Human Resources Project - Research Proposal Example

Human Resources Project: Parts 2 I.D. of the Human Resources Project: Parts 2 Project Part 1. After rigorous library and Internet research, I found the HR policies of Nestle Waters North America quite thought provoking. In the view of the HR policy statement of the selected company, I think that some underlying principles defining the statement are quite obsolete. The website of the company provided some critical human resource (HR) policy information (Nestle Waters NA 2006). This information can be used to understand the career opportunities in the company. A deeper analysis reveals that the HR policies are guided by the main HR policy statement of Nestec Ltd (2002). This is the Nestle Human Resources Policy, implemental to all subsidiaries of the company including those in USA. 2. The company is Nestle Waters North America, and its HR policies appear to be based on the Nestle Human Resources Policy document. I think some updating is needed for this set of HR policies. 3. In order to update the set of HR policies of Nestle Waters North America to optimize its North American operations flexibly with respect to the main policy framework of Nestec Ltd, it is mandatory to embark on a qualitative research followed by a number of activities for drafting and proposing some viable HR policy updates. The activities are described below: I. Interview of the current employees II. Interview of and discussion with the HR managers III. Analysis of current policies with regard to existing academic and business literature IV. Preparation and presentation of the new and/or updated policies in a proposal format V. Briefing the top HR managers 4. In this section, a proposal that describes the types of policies that are to be prepared and/or changed will be discussed. A close examination of Nestle Waters NA’s (2006) HR policies reveals that they are highly dependent on the HR policy manual of Nestec Ltd. First of all, one of the biggest drawbacks of these policies is that they put certain restrictions on the role of the HR managers. According to Nestec Ltd (2002, p. 4), “HR managers and their staff are there to provide professional support in handling people matters but should not substitute themselves to the responsible manager.” This sort of approach is rather traditionalistic. The second point is that Nestle Waters NA (2006) maintains strict control over its all hiring and training operations. However, relatively recent experience of certain companies shows that outsourcing the HR responsibilities can bring about more concentration on the vertical specialties of the company (Tornbohm and Da Rold 2005). So these two HR approaches need to be changed. A tentative timeline of the proposed HR policy updating and implementation task is provided in Table – 1. Table – 1 A Tentative Timeline of HR Policy Update and Implementation Program Task Time Task – 1: Interview of current employees (at least 20 to 30 employees randomly selected) 7 days Task – 2: Interview of and discussion with the company’s current HR managers. This will involve one to one interaction 7 days Task – 3: Existing policies are to be analyzed. This will involve correlating the existing practices with external case studies as available in different business journals, magazines, etc. 4 days Task – 4: Preparation and presentation of new policies (final draft) 3 days Task – 5: Briefing the HR managers before the plan is rolled out. 2 days Total time taken +2 reserve days to compensate loss of time (if any) in the course of the project Total 3 weeks and 4 days (approx) Project Part 2 Updating the existing HR policies First, HR managers must not be constrained in their HR specific roles only with such a strict regulatory approach. At the first place this makes the hierarchic system of the corporation too strong. The HR managers must be given some of the company’s specialties based training. For example, HR managers can be given some basic training on mineral water processing and manufacturing at Nestle Waters North America. This will help them in personnel management better. Next, it should be clearly understood that there are various roles that are assigned to an HR manager in a large company like Nestle (Brooks and Nafukho 2006; Nestle Waters NA 2006). So Nestle can now remove some of these responsibilities. The recruitment process is a task that can be delegated to some outsourcing company specialist in this field. Why these policies are chosen? These policies are chosen because the company is making its HR processes to specific. A direct consequence is that an HR manager at the company may remain unaware about the real life problems that might be faced by a worker at the bottling plant or research lab. So company specific process optimization training must be made mandatory for the HR managers. Inducting at least some degree of technology training curricula in the HR development processes can drastically improve the company’s performance (Krishnan et al 2012). Furthermore, delegation of recruitment tasks to some other specialist organization (e.g. a placement agency) can decrease unnecessary workload over the HR managers and associates. These can be regarded as overall HR management improvements. Combined effect of the two proposed measures will help in the strategic management of the company since HR managers will now be capable of multitasking if necessary. Furthermore, increased involvement of the HR staff in technology specific processes of the company will prevent them to leave the organization. The reason is that the HR staff will feel more comfortable with the knowledge intensive processes of the company and attrition will be prevented. Pros and Cons In every part of the corporate world, policy changes may bring about both positive and negative upshots. In the field of HR, change management is a real sensitive issue (Bratton and Gold 2007). The positive aspects of the proposed changes primarily involve reduced workload. By shedding off unnecessary tasks like looking for the correct hires across the huge pool of job seeking candidates, some vertical processes can now be sorted out. For example, initial rounds of interviews can now be avoided. The mangers will also be able to concentrate on the more important tasks like testing and training. Providing the new appointees with first hand knowledge of the company’s technical processes will further improve involvement of the workers, including the HR staff as well. Such a system will provide direct strategic benefits. However, there are potential risks. The set system of HR specific HR management will be completely disturbed. Basically, this is a good thing if the HR managers are finally able to handle the technical aspects of their jobs. But this may frustrate some of them, because most of them do not have technical or engineering backgrounds. Moreover, selection of an incompetent recruitment partner may lead to wrong candidates being short listed. Also, the preliminary rounds of interviews might be arranged below proper quality and competency standards as found in Nestle Waters NA (2006). Strategy of implementation First of all, it should be made clear that once the top level managers take a decision, it will not be retracted. Otherwise, petty and unnecessary debates may lead to errors during the initial phase of implementation. A good start is extremely necessary so that the progress can be judged continuously without any confusion or misstatement of facts. This involves readjusting performance indicators, regularizing all the concerned managers, and keeping people and resources in hand in the case a responsible HR manager has to go on an emergency leave. (Bratton and Gold 2007) Communicating the HR policy update and implementation task is a crucial part of the initial phase of the project. A briefing conference should be held to communicate and discuss the key issues with HR managers. If necessary, multiple sessions of the meeting can be arranged over two working days. Next, all the staff must be communicated HR policy update information over the email. This information must be short and sent in the form of a company update directly to the email inbox of every employee. Once a good start is achieved and a recruitment partner is set to handle the preliminary phases of the hiring processes, the plan appears to be conveniently executable. In the very first go, within a week from initiation of the policy updating project, HR managers will be able to find relief from the preliminary recruitment tasks. If the time thus saved is utilized properly, there will be enough scope to hold face to face meetings with the older staff and discuss difficulties, if any. An important point must be noted here. It is not necessary that every experienced or older staff be middle-aged or so. Employees who manage to get appointed at a young age gather sufficient experience much before they reach their forties. So instead of treating the experienced staff as veterans or grandfathers, it is important to treat them as mentors. In this way, many non HR staff can be partnered with to induct them as trainers within the fold of extended HR operations and interdepartmental synchronization. In the next stage of the policy update process, it is not very important to be too sensitive towards emotional issues if any. For this reasons, the HR managers must be conditioned to show more emotional intelligence at work place (Brooks and Nafukho 2006). The older and/or middle aged employees must be taken in confidence without offending them. The soft skills of responsible HR managers will be pivotal in this regard. Furthermore, conventional HR is to be converted into strategic HR by the means of this updating program. This is the main goal of the project. So, continuous training must be arranged. The best way to accomplish this is separate sessions of training and if necessary, one to one interactions should also be facilitated. Senior managers must be delegated the responsibility of harnessing unity among the staffs. References Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2007). Human Resources Management: Theory and Practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Brooks, K., & Nafukho, F. (2006). Human resource development, social capital, emotional intelligence: Any link to productivity? Journal of European Industrial Training, 30, 117-128. Krishnan, M., Brockbank, W., Ulrich, D., & Younger, J., et al. (2012). A strategic HR differentiator: Technology and information management. TMTC Journal of Management, October 2012, 1-10. Nestec Ltd. (2002). The Nestle Human Resources Policy. Vevey: Author. Nestle Waters NA. (2006). Our Careers – Nestle Careers. Nestle Waters NA, Stamford. Retrieved on 20th September 2013 from http://careers.nestle-watersna.com/WhatWeDo/OurCareers/HumanResources.aspx Tornbohm, C., & Rold, C. D. (2005). How P&G Outsourced HR to Sharpen Customer Focus. Stamford: Gartner. Read More