Human Resource Management Challenges in an Organization - Case Study Example

Running Head: Case Analysis of Human Resource Management Challenges in an Organization Your name Course name Professors’ name Date: Outline Executive summary Introduction Current situation Dealing with Human Resource problems Recruitment process Training process Motivation of employees Providing opportunities for growth Creation of working environment- Provision of effective and fair leadership Time frame for achievement of goals Conclusion References Table of Content Outline 3 Executive summary 5 Introduction 6 Current situation 7 Dealing with Human Resource problems 8 Recruitment process 8 Training process 10 Motivation of employees 11 Providing opportunities for growth 12 Creation of working environment 13 Provision of effective and fair leadership 14 Time frame for achievement of goals 15 Conclusion 15 Outline ii Table of Contents iii Executive summary 1 Introduction 2 Current situation 3 Dealing with Human Resource problems 4 Recruitment process 4 Training process 6 Motivation of employees 7 Providing opportunities for growth 8 Creation of working environment 9 Provision of effective and fair leadership 9 Time frame for achievement of goals 10 Conclusion 10 References 12 Executive summary There is need to improve the conditions of the employee in any organization that is market oriented. Given that the performance of the company is highly dependent on the productivity of its employees, this factor cannot be over-emphasized. The human resource department of an organization is thus supposed to ensure that the company’s employee are recruited in a competitive way, trained as required, motivated, provided opportunities for growth, provided with good working environment, and guided effectively by strong leadership. A strong leadership will enhance the smooth flow of the entire human management and optimization in the organization. This in turn will help reduce the rate of employee turnover and slow integration into the organization’s working conditions . Introduction The human resource department is one of the major departments of any organization. The human resource forms the hub of all the activities going on in the organization. The reason why the human resource department is the hub of the organization is simply because it deals with the major resource that an organization has at its disposal, the people. The function of the human resource is managing this important resource of the organization. Some of the fundamental functions of the human resource manager includes; recruiting employees, remuneration of employees, motivation, maintenance, and appraisal and also complying with relevant industrial relations rules and human rights provisions. The entire human resource management is thus supposed to provide guidelines on the recruitment procedures, job analysis, orientation of the new employees to learn the new environment, management of performance and proper compensation procedures. The human resource is therefore a multidisciplinary field where different disciplines are concerned. Some of the common fields in the human resource department includes; economics through the provisions of wages, markets and resources to the company, psychology through the motivation and improvement of the satisfaction levels of employees, sociology by ensuring that the organization ‘structure and culture is favorable for optimum working. The other important discipline in the human resource department is law, law provides the minimum wages and benefits that the employees are entitled; it also provides the basics of the contract according to the labor rules of a given country among other legal provisions (Armstrong, 2006, pp 234). As evident from the breakdown of the functions of the human resource department, the performance of the company is thus enshrined on the human resource management. The larger the organization, the more complex it is to manage the working force of the organization due to varied responsibilities and the feasibility of analyzing the appraisal of every employee in the organization accurately. Acting in the human resource department is therefore challenging and requires adequate knowledge on different fields in order to ensure that the organization achieves its fundamental outlined goals with minimal difficulty. The management of the human resource department is directly proportional to the company’s performance; this concept can never be over-emphasized given the central role of the employees in ensuring that the company achieves its goals. This case analysis is therefore going to elaborate on the relevant issues affecting the Australian service organization with more than 5000 employees. The organization is facing challenges related to employee’s performance as a result of failure to integrate successfully into the organization’s working environment. The other issues that affect this service organization are the increased turnover of employees. Current situation The current situation in the service organization case is the poor management of the most important resource that an organization has which its workers. The organization has more than 5000 employees who work in different departments of the organization. These employees are performing below expectation in their departments (Rogelberg, S., G. (Ed.) 2002, pp 51). The new employees find it difficult to perform the task prescribed in their job description provision. As a result of the poor job adaptation, most of the organization’s employees are opting to reassign from the organization and look for other opportunities elsewhere. This condition has direct effect on the organization’s performance because the general waste of time recruiting all the time as a result of the high turnover. The recruiting process is also costly because of the need to sacrifice important time to handle the problems that are as a result of loss of a significant number of employees and so forth. The time that should be geared towards the goals of the organization is directed towards the continuous recruitment process which has a direct negative effect on the performance of the company. The recruitment process and the management of the new employees affect the overall performance of the company. As evident on this service organization, there is an urgent need to address issues related to the reason why the employees of the company fail to adapt to their task immediately and become productive instead of opting to leave the organization. Dealing with Human Resource problems The human resource department is mandated the task of ensuring that the organization runs smoothly with well motivated and productive employees (Raymond A. Noe 2000, pp. 350). Whenever this is not the case, the entire human resource department fails to manage the most important resource that an organization has and this result to poor performance of the organization. The following outlined issues should be addressed in order to ensure that an organization like this Australian service organization experiences minimal difficulties when dealing with the organization’s employees. Recruitment process The recruitment process is one of the key responsibilities of the human resource department; it is therefore the duty of the organization to ensure that the recruited workforce has what it takes to perform the duties of an organization. Poor performance of the company’s employees is as a result of poor selection by the human resource department. The employed workforce ought to discharge their duties with minimal effort and supervision. This means that the recruitment process should select only the people who closely match the requirement of the organization. The employees in this case ought to have undergone all the necessary training that will enable them discharge their duties easily and perfectly. The creation of job description for vacant positions should address the entire necessary requirement of the person to be recruited to this position; failure to make an explicit job description will result to recruitment of less qualified people (Jex, S. M., & Britt, TW 2008). After advertising the vacant positions to the public, the other important step is to ensure that interview process is thorough. The interview process should be aimed at establishing the experience of the applicant and also the qualification of the applicant with respect to the vacant position. Only the applicants whose qualification and experience are outstanding should be selected to join the workforce of the organization. The other important qualification of the applicant after the initial requirements have been is the psychological aspect. The psychological aspect of the employee is important for the human resource to consider since the employee needs to be ready for the task of the company. If an employee is qualified with relevant skills and experience but fails to meet the psychological expectations of the job, this will ultimately result to high turnover of employees as a result of less mental commitment and therefore low job performance. These provisions will be of essence to this Australian service organization to implement in the recruiting process in order to ensure that the employed worker is ready and qualified for the job in the organization. Training process Training process of the recruited employees is specifically aimed at familiarizing the recruited workers to the prevailing working conditions of the organization. The new recruit should also be familiarized with the culture and the ethics of the organization. The human resource management department should be in a position to explain the missions and the visions of the organization to the new employees. The department should also explain the short term and the long term goals of the organization. In doing so, the organization will be preparing the employees for the challenges ahead and also ensuring that they are committed to the organization. For the employees that are currently in the organization, it is always useful to arrange seminars that will be of essence to their skills improvement. The more knowledge of their task through constant training will make the employees more productive and efficient. After giving the overview expectation of the company to the new employee, the other task will be to explain to them the expectation of the new job and the duties that they will be performing. Their responsibilities will be the key provision of the organization. New employees should also be familiarized with the machinery and the equipment of the organization that they are expected to use in the process of discharging their duties. In the case of this service organization which is constantly experiencing low adaptation to the expectation of the organization, there is an evident failure provide the new employees necessary training for the task ahead. The initial environment exposed to these new employees is not relevant for the employee to fully integrate into the organization. The slow integration process which result to a high turnover is the cause of the low adaptation to the new job by this employees. There is clear evidence that these employees are not properly trained to meet the challenges of the task ahead. Motivation of employees Motivation is one of the key aspects of ensuring that the workers of an organization perform their task optimally. Motivation gives the workforce of an organization the required recognition for their task. If the employees of an organization are not motivated, there is a higher likelihood that they will not work with the efficiency required to meet the goals of an organization. The human resource department is therefore responsible in ensuring that the entire team is motivated, the human resource can ensure that this is the case through proper channels of motivating employees (Legge, Karen 2004, pp 141). Timely pay of employee is one factor; if employees are assured that their payments will be made in time, they are highly likely to work optimally and not worry about their financial situations because of delayed payments. The other form of motivation is through bonuses and insurance policies which secure their health and their family’s health. These provisions will improve the psychology of the employee and consequently result to a higher performance level by these employees. Initiating a reward scheme that seeks to evaluate the performance of employees and reward them according to their performance is another major motivating factor. To the employee, he or she will work maximally for the company because of the confidence that his or her efforts will not go unrecognized. It is also imperative to give employees time off to attend their domestic issues whenever possible. Giving breaks and compensating them for the break will always make the employees feel as part of the organization. In this case of Australian Service Company, it is imperative to ensure that the new and the current employee of the organization are properly motivated in order to reduce the rate of turnover that has been experienced over time. Motivated employees will add on their effort and not think of getting alternative places that appreciate their efforts by rewarding them. There is a clear deficiency of motivation in this case; the human resource of the company ought to take measures that encourage these employees by empowering them through well organized compensation scheme. There is need for the company’s human resource management department to ensure that the workers of the company feel as a part of the company by appreciating their efforts through compensation and reasonable breaks from their duties. Quality work cannot be done by overworking workers but rather providing them with a reason to increase their efficiency. Providing opportunities for growth It is important to understand that employees in an organization feel the sense of self fulfillment and growth by execution of their duties. It is wrong to think that employees work because of the reward at the end of the month. In reality, people work because of the accomplishment and attainment of their goals (Rüdiger Pieper 2003, pp. 151). The passion to work for the company comes from within the employee and not because of the perceived reward after performing the task. The company therefore provides employees an opportunity to achieve their desired goals and also optimize fulfillment of their personal goals. The entire human resource management ought to understand these basic facts in order to increase the performance of employees. Since every individual has a passion for certain duties, being in a position to execute these duties provides an imperative self fulfillment that is not otherwise achievable doing other tasks in life. The human resource of an organization is mandated to providing necessary support to these employees in their course of duty accomplishments. This is a more psychological concept rather than a physical approach and it will thus require explicit understanding from the concerned human resource department. Creation of working environment In any working environment, there is need to create a suitable environment for every individual in the company, the creation of this environment can only be optimized through providing reasonable policies for job execution process. As explained by Testa, B (2008) the culture of the working environment should be reinforced to adhere to the goals and the projections of the company. In essence, there is need to enhance the culture and the environment of the organization to be at par with the ethics and the corporate social responsibility. The ethics of an organization provide the employee with the sense that the organization is responsible to its outside environment and thus their responsibility to ensure that they meet the company’s expected ethical standards. If a company fails to show god ethics which is engraved to its visions and missions, it will be hard to tell who the company are and what they are doing to make the world a better place like its competitors. As evident creation of a good and sound working environment goes beyond what could be perceived relevant. The ethics and enabling culture within the organization is the primary factor. Additionally, the employees of the company should not feel as if they are being used to achieve the company’s goal which is to make profits and substantial return on investments, instead, the employees should be made part of the organization. The organization should ensure that it rewards its employees accordingly and also provide the company’s employees reward according to their efforts. Provision of effective and fair leadership Leadership is the key issue when it comes to the success of an organization; this is because without proper leadership, the entire organization will be affected. According to Jex, S. M., & Britt, TW (2008) there is a big difference between a manager and a leader in an organization’s perspective, a manager only concentrates on achieving the primary goal of the organization through any means possible. On the other hand, a leader inspires, motivates, makes employees feel valued, takes the responsibility of the failures of the organization and meets the organization’s goals by inspiring every individual within the organization. A leader leads by example, and offers proper guidance where required. In this case, investing on good leadership will be the breakthrough of the current conditions that are causing a high employee turnover. A good leader will use both humanistic and analytic approach to ensure that every resource involved in the course of achieving the organization’s goal is optimized and geared towards a common goal. Time frame for achievement of goals In this case, the time frame of achieving the goals of ensuring that there is a faster rate of job adaptation and low employee turnover is subject to several factors and therefore only a reasonable projection of 1 year can be given. It is necessary to understand that the integration of these mentioned factors that relates to the most important resource of an organization which is its people will determine the rate and the time in which the entire process will take. The initial step that should be taken in this case is the incorporation of sound leadership. It is only in sound leadership that the motioned organizational factors such as motivation, training, rewards and creation of working environment can be achieved. Conclusion As analyzed in this paper, establishing the root cause of a problem is the initial step of finding a substantial solution. In this case, the problem is centered in the way employees of the company are handled. The handling of these employees determines their effectiveness and productivity. Some of the major concerns in this case includes the following factors; compensation scheme, sound working environment, training, proper recruitment process and strong leadership among other vital factors. With the implementation of this proposal, the employee’s adaptation rate will be improved and also their turnover rate decreased. Read More