One Person Human Resource Department - Literature review Example

Introduction

Human resource management refers the process of bringing people and organization together so that the goals of each are met. It is a part of the Directorate process which is concerned with the management of the human resources in an organization. Human resource management ensures that that the employer obtains the greatest possible benefit from their abilities, and the employees receive both material and psychological rewards for their work. By extension, human resource management refers to those activities that are developed to attract, develop, motivate and maintain a high performing workforce within the organization and it does so by integrating the wishes of employees for growth and development with organizational goals (Brown. 2011).

Some of the various activities involved in Human Resource Management include;

Planning, Planning is when the human resource management develops goals and standards, rules and procedures. The human resource develops plans by forecasting, predicting and projecting some of the expected future occurrences (Dale. 2003).

Organizing, Human resource assist in organizing by giving each subordinate a particular task, establishing departments, delegating authority to subordinate, establishing channels of communication and coordinating the work of the assistants (Kleynhans. 2006).

Staffing, the human resource has the responsibility of deciding what type of people should jobs in an organization. They recruit employees, select employees, set performance standards, compensate employees, evaluate performance, counsel employees, train and develop the employees (Dale. 2003).

Leading, Human Resource ensures that they get others to do the job by maintaining morale and by motivating the employees (Kleynhans. 2006).

Controlling, the human resource set standards for example sales quotas, quality standards by noting how the real performance compares with these standards and they take any corrective measures that maybe needed (Brown. 2011).

One Person Human Resource Department, A one-person human resource department is when organizations only have one person who is responsible for all Human Resource matters. The person must, therefore, learn how to do the job properly. The incumbent must therefore know all the HR rules that apply to the staff of the organization where you work (Dale. 2003).

Ralcorp Holdings

Ralcorp Holding Limited is a food manufacturing company that was founded in 1994 in St. Louis, Missouri. Ralcorp Holdings has its headquarter in Bank of America Plaza, St. Louis, Missouri in the United States of America. Ralcorp Holdings concerns its business in the manufacturing, distribution, and selling of private brand food products. Its products mainly compose of ready and hot cereals, snacks, peanut butter, cakes, biscuits and other lots of goods. Ralcorp Holdings sells its products through its direct sales force as well as through broker and distribution arrangements. Ralcorp Holdings Limited has over nine thousand employees who are distributed across the outlets in the country. Ralcorp Holdings has more than ten subsidiaries spread around the country that helps in the maximization of profit (Brown. 2011).

Recruitment and Selection Plan

Recruitment refers to the first stage of filling a vacancy. It includes the examination of the job, consideration of sources of suitable candidates, making contact with those candidates and attracting applications from them (Adorno and Mercy. 2006).

One of the policies of Ralcorp Holding limited in recruitment is the process that seeks to identify a group of qualified candidates in adequate numbers to take care of the current and future workforce needs. To ensure that the Human Resource selection and recruitment process is compatible with the policies of Ralcorp Holding Limited, the incumbent human resource manager must develop a well-structured recruitment and selection plan. The plan that the incumbent must develop should include the recruitment and the selection (Dale. 2003).

Recruitment

Recruitment mainly involves the discovering of potential candidates for the actual of anticipated vacancies. To ensure the human resource manager attracts the right candidates, the manager must use internal and external sources to generate an applicant pool. board a vital stage because the more candidates the organization receives, the more selective the manager will be when hiring (Kleynhans. 2006).

The selection process starts when the human resource manager has a pool of applications and hence can start to select the best person for the job. The recruitment and selection plan should include;

Identify Vacancy and Evaluate Need

The human resource should develop a set of required skills and qualifications that take into consideration the strategic goals of in Ralcorp Holdings. The manager should also ensure that the vacancy requirements take in account the Ralcorp Holdings key competencies and analyze the core skills that may be needed by the new employee (Brown. 2011).

Develop position description

The human resource manager should develop a well-structured job description. The primary purpose of this is to provide a snap overview of Ralcorp Holdings, develop interview questions and describe responsibilities and the required skills and qualifications for the job (World at Work. 2008).

Recruitment Plan

The manager should develop a recruitment plan that should be able to attract and hire the best candidates for Ralcorp Holdings. The recruitment plan must have advertising channels to be used for the targeted audience such as employment agencies, college recruitment, executive recruiting, referrals, computerized job database and the internet. The recruitment plan should also ensure that that person who is from minority groups such as women and individuals who are disabled are encouraged to apply as many as possible (Lussier. 2008).

Selection Committee

The human resource manager must select and create a selection committee who will evaluate the applications. This will ensure that the human resource manager avoids biases because of independence. The selection committee must be well diversified with individuals from different departments of the organization. The committee should also ensure that that minority groups and underrepresented groups such as women and people with disabilities are given the opportunity to serve on the selection committee. This selection committee should be based on the nature of positions that is to be filled and also the level of technicalities that comes with it (Brown. 2011).

Posting the Position

After developing the job description, the vacancy can then be posted to the public for applications through the Ralcorp Holdings career site. The posting should clearly indicate the number of days that it will be open to receive applications. The assignment must provide instructions on how people should apply the position for both internal and external candidates. The human resource manager also ensures that the posting includes the number of days that the applicants should expect feedback as to whether they have qualified for the next of selection process (Dale. 2003).

Reviewing Applications

Once the application period is closed, the selection committee will then review the applications. The selection committee will then ensure that only the candidates who meet the minimum qualifications set by Ralcorp Holdings are shortlisted for the interview.

Conduct Interview

The human resource manager will develop interview questions that are meant to scrutinize the shortlisted candidates thoroughly and get the best out of them. This discussion will assist Ralcorp Holdings by ensuring that all the necessary data that are needed to evaluate skills and abilities of each candidate is collected (Brown. 2011).

Hiring Process

This is the final step in the recruitment and selection process. Once the interview process is done, the selection committee will then meet to discuss each interviewee and decide on the best one to be selected for the job. If selected, a reference check will then be conducted to obtain any information that pertains to the behavior and works performance of the candidate.

The offer of appointment will then be made, and negotiation is done on terms and conditions of the employment. The new employee is then brought on board an induction ceremony is conducted to introduce him/her to the company.

Training and Development Plan

Training refers to the attempt of improving the performance of employees by the attainment of specific skills. Training gives new and present employees the skills that they need to perform their jobs. Development, on the other hand, refers to the learning opportunities that are designed to help employees grow (Dale. 2003).

The training and development plan should contain;

Identifying Training needs

The manager should first identify training requirements that meet the company’s overall goals. This will ensure that the training and development are compatible with the primary aims of Ralcorp Holdings and that they are measurable and can make impact on the organization

Training objectives and criteria

This is to develop the learning objectives that will ensure the accomplishment of the overall training and development goals. The plan should also lay out preliminary learning objectives, the sequence of attaining the goals and how to handle any ongoing difficulties. The training and development program should also have methods of training techniques such as internships, coaching, on the job training, mentoring, lectures and other methods (Brown. 2011).

Evaluation of the training and development plan

This is the final stage of the training and development program. It involves the process of gathering information of whether the trainees were satisfied with the learning process. It will include examining whether the designated need or the objectives were met and the specified criteria were met. It also involves analyzing the effectiveness of the training method and what needs to be done to make it more efficient. Being in the food industry where care must be taken, the human resource manager in Ralcorp Holdings must ensure that training and development are gotten right at the beginning to avoid any disaster like food poisoning that may lead to legal cases.

Compensation Package

Compensation refers to the monetary payment made by the employer to his employees for the work done or the services rendered. As the human resource manager of Ralcorp Holdings, the incumbent must develop a compensation plan that includes (Dale. 2003).

Basic compensation

The necessary compensation includes wages and salaries that the employee will receive for hourly and monthly rates of pay respectively.

Incentives

These are the payments that the employees will receive a recognition for their outstanding performances. They refer to payments by results. These can be based on individual or group achievements (Brown. 2011).

Legal Issues to be considered

Employment discrimination

The human resource manager should put in place measures that ensure that all people are given the same opportunities to have employment in Ralcorp Holdings. The human resource manager should ensure that minority groups such as foreigners, individuals with disabilities and protected classes have equality of opportunity (Krausert. 2009).

Safety requirements

The human resource manager must ensure that Ralcorp Holdings provides a safe working environment, provide employees with safety equipment and ensure that policies are followed to the letter. Such kinds of measures will ensure that the human resource manager protects its employees and hence avoid any legal issue that may arise such as accidents at the workstations (Bohlander and Snell. 2010).

Data protection

The human research manager should ensure that data and confidential information about its employees and job applicants are well protected and secured, such information should not be disclosed to third parties without the consent of the employee. As the human resource manager of Ralcorp Holdings, the incumbent must develop data and information policy that each and every job applicant must agree to the terms and conditions before being considered for the position.

Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal refers to the process of evaluating the performance of workers during duties by their seniors or others who are familiar with the application of the performance apprise (Dale. 2003).The performance appraisal system will include:

Establishing performance standards

The resource manager in Ralcorp Holdings should develop the expected performance standards which should act as a threshold for which each employee should be appraised against. These standards should be based on the goals and the objectives of Ralcorp Holdings (Bohlander and Snell. 2010).

Communicating standards to employees

The human resource department should conform to the expected standards are communicated to the employees at an earlier time so that the employees know what they expected of them (Bohlander and Snell. 2010).

Measuring actual performance

This will involve examining the actual performance of the employee against the set standards of the company (Dale. 2003).

Appraisal Interview

This includes providing feedback to the employee based on the appraisal made. The assessment officer should ensure that they point out areas where the employee needs to improve on and also any training and learning required. The manager and the worker may also schedule another meeting to discuss issues that may not have been resolved and to follow if the employee has changed following the appraisal (Brown. 2011).