Travel Agency HR Plan - Research Paper Example

? Travel Agency HR Plan Introduction Job performance and progress in the context of the organisation are basic concepts that have synonymous relation to production, effectiveness as well as efficiency. In recent times the company’s human resources strategy has been associated with the competitiveness of the organisation in the ever growing global market (Kavanagh, and Thite 2009). It has also been a key focus for human resources scientists and social science enthusiasts from a diverse spectrum of disciplines. They, however, have a common ground that the organisation’s human resources strategy has a fundamental and irrefutably crucial role in the enhancement of the organization’s general performance. As such the key concerns for every human resources department have always been job satisfaction, employee commitment and motivation which are the determinants of the level of performance and job growth. The resources based approach to the role of human resources management proposes that the company has a competitive advantage if it can effectively execute its human resources strategy. As such the human resources strategy serves certain functions including creating competitive advantage. The focus of the firm’s competitive edge is the potential for effective and efficient execution of the production process. This is mainly associated with the firm’s workforce and how the workforce responds to the firm’s objectives and goals. People management The organisation’s human resources strategy ensures that the employees remain objective to the firm’s overall goals and objectives. Each employee has their own personal goals and objectives which are either similar or different from those of the organisation. The human resources strategy ensures that the employee aims and objectives are incorporated in the mission and objectives of the organisation. Job growth. The human resources strategy allows employees to understand and operate by a specific set of guidelines that create basic requirements and benchmarks for career advancement within the organisation. This ensures that well performing employees are rewarded with job growth. Motivation. A strategy allows the employees to operate towards a certain mission, objective and goals that are directed towards the organisation's performance. This acts as a motivation mechanism for the employees by driving their efforts towards a particular achievable and well laid out objective. 2. Challenges in the implementation Change management in the organisation has always presented serious concerns to the human resources department. The implementation of the human resources strategy will therefore be confronted by the resistance to change among the employees who are not as willing to adjust to the new strategy. Further the new human resources strategy will require the managers to change their systems of administration and instruction to allow for the adoption and effective implementation of the new strategy. The new strategy also requires a particular skill set that acts as the basis for the allocation of duties and responsibilities. As such not many employees bear these skills. This causes the projections of the strategy to deviate from the practically possible results. The recruitment of the new employees will also create new training costs to ensure that the employees maintain a strict standard of responsibility to the strategy. Finally the production line of the travel agency has an industry best practice standard which is commonly used among the travel agencies. Any deviation from the common standards creates doubts of actual effectiveness. 3. The purpose of HR metrics and their effect on senior management Human resources metrics are the series of factors and circumstances that allow the organisation to quantify the participation of the human resources as resources to the business. The effective implementation of corporate strategy depends on the ability to effectively manage the organisation (Lawler, Levenson, and Boudreau 2004). The human resources department is a high value part of the organisation that can be empirically measured and the analytic data interpreted as an expression of the influence of the business strategy on the decision making process and the general transformation of the organisation’s performance as well as other human resources functions. The human resources strategy has a particular effect on the senior management. It ensures that the human resources leaders remain active in the management of the decision making process as opposed to simply overseeing the spending of the business on the human capital and acting as an extra expense of doing business. The strategy therefore adopts better tools of workforce assembly for the implementation by the senior management alongside tighter coordination and cooperation procedures between the senior management and the operations of the organisation to ensure that the senior managers accumulate and disseminate relevant and progressive business information. 4. How the HR planning process will be determined and applied. The key to the effective adoption of a human resources strategy is understanding the organisation by evaluating its past, present and future needs as the basis for the creation of the mission, goals and objectives of the human resources strategy (Lockwood 2006). The planning process will be affected through a five stage process whose effects are as follows: Determination of the business goals These are the trends, priorities and emerging changes that affect the present, past and future of the human resources department in the travel agency. These include possible recruitment, possible partnerships of the business, the internal capacity as weighed over the commands general production capacity and potential. It will also take into account the limits imposed by the government through laws and policies, the available resources limits and the market potential and capacity. Environmental analysis This will involve a workforce analysis to understand the particulars of their skills preferences and job affiliations. An internal scan of the workforce will generate data on the particular factors that limit the ability of the employees to meet the strategic plan objectives. These will be identified as internal challenges and opportunities Gap analysis A gap analysis will allow the strategy to resolve the conflict between the human resources capacity in skill and numbers and the demands of the organisation. This also provides an opportunity for the creation of the job descriptions for the recruitment of the 50 new employees. Setting human resources priorities The tasks and responsibilities of the human resources strategy will be analysed based on priority activities that allow the management to create adequate opportunities for employee engagement. It also allows the management to improve the workplace well being by recruiting new employees and retaining the effective ones. Monitoring and evaluation The final step involves the evaluation and monitoring of the progress of the human resources strategy to ensure that the adopted methods and strategies are well implemented. This also provides an opportunity for the assessment of the effectiveness of the strategy. 5. Recruitment and selection methods As earlier discussed the business planning process is connected and associated with the overall business process. The recruitment and selection process must therefore subscribe to the principles of the strategic plan of the human resources. The selection and recruitment will a three step process. It will begin with the identification of the human resources strategy needs. These needs are then translated into job description after proper job analysis which is followed by the determination of the feasibility of hiring. References Kavanagh, M.J. & Thite, M. (2009). Human resources information systems: Basics, applications, and future directions. Thousand Oaks: Saga Publications, Inc. Lawler III, E.E., Levenson, A., & Boudreau, J.W. (2004). HR metrics and analytics: Use and impact human resources planning, 27(3): 27-35. Lockwood, N. (2006). Maximizing human capital: Demonstrating HR value with key performance indicator. HR Magazine, 51(9): 1-10. Read More