages the reward practise in accordance with the competitive strategy and also supports the adoption of high performance work systems. Leadership in organisations: Over the years there have been a number of different approaches that have been developed by scholars to ensure better management of people at work. Every leader has an individual approach to managing their people. Famous psychologist and scholars have devised a number of different theories for leadership. One of the famous theories that have been derived is by Douglas McGregor. Douglas McGregor was an American social psychologist who believed that there are two ways of motivating people within an organization. Focusing on this he developed the theory X and theory Y, which has been used in the human resources management, organizational behavior and organizational development for years now. He introduced his theory in his book ‘The Human Side of Enterprise’ which was published in 1960. He maintained that there were two main ways of managing people. His theory acts as a reminder to the managers who under normal pressure forget the rules of managing people within an organization (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2004). Theory X: This theory assumes that an average employee: a) Do not like work and if given an option would prefer to avoid work, b) Do not have any ambitions, c) Do not want responsibilities, d) Prefer being lead than to lead, e) Are not open the changes, f) Do not care about the organisational goals and are very self-centred, and g) Are not very intelligent and thus can be very gullible. The theory was based on the main assumption that employees work only for money and security. This theory assumes that the people are extremely lazy and employees who fall in this are very concerned about self interest only (Bach, 2006). This mainly highlights that there exists two goals, one that is set down by the company and the other is the one set down by the employee. Hence the management is required to ensure that the employees work towards attaining the goals of the company rather than their own. This style is a combination of correctives and coercions. Theory Y: This theory assumes on the basis of the integration of individuals and organisational goals: a) Work is as natural as rest and play thus employees do not dislike work, b) If an employee is committed to a job they would be self motivated and self directed, c) Rewards plays a very important role and makes people more committed when higher needs are fulfilled, d) With all the above factors employees will seek responsibilities, e) Almost every individual can handle responsibility since ingenuity and creativeness is common. These goals allow employees goals to be in line with the goals of the organisation. McGregor also emphasised on the fact that some people are not mature enough to meet up to that assumed within the theory hence a hard approach is used until the employees reach the level of maturity. This method as seen is a complete opposite of the previous theory (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2004). It is believed in this method that every person has a different mode of working, and different style, hence it is up to the manager to allow the employees to work as per their desire as long as the end product is in favour of the company and its progress (Bach, 2006). Conclusions: This paper has touched upon some important aspects of human resource management and has dealt with important topics like human resource planning which indeed is the most essential step for any company. The paper has also provided a through insight into the other duties and roles of the human resource management team. As seen in the above discussion the role of human resource management is very high in every company. The success of a company is directly dependent on the performance of the employees and the right choice of employees can take the company a long way and can provide the company with excellent results. The most essential aspect of any human resource management team is to ensure that the recruitment of the employees is effective and efficient. As explained earlier, effective recruitment is essential for an organization’s success, thus after the job analysis phase, the job specification or behavioural competencies are understood, and people with the appropriate skills who would meet the requirements are acquired. The recruitment process to a great extent is one of the basic and most essential roles of human resource management. Bibliography Bach, S., 2005, Managing Human Resources, 4th edn, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford Barber, A., 1998, Recruiting Employees: Individual and Organizational Perspectives, Thousand Oaks, CA Buchanan D. and Huczynski A., 2004, ‘Organizational behaviour’, 5th edn, Prentice Hall, Essex Heery, E. and Noon, M., 2001, A Dictionary of Human Resource Management, 1st edn, Oxford University Press, New York Jackson, S.E., & Schuler, R. 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