Talent Management, Performance Appraisal - Coursework Example

TITLE by Name of author Name of class Name of Professor Name of school Location of school Date Introduction Human resource can easily be described as the overall knowledge, creative skills aptitudes and talents that an organisations workforce has, as well as the approaches, beliefs and values of all individuals involved in an organisation’s affairs (Amos 2008). It is thus the aggregate of the innate abilities, expertise and acquired knowledge exhibited through the talents and capabilities of the all persons employed by the organisation. While it is true that all resources an organisation has should be treated with great importance, human resource is the most valuable and most unique asset for any organisation (Amos 2008). As such, human resource should be managed in such a way that the organisation brings out the best in its employees. Successful management of human resources is therefore a challenging task, more so in this century where the world has transformed into a global village (Sims 2007). Discussion It would be right to say that although Human Resource Management in an organisation is expected to perform various functions, its primary function is to develop a human organisation that is able to keep the organisation ahead of the competition. In the 21st century today, Human Resource Management in every organisation has proved to be the hardest duty any manager could encounter (Stone 2008). This is because human beings differ in attitudes, ambitions, assumptions and psychology. The scarce nature of human resource that is talented coupled with increased expectations of today’s worker has added to the complexity human resource management function. It should be noted from the onset that, although the human resource management function is the responsibility of the human resource department, all managers in all departments should play a role in the fulfillment of this function (Kabst and Matiaske 2005). All managers therefore need to understand the organisation’s human resource policies as well as its activities geared towards managing, motivating, and developing the workforce in a manner that will benefit the organisation. Employee empowerment can be said to make part of the primary function of human resource management (Stone 2008). This process of empowering employees thus includes necessary training that is relevant to each employee’s job, sharing organisational common goals with employees, sharing of profits and benefits all across the organisation and putting trust on lower level employees by the top management (Stone 2008).. Shaping of human resource management towards process promises to change the entire direction of an organisation’s performance for the better. The need to focus on acquisition of skills of international qualities that cut across political, economic and social borders has become ever increasingly important today more than ever. The empowerment of employees thus enables any organization to make important decisions aimed at improving its performance (Stone 2008).. A look at the most successful organisations in the world, big or small, reveals that these organisations put in more than 100% in the management of their human resource and one good example of such a n organisation is McDonalds (Gilbert 2009). McDonalds has successfully used the HRM model to its advantage and this has been instrumental in its success all over the globe. The Human Resource Management emphasizes: Importance of searching for new working ways The primary role of managers in promoting change. Handling employees as individuals and not as a combined workforce. Encouraging employees to consider an organisation’s management as an ally rather than as opponents. McDonald’s management realized that for its employees to be ahead of other employees in the fast food industry, they had to train them, encourage education and offer good benefits packages (Gilbert 2009). Great emphasis is placed on training at McDonald’s and training is conducted over the different management levels and is entirely on-the-job. The organisation has also managed to introduce certifications in its training programs such that employees have proof of going through particular training courses (Gilbert 2009). A well trained human resource has enabled McDonald’s to become the successful company that it is and continues to be today. From extraordinary profits to low employee turnover rate, McDonald’s has very little competition in the first food industry (Gilbert 2009). Benefits have also been part of McDonald’s long standing human resource policy over the past decades. Benefits such as MAC Card, life insurance, training programs, paid vacation, flexible hours, salary increases and education support are all geared towards motivating its workers (Gilbert 2009). A well motivated employee will always work hard and put in extra effort as a way of appreciating what the organisation is offering. The company has been an advocate of education and has been working in partnerships with parents and education practitioners with the aim of making sure that the organisation’s school going employees make education a priority. To the company, education always comes first (Gilbert 2009). This example of McDonald’s human resource management is a clear indication that with the right policies and the willingness to implement such policies, any organisation will win in the market place (Srimannarayana 2006). As such, there will be increased competition which will further require organisations to employ new ways of handling this precious asset that is human resource (Srimannarayana 2006). Given that most organisations today carry out their business in different countries, aligning the diversity of different cultures to an organization’s goals and vision is the paramount objective of HRM. Application of strategies that will adopt the practices as well as policies and align them to the different environments and culture has become important (Stone 2008). By doing this, the HRM will ensure that all organisation employees in the different countries are considered as one without any notions of one group being favoured to another. The result of this is that harmony is maintained throughout the organisation and this has to be encouraged by HRM department (Stone 2008). Hiring It is a well known fact that with harmony in an organisation, a proactive work environment is built which places an organisation at a prime position for highly qualified job seekers (Srimannarayana 2006). As part of the HRM function of developing a winning human organisation, strategic hiring has become an important facet of most organizations’ winning strategies. Hiring of highly qualified and skilled personnel will in the end help an organisation achieve it vision and objectives. Organisations are always on the lookout for professionals who will bring fresh ideas that will promise the organisation success in the market and this function is left to the HRM department (Nobes 2014). Once the department gets the hiring process right, then it is well halfway on its path to success. This process is characterized by particular fundamentals that will ensure successful hiring of future organisation employees and they include developing a job description, making a recruitment plan, posting jobs, reviewing resumes, screening applicants, interviewing potential employees and lastly hiring (Nobes 2014). These fundamentals are so important to an extent that a mistake in one part will lead the HRM department to hire an employee that they did not need (Nobes 2014). Successful organisations also have well established recruitment policies that ensure that they get the best personnel for the vacancies to be filled. The Coca-Cola Corporation is one such organisation, boasting of a well laid down recruitment process (Bodden 2009). The company has in place policies that allow for both internal and external recruitment. Internal recruitment allows the company to fill positions internally where an existing employee fills a vacancy instead of going through the rigorous process of hiring a new employee. Coca Cola has been so good at this and it has over the years managed to save to save time and money, two resources whose proper management are important to the success of any organisation (Bodden 2009). For its external recruiting, Coca Cola uses different sources for possible job seekers and once it has pin-pointed possible employees it takes them through a thorough selection process through interviews, presentations, psychometric tests, situational tests among other methods (Bodden 2009).The reason why the company has these different methods of selection process is because its HRM department understands well that the selection process is not a one size fits all process. Different roles at Coca Cola require different expertise and personality traits and as such, application of different methods will take care of this variance (Bodden 2009). By applying the right selection process, the HRM department ensures that the right qualified employee is hired for the right position and for the right role. Having the right personnel being placed in the right positions is one sure way that the HRM will guarantee an organisation wins in the market place (Bodden 2009). Talent Management In the 21st century, it is important for organisations to manage the talent exhibited by its personnel. As part of human resource management, talent management is aimed at retaining talented employees in an organisation and as such the organisation does not have to worry about losing these employees to competitors (Kaushik 2014). Most organisations will have only top potential employees in their talent management programs while others will have every employer in such programs. Research has shown that it is those organisations that place all their employees in the talent management programs that derive the greatest success in the market place. In order to achieve this, the HRM department collects all data related to the different talents by employees and then shares this information across the organisation. Higher employee productivity has been attributed to excellent talent management by the HRM (Kaushik 2014). Talent management at Apple Corporation has been nothing short of extraordinary and this can explain the success that Apple has enjoyed in the different unrelated industries over the years. The extraordinary talent and the way that Apple Corporation manages it can be rivaled by very few organisations (Lüsted 2012). The firm has always strived to have a productive workforce and this is evident from the measure of employee workforce productivity which stands at approximately $478,000 in profits per employee. What has worked for Apple is carefully applying the concept of lean management whereby the employees are accorded very little operating funding and this has led to a more innovative workforce that is at the same time productive. The reasoning behind this philosophy is that innovation is very expensive for most organisations and therefore a lot of money would be wasted if a trial and error approach was used (Lüsted 2012). With employees having to work under the leanness approach, they become more innovative and more productive which translates to the success of the overall company. Performance Appraisal Any organisation that wants to be successful must always evaluate the performance of its employees against the organisations set goals and objectives (Bansal 2007). This is the only way that management will know whether employees are meeting set goals and objectives and if not, aid in finding out the cause of underperformance. Usually developed by the organisation as a whole, performance appraisal is in most organisations carried out by the HR manager. Performance appraisal is thus viewed as a process rather than just the simple creation of ubiquitous standards. The primary purpose of performance appraisal is therefore to help employees improve their performance which in the long run improve overall organisation performance (Bansal 2007).. By treating the organisation as the humans that are within it, then it is not farfetched to fathom the idea that the organisation is prone to weaknesses that may weigh down on the efforts injected for the success of the organisation. Performance appraisal enables the HRM to discover these weaknesses and then use this information to make strategic changes and decisions aimed at driving the organisation towards success. Samsung Electronics for instance has put in place one of the most friendly performance appraisal systems in the industry (Michell 2010). The HRM at Samsung Electronics uses the conventional method of performance appraisal whereby the evaluation performance is based on achievement over a one year period. The company’s performance appraisal system also supports training and development of the employees which leads to a more productive employee output over the long run (Michell 2010). Research that was recently conducted on employee performance appraisal satisfaction revealed that there was an 85% approval rate by employees. This goes on to show the success that Samsung Electronics has enjoyed over the last few years and this can be attributed partly to the strategic decisions made as a result of the outcomes of their annual performance appraisal (Michell 2010). Conclusion In any given organisation, the HRM has a lot of functions but its primary function is to develop a human organisation that will produce winning results in the industry. However, that being said, all managers in every department in the organisation are expected to take certain human resource management roles of the staff that report to them that will lead to the achievement of organisation’s goals. This is very important and is expected in the 21st century market place. References Amos, T. 2008. Human resource management. Wetton, Cape Town, Juta. Sims, R. R. 2007. Human resource management: contemporary issues, challenges and opportunities. Greenwich, Conn, Information Age Publ. Stone, R. J. 2008. Human resource management. Milton, Qld, John Wiley & Sons Australia. Gilbert, S. 2009. The story of McDonald's. Mankato, MN, Creative Education Michell, T. 2010. Samsung Electronics and the struggle for leadership of the electronics industry. Singapore, Wiley. Lüsted, M. A. 2012. Apple the company and its visionary founder, Steve Jobs. Minneapolis, MN, ABDO Pub. Kabst R, and Matiaske W. 2005, ‘Editorial: Human Resource Management and Economic Success’. Management Revue, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 161-163 Bansal, P. 2007. ‘Human Resource Management: A Competitive Advantage.’ Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 746-751 Srimannarayana M. 2006. ‘Human Resource Management in Small Business.’ Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 313-334 Kaushik S. 2014. Nurturing talent.Stuck in the middle. Viewed 3rd May 2014, from http://www.humancapitalonline.com/backIssuesSearch.php?sh=y Bodden, V. 2009. The story of Coca-Cola. Mankato, MN, Creative Education. Nobes, C. 2014. ‘Are recruiters ignoring their best resource?’ HC Online blog, web log post, viewed 10 April, viewed 3rd May 2014, from http://www.hcamag.com/hr-news/are-recruiters-ignoring-their-best-resource-186398.aspx?keyword=hiring Read More