Types of Information Needed to Make Informed Human Resource Decisions - Coursework Example

Human Resource Management Human Resource Management Introduction In light of today’s equal opportunities and leveled global market, organizations’ competitive edge depends only on their approach to effective management of their human resources. It is imperative that organizations take much pleasure on effective operations of its human resource department. The department should be provided with the necessary information before making any decision. This is the only sure way of keeping any company ahead of its competitors. Nestlé Group Nestlé Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of food products and beverages. It was founded in 1867 by Henri Nestlé, a trained pharmacist, in Vevey, Switzerland. Henri Nestlé’s company later merged with Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in 1905 to form the current Nestlé. It has tremendously grown to be a world wide manufacturer with factories in almost every country. Its headquarters is in Switzerland and its current workforce is about 328,000 people (Nestlé, 2012). From the inception of this company, nutrition has been the cornerstone of its operations (Nestlé, 2012). Henri started off the company by launching Farine lactee, an infant’s food made by combining cow’s milk, wheat flour and sugar. Even today, Nestlé boasts of its wide range of nutrition-minded products that cover almost every category of foods and beverages needed throughout human’s life stages. Some of these products include baby foods, cereals, coffee, bottled water, chocolate, sports nutrition, weight management, pet care, etc. The value it has for his stakeholders such as employees, consumers, shareholders and the community has made Nestlé adopt the belief in building a lasting trust. According to the group’s Chairman, this trust has been built through consistent delivery of the company’s promises to all its stakeholders (Nestlé, 2012). The organization’s behavior, strategies and operations have all been shaped and directed towards creating shared values among its business partners. Types of Information Needed to Make Informed Human Resource Decisions The types of information needed by the human resource officers entirely depend on the type of decisions they are expected to make in any given situation. Some of this information concerns government regulations, workers’ union regulations, status of the existing work conditions, contemporary issues concerning employee benefits, the company’s competitors, prevailing economic conditions, customer expectations, available technology for the human resource management, job descriptions, internally available skills, sources of potential candidates, employee performance, employee job experience, training and remuneration history (Gelinas, 2012). Government regulations cover a wide range of organizational operations such as equal employment opportunities and affirmative action. Nestlé has acknowledged the superiority of the government regulations over its policies. It is, therefore, necessary that the human resource officer be informed of such government regulations in every step of their functions. Additionally, the government regulations relating to the matters of workers’ health, safety and benefits should form the basis of the personnel decisions. This would protect the organization against some forms of litigations or bans by the government. Closely related to government regulations is the information about the community values and systems. As most of the employees within any given company are members of the surrounding community, the human resource officer should be informed of the values of such communities as a way of predicting the behavior of its employees. The company may suffer the wrath of the community activists if their values are not taken into consideration in any of the organization’s decisions. Due to constant behavior change in people while responding to external factors such as change in the work conditions, the human resource manager is required to be updated on every change in such conditions. Information about the existing work condition helps the personnel officer understand the factors that influence employees’ behavior. Decisions such as to discipline or fire an employee should only be made after understanding the work environment. Contemporary issues concerning employee benefits have recently been a major contributor in shaping organization’s human resource management. The issues such as labor laws and worker unions greatly influence the conduct of company’s workforce. Therefore, the human resource officer should always be informed about the ongoing trends in such organizations. This would protect the company against conflict and creation of negative image with the unions. In order to acquire competent and best suited employees, the human resource officers need information about the potential sources of such employees. Most of the organizations contact universities, professional websites, search firms, government placement offices, and employment agencies as sources of human capital. Lack of information about these sources has made some organizations fill their work force with monotonous skills. Their new recruits are acquired through the existing employees. As a result, companies experience lack of diversity and organizational creativity in their operations. The economic conditions of an organization should be looked at holistically in terms of the organization’s profitability and the employees’ wellbeing. As such, the human resource officer should be informed of the general employment conditions such the availability and demand of workforce. This kind of information is very vital for the human resource officer as a guideline against hiring cheap labor that might cost the company extra costs in training. On the same breadth, the company is protected against extravagant spending on an employee when there is a cheaper and competent option. In this technical era, the human resource management needs information about the best available technology for managing human resources. The manual ways of conducting human resource management has proved not be useful in strategic management. Other factors concerning employee motivation, compensation and career development should be given priority in implementing proper human resource management systems. Most importantly, the human resource officers should always be informed about the skills and expertise required by the organizations in addition to those that are already available. With that knowledge, the officers can accordingly decide to acquire new employees with such skills or train the existing employees to perform the require task. It is at this moment that human resource office can draw the job description of such employees. Additionally, information about attracting and retaining required employees would help a company to avoid the poaching of its employees by its competitors. Recruitment Process Nestlé Group has the policy of recruiting staff with personal attitude and professional skills necessary for the accomplishment of their job descriptions. The entire recruitment is, therefore, not based only on the already acquired skills, but also on one’s potential for the professional development (Nestlé, 2012). The preferred candidate’s values must match the company’s culture. He or she must be willing to adhere to the Nestlé’s corporate business principles and management and leadership principles. The company keeps in touch with potential recruitment sources such as universities in order to get the best workforce. In the case of vacancies, Nestlé Group makes adverts to the general public through newspapers and commercial websites. The company strives to be clear in its communications. For the purpose of clarity, the adverts include information such as job numbers, job titles, and locations of the job, description of the company, job description, working hours, and major responsibilities of the staff, requirements in terms of competencies, experience and skills. Besides application criteria, the adverts sometimes specify the expected remuneration, depending on the position advertised (Nestlé, 2012). The recruitment and promotion at Nestlé Group is based on merit in terms of skills. That is, only relevant skills, experience and willingness to adhere to Nestlé’s principles of management and leadership are considered during recruitment. For this reason, the company considers both the internal and external skills so as to get the most valuable candidate for any position. As such, no consideration is given to one’s origin, nationality, religious affiliation, race, age or gender (Nestlé, 2012). With the help of suitable recruitment tools such as interviews, the responsible manager is entrusted with the task of deciding which candidate to hire or not to hire. This is done with the support from the human resource staff. However, Nestlé Group’s recruitment policy does not allow external consultants to make such decisions of hiring on behalf of the company. Given the elaborate nature of Nestlé’s management and human resource policy, the human resource officer should also include some of these policies as part of the advert. This would help the potential candidates to gauge their values against the organizational values. Additionally, the professional ethics should also be given its deserved weight in the recruitment process. These values should be communicated from the very beginning so that an employee can get into the employment with a clear perspective of the company’s operations. Organization’s Labor Relations, Training, Diversity Practices and Other HR Areas The relationship between the management is driven by the principle of fairness. Both the management and their juniors act as colleagues and partners in achieving the overall goal of Nestlé Group. As a prerequisite for dealing with Nestlé’s workforce, the management has made respect and trust to be the foundation on which every interpersonal relation occurs. For healthy labor relations, therefore, the Nestlé management and leadership principles create an environment that is against intolerance, discrimination or harassment of any kind within the workforce at all levels of the organization (Nestlé, 2012). Solution of conflicts within the organization is purely based on sincere dialogues and discussion of facts. This practice is directed by the management’s belief that communication is not only meant to inform, but it also encompasses listening to one another. Every employee is, therefore, free to discuss his or her issues with the superiors and colleagues. Disagreement between an employee and his or her senior or another employee is solved in steps of dialogues in which a fair hearing is given to all the parties involved regardless of the individual’s hierarchical positions (Nestlé, 2012). Nestlé’s management policy advocates continuous training. One of the ways of doing this is through promotion of open communication among the employees as a way of sharing competencies and boosting creativity. The flat organizational structure of Nestlé Group makes it possible to pass information systematically to those who need it, thereby promptly building knowledge base of the employees. In order to cope with diverse cultures and businesses around the globe and among its workforce, Nestlé Group has developed a flexible management policy. The policy gives room for adjustments under different circumstances so as to factor in contribution of every employee in any given business environment. The policy further advocates tolerance among its workforce and respect for the individuals’ thinking as the basis of sound interpersonal relations and creativity. For the purposes of maintaining harmony in the exploration of the global market, Nestlé Group seeks to respect local legislations and practices in the countries in which it operates. It is on this ground that Nestlé’s human resource policy has permitted local legislations to prevail in cases where the policy conflicts with such local legislations. Compensation Policy The compensation policy of Nestlé Group is based on four basic principles. The first principle is that of performance-based pay for the employees as a means of supporting the achievement of company’s short and long term objectives. Additionally, there is the level remuneration throughout the company different from the fixed and variable remuneration. The fixed and variable remunerations depend on the hierarchical levels of individual employees. Besides such remunerations, the company takes care of the employees by providing a wide range of benefits, and strives to secure the employees’ tenure. Conclusion An organization’s human resources are one of the greatest assets that it can depend on. A company should, therefore, strive to invest more in its workforce so as to promote efficiency and better labor relations. Nestlé Group has grasped this fact and consequently banked on its employees as the strength of the company. References Gelinas, U. J., & Sutton, S. G. (2012). Accounting information systems. Mason, Ohio: Thomson. Nestle Group. (2012). The Nestlé human resources policy. Retrieved from http://www.nestle.com/Common/NestleDocuments/Documents/Jobs/HumanResourcesPolicy.pdf Read More