Human Resource Management Strategies: Honda Company - Case Study Example

Human Resource Management Strategies University’s Name: Submitted by Names Tutor: Date: Table of Contents Introduction 3 Role of HRM in Optimizing Business Performance 4 Achieving Strategic Objectives (Planning, Policies and Job Design) 6 Strategies in the Employment Process 8 Assessment and Development of Employees 10 Appraisal, Evaluation, Enhancement, and Management of Employee Performance 11 Main HRM Problem 12 Conclusion 13 Reference List 14 Introduction 3 Role of HRM in Optimizing Business Performance 4 Achieving Strategic Objectives (Planning, Policies and Job Design) 7 Strategies in the Employment Process 9 Assessment and Development of Employees 11 Appraisal, Evaluation, Enhancement, and Management of Employee Performance 12 Main HRM Problem 13 Conclusion 14 Reference List 15 Introduction The success of any organization largely depends on how it handles its human resources, especially the employees. No business organization can succeed in meeting its targets and optimizing the productivity of its workers if it lacks effective and strategic HRM because it will not be able to hire the best expertise in the industry and be able to motivate the same expertise to give their best in whatever they are doing. Any company that intends to have a competitive advantage in the market must be ready to provide quality goods and services, which is only possible it has motivated and highly productive employees. HRM, therefore, play a pivotal role in the success of any organization because it directly deals with the same people who determines the success of an organization. Honda Motor Company was founded on 24th September 1948 by two great people who changed the automobile industry, Soichiro Honda, and Tokeo Fujisawa. The company is a multinational corporation based in Japan and it specifically manufactures automobile and motorcycles, even though it ventured into aviation industry later. Honda is the second largest automobile manufacturer in Japan, and it is ranked eighth in the whole world. It is, therefore, a well-established company. Honda is one of the companies with the best HRM system. According to Honda HRM department, HRM means developing employees, developing resources needed by employees, fairly compensating employees and ensuring the general productivity of employees. The company has about 181, 876 workers across the globe and it consider its employees to be the greatest asset. Honda, therefore, has elaborate HRM strategy aimed enhancing the productivity of its employees through fair HR practices, policies and the use of appropriate technology. Role of HRM in Optimizing Business Performance Human resource management plays a key function in the strategic management of any company across the world in promoting its general performance (Guest, 2011). Any organization with elaborate HRM strategic planning in stands a chance of enhancing its performance because it is likely to promote the performance of its employees.HRM strategic planning promotes the performance in an organization because it promotes the morale of employees, strategic planning also motivate employees, and it helps in organizing training and development programs that improve the skills of employees. Therefore, HRM strategic planning optimizes the performance of the organization at large. Honda realized the importance of HRM strategic planning in improving the performance of the company, and it has come with the ways of improving the performance. For instance, the company is now training many global associates who ensure that the company is delivery quality products and service to all its employees across the globe. The company is also embarking on the wealth of experience of its top management and its staff in ensuring that it improves the performance of its employees. Honda is laying down an HRM strategic plan that ensures that all its employees and stakeholders are motivated and skilled to improve the performance of the company. (Automatic News Data Center, 2012) No company can optimize its performance without satisfying the needs, desires, and the expectations of its customers (Buller & McEvoy, 2012). Honda is coming up with the strategic HRM plan that is aimed at motivating its employees in coming up with the best automobiles that satisfy the needs, desires and the expectation of its customers. Training of employees and innovations in a company are best ways of meeting the expectations of customers. Well trained and motivated employees are likely to dedicate their time and energy at the workplace, and they can easily learn the trends in the industry. Employees who have morale and enjoy his work also give best services to the customers. Consequently, a company will be able to optimize its performance through its skilled, dedicated, and motivated employees. At the same time, the company will completely satisfy the needs of customers, leading to the success of a company. Achieving Strategic Objectives (Planning, Policies and Job Design) Human resource planning is the best way a company can achieve its strategic targets. There are a lot of changes that are taking place in the global business and HRM arena due to increased technology, increased globalization, and the changing demographics. The current emerging issues in the world have changed the employment trends, workforce and the workplaces, which call for human resource planning if a company wants to be competitive. For a company achieve its strategic target, it must engage in HR planning by changing its policies, practices, and job design to conform to the changing trends in the HRM departments across the globe. The global economy is rapidly changing what is taking place in the workplaces and the labor market. The world is increasingly becoming a global village due to increased globalization, improvement in technology and increased mobility (Tyagi & Grewal, 2012). The changes have significantly changed the workplaces and HR departments must come up with elaborate planning to have a competitive advantage. For instance, there is increased cultural diversity; the earning trends have changed as companies now emulate international standards and the differences in generations like generation X and generation Y. As a result, organizations, especially Multinational Corporations like Honda are now changing from the traditional HR mindset and are now developing new HR strategies to cope with the changes that come with global economy and globalization. The changes are not only internal but also external as the workplaces, and the nature of employment are also changing. Companies based in the developed countries are experiencing the aging workforce due to low birth rate and the reduced mortality rate in such countries. They are therefore forced to find ways of understanding the ways of satisfying the needs of aged employees, how to motivate them and how to improve their productivity. Information technology, especially social media is now increasing the unity of labor force across the globe, leading to stronger trade unions. At the same time, Generation Y prefer working in companies with the latest technology and the companies that understand their needs (Solomon, Bozga & Mateescu, 2013). Therefore, companies must come up with the policies, practice and should design jobs to suit the changing trends in the workplace and the nature of employment for them to take advantage of the trends and to remain competitive enough in the market. Some of other demographic changes that have affected the HR departments across the globe and which call for a proper human resource planning strategies include gender empowerment among women and increased number of single people at the workplace. Unlike before, there is a thin difference between men and women in the workplace as both men and women can perform the same job despite its complexity (Paauwe & Farndale, 2012). More women are now performing technical jobs that were reserved for men initially. At the same time, international organizations like ILO are now demanding for the gender equality at the workplaces. HR departments must factor in these changes through their HR strategic planning. For instance, in 2014, due to increased gender equality and empowerment, Honda appointed Hideko Kunii, the first woman to be on the board of the company. Strategies in the Employment Process Any company that wants to thrive in this era of stiff competition must use effective and the best recruitment and selection techniques for all its employees. The employment process of a company should reflect its philosophies, its structure and the planned strategies (Townley, 2014). Honda is a company that is dedicated to human rights, and it does not apply any form of discrimination in its recruitment and selection process. It also respects gender equality, and it is striving to include fairly all gender in its workforce. The company's employment and selection process is based on merit, and the company is using a fair procedure to come up with the best employees with enough experience and qualifications. As a multinational company, it also employs people from all the countries across the globe, and it respects the culture and diversity of different employees from different countries and cultures. The first step in recruitment and selection process is to carry out a pre-interview test where the applicants are appraised. The appraisal is aimed at having a hint of the qualification, skills and experience of applicants before the actual interview. The appraisal also helps the company to select the potential employee incase the applicants are many. Honda mostly carries its appraisal through the phone where applicants are asked about their qualifications and the experience they have that make them suitable for the applied position (Simonsen & Fabian, 2011). The company also has social media where it chats the potential employees to know them before the actual interview. In addition, Honda relies on the information in the application form of the applicants to appraise them. An appraisal is followed by the actual interview where the applicants are interviewed before a panel of experts. Like many other companies, Honda also uses experts from the HR department to interview applicants in order to come up with the best candidate. An Even panel interview is the most common recruitment and selection techniques; research has shown that it is not always the best way of getting the best candidate to fill a vacant position. Many applicants have interview panel phobia, and they cannot disclose their full potential in front of a panel. It is, therefore, important for a company to look beyond interview when to come with the best candidate. The best way to determine the relevant knowledge f an applicant, his skills, and personality is through a psychometric test. Psychometric test is always effective before an interview because it gives the true picture of the applicant. The major types of the psychometric test include personality and aptitude test. Personality test helps the recruitment panel in determining the values, interests and the actual attitude of the candidate that are relevant to the applied job. Aptitude test is used to test the cognitive capacity of the candidates and how he can use his or her reasoning capacity to carry out his or her duty. It is important for a company to include the psychometric test in its recruitment and selection process because there is more to qualification and skills. It is important for a company to carry out effective induction after coming up with the best employee because induction determines the success of a selected candidate. Induction significantly determines the future success of the employee because the employee will feel welcomed in the organization while at the same time he will be sure that he made the right decision in joining the organization. In addition, induction builds self-esteem, the morale, and it also motivates the new employee, which are important for the productivity and performance of employees. Induction process should be formal for it to have a significant impact on employees. Assessment and Development of Employees It is important for the organization to take part in the training and development of its employees if it needs to achieve its objectives. Training of employees helps in narrowing the gap between employees in terms of skills and experience (Tahir et al., 2014). It is important to take performance review of all employees in order to identify the training needs, the areas that need improvement, and to ensure that the training and development programs add value to the performance of employees and the organization in general. Need assessment also helps the company in identifying the potential of the management. Employee assessment at Honda is carried out through management analysis, and through the internal survey. Honda's HR development is based on the philosophy of intellectual capital where it lays out the strategy for improving the performance of its employees through training and development. It takes part in the training and the development of its associates across the globe. The company also organizes internal training at the department level where all the employees in a department are trained on the emerging issues in the industry. There are also training programs at the managerial levels where it identifies the management potential, and it equips its management on how to carry out their duties effectively (Tahir et al., 2014). The main reason the company engage in training and development programs is because it helps it in coming up with knowledgeable, skilled, and productive employees who are willing to work to enhance the performance of the company. The training and development programs in the company also ensure that it has the ethical workers who are also care about the larger society. Training and development ensure effectives of all the employees in the company, leading to increased productivity. Appraisal, Evaluation, Enhancement, and Management of Employee Performance One way of developing an effective relationship between the management and the staff is through effective performance appraisal of employees. An effective relationship between employees and management is important for enhancing the performance of the organization (DeNisi & Smith, 2014). At the same time, employee appraisal has been known to destroy the relationship between the employees and the management if it is no carried out properly. Therefore, appraisal performance techniques applied by the company should be above board and should be inclusive for it to add value to the company. An organization, therefore, should come up with appropriate instruments when carrying out employee performance appraisal (Bernardin & Wiatrowski, 2013). For instance, the appraisal forms used should contain all the details and the information that are required. The forms should also be simplified; they should not be complex to understand. An organization should also include all the employees in the appraisal process for it to avoid any conflict that may come during the evaluation. No one likes being appraised, and, therefore, the tension is likely to reduce when employees are included in the process. It is important for the appraisal committee to organize a meeting after the appraisal to discuss the results of the process, come up with the corrective actions, and to strategize for the way forward. The only suitable way of improving the performance of employees is to find ways of boosting their morale. Recognizing the effort that employees are putting in their work is important because this makes them feel that they are valued by the organization and that that their work helps in the development of the organization. One main reason people work is to meet their basic and non basic needs. Therefore, to enhance the performance of employees, a company should compensate its workers well. It should also find ways of boosting the confidence and self-esteem of the workers by equipping them with the needed skills at the workplace. Main HRM Problem The main problem that the company has faced lately is labor unrest in many of its branches across the globe. The most severe unrest took place din India in Honda Motor Cycle & Scooters India (HMSI), where the striking workers were beaten by the police. The management failed to deal with the incident properly, which negatively tainted the company's public image and reputation. The media widely covered the company lost a lot during the incident. Labor unrest is the main undoing in the company. The best way to solve the labor unrest in the company is dialogue. The management should come up with the strategies that enable the dialogue between the management and employees if any case there is a conflict between the two parties. It should constantly review its terms and condition of employment to ensure that it does not interfere with the relationship between the employees and the company. The company should also engage in the extensive social responsibility to redeem its public image and reputation. Conclusion No organization should ignore the role that HR is playing in its performance. The success of any organization depends on the productivity of employees, and effective HRM strategies are likely to optimize the performance of the organization. A lot of changes are taking place in the world, and it is important for organizations to embrace the changes and come up with strategies to be competitive. Also, the appraisal system should be inclusive and should be fair to all the employees for it to add value to the organization. Finally, training and development is important in improving the performance of employees and the general performance of the organization. Reference List Automatic News Data Center. 2012. Us Fleet Annual Sales Data. Retrieved from http://acurazine.com/forums/automotive-news-6/honda-fit-news-**2015-version- delayed-page-14-**-294379/page12/ Bernardin, H. J., & Wiatrowski, M. 2013. Performance appraisal. Psychology and Policing, 257. Buller, P. F., & McEvoy, G. M. 2012. Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review, 22(1), 43-56. DeNisi, A., & Smith, C. E. 2014. Performance appraisal, performance management, and firm- level performance: a review, a proposed model, and new directions for future research. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 127-179. Guest, D. E. 2011. 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