The Role of the Human Resource Department - Essay Example

Human Resource Management Introduction Over the past century, the human resource department has considerably evolved into a critical department of section of any business organization. The functional transformation is a major factor that has seen this drastic changes, this can be attributed to the fact that labour as a function of production has to be managed in a way that would increase production and at the same time operate at lower the costs. There are a number of factors that drive this changes both internal and external factors. The world economy and globalization phenomenon can only be attained by competitiveness of the organizations workforce meaning that the organization will have a competitive advantage over its competitors. Human resource management is a way that a company or any other firm can use to manage its staff; in fact this aspect of organization has been identified as an academic theory of business functions which identifies workers or employees as resources with changing needs and ambitions. Workers are not just like other business resources like machinery, transport and raw materials as people ability to work depends on knowledge, training, and the processes set in place. The Role of Human Resource Department The 21st century is a critical period in the growth of business departments especially the information and communications departments and the human resources departments as these have become every critical for the development of any organization (Fisher & Ashkanasy 2000). The following are major functions of the human resource department as identified many organizations with well developed department divisions; Human resource planning (keeping workers records, forecasting, career modelling and succession planning); employment (recruitment, training, selection, testing and orientation); training and development (primary and advanced skills training, devising working programs); labour relation (solving employee concerns, monitoring morale, labour management programs); compensation ( incentives, analyses of job performance, salary surveys and performance reviews); workforce benefits ( administration of policy, health insurance, designing vacation and sick benefits schemes) (Fisher & Ashkanasy 2000); safety (making sure that the workplace complies with safety regulations like Occupational Safety and Heath Act, supervising security, carrying out possible accident investigations, and evaluation of the physical environment); discipline ( policy formulation and coordination, conduction of disciplinary measures); and personnel research (conducting opinion surveys, carrying out the Human resource audits, and analyzing work related statistics as well as publishing it) (Huczynski & Buchanan 2001). The above functions can be discussed in different ways especially considering the main functions. Execution of strategy by enhancing the planning of business of organizations performance in boardrooms and transferring this into market place. It’s evident that most organizations are striving to produce more and better product, enhance service delivery and to ensure that the firm adapts to the continuous transformations in the business world. The achievement of all these relies on the workforce of the company; a resource that have come to be identifies as a major differentiator in a fast growing knowledge motivated business environment (Huczynski & Buchanan 2001). The human resource does a very important responsibility in achieving this by ensuring the correct policies, strategies, and better processes of decision making. Human resource management recruits, and selects the correct people with relevant skills so as to ensure that the organizations objectives are met without jeopardizing individual ambitions. Through such initiatives, the human resource management team is able to ascertain a clear perspective of the talent base of the organization and also establishes whether they have to recruit other people with certain capabilities or not. For instance where a firm makes its forecasts for the supply and/or demand or the workforce during planning process so as to meet the preset objectives and aims this is achieved by the human resource planning function (Hersey & Blanchard 2007). Man power planning is very essential for any organization of a business firm. This sis because the consequences of the failing to do so are very costly and as such, a fir that is understaffed losses out on the economies of scale of the business and customers, profits and orders. However overstaffing on the other hand is wasteful lance very costly at the same time. Basing on the current legitimate handling of workforce issues, it would be difficult t to eliminate such a phenomenon because of redundancy payments, time of notice, and consultations. Furthermore, overstaffing discourages the competitive effectiveness of the firm. During planning, it’s very essential to take into consideration all the future requirements so the firm and make comparisons with the current resources from which postulations can be made in terms of resources (O’Brien 2003). This step attempts to balance the supply and demand needs. The process of selection and recruiting of workers is the second most critical function of the business organization. The first step to be conducted before the recruitment id initiated is the analysis of the work to be carried out (that is the analytical study of the responsibilities to be taken care of and to establish their important aspects) this is then written out in job descriptions so that during the selection those in charge can have a clear indication of exactly what to look for (applicant’s mental and physical characteristics) in terms of attitudes, qualities and what are disadvantages (Renckly 2004). There are aspects that have to be taken into consideration during recruitment practices for instance internal promotions and introductions, use of agencies for recruitments, use of career officers, university appointment boards and placing adverts. Jobs that require experiences and greater expertise have to be thoroughly scrutinized and that unfailing applicants given health forms to complete them. Letters of appointments should only be sent when the all doubts have been cleared about medical fitness and other requirements. Interviews can be conducted by a panel of interviewers, individuals and series of interviews by different experts (Hersey & Blanchard 2007). The main features that are tested include attainments, aptitude and general intelligence. Training follows the recruitment and it’s equally important and it includes teaching the recruits what they will be expected to be doing at their jobs disposal. Employee evaluation is a crucial function as an organization needs to continually know the performance of tits workforce and this can only be achieved by assessing their work. This can help to the firm to in improving the performance of tits workforce in terms of individual contributions. The evaluation process also assists to identify possible talents and other capabilities to fill other vacancies in the organization and finally this can be a sure way f linking payments to the performance (Hersey & Blanchard 2007). Employee Motivation This is a very important aspect of both organization behaviour and the department of human resource management. This helps in retaining good employees and encouraging them to work even better by given the best working environment (Scarpello et al 1995). Financial, physiological and psychological rewards are very critical. This is basically the zeal to exert high levels of performance towards achieving the organizational objectives. It starts with the physiology or psychology that activates character that works towards the targeted objective. Primary motivators are hunger, pain, maternal concerns etc. they are usually involuntary while the secondary motives are voluntary and play a significant role in the worker motivation and they include hunger for power, need for connection, status quo, need to excel and the need for safety (O’Brien 2003). Human resource managers have to understand the individual goals and organization objectives have to be blended so as t o have a common target to achieve. The common issue that can be addressed is to take into consideration the human rights (Storey 2007) Human rights can be categorized in hierarchical order, and that once a certain need is satisfied, it ceases to be a motivating factor. The needs come in the following order; Self actualization- self satisfaction by exploiting opportunities for personal development and insights of potential; Esteemed needs- self respect, appreciation and independence where one gets promotions and earn higher job titles(Renckly 2004); social needs- these are love, sense of belonging, recognition realized by official or unofficial work group; safety needs- safeguarding from unforeseen emergencies achieved by health insurances, social security means and seniority plans and physiological needs which are basic needs that can be met by salaries and wages (remember money is a great motivator). Herzberg’s Motivation Hygiene Theory- this theory indicates that the factors that bring the feeling of job satisfaction are clearly distinct from those that do otherwise. Managers who seek to eliminate the factors that bring job dissatisfaction can motivate employees on the job. They include good working environment, supervision, salary and wages, supervision among others (Huczynski & Buchanan 2001) Primary financial rewards and better working conditions are established externally especially by bargains presented by the governments for instance minimum salary legislation. Occupational safety and Health act is one such regulation and this takes care of the workers working environment and the employer is required to provide a safe working environment (O’Brien 2003). Personnel policies are also important and this will take into account the employee benefits, welfare, rewards, awards, allowances etc. the ability to influence behaviour is becoming very critical to the human resource department and this is not only because the widely known fact about many being a motivator but also the continually changing mix and type of work for instance more professional jobs and few unskilled labour force (Storey 2007). Human resource is increasingly becoming important to the organization behaviour as it can be a source of information about certain behavioural activities while at the same time act as a cause of stimulation to apply or put these findings into practice. This can be critical in drawing thaw attention of senior executives of human resource management teams to what being achieved elsewhere hence gradually educating middle managers about new view points on designing jobs, organization of work and general work autonomy (O’Brien 2003). Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic airlines are considered one f the United Kingdoms largest long haul airlines and a third largest operator in the European and North Atlantic region. The company’s route networks have seen dramatic growth over the past decade making destinations to the Far East region, India, Africa and the United States. The company was established in 1984 and since then it has experienced development over time to reach an international operation (Gregory 2000). Currently the virgin Atlantic is co owned by Richard Branson and Singapore airlines following the 1999 49% stake the Richard Branson decided to relinquish himself of but still retains executive control by owning the 51%, (Dearlove 2007) Virgin Atlantic is headquartered in the United Kingdom Crawley with several offices in other countries like Hong Kong, Tokyo, US, shanghai, Caribbean, Lagos and Delhi. Virgin Atlantic is a member of the umbrella companies operating under the Virgin Group which has increased to cover ‘Megastore’ music retailers, trains, clubs, books and software publishing, film and video editing, financial consultancy firms, and Virgin.com. Generally there are over one hundred companies under the Virgin Group operation of over fifteen nations (Gregory 2000). Virgin Atlantic’s Competitors Virgin Atlantic airlines are very competitive group of long haul planes and are competing fairly with other networks in the regions in which they operate making most of the national carriers. Major competitors include the British airlines, American airlines, continental, BMI British Midland, delta and United on transatlantic routes, BA and SAA to south Africa, Cathay pacific and JAL to the Far East, BA,ANA, and BA to Delhi. In order to keep up with the stiff competition in the airlines industry, virgin Atlantic has a unique way of branding (Dearlove 2007). The top brands offered include two main systems categorized as the economy class and upper class. These brands are further divided into premium economy which encompasses a full fare distinct economy cabin and economy which covers the rest of coach and economy fares. There are a variety of facilities for infants and younger children who board these airlines. The special passengers with special needs are well catered for. One of the departments is dedicated to assisting the passengers with special needs by availing a wide range of services ensure comfortable travel for all passengers (Dearlove 2007). These needs have been identified as special meals to mobility facilities at the airports. As competition intensifies, Virgin Atlantic will be forced to increase the number of fleets in operation as currently; there are over 26 Boeing 747s and air buses. A340-600 was launched in 2002 and A380 was also established four years later in 2006. Growth Predictions Virgin Atlantic is growing in diversity and this included the venture into space shuttles as from the year 2007 and 2008. Venturing ingot the new field is very critical to the company’s growth. It’s very difficult to predict the success of these space ships since they will be mainly for tourism purposes and the people preference is not easy to determine at this initial stages until the venture is fully in operation (Haig 2004. This is actually a new venture that is against the odds but is bound to works since the company’s track record is very successful since its establishment in 1984. after a decade, virgin Atlantic was flying over one million passengers and it become the first airline to offer individual television sets to the business class customers. And as such, the airline has been a trend setter for others as indicated by the way branding of services is done for instance the launch of the super economy otherwise known as the premium economy in 1992 which also won awards for Richard Branson the same year (Haig 2004). The same trend has been observed the last decade and in 2001, the airline was named the OAG airline of the year due to its expanding operations and quality of services offered. Such creativity and ingestions are autonomous with the virgin airlines. For instance in the year 2003, the firm launched the upper class suite package which offered the passengers with longest bed for flying and enjoying a great sleep at the same time(Dearlove 2007). Based on the same trends of innovations, it’s difficult to tell what is in store but with Richard Branson under control then we can be sure to expect great services (Haig 2004) Virgin Atlantic Expansion and Market There is still room for expansion of the virgin atlantics services since its currently operating in more than fifteen countries only. Considering the UK market, its evident hath there is a 60/40 bias in the customer profile. Upper class suite has no serious competition like other brands like premium economy for business and leisure packages. Having a wide range of techniques to carry out marketing promotions, many people are likely to become aware of the company’s services. In the United Kingdom TVs, magazines, the press, billboards, internet, taxi sides and outdoor posters dominate the media of promotion (Marx et al 2001). Human Resource Management Richard Branson has a unique way of dealing with employees. The strategy involved here includes recruitment of people who put the customer’s needs first and who are ready to serve their clients and offer the best services ever. Individual personality is the main considerations as the firm seeks to recruit enthusiastic employees who will offer the best services in a unique way. The process of recruitment follows advertising in various media including televisions, newspapers and internet. Eligible applicants are enlisted in newspapers and the internet. There is an incentive program where the workforce already in place can recommend people they believe can be very effective when employed by virgin Atlantic. Training is via apprenticeship and off course with the relevant skills it’s very easy to learn and adapt to the Virgin way of life as fondly identified (Marx et al 2001). Virgin Atlantic has also developed a program for leadership development but this is more inclined towards achieving business objectives rather than the Human Resource process. The major consideration here is the long-term objectives of the company. The leadership team begun by making a list of factors that are believed to have contributed to the success of the company and this was followed by appraisal of the management team and analyses of strength and weaknesses. Steve Ridgeway is a perfect choice for the chief executive officer of the virgin Atlantic airlines the period 2009 to 2012. This is because of the he has been in the management team since 1994 and served as the managing director since 1998 to 2001 (Branson 2002). Conclusion The significant role that the human resource plays in many organisations can only be made evident by the evident by exposing the transformation of the workforce management functions from the system that focused on the employee welfare or the organization objectives to one that is all encompassing system that manages employee personal ambition in a way that blends well with the firms long term objectives and personal ambition. This means that the human resource is very essential in any business organization. References Branson R (2002) Losing My Virginity. Virgin Books Dearlove D (2007) Business the Richard Branson Way. 10 Secrets of The World’s Greatest Brand Builder John Wiley and Sons Fisher, C. D., & Ashkanasy, N. M. (2000). Emotions in organizations. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 21, 121–234. Gregory M (2000) Dirty Tricks. British Airways’ Secret War against Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Haig M (2004) Brand Royalty. How The World’s Top 100 Brands Thrive and Survive Kogan Page Publishers Huczynski A & Buchanan D (2001) Associates Organizational Behaviour an Introductory Text Pearson Education Hersey P & Blanchard K. H (2007) Management of Organizational Behaviour: Utilizing Human Resources. Prentice-Hall Marx K., Paul E & Paul C (2001) Capital. Prisma Presse O’Brien C. (2003) Human Resource Management A Central Business Concern. South Africa Chamber of Business Renckly R.G (2004) Human Resources. Barron’s Educational Series Scarpello V. G, Ledvinke J & Bergmann T. J (1995) Human Resource Management: Environments and Functions. South-Western College Pub Storey J (2007). Human Resource Management. A Critical Text. Cengage Learning Emea Read More