The importance of HRM in aligning people management with business strategies
Recruitment can be defined as the process of looking for and obtainment of a pool of willing candidates in possession of the required knowledge, skills and experience so that the organization can choose the better placed candidates to fill the available job vacancies in relation to the defined descriptions and specifications for the named positions. Recruitment is carried out so that an organization can select the best people as per the requirements of the roles they are to play thus giving an organization a competitive advantage over its competitors.
Selection on the other hand is the process of identifying appropriate candidates from the pool identified at the recruitment stage through interviews, testing and reference checking. The main aim of this process is to make sure that the most appropriate candidates are chosen to occupy the positions identified by applying effective, fair and equitable assessment procedures.
- Internal Recruitment- this is where an organization fills the vacancies that arise by choosing from its existing workforce.
- External recruitment- this is where an organization fills available vacancies with applicants from outside the organization. There are four main ways through which an organization can recruit externally. They include;
- Job advertisements. This is the most common form of external recruitment that can be found in many places including newspapers, notice boards and recruitment fairs. They contain important information related to the job which may include job title, job description, location and how to apply. An organization will choose this method depending on costs associated with it and coverage needed.
- Job centers. These are usually paid for by the government so that they can help the unemployed to find jobs. They also give services to organizations that need to advertise job vacancies.
- Personal recommendation. This can be in the form of a recommendation from a colleague at work. The method is used to save the advertising cost although an individual will still be required to go through full assessment before being selected for the fob vacancy.
- Recruitment agency. These agencies work for a fee and in most cases they specialize in specific employment areas. They usually provide organizations with details of appropriate candidates for specific vacancies that arise in these organizations.
- Preliminary screening. At this point, the selection process is narrowed down to those candidates who meet the requirements for the job only. This may be done basing on such parameters as number of years of experience or other verifiable credits. All the responses towards the advertisement are reviewed so as to come up with only a few qualified individuals that will proceed for further scrutiny.
- Telephone interviews. This is aimed at finding out whether the applicant is still interested in the job or not and whether they have the required qualifications. Here, the pool is further narrowed down to those individuals who were able to meet the organization’s staffing needs in terms of the skills and qualifications.
- In-person interviews. The two previous stages helps in coming up with a group having just a few individuals that meet the qualifications to proceed to this stage since face-to-face interviews take a lot of time. Here, the best-suited candidates are chosen to proceed to the next stage.
- Cultural fit selection. Here, candidates are asked questions in regards to who would fit in the organization’s culture. The applicant’s qualifications are not put into consideration since the main aim is to establish whether a candidate’s values align to the organizational values.
- Vetting candidates. At this stage, two suitable candidates are selected. A conditional job offer is dispatched to the candidate number but at the same time keeping in mind the runner-up candidate should the first candidate fail to pass the final stage. The vetting process consists of pre-employment matters including background check and drug testing. This are meant to verify the information provided by the candidate and are an exercise in due diligence, according to management consultants Kim Kerr and Barry Nixon, in their May 2008 article on HR.BLR.com titled “Benefits and Components of a Background Screening Policy.” A candidate is only given a final job offer if they pass the background check and the drug test. A rejection letter is then sent to the runner-up candidate since the organization is now sure that the vacancy has been filled.
Many a times, situations which involve more than one person often experience conflict as a result of divergent goals, power imbalances and philosophical differences (Goldberg et al. 2014). If not well managed, conflict may lead to loss of trust and productivity which may lead to business failure. An organization can manage situations involving conflict by application of the following strategies;
This entails giving the opposing side whatever it wants and it mainly happens when one party wishes to have peace or sees the issue involved as minor.
This is where one hopes the problem will resolve itself without any form of confrontation. The conflict is thus delayed or ignored all together.
This involves integrating ideas raised by a number of people so as to arrive at a solution acceptable by everyone. Collaboration requires significant time commitment which may not be appropriate to all conflicts but it is useful to a greater extent.
This strategy requires both sides of the conflict to give up on their stance regarding the issue at hand so as to come up with an acceptable solution. This strategy is applied especially when the parties involved hold approximately equal power or positions.
This involves one side winning while the other loses. This strategy works best in conflicts involving emergency situations.
Performance management is defined as an ongoing process of communication between an employee and supervisor that occurs throughout the financial year, which is in support of accomplishing the strategic objectives of a business (Cappelli, & Tavis, 2016). Performance management process ensures that employees are meeting the organization’s objectives and goals through continuously setting objectives, coaching them and assessing their progress (Mone, & Edward, 2018).
For an employee performance management is all about aligning the objectives of an organization with the agreed measures, competency band skills. Performance management is mainly used to ensure that employees outcome and skills are in line with objectives of an organization.
In performance management process, employees and managers plan, monitor and review an employee work objectives and if they are in line with the objectives of the organization through working together.
People management is in other words referred to as human resource management, it comprises of recruitment, management, and providing direction and support to employees of an organization.
Advice to CEOs on the impact of technology and automation on the finance sector and the challenges for HR
An efficient and effective performance management process enhances organization’s success and excellence by:
- Ensuring that employee’s activities and objectives are in line with the objectives of an organization. Through performance management, employees have a clear understanding of the organization objectives therefore, his or her performance and daily activities should contribute to the achievement of these objectives.
- An effective performance should always focus on setting clear performance objectives and expectations through the use of actions, results, and behavior.
- Training employees and providing
Employee appraisal is objected to improve employee performance, therefore it can be defined as a process in which employee’s current performance is clearly observed and discussed by the management the main purpose of this being to add to that level of performance (Ahammad et al. 2016).
The key objectives of performance appraisals are, to assess if there is training need, to collect feedback about the business from the employees, to motivate employees in order to enhance their outcome, to improve communication in the organization, to evaluate development plan and review career potential, to identify strengths and weaknesses and areas requiring improvement. There are three types of appraisal i.e. performance review, potential review, and reward review.
Atariksa, Y. 2007 has defined career planning in different terms i.e.
- In the first definition, Antariksa defined career planning as the process of setting individual career objectives and innovatively developing activities that will be achieved by them.
- Secondly, Antarikisa defined career planning as the employee’s counterpart to the organization’s overall human resources planning activity.
Career planning can be seen as a personal process that consist of three criteria i.e. Broad life planning, Development planning, and Performance planning.
On the other hand, management assessment is a series of exercises, interviews and tests, which are designed to predict how efficiently a management candidate will perform when given a specific role.
In management assessment the emphasis is mainly on leadership qualities,
- Career planning helps the organization in identifying internal employees who can be promoted.
- The process of career planning assist individuals to gain the knowledge of different career opportunities available for him or her. Through career planning, employees are able to choose a career that is suitable to their life.
- It increases job satisfaction, which in turn creates a sense of belonging and enhances employee commitment and loyalty to the organization.
- Career planning plays a great role in lowering employee turnover since it encourages an employee to wait his or her turn of promotion rather than changing to another organization.
- Efficient career planning ensures that there is availability of human resources in an organization with the required knowledge and skills.
- Career planning minimizes employee’s frustrations since it continuously tries to satisfy the employee expectations.
- Management assessment is very crucial for success of the organization. The right human resource is required which fits in the management position to make the right decision for the daily running of the organization. Management assessment has a number of advantages which includes:
- Management assessment helps to know if there existence of skills deficit in an organizations. Skilled manpower is very essential therefore through management assessment existing employees are trained or right people are sourced.
- Employees are prepared for their future roles through management assessment through increased performance, self- confidence and productivity.
- Management assessment help strengthen communication in an organization and this help the organization to coach employees based on their goals and developmental needs.
- Through management’s assessment employees are able to renew to commitment to their development and own growth based on information that facilitate future development action.
- Management assessment helps employees to be more committed to the services, mission. And programs of their organization
Analytical skills refer to a person’s ability to gather and analyze information, solve problems and make sound decisions. This may be of great help to the organization since it improves productivity and success and solves problems (Bardach, & Patashnik, 2015). These skills are as discussed below;
One needs to have excellent communication skills both orally or in writing since one is likely to encounter situations where they have to write reports or to explain information orally in a meeting or presentation. Therefore, one has to be able convey the message to others in a proper manner.
Creativity is of great importance as far as problem solving is concerned since one is expected to think smartly so as to come up with effective solutions to problems at hand.
One should be able to collect the necessary data and research a topic, and learn more about the problem before solving it.
One needs to be able to examine large volumes of data and establish trends in it because being good at analysis is of great importance no matter the career path chosen.
This may refer to evaluation of information and making decisions basing on the findings. It is critical thinking that help an employee in making decisions that help in solving problems for an organization.
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