HRM and the HR function
The purpose of developing this report is to understand the various aspects of human resource management. The report will explain concepts such as human resource management, HR function, and human resource planning, factors effecting HRP, approaches of HRP, organisational training and development, Burke & Litwin’s change model, employee legislation, globalization and global human resource management. All these concepts will show a relevance with the case study of the company named, Parlemo Safe storage. The report will highlight the various issues prevailing at the organisational workplace and in what way they can be managed with effective human resource management and outsourcing.
Human resource management
Human resource management can be explained as the management of the human resources of an organisation. The term HRM is used to demonstrate the formal systems or policies incorporated in an organisation for the management of the individuals. There are primarily three major departments where there is essential requirement of HRM i.e. staffing and recruitment, employee benefits and compensation and job role designing. The key objective of human resource management is to improve the employees’ effectiveness and enhancing the organisational productivity (Hendry, 2012).
(trueinfos, 2013)
There are several functions which are performed by the HR department in an organisation. This function supports the development of the company and also helps in increasing the organisational productivity by managing all the things in an efficient manner. The primary HR functions comprises of recruitment and selection, documentation of the employees, training and development , employee benefits and compensation, employee legislation, termination and evaluation and performance management. All these factors help in developing and improving the human resource of an organisation (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
The HR department plays a vital role in an organisation as it supports rapid attainment of the organisational goals and objective by implementing effective procedure, policies and strategies. The mission statement of the company, Parlemo Safe storage is, ‘Our people are our future’. As per this mission statement, the company must have its primary emphasis over its employees and their development. But after analyzing the case study, the activities of the company does not have its justification to their mission statement. The improved HR strategy and procedure and effective HR functions can help the organisation in fulfilling its mission if there are improvements in the recruitment and selection techniques, staff motivation and decreasing work pressure. It is also essential that as per the employee benefits and compensation function, the employees’ of Parlemo Safe storage must be offered with adequate wages, health and safety measures and appropriate training and development for achieving increased efficiency at work (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013).
Human Resource Planning
Human resource planning is the approach of anticipating the future needs and requirements of the human resource of an organisation as well as defining the way in which the present human resource capability can be utilized for having efficient results. It is regarded as a continuous or ongoing procedure which helps in systematic palming of the human resource to take utmost use of its human resource. The primary objective of HRP is to attain best fit among the jobs and the employees so that there can be no issues related to manpower shortage (Bratton and Gold, 2012).
Functions performed by HR
(Source: Ankushgakhar, 2008)
The human resource planning is such a vital and wide organisational concept that it is affected by number of afctors. These factors can either pose a positive or negative impact upon the human resource planning the afctors comprises of the type of organisation is such as private or public, the organisational strategy, the growth cycle of the company, environmental uncertainties, nature of job, outsourcing, time horizon and the information attained by forecasting (Boxall and Purcell, 2011).
HRP has its vital role in the attainment of the organisational objectives as through effective and strategic human resource planning there is recruitment of talented employees, fore casting the future manpower requirements, change management and utmost utilization of the human resource. When all these factors combined together, it results in increased organisational productivity and thus there is faster attainment of the organisational objectives. By having an improved HRM in the organisation, the mission statement of the company will be easily accomplished (Werner and DeSimone, 2011).
There are two different approaches of HRP for achieving business objectives i.e. traditional and modern/contemporary.
- Traditional
The traditional approach has its primary focus on the established policies and procedures of managing the human resource and planning for future HR needs. The attainment of the organisational goals is the key objective of traditional approach. There is more focus upon organisational development rather than employee development. But this helps the company in faster attainment of business objectives as there is one mutual goal for every employee.
- Contemporary
The contemporary approach is also known as modern approach of HRP where the primary emphasis is upon the employees’ development and growth. There is on-going motivation and effective training and development sessions which help the employees in achieving personal development. The more satisfied the employees are the better and improved is the organisational performance and achievement of organisational objectives in a squat time period (Boselie, 2010).
There is an essential need of effective HR planning in Parlemo safe storage as there are several issues prevailing at the workplace. Therefore, it is necessary that the organisation must focus on its HR planning and make improvements in recruitment techniques, employee management, compensation plans and retention strategies.
Training
The aim of organisational training is to develop the competence and ability of the organisational employees in relation to their job roles so that they can deliver the best possible result.
To develop the employees so that there can be enhanced productivity, development of the skills, job satisfaction and less errors is termed as development. There are offered several training to the employees so that they can be developed t individual and professional level (Aguinis and Kraiger, 2009).
There are various trainings which are offered to the employees at different phases of job life such as induction training at the time of induction, job training related to the understanding of work, promotional and refresher training to have skills development and apprenticeship training which is offered by a supervisor.
Organisational training and development are of high significance as it helps in addressing employees’ weaknesses, improving the performance of the employees, providing consistency and improving employee satisfaction (Goetsch and Davis, 2014).
Contribution of HR department in achievement of company’s objectives
Training and development has its major contribution in the success of an organisation as it boosts the motivation of the employees, offer consistency, enhances job satisfaction through effective trainings; improve performance by effective control and evaluation. It also contributes in competence and ability building of the employees by continuous training programs and it also offers opportunities to the employees for career development (Chew and Chan, 2008).
If effective training and development is implemented at Parlemo safe storage then it will result in help in restricting the wage structure of the employees and they will be getting appropriate wages. There will be less or no work pressure over the employees as all work will be managed in an appropriate manner. There will also be no improper dismissal of any employee without any prior notice as well as there will also be offered continuous trainings to the employees which will result in improved organisational performance.
- On the job
- To offer coaching and mentoring to employees
- To provide job rotation and JIT to the employees
- Off the job
- To have effective communication by having lectures & conferences
- Brain-storming sessions (Aguinis and Kraiger, 2009).
Proposing major change for Parlemo Safe Storage
There is need to have numerous changes at Parlemo Safe Storage as there are several issues in the human resource department of the organisation. The proposed changes for Parlemo Safe Storage include:
- To have regular training sessions
- To restructure the wages of the employees
- To have recruitment of more employees so that work load can be decreased
- Establishment of trade union
There will be three types of changes in the organisation i.e. transformational, transactional and remedial changes. The benefits of these changes are improving employee motivation, resolving of organisational issues, improved motivation and productivity, achievement of organisational aim and mission and better understanding of work (Weiner, 2009).
(Source: Manumelwin, 2015)
As per the change model of Burke & Litwin, there are changes as per the transformational and transactional factor that have a connection with the individuals factor which together results in change in the organisational and individual performance.
- Transformational Factors: The mission statement of the company is, ‘Our people are our future’. As per this mission it is essential to have to have change in the organisational culture so that there can be employee development culture and supportive leadership that resolves organisational issues and implement employee development practices (Gilley, McMillan and Gilley, 2009).
- Transactional Factors: There must be implement training and development t practices for enhancing employee engagement and employees’ development. There is also a need of change in wage structure as well as need of establishment of trade union for effective resolution of issues.
- Individual Factors: It is essential to fulfill the individual need of the employee so that they can be motivated to handle work pressure in a positive manner. As well as there must be evaluation test so that the capability of the employees can be judge and have rewards and recognition as per their competence and capabilities (Burke, 2013).
The chief executive does not find any kind of issue in the personnel and development practices and also have an impression that the organisation is running successfully, thus there is resistance towards change.
To manage the resistance of the chief executive towards the organisational change, there will be presented the evaluation reports and productivity reports to the management so that there can be have a comparative analysis of the results before and after the prevailing of issues at the workplace. As well as there must be an open discussion forum so that the employees can communicate their grievances directly to the higher management authorities (Weiner, 2009).
Importance of employee legislation and its impact on employment relationship
Employee legislation is of high importance in an organisation as it defines all the measures which are required to be followed by an organisation in the favor of the employees such as minimum wages offered, meal breaks, deductions, overtime, hours of work, termination etc. It has a direct impact on the employment relationship as the more appropriate and effective follow up of employee legislation will be, the more improved will be the association of employees and employer as the company is meeting all the basic requirements mentioned under the employment legislation (hrcouncil, n.d.)
As per the employment legislation there are several areas where the company, Parlemo Safe Storage is required to address:
- Minimum wage
- Overtime
- Resolving disputes
- Termination
- Recruitment and Selection procedures
- Union recognition rights
- Health and safety policies
HR planning
(Source: dementiapartnerships, 2011)
As per the Equality Act 2010, the business organisations must not have discrimination practice on the basis of factors such as religion, disability, sexuality, race, gender and age. There are strict laws and regulation which bides the organisation to have ethical and equity based practices at the workplace (Council, 2010).
There are 5 ACAS Code of Practices: Discipline and grievance, Disclosure of information to the trade unions, Time off for trade union activities and duties, Settlement agreement and Workplace flexibility. These practices are referred by the employment tribunals which are required to be implement by the business organisations so that there can be employee protection (Rahim, Brown and Graham, 2011).
It is required that Parlemo Safe Storage must have operations and functions in relevance with such acts and practices, so that there can be improved employee relations and organisational performance.
Globalization can be explained as an integration process which develops interaction among the governments, organisations and individuals of different nations. There is change of technology, resources and capabilities among two or more countries for achieving improved trades, investments and economic development (Beck, 2015).
Global human resource managements can be defined as a process of managing the human resource of an organisation in numerous different nations. There are organisations which have global business and as a result there is increase cultural sensitiveness and workforce diversity. Therefore, an organisation is required to implement a global human resource management practice to manage the human resource across the countries (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016).
There is a significant impact of globalization and global human resource management on organisational practices as the organisation is required to have diversity in the recruitment practices as there is much interaction with other nations. Thus the recruitment practice, organisational culture and other training procedures are required to develop accordingly. There is also a major change experienced in the employment laws and regulation as per the nation’s regulations and employment legislation (Wilton, 2016).
Migration of workers and flow of ideas between the countries have their direct impact on the various aspects of human resource management. Migration of workers results in change in distribution of wages, increase in the rate of unemployment of residents and diversity management issues. The flow of ideas also impacts the organisational productivity, the innovation process and the level of efficiency in an organisation in both a positive and negative manner (Borjas, 2015).
The company, Parlemo Safe Storage can attain huge benefits by taking use of globalization as the organisation can take use of outsourcing, which means transfer of few business activities or the operational processes of an organisation to a third party to have rapid achievement of business objectives as well as to reduce the organization’s operational costs. Parlemo Safe storage can reduce its work load by taking use of global outsourcing and having efficiency in its operations (Khan and Bashar, 2016).
Conclusion
From this report, it can be concluded that human resource management is a significant factor in achieving organisational efficiency. In present scenario, there is increased cultural sensitivity and workplace diversity because of globalization. Therefore, it is essential that the organisations must take use of global human resource management in managing their human resource. It is also stated the, there is equal importance of working on the basis of employee legislations to have a strong brand image. The organisations are required to take effective measures to have high employee satisfaction and motivation so that there can be increased organisational productivity and well as employees’ development.
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