Human Resource Management Mid-term

Management of employees is the ability of an organization to attract, develop, and maintain talented staff. The employees are a crucial element of any company thus the organization requires Human Resource (HR) practices to help in employee management.

In any company, the HR department has the responsibility for employee management. Additionally, a manager in every department oversees and leads the efforts of employees to execute tasks directly linked to the production and supply of products and services in the company.

Managers must create jobs in ways which guarantee that the workers perform duties that have a possibility to contribute to the company. Competencies enable the manager to know if the candidate have the required abilities and skills among other characteristics required for the job.

During the recruitment and selection stage, the hiring manager searches for the qualified candidate who has the competencies required for the job. When an organization performs well in recruitment and selection, the company’s personnel management activities demands little time and effort which minimizes cost.

Managing Employees for Competitive Advantage

Employees are a major factor of the organization that differentiates it from its competitors be it in the public or private sector or in its products or services. The quality given by the workforce in the organization, the enthusiasm of the employees, reputation, level of client service, and their job satisfaction impact the organization’s output. In light of this, the employees bring the difference in a competitive environment.

Employing human resources as a competitive advantage implies analyzing the factors necessary for the lasting success of an organization (Davenport & Harding, 2010). Accordingly, successful organizations integrate the employees and consider them as an important part of their business strategy. Competitive advantage is the ability of an organization to offer greater value at a reduced cost in comparison to the competitors.

The personnel who feel greatly appreciated in an organization exhibit higher levels of drive and loyalty which makes them productive thus gives the company a competitive advantage. On the contrary, mismanaged workers have no willingness to work towards the company’s goals they show poor performance and are costly to the company.

The measures used by the managers to evaluate their workers require to portray the behaviors and attitudes they expect to see in the staff. Thus, effective management encompasses using development activities and providing the personnel with feedback to work on the future and present performances.

Reward and benefit is one of the ways of employee management for competitive advantage (Davenport & Harding, 2010). A rewards and inducements system indicate to the employees the expectations of the managers in their focus of energy and work.

The measure of an incentive also indicates the value of a certain activity to the firm. Employee benefits such as health and wellness programs helps in selecting, recruiting, and retaining workers. Other benefits programs the company may provide include paid time off and retirement package.

HR Challenges

Manage Organizational Demands and Environmental Influences

Organizational demands are internal factors within a firm which affects the decisions on how to manage the staff for instance the organizational culture and company characteristics. Organizational culture refers to the set of underlying beliefs and values shared by the workers in a company.

Culture affects the employer-employee relationship, how the workers execute their tasks, and standard practices for attaining basic HR tasks. Company characteristics include the size of the company and its development stages (Simons, 2011). The size of the organization affects the quantity and kind of resources required, benefits, amount of independence and trainings that the managers demand the workers to show in their jobs.

Additionally, the pressure exerted in a startup is more in comparison to the one required in an established organization. The company sizes also indicate the differences in job responsibilities. There are more responsibilities in a startup company because of the status of the organization. The employees have more responsibility and some need to handle more tasks than others. 

Environmental influences are the external factors that directly affects the organization and managers must consider them in the strategic management of the workforce (Simons, 2011). Some of the environmental influences include technology and the labor force.

Technology has a great impact on how the employees operate within the organization. The advancement in technology greatly affects the performance of the employees because they have to keep up with the trend. Trends in the labor force demands that the hiring managers re-assess ways they use to select and recruit people to eliminate indirect or direct discrimination.

Manage Regulatory Issues

Regulatory issues are a major concern in the company that directly influence employee management in the organization. The legislation has a great influence on employment law and even as the government continue to revise the laws, the organization require to respect them for instance the labor laws (Simons, 2011).

Violation of the laws results to considerable fines. Additionally, defilement also reduces the drive among workers and harms the organization’s reputation. Managing regulatory issues call for ethical and social responsibilities.

Managers and companies should think concerning ethical behavior in view of environment, community, the governance, environment, and the stakeholders. The employees should be the image of the company.

Wok Design and Workforce Planning

Managing Job Design and Job Analysis

Job design comprises of determining the duties and accountabilities which the personnel in a particular occupation require to perform and ways in which they should involve their colleagues to realize the contributions. The aim of job design is to boost the performance of the organization (Armstrong, 2012).

Effective job design assists the workers concentrate on the duties which enhance their possible efforts for competitive advantage. The managers require to understand the roles required for every job to exploit the success of a company. The value added by the job in the company helps to determine the final choice on the type of job design tactic to apply in the company. Some of the approaches to job design include job simplification and job specialization.

Job specialization refers to the process of dividing jobs into simplified elements thus increasing the job efficiency. Job simplification refers to placing the authority of decision making to the supervisor instead of the employees.

On the other hand, job analysis refers to the systematic recognizing of tasks and responsibilities required for performing a job in addition to the capabilities that the workers require for success. For successful performance, the required data collection methods include questionnaires, interviews and observation.

In interviews, the job analyst carries out planned interviews with supervisors and candidates with the help of job-related questions which help in identifying the job requirements. Observations help in seeing and documenting the tasks executed by jobholders at work.

Workforce Planning 

Workforce planning is the process of matching employees with their right skills at the required time to attain the company’s future and current needs (Armstrong, 2012). The organization requires to make strategic decisions on issues related to the company for instance the staff to retain and terminate. Managers have the responsibility of the team they supervise thus they should participate in the decision planning process.

Workforce planning involves labor supply, demand, surplus, and shortage. To balance labor demand and supply, the company reduces employee turnover, increases the size of the workforce, terminates employees, and hiring freezes.

Managing Employees Competencies

Recruitment

Recruitment is a process in which firms use to find suitable candidates, communicate organizational features and job to the prospective hires, and persuade qualified persons to apply for the vacant positions in the firm. The process starts when the hiring manager requires to fill a vacant position until he gets a new hire for the job (Elearn, 2008).

In case the managers cannot get the right hires for the job, they have to alter the type of work or seek alternative ways of completing the work. The process only requires one to understand the reasons for recruiting employees and the hires required for the job. Internal recruitment is through Human Resources Management System (HRMS), job posting, or word of mouth. External recruitment involves career fairs and newspaper advertising.

Selection

Selection is an efficient process whereby the manager decides which applicants to hire as new workers, the ones to promote, or reshuffling within the organization (Elearn, 2008). In selection, the managers need to predict if the applicant can handle the job or requires on the job training. Screening is the selection method used in the organization whereby managers employ different approaches for instance collecting and evaluating applications and issuing screening interviews.

Analysis of Findings

Managing employee competencies through work design and workforce planning helps in attaining a competitive advantage which assists in dealing with HR challenges in the organization.

Managing Employee Competencies

Recommendation: Companies that mainly focus on cutting costs should look at competencies for instance efficiency thus the main skills required during the recruitment and selection process should be one of the company’s strategies.

Recommendation: Fostering affirmative action requires the company to use its recruiting strategy to reach most qualified candidates in the minority groups which enhances fairness.

Work Design and Workforce Planning

Recommendation: Organizations can contribute in changing job designs by reducing the expected qualifications which help in successful performance of jobs. Additionally, work design and workforce planning helps acquire workforce trends tailored for every organization.

Recommendation: Companies should ensure there is no conflict between job designs and cultural values shared by workers to enhance productivity among employees.

Recommendation: Identifying necessary and supplementary job responsibilities since all candidates qualify for a particular job in case they can carry out the basic functions.

Summary and Conclusions

Human resources are a vital aspect of the organization be it in the sales, finance, or customer service department. Managers in each department deal with human resource issues daily and have the responsibility for interaction within and between departments. A basic function of the human resource in each company today is to ensure competent and operative usage of human talent to attain the goals of a company.

Managing employees comes along with various costs and benefits. Employee management, work design and workforce planning and managing employee competencies are some of the basic HR activities that work together in sustaining the various HR challenges faced by the company.

For strategic management of the employees, some of the basic HR activities required include work design and workforce planning. The activities need to work in alignment to effectively accomplish the required goal.  Additionally, the hiring managers must participate in personnel planning to guarantee that the qualified candidates match their jobs at the required time in the company to attain the organizational goals.

References

Armstrong, M. (2012). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers.

Davenport, T.O., & Harding S. D. (2010). Manager Redefined: The Competitive Advantage in the Middle of Your Organization. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Elearn, (2008). Recruitment and Selection. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.

Simons, R. (2011). Human Resource Management: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.

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