The human resource management function determines the quality and quantity of output an organization gets from its employees. Recruitment and selection processes enable an organization to assess its professional needs to ensure it chooses suitable personnel who have the required levels of competence to fill vacant positions. In addition, a willingness by employees to accept changes helps an organization to improve its internal work systems to help it attain good results in the long run. Any organization that intends to attain positive performance needs to satisfy the expectations of its employees by improving their working environments to motivate them. This essay will analyze various human resource management issues that affect the school district of Philadelphia and how they can be addressed to improve overall results.
Discussion
The department had to deal with a lot of complaints from teachers and other employees in the district, and this shows that its human resource systems were not well structured to satisfy employees expectations. In addition, hiring procedures used by the district were centralized, and this made it difficult to attract and retain highly skilled teachers who were needed to fill various vacant teaching positions. Senior officials in the department were accused of gross incompetence and lack of dedication to their duties, which negatively affected the morale of teachers and other employees working for the district. Therefore, this made it difficult for the district to satisfy the professional expectations of teachers in various public schools, which led to poor results.
Principals do not have effective leadership skills, and this makes it difficult for them to inspire teachers working under them to attain good results. In addition, schools that perform poorly in the district find it difficult to attract highly qualified teachers, and this has eroded the quality of education offered by some public schools. The districts HR department failed to develop beneficial relationships with other stakeholders, and this made it difficult for the department to address labor issues faced by its employees.
This situation caused the department to deal with constant labor conflicts with teachers and other employees working in the district. As a result, before Hannas promotion, this situation had a negative impact on the image of Philadelphias education system. The district was unable to coordinate various human resource roles that were part of its strategy, and this led to systematic failures in the whole educational setup.
One of the first tasks which Hanna undertook after being appointed was to change recruitment practices in the district. Hanna focused more on improving working conditions for new teachers and other employees that were recruited by the district to increase retention rates. As a result, these changes helped to increase the number of applicants for vacant teaching positions in different public schools. Within two years, the districts public schools retained most of their teachers who were satisfied with the new HR policies which had been implemented. Since then, public schools in the district do not face chronic staff shortages as they used to in the past because the new human resource policy is responsive to their needs and expectations.
The human capital management strategy which has been implemented has helped the district to attract highly skilled teachers. The districts decision to reform selection processes by allowing schools to participate in the hiring of new employees has helped to decentralize important human resource functions. As a result, public schools are able to choose suitable teachers who are able to help their students attain good learning outcomes. The decision made by Hanna to sack the four human resource directors was difficult, but in the end, it allowed him to carry out important reforms in the human resource department. As a result, this drastic action enabled the district to hire new officials who are willing to work in a restructured human resource department whose main vision is to satisfy the needs of its workers.
The sackings of the four managers have enabled Hanna to create a more competent human resource department that focuses more on satisfying employees needs and expectations. He has also managed to reorganize the department to make it more efficient in executing its functions. In essence, this has improved labor relations between the new directors and other employees performing different duties in the district. More importantly, payroll systems have been improved to ensure all payments made by the district are recorded and closely monitored, and this has enhanced financial transparency in the organization. However, the introduction of site-based selection has experienced a lot of challenges which the district needs to resolve to help it attain good results in the long run.
Hanna needs to improve site-based selection and recruitment processes to reduce high rates of turnover in schools based in dangerous zones of Philadelphia. He needs to address concerns associated with site-based selection that it is likely to result in inequitable access to education in the district. Therefore, he needs to come up with long term strategies that address selection disparities, which have denied public schools in poor areas an opportunity to get highly skilled teachers. More importantly, school committees that are involved in the selection of new staff need to be equipped with good human resource skills to make them more competent in their duties. This will enable them to use more effective strategies to attract good teachers who are willing to make sacrifices to attain good results.
The district also needs to streamline its working processes to retain more teachers for longer periods of time. Hanna also needs to develop appropriate systems that enable principals to transfer important leadership skills to their juniors. In addition, they need to be involved in supervisory and mentoring roles to allow employees working under them to acquire new skills that help them attain good results in their workstations. The district also needs to improve its reporting systems to ensure principals liaise with other senior education officials to address the different challenges they are facing. This approach will improve the quality of education offered by public schools in Philadelphia. Lastly, the human resource department needs to develop more efficient communication systems that allow it to respond to different issues raised by teachers in various public schools.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the district of Philadelphia needs to develop an effective human resource system that encourages collaboration, knowledge sharing, and high levels of employee satisfaction. This approach will enable the district to improve the relationships it has with teachers and other employees to improve the quality of education, which is offered in different public schools. More importantly, this will reduce high levels of inequalities that are experienced in public schools due to inefficient recruitment and selection practices.
Health care is one of the basic factors that firms are always forced to offer to their employees. Firms in the current world find it very difficult to operate because of the competitive working environment. This working environment is so competitive that firms are always forced to find ways of reducing any little cost of operations that can be reduced. According to Gordon (2006), the world has become so competitive because of the increasing number of firms that offer similar products in the market.
This means that the number of suppliers will remain relatively smaller. Suppliers will have a wider choice of who to offer their products. This makes suppliers charge higher prices for their products in the market. On the other hand, firms find that they have to compete for the customers. Customers have a wider variety to choose from when they want to make any purchase. They will therefore, demand a cheaper price for the products they purchase.
These results in a situation where firms use more to produce their goods, but they are forced to sell them at a lesser price in order to get the market. This awkward situation forces firms to find mechanisms through which they can cut costs of operation from whichever front. Cutting down the cost of healthcare that a firm has to pay for its employees is one of the ways through which a firm can increase its profitability. This paper is focused on how a firm can successfully cut the cost of health care for its employees.
When the current president of the United States, Mr. Barrack Obama, took office in 2008, one of the most prominent bills that he sponsored was the healthcare bill. Also popularly known as Obamacare, this bill has had a massive impact to the entire society in general (Goff, 2011). It is a fact that this bill helped ensure that every American, poor or rich, has access to free medical attention. This was a positive move towards a healthy American society.
However, the burden of this free healthcare for all must be shouldered on some people or organizations in this country. The hardest hit group was probably the employers in this country. Before this legislation, the law was not very strict on how firms would pay for their employees health insurance fund.
Although it was a mandate that firms had to remit a specific amount to the health insurance scheme for this purpose, there was no direct governments hand in this payment. Currently, government strictly dictates how firms should be paying this fee, and the amount that should be paid. The government also regulates strictly, the amount of money that these employees should earn, hence the minimum allowable fee to pay as a health insurance fee.
Human resource must however, find a way of cutting cost of the healthcare it pays to its employees. There are a number of ways through which human resource management can achieve this. The first way of doing this is to contract some of the services from other firms.
Instead of having a fully fledged logistics department with an array of employees, the firm can contract a logistics firm that will be responsible for ensuring that raw materials reach the firm in time, and the products reach the market (Nash, 2010). This will mean that the firm will be cutting down on its employees hence the amount needed for the healthcare insurance will be reduced.
Another way of reducing this cost is by moving a section of the firm outside the country. Apple Inc is one of the most successful American firms in the world. This firm moved its production unit to China. Not only does this firm get cheap labor in this country, but also reduced amount of healthcare insurance bill to pay for its employees.
When a firm moves part of its operational units to another country, the firm shall be avoiding the cost of having to pay high fees for the healthcare as stated in the Healthcare Bill 2010. Another department that can easily be contracted to firms which may even be outside the country is the customer call center. This department can be moved to another country where cost of labor is relatively cheap. India has been one of the most preferred countries for outsourcing of customer call center.
To the employees who remain within the firm, it may not be easily to regulate the amount that the firm will have to pay as their health insurance fund. The Healthcare Bill 2010 clearly stated this amount based on the rank of an employee, and the amount of salary one earns (Dunham, 2011).
However, human resource can still minimize this amount by having a learn firm in terms of employees, especially those at the top level. The management can consider merging some departments, and assigning them to one employee instead of having several top ranking officials. This will ensure that the firm will have lesser number of officials who have to pay high amount of health insurance fund.
References
Dunham, T. (2011). Health care financial management for nurse managers: Merging the heart with the dollar. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Goff, L. (2011). Cutting the high cost of health care. New York: Poets & Writers.
Gordon, S. (2006). Nursing against the odds: How health care cost cutting, media stereotypes, and medical hubris undermine nurses and patient care. Ithaca: ILR.
Nash, C. E. (2010). Jiggered: The healthcare insurance industry. New York: Iuniverse Inc.
Evidently, majority of the companies have embraced the aspect of Human Resource Information System to have a better style of conducting business. Competition calls for total integration of technology in the human resource department to reshape the pattern of conducting business and maintain competitiveness in the global economy. Like the early motive, todays business goals entail making profits by selling products or services that satisfy the societal needs (Canzer, 7).
The only difference is the use of technology for better enhancement and thus quicker and higher profit margins. Given the resolution of the society to embrace change, this paper examines the relationship between the Human Resource Management and integrations of technology. It also addresses the future expectation for the professionals.
The HR management involves the business strategic plans and failure to incorporate the IT is one of the root cause of the current collapse or liquidation of some firms. There is eminent need for a business to shift with the societal norms less it perish in the near future.
Proper HR Management calls for the professionals to engage in understanding the clients and employees behaviours competently by basing the logistics on the past to be in a position to predict the future. Ulrichs (294) prediction that the future HR managers would use the technological advancement to control three aspects of business namely the business strategy, HR mastery and Technology is evident in todays ever-dynamic world of technological management.
Strategic Human Resource Management in the 21st Century
Today most companies have realized the key role of the HR departments. To increase profitability, the HR department should be the key business strategic planner through deployment of the technology such as the web-based analysis of economic factors influencing the business.
Discovery of knowledge as the key resource for the department is the basis for the future predictions that HR management will necessitate for new and radical management strategies and practices. The field of information technology should replace firms important administrative tasks entitled to HR department today.
The managers in the HR department should be the strategic business associates who ought to ensure the business gains form its planning strategies. According to Mathias et al, (34) the HR management system should have the sole role of ensuring maximization of profit margins through enhanced quality and technology based on human management as a way of creating value to the organization
The aspects of internet required for the HR management include intranet technology, electronic education for the clients as well as the employees, self-service for the client, gathering of the clients response, reactions or comments virtually through surveys and electronic comments.
Future Human Resources plans
Most of the employees as well as the clients have access to computers and internet connections. The aspect of electronic trading has already been acceptable among the users. Inline with Daft and Marcic, (150) the future implication and planning of these technological advancement means advancement in employees productivity and general performance of the organizations will increase drastically.
During the integration of the information technology into business, the aim was to eventually manage and improve the customers relationship, manage the intelligence in the business setting, planning for the resources, management of people especially in terms of the knowledge, supply chain management, enhancement of electronic trade as well as and supporting decision making procedures. (Daft and Marcic, 244)
Most business have attained majority of these aspects but the future expectations are that the system to be in a position of promoting all the requirements. Any future endeavours of IT related departments are to generate improved performance/effectiveness through reduction on cost but maximization of profit margins. (Mathias et al, 57)
Today utilizing the available technology is inevitable, the question remain whether the companies are utilizing the technology in the right manner especially for the human resource departments.
According to Daft and Marcic, (368) what lies ahead is a human resource department focused on a knowledge based economy, where the race remain between the rivalry companies over fast learning and flexible organization with the aim of taking the advantage over the already technologically acquainted markets. The technological advancement allows the companies to be in a position of collaborating and exchanging information over contraction or stockholding and the recent merging programs.
Major future understanding of the IT integrated in the HR management entails definition of the intended and anticipated outcomes. The current increased usage of technology in the workplace shows that it is inevitable for the HR departments to adopt the web-based systems.
Future expectation of the HRIS and HRMS
In future, users expect the human resource information technology to manage the companys benefit plans and all the employees information. The benefits management plans enable the HR department to deal with the ever-growing databases and analyze the amount spent. The HR faces the challenge of dealing with dynamism and the limited resources due to expansion of databases and growth of information.
Selecting the finest HR information Technology Management system for the future
The future expectations are that the Human Resource Information System (HRIS) or Human Resource Management System (HRMS) will be flexible and scalable enough to allow importation of data form various computer applications and provide the users with friendly interfaces compatible with all these kinds of systems and data. The filtering of data ought to occur form various stored data through the automated system.
This means that the information needs not to be from the same server or location. Today most systems require some manual manipulation of data before updates into the system. The future expectations are systems that will eliminate all manual procedures and deal with any eligibility systems. This means that people expect the use of intelligent systems.
Most of the companys evaluations regarding customers and employees eligibility issues employ the use of database sort and search engines, which utilize the use of a combination of rules and business strategies such as messaging, prompting and other eligibility rules of the company. The technology should be in a position to develop and cater for the dynamic databases of the ever-growing businesses especially the employees databases, new employment qualifying rules and regulations.
The thresholds of each of the HR management system elements will measure up to demands and integrate with other management systems such as the payroll systems therefore eliminating the need to duplicate information such as the employees bio data. The client is the most important aspect of the system therefore clients should be involved in deep levels services especially data entry.
In line with Mathis et al (72) virtual systems today, require automated interaction, where the probable client can logon to a system through the network and enter, edit or update their profile or make business orders without involving management, thus relieving them the overwhelming procedures.
The future expectations for the HR management systems are to determine specific cumbersome tasks that may currently be obstructing completion thus reducing the value and return on investment. The advancement in technology allows transfer of data and information from one application server or provider to another or to an application within the business without involving any necessary charges. (Mathis et al, 72)
Conclusion
An effective HRIS or HRMS should have provision for any requirements of the business such as the need to track, analyze or process employees information for instance from the previous employers databases. An advanced HRIS ought to avail customization probabilities to cater for unique business needs. The employees are in a position to do personal benefit analysis and updates such as changing profiles like the personal addresses thus relieving the management most of the strategic functions.
With such connecting intelligent system, it is easy to facilitate equal treatment of data pertaining management of employees, development of knowledge, development of careers and facilitation of equal treatment. There is eminent need for future systems to enable employers to collect and analyze information legally with the aim of ethically assisting and providing effective support to reporting employees.
HR department is fundamental within an organisation. Reducing the size of the HR section by executive directors as alleged in the case is inappropriate. HR section properly prepares the concerned organisation to deal with the global environment and other business challenges through numerous avenues.
In this context, there are HRM practices that must be embraced in order to enhance the understanding that occurs amidst various departments and the entire workforce. HR section is integral to the success of any organisation as it fosters the integration of organisations departments and use of legal provisions to control issues of hiring and firing of employees.
Contextually, management strategies in organisations need to incorporate flexibility, especially in the management of manpower through the HR sections (Kumar, 2010).
This indicates why the HR function within the organisation should be retained and embraced. Human resource management, being the head management office, tends to monitor all business activities within a corporation.
HRM mangers have the task of cooperating with other junior officers within the corporation in ensuring that all business activities are carried out in line with the companys rules and regulation (Amos, 2009). In every organisation, it is upon the HRM to employee experience throughout his or her lifecycle in the company.
Before hiring an employee, the HRM comes up with a mechanism of attracting skilled employees through a process known as employer branding. After the branding process, the HRM subject the employees or applicants through a recruiting process. This indicates why the HR function within the organisation should be retained and embraced; hence, the Executive Directors of this organisation should not do away with the department as well as its HR functions (Martin, Jackson & Fiona, 2010).
Identifying at least 3 ways HR activities support an organisation to meet its goals and business objectives
Contextually, the HR department is given an obligation to recruit and train employees for the organisation to meet its goals and business objectives. This is done to ensure quality and high level of professionalism among the recruited and existing employees. It is not in the line of duty for the HRM to appoint or approve employee recruitment.
After the onboard approval, the HRM then picks on to continue with the monitoring process throughout the tenure period. Salaries, performance appraisal, rewards and employee benefits are all approved by the HRM. Though the HRM is not in charge of the employee recruitment approval, it is given the powers of issuing employee tenure termination. This may be done without further consultation from the board of directors (Martin, Jackson & Fiona, 2010).
Secondly, in an organisation, there are other junior officers or departmental head that monitor and control all the activities within the department. Being that the HRM cannot be in a position of monitoring all the activities in the company field, it is upon the departmental heads to submit their departmental reports after a given duration.
It is after the report submission that the HRM is able to determine some of the weakness and strengths of every department within the organisation. Some of the departments within an organisation are; quality assurance department, accounting department, employee recruitment department and many others that will depend on the organisational setup (Martin, Jackson & Fiona, 2010).
Another way through which HR activities can support an organisation to meet its goals and business objectives includes the continuous assessment of the concerned employees. Before employee tenure is terminated in any given company, he or she is presented to the quality assurance department that oversees his or her overall performance record within the company. This is done through a process known as employee assessment or evaluation program; a program meant to enhance efficiency and productivity within the organisation.
The decision given by the HR department based on employee further cooperation with the company depends on the report submitted to HRM. In most cases, the HRM is always to blame for any challenge faced by an organisation though this may be a problem within one of the company departments. In this case, it is upon the HRM to carry out a reform process within that particular department.
Identifying at least 3 ways in which HR professionals support line managers and their staff
HR professionals can support line managers and their staff in diverse ways. They provide support on new ways to manage and motivate employees. All activities within a company though monitored by the HRM tend to follow a given procedure. Such procedures are established and embraced by the HR professionals (Decenzo, 2010).
A company procedure cannot be neglected or skipped because of the transitional reports from one department to the other that in turns gives support and give base for any decision made. Another support is in the decision making processes regarding the wellbeing of the workforce.
Decision-making is a process that requires the presence of all departmental heads and other company stakeholders (Decenzo, 2010). Another support is to ensure transparency and accountability within an organisation. HR professional(s) also support line managers and other staffs to emphasize on the aspect of effective hiring and compliance with the employment/labour laws.
References
Decenzo, D. (2010). Fundamentals of human resource management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Kumar, R. (2010) Human resource management: Strategic Analysis test and cases. New Delhi: IK International Pvt Ltd.
Martin, M., Jackson, T. & Fiona, W. (2010). Human resource practice. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
The CIPD HR Profession Map is a comprehensive evaluation of how Human Resource functions give the greatest value to institutions. CIPD identifies what workers in Human Resource departments do and how committed they are to the attainment of success in their respective positions (Armstrong, 2012).
CIPD also helps chart the progress of the careers of individuals. The map has three different modes of classifications-Bands Professional Areas and Behaviors. Bands are broken into four stages, Professional Areas into ten and behaviors into eight groups (Armstrong, 2012).
The four bands describe the contribution that the professionals in HR departments make in the fostering of proper relations with clients in consideration of where the financial resources and time are directed (Whiting, Martin & Jackson, 2010).
The professional areas are: Insights, strategy and solutions, Leading HR, Organizational design, Organization development, Resourcing and talent planning, Learning and talent development, Performance and reward, Employee engagement, Employee relations and Service delivery and information (Whiting, Martin & Jackson, 2010).
The categories of behaviors include: Curious, Decisive Thinker, Skilled influencer, Driven to deliver, Collaborative, Personally credible and Role model (Whiting, Martin & Jackson, 2010). An assessment of the bands, behaviors and professional areas helps companies identify the areas where more time should be spent and new skills included.
For an individual working in the Human Resource department of a company, success is said to be achieved when they come up with insights that are attainable and use them to develop an understanding of the organization. These individuals come up with solutions to address HR problems and implement them full. This is accomplished through the development of proper capacity structures ensuring that their departments are able to handle their responsibilities well.
In my position as a recruiter in the transport department, I ensure that I keep proper track of our hiring schedules in relation to the growth of the company. This helps me identify the department that needs more workers, allowing us to only recruit when necessary.
As far as Leading HR is concerned, successful HR professionals ensure that they are personally involved in the tasks that they come up with. These individuals own, shape and drive the projects in their departments through leading others, resource planning and managing budgets and finances.
While working on the recruitment cycle of my company, I ensure that that I am involved at every stage of the process. This enables me to understand the limits of our budgetary allocation, further making the recruitment process efficient.
Employee engagement details the relationship that the senior members of staff have with their juniors and with each other. HR professionals who are considered successful ensure that they relate with other members of staff at both professional and emotional levels. For someone to understand why the output of employees is at a particular level, they must constantly interact with them.
As the head of the recruitment department in my company, I have a number of individuals who work under me. Whenever I notice that the motivation levels have gone down, I invite the members of staff to my office for lunch and we talk at a personal level regarding the challenges they are facing. In this lunch-time meetings, I always make a point of clarifying that no one will be victimized for speaking out. This puts the workers at ease and allows them to volunteer more information.
Reference List
Armstrong, M. (2012). Armstrongs Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers
Whiting, F., Martin, M. and Jackson, T. (2010). Human resource Practice. United Kingdom: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
MFI-B was an NGO micro finance organization that was dealing with community development activities and formation through the advancement of loans to its clients. MFI-B got its funds from different organizations. Its main business strategy was an expansion in the form of its loan portfolio. With this, this organization could increase its borrowing capacity to its clients and ultimately alleviate poverty in the community.
The leadership of the organization was very weak and inexperienced in matters to do with financial planning and budgeting. This is because; the community leader overtook leadership role without scanning the situation in which the organization was facing, and took up major financial decisions that could adversely affect the organization. I would term the decision to expand the organizations lending base as a bad move because of its weak accounting system and lack of internal control systems.
Introduction of MFI-B in planning (definition, planning, problems, and solutions): Human resource planning involves activities of the organization. The activities make sure that the organization has a work force with the right number of employees now and in the future. It is a management strategy that ensures that the organization achieves its objectives by employing a wok force that is capable of performing its job well.
The problems faced by MFI-B are that the organization has a poor planning system of its employees, compensation management, organization structure, staff motivation, training and development. From the case study, the organization is facing labor shortages and this affects the motivation of its employees. The solutions to the problems the organization is facing regarding human resource planning are; first to create a need of human resource planning as part of its core activities.
Secondly, the organization has to conduct a demand forecast to know exactly how many staff it needs and if there are any shortages. Thirdly, the organization has to carry out supply forecast analysis to determine whether the organization has to recruit labor force from within or from outside the organization. The final step is to determine whether a gap exist between the demand and supply.
An action has to be performed in the case where there is a shortage of labor or excess of labor. If there is a shortage of labor, then the organization has to consider recruitment, training and development, motivating, and improving the work environment to retain the existing employees. If, on the other hand, if supply is more than the demand, the organization has to lay off the excess employees or transfer them to other organizations or departments.
Introduction of MFI-B in recruitment (definition, planning, problems, and solutions): Recruitment as a human resource activity involves the activities directed towards ensuring that the organization achieves its objectives through finding and engaging the correct people. It deals with the definition of recruitment requirements such as persons specifications, role profiles and outlines the terms and condition of the work.
It also includes planning of the recruitment process which covers issues such as planning for the number of employees required, the sources for tapping new employees, planning for alternative sources for tapping of employees and plans for the recruitment programs. The recruitment problems that MFI-B organization is facing include the encouragement of external recruitment to internal recruitment.
From the case study, it shows that out of the total recruitment done 60% of those employed are from the external market, and only 40% are from the internal sources. External sourcing is more expensive to the organization than internal sourcing. This is because of the costs incurred such as induction cost, and the time wasted by the new employees to bond with the existing employees and the time wasted by the new employees as they adjust to the new situation of the job.
The organization does not conduct any background checks to determine the suitability of the candidate. To curb the recruitment problems identified, the organization has to encourage internal sourcing to save on the organization costs. The organization also has to conduct a background check for all the potential recruits to enable it to know the suitability of the candidate to handle the job.
Introduction of MFI-B in deployment functions (definition, planning, problems, and solutions): Deployment is the strategic and systematic process of placing the employees within an organization with the aim of achieving the goals and objectives of the organization.
To achieve the advantages of deployment, employees joining the organization have to be trained on the roles of the jobs. The organization has to ensure that organizational structures are intact, and all the departments clearly outlined for proper deployment of employees. The problems that MFI-B is facing are lack of well outlined organization structures and thus become a challenge when deploying its employees.
Another problem is that the employees from other programs who have come to work at MFI-B receive no training or orientation. The other new comers receive only two days on the job training which is not sufficient. The occasional training offered to the staff has to be planned if the organization wants to achieve its goals. The solutions to the problems addressed above are that the organization has to outline clearly defined organization structures with clearly outlined departments and roles required per department.
For the organization to ensure that its employees fit well and adjust to the new organizational settings, the period of training and orientation of new employees has to be adequate. The organization should also budget for the funds and come up with a well-defined training program to achieve its objectives. Training is an important tool for succession planning.
Human resources are believed to be the most significant organizational asset, however, many businesses are yet to fully utilize its potential. Utilization of this potential or its lack is directly dependent on the overall leadership (Gareth & George, 2011).
Today, business is shifting from a culture of management to that of leadership. To fully utilize its human capital and survive stiff competition, businesses must embrace strategic leadership. Only businesses led by competent and strategic oriented persons stand a higher chance of their surviving (Vecchio, 2007).
Change Impact on Human Resources
Business success is directly dependent on its leadership (Mullins, 2010). Since HR plays a critical function in business, practices that negatively impact employees must be avoided. Leadership practices must have strategic direction. A well-developed and fully utilized workforce is a source of competitive advantage (Armstrong & Baron, 2002). Leadership impacts human resources in various ways, in particular:
Staffing and employee training
According to Dunford & Akin (2008), businesses look for strong leadership skills when staffing because employees are a source of competitive advantage. Effective leadership can greatly improve the effectiveness of training and enhance organizational knowledge (Hislop, 2009). Changes in organizational processes necessitate the need for training. Since some employees are naturally resistant to change, strong leadership is needed to implement new systems and communicate their overall benefits to employees (Clegg et al, 2011).
Performance management
Spector (2012) has observed that effective leaders use objective performance appraisal systems and implement appropriate technologies in order to improve business operations. For instance, HR practitioners today use bio-metric attendance registers and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to manage employee data. Job changes, such as transfers, promotions and demotions can easily be effected from the same database.
Management development and talent management
Businesses are increasingly going international. Strong and effective leadership is required to make decisions on issues like restructuring, strategic partnerships and succession planning. Vecchio (2007) has emphasized the fact that international business requires effective talent management strategies to ensure long term survival of the business in its international engagements.
Employee communication, engagement and productivity
Businesses are increasingly striving to align their staffing processes with organizational strategies in order to hire only the right employees (Spector, 2012). HR practitioners must measure employee engagement and productivity. Employee engagement and motivation is done by implementing the right policies and procedures. Competent leaders equally implement appropriate technology to improve communication systems for quality decision making (Northouse, 2012).
Compensation and rewards
Successful companies seek to be market leaders in the area of compensation to attract potential employees and curb turnover (Armstrong & Baron, 2002). With the right leadership in place, HR practitioners can use Employee Self Service (ESS) systems to keep updated employee data. Such HR-IT solutions reduce the number of employees required to perform a job. This leads to cost reductions and, consequently, cost advantages to the business.
Conclusion
Leadership enhances organizational success. With changing technology, customer sophistication and globalization, todays business is very competitive (Quick & Nelson, 2013). Thus, the success of the business depends on its leadership. Strong leadership must be manifested in all the HR functions within the business.
In order for the business to be competitive, there should be a strong focus on leadership and not merely management (Spector, 2012). HR practitioners must provide leadership and develop strategies that promote efficiency and effectiveness.
References
Armstrong, M., & Baron, A. (2002). Strategic HRM: The route to improved business performance. London: CIPD.
Clegg, S., Kornberger, M., & Pitsis, T. (2011). Managing and organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice (3rd ed.). London: Sage.
Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2008). Managing organizational change: A Multiple Perspectives Approach (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Gareth, J. R., & George, J. M. (2011). Contemporary management (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Hislop, D. (2009). Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Mullins, L. J. (2010). Management and organisational behaviour. Financial Times/Prentice Hall.
Northouse, P. G. (2012). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Sage Publications, Inc.
Quick, J. C., & Nelson, D. L. (2013). Principals of organisational behaviour: Realities and challenges (8th ed.). South Western, Cengage Learning.
Spector, B. (2012). Implementing organizational change-theory into practice (3rd ed.). Prentice Hall.
Vecchio, R. P. (2007). Leadership: Understanding the dynamics of power and influence in organizations (2nd ed.). University of Notre Dame Press.
The role of HR management in facilitating the individual adaptation of the employees can be based on several theories. These can be educational, psychological, organizational and economic theories. In tackling this topic, this research paper describes Maslows theory, McClellands need theory, equity theory and job design theory.
Maslows theory of need and Hierarchy
This is one of the main psychological theories of motivation postulated by Abraham Maslow. He perceived human needs to be hierarchical and observed that after a set of need ceases to be a motivator after it has been satisfied (Weihrich & Cannice, 2008, p. 330).
According to Maslow, basic needs are in form of five sets of goals. These are self actualization, love, physiological, esteem and safety. In Maslows perspective, what motivates employees in organizations is to ensure that they have the conditions on which these basic satisfactions are based and by desires that are more intellectual.
People are continually in want and the satisfaction of these wants only tends to be mutually exclusive but in reality is not. The average person only attains partial satisfaction and partial dissatisfaction of want they want (Ramlall, 2004, p. 54).
This theory implies a lot to the organizational HR management. They should devise programs and practices that fulfill the upcoming or unmet needs of employees. Another implication is for the management to help workers handle stress by coming up with focus groups and support programs.
This will help employees deal with stressful times and is also meant to have an understanding of their needs. The managers role is to cultivate a good climate to facilitate the development of the employees full potential. Not doing this may frustrate employees, make them perform poorly, demotivate them and encourage them to withdraw from the organization (Ramlall, 2004, p. 54).
McCllelands Need Theory
The three needs that this theory focuses on are power, achievement and affiliation. The need for power is influencing others to achieve. The need for affiliation is to wish for social relationships and related events.
The need for achievement is the drive to succeed and excel. Given that effective HR managers need to influence others in a positive way, they need to have a great need for power combined with a low affiliation need (Ramlall, 2004, p. 55).
Equity theory
According to this organizational theory, the concern of individuals is not just the sum of rewards earned for their efforts, but also how this relates to what is received by others. People tend to compare their inputs such as experience, proficiency and education with outcomes which include recognition, income levels and promotions. When there is an imbalance between peoples outcome-input ration with that of others, tension arises.
The theory is based on three assumptions. First, people have certain believes regarding what determines a return that is just and equitable according to their inputs in job. Second, the theory assumes that people tend to compare what they perceive to be the exchange they have with their employers (Ramlall, 2004, p. 55).
The third assumption is that when people believe they are being treated inequitably with regard to the exchange they observe their counterparts to be getting, theyll be driven to take actions that they deem necessary (Theis, 2010, p. 28). Consequently, several options are created for employees who realize that they are getting unfair treatment.
These options may include input reduction by employees through direct restriction of their work output, seeking an assignment thats more enjoyable and seeking increases in salary as a way of trying to make an output increase (Ramlall, 2004, p. 55).
The HR managements challenge is therefore to devise fair and equitable reward mechanisms and giving the rewards based on what the employees believe with regard to the value they attach to the organization. Circumstances can be changed in the place of work to encourage improvement in the quality and quantity of work (Miner, 2007, p. 104).
Job Design Theory
The basis of this theory is that a task in itself forms a basis for motivation of employees. The motivation to perform excellently is stifled by a job that is boring, mundane and monotonous. There are three ways to make a job more challenging. These are decision authority, variety and autonomy. Both variety and challenge can be added to the job through job enrichment and job rotation (Ramlall, 2004, p. 56).
Reference list
Miner, J.B. (2007). Organizational Behavior: From Theory to Practice. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Retrieved
Ramlall, S. (2004). A Review of Employee Motivation Theories and their Implications for Employee Retention through Organizations. Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge. Retrieved from ftp://ftp.cba.uri.edu/Classes/Beauvais/HPR412/Ramlall_2004.pdf
Theis, S. (2010). Attracting High Quality Human Capital by the Value of a Company Brand. Norderstedt, Germany: GRIN Verlag. Retrieved
Weihrich, H. & Cannice, M. (2008). Management. New Delhi: Tata-McGraw Hill Education. Retrieved
The department of human resource (HR) is extremely important in the proper functioning of any given organization. This is because it controls and manages the most important resource: the human resource.
It is usually a tremendous challenge to HR managers to coordinate the activities of all employees in the running of the organization as one unit. This is because there are changes every now and then in terms of organizations activities and policies and introduction of new employees.
The HR managers have to take up this role of orienting new employees to the organization for them to fit in effectively and the role of orienting the existing employees to new changes in the organization.
In doing this, the HR managers need to ensure that there is effective communication which will bring about cooperation and coordination among the employees and in relation to their superiors. Proper training which requires, patience as one deals with a diverse workforce is vital in facilitating individual adaptation to the new environment or the new changes (Christensen, 2006).
Validity
Validity is the level to which a given study may answer scientifically the question/s it is set to answer by relating to the real word. The conclusions made after the end of a study should be connected to the study design. There are various types of validity. They include among others external, internal and construct validities.
External validity refers generalized conclusions. It is related to the actual real world studying whether for example a sample selected to study a given population is representative of that population. Internal validity on the other hand involves the cause relationship between the variables in a given study.
It involves studying the how dependent variables may be influenced by independent variables. Finally construct validity refers to concepts of a given constructs show or measure what they are said to be doing. It is measuring the strength of research tools like for instance questionnaires.
These validities although different as has been described are all integrated in a research project. They should all conform to the research theory as this the central aspect of the research. In a research project, for instance you can not only concentrate on the external environment without considering the internal environment and in both you have to ensure that the tools used do measure up to attaining plausible results.
A major threat to external validity is determining whether the correct sample to represent the entire population has been selected. There could be biases also in selecting a representative sample of a population. If incorrect or non-representative sample is selected, then the whole research project may be jeopardized.
Construct validity may give wrong conclusions regarding a research tool. If for instance interviewing is carried out in place, where questionnaires were required could lead to problems in data collection. These among many other problems should be carefully addressed for a research project to be successful (Christensen, 2006).
Validity issues are vital in any research. For instance in studying the role of human resource management in facilitating individual adaptation of the employees, one has to ensure that a representative of data of both the managers and the employees is collected. You also have to determine which construct tool is the most effective in gathering of information as noted by Christensen (2006).
References
Christensen, R. (2006). Roadmap to Succesful Strategic HR Management. New York : American Managemnt Association.
The main research objective in this paper is to determine the effect of implementing a HR planning process for training. Since a lot of factors may contribute to the broad organisational impact of training, this dissertation will only dwell on the effect of planning for training on the actual training process.
Literature review on the subject reveals that most HR training planning projects tend to focus on overall organisational effects, not the effectiveness of the training process. Furthermore, many studies dwell on western companies or a myriad of organisations within a certain industry or sector.
This dissertation will narrow down the analysis to a specific organisation so as to increase accuracy of data collection. Several papers also focus on reasons behind the failure of HR training planning, so this dissertation will highlight the outcomes of the same.
The research methods will be based on quantitative analysis of employee and trainer attitudes concerning the training process. Information about training schedules, training goals, employee learning style-training fit and identification of the right employees for training will be collected. Primary sources include employee attitude surveys and trainer attitude surveys.
Training goals will be analysed through secondary sources on Microsoft Gulfs HR practices. A comprehensive analysis of the data will be done to ascertain whether the planning process affected the training process or not.
Objectives
The overall objective of this research is To determine the effect of implementing a HR planning process for training. The company chosen for analysis already has a sound HR planning strategy in place.
It will be critical to assess whether this company is achieving any tangible results from the planning of training programs. Therefore, the research will reveal both the positive and negative outcomes of HR planning for training. This overall objective will be achieved through the following specific objectives:
To assess whether planning for training leads to accomplishment of training needs
Some organisations may wish to increase productivity, sales revenues or other similar objectives. Planning for training is supposed to allow companies to set definite goals that will cause the company to meet training needs (Freeman 1993). This research will find out whether this is true.
To determine whether planning for training causes companies to identify the right employees for training
In the planning process, a company needs to perform a needs analysis so as to identify the employees who need training in a particular area.
To investigate the effect of training planning on training schedules
HR personnel or parties in charge of training are supposed to plan for training by setting specific dates for the various sessions. This research will investigate whether the planning process led to better scheduling or worse scheduling. Were the classes too far apart that employees forgot the first lessons? Or were they placed too close to cause information overload?
To investigate whether planning for training led to application of the right method of training for trainees
Each training process possesses certain methods and materials that must be applied to the right audiences. The research will analyse whether the planning processes created greater flexibility in training.
Project Outcomes
The overall project outcome is to Establish whether HR planning for training leads to effective training processes . Other specific project outcomes include:
Establish clarity of goal setting during training.
Establish the effectiveness of training targets with regard to how challenging but achievable they were.
Verify that the right employees were identified for training.
Show whether schedules were too far from each other thus leading to memory loss of earlier lessons.
Show whether schedules were too close together to lead to information overload
Ascertain that training reached all categories of learners.
Clarify the factors that led to success or failure of the training program.
Key questions
Does planning for training lead to goal accomplishment in training?
Does planning for training lead to identification of the right employees for training?
Does planning for training impact the effectiveness of training schedules?
Does planning for training alter the teaching methods?
Why the project is of interest to me
Most analyses in the field of Human resource planning tend to focus on the effect of planning in the organisation or among the employees concerned. However, since the human resource planning process encompasses various components, it is more effective to focus on one aspect of HR planning (Stavou-Costea 2005).
In this case, I chose training because it plays a significant role in achievement of organisational outcomes. This area of research is particularly interesting because it dwells on the effectiveness of training based on the planning process.
Therefore, organisations can identify why their training is failing or they may learn from Microsoft how to plan for training if the results prove that Microsoft is succeeding. Sometimes the solutions to training effectiveness may be as simple as improving pre-existing programs. This can save companies a lot of resources as the problem can be easily fixed.
Therefore, this research was interested to me, and it probably will be to other parties, because it facilitates the re-examination of companies HR strategies.
Using the methods suggested in the dissertation, firms can honestly find out whether they are doing the right thing in HR planning or whether they are simply going through the motions. Unless a certain program is beneficial to an organisation, then one must either look for alternative programs or find ways of improving what the company is already doing.
Literature review
A number of researches in the area of training as a part of Human Resource planning focus on training-needs assessments. They often entail case studies of particular firms or certain industrial sectors. One example was a research carried out by Abdullah (2009).
He wanted to investigate how effectively companies carry out training needs analysis. In order to narrow down his focus to a reasonable sample size, he decided to focus only on manufacturing companies in Malaysia.
In this analysis, the author measured the proportion of firms that carry out needs analysis, and then he dissected the nature of approaches used to assess these needs. In his investigation, the researcher found that the participating Malaysian firms use observational methods to do a needs-analysis. Therefore, training needs analyses were absent in those companies regardless of the nature of their sizes.
These findings have serious implications for personnel in other firms as they illustrate that the effectiveness of training is greatly undermined when people pay little attention to employee and organisational needs. It is likely that such firms will report minimal positive effects after employee training.
Alok (2006) echoes the same sentiments. He found that when firms do not carry out a needs assessment of their employees training needs; in other words, if they do not plan for training, then chances are that the employees will underperform.
If training is limited to the newcomers who are only enlightened about a companys organisational structure, processes and procedures, mission and vision, then chances are that the older employees will feel dissatisfied. This again will result in low outcomes. From the above mentioned articles, it can be stated that one of the effects of poor or no training planning is low productivity and morale.
However, these two papers focused on the negative aspect of HR planning in training. Their concern was on the lack of training. This dissertation will attempt to seal that gap by focusing on a company that plans its training. It will not investigate whether several firms implement this aspect or not; emphasis will be on a firm that is respected for its training planning.
What the dissertation will study are the training outcomes of such a process in the participating firm. Other researchers such as Tooksoon and Mudor (2011) found that poor human resource management practices, such as the lack of job training, leads to poor job satisfaction and high employee turnover.
Most HR planning researches on training are based on Western countries, which have the resources and the capabilities needed to carry out effective training. However, resource constraints in other parts of the world may be severely constrained by the lack of such resources. It is, therefore, insightful to perform an analysis on planning for training in non Western countries such as the United Arab Emirates.
As such, one can say that there is a gap in current literature because most of it is inclined towards the western world (Noe 2005). This proposal will attempt to fill that gap by focusing on a multinational in the United Arab Emirates.
Training has a myriad of effects depending on the calibre of employees that are given special attention. Bhatta (2002) found that several small-sized companies often planned for training among recruits or entry-level employees. Second line or executive leaders did not have the same privilege.
In fact, most of them tend to be happy with such a status quo because it means that they do not have to challenge themselves when working in an organisation. It will be insightful to study the changes that companies undergo when this calibre of employees are not ignored.
One can ascertain whether HR planning for training actually leads to tangible changes in an organisation when senior level employees are considered too. This dissertation will attempt to fill that gap by studying the latter parameters.
It is a common practice for most firms to take their training needs casually. This is often characterised by a haphazard approach towards the entire process. Hill (2004) explains that several companies use such a method because they do not have the right experts to carry out the job. Planning for training and its needs is a complex task that not every member of staff can do.
Furthermore, some companies think of planning for training as a burden to them. They, therefore, wait for emergencies to implement a needs-analysis. This is a classic case of prioritising short term needs over long term objectives. Many organisations tend to fall short because of failing to look at the big picture (Hansen 2003).
Other articles identify high employee turnover as a major challenge that prevents companies from doing training planning. It is understandable for firms to adopt a short time perspective when their employees rarely stay long enough to develop. Alternatively, poor training planning may come from certain structural issues prevalent within an organisation.
Such firms may not have the right human resource policies or plans needed to carry out training and development. They may not have allocated a specific department to carry on with tasks.
These explanations are indicative of another point of focus in HR planning-for-training literature; a diagnosis of the causes of poor training planning. This dissertation will not focus on causes; instead, the major issue will be on a diagnosis of the effects of training planning.
Research methods
The research method will be deductive. I will come up with a research hypothesis on each research objective and then use data to confirm or nullify the hypothesis. Such an approach was chosen because similar topics have been done before. Consequently, one can use literature to establish general expectations from the paper. Furthermore, the method is quite appropriate for a quantitative study as it has a narrower focus.
My research title points to a very specific issue- Hr training planning. For such a specific idea, it is best to use deductive reasoning. Additionally, one should think about how easy it is to quantify data. In my case, results from HR training and planning approaches can be easily quantified through employee or trainer attitude surveys. This research will use a quantitative approach to collect data; it will involve a survey method.
Employee feedback on various aspects of the training process will be sought. Furthermore, the research will also get information from the trainers in Microsoft Gulf FZ LLC for certain parts of the research. Those components of the research objectives that involve training goals will solicit responses from the concerned training personnel.
However, other parts of the research questions such as the effectiveness of training, the ability of trainers to meet the learning needs and identification of the right employees will entail employee-feedback. Carrying out a survey within an organisation of the attitudes or opinions of employees concerning a certain HR strategy can be an effective way of assessing the overall outcomes of training (Ballot & Taymaz 2006).
Data collection will be done through structured questionnaires. This method was preferred to open ended interviews because some employees may have concerns about the repercussions of their responses. They may worry about the traceability of their statements and this may limit their honesty. Questionnaires ensure that all the participants have the same set of questions to choose from, so this protects their privacy.
The questionnaire will not be administered to all members of the organisation as this is a large company. Thereafter, the data will be analysed through a factor analysis. This will allow step by step analyses of the total number of parameters involved in the report. Representative samples will be selected in order to ascertain that every department is effectively represented.
As this dissertation is a case study, its generalisability will be limited. HR personnel must consider the fact that it was done only in one firm before they apply the results in their own organisations. Furthermore, it may be reflective of the culture in Middle Eastern firms or UAE specifically.
Primary or secondary sources
The secondary sources used in this study will include company reports concerning training schedules and training objectives. Some of this information can be found in the company website. It can be deduced from the firms annual reports on training. However, because most of this information is for consumption by the enterprises internal stakeholders, then chances are that it may not all be found on the internet.
I will cooperate with members of the HR team and the training arm of the company in order to get all the necessary information for this study. Issues such as assessment of employee needs are rarely in the public domain, so this research will get it from the trainers themselves.
Primary sources will form a major part of this research. They will entail trainer and employee surveys. Participants will furnish the interviewer with the right information required to establish a clear direction of HR training issues.
It is worth mentioning that the analysis to be carried out in this dissertation will not be effective unless one can get a firm grasp of the topic at hand. It will be essential to carry out a comprehensive literature review on planning of HR training.
I will utilise various academic print and web journals. Some books on HR and reports handed in on the same topic will also contribute towards this analysis. I will also dwell on some books that discuss planning for HR training. The secondary sources will also assist in hypothesis development and identification of effective ways to phrase the questions in the questionnaires.
Gantt Chart
References
Abdullah, H 2009, Training needs assessment and analysis: a case of Malaysian manufacturing firms, European Journal of Scientific Research, vol. 37 no. 3, pp. 351-360.
Alok, D 2006, HR planning, recruitment and deployment: challenges related to recruitment policies, HR policies and practices. Web.
Ballot, G & Taymaz, E 2006, Who benefits from training and R&D, the firm or workers? British Journal of Industrial relations, vol. 4, pp. 473-495.
Bhatta, G 2002, Its the identification stupid: profiling senior public managers for training and development International journal of training and development, vol. 6 no. 2, pp. 99-111.
Freeman, J 1993, Human resources planning- training needs analysis, Management Quarterly, vol.34 no. 3, pp. 45-60.
Hansen, C 2003, Cultural myths in stories about human resource development: analysing the cross-cultural transfer of American models to Germany and Cote dIvoire International Journal of training and development, vol. 7 no. 1, pp. 16-30.
Hill, R 20004, Why HRD in small organisations may have become a neglected field of study, London, Routledge.
Noe, R 2005, Employee training and development, New York, McGrawhill.
Stavou-Costea, E 2005, The challenges of human resource management towards organisational effectiveness Journal of European Industrial training, vol. 29 no. 2, pp 112-134.
Tooksoon, P & Mudor, H 2011, Conceptual framework on the relationship between human resource management practices, job satisfaction and turnover, Economics and Behavioural Studies Journal, vol. 34 no. 2, pp. 41-49.