Human Resource Management Plan and Policy Issues - Essay Example

Executive Summary Every organization must have the right policies and plans to drive its human resources agenda. This report presents a discussion about the issues in strategic Human Resource Management plans and policies that an organization needs to operate. These issues pertain to ethics, values, corporate social responsibility and sustainability. An organization needs to implement all the issues pertaining to these fields and many others if its HRM strategy is to be effective. There are strategic recommendations in this report on key human resource plans and policies that can help facilitate a transformation in the Human Resource Management of the organization. The organization should organize for bonuses and rewards to employees, creation of knowledge databases, information sharing forums, tapping ideas and developing profiles for top performers. Table of Contents Executive summary……………………………………………………………..1 Strategic HRM plans and policies for an organization……………………….4 Ethics…………………………………………………………………………….4 Cash and compensation…………………………………………………..4 Race, disability and gender……………………………………………….5 Issues of employment…………………………………………………….5 Issues of privacy………………………………………………………….5 Corporate Social Responsibility………………………………………………..6 Community Relations…………………………………………………….6 Training and Development……………………………………………….6 Vision, mission, values……………………………………………………6 Planning the recruitment of workforce……………………………………7 Competency development, training and orientation………………………7 Compensation and performance management……………………………7 Corporate culture and management of change……………………………8 Employee participation……………………………………………………8 CSR policy development………………………………………………….8 Employee communication…………………………………………….. ….9 Values……………………………………………………………………………..9 Integrity……………………………………………………………………9 Respect…………………………………………………………………….9 Customer focus…………………………………………………………….9 Communication…………………………………………………………9 Competence……………………………………………………………..9 Team spirit……………………………………………………………..10 Accountability………………………………………………………….10 Quality services to customers………………………………………….10 Fairness………………………………………………………………...10 Sustainability………………………………………………………………….11 Funding…………………………………………………………………11 Resource use……………………………………………………………11 Organizational continuity……………………………………………….12 Strategic recommendations on key HRM plans and policies……………….12 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..13 Strategic HRM plans and policies for an organization Every organization needs plans and policies for human resource management. These two can then be used to ensure the implementation of the strategy of the company. Plans and policies may be ethical in nature, aiming at sustainability, values or corporate social responsibility. Ethical plans and policies seek to cultivate ethics in the operations of the organization (Deb 2006, 79). The plans are about how to get employees and other staff to behave in an ethical manner toward each other and anybody else. Issues in corporate social responsibility are those that the organization can endeavor to address in order to improve and maintain its efforts to give back to the society. The human Resource Management (HRM) also needs to cultivate values that can give it credibility and sustainability consciousness which can help it to conserve and protect its environment and the natural resources under its care. The focus of this report is on the plans and policies an organization needs to maintain ethics, corporate social responsibility, values and sustainability in all of its operations (Sims, 2007, 23). Ethics Issues pertaining to ethics within an organization include: i) Cash and Compensation The organization should be ready to tackle issues involving salaries, yearly incentives and executive perquisites. There may be pressure on the HRM to increase employee base salaries. The HRM management could be pressurized to award bigger incentive to top managers under the pretext of retaining them. Other ethical issues come up during the development of incentive and compensation plans with the advice of a hired consultant or the CEO. The HRM could be tempted to favor top manager interests than those of the stakeholders and low ranking employees when it comes to payout (Zanko 2003, 331).  ii) Race, disability and gender An organization could find itself discriminating against employees based on their gender, race, disability and place of origin. Policies that control employee behavior should be in place to regulate issues of fairness within the organization (Deb 2006, 199). The organization should look at performance as the single factor that differentiates employees. Managers should receive training on how they can align behavior and keep away from discrimination on their employees (Sharma, 2009, 38). iii) Issues of employment Hiring of employees presents another ethical challenge to the office of HRM. The HRM should watch against being unfair and compromised when hiring new employees. Hiring could become challenging when the person seeking to be employed has a friend’s recommendation to get the job or is originated from the family of a top manager or the family of the Human Resource Manager. Some hired employees may have used fake documents to secure positions in the organization. Such employees could be people who have received training within the organization and the position they are holding is very important. Another case may involve employees that have been appreciated greatly in the short period they have work or they have unique skills and a commendable attitude that the organization values a lot. These cases could present a very big dilemma to the HRM office (Zanko 2003, 67). iv) Issues of privacy Every employee in the organization has a private side of life that need be protected and respected. The personal side of life of any particular employee could be carrying issues regarding the religious persuasion, social beliefs and political inclination of the person. The employer may however, reach a pint where he is required to investigate the activities of the employee if the latter is suspected on engaging in activities that are not beneficial to the organization. The investigation may involve scanning the mails of the suspected employee. Other ethical issues may be those that touch on the safety and health of staff, responsibilities assigned to employees, layoff and restructuring of the organization. The HRM should determine whether such activities hold any ethical significance or not (Sharma, 2009, 217).  Corporate social responsibility There are several issues that the organization should be concerned about when streamlining its corporate social responsibility plans and policies. These issues are among others: i) Community Relations The Human Resource team should plan to encourage community relations reward program implementation, contributing to charity and promoting the involvement of the community. ii) Training and Development This involves planned programs to explain how the important products and services of the organization link with the society. The value of these products to the community as well as the manner of participation by employees in corporate social responsibility should be the guideline to the training and development initiatives (Zanko, 2003, 56).  iii) Vision, mission, values For the organization to have a successful and working corporate social responsibility plan, the HRM should articulate its mission, values and vision in a very clear manner. The HR should be involved in plans to develop and support the organization’s foundation for mission, vision and values. For the foundation to promote aligned it must have aspects of corporate social responsibility. The corporate social responsibility should be developed on the basis of the above mission, values and vision (Price, 2011, 39).  iv) Planning the recruitment of workforce The corporate social responsibility of the organization also relies on workforce planning which should be accomplished through an analysis of the workforce competencies available within the organization, gauging the workforce against the organization’s future needs, making plans for workforce for future workforce and evaluation plans (Zanko 2003, 58). Since the organization is concerned about corporate social responsibility the Human Resource Manager should make plans to evaluate the need for competencies and sets of skills that would align with a sustainability economy. v) Competency development, training and orientation The organization should have plans and policies for orientation whereby employees should be made to understand the relationship between the vision, mission and the goals and values of corporate social responsibility. New employees should be oriented, trained have their competencies developed through provision of information about the commitments and policies of corporate social responsibility, major CSR issues of the organization and the main stakeholders that the organization works through. CSR should ultimately become part of parcel of the programs for training managerial staff (Price, 2011, 155).  vi) Compensation and performance management The functions of HRM rely on compensation and performance management. The HRM should set standards of performance and monitor the outcome with the objectives on performance in mind. Human resource managers should endeavor to integrate the elements of corporate social responsibility into the organization’s job descriptions, goals of the team and individual plans of performance. Reward programs and all recognition arrangements should be designed in line with the organizations corporate social responsibility strategy (Deb 2006, 203). vii) Corporate culture and management of change HRM should actively engage in managing the process of change, corporate culture and building of the team. Role modeling, desire generation and awareness building should be prioritized in order to bring about change of behavior and mindsets. In order to maintain focus on the compass and values of corporate social responsibility there should alignment of the team as well as change management. Incorporating the ethics of corporate social responsibility within the organization also require change management (Idowu, Filho 2009, 109). viii) Employee participation For a corporate social responsibility strategy to be developed, employees should be involved since they are among the major stakeholders within the organization. The process of developing the values, mission and vision strategy of the organization should incorporate the major concerns and views of all the stakeholders especially employees (Sharma, 2009, 310). The participation of employees in the corporate social responsibility strategy should be given priority as well. The employees should be involved in decisions to give to charities and involve the community in various activities. This can guarantee their cooperation during the implementation of various plans and polices. ix) CSR policy development Human resource management should be able to direct the development of policy and implementation of programs in particular areas that give support to corporate social responsibility values (Sharma, 2009, 319). x) Employee communication All CSR strategies will succeed if a communication program for employees is developed and implemented. This can help to show corporate direction, innovation, the objectives and the level of performance on its efforts for corporate social responsibility. Information to employees should be relayed through websites, blogs, videos, intranets, town hall meeting among others. Values The human resource plans and policies on values should include: i) Integrity The organization should endeavor to foster honest interactions among the employees and other people. This should pave the way for relationships founded on trust. Any confidentiality that the organization is entrusted with should be respected. ii) Respect When dealing with other people’s problems it is important to be patient and sensitive. The organization should promote open mindedness, fairness and forthrightness in its interactions with customers and its employees (Idowu, Filho 2009, 148). iii) Customer focus The HR manager should oversee plans and policies that help the organization to anticipate, comprehend and respond effectively and on time to customer needs. Feedback from customers should be welcome and be use to effect improvement in organizational operations. iv) Communication Communication is a value on which people should base their relationships at the business and personal levels. Everyone in the organization must be trained to understand other people’s perspective through listening clearly and responding with sincerity (Erasmus, Swanepoel, Schenk, 2008, 56). v) Competence The organization should promote competent performance through the skills and knowledge obtained through experience and training. Customers deserve services and products that are produced by competent people. vi) Team spirit The next issue on the values should be the spirit to work together and a team. Collaboration and togetherness in work with fellow employees and customers is very necessary. Each team member should care about the customer and fellow employee needs. Cooperation not only fosters unity but impacts positively on performance (Armstrong 2006, 29). vii) Accountability Policies and plans should involve accountability issues. This will ensure that the organization empowers its employees through promotion responsible behavior and accountability. Employees should also be encouraged to think critically, be innovative and be able to take risks. Employees should be made to represent in truth; their intentions and themselves with accountability for what they say and what they do. viii) Quality services to customers Policies and plans should focus at provision of customer service of high quality and professionalism. The organization must support and provide needed advice to its employees all the time. Availability of the organization to the community has to be assured. High quality services will also lift the reputation of the organization in the industry. ix) Fairness All people should be treated fairly in a manner that is equitable and ethical. Making decisions must be free of prejudice and favoritism of any kind. Policies and plans in the field of values should incorporate fairness at all stages. Fairness must be directed to all the customers and the employees as well (Deb 2006, 213). Sustainability Issues of sustainability for the organization should also feature in the various policies and plans developed in the organization. These policies and plans can then be used to guide actions and activities of the employees towards sustainability. The organization should promote sustainability within and outside of the organization among the local communities. To promote sustainability, the Human Resource Management should work at issues such as: i) Funding The organization should set aside funds that are directly meant for sustainability activities. Policies and plans should be put in place to provide guidelines on the acquisition of these funds and how they should be used. Major activities to promote sustainability may be implemented among the local communities to improve their quality of life and the health of the environment. This would also present the organization as one that is sustainability conscious (Idowu, Filho 2009, 210). ii) Resource use The HRM should develop policies that can control resource use by the employees and help them appreciate the ethics of environmental protection and conservation. Environmental conservation and wise use of resources should be at the center of sustainability. Other issues include waste management, energy conservation and control of pollutants. The overall corporate strategy should address all the concerns from the employees and the surrounding communities about environmental protection and conservation (Price 2011, 15).  iii) Organizational continuity The continued existence of the organization should be viewed as part of the sustainability achievements since the infrastructure, goods and services offered by the organization would be of benefit to future generations as well (Armstrong 2008, 135).  The capacity of the organization to continue serving the society should be maintained. The HRM should ensure that it handles all the issues relevant to organizational survival well so that it remains sustainable. This may involve protection of the brand as well as the quality of services and products. Strategic recommendations on key HRM plans and policies The major plans and policies of the Human Resource Management with an impact of transforming its profile involve things that the HR should do for the rest of the company and the customers to win their approval. The HRM should be able to create a workplace and that is healthy and safe. HRM should develop policies and plans to this effect. A workplace that is safe and healthy will make the employees feel at home and encouraged to stick with the organization for longer (Armstrong 2008, 145).  The HR should also strive to use the Open Book style of management. When information is shared about sales, policies and the objectives of management among other things it makes the employees to develop an enthusiasm about the organization the same way the management does. Performance linked bonuses when given out to the employees can act as an incentive or even disillusion employees. The bonus should only be given to people only when the organization has attained a set amount of profit. A system of obtaining feed back from the senior management should be developed. Information can also be solicited from subordinates since their opinion also matters in the running of the organization (Idowu, Filho 2009, 200). The organization should work on a system of fair evaluation for all employees. The HR should come up with a system of evaluation that creates a link between the goals of the organization and its priorities. Every employee needs to have his own reporting relationships. Employees receive empowerment when they rate themselves (Idowu, Filho 2009, 213). The HRM should foster the sharing of knowledge. The organization needs to have an approach that can make knowledge management support strategy. Storing information in databases helps employees to access it easily. Proper selection should be done for materials so that only the best should be stored. For example innovative ideas whose implementation has been done within the organization should be availed for sharing with others (Erasmus, Swanepoel, Schenk, 2008). The HRM should create the profiles of highest performing individuals and avail them through the intranet and or display boards. This can motivate other people to work harder and therefore raise the level of competition within the company. The organization should have open house discussions to serve as forums for tapping ideas. The organization should be able to recognize the ideas, nurture and implement them. Reward ceremonies are also important especially in broadcasting recognition. The HRM should develop plans and policies that will enable the holding of these ceremonies regularly. The organization should also delight its employees with occasional rewards that they are not expecting. Rewarding should be done to high ranking performers and other low performers as well so that they can gain motivation (Armstrong 2006, 79). Conclusion In conclusion, this report has delved into the key issues needed in the development of Human Resource Management plans and policies in various fields including ethics, corporate social responsibility, values and sustainability. The discussion has featured many issues in each of the categories mentioned. Ethical issues include cash and compensation, race, disability and gender, employment and privacy issues. Under corporate social responsibility the key issues discussed are community relations, training and development, vision, mission and values, planning workforce recruitment, competency development, training and orientation, compensation and performance management, corporate culture and management change, employee participation, CSR policy development and employee communication. The issues pertaining to values are integrity, respect, customer focus, communication, competence, team spirit, accountability, quality services to customers and fairness. Sustainability policies and plans should involve funding, resource use and organizational continuity. Development of proper policies and plans for the organization should incorporate the above issues in totality. A good and workable strategy should be designed with all the stakeholders put into consideration. Bibliography Armstrong, M. (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Routledge. Armstrong, M. (2008). Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. Ashgate Publishing. Deb, T. (2006). Strategic Approach to Human Resource Management. Ashgate Publishing. Erasmus, B., Swanepoel, B., Schenk, H. (2008). South African Human Resource Management: Theory and Practise. Springer. Idowu, S. O., Filho, W. M. (2009). Professionals’ Perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility. IAP. Price, A. (2011). Human Resource Management. Cengage Learning. Sharma, S. K. (2009). Human Resource Management: A strategic Approach to Employment. Oxford University Press. Sharma, S.K. (2009). A Handbook of HRM practices: Management Policies and Practices. John Wiley and Sons. Sims, R.R., (2007).Human Resource Management: Contemporary Issues, Challenges and Opportunities. Cengage Learning. Zanko, M. (2003). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Policies and Practices in Asia Pacific Economies Volume 2. Routledge. Read More