What Human Resource Managers Mean When They Are Acting Strategically - Literature review Example

What human resource managers mean when they are acting strategically What human resource managers mean when they are acting strategically Introduction Strategic human resource management (SHRM) involves formulating human resource strategies that are aligned with the corporate strategy in order to facilitate the attainment of the overall organisational goals (Armstrong, 2008). According to John Bratton, strategic HRM is the process of linking the human resource function with the strategic objectives of the firm (Pravin, 2006). The HR managers will view the employees are precious and humans and focus on business-level outcomes of the HR strategy (Huselid, 1995). The HR managers will be proactive in their approach and their HR strategy will be aligned with the trends in the market. Accordingly, the HR managers will develop overall strategic capabilities and competencies of the overall organisation using the human resources (Perkins and Shortland, 2006). Human resource managers will consider the human resource policies are key to the attainment of competitive advantage in the industry (Perkins and Shortland, 2006). In this case, HR managers will outline a framework that will support the long-term corporate goals through ensuring that the corporate structure, culture and values match the needs of the organisation. HR managers mean that they are aiming at enhancing both individual performance and organisational effectiveness through aligning the HRM policies with the entire organisational business strategy (Kaila, 2004). The main features of SHRM include the goal-setting, formulation of policies and allocation of resources at the top management levels (Huselid, 1995). The phrase means that HR managers are interrelating with business strategies and participate in the corporate decision-making since the overall organisational success is determined by the recruitment, compensation and performance management strategies. Accordingly, SHRM considers the employees as a critical resource that is essential in differentiating the company from competitors in the market (Perkins and Shortland, 2006). The objective of SHRM is to develop adequate skilled and loyal employees who can accomplish the organisational vision and mission on a sustainable basis. The HR managers participate in determining the corporate strategies thus making HRM more proactive rather than reactive (Perkins and Shortland, 2006). The HR managers mean that they are acting as critical strategic partners at the top management level in formulating strategies that will ensure the accomplishment of the overall organisational goals (Beardwell and Claydon, 2010). The HR managers are aware of the complexities and challenges incurred in the operational aspects of the firm such as manufacturing processes due to their ability to assess the internal and external environment of the business. The HR managers prepare long-term plans that will guide allocation of human resources in order to match the emerging external environment and ultimately attain the long-term objectives of the organisation (Perkins and Shortland, 2006). Human resource managers who are acting strategically start with understanding the factors in the internal and external environment that may influence the organisational human resource requirements. In this case, the HR managers will conduct a strategic analysis of the political, economic, social-cultural and technology environment in order to determine the future human resource requirements (Beardwell and Claydon, 2010). The HR function will then engage in strategic human resource planning after assessing the current skills levels of employees and the required skills levels. The goal of strategic HR planning is to ensure the organisation has adequate human resources that will be vital in meeting the strategic and operational plans of the company at the right time (Dhar, 2008). Accordingly, strategic HR planning will align the human resources with the current social, economic, technological and legislative trends and ensure the organisation is flexible enough to deal with unanticipated external environment changes in the future. In the planning process, the HR managers will use both qualitative and quantitative methods to determine the future human capital requirements of the company. For instance, the future demand for labour in a company will depend on the productivity levels, the employment trends, replacement needs, and forecasted growth and expansion of the business. Some of the methods that are used in forecasting the human resources demand include ratio analysis, trend analysis, Delphi model, work study technique and managerial judgment. The HR managers will then identify the factors that will influence the supply of labour in the industry and forecast the labour supply in the organisation. Some of the factors that affect the supply include the rate of population growth, the literacy levels, technological changes, industry expected growth rate, compensation and internal factors such as transfers, promotions and succession planning (Dhar, 2008). The HR managers will then decide on the optimum human capital requirements and engage in job design that aims at identifying the relationship between various positions in the company. According, HR managers will identify the job responsibilities and personal specifications and identify if the company has the required talent (Beardwell and Claydon, 2010). During this process, strategic HRM is essential since the HR managers will determine the appropriate organisational structure that is essential in attaining the corporate goals and structure the jobs including tasks and activities around the critical activities that are essential for the attainment of the corporate goals. Furthermore, the company may hire from external sources or source internally through training and developing the existing employees in order to gain the required skills and competencies (Dhar, 2008). The staffing function is done according to the skills needs of the organisation. The recruitment and selection process aims at attracting and retaining candidates who poses the required skills, attitudes and personality that will contribute to overall organisational effectiveness (Perkins and Shortland, 2006). Strategic HRM involves succession planning that entails preparing current employees to succeed the current position incumbents who are expected to be promoted, transferred, or retired in the near future. Succession planning ensures that the organisation has the required skills at all levels in the company thus facilitating sustainable competitive advantage and continuance of the organisational values (Murugesan, 2008). The HR managers invest in human resource development through training and development of additional competencies depending on the requirement of the organisation. The human resource managers will act strategically during training since the training outcomes are not measured according to the training budget or hours of training undertaken, but the output of training. The HR measures will use metrics such as the attainment of required skills, increase in individual employee productivity, employee efficiency, reduction in product defects, and increase in the level of customer satisfaction (Murugesan, 2008). Strategic HR is engaged in mentoring employees to meet future skills demands such as team players, multi-skilled and empowered employees and thus HR managers will implement different training programs such as interpersonal training, motivational training and problem-solving training. For instance, Motorola has designed an Accelerated Management Program and Management Foundation Program and partnered with Arizona State University to enable the employees earn an in-house MBA (Mathias, Jackson and Valentine, 2013). The employees should not only be capable of effectively performing their work, but also using creativity to solve emerging problems and initiating creative ideas that foster innovation in the organisation (Murugesan, 2008). The human resource managers will engage in compensation and reward management. Strategic HRM ensures that rewards are aligned with employee expectations and foster high performance in the organisation (Wilson, 2005). The rewards include both monetary and non-monetary rewards. Strategic HRM ensures that rewards are fair and aligned with the individual employee performance. In this case, the reward and compensation policy will comprise of salaries, bonuses, retirement plans, share-ownership schemes and cash rewards. However, human resource managers have realised that monetary rewards are not the main motivators and rely on non-monetary rewards to motivate their staff (Kandula, 2006). In this case, the managers will use recommendations during the end-of-the year parties, letters of commendation, verbal recognition for exemplary work, challenging tasks, job-enrichments and flexible working hours to motivate the employees (Perkins and Shortland, 2006). Accordingly, the reward policies are aligned with the overall organisational productivity such as the profitability and employees are provided with end of the year bonuses depending on the profitability levels of the company (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). Profit-sharing programs and employee share-ownership schemes increase the employee loyalty and commitment to the organisation. The human resource managers are engaged in assessing and sustaining organisational performance and competencies (Gilmore & Williams, 2012). The human resource managers are expected to act strategically be measuring individual employee performance is measured objectively and actively. The managers avoid own judgments and biases that may lead to incredibility of the performance measurement method (Sims, 2002). A good performance measurement involves the use of various set of tools, the use of benchmarks, and measuring the tangibility of the performance. The performance measurement and appraisal systems should be acceptable by the employees and should be designed in a way that provides fast and accurate feedback on the performance evaluation (Werner and DeSimone, 2011). In this case, the managers will be able to use the performance evaluation results to communicate feedback and discuss ways of improving the performance with each individual employee. Performance measurement is considered an important aspect of SHRM since it clarifies the organisational objectives and facilitates the improvement of performance in the company (Sims, 2002). Accordingly, the feedback acts as a motivator and the HR managers are able to monitor and review their HR plans depending on the results of performance appraisals (Fleetwood and Hesketh, 2010). The HR mangers are able to use the reviews of performance to identify training and development needs. The performance goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, time-bound and relevant. An example of HR managers that have acted strategically is Dabur India HR managers who aligned their HRM with corporate strategy (Pravin, 2006). Dabur India is a consumer goods company and HR managers structured the induction process and post-induction training programs with the corporate goals. The company has a Young Manager Development Program and perfoamcne management is conducted through the use of Balanced Scorecard that considers various dimensions of performance (Pravin, 2006). Another critical role of SHRM is diversity management that aims at ensuring inclusive workforce through taking measures that aim at employment of minorities and women in the organisation (Sims, 2002). According to current business world, diversity fosters creativity and facilitates the entry of cultural markets. Diversity avoids groupthink and ensures teams use different perspectives in problem-solving thus leading to better decision-making (Kaila, 2004). Strategic human resource managers have to deal with trade unions and collective bargaining agreements (Kumar, 2010). The managers negotiate with trade unions about the future benefits, redundancy issues and working conditions in order to maintain good relationships between the management and employees. In this case, collective bargaining agreements help averting an imminent employees go-slows and ensures continuity of operations in the organization (Truss, Mankin and Kelliher, 2012). Strategic HRM will involve employee counseling and welfare programs that aim at reducing work-related stress and ensuring work-life balance. The modern work environment is characterised by increased employee strain due to implementation of modern computer systems and increase in family demands (Schuler and Jackson, 2008). In this case, the human resource managers will implement counseling programs that aim at teaching employee healthy lifestyles such as the need for relaxation, physical exercise and avoid substance use. The wellness program aims at ensuring employees have flexible working hours in order to get enough time to attend to family demands (Deb, 2006). The employees are given an opportunity to select their preferred working hours such as full-time or part-time depending on the family demands. In this case, the human resource managers design the working hours schedule in a manner than does not affect job coordination or the overall organisational performance expectations. Conclusion Human resource managers who are acting strategically mean that they are aligning the HRM strategy with the corporate strategy in order to attain the overall organisational goals. The HR managers are proactive in their strategy and aim at attaining corporate-level outcomes. The HR managers participate in top management decision making since HRM is viewed as a source of organisational competitive edge. In this case, SHRM entails goal setting, formulation of the future HR policies and allocation of human resources in order to ensure sustainable competitiveness. The HR managers will evaluate the external environment such as economic and technological environment trends in order to understand the future human capital requirements and identify sources of meeting the organisational skills demand. The process is aimed at meeting long-term organisational human resource requirements and human resource managers align all the HR strategies with the corporate goals. Furthermore, HR managers engage in additional functions such as redundancy and succession planning, employee counseling, diversity management and collective bargaining. Bibliography: Armstrong, K. 2008. Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. New York: Kogan Page. 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Human Resource Development: Learning & Training for Individuals & Organizations. New York: Kogan Page. Read More