Strategic Human Resource Development - Essay Example

STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT I. Introduction The strategic management of human resources has been considered as an activity of major importance for any organization. However, the strategies that are followed in each particular firm - although having certain similarities - tend to differentiate in accordance with the structure and the needs the specific firm. Thus, it would be easier and illustrative to use a real life example of strategic HRM. This essay refers to the strategic human resources management followed by Highway Stores Ltd, a company based in Midlands, UK. In the specific firm, the management of human resources is the responsibility of the Personnel Department which has the responsibility for all the issues related to the firm's employees. However, there are areas of significant importance - like training - that have been excluded from the control of Personnel Department and are organized into separate units within the organization. Due to the above phenomenon as well as to the delays in the firm's development - which have been caused by the dysfunction of the Personnel Department - the examination and the evaluation of the role of the latter has been considered as necessary especially given the extremely competitive conditions that characterize the UK market. II. Analysis of the role of the current Personnel function and its future in the organisation Current Personnel Function of Highway Stores Ltd is based in the firm's head office in Midlands. Furthermore, the specific department comprises a Personnel Manager, a Personnel Officer and 3 Personnel Administrators. The main duties of the staff include the control of all issues related with the firm's human resource management except the payroll sector which has been incorporated in the Finance Department. The Personnel Function reports directly to the Legal Director. It has to be noticed that the authority of the Personnel function is limited and does not control the training sector which has been structured as a separate department within the company. Another significant problem is created by the fact that there is not a specific provision for the training of the head offices' personnel (training programs as designed and developed by the Training function involves only the employees of the store network). On the other hand, the Personnel function has not proceeded to the design and implementation of a specific problem-solving procedure but there is a standard internal policy that whenever a problem arises, a guidance is issued. The absence of control over the training procedure as well as the failure of designing and applying an effective personnel policy can be considered as major problems for the Personnel function. Moreover, the lack of appropriate qualifications of the Personnel staff can be viewed as a severe disadvantage of the specific department while due to this fact; most of the problems arising in the human resources field have to be faced by the only qualified person of the department, its Manager. It's for this reason that Personnel Manager is not available for his managers whenever his intervention is requested by the Personnel staff. At a next level, a major weakness of the Personnel function is the procedure related with the sickness of employees. The Personnel function keeps records on employees including health certificates as well as notices on the employees' long term absence of work (six weeks or more) due to sickness. In this way, the department is not informed for the employees' short or long term absence of the work (except the above mentioned case) with all the consequences that this fact can have for the effectiveness of the firm's human resource management. Another problem involves the extension of the role of the Personnel function is the recruitment process. The specific process is designed and implemented by the Managing Director, while the responsibility for the recruitment of new staff belongs to Area managers. It should also be noticed here that Personnel function does not participate nor is informed on the recruitment process. On the other hand, appraisals which were made in 1998, did not help to the limitation of the problem but instead they highlighted the need for internal cooperation and provision of information regarding the firm's human resource policies at least to the firm's most relevant department (which is the Personnel function). III. Recommendations - Presentation and justification Personnel function has to re-design its strategies and participate more actively in all issues related with the firm's human resource management. Literature has referred a lot to the changes required to the human resource management within an organization in order for the latter to be more competitive towards its rivals. According to Conner (1996) 'to improve its effectiveness and have greater impact, the human resource function must understand how to add value in the organization by helping line managers align HR strategies, processes, and practices with business needs; This will require HR professionals to perform increasingly complex and at times paradoxical roles'(Conner et al., 1996, 38). It is also stated that 'it is only through performance measuring that one can really articulate the benefits of HR strategies in achieving the organization's business strategy and in the process enhance the credibility of the HR profession' (Ramlall, 2003, 60). On the other hand, Mathews (1998, 175) accepts that 'before diversity strategies are implemented, the organization's cultural environment, management and evaluation systems should be examined to ascertain if existing personnel/human resources processes will support or hinder diversity in the organization; Then, appropriate strategies can be designed to develop and manage diversity based on these findings'. Moreover, Brown et al. (1997) refer to the study of Carnevale (1990) according to which 'organizations are relying quite heavily on in-house T&D (training and development) services; Sixty-nine percent of T&D is designed and delivered in-house, compared to 31% purchased from outside vendors'. From another point of view, it has been proved that 'for those organizations seeking a competitive advantage through innovative human resource activity, strategic skills analysis (SSA) represents a means to link business strategy with human resource strategy' (Summers et al., 1997, 18). Regarding specifically Highway Stores Ltd, there are a series of changes that should be made in order for the organization to enhance its production and its overall performance in its industry. In this context, Personnel function should primarily examine if the employees are given clear and achievable goals. Towards this direction, the above department could use an appropriate appraisal process that should fit to the specific organizational environment. The relevant appraisal meeting should include feedback and a discussion about past performance as well as an opportunity for your employee to comment on where they see themselves going within the company and any extra responsibilities or duties they would like to get involved in [2]. It should be noticed that in the specific company the appraisal process is very poorly designed while even when taking place the results are not handled appropriately but are left without any evaluation and critical comparison. In this way the specific procedure is remaining idle and without a justified reason of existence. The introduction and the application of an appropriate appraisal process should be combined with an extended cooperation between the firm's departments as well as the continuous and intensive control over the strategies applied in the organizational context. At a next level, the application of a series of training and development programs could help the increase of the employees' performance as well as of their competencies towards the challenges that are set daily in the organizational environment. A major problem regarding the application of such a policy in the specific firm is the fact that training of the staff does not belong to the authority of Personnel function but it is instead organized as a separate corporate function. However, even in this case the possible lack of cooperation between the two functions (Personnel and Training) can be considered as a secondary issue as training involves only in the store network's employees and not the head office's ones (a supplementary differentiation between the employees of the two firm's sectors if considering the differentiation of the bonuses given to the employees of the two organizational departments - in fact the head office's staff receives only a basic salary). On the other hand, a person-to-person career counseling should be offered to the extension that 'such an activity creates greater workforce flexibility by enabling employees to respond rapidly to a changing environment and customer needs; The above initiative should also provide an effective means to broadly address the needs of different segments of the employee population - for example, addressing the needs of minority groups, which are of increasing importance with the growing diversity of the workforce' (Elsdon et al., 1999, 41, 45). However, it has to be noticed that such a strategy could only operate successfully if all the participants were considered as equal members of the organization. Particular emphasis is also required to support the retention needs of employees with five or fewer years of service - a vulnerable group. This may include, for example, provision of orientation and development support and internal networking opportunities' (Elsdon et al., 1999, 41, 45). The issue of payroll has also to be handled very carefully. Motivated and committed staff can often be the greatest factor in whether a business succeeds or fails. Often, the payroll is one of the biggest costs facing a business because lack of motivation can lead to delays in completing work and in losing clients or customers [2] Finally, the role of the firm's Personnel function has to be re-examined by the Managing Director while the provision of appropriate technology should be considered as a very helpful tool for the successful completion of the tasks belonging to the authority of the above department. The specific issue was addressed by Lawler et al. (2003, 15) who stated that HR 'has mainly focused on the administrative aspects of human resource management; however, with the growth of information technology, the hold of the corporate staff of HR on this work is weakening significantly however much administration can be accomplished by self-service information technology solutions that are either hosted by the company or outsourced'. IV. Additional Support required - cost analysis The examination of the role of Personnel function in Highway Stores Ltd has led to the assumption that a series of other measures should be taken in order for the specific department to have a more powerful and decisive role in the organizational context. More specifically, as Ulrich (2000) notices 'HR professionals can apply innovative ways to develop current employees, including: new and stretch job assignments, membership on project teams, action learning in training experiences, leaders running training programs, 360[degrees] feedback, coaching, Web-based best practice and learning mechanisms, and Web-based skill building' (Ulrich, 2000, 18). The application of the above suggested measures for the enhancement of the employees' performance, cannot guarantee only by their implementation the achievement of the above target. However, they could guarantee the development of the firm's productivity on a long term basis. On the other hand, the application of any measure should be in accordance with the demands of the market but also of the firm's strength and ability to follow the suggested directions. Wright (1998) examined the issue of 'fit' regarding the adaptation of HR strategies to the existed business practices and targets. He found that 'the basic theory behind "fit" is that the effectiveness of any HR practice or set of practices for impacting firm performance depends upon the firm's strategy (or conversely, the effectiveness of any strategy depends upon having the right HR practices)' (Wright, 1998, 56). Moreover, the application of any strategy involving the human resource management should be appropriate regarding the targeted set and the cost involved. Specifically, for the issue of cost regarding the designing and the application of a human resource policy it has to be noticed that there could be several implications that could cause significant delays to the implementation of any proposed strategy in an organizational environment. It should also be noticed that, in the specific company the main decision regarding the proposal and the acceptance of any strategy related with the human resources management is controlled by the managing director who decides for the appropriateness of any strategy involved with the firm in a specific time period but under the condition that he/ she will have access to all relevant information in order to formulate a complete assumption on every issue that will arise during the firm's daily activities (always referring to the firm's Personnel function). As of the evaluation of the cost involved, this can be estimated using the number of employees (that would have to participate in a specific scheme proposed by the authorized department) as a basis adding any possible expense that is expected to appear during the specific project's implementation and operation. V. Conclusion In order for the above proposed strategic HRM measures to be successfully implemented and applied, they should be combined with a series of changes in all the organizational particular departments. Moreover, the HR leaders must demonstrate high degrees of change- management skills to change themselves (Kesler, 1997, 26). It should also be noticed that every relevant initiative should be carefully designed and formulated in accordance with the industry's demands and the firm's potentials. Personnel function has at a first level the potentials to achieve such a target, however its authorities are limited to certain areas and for this reason any effort cannot lead to a successful result without the necessary restructuring in the organization's hierarchy and responsibilities. References Brown, K.G., Durham, C.C., Kristoff, A.L., Kunder, L., Olian, J.D., Pierce, R.M. 1998. Designing Management Training and Development for Competitive Advantage: Lessons from the Best. Human Resource Planning, 21(1): 20-32 Conner, J., Ulrich, D. (1996). Human Resource Roles: Creating Value, Not Rhetoric. Human Resource Planning, 19(3):38-46 Elsdon, R., Iyer, S. (1999). Creating Value and Enhancing Retention through Employee Development: The Sun Microsystems Experience. Human Resource Planning, 22(2):39-47 Jamrog, J.J., Overholt, M.H. 2004. Building a Strategic HR Function: Continuing the Evolution. Human Resource Planning, 27(1):51-63 Kesler, G.C., Law, J.A. 1997. Implementing Major Change in the HR Organization: The Lessons of Five Companies. Human Resource Planning, 20(4):26-37 Lawler, E.E., Mohrman, S.A. (2003). HR as a Strategic Partner: What Does It Take to Make It Happen Human Resource Planning, 26(3): 15-31 Mathews, A. (1998). Diversity: A Principle of Human Resource Management. Public Personnel Management. 27(2): 175-183 Ramlall, S.J. 2003. Measuring Human Resource Management's Effectiveness in Improving Performance. Human Resource Planning, 26(1):51-64 Summers, S.B., Summers, T.P. (1997). Strategic Skills Analysis for Selection and Development. Human Resource Planning, 20(3): 14-19 Ulrich, D. 2000. From eBusiness to eHR. Human Resource Planning, 23(2):12-22 Wright, P.M., (1998). Strategy - HR Fit: Does It Really Matter Human Resource Planning, 21(4): 56-59 http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.aspcontent_id=179 [1] http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12169-1844372,00.html [2] Read More