Challenges to Human Resource Management in 2012 - Coursework Example

CHALLENGES TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN 2012 1.0 Introduction Human resource plays a very pivotal role in the success of a company. Many strategists will tell you that a business with a qualified and motivated workforce is surely going to prevail through hardships and post good profits and results where others complain. Managing human resource is not easy. It is a complex task that goes beyond hiring and preparing pay slips. It is about managing the human capital and marrying it with the objectives of the company in order to get the desired results as a business. The challenges range from then most common ones to the complex ones that call for external intervention to solve. In the year 2012 the work place is changing and so are the lifestyles of the human capital working for companies all over the world. This paper seeks to discuss exhaustively the challenges facing the human resource management of companies in the year 2012 and the innovations and trends adopted to solve these challenges. It is structured into two sections; the challenges, and the trends 1.1 Human resource challenges 1.2 Leadership challenge While some people believe leaders are born others believe they are made. Others believe that they are born out of challenging circumstances. It’s a debate that never ends. The greatest challenge for human resource management in the year 2012 in regards to leadership is getting the best of the best employees top be trusted as leaders of their teams and departments. I believe Success in businesses nowadays cannot be achieved by a single individual as the world is changing too fast necessitating the inclusion of different talents and technical knowhow in teams in order for well informed decisions to be made in formulation of marketing and financial strategies in the companies. How to identify and train these leaders remains to be a headache for many human resource managers in the world today. All in all it is vital that the management invest in this worthy course as it is a long term investment that ensures sustainability of the business in the future for as long as you retain the talent. 1.3 Diversity challenge One common characteristic with companies and especially is a diversified workforce in terms of race, gender, religious beliefs, age and other factors. According to Barak, (2007), the biggest challenge for human resource managers in 2012 is managing the diversity to bring out the best from the workforce even though major differences abound It is a complex affair that is capable of improving the image of the company or in the contrary ruins it (Barak, 2010). The Coca-Cola company in it diversity stewardship report (2011) recognized the fact that diversity to the company is not only a matter of policies but an integral part the company and its future. Diversity to the Coca-Cola Company was an opportunity to appeal to the diverse market that it serves and acquire a talented workforce to implement its strategies. It is therefore vital that a human resource manager in a multinational finds the best strategy of dealing with diversity as the world is more informed and more connected in the this 21st century. When employees are able to get over their differences and work together then they will be able to perform to the maximum individually and also as teams (Dias, 2011). 1.4 Work place conflict challenge Work place conflict management is a common phenomenon especially in companies that have a multicultural workforce. The conflicts in the work place are major concerns for human resource managers in today’s work place. They lower the productivity of the employees who feel victimized in the conflicts and may result in unproductive counter-behaviors as a way of expressing dissatisfaction (Ayoko, charmine & Hartel, 2003). The employees in an organization and a multinational for that matter are supposed to work as a team in order to deliver the best results in their activities. When there is a conflict then this cannot be achieved since there lacks coherence and coordination. According to the research by Ayoko et al, (2003), Conflicts should be viewed as a communication barrier which reduces the efficiency that can be achieved when people coordinate their activities in the company (Darling & Fogliosso, 2004). In light of this understanding it is therefore important that the human resource manager in a multi national be concerned about workplace conflict. The management should go a step further to put measures in place to deal with the conflicts in a professional manner that will be for the ultimate benefit of the company and to the individuals involved as well. According to Darling & Fogliosso, (2004), conflicts in the workplace are fueled by among other things; poor description of roles in the company such that roles overlap and nobody knows exactly what is expected of him; lack of a code of conduct to guide the behavior of all the employees in the company including the top management; diversity in the work place in terms of cultures, age, income, gender and religious beliefs can also be a source of conflict. Companies today operate in many diverse environments in the countries they have set shops and as such have a unique workplace scenario that comprise of a diversified workforce. This then calls for a skilled conflict resolution and prevention approach from the side of the Human Resource Management and the company. According to Kim (2007), the first step to solving a conflict amongst employees in a company is to acknowledge that there is a conflict and not assume it is just a small event common when people are together. After the human resource manager has acknowledged the existence of the conflict he should view it as an opportunity to improve the relationships of employees by successfully identifying the source of the conflict without having any preconceived notions or biasness. Darling & Fogliosso (2004) are also of the opinion that a critical examination will unearth what are the issues in the conflict. Showing a concern for the issues expressed by the parties is important as it assures the employees of fair treatment from the HRM. It is therefore important that impartial investigations into the issues are conducted. When the conflict sources are identified the first approach should be not to lay blame or victimize individuals but rather to look for a policy framework that will solve the problem and minimize chances of its occurrence in the future. This way the management will have adopted positive attitude that will improve the productivity of employees as individuals and also as a team. 1.5 Recruitment and selection challenge Multinational firms have their presence around multiple countries in the world or states within a large country like the US or Australia. They have to occasionally fill top management positions in some countries or stations as they expand their reach or if they want to effect some changes into the branches due to low performance of the current management (Dowling & Festing , Engle, 2008). Hiring the right talent In the face of high unemployment, one would presume that getting employees is very easy and there are enough qualified individuals out there in the market who are just waiting for your phone call. But that is not the case. Whereas the supply is high and the demand low, there is a mismatch between what the companies are looking for and what the market is supplying. Simply said, there are few talented employees out there in the market who are capable of posting good result s for companies and help them advance competitively in the face of increasing cut throat competition in struggling economies A study by Anderson (2005) points out that one of the challenges is getting somebody with a mix of competency and interpersonal skills to consider for the assignment. While it is easy to get a competent person in terms of the technical skills that the management is looking for, it is difficult to find that the same competent person has the desired interpersonal skills that will enable him relate well with new people who might not necessarily subscribe to his culture and work ethic (Anderson, 2005). However as a human resource manager I can successfully overcome this by looking within the company to identify competent individuals for the position, those who understand our operations as a company and our way of doing things not forgetting the protocols. The individuals must also have the right technical skills. I can asses his/her profile in the company to review his/her interpersonal skills. Huo, Huang & Napier (2002) in their research suggest that the candidate should be a person who is proven to work along well with others in the company and has excellent organizational skills. Age and recruitment During recruitment, age is another factor that has to be put into consideration. The law is against any form of discrimination based on age, sex, race and other identities. It is therefore illegal to discriminate on age. To a human resource manager it is a major challenge to package an advertisement in a way that he will reach his targeted recruits while at the same time staying within the law so as not to damage the image of the company and probably risk the company being sued for discrimination. The key is that advertisements should be made in manner that does not seem discriminative on the basis of age and also should give clear instructions to the recruiting agency so that they do abide by the discrimination laws and don’t plunge the company into court cases and negative publicity. Internal and external recruitment Another challenge is choosing whether to recruit from within the company or from outside. Both of these have their advantages and disadvantages. As a human resource manager the most appropriate thing to do is to analyze the benefits that the company stands to gain from either of the two. If the benefit in one outweighs the benefits other then the latter has to be avoided. Recruiting from within the company is cheap as the company will not go through the advertising and hiring of professional agencies in the recruitment process another advantage is that the persons you get will be conversant with the company and how it operates as such they will not incur high expenses in training and will take less time adapting. Also it will serve to boost the morale of the employees and encourage healthy competition amongst them. However it is highly probable that fresh ideas will not be introduced in the company since no new talent joins the workforce (Rothwell, Starvros & Sullivan, 2009). Still it is likely to cause discomfort and feelings of inequality in those not selected. Recruiting from outside provides a large pool of talent to choose from and is very beneficial whenever the company is ready to make a radical change in its operations, however it can be costly and may as well result in hiring of incapable people who will need a lot of resources to train. In light of these realities the human resource manager has to decide which source is the best for the benefit of the company both in the short run and in the long run. 1.6 Employee learning, training and skills development challenges Employing the best and the most qualified employees in the market is not enough, a company has to invest in training and developing their employees in order to achieve maximum productivity in their company. One of the major reasons why companies have to train their employees is because they may have not been in an environment like theirs before and as such they only have a theory of what they are supposed to do. This is as a result of mismatch between what the market is demanding and what the training institutions like the universities are supplying (Reilly & Williams, 2012). Poorly designed curriculums in schools often don’t give a student what he/ she is expected to produce outside there in the market. It is a challenge to the human resource mangers to settle on a potential employee who will incur fewer expenses in training. It is for this reason that many advertisements to job position have a certain minimum working experience in a similar position. High cost of training In highly capitalized manufacturing concerns the human resource managers are tasked with ensuring that their employees are technically capable of handling advanced machinery. In many instances the company might not be in a capacity to train the employees and have to send their employees to specialized laboratories so that they can gain the required skills that they need to perform the complex tasks. It can be very costly to train and develop- a single individual in the company in terms of financial and other resources. Talent poaching While training and developing of your employees is a beneficial move that will benefit the company in the long run, a particular down side of this is that once you have trained and developed an individual it does not mean that you own them. They are free to go and work wherever they please for as long as they are not breaching the contractual agreement they have with the company that trained them. This is very rampant nowadays; of big multinational companies loosing highly talented managers and CEOs to rivals and big players in various industries. According to Dias (2011) the reason why many human resource managers continue loosing good talent to the rivals is the assumption that people move from one company to the other purely for monetary reasons. What they don’t know is that there are various factors that increase turnover rate in a company such as poor job and skills match, lack of opportunities to grow, a heavy workload and management inefficiencies. Another challenge is the implementation and follow-up of training programs within a company. A well intended training program cannot only be achieved by the theory part. The managers have to create programs whereby the employees who are to be trained are assigned supervisors or line managers that follow up on their progress and guide them on the training program. Getting these trainers can be challenging and the dilemma is always whether to look for the trainers from within the company or from outside the company. The latter only comes to inspect the progress while the former is always with the trainee and follows up on them. Each one of them has its pros and cons however it is better to have the internal trainers as they are dedicated and responsible for anything that goes wrong in their watch. 2.0 Trends and innovations in human resource management In dealing with the diversity issues in the work place, human resource management is coming up with unique methodologies of solving the problem like developing a diversity program. A diversity program should be the first step for a human resource manager to take in order to take care of the diversity in a more comprehensive manner Dowling (2008). Among other things the program should outline the plan in terms of where the company is and where it intends to be in the near future and how it will get there. It should also have the implementation and evaluation tools to indicate the gains made or where the implementation is falling short of the expectations. The manager should also set out roles and responsibilities on the implementation of the programs. It is important as it will be taken seriously. In designing the program, the human resource management should put into consideration that the strategic input of the management is vital for the success of implementing a diversity policy. It is a competitive tool and should not be treated only as a social matter (Barak, 2010). In light of this understanding the management should create teams to spearhead the implementation of the diversity policy. It is important that the teams understand what is expected of them and communicate their progress with the management as and when they are required. Training employees on how to tolerate their cultural-diversity is important as they will be exposed to the different cultures and values of their colleagues (Flanagan, 2006). This way they will use their diversity as strength they can utilize in combining their diverse perspectives and backgrounds to complement their talents and contribute to the growth of the company. One should be considered wise when he understands the cultures of the world rather than limit himself in his own culture (Barak, 2010). The human resource management should also conduct regular emotional intelligence tests to understand how much ground the company has covered in promoting diversity and coherence in the workforce. Then the manager can deliberate on the options available basing on the results he gets. In dealing with the leadership challenge, businesses are looking from outside the company for programs developed to identify and train the leaders within their workforce. One of the most common is involvement of team building activities where the leaders can be identified by their contribution in the activities selected for team building. Through special team building coaches, the management can be able to identify who amongst their employee can qualify for team leaders. It is not stopping there. Once the leaders have been identified a company that is focused in improving the leadership capability of their workforce is investing in leadership training programs such as Harvard’s executive education program. I am of the opinion that the reason why many high talented employees in companies including CEOs defect from one company to the other is the feeling that their talents are not being utilized to the maximum and so they move to places where they feel that their management and other talents such as innovation and creativity are appreciated and given a room to grow and impact on the companies productivity. The workforce today is comprised of the so called generation-Y, a generation that is keen to work in workplaces that they are not restricted of their personal freedom. They will work on their work place desktop computers while they have their facebook and twitter accounts open on their smart phones. They challenge the traditional workplace dress code and other protocols. It is for this reason that human resource managers are currently working with top management to review the position of top management regarding innovation and accommodation of divergent views in the workplace. It is important therefore that all the bureaucracy that may stifle personal development be removed to retain special talent and keep the work force happy with their contribution to the company. If talent management does not work then the management is forced to be strict in their policies as it can prove to be expensive and destructive to follow some demands by their work force. Companies have devised clever ways of retaining talent like having clauses in their contracts that ensure the individuals who are trained stay with the company for a certain period of time when the company hopes to have recovered their cost of training and also to have reaped the benefits of training and developing the individuals. The human resource manager especially in the multinationals are expected to draft this contractual agreements and explain them to their employees when they training them. I have also noted some changes in people’s perception towards some unique personal problems. Like for example in the 21st century the focus is changing from the training only in the technical aspect of a job to even accommodate previously negligible aspects as interpersonal skills, stress management and team spirit. Big multinationals are investing a lot of money to train their staff on these so called soft skills. This is in response to problems and challenges of achieving individual and organizational productivity. Workers in multinationals are diverse and have to develop excellent interpersonal skills that will enable them interact with fellow colleagues in a productive manner. Also the companies ensure that their employees are motivated and have a strong team spirit through team building activities so that they can work hand in hand towards achieving the company’s goals and ambitions. It is essential that a human resource manager knows that he/ she can be able to tackle major problems like poor performance through training the work force on these skills especially stress management. A challenge is finding the right person for the training job. However there are specialists in this field who can be attached with the company for a certain period to train the staff members. Emotional intelligence is very important when it comes to fostering good relationships in the workforce and ensuring individual and team productivity. Human resource managers are very keen to improve the emotional intelligence of their workforce. It is the ability to relate with fellow workers in a way that tells you are human and can be able to have a good working relationship build on trust, accommodation and respect for others opinions. Human resource management reserve profile of their employees regarding their emotional intelligence in order to understand who amongst their employees needs to be trained and emphasized on to improve their emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is measured using scales such as the popular schuttes scale which is a set of structured questions that gauge an individual’s emotional intelligence. 3.0 Conclusion While managing human resource might not seem to be so difficult a task, it is and especially in the year 2012. The world is dynamic and has been changing ever since the days when the human capital was not regarded as a critical part in the success of enterprises. There are studies today in human behavior, psychology and work place relationships all in an effort to understanding the aspects of human capital management that can be improved to ensure productivity in the organizations and sustainability in the long run. The challenges to human resource managers in 2012 are not very different from the challenges in the past two or three decades however new trends are emerging informed from results of concerted efforts in studying the discipline by several scholars and management firms. In my research and studies in this human resource course I have come to appreciate the latest efforts and innovations by human resource experts especially in multinationals. These efforts are all meant to improve the organizational effectiveness of the human capital without which the other capitals of the business will not be productive. The learning I have gained from my studies in human resource challenges will go a long way in preparing me to deal with diverse and unique human resource problems and challenges and get the best out of them through the latest solutions and others I might come up with to suit the situation. All the same I think much still needs to be done to improve the workplace. For example I think human are more of social beings who are motivated to work efficiently and effectively by what makes them happy. Therefore human resource manager should consult their staff whenever they want to make changes in the system or introduce new phenomenon and practices in the workplace. References Anderson A.B, (4 April 2005) “Expatriate selection: good management or good luck?” International Journal of Human Resource Management, Routledge Ayoko.B.O, Callan.V.L, Hartel.C.J, (2003) “Workplace Conflict, Bullying, and Counterproductive Beahviors” International Journal of Organisational Analysis Barak. M, (2010) Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace, SAGE Coca-Cola stewardship report (2011), “Cultural diversity in the workplace” accessed on [1-Nov-2012] from the Coca-Cola company official website http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/diversity.html Darling .J .R, Foglioso . C, (2004) “Conflict management across cultural boundaries: a case analysis from a multinational bank”, European Business Review Vol.99 Dowling. P, Festing .M, Engle .A.D, (2008) International Human Resource Management: Managing People in a Multinational Context, Cengage Learning EMEA Dias,L.P, (2011) Human Resource Management, Flat world knowledge. Huo .Y.P, Huang .H.J, Napier .N.K, (2002) “Divergence or Convergence: a Cross-National Comparison of Personnel Selection Practices” Vol 41, spring Kim .H.Z, (2007) Managing Diversified workforce- Korean Multinationals, VDM Publishing Reilly. P, Williams. T, (2012) Global Hr: Challenges Facing the Function, Gower Publishing Ltd Rothwell ,j.W, Starvros, J.M, Sullivan, R.L, (2009) Practising Organization development : A Guide for Leading change, John Wiley & Sons Read More