The Three Roles of Human Resources and Why Strategic Role is Important
- Strategic human resource management
Human resources play several functions within the organization which include: meeting organizational needs for various roles and positions, strategic partnering with the organization to achieve organizational goal, pushing for the needs of employees and being a champion of change within the organization. Today HR plays a strategic role in the organization by aligning employees to the strategic direction of the organization. This strategic partnership is seen in organizations like FedEx where policies are built on people service profits to ensure that the organization promotes a working environment that meets the needs of employees (Benson & Kinsella, 2003). Employees are trained and motivated to align the HR function to the strategic direction of the organization.
- Employee Termination
Employee termination takes different forms from voluntary to employer-based. Employers need to understand that employees have rights that need to be respected during termination and if not followed well then the employer can be used (Haymes & Kleiner, 2001). Many organizations will terminate their employee contracts due to low output levels. This is normally based on the performance appraisal of the employee where inconsistencies are noted out in the employee performance. For example, the Pennsylvania employment law allows employers to dismiss at will employees for any reason that falls within the federal statutes. When terminating an employee contract several factors need to be considered; the nature of the contract, the terms of employment, the nature of the employee whether unionized or not and the relevant laws regarding the termination. Blanpain, Bison-Rapp, Corbett, Josephs, & Zimmer (20017) argue that when firing an employee, the HR manager needs to ensure that they fall within the statues or laws that have been established by relevant bodies. When considering termination, the employer needs to consider several factors, first there must be legal and valid reasons for termination to avoid legal suits. There must be proper paper trail that justifies the employee as being un-resourceful to the organization and lastly the channel for firing must be properly followed. The factors will be evaluated based on the human resource guidelines of the organization. This will form the decision made by the HR manager since the termination letter is supposed to quote the provision that allows termination of the employee.
- Employee Turn Over Costs
Employee turnover is the act of replacing employees with new ones due to firing the existing ones or where the existing employees leave at will creating a gap (Lee, Gerhart, Weller, & Trevor, 2008). There are four incidences of employee turnover, termination, resignation, promotion or death. Each of them creates a gap that requires management to find another employee to fill the position. Managers need to understand the cost of employee turnover to determine the loss that the organization incurs. This allows the organization to put strategies in place to increase retention and meet employee needs. Strategically, employees leave the organization in such of better opportunities, this means that the organization needs to understand its business needs and determine how they are aligned with human resource needs.
- Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction is a multidimensional psychological response to one’s job that will vary in the extent of including feelings and cognition about the job (Staw & Cohen-Charash, 2005). Researchers have reported that job satisfaction is directly related to productivity. For example, FedEx has achieved job satisfaction through teamwork that fosters performance at the organizational level (Schultz & Ellen, 2010). One common measure of employee satisfaction is use of performance review tools through focusing on specific needs. Employee surveys and suggestion boxes can be used to raise issues that employees may fear opening up in front of management. For example, employees will use the suggestion box to raise complains in areas that they are not satisfied since they may fear rising it during reviews or open meetings.
- Human Resources record keeping
Human record keeping is the process through which organizations collect data on their employees about employee’s personal identifying information that may include job application, offer letters, acceptance letters, performance evaluations, disciplinary actions, promotions and termination among others. Different countries have different rules that require organizations to keep records about their employees (Yusof & Chell, 2002). In the US the federal law requires organizations to keep employee personal records for seven years while state laws may differ from state to state (Shepherd & Yeo, 2003). Proper management of personnel files is a legal obligation that protects the organization against any action that can be taken by the employee. For example, in cases of termination, management will rely on employee record to make the decision. In any case the employee sues the organization, documentation can be used to justify the reasons why the employee was terminated since courts will rely on documentation to validate or invalidate the termination. It can also be used as an evaluation tool for future employee patterns within the organization.
- Why all managers need to be human resource managers
Human resource management is a function responsible for all employee-related activities within the organization including allocation of human resources to organizational roles (Conaty & Charan, 2011). On the other hand, Conaty & Charan (2011) adds that operational management is the design and control of production processes and redesigning of business operations to meet the organizational goal. For example, managers are the brain behind all the business operations and must not be specialized in only one field but must understand all areas of the organization including human resource management to assist in decision making. Human resource managers will propose suggestions to top management for consideration, to make the best decision, then the manager needs to understand aspects of human resource management. The field of human resource management has evolved to strategic management which means it is part of the overall management of the organization. Since operations management is concerned with efficiency and execution of tasks, those tasks cannot be completed without the human resource function, thus the manager must understand human resource related issues to meet organizational needs.
References
BENSON, J., & KINSELLA, B. (2003, January). What Your HR Department Can Learn From FedEx: The Power of a Strong Brand. (IHRIM., Compiler)
Blanpain, R., Bison-Rapp, S., Corbett, W. R., Josephs, H. K., & Zimmer, M. J. (20017). The Global Workplace: International and Comparative Employment Law – Cases and Materials. Cambridge University Press: New York:.
Conaty, B., & Charan, R. (2011). The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers. Crown Publishing Group.
Haymes, J., & Kleiner, B. H. (2001). Federal and state statutory exemptions to At-Will employment. Managerial Law, 43(1), 92-98.
Lee, T. H., Gerhart, B., Weller, I., & Trevor, C. O. (2008). Understanding voluntary turnover: Path-specific job satisfaction effects and the importance of unsolicited job offers. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), 651-671.
Schultz, D. P., & Ellen, S. (2010). Psychology and work today : an introduction to industrial and organizational psychology (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Shepherd, E., & Yeo, G. (2003). Managing Records: A Handbook of Principles and Practice. London: Facet Publishing.
Staw, B. M., & Cohen-Charash, Y. (2005). The dispositional approach to job satisfaction: More than a mirage, but not yet an oasis: Comment. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(1), 59-78.
Yusof, Z., & Chell, R. (2002). Towards a Theoretical Construct for Records Management. Records Management Journal, 12(2).
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