Strategic Human Resource Management - Assignment Example

Strategic Human Resource Management xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tutor xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date submitted Question 1 Strategic human resource is a process of connecting the human resource management activities and the firm’s strategic planning and implementation to meet the organizational goals. Strategic human resource management has a lot of importance in an organization. Firstly, its practices enable the employees to apply their skills and knowledge to increase productivity and also the agencies exploit their ability to achieve their mission. The goals and objectives of the organization are better achieved when there is use of personnel practices in the strategic planning process. The innovation of technology in the organizations has increased productivity. Secondly, the organization is at ease of competing with other competitive organizations. With strategic human resource management practices, the employees apply their techniques to attract more customers keeping in mind the measures to achieve organizational success. In addition, an organization that has a SHRM can handle problems like economic uncertainties and limited resources effectively since the agencies focus on high performance of the organization. The agencies use their knowledge and skills to solve organizational problems. Nevertheless, SHRM enables the organization to measure its efficiency and effectiveness since the functions of human resource are very much focused on. These functions include the processes and activities used to improve the performance of human resource following the policies and procedures of the organization. Most importantly, SHRM helps in the setting of organizational goals and solving complex organizational problems since it incorporate the considerations of human resource with monetary, physical and technological resources. This makes it easier to identify and analyze the external threats and hindrance that may affect the achievement of organizational goals. The purpose of strategic human resource management activities is to enhance the maximization of productivity of an organization. The employees utilize their talents and skills fully to maximize productivity. The mission of the human resource will be acquired despite the challenges the organization is facing since there is total optimization of the effectiveness of the employees. The workforce is linked with the business to give excellent contribution making it easier to face the challenges. Practice of human resource management improves the employees’ commitment to work and increase high level of skills and therefore there is high productivity. The quality of the business is also improved and thus the expectations of the customers are met. Meeting the customers’ expectations contribute largely in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization. The main goal of any organization is to maximize profit and the customers are the main source of a business profits. Strategic human resource management helps in the selection of employees, provide work security, adequate compensation of the employees and enhance further training of the workers. This motivates the improvement of workforce efficiency and effectiveness and a productive workforce is maintained. The employees are most likely to be productive assets of the organization if they feel that they are treated fairly. The employees use their skills, ability and knowledge with a lot of compassionate when working if they are treated fairly. The workers keep the objectives of the organization in mind when working and ignore their personal gains to achieve these objectives whether directly or indirectly (Schuler & Jackson 2007). Question 2 A major business factor that may underpin human resource planning is competitive and industrial trends. Introduction of new products, services and processes into the market leads to frequent retrenchment of some employees to incorporate those with the required skill. With changing technology, human resources are being replaced by machines. Government and legislative policies also affect human resource planning of an organization. Labor market trend is another factor that may underpin human resource planning in terms of age, literacy and composition of the population. Economic factors such as regional, general and global conditions may also affect human resource planning. ABC is a company experiencing rapid growth. Besides internal department expansion, the management has felt the need to open up new branches to meet with the growing need to satisfy customer needs. On top of several other challenges, there is need for an effective selection strategy that will ensure only qualified employees are recruited for the vacant positions. As the HR of ABC company I have prepared a proposal to the manager for the best practice during the exercise. To begin with, a selection panel composed of the all the HR officials, department managers and other top managers should be identified to oversee the procedure. The first step is to identify the vacancies. In the situation of ABC whereby so many employees are needed, the management need to undertake an extensive research to determine the number of positions that need to be filled. At this point, the responsibilities of all these workers will be defined as outlined in the constitution. The next step is to determine the selection method and to advertize it. Any method that is adopted should be in line with the laid down state laws. It is advisable that selection targets graduates from renowned colleges with exceptional programs. To notify this target population advertisement is of paramount importance. Since a large number of employees are required, advertisement will have to be extensive preferably using the radio, internet postings, television and newspapers. Lastly, the HR will begin to accept applications in form of resumes and certificates from potential candidates. This is then followed closely by the actual process of recruitment which involves informing the applicant’s on the interview dates and the panel availing itself on the specific dates to conduct the interviews. When the HRM conducts a human resource planning, the organization is able to achieve its mission and objectives by providing a description of the current human resource system. Since human resource planner in many cases spend a lot of time understanding organizational, technical and strategic plans, they are able to evaluate the best practice that could enable the organization realize its short term as well as long term objectives. They are interested in having detailed information so they have to interact closely with the executive staff and other staff as well. In so doing, they are able to identify strengths in the organization and loopholes that management need to look into in order to realize high productivity. With application of the above described systematic plan the, the organization will be able benefit from the resources of highly qualified employees which will see it achieve its objectives. It will also avoid wastage of resources in the process of getting the needed vacancies since the plan will already be laid down in the company constitution. Responsibilities will be properly allocated hence confusion eliminated and the process of production will be more effective (Bandt & Haines 2004). Question 3 Human resource management policies demonstrate how the organization meets its internal and external requirements and its commitment to the corporate governance. The recruitment and selection policy provide guidelines to hire best qualified and skilled workers in a fair manner that is just to those who enrolled for application. This promotes efficiency and effectiveness of the employees since they are well-skilled thus there is high productivity in the organization. This policy identifies how organizations value a flexible workforce. Training and development is a continuous effort that enhances productivity of the workers by acquiring skills and knowledge. The workers use these skills and knowledge to operate the current and future jobs to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization while still gaining personal fulfillment. This policy gives guidelines in management and administration of the workforce in the organization to reduce cost in development, utilization and retention of the available resources. Employee relation policy provides an effective management of employees’ dissatisfaction and conflicts by solve the problems in a systematic and orderly manner. The mutual relationship between the employer and employees is well managed since they have trust in each other. Deployment policy creates a peaceful dismiss of an employee. The employee is deployed according to the employment agreements made. A documentary contract is provided when dismissing the employees. This policy gives a guideline on the disciplinary procedures and standards behaviors of the employers. Compensation policy motivates the workforce. Compensating the employees for the extra work done motivates them to work more effectively to increase productivity and also achieve the organizational goals. During retirement compensating the retiring employees shows the organizations’ appreciation for the contributions they made in achieving organization goals and objectives. The other workers get the impression that employers appreciate their work and thus they work harder to accomplish the set goals. (Schuler & Jackson 2007) The recruitment and selection promotes the hiring of well-qualified people despite of their ages and race. The workers are selected fairly without discrimination according to their qualifications. The human resource policies prohibit the discrimination against people who are forty years and above and they are well-skilled to promote the organization to achieve their goals and objectives. The human resource policies prohibit the discrimination of the disabled in the organization. The organization requires facilities to be easily accessible even to the disabled. This way the disabled feel that they are not out of place and that they are appreciated in the organization. Only the productive employees are give compensation. This reduces the organization expenses and encourages the employees to utilize their skills and knowledge fully. The workers work with an aim of giving productive results to the organization. The employers are given the opportunity to show their obligation in the business when they give compensations. Some workers work with aim of self-interest forgetting the set goals and objectives of the organization. These types of workers are easily identified by the employers since they make no efforts to increase productivity. Question 4 Organizational structure has a very great impact in management of human resources in that it can spell the difference between success and failure for a company as well as for the individual who works there. A human resource manager should know that organizational structure is a crucial component of the overall business strategy, just as important as planning, leading, and controlling an organization. In essence, organizing is the manner in which a company utilizes its resources specifically its human resources. Organizational structure is therefore the framework for answering questions like how to organize jobs into departments, who does what and who reports to who in the chain of command. They also enable employees to make decisions on their career objectives hence reaping benefits and avoiding pitfalls. It also assists in good supervision and achievement of the organizations goals. Organizations should strive for what is considered a healthy organizational culture in order to increase productivity, growth, efficiency and reduce employee turnover and other counterproductive behavior. A healthy culture includes fair treatment of each employee, strong communication with all employees regarding company issues and strong company leaders with a strong sense of direction and purpose Organizational culture helps employees to meet expectations within their organization. Besides an organizational culture has a great impact on management of human resources because employees are able to get high morale in their work as well as perform efficiently. Strong company alignment towards goal achievement is also an impact of organizational culture. Monitoring of human resource management is effective to enhance business performance. This is to enable an organization to achieve its set goals. It also enables the HR manager to ensure that each employee performs the work he or she is assigned well and on time. Monitoring is vital since keenness will be observed by all to avoid making mistakes which can lead to failure of the business. The success of the organization is determined by monitoring and through this the business will have a good public image because of its success. Once HR managers assess performance of the employees, they can be able to know whether they need to promote, demote or recruit more employees. Bad habits of employees can be identified through monitoring the employees. The employees will be motivated to work to avoid been caught on the wrong by the HR manager. The HR manager will be in a position to note the facilities required to enhance the organization achieve its objectives for example need for more computers. To improve HRM the staff should be provided with training, supervision should be strong, extension of benefits program. The senior managers should be designated to be in charge of HRM .Planning, recruitment and hiring process ought to be streamlined. Tracking employees data such as attrition, staff turnover and absenteeism is important to enable an organization meet its set goals. Development on-the-job, skilled-based training for the staff will also improve the effectiveness of human resources management in an organization (Cooke 2007). Reflective learning statement The unit has significantly enlightened me on the major issues that any organization needs to incorporate into its system in order to realize its goals. I have learnt that organization systems need to be reviewed and redefined at least on an annual basis as a means of ensuring that they are at par with the ever growing competition and to obtain a market dominance. I am in a better position in making a highly competent senior manager which is my dream career through the major themes that have come up in the course unit such as strategic marketing and human resource planning. Reference Bandt, A. & Haines, S. 2004. Successful Strategic Human Resource Planning. San Diego: Systems Thinking Press. Karen, L. 2007. Human Resource Management Rhetoric and realities. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Schuler, R. & Jackson, S. 2007. Strategic human resource management. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. Read More