Category: Human Resources

Introduction

In order to successfully solve the tasks and achieve the goals set out in the concept (doctrine) of the Armed Forces, the proper management of human resources is crucial. In this sense, human resources management is an activity that is a combination of flexible and logically justified application of specific methods and tools from different spheres of the socio-economic specter-economy, law, psychology, military affairs, and others. As a result, the effectiveness of human resource planning as a tool for solving top-level administrative tasks depends on knowledge and skillful application of management and planning methods. Important for the effectiveness (in the positive terms) of human resources planning is the need for the bodies of these services, or part of them, to have actively traversed the whole (or most) hierarchical structure of the military system. This requirement is imposed due to the existence of dynamic diversity in the structure, goals, objectives and methods of achieving them, in a system of the type of armed forces. As a result of the above, it can be concluded that the planning and management of human resources is a complex process containing highly professional and moral responsibilities, which necessitates its detailed analysis and systematization of the optimal tools for its realization.

Human Resources Planning in the Armed Forces. Planning basics

The objective need for planning and forecasting in the field of the Armed Forces is conditioned by a number of factors: the complex social nature of the processes taking place in the Armed Forces as a closed system; dynamic socio-economic relations in the country; complex and constantly changing political relations; technical progress, etc. In a broad sense, planning in the field of aircraft in literary sources is considered both as a process and as an activity, function and activities through which the optimal use of resources is achieved to achieve collective or national security. In the NATO system, the term ‘defense planning’ is used in the context under consideration. This means a set of planned activities and their resource provision for guaranteeing the sovereignty, territorial integrity, principles of democracy, protection of life, population and its property. The analysis of the literature shows that the object of planning is the system of human resources as a whole, as part of the structure of the organization and everything related to the prediction of their future state. The ultimate goal of human resource planning is to build an optimal model of the system in an organization that is as consistent as possible with the requirements for its overall activity. There are different types of human resource planning in the Armed Forces:

• By nature – strategic, operation,al and tactical;
• According to time – current (up to 1 year), short-term (1 to 5 years), medium-term (5-10 years) and long-term (over 10 years);
• Depending on the type of unit – planning of individual units (regiment, brigade, etc.).

The guidance for the service of the Armed Forces Staffs deals with two types of planning – defense planning and operational planning.

• Defense planning – includes activities to identify human resources needs, the quantity and quality of troops, appropriate capabilities, national security, and country defense.
• Operational planning – is the process of realizing, developing and validating resource use plans for crisis management and armed conflict.

The human resources planning function in the Armed Forces includes three main types of activities – labor design, ore analysis and human resource needs planning.

• Designing work – specifying what its nature and content are, what are the requirements for contractors, what are the working conditions, what should motivate the servicemen and bring them satisfaction, and more. The design of labor is reflected in laws, regulations, instructions and other normative documents. It should include the definition of tasks, methods, workplace, working hours, requirements for the organization and requirements for the contractor. All these activities are carried out by HR units.
• Labor analysis – involves collecting information for each position (place, tasks, duties, responsibilities, conditions, requirements) in order to adjust or refine its important parameters. The product of the job analysis is a job description, which consists of two parts – a job description and requirements for the contractor.

1. job description – includes name, location within the organization, content of tasks, responsibilities for people and equipment, interaction with other positions, etc.
2. requirements for the contractor – includes type and level of education, qualification, special training in a specific field, work experience, health status, behavioral skills, etc.

• Human Resource Planning – the third management activity that underlies the entire human resource management activity and its linkage to other activities of the Armed Forces. Considering the tasks it solves, human resources planning is an important, distinct management function

Human resources planning

The human resources planning function in the Armed Forces is a unifying management function. It guarantees the security, stability of the quantitative and qualitative composition of the armed forces. The subject matter of human resources in defense has three important aspects – the planning of the number and structure of human resources (analysis and forecasting), the planning of a way to secure them (the development of strategies, plans, etc.) and the control over the implementation of human resources. plans and projects. The main ultimate goal of human resources planning is to maintain a balance between the needs of the Armed Forces for human resources and the capabilities to be provided for the effectiveness of the Armed Forces and the ability to accomplish their assigned tasks. Human resources planning is related to the design of military work because of the fact that this management activity determines how military work is performed, what its results will be, projects for all work activities and requirements for contractors. The link with the staffing function (recruitment activities) with human resources planning is extremely tight. There have been some cases where staffing has become meaningless due to the lack of clarity on what people should be admitted to, what the sources are, when to do it, and what the balance is between the needs and the ability to recruit people for the armed forces.

Other activities affecting human resource planning are the evaluation and remuneration of military service. They regulate relations and provide for the ‘retention’ of high-quality and valuable squabble resources for the needs of the army. Objective criteria based assessment and appropriate selection of moral and material incentives are a significant factor in stabilizing the armed forces. Therefore, these parameters should be known when planning human resources, which will lead to proper planning in the future.

Phases and stages of planning of human resources in the armed forces

The content and the end result of human resources planning in the armed forces are determined by defense and security policy, by a holistic strategy in the field of building and developing the country’s armed forces. In this context, it is a process of successive stages. They are:

• First stage – needs of analysis and forecasting;
• Second stage – formation of human resources strategy and policy;
• Third stage – development of plans and programs for implementation of human resources policy;
• Fourth stage – implementation, control, and evaluation of plans and programs.

Analysis and planning of human resources

Human resources analysis and planning is the phase in which the status, number, and qualitative composition of the human resources needed by the armed forces should be specified. This phase contains four stages:

• Analysis of the state and trends of human resources development. It includes an analysis of personal resources and an analysis of the external environment. This analysis assesses the adequacy of the actual state of human resources in the armed forces with respect to the desired perspectives. As a result, an organizational and structural analysis of staffing is made and a decision is made on what needs to be done.
• Human resources needs forecasting. It includes an estimate of the size, structure, and requirements of the resources required. In doing so, the top-down, bottom-up and combined approaches are predictive. The most successful is considered to be the third one, which deals with the MO, the types of aircraft and their structures, and as a result of the discussion a general forecast is made. The forecasting methods can be expert estimates, linear analysis, statistical analysis and more.
• Source analysis and forecasting of human resources provisioning capabilities. There are two main sources of analysis – internal and external. The internal sources are the Armed Forces themselves (officers, sergeants, soldiers, etc.) who are developing, upgrading their skills and more. External sources are applicants to military schools, recruits, and candidates for staffing.
• Comparison of human resource needs and capacity to provide them. Under this condition, the options are a three-balance between needs and sources; shortage of human resources and availability of surplus military personnel.

Human Resource Strategy and Policy Formulation

At this stage, activities are carried out by top-ranking political leaders, the Ministry of Defense, Deputy Ministers and others. The HR strategy covers the following areas:

• Development of the military strategic environment;
• Availability of doctrines, concepts and plans for the armed forces;
• Requirements for functional, structural and organizational attitude to the armed forces;
• Specificity of military work;
• Improvement of the necessary personal qualities;
• Guidelines for the development of weapons and military equipment;
• Legal framework for the transition of the service and the type of relationships, etc.

The development of the structure is a lengthy process of analyzing what has happened, defining the development of the Armed Forces, and establishing the human resources requirements for the needs of those forces. In developing the human resource planning strategy, the following should be evaluated and analyzed:

• What kind of armed forces we want and what kind of people we need;
• What are the main areas of development and quality requirements of human resources;
• Assessment of human resources in the current state of the armed forces;
• What are the directions for organizational development and provision of human resources in peacetime and war.

Developing plans and programs for the implementation of human resources policy

The main plans and programs for the implementation of the human resources policy are:

• Human resources needs plan-quantitative and qualitative characteristics of military personnel for a certain period. It should be drawn up in specialties (BOC), military ranks and it should show the current state, the desired state and what the needs are;
• Selection plan – selection activities, such as actions to optimize the procedure;
• Training plan for personnel – servicemen, workers and employees to be trained, organization of courses in accordance with the development model, calculation of the necessary financial resources and others.
• Personnel evaluation plan – setting deadlines and appraisal activities, activities to establish the appraisal system, link between salary and appraisal, etc.

Implementation, control and evaluation of plans and programs

Responsibilities and deadlines for implementation, forms and procedures for monitoring their implementation, as well as criteria for their evaluation should be specified in the development of each individual plan or program.

Conclusion

The Armed Forces system is a system of a particular type, solving socially and morally responsible tasks. Optimal functioning depends first and foremost on the quality of its core component – human resources. It is historically proven and scientifically sound. Moreover, a key moment that determines the accomplishment of the tasks of the armed forces is the process of securing the personnel and the personnel planning of human resources.

From the analysis done in this assignment, it can be concluded that the planning of human resources is a complex and dynamic management process. Therefore, a complex of requirements is imposed on the bodies implementing it:

• To have a high level knowledge of human resource planning theory, which should formulate guidelines, frame planning activities;
• Have knowledge of concepts, plans and activities at all levels of the Armed Forces system, obtained by the subsequent active passage of future personnel bodies through the hierarchical structure of the system;
• To deal with national and international normative documents, which is a prerequisite for the legal conduct of the personnel policy.

Last but not least, as a moral obligation for professionals working with the fate of people, when objectively justified, there is a need for staffing authorities to take a differentiated approach and actively participate in updating generally the rules governing human resources management.

Bibliography

1. Ariss, A. (2014). Global Talent Management, Challenges, Strengths and Opportunities. Springer International Publishing, Switzerland.
2. LeMoyne, J. (2003). How the Army Runs. [ebook] p.Chapter 13: Military Human Resource Management. Available at: https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2003/htar-chapter13.pdf
3. Sofat, P. (2016). Human resource management in the armed forces. Monograph No. 54: Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
4. Taylor, S. and Woodhams, C. (2016). Human resource management. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

The determinants contributed to bank service: a case of HCMC

Abstract

Vietnam joins in the context of international economic integration and the booming industrial revolution 4.0. Technology is an essential factor in all fields. However, human resource management (HRM) of banking activities is a critical factor. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to explore the HRM factors impacting on bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam. The researchers surveyed 850 managers working in commercial banks in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province. Data was collected from December 2018 to November 2019. The researchers applied a simple random technique, tested Cronbach’s Alpha, and had the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which used for Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. The findings of the paper have the HRM factor affecting the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam with a significance level of 0.01.

Keywords: Management, human resource, commercial bank, and service quality.

1 Introduction

The issue of human resource management is of particular importance to an organization. Organization activity effected without human resource management. Human resource management is the cause of success or failure in business operations. The primary goal of any organization is to effectively use human resources to achieve its goals (Al-Daibat, B.F. & Irtaimeh, H, 2012). The question is how to promote the role of the human element for development goals? That set for all organizations and enterprises that including commercial banks. Especially Vietnam has joined in the context of competition and international integration. The vital role of human resources in commercial banks is the following: First of all, human resources are factors that directly participate in the process of strategic planning, setting up plans, building business processes, codes of conduct, which are the foundation. It is an orientation for all activities in commercial banks. Secondly, human resources are the entity that operates the system, controls the technology infrastructure, and execute the plans according to the prescribed process. Human resources are working with government agencies, partners, and customers, interacting with colleagues, controlling the cash flow, and other resources under the management of commercial banks. Thirdly, human resources are the source of new ideas and initiatives to improve the business process, thereby improving system performance, cost savings, and minimizing risks for commercial banks. Fourthly, human resources are the energy to gradually crystallize corporate cultural values, build and preserve the brand and identity of commercial banks. Finally, human resources with the ability to mobilize themselves in combination with the organization’s social resource development policy, continually changing to adapt to new environments, new technologies. In particular, through that fostering of excellent individuals, leading experts in the field of finance. Human resources are the successor to the sustainable development of commercial banks. Based on the mentioned above things, the researchers explore human resource management affecting the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam. This study helps banks’ managers who apply the research results for improving the service quality better in the future.

2 Literature review

2.1 Human resource management (HRM)

Human resource management is an integral part of business administration and is one of the main reasons for the success or failure of business operations (Aldlaigan, A. H. and Francis A. Buttle, 2020). Managers need to understand and implement human resource management to prevent the following issues:

• Hiring the wrong staff.
• Engaging employees to do the wrong job.
• The number of employees is so many.
• The team does not do their best.
• Employees think they did not pay, treated fairly.

If the bank manages well, there will be well-trained, skilled, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic employees who will do their best. Such human resources give commercial banks a more competitive advantage (Aneesh A., Dileeplal J., & Abraham M, 2014). On the other hand, the management style affects the atmosphere and psychology of the organization. This factor affects the psychology of every member and the labor productivity of other members of the organization. Human resource management, therefore, plays a central role in establishing organizations, helping organizations survive and thrive in the marketplace.

2.2 Attracting of human resources (AHR)

Attracting human resources uses specific policies and measures to attract human resources. Mainly it introduces the analysis of positions, plans the supply and demand of human resources for businesses, recruits people, surveys, recruits noticed, selects, hires, and arranges jobs (Bahia, K., Jacques Nantel, 2000). This group focuses on ensuring that there is a sufficient number of employees with the qualifications appropriate for the work of the business and includes activities such as employee planning, job analysis, and recruitment. It is to recruit the right people for the right job; the banks must firstly base on its productions/services, business plans and the current situation of employing employees in the banks to determine which tasks and positions need to recruit more people (Tsoukatos, E. and Evmorfia Mastrojianni, 2010).

A job analysis will tell banks how many more employees banks need to hire and what the requirements are for the candidates. Banks are applying hiring skills such as quizzes and interviews will help businesses choose the best candidate for the job (Cheserek, L. K., Kimwolo, A. K., & Cherop, F, 2015). Therefore, commercial banks have the recruiting function group of activities: forecasting and planning human resources, analyzing jobs, interviewing, quizzing, collecting, storing, and processing information about the human resources of banks.

• Hypothesis H1: Attracting of human resources has a positive impact on the human resource management of commercial banks in Vietnam.
• Hypothesis H2: Attracting of human resources has a positive impact on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam.

2.3 Training and development of human resources (TAD)

It aims to improve skills, knowledge, and new perceptions for employees. Training and development towards are enhancing the value of human resources for commercial banks to increase competitiveness as well as increase adaptability to a changing environment (Cui, Charles Chi, Barbara R. Lewis, and Won Park, 2003). This group focuses on improving the capacity of employees, ensuring that employees for the banks who have the skills and qualifications necessary to complete the assigned work and create favorable conditions for employees to develop and maximum personal capacity (Lau, M.M., Cheung, R., Lam, A.Y. C., & Chu, Y.T, 2013). Training and development of human resources often carry out activities such as vocational guidance, training, practical skills training for workers, fostering and improving skills, updating knowledge and new management methods, new technology, and techniques for managers and professional staff (Hilda Ghaleb Madanat, 2018).

• Hypothesis H3: Training and development of human resources have a positive impact on the human resource management of commercial banks in Vietnam.
• Hypothesis H4: Training and development of human resources have a positive impact on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam.

2.4 Maintaining of human resources (MHR)

It aimed at the effective use of human resources. Maintaining Human resources seeks to maximize the ability of employees to work and, at the same time, create a loyal attachment to the organization. The policies are related to the right encouragement that will contribute to raising morale and enthusiasm for employees (Igaz, A. T., & Ali, A, 2013). It focuses on the maintenance and effective use of human resources in commercial banks. This factor consists of two smaller functions: stimulating, motivating, and maintaining employees, developing good labor relationships in the banks. It is exciting and motivating purposes related to policies and activities to encourage and motivate employees in banks to work enthusiastically, wholeheartedly, and responsibly to complete jobs with quality high (Islam, N., and Md. Borak Ali, 2011).

Therefore, the commercial banks need to build and to manage the payroll system, establishing and applying salary policies, promotions, discipline, bonuses, benefits, allowances, assessing the performance of employees (Talib, F., & Rahman, Z, 2012). Maintaining Human resources is the essential activity of the stimulating function. Labor is relations functions related to businesses to improve the working environment and working relationships such as signing labor contracts, settling complaints, labor disputes, staffing relations. Improve the working environment, health care, insurance, and labor safety.

• Hypothesis H5: Maintaining of human resources has a positive impact on the human resource management of commercial banks in Vietnam.
• Hypothesis H6: Maintaining of human resources has a positive impact on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam.

2.5 Bank service quality (BSQ)

Bank service quality is the satisfaction of customers’ needs while ensuring the safety and efficiency in commercial operations of commercial banks. Bank service quality is an essential factor affecting the existence and development of any commercial bank. Bank service quality has followed: The degree of difference between consumers’ expectations for services and their perceptions of service results. Bank service quality is a measure of the level of service delivered to guests how well the product matches customers’ expectations The creation of a service. Class means consistently meeting customer expectations (Zureikat, K.K, 2017). Bank service quality must necessarily satisfy customer needs and take requests. Customers’ needs are the basis for improving the service quality. If the customer feels that the service does not meet their needs, they will not be satisfied with the quality of service they receive (Rakesh, R, 2012). In a modern business environment, service providers must always address customer needs and try their best to meet those needs.

• Hypothesis H7: Human resource management has a positive impact on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam.

Figure 1 Research model for human resource management impacting on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam

3 Methods of research

The research process for human resource management impacting the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam.

In this study, the research process is using a combination of two research methods: qualitative research and quantitative research following:

• Qualitative research methods used in the preliminary research phase: studying secondary documents and group discussions to build an initial scale.
• Quantitative analysis used in the official research phase: testing scales and information collection techniques to measure human resource management impacting on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam.
• On the other hand, the researchers also had used SPSS 20.0 software to check, analyze, and evaluate data related to the research problem.

Quantitative research: the researchers are using the complete questionnaire to conduct managers’ survey at the commercial banks in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province. Data collected from December 2018 to November 2019. The researchers applied a simple random technique, tested Cronbach’s Alpha, and had the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which used for Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. Then conduct data analysis through SPSS 20.0 software with descriptive statistical tools, evaluate the reliability of the scale with Cronbach’s Alpha, explore factor analysis (EFA), and verify the security. Safety of the level, correlation analysis, multiple linear regression to test research hypotheses, and research models. We can see the details bellowed three 3 phases.

1. Phase 1: The paper used the quality methodology by surveying 40 experts who understand about human resource management to improve the questionnaire. The results interviewed 40 experts who showed that human resource management is impacting on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam.
2. Phase 2: 850 managers are working the commercial banks in Vietnam. There are 19 items and 814 samples processed and Data collected from December 2018 to November 2019 in Dong Nai province and Ho Chi Minh City. It took 25 minutes to finish the survey. The researchers surveyed by hard copy distributed among more than 70.000 managers of the commercial banks in Vietnam.
3. Phase 3: The CFA and model tested, and Structural Equation Modelling analyzed. A research model is considered relevant to market data if Chi-square testing is P-value > 5%; CMIN/df ≤ 2, some cases CMIN/df maybe ≤ 3.0 or < 5.0 and GFI accepted when it is 0.8; RMSEA ≤ 0.08 (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998).

4 Research results

The scale reliability tests for human resource management impacting on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam

Table 1 The scale reliability tests for human resource management impacting on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam

Items

Contents

Cronbach’s Alpha if Item Deleted

AHR1

• Commercial banks have the task of planning human resources, reasonable annual recruitment plans, announcing broad recruitment information on the mass media 0.929

AHR2

• Commercial banks have clear, strict and transparent regulations on labor recruitment 0.957

AHR3

• Recruitment do sincerely, publicly, transparently and clearly 0.954

AHR4

• Employees are recruited to ensure the right positions and perform a job analysis 0.931
• Cronbach’s Alpha for attracting human resources (AHR) 0.957

TAD1

• Commercial banks have a plan to train and foster workers 0.790

TAD2

• Commercial banks organize annual training courses for professional knowledge 0.803

TAD3

• Commercial banks always create favorable conditions for employees to improve their qualifications in the short and long term 0.839

TAD4

• Commercial banks always attach great importance to evaluating post-training results and policies to reward employees for achieving excellent results in their work 0.790
• Cronbach’s Alpha for training and development of human resources (TAD) 0.857

MHR1

• Commercial banks arrange labor following the qualifications of employees 0.933

MHR2

• Commercial banks have a set of standards and a grading scale for labor quality 0.945

MHR3

• Commercial banks adopt policies to respect the talents and skilled workers 0.942

MHR4

• Commercial banks shall promote and appoint based on their professional capacity and work results 0.924
• Cronbach’s Alpha for maintaining human resources (MHR) 0.951

HRM1

• Attracting of human resources has a positive impact on the human resource management of commercial banks in Vietnam 0.930

HRM2

• Training and development of human resources have a positive effect on the human resource management of commercial banks in Vietnam 0.882

HRM3

• Maintaining human resources has a positive impact on the human resource management of commercial banks in Vietnam 0.921
• Cronbach’s Alpha for human resource management (HRM) 0.939

BSQ1

• Attracting of human resources has a positive impact on the bank service quality 0.859

BSQ2

• Training and development of human resources have a positive impact on the bank service quality 0.831

BSQ3

• Maintaining of human resources has a positive effect on the bank service quality 0.881

BSQ4

• human resource management has a positive impact on the bank service quality 0.841
• Cronbach’s Alpha for bank service quality (BSQ) 0.886

(Source: Data processed by SPSS 20.0)

1. Table 1 showed that all of 19 variables surveyed Corrected item-total Correlation greater than 0.3 and Cronbach’s Alpha if Item deleted greater than 0.8, and Cronbach’s Alpha is very reliable. Such observations make it eligible for the survey variables after the testing scale. This result showed that data was suitable and safe for researching.
2. Table 2 KMO and Bartlett’s test for human resource management impacting on the bank service quality of commercial banks in Vietnam

Through the previous results reached by the various researchers, we see the positive impact of the variable of disclosure of human resources on the reputation of the institution as well as on its image, and these results are related to the idea that the image of the institution is adapted through the perceptions of the various stakeholders, In this way, the institution discloses its commitment to its employees, its intention to increase the confidence of the various interest groups, and its efforts to develop efficiency in order to obtain competitive advantages related to its reputation and innovation. Therefore, the disclosure of human resources is a tool to legitimize, in addition to the image of the institution affected by all issues related to investing in human resources and its management.

2. The effect on the final accounts

Accounting disclosure for human resources involves considering spending on investment in human resources (medium and long-term) as a capital expense, and bearing the final accounts with short-term expenses for human resources divided by the type of short-term expense such as wages, the value of paid leave, health treatment, other expenses and also by the centers that benefit from them, such as production centers, marketing services centers, financial services centers, and final accounts are also beared with annual depreciation premiums for investments in long-term and medium-term human resources, divided into beneficiary centers, and According to the type of investment (attracting – choosing – appointing – formal training – directing – on-the-job training – etc), therefore the net profit number in this case will give a true picture of the results of the business of the institution, as a result of considering the cost of recruitment, qualification and development of human resources as capital expenses and thus capitalized, shown on the budget and depreciated over the useful life of human assets.

The effects of disclosure are reflected on both the income and financial position statements because capitalization of investment in human resources leads to a more objective measurement of both the business result and the financial position, this is the opposite of the case when liquidating this investment, as this carries financial periods with a burden of human resource costs, according to the fact that they occur, away from the concept of accrual, which will lead to a defect in the processes of matching revenue with expenditures.

On the other hand, the treatement of human resource as asset provides quantitative indicators more objective for the purposes of evaluating performance in projects with multiple production divisions, such as the value of the return on investment (ROI) – one of the most used tools in this field – affected by the accounting treatment of invested funds in human resources.

Accounting disclosure for human resources by showing investments in human resources in the financial statements of the company of, leads to a correct and fair expression of the financial position of this company, as these investments are treated accountably, the treatment of the asset in the financial statements, where the value of investments in human resources appears under the item of fixed and intangible assets divided according to the period of benefit from them, whether they are long-term or medium-term, distributed according to the production centers that make up the company at historical cost, and detailed according to their own accounts. The depreciation allowance for the value of investments in human resources is shown under the depreciation allocation divided according to the period of utilization of the value of investments in long term or medium term human resources, and distributed according to the production centers of the conpany and detailed by their own accounts.

Also, the disclosure of the value of human assets in the financial position list provides financial analysts with information on a large part of the importance for the benefit of investment decisions, and when this information becomes available, it is possible to derive a set of financial ratios that are not provided by the traditional accounting lists, and from these ratios

We mention (Alghazwi, 2010):

1. The ratio of human assets to total assets =

• The value of human assets
• The value of total assets

This ratio is used as an indicator to measure the degree of employment concentration in the organization, and then to assess the economic effects of high turnover rates in various industries.

1. The ratio of human assets to non-human assets =

• the value of human assets
• The value of non human assets

It represents the extent of the organization’s dependence on or the use of its human resources compared to non-human resources.

1. Ratio of eligible assets=

• The value of highly qualified human assets
• The total value of human assets

It is used as indicator to the scientific skills are concentrated in the organization, and financial analysts use them as an indicator to measure productivity in some industries such as the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries.

In addition, the inclusion of internal financial reports with information on the monetary value of human assets creates great behavioral effects for individuals, affecting their attitudes, tendencies and incentives, and these effects are reflected in management decisions and aspects of their implementation, for example, the asset turnover rate can be used as an indicator to control the movement of assets, It can also be used to control the additional expenses resulting from the rise in this rate, which is represented in the expenses of replacing the workforce, such as training expenses or losses achieved due to the low rates of production, It also provides appropriate information to evaluate alternatives available in many decisions related to the human resources such as employment decisions, rental decisions, and layoffs, and in the formulation and planning of wage policies, and such information provides them with appropriate data for preparing capital planning budget

3. Impact on enterprise management and decision making

The mangement benefits greatly from human resources accounting, as its information is relevant for it and reduces the uncertainty of the directors (Alsaqer Thamer, 2013), the disclosure of investment in human resources contributes to improving the quality of decisions taken by the various internal and external parties related to the activity of the organization, human resources are a major variable in most of the decisions taken by the mangement, and therefore the representation of this variable in a quantitative form will be more beneficial to the mangement than its representation in a descriptive form, since ignoring the disclosure of investment information in human resources has to make short or long-term decisions that are not correct regarding to many issues, such as the impact on programs to reduce human resource costs through reducing the number of human resources working in the organization to achieve immediate benefits represented in Increasing the current profits at the expense of future profits, which may hide substantial losses greater than the achieved reduction, the survey results showed by Pyle & Likert showed that costs arising from replacing human resources range from three to five times the annual salaries paid(Alghaban Thaer& Yaseen, 2007). In addition, the human resource disclosure helps when conducting the re-engineering of the human institution’s resources, where it makes the specialist of the institution aware of the human resources with the skill and expertise to keep them, as it is useful in making the reference comparison, whether at the level of the same institution for different periods or between the institution and other institutions for the same period.

Accounting disclosure of human resources greatly affects the management of the institution and the decisions taken.

It helps in planning, using and controlling these resources, which ultimately leads to achieving the goals of human resources management with the required effectiveness and efficiency.

c) Determinants of accounting disclosure about human resources

Despite its importance and the heightened calls for it, accounting disclosure of human resources suffers from several problems that prevent it, despite the development of many models of measuring human resource costs, but there is a kind of lack of objectivity in measuring the the cost of it that makes the information provided unreliable (Flamholtz, 2002). Human resource metrics are not being subjective, but they are very relevant to real needs for decision makers and investors, which is considering the most important difficulties in the disclosure of information about human resources, given the inconsistency between the information of reliable financial reports that were measured objectively, and those that are appropriate and relevant for decision-making, and the main reason for this is that the generally accepted principles encourages objective, reliable and verifiable measurement, with a view to comparability with respect to institutions, as it is difficult to compare between institutions if the measures are not characterized by objectivity and a large use of estimates, and on the other hand, the traditional accounting reservation made it difficult for investors to compare human capital investment in institutions and the result is a great deficiency in efficiency of capital markets due to lack of information on this aspect.

On the other hand, we find that there are very few studies that specifically examined the determinants of institutions ’disclosure of human resources, as these disclosures provide information about the importance of human resources in the institution’s strategy, which creates many concerns for the management of the human resources. In this context, Foong (2003) mentioned several obstacles to the disclosure of the institution’s human resources, stating that information based on human capital is not something that can be shared externally1, it has provided two important details on the reason that this information cannot be shared externally, and in the following form we summarize these two details.

1. The first of these details is that such information may give an important idea to competitors, which leads to concerns about the disclosure of this information externally 2, some of this information express sources of competitive advantage, and therefore it will not be relevant to include them in external reports, disclosures about the human resources of external parties represent abandonment of sources of competitive advantage, as human resources are important component in acheiveing it .
2. The second detail about the determinants that prevent the disclosure of human resources, is that such the disclosures are likely to be interpreted negatively by external stakeholders such as unions and employees in general, this indicates the possibility that providing information regarding the importance of human capital, and institution employees in some way, may lead to undesirable consequences, as this information may support unions and bargaining workers for better wages, because this information makes employees are more aware of their importance to organizations.

Also, when such information is not disclosed externally, unions and employees may are willing to accept lower wages, because they are still unaware of their importance to the institution.

Understanding and researching these determinants helps policymakers and accounting regulators to formulate international accounting standards that take into account the forces currently hindering disclosures on human resources, which leads to the strengthening of this type of disclosure, and help in issuing international effective accounting standards, which in turn leads to efficient allocation of resources in boosting the economy and the of economic strength.

C. Human Resources Accounting Information System(HRAIS)

As mentioned above, accounting is a system to provide the information that different parties need In particular, investors, lenders, workers, and dealers with the company, human resources represent all workers in the conpany and their different levels of management, the human resources accounting information system is a Pairing between the two information systems of accounting and human resource management.

1. The concept of Human Resources Accounting Information System and its objectives

The human resources accounting information system is considered an information system that was developed to carry out treatments of accounting for human resources, and we will describe in detail below the concept of this system and its components.

• a) The concept of human resource accounting information system

The need for the human resources accounting information system in institutions increases whenever there is a large number of economic operations that require highly trained and efficient skills, the HR Accounting Information System is one of the subsystems within the accounting information system, as it works to provide all historical, current and future information, financial and non-financial, related to human resources, and provide them to all sides of concern to the matter of those resources and in order to achieve the desired goal (Shendakh, 2010).

The HRAIS is caring about all data linked to human resources, by collecting them from its various sources and then operating them according to certain accounting principles and rules according to the extent of the need for the information that can be produced, which is communicated to the bodies that have interests in these resources.

The design of a human resource accounting information system contributes to measuring and analyzing the value of human resources financially, in addition to contributing to planning those resources at the level of the economic unit as well as at the national level, by contributing to the formulation of employment and employment policies and related to organizing migration, wages, promotions and incentives and that is done scientifically.

• b) Human Resources Accounting Information System goals

The Human Resources Accounting Information System is designed to achieve a set of goals (Shendakh,2010):

1. Collecting data on human resources, such as the data of the persons working in the organaiazation, their qualifications, financial grades and responsibilities, the wages paid to them and the costs of training operations and scholarships.
2. Classifying data related to the human resources that work in the comapany, such as scheduling the costs of work force in the company into wages, training costs, test costs, etc.
3. Communicating information related to human resources to internal and external parties of interest to this information in a timely manner and with the required accuracy.
4. The use of the outputs by its users and achieving the desired benefit from it in making various decisions.

2. Human Resource Management / Accounting Information System Integration

An integrated information system is a system whose subsystems complement each other through their work in a coordinated and reciprocal manner so that the frequency of generating information is excluded from more than one sub-system, and this leads to a reduction in the costs of producing the information necessary for the various entities, as well as reducing the effort and time required for it (Rasheed, 2007).

due to the complexity and multiplicity of relations between both the accounting information system and the management information system, as we mentioned before, there are researchers and writers who think that the accounting information system is a subsystem within the management information system, and on the contrary, there are those who see it as an independent system in itself and that it represents the basic and important pillar for other information systems in the economic unit. Regardless of these differences, which focus on the conceptual aspect in a significant way, what concerns us in this regard is that the institution can be seen as representing an integrated information system that includes both the accounting information system with all its subsidiary systems – including the human resource accounting information system, the management information system – including the human resources management information system, considering that the integrated system is the system whose sub-systems complement each other, there is a need to integrate both the accounting information system and the management information system, and by dropping to their sub-systems we find that there is a need for integration between human resources accounting information system as a sub-system of accounting information system in the economic unit, and the system of human resources management information, as a sub-system within the Management Information System in the institution.

So we can say that the integration of the human resources accounting information system and the human resources management information system will refer to ‘the system that works through the integration of both the accounting information system and the management information system through coordination between their work and the exchange of data and information that arises from each of them according to a rule consolidated data to reduce the costs of producing targeted information, as well as reduce the time and effort needed for it ‘(Shendakh, 2010). Also, HRMIS can be a more effective system if it is integrated with the human resource accounting information system, which leads to achieve the overall goal of economic unity with regard to human resources, through the following (Shendakh, 2010) :

1. HRAIS can express a financial quantitative picture of all the data and information that the human resources information system can provide so that it has a greater explanatory ability when it is used decision-makersers, whether inside or outside the economic unit.
2. The production of a lot of information about human resources through the accounting information system directly related to human resources, will contribute to reducing the effort that can be made in preparing the necessary data and information, in addition to reducing the costs that can be spent in collecting and analyzing data, and then producing information of them, with the possibility of providing them in a timely manner without waiting for them to be obtained by the Human Resources Management Information System first, which leads to reduced duplication in the work of the two systems.

Introduction

Refers to the Cambridge dictionary, human resources manager is a person who in charge of the department that deals with the employment, training, support, records of a company’s employees. In order to complete this assignment of the subject “English for management”, we are managed to conduct an interview regarding one of the business professions. This report aims to investigate the English language use in the workplace. In additional, we need to find out the job requirement and qualification, main duties and responsibilities as well as language needs of being a human resource manager.

In this assignment, we had found Mr Gopalan a/l Raman who work as a Human Resources Manager at Sony EMCS Sdn. Bhd. as our target interviewee. Sony EMCS Sdn. Bhd. plays an important role in the design and manufacture of LCD TVs, Blu-ray players and other home entertainment and sound products. The company owns and operates R&D Centers and Manufacturing Plants in Selangor and Penang.

Mr Gopalan a/l Saman as a human resource manager, he is responsible to direct the administrative functions of the HR department in motivating, attracting and retaining the most qualified talent. During the interview, he explained to us about the language used, content, specific words used in every situation during work. Besides, he also told us about the challenges he met and the ways he used to solve all the problems he met.

Last but not least, we have learned a lot of being a human resource manager from this interview. We able to know more clearly about the job requirement and also the challenges will be met in this job.

Job Requirements and Qualifications

The Job requirements of a Humana Resources manager:

• Knowledge and experience in employment law, compensation, organizational planning, recruitment, organization development, employee relations, safety, employee engagement, and employee development.
• Better written and spoken communication skills.
• Experience in the administration of benefits and compensation programs and other Human Resources recognition and engagement programs and processes.
• Evidence of the ability to practice and coach organization managers in the practice of a high level of confidentiality.
• Organizational management skills.

For a person to become a Human Resources manager, he/she needs to have the following qualification:

• Applicant must possess minimum of a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Human Resources, Business, or Organization Development
• Applicant must have minimum of 5 years of experience in Human Resources positions.
• Applicant needs to have Interpersonal relationship building and employee coaching skills.

Language Needs

A Human Resources needs to able to use their language to do the following:

• To communicate with others in international level company
• To cooperate or partnership with oversea companies
• To educate the freshman that enter the company that has no experience

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Mr. Gopalan’s main duty is to ensuring that the overall administration, coordination, and evaluation of human resources plans and programs are realized. Being a Human Resources Managers is responsibilities for overseeing the development, application, and evaluation of Human Resource strategies, programs, and policies. As a Human Resource Department leader, he primary focus is to coordinate and supervise all of the Human Resource Department operations from recruitment, training, and development activities, to performance management and labour relations.

Besides, he needs to improve current organizational practices by analyzing their team’s observations and then making recommendations to increase employees’ productivity, ensuring all human resources are being used as efficiently as possible. These professionals also work closely with the company’s executives, building strong partnerships with business leaders in order to have a thorough understanding of their given obligations, as well as the organization’s culture.

Other than that, a Human resources manager also consult with top executives regarding the organization’s strategic planning and talent management issues. They identify ways to maximize the value of the organization’s employees and ensure that they are used as efficiently as possible. For example, Mr. Gopalan might assess worker productivity and recommend changes to the organization’s structure to help the company to meet budgetary goals.

As a Human Resource manager are responsibilities for the oversight of all employees in the Human Resource department, which includes performance management of the employees. For example, he would be able to make recommendations to an organization’s leadership based on analyses of worker productivity. Their value is often realized as they identify ways to maximize the value of the organization’s employees and ensure all human resources are being utilized as efficiently as possible.

Last but not least, some human resources managers oversee all aspects of an organization’s human resources department, including the compensation and benefits program and the training and development program. In many larger organizations, these programs are directed by specialized managers, such as compensation and benefits managers and training and development managers.

Language Needs for Human Resources Manager

A Human Resources manager always mentions about English Language is very important for the position. English language is a international language although it does not always speak by people around the word. Undeniable that, English language is also a common language for Malaysian as Malaysia is a multicultural and multiracial country. So, it is understandable by everyone in the working place even though there are different races such as Chinese, Malay, Indian and so on. As Mr Gopal said, English language is important for any position because English is more to communication. Communication between the employees can be effective as they have the common understanding in the language and could make the job easier.

But other languages such as Japanese, French, German and so on also common used by the manager for effective communication. Although English is the communication media but if one goes to Japan, France or other countries, Human Resources Manager will use the language as the country is using. Subsequently, Human Resources Managers also can use English language for writing reports, recruitment and interview purpose.

• Data Analysis
• Context
• Position
• Target Situation
• Language Needs
• Example of Language Element
• Target Audience

SONY EMCS

• Human Resources Manager
• Conflict between the subordinates

Call both parties and listen to them and then make the wise decision to solve the conflict of the subordinates.

Can you tell me what the conflict between you and him/her?

SONY employee

SONY EMCS

Human Resources Manager

Language used for communicating and writing in the company

Used the language that all the employee understands such as paper work done with English language and speak English between subordinates to prevent misunderstanding.

If the colleagues do not understand the paper work or facing problem in the communicating, then use as simple sentences or words to communicate with them.

SONY employee

SONY EMCS

Human Resources Manager

Words that often use in work to motivate employee

Good communication skills required good English language to motivate employee to boost the working performance.

Come on guys, get it done as soon as possible to get the bonuses and rewards.

SONY employee

Discussion and Interpretation

As the interviewee, have mentioned, the requirement and qualification to be a Human Resources manager depends on 2 category and group. One is the experiences and one is some of the people that already have the education qualification to start with. Undeniable that, Human Resources manager needs work experiences to handling the managerial position. According to Miguel, Kevin, &Mark (2011), work experience and job performance is having a positive relationship. So that means with a higher work experience with leads to higher job performance. Next, people that have only the education qualification to start with and didn’t have any work experience will find it difficult to work but it is qualified to get the job.

Next, interviewer also stated that communication skills are very important and must be handle as a Human Resources Manager This is because with the communication skills you can easy understand and listen to the person what he or she is talking about. Based on the research, much of employer seek for new graduates with analytical thinking skill, foreign language skill, computer skill and so on (Cicekli,2016). Listening skills is very important for manager. For example, manager needs to hear from their staff what they telling and cannot make conclusion immediately. This is because once the manager listen and completed, then only they can access the content of the communication.

As interviewee said, the tough decision that he faced is who to be promoted to be assistant manager and recruitment. As all the employees are contributing, it is hard to promote who will be the assistant manager. According to Rosen (1982) the deciding factor for the position of any individual in hierarchy is his talent, higher the level of talent in any individual higher will be his position in the hierarchy. This means that who is talented will get higher job position and salaries.

Moreover, interviewee said that conflict could happen. This is because every human is being different, so conflict does happen. It is important for a manager to handle and justify what type of conflict. Rather than impose your influence, hierarchy or rank ,respect the unique differences in people and learn to see things from differing points of view so you can better understand how to avoid conflict in the future (Llopis ,2014).For example ,call the staff who involve in the conflict listen to them then make judgement that the staff must accept mutually.

Apart from that, interviewee stated that nobody is perfect. He said that sometime the work start at 8.30 am but he come around 9.00 am. Even though he known that is wrong but he delivers the result and performance because he said that manager have the advantage. According to Sanelli (2018), policies are important because they address pertinent issues, such as what constitutes acceptable behaviour by employees. In our opinion, staff should follow the policies of the company in order the company can perform well.

Conclusion

In this assignment, we have found that English language plays an important role in the workplace. It is important for the employees to develop English speaking skills in their workplace. This is because English is the international language and also the most often used language in the work field. Majority of the companies use English as their communication tools. For example, when we are having an interview, the interviewee will use English to interview us instead of using others languages. Besides, Mr Gopalan a/l Raman did mentioned that English is the language used in every of the company no matter in what country. As a summary, we able to know the importance of English language and we have learned that we need to keep improving our English in order to make our working life easier.

References

1. Cicekli. E. (2016). Graduate skills requirements for effective performance in the banking
2. sector. Business: Theory and Practice. 17(4).
3. Heathfield, S. (2019, June 25). the balance career. Retrieved from Sample Human Resources Manager Job Description: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/sample-human-resources-manager-job-description-1919125
4. Llopis, G. (2014, November 28). Forbes. Retrieved from 4 Ways Leaders Effectively Manage Employee Conflict: https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/11/28/4-ways-leaders-effectively-manage-employee-conflict/#331dfa8b5e15
5. Miguel A. Q., J. Kevin Ford, & Mark S. T. (2001). The relationship between work experience and job performance: A conceptual and meta-analytic review. United States air force research laboratory. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/ 235014459_The_Relationship_Between_Work_Experience_and_Job_Performance_A _Conceptual_and_Meta-Analytic_Review
6. Rosen, J. M. (1982). Guessing: Reading as a prediction. San Francisco: CA: Innovative Learning Strategies.
7. Sanelli, A. (2018, November 20). convergent. Retrieved from The Importance of Policy & Procedure: https://www.convercent.com/blog/the-importance-of-policy-procedure

The concept of human resources recruitment process

The recruitment process is crucial to every business endeavors. This will determine the kind of people who will fill in the right job so he must be the best person to do the job descriptions based from the person qualifications. Almost all organizations said that people are their important assets therefore, they have to do the right thing in hiring them that truly they are the best persons found for the job. Hence, any organization has to use the organized selection process to finding the right employee from the pool of candidates. In most cases, interview is done in a rushed or even in a panic mode especially when the best employee has quits his job. When you need an employee, plan carefully that his potentials come out or surface during the selection and hiring process (Superstone, 2010).

The strategy for hiring employees includes plan that eventually includes the strategy, budget, proven selection system and the documentation and measuring system. Organization should begin the recruitment process with strategy. This should be considered in the mission statement for all the organization hiring endeavors. This should be a timing issue in the strategy like comparing the strategy when you want urgent replacement of employees versus hiring employees for additional jobs. Included in the strategy is the resource allocation and the plan who will do the hiring process like the HR Manager of the company and in case there is none, would you resort to a third-party hiring or do you require professional services (Vareta, 2001). In case recruitment is done in the organization, the manager should know who will be accountable for the outcome of the selection and recruitment process. It is of vital importance that during interview the compensation issues should be taken into considerations. Most candidates would like to listen to this issue because the compensation package or the fringe benefits attract the candidates for the job post. In some cases, the compensation package determines the immediate hiring of the candidate (Recruitment Process, 2012).

Steps in the Recruitment Process

1) Selection of Candidates:

Generally, there are various ways organizations select their employees. They are internal sourcing, external sourcing and third party sourcing.

a) Internal Sourcing

Internal sourcing is getting or taking in employees within the organization to fill in the vacant position. There are many advantages for internal resourcing. Basically, it is less costly because the newly promoted or transferred employees need little training and orientation for the new assignment or post. Recruiting employees may either be upward promotion or lateral re-assignment. This kind of resourcing also saves the company from advertising expenses and there are no more efforts on the side of the company for background check.

b) External Sourcing

External sourcing of employees means hiring candidates coming from outside the organization. Company on this regard uses recruitment tools that vary especially with the use of multi-media. Other tools include job boards, print and broadcast media, trade publication and the recent ones are the use of electronics like the social media, internet and other e-advertisements. The tools provide fast and reliable information dissemination and facilitate the recruitment process. Through external sourcing, candidates may have the experience needed for the present job and the new hired employees that do not have previous experiences can offer fresh ideas learned in the university. In addition, external sourcing is mostly used when there are no qualified candidates within the organization. It is advisable however that a certain company should know exactly what does he need especially enumerating the job descriptions of the present vacant post.

c) Third Party Sourcing

This type of recruiting the employees involved third party to find the right candidate. Usually, it is the agency that looks for candidates with the best qualification to fill in the vacant post. The agency has many tools to attract candidates like giving offers of improved salary or compensation to a more flexible benefit of package offering. Meanwhile, the company pays a reasonable amount to the agency once the company coming from a particular agency takes the candidate.

2) Interviewing Employees

Interviewing or pre-selection is a preliminary activity of the company in finding a candidate. Here, the company HR reviews the job candidate resume and conduct preliminary interview through the candidate own application letter and curriculum vitae and in some cases, the candidate resume. Doing the interview meanwhile to the candidate does not mean only looking for the best information from the candidate resume but it should be followed with questions that require answers that are needed in a real-life scenario. Questions should be situational that require the candidate to apply them in the case that he is in real situation in the workplace. The interviewer meanwhile, has to take down important key points from the answers of the candidate and evaluate them according to their practicability and applicability once the situations are used in the real situation.

Meanwhile, after the interview, the interviewer has to compare his notes and the important points taken from the candidate resume finding out if there points missed. The interviewer has to select candidates based on their competence in answering the questions. Interviewer should have to conclude that candidate who does not ask questions are either shy and or not interested with the business.

3) Orientation and Induction

The orientation and induction process in many organizations are conducted simultaneously. In this phase of the recruitment and selection method, the new employee is introducing to the company vision, mission and goals. In addition, it explained to new employee the culture of the organization/company and what the company expects from its employees. Depending on the position of the new employee, sometimes orientation and induction runs for one week. This is one way of the organization to acclimatize its new employee of the culture of the organization so that he is well adjusted already when he assumes his role or new task.

Methodology and Implementation

There are many tools in collecting data or information from the fields. In this report, in order to determine the Human Resources Recruitment Processes at Bin Ham Group of Companies, the researcher used observation and interview with one of the HR specialists where the research happened to work as intern student. In addition, the researcher produced small portion of related literature as regards the chosen topic.

For eight (8) weeks internship training, the researcher was assigned different tasks related to the responsibilities of the Human Resources Department. On the first week, the student was introduce to the different operational activities of the company but most orientations and inductions focused on the functions and roles of HR in the recruitment and selection of employees in case the company needs new staff or employee. Additionally, the intern was coached on how choose the best CV’s the met the requirements. They were short-listed and communications were sent to them for the scheduled interview. In fact, what is happening inside the organization especially at the HR department is an example of real-life’s world situation within an organization. Furthermore, the intern was mentored how screen the resume’s or CVs of applicants for short-listing. In many cases, the intern was present during the series of interviews. Here, the intern knew that when the applicant did not make it in the interview, the company still sent him/her regret letter explaining why he did not make it. In case the candidate made it to the final interview, a congratulatory is sent to him/her with an offer letter. Other roles of the intern include organizing in database the names of all applicants and their valuable information for future reference.

During the internship however, I observed one process of recruitment that I believed is very traditional and it needs tremendous improvement (findings though will be discussed in the next section of this report). However, I used triangulation as well to validate my findings. This I did after producing a small section of related literature in this report, observation of the HR recruitment processes at the HR department of the company and finally, an interview with one of the HR specialists who happened to be my supervisor/mentor as intern (Ms. Mariam Al Bloushi, HR Specialist, Bin Ham Group of Companies, Abu Dhabi).

Specifically, my observation focused on the steps/actual process of human resources selection processes and methods by HR department at Bin Ham Group of Companies. Meanwhile, my few questions to Ms. Mariam focused generally on their recruitment processes. In the last section of this paper, I will analyze the observations I made, the responses of Ms. Mariam and I will compare them with my literature review.

In collecting the information however, my constraint was time because I observed that all the people were busy each day and there is little time for me to ask question. This is one reason why I did mostly observation in collecting my information and data. Fortunately, on my last day, my supervisor asked me if I have some confusion in mind or questions to ask before I end my internship. It was an opportunity for me to ask her questions and she thought I was still asking questions related to my internship. To analyze my questions, they sufficed my confusion regarding my internship and at the same time, it answered my question, which is worth including in my internship report.

Results, evaluation and recommendation

The previous literature says that in the selection of candidates, the first step of the recruitment process, the company resorts to internal sourcing, external sourcing or third party sourcing. In the case of Bin Ham Group, the applicants knew the vacant posts through the newspapers. Interested applicants sent them directly to the office of Sheikh Bin Ham who together with his people selects the potential candidates. Those chosen or shortlisted applicants will be sent to HR department for final selection. At the HR of the company, the shortlisted applicants undergo now series of interview, which is normal to all companies here and probably abroad. Interviews last for three times until the final candidate is selected. Once hired, the employee and the company signed the contracts and agreed with other psychological contracts. Basic to all organization, on the first week of the employee, he will undergo induction and orientation where he will be introduced to the operations and activities of the organization. In addition, the candidate will be have to familiarize himself with the culture of the organization.

Evaluation based on observation

Based from the intern observation, in recruitment of Bin Ham Group employees, the traditional method is still used. We call this also as external sourcing where candidates to vacant post/s are sourced outside of the organization. Bin Ham used newspaper or traditional media to attract applicants. There are cases though that promotion comes from within the organization, which according to literature is an example of external sourcing. With my eight (8) weeks stay at the company, I did not know of any single case where applicants where looked or searched from recruitment agency or literature calls it ‘third party sourcing’. The recruitment process of Bin Ham used traditional method, which means that it does not maximize the utilization of technology such as the use of social media or new media for recruitment. The company is not still heavily reliant to modern way of recruitment especially with the support of new media. The researcher believes thought that there is nothing wrong with using the traditional media like the newspaper in sourcing human resources. However, social media has the broadest scope and it can reach all the four nooks of the world. It implies that had Bin Ham used the new media, it could have sourced the best and most qualified applicant whose qualifications best match the job descriptions. Newspapers may have limited scope and may have been read by aspirants nearby. With the use of internet, the company could have attracted applicants from all over the world. Also, internal sourcing for the company is the best method for recruitment because it will reduce the recruitment costs, training and education of the newly hired employee. With internal sourcing it would be sort of motivation to promote people within the organization.

• Evaluation based interview (an interview transcription with Ms. Mariam Al Bloushi, HR Specialist – Bin Ham Group of Companies)

HR Recruitment and Selection Process

• Bin Ham recruitment and selection process

“Bin Ham believes that recruitment and selection process is crucial in staffing employees because it would determine the kinds of people that provide services on behalf of the organization. Most of the hired candidates at Bin Ham are professionals and the organization prepared professional criteria for choosing candidates…”

• Benefits of online recruitment to the organization

Online recruitment is not practiced at Bin Ham because it is costly according to the office of Sheikh Bin Ham. Meaning, online recruitment has worldwide coverage electronically in applying for new positions, which they deemed, fit for their qualifications and experience, yet when candidate is sourced abroad, the company will have numerous expenses in coming here (plane, ticket, interview cost, etc).

• How vacant posts are announced

Vacant posts are announced in leading newspapers in the country like GulfNews, 7Days, The National, etc. Applicants send resumes/CVs to address written in the ads. The address is the office of Sheikh Bin Ham, owner and founder of the said company.

The observation of the intern/researcher has been validated by the response of Ms. Mariam Al Bloushi. Truly, the organization utilized newspapers mostly to source applicants for vacant posts because accordingly, the company found it costly to resort to outsourcing. Also, Bin Ham found internet sourcing as costly as well.

Finally, it is my observation that the HR department of Bin Ham does not function absolutely since it does not have the role to screen the applicants because it just waited for people screened already by the office of Sheikh Bin Ham. For me, there is nothing wrong with this because Sheikh Bin Ham is the owner and Chairman hence he believes he is accountable for what he is doing. He does not answer for anybody else once his decisions are found not sound.

Recommendation

Today, the maximum utilization of technology becomes a competitive advantage of an organization but not to the belief of Bin Ham Group of Companies. Although, Bin Ham is a productive company and profitable company, yet the researcher believes that it would be progressive had it employ the utilization of technology especially in its recruitment method. For instance, applications to any possible posts can be sourced through internet because it reached the widest scope. Bin Ham strategic situation is its full utilization of the advancement of Information Technology to create competitive advantage even in the selection of best human resources that have the best fit with the job descriptions. Additionally, Bin Ham should believe in the capacity of its HR department manage effectively the human resources. When these recommendations are carried, definitely the company can recruit the best people, which would increase the overall productivity of the organization. This is in turn will increase Bin Ham Group of Companies revenues and subsequently profitability.

Inception

Let me introduce you first with “the concept of recruitment process”? Recruitment means selecting the right applicant for filling up the vacancies in an association. Applicants with the required skills and attitude, which are required for achieving the aims of an association. This process undergoes an organized procedure starting from sourcing the resources to managing interviews and finally selecting the right applicants.

This is managed by the HR department of the company. To increase the efficiency of hiring, it is suggested that the HR department of a company follows the five best practices:

1. Recruitment planning
2. Recruitment strategy
3. Searching the right applicants
4. Screening / Shortlisting
5. Evaluation and Control

These five practices will be discussed in detail further. These practices also ensure stability in the recruitment process. After the introduction let’s grab a coffee and begin with the first practice.

1. Recruitment planning

It is the first practice of the recruitment process, where the vacancies are analyzed and outlined. It includes the job description, experience, qualifications and skills required for the job. An organized plan is necessary to attract applicants having good potential from a group of applicants. The right applicant should be qualified, experienced with the capability to take the responsibilities required to achieve the aims of the company. It can be further broken down into categories:

• Identify vacancies
• Job analysis
• Job functions
• Job specification
• Job evaluation
• Identify vacancies

The journey of this planning is started by identifying the vacancies. Different departments of an association convey to the HR department about:

• Vacancies to be filled
• Number of vacancies
• Roles to perform
• Qualification required
• Experience required

These parameters should be studied before starting a recruitment process. Walking on the path of recruitment plan is not easy my friends. The other task is to “Job Analysis”.

Job Analysis

Let’s say if I am an HR of a company then the steps that I will follow to do a job analysis for a particular job will be:

• Collection of job information
• Accuracy required in checking the job information
• Building job description
• Exploring the skills required for the job

Talking in simple terms, my role here wants to know what a job demands and what potential the applicant must have. After analyzing this the next step is to build job description and job specification.

Job description

I know you have gone through many articles in a newspaper or on the internet regarding a job. In those articles the first thing that we come across the scope of job, responsibilities and the positioning of the job in the company. These things are together known as a job description.

• Two questions arise here:
• Why this job description is built?
• To describe the career path.
• Future growth of working standards.
• Promotions and transfers in an association.

What does a job description contain?

• Title of the job
• Location
• Summary
• Roles
• Work culture
• Job specification

Job Specification

Another thing that is derived from Job Analysis is “Job Specification”. Let’s say I am an HR of a well-established association which has its branches in different cities. Now I am given the role of Job specification then my first step is to prepare a list of all the vacancies in the association and it’s different locations. The second step is to build information on the following specifications of the applicant whom HR is going to hire:

• Physical
• Mental
• Behavioral
• Emotional

It also contains the information on:

• Skills
• Work responsibilities
• Qualification
• Experiences
• Planning of career
• Job Evaluation

Let’s understand this with a real-life example. Suppose you are recently graduated and you have so many different skills required for different jobs. Now for a better career, you will rank your skills in such a way that will land you in a better career. In the same way, companies do job rankings and job classifications to determine which job can provide how much pay. This is nothing but job evaluation.

2. Recruitment Strategy

Coming on to the second stage of our journey our aim is to plan a strategy for hiring the resources known as “recruitment strategy”.

The points that are considered while preparing the recruitment strategy are:

• Make or buy employees i.e give training to existing employees or hire new employees.
• Types of recruitment
• Geographical area
• Recruitment sources

After considering these points let’s say the HR team does a brainstorming session to build a recruitment strategy that involves the following points:

• Setting up a board team
• Analyzing HR strategy
• Collection of available data
• Analyzing the data

After these tasks, the third stage of the journey starts where an HR picks up the magnifying glass and search for the right applicant.

3. Searching for the right applicant

This is a world of marketing. Nowadays the association uses advertising strategies to search for a potential applicant. This search involves two sources, internal sources, and external sources.

• Internal sources
• This involves recruiting employees within an association through:
• Promotions
• Transfers
• Ex-employees
• Job posting through advertisements
• Referrals from existing employees
• Previous applications
• External sources

This involves recruiting employees outside an association through:

• Direct Recruitment
• Employment Exchanges
• Employment Agencies
• Advertisements
• Campus placement

After conducting interviews the hard task for an HR starts. Suppose you are a judge in a painting competition and you have to select three best paintings out of hundred. Same is the pressure on HR. He has to shortlist right applicants from all the interviewed applicants. Here comes the next stage of the journey.

4. Screening / Shortlisting

Screening is an important part of the recruitment process that helps in disqualifying the irrelevant applicants, which were received through sourcing. The screening process of recruitment is broken down into the following categories:

• Reviewing of Resumes and Cover Letters
• While reviewing the resumes, an HR must keep the following points in mind:
• Reason for change of job
• Duration with each association
• Gaps in employment
• Job-hopping-Index
• Lack of career growth
• Conducting Telephonic or Video Interview

This screening process has two outcomes: it helps in verifying the applicants, whether they are active and available. It also tells about the applicant’s attitude, ability to answer questions, and fluency in communication.

• Identifying the top applicants
• This is the final step of screening.
• This process has the following outcomes −
• Shortlisting some resumes for review by the managers.
• Providing recommendations to the manager.
• Helps the managers on coming to a decision in hiring the right applicant.
• Fasten your seat belts folks. We are about to reach the destination after passing through the last stage of the journey.

5. Evaluation and Control

For any association, it is necessary to timely evaluate the cost for recruitment, because it will help them to increase the performance of recruitment and also to check a regular watch on money spent for this process. The evaluated cost in the recruitment process includes:

• Salaries to the Recruiters
• Advertisements cost and consultancy fees.
• Recruitment overheads costs.
• Cost for recruiting potential applicant for the final selection process.

Time spent by the HR department and management in preparing job description, job specifications, and conducting interviews. Congratulations on reaching the destination and attaining a new level of awesomeness.

The way a recruiter executes roles and responsibilities affects the overall outcome an organization will have. The purpose of this paper is to introduce and deepen the understanding of human resources recruitment and selection and explain the different roles and responsibilities within recruitment in an organization. This paper also will explain the changes organizations have made to move forward from the pandemic and the different processes recruiters have adopted.

Roles and Responsibilities in Recruitment

The primary role of a recruiter is to create a pool of qualified candidates for a specific job (Recruiter.com, n.d.-a). They are also responsible for coordinating the recruitment strategy for an entire company and filling positions within the organization they work for (Recruiter.com, n.d.-a). Working closely with managers, executives, and the human resources team, they create a plan that determines what kind of candidates are needed and which methods to use to reach them (Recruiter.com, n.d.-a). They are also in charge of creating and posting job descriptions, continually source potential candidates and keeping tabs on how the recruiting plan is doing (Recruiter.com, n.d.-a).

A talent sourcer is a professional used for “highly specialized talent searches” and within an organization’s hiring and talent acquisition strategy (Recruiter.com, n.d.-b). For example, an organization could be looking for an individual with a background in data science who can interpret specific biological data (Recruiter.com, n.d.-b). A talent sourcer also needs to have a comprehensive understanding of the job requirements and the industry to source qualified candidates (Recruiter.com, n.d.-b). This knowledge will help them determine the best keywords and backgrounds when screening candidates (Recruiter.com, n.d.-b).

A job design specialist is mainly in charge of coordinating and performing duties associated with job analysis, preparing job descriptions, and receiving approval from management (Five Continents Technical & Industrial Services Est, 2018). They need to analyze jobs within the organization using various job analysis methods, which must be well documented (Catano et al., 2019, p. 152). Job design specialists must also be trained in various techniques to ensure they collect objective information during their job analysis (Catano et al., 2019, p. 152).

Recruiting supervisors monitor activities within the employment sector of human resources. Looking into the hiring practices and processes, an individual in this position can oversee current recruitment methods to shift the process in a better direction if needed (Betterteam, 2020). These individuals also ensure that current recruitment practices align with the organization’s needs by determining the success of these policies and filling the job positions.

In regard to colleagues of the future employee, when hiring new candidates, they need to have the skills to complete the job and fit into the work culture. An organization needs to work together to be successful, especially within its human resources department. Colleagues play a big part in an employee’s ethical behavior because they influence how an individual can complete a job. When hiring a candidate, an organization needs to consider this applicant’s ethics, take into account the societal ethics, and the way this can fit into the professional ethics within the company (McFarlin, 2019).

Hiring managers work in coordination with the Human Resources department, and their job is to hire the most qualified individuals (SmartRecruiters, n.d). Hiring managers are responsible for a wide range of tasks (SmartRecruiters, n.d). These tasks consist of: identifying the staffing requirement for a new or open position, crafting an accurate and detailed job description to attract the best candidates, defining roles and responsibilities for the hiring team, setting expectations for the interview process, and other positions that the organization may need (SmartRecruiters, n.d). If the hiring manager concludes that none of the applicants are sufficient, they notify the recruiting team to compile another applicant pool (SmartRecruiters, n.d). They also serve an important role as the mediator between applicants during contract negotiations (SmartRecruiters, n.d).

Sources such as SMEs or “subject matter experts” are used by trained professional job analysts to provide a better analysis of candidates versus self-reports and survey instruments used by employees currently holding the position (Catano et al., 2019, 4-b). SMEs are most accurate when data from “job incumbents” (employees currently holding the position) and their immediate supervisor is collected by those most knowledgeable about a job and how it is performed (Catano et al., 2019, 4-1b).

Three Benefits of Using Internal Recruitment Methods

As per Rashimi (2010), the most useful internal recruitment methods are Promotion, Transfer, and Cross-functional movement. In most internal hiring cases, employee seniority and skill are of considerable importance. With the following opportunities, “employees are promised employment for a lifetime; employees become more engaged in the organization; their performance is elevated” (Dlugos, 2020). It comes down to cutting down costs associated with hiring new employees.

1- Promotions

As per Rashmi “current employees who exhibit potential in their current roles are promoted” (Rashmi, 2010). They tend to be motivated, better performers, and are more engaged in the tasks. Dlugos mentions that “Employee’s seniority is essential when the employee needs to be promoted to an available position” (Dlugos, 2020).

2- Transfer

Fica mentions that “you may not have seen employee performance in specific tasks, but you know what the employee’s work is about” (Fica T., April 14, 2020). And Rashmi adds that “potential employees are transferred location wise” (Rashmi, 2010). Fica adds that “current employees have a greater understanding of their work and work environment” (Fica, 2018, p. 11). Dlugos argues that “firms and employees have more knowledge of each other; it enables employees to enter jobs that complement their knowledge, skills, and abilities” (Dlugos, 2020).

3- Cross-functional movement

Employees are located around as per their desire; management places them as per their expertise in different positions to form more functional teams. Recent studies suggest that existing employees are moved around; 70% of new organizations’ posts are filled through the internal talent market (Dlugos, 2020).

Roles and Responsibilities for Succession Planning

Succession planning is a recruitment method often used to fill higher positions in a company with someone who already works there (Welsh, 2019). By doing so, a business can have an individual that is already knowledgeable about how the company operates, as well as the organizational culture (Rogers, 2019). For this to be successful, the right individual must be selected. The role of the recruiter is to essentially “develop and implement recruiting plans and strategies designed to fulfill company staffing needs” (HumanResourcesEDU.org, n.d.). The recruiter would fulfill the need for a successor by having high potential candidates hired and screened from the beginning and have a career plan for those roles in the future.

The roles of recruiters include, but are not limited to: discovery and recognition of high potential candidates, screening, interviewing and reference and background checking (HumanResourcesEDU.org, n.d.). Candidate screening, according to HumanResourcesEDU.org (n.d.), is the process of determining which resumes have candidates that meet the minimum qualifications for the job listing. The candidates that meet the requirements and show high potential to move up in the company then move on to initial interviewing, which the recruiter is responsible for. The initial interview process is “used to narrow down the number of potential candidates who will be interviewed by the hiring manager” (HumanResourcesEDU.org, n.d.). If the hiring manager and/or other executive-level personnel participating in the interview express interest in hiring the candidate, the recruiter will often be the one to coordinate the references and background checks.

In succession planning, the predecessor plays a role in preparing the successor, who is already a member of the company, in matters such as “historical, operational, technical and cultural knowledge sharing” (Rogers, 2019). This allows the successor to integrate and make the best decisions in the future with context from the past from the predecessor and anticipate challenges. Executive-level peers also help determine which candidate will succeed as the successor must be able to collaborate and work with them. The success of the new executive depends on the way this new team works and how well the different skill sets, leadership styles, and pre-existing dynamics mix together (Rogers, 2019). To help determine the compatibility of candidates, 95% of executive leaders took part in regular reviews, while 99% participated in succession planning meetings (Welsh, 2019).

Discussion and Conclusion

The key take-away that could benefit organizations whose recruitment methods are still primarily grounded in the use of job postings and reviewing applications is to put a validation study in place (Catano et al., 2019, 2-4a). These studies help align if the company’s recruitment strategies are being administered properly and are correctly chosen and used by the organization. There are multiple different validation strategies that can be used, and it is commonly the HR’s job to properly pick the right one for their company that best aligns with the business’ strategy (Catano et al., 2019, 2-4a).

Abstract

The human resources are the most essential and readily available resources. The most important part of progress of any organisation and eventually, any country, depends upon the people involved in the development of the economy. Day by day, globalisation covers new areas of life and calls for the continuous learning and adjusting to new cultural dimensions, also known as, Pop Culture. Managers are expected to display adaptation to new ways of working, cultural intelligence and to posses the ability to hook in to the latest cultural trends in the market with respect to the young human resources. This paper aims at understanding the changing cultural definitions and the importance of understanding the impact of these cross-cultural variations on the young human resources in India. Such cultural aspects need due attention at both national & industry levels to initiate suitable adjustments in (Human Resources) HR policies.

Keywords: pop culture, cross-culture, young human resources, recent trends, HR implications

Prologue

In the macro sense, human resources of the country include all potential human beings, largely consisting of young population. The countries could achieve considerable development with the help of only human resources, e.g. Japan, has proven that the study of human resources should be multi-dimensional. It should include the several aspects affecting human life and ultimately human resources. Cross culture has a great impact on human development in the recent period. Technological development, especially in the field of communication has compelled HR practitioners to redesign and reshape HR policies.

In today’s world, media and internet has brought everything at the fingertips of humanity. Whatever happens in one part of the world tends to affect its counterparts in the other parts of the world too. The needs and requirements pertaining to human resources at micro-level organisational level are ever changing as today’s organization is predominantly dynamic as it poses large opportunities and challenges to the corporate practitioners and policy makers. Understanding such dynamism is very crucial to pursue the organizational strategic objectives. There have been researches in literature to explore the effect of different cultures on various human resource development programmes of an organization. Researchers claim that understanding the ever-changing cultures help to provide opportunity and broad structure for the development of human resources’ technical and behavioural skills in an organization. This makes sense because good behaviour is driven by ethical values. The cultural effects on masses may affect individuals, either to change his work behaviour positively or negatively. An organization can guide the conduct of its employees by embedding ethical values in its culture. However, organizational excellences could be varied since cultural traits could be a source of competitive advantage.

The young generation of human resources tend to flock towards the current trends in the market. This could be in the form of latest fashion, music, sports team or even the latest endorsement done by a popular social media influencer. If one regards culture as a way of defining oneself (an extremely individualist approach), a culture needs to attract the interest of people (potential members) and to persuade them to invest a part of themselves in it. People like to feel a part of a group and to understand their cultural identity within that group, which tends to happen naturally in a small, somewhat isolated community. Mass culture, however, lets people define themselves in relation to everybody else in mass society at the level of a city, a country, an international community (such as a wide-spread language, a former colonial empire, a religion) or even of a whole planet. Pop culture finds its expression in the mass circulation of items from areas such as fashion, music, sport and film. The world of pop culture had a particular influence on art from the early 1960s, through Pop Art.

The world is changing rapidly and the level of organizations is also changing due to technological advancements which have affected their human resource developments programmes. Moreover, organizations differ in their cultural content in terms of the relative ordering of beliefs, values and assumptions. Organizational culture adapts overtime to cope with the dynamic changes and meet the varying demands of the organization in its quest for gaining competitive advantage in all its activities. Therefore, a supportive culture is considered as a motivational instrument which promotes the organization to perform smoothly and ensure success in all its endeavours. Thus, the aim of this paper is to examine importance of understanding the impact of these cross-cultural variations on the young human resources in India.

Relevance of pop culture, cross-culture and human resource development (HRD)

Pop culture is an ideology, developed attitude, style of behaviour, which are firmly embedded in a person through mass media to which young population is more influenced by. Popular culture (pop culture) is broader than cross-culture. The impact of mass media resources like internet, changing fashion, sports, international music, shows, affects the original traditional culture of the community/ population, which gives birth to a different cross-culture.

The impact of pop culture and cross-culture needs to be taken care in the Human Resource Development (HRD) process, wherein an individual is considered as a resource and efforts are initiated to make them more resourceful/ productive.

Literature review

With the available resources like library, internet, articles, books and so on, the study of cross-culture has been undertaken by different scholars. Most of the studies in this respect are concerned with the theoretical aspects of pop culture.

In ‘Understanding pop culture’ (2010), Media scholar John Fiske, with Henry Jenkins, explains what pop culture is. The researchers have studied the impact of cultural breakthroughs like jeans, shopping malls, tabloid newspapers, and TV game shows, which remains relevant even in the coming decades. They state that traditional culture becomes different than when it becomes popular (pop). They mainly state that pop culture becomes more embedded in the youth since it is chosen by them and not imposed on the by them society. The acceptability of pop culture is more since it reflects the popular tastes and concerns of the society at large.

In ‘Cultural Theory and Popular Culture’ (2010) John Storey has highlighted the relevance of contemporary popular culture. He states that popular culture is always defined, implicitly or explicitly, in contrast to other conceptual categories: folk culture, mass culture, dominant culture, working-class culture. The author says that various dominant cultural factors like television fiction, pop songs, novels, feature films always present a particular image of the world and has to be taken care of by the current researchers.

In the article ‘Pop culture: An Overview’, Tim Delaney presents an idea of pop culture being homogenous. He says that urbanization is a key ingredient in the formation of popular culture. Fuelled by technological growth, popular culture was greatly impacted by the emerging forms of mass media throughout the twentieth century. Films, broadcast radio and television all had a profound influence on culture. So, urbanization, globalisation, the mass media and the continuous growth in technology since the late 1900s, have all been significant factors in the formation of popular culture. These continue to be factors shaping pop culture today.

Research gap

Every HR department should make sincere efforts to understand the human resources, and accordingly, to make the HR policies. The literature review reveals that the pop culture has a definite impact on human behaviour, that too because of external means of media. But it is not considered from the point of view of human resources. The HR department, at micro level and the government at macro level should take care of such influential factors affecting young population. There is a need to develop a mechanism to exploit pop culture as an opportunity to explore the potentials among individuals. The present paper will definitely fill the gap of studying pop culture aspects in the context of HRD.

Objectives of the study

The objectives of this study are as follows:

1. To know pop culture and cross-culture.
2. To assess the impact of pop culture on youth.
3. To evaluate the approach of youth towards pop cultural aspects.
4. To examine the impact of pop culture on the HR in the context of future period.
5. To offer useful suggestions in the light of findings.

Research methodology

The information needed to proceed in this research paper has been collected through primary data via a survey among youth between the ages of 16 and 19, using a closed ended questionnaire. The secondary data was collected through books, periodicals, journals and other published material related to cross cultural impact and pop culture. A simple random sampling method is used for sample collection.

Cross cultural aspects: pop culture afffecting young human resources in india

For a better understanding of latest cross-cultural aspects, the different cultural features influencing youth either favourably or unfavourably , are analysed as under:

1. Social media: Because of the advent of social media, the world has come closer; bringing with it, the exposure to different facades. Due to social media, the youth of today has accessibility to the latest trends and fashions in the world today. Indian youngsters today, know what works in the corporate world all around the globe. Right from clothing to overall attitude towards work and work culture is greatly affected due to social media. It has been observed that the social media impact has changed the youth in different dimensions, in different cases. Because of the anonymity that social media has offered, the youth has started to become averse to show emotions at the same time they have also become more emotionally connected to their social media presence. This has also affected the manners, respect, loyalty, attachments as so on. The HR department will have to consider this pop cultural aspect in framing their policies in future.
2. Social media currency: Because of the omnipresent social media, the youth of today has become more inclined towards their virtual presence rather than their real presence. Their self-worth has become attached to the number of likes and comments they get on social media. The social media currency concept has hence been coined. Social media currency is a non-value currency which gives you virtual satisfaction. This may keep the large number of youngsters away from understanding the reality and truth. The business schools and HR department has a challenging task to train the children in these conditions.
3. Sports: Different sports teams have an almost cult-like following of youth. They develop a sense of belongingness and team spirit because of this. Today’s youth are highly competitive in nature and tend to be more enthusiastic and adaptable towards any change. They are more prone to being cut throat as a result of a competitive streak due to sports and fandoms. Having a mixed team like IPL has made today’s youth more open and accepting towards different cultures. Even online gaming has helped today’s youth to be more trained in strategizing and being more enterprising than ever. This may result in an opportunity for HR professionals to streamline the youth energy by converting them into strategic human resources.
4. Media options and fashion: Along with newspapers, radio and television, youngsters today are exposed to international music and shows, international standards, clothes, food, fashion choices etc. This has led to them being conspicuous in their daily life. The desire to be seen and noticed leads them towards being more and more productive and creative in their work. Nowadays everything has become digitized. Due to digitization, the workplace has become much more accessible and the young human resources are capable of taking complete advantage of the same. The influences that they have easily impact their aspirations and can ultimately lead them towards becoming better employees. This may explore an opportunity to the HR people to adopt and utilise the available potential in human resources.
5. Openness: Because the youth in India today are exposed to a greater spectrum of people and situations, they are more acceptable towards often ignored or tabooed topics. They are open to working with people who could otherwise be ostracized. They easily stand up for the social pariahs like AIDS patients, members of LGBTQ community, mentally or physically disabled etc. These young human resources prove to be a very valuable asset for an organisation for they believe in inclusivity and preference for talent rather than any other attributes.

Business, human resources and cross-cultural impact

The above-mentioned aspects of pop culture have been developing a different blend of cultural impact on the present youth, which will be the resourceful manpower for the business units. This is a need of the 21st century, as businesses started becoming more and more adept at understanding the requirements of the time. It usually bends towards the needs and wants of the human resources that are the part of an organisation. As the future human resources, youngsters become a key aspect of the focus of an organisation. Business is not only affected by the whims and fancies of youngsters as buyers and consumers, but they also play a vital role in defining the working grounds of an organisation. These young minds are the future human resources for an organisation. As far as cross cultural factors are concerned, the youth of today is heavily influenced by not just the Indian western culture but also the popular cultures prevalent all over the world.

The predominance of pop culture in today’s society definitely has some effect. In particular, it affects the way youngsters think of themselves, how they associate with others, and how they express characteristics of their maturation. It influences how teens define themselves.

An important characteristic of every youngster’s maturation is their self-definition. Self-definition can be defined as the way you see yourself. For teens, that image is influenced to a large extent by personal choices, which are, in turn, influenced by the images and associations teens glean from pop culture on a daily basis. Although researchers disagree on exactly the extent of these influences – for example, not every youngster that listens to gangster rap self-defines as a gangster – researchers agree that pop culture has some impact on youngsters’ self-definition. Pop culture can provide benchmarks with which youngsters pin their self-definition. In this way, they see themselves take characteristics from the various celebrities and stimuli they see in pop culture. Lastly, self-definition can be intrinsically tied into self-esteem and confidence, two critical components of a healthy disposition throughout maturation and into adulthood. As human factor is one of the important components, the HR department shall have not only dynamic but also a role of an alert trainer or employer. They should focus on young population from different angles which influences youth. Such as, teens wanting to imitate rock stars. Most, if not all, pop culture icons extend their visibility beyond culture and into brands, which they sell via advertisements or products carrying their name. Youngsters who see, for example, Jay-Z wearing his Rocawear label may then be influenced to wear that label. Beyond fostering a certain degree of commercialism, these brands have associations in and of themselves that tie into self-definition or social groups within a youngster’s life. Often, celebrity brands tie into an acceptance level among youngsters, such that some youngsters feel they must own a particular brand in order to be accepted. While not necessarily harmful, these sentiments can distract youngsters from key aspects of their development.

The impact of pop culture could be summed up as an overall change in attitude of youth towards jobs and that could lead to challenging situations in the organisation. They may have a different perspective towards handling matters and have a more vibrant organisational presence.

Data analysis

In respect of pop culture aspects, a survey was conducted for a random sample of 50 respondents of the age group from 16 years to 19 years, using a close ended questionnaire, to analyse the tendency of Indian youth towards the cross cultural influences focusing on pop cultural elements as well as the pop culture effects on them.

• Fig 1. Important trait for youngsters

Fig 1 reveals that the maximum respondents consider adaptability as an important trait. Traditionally, the leadership was the required quality. This can be seen as an influence of openness coming out of pop culture, which makes the young population more acceptable (adaptable) towards the changing circumstances.

• Fig 2. Openness towards tabooed topics

Fig 2 explains that the maximum respondents strongly believe in working with members of the LGBTQ community. Traditionally, the LGBTQ community was considered an unmentionable topic. People were not that open towards working with social pariahs like LGBTQ members, AIDS patients etc. However, it can be now seen that today’s youngsters are more open towards being supportive towards these people. This can be seen as an influence of acceptability and normalisation that has come out of the exposure to pop culture.

• Fig 3. Social media presence

Fig 3 shows that the maximum respondents are on 4 social media platforms. Previously, social media presence was low to none. However, now that social media has become omnipresent, their influence cannot be denied. As the youngsters get more and more on different social media platforms, they tend to measure their self-worth by their social media currency. Their external locus of control becomes a critical point of consideration.

• Fig 4. Influence of social media influencers

Fig 4 indicates that the youth have a moderate approach towards the social media influencers. It can be clearly seen that social media influencers tend to impact the youngsters to a large extent. The brands endorsed by these influencers, the recommendations given by them and the ideologies propagated by them influence the behaviour of the youth.

• Fig. 5. Sports teams followed

Fig 5 confirms that the youth today follow many sports teams. This develops in them a sense of camaraderie and belongingness. Youngsters tend to be more attached to their fellow fans and develop togetherness and like mindedness which helps them to be a better team player in organisations.

• Fig 6. Preference of a mixed team over a national team

Fig 6. Strengthens the idea of the youth being more inclined towards a mixed team as opposed to a national team. This shows that the youngsters today are more accepting of various cultures rather than sticking to the traditional culture. They believe in team work and giving results together rather than being a one trick pony alone. They believe in creating a team out of the available talent pool rather than the norms and structure dictated by the management.

• Fig 7. Openness towards others’ opinions

A question was asked about the importance of having a group of friends with a variety of styles/ music/ political opinions. Fig 7. Validates the openness of today’s youth. It shows clearly, the way youngsters accept the ideas and views of people from different walks of life. Youngsters not only tend to give an open armed acceptance to various ideologies, but also are flexible in their thought processes. They can be moulded into the preferable work methodologies and thought processes and can prove to be great assets for an organisation.

• Fig 8. Competitiveness in youngsters

Fig 8. Corroborates with the idea that having competition is better than being an only player. Youth of today have an inherent competitive streak in them. They work better under pressure. Due to pop culture, youngsters face competition from various directions. They have developed themselves in such a way that makes them ready for the dog eat dog world. This competitiveness can give leverage for young individuals in the market for getting better opportunities and the HR department of an organisation needs to be ready for intermittent job hopping these youngsters may do.

• Fig 9. Factors defining professionalism for youth

Fig 9. Provides an interesting insight into the working of young minds. Traditionally, where crisp clothing and manners defined a person’s identity, other factors like adaptability was ignored to some extent. Nowadays, the youngsters not only just depend upon the traditional ideas of professionalism, but also are influenced largely by their clothing styles, attitudes and overall personality of people. They, undoubtedly, believe in talent as their major point of attraction. The HR department of an organisation needs to be aware of the changing dynamics of the human resources.

• Fig 10. Following current trends

Fig 10. Documents the agreement of youth in following the current trends in the market. It shows that youngsters of today are highly influenced by the changing trends in the fashion, music and ideas. They concept of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) has developed because of the recent developments in the world. Organisations have to be in tune with these developments and make sure that they are up to the mark.

• Fig 11. Decision making of youth

Fig. 11 interestingly depicts the impact of traditions on today’s youth. Even though the youngsters are more inclined towards pop culture, the influence of traditions cannot be denied. Cultural factors like traditions, upbringing, values and notions developed due to family and other social impactors become influencers for their day to day decisions. Other factors like social media, latest trends and following their idols also are impactful in certain proportions.

• Fig 12. Motivating factors

In this it appears that the youngsters are more attached to social media. As we know, there are favourable as well as unfavourable effects of media on all strata of population. The more attraction towards media among youngsters has been observed in figure 12 mentioned above. It is fascinating to see that the motivating factors for youngsters are equally distributed

Discussion and conclusion

The present scenario of pop culture reveals that the youth population is under great influence. The government at macro level and HR professionals at micro level are required to notice the influential factors affecting young human resources.in this study, it is observed that:

1. The overall impact of young human resources following pop culture results into the changing sentiments of the current human resources too. There could be a conflict between the ideologies of the current and future workforce in an organisation for which the human resources department must be ready.
2. The readiness with which the youngsters share everything on social media and get influenced easily by the latest trends is encouraging yet disturbing. The adverse impact of the same could be easily seen too. There is a constant fear of disappointment and failures. We have seen from time to time, the effects of these factors, like depression and low self esteem. Due to constant peer pressure and competition, youngsters could get distracted and involved in unpleasant activities.
3. In the youth of today, adaptability and acceptance has been observed as an important trait than the traditional leadership traits.
4. The youngsters are more open minded and accepting towards the often-ignored strata of the society. They are comfortable discussing the topics that could be offensive for traditionalists and have no qualms about mingling with the part of the society that is shunned from having a normal life. They accept different opinions and views in a more open armed manner than extremists who might believe that traditional values are more important than embracing change.
5. The impact of social media and social media influencers was clearly noticeable in the analysis done. Today’s young population is highly attracted towards the virtual world like a moth to a flame. The effects of having such an obsessive amount of social media presence has affected the self-worth of youngsters and in turn has made the HR department of every organisation rethink its motivational strategies for the upcoming human resources.
6. Youngsters nowadays believe in team work and a mixed pool of talent as opposed to following the rules laid down by the organisation or the society as a whole. This slightly rebellious nature of youngsters, if tapped correctly, can be used an advantage for the organisation.
7. Previously when the uniqueness of a person was based on his ideologies, now youngsters are more inclined towards following the current trends, fashion and fads prevalent in the world. They believe that along with clothing, talent, attitude and adaptability are equally operative factors for gauging a person. The HR of any organisation needs to be highly alert about these subtle, but constant changes happening in the human resources all around the world.
8. The young talent has a lot of potential to become an asset for an organisation. Their influencing factors are not just pop culture to a large extent, but also traditional factors governing their daily decisions. Organisations will have to consider this interesting mix of value systems while trying to manage their human resources.

In conclusion, it can be said that even though India has been a huge propagator of its culture, the impact of pop culture and its influence cannot be denied. The youth of today is the working human resources of tomorrow. Indian organisations have to be more accepting and open minded about the different cross-cultural impacts that is about to influence a large work force.

Limitations & scope of future research

This study is based on primary data as well as secondary data. The primary data is collected through random sampling with 50 samples only. Whereas, the secondary data was made available through books, magazines, and internet. There are limitations to the measurement criteria to evaluate an exact impact of pop culture. The researchers, practitioners, and academicians may undertake a detailed study of different mix cultural and pop cultural aspects impacting human resources. Similarly, HRD ministry and business schools shall have ample scope to undertake research in the study of media effects on youth.

REFERENCES

1. JOHN STOREY, CULTURAL THEORY AND POPULAR CULTURE:AN INTRODUCTION, fifth edition, published by Pearson Longman
2. K. ASHWATHAPPA, HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT, TATA MCGRAW HILLS PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED, NEW DELHI
3. MELANIE DENEAU, MANAGING MULTICULTURAL TEAMS,
4. https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/p/Popular_culture.htm
5. https://philosophynow.org/issues/64/Pop_Culture_An_Overview
6. https://simplicable.com/new/culture

Internal planning factors relate to what is happening inside the organization and how the organization is changing to cope with the new methods of working or demand made on it. It is also a way of considering new skills that will be needed in the future and those that existing staff already have.

Furthermore, there are three internal planning factors. The first factor is called organizational needs and under this a business-like M&S, their HR department would need to be aware of the changes that happens with their business as they would need to adapt to the changes. For instance, if M&S are expanding, they would be opening new stores therefore, the HR department would not be hiring employees. Whereas, if customers are getting their products online the HR department would not hire many people therefore, the HR department needs to know when its suitable for the business to increase or reduce as the hiring process is long in which takes time and money.

Secondly, workforce profile is the description and analysis of the current staff that would work for M&S. To determine the workforce profiles the following questions will be asked like: ‘What skills do the staff have and how are they performing?’, ‘How many are about to retire?’, ‘How many are about to retire?’, ‘What is the rate of staff turnover?’, i.e. ‘How often and why do staff leave?’, ‘Is there a balance of full-time, part-time staff, temporary and casual staff?’. This information is available on sector and area basis. To effectively use the information businesses, need to consider their future needs and those of their competitors in order to attract the right people. This means they sometimes offer extra benefits in order to attract the right staff.

Thirdly, skills requirement assesses the skills of the current workforce is an essential part of human resource planning, as it enables M&S to build up a profile for training, experience and qualification that the employees already have. As the nature and the work changing so does the skills requirements that are needed. The organization must measure the skills level of its workplace and plan for any recruitment to maintain its competitiveness.

External planning factors influence the business from outside its direct control, the factors include the type and availability of employees to work for the organization and the amount of money that is needed to pay them.

The role of the HR manager must follow the needs of the changing organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable, resilient, quick to change directions, and customer centred. The primary function of human resources today is to ensure the effective and efficient use of human talent to accomplish an organization goal and objectives. Using human resource as a competitive advantage, means analyzing what factors are necessary for the organization long term success.

Supply of labor is necessary to consider where will labor come from, as if M&S HR plan shows that labor will be recruited from outside of the organization, then accurate labor market information such as employment or unemployment trends, pay rates and the availability of skilled workers will be needed. Where particular skills are in short supply relative to demand then the prices of wages will be high. It takes time to train suitable staff.

Government policy has a big influence on the external factors affecting human resource planning, as there is skills shortage in the UK therefore, the government introduced apprenticeship to help young people to have skills. For the reason of the introduction of policies for education, work and training has implications for the number of potential employees available, as well as their ability and skill levels when they leave education.

All of the policies for human resource management should be in accordance with legal necessities. Firms should behave in the frame of regulations which are the implementation of law or putting it into practice. This affects human resource management that require human resources to ensure the company is in compliance. Regulations can influence how a company goes about hiring, training, compensating and even disciplining its workers.

Labor market competition is when a business plans its workforce needs for the future, so do other businesses within the same industry. As organizations not only compete for a share of the market, they also compete for labor. There may not be enough skilled employees for each business, so M&S would have to offer more money to attract the right staff, however, you need to manage your funds well to make a profit.

M&S will need an effective HR planning to succeed, as this is a continuous procedure used to align the priorities and needs of the organization with its workforce to make sure it can meet its legislative, monitoring and service requirements and organizational objectives.

HR planning processes assists companies to recruit, keep and optimize the employment of the personnel needed to match the organization’s objectives and to meet the changes in the external environment. HR planning assist the organization to manage its staff strategically. The planning assist to direct the actions of HR department, in order to estimate future staffing needs. This procedure helps M&S to be able to increase the productivity of each department the right number of people with the desirable skills, experience and competencies in the right jobs at the right time and costs.

On the other hand, poor planning can be associated with hiring lack of highly skilled talented individuals which leads to produce terrible performance as an outcome for M&S success rate amongst it’s competitors. In return, it can cause implications such as a fall down in profit margin and company shares dropping down in the stock market as a result of poor planning to hire staff. Also, poor planning leads to employee turnover especially if M&S experiences it’s KPI being terrible and lacks staff management and poor training. This would lead to implications for M&S in taking action of firing those underperforming employees and this causes staff shortage for the company in the long term. Also, mean that the company is going to have to spend more money for recruitment, hiring and training of new staff.

HR planning allows the business to have staff available in case employees leave and ensures the business will continue to run correctly even if people leave for holiday, M&S would be able to find people to cover the time of the other employer’s absence. Furthermore, the available workforce is becoming more diversely based; increasingly composed of new people; women, entering or re-entering the workforce; and members of ethnic minorities. Although these individuals bring many skills and abilities with them, the ability to assess and keep track of skills and qualifications; as well as, progress on skills refocusing and upgrading programs, will be an increasingly important HRMS (human resource management system) function. This is important as it will enable M&S to reflect the diversity of its customer base.

For example, it is useful to have employees from different nationalities and backgrounds to communicate with customers that do not speak English as a first language.

Additionally, the HR process allows M&S to recruit multicultural employees in order to create a diversified working environment hence, this environment allows M&S to interact and make business deals with other company’s overseas. By having a diversified HR process will also allow M&S to make business deals with countries worldwide through maintaining cultural connection.

Human resources planning allows companies to plan ahead so they can maintain a steady supply of skilled employees. Plus, this avoids M&S having to deal with skill shortages in key areas like data base specialist, as this is caused by a greater demand for information processing along with the decrease in labor force. Therefore, it makes it increasingly important for M&S to have a flexible HR plan, in order to meet short-term staffing challenges while adapting to changing conditions in the business environment over the longer term.

The constitutes that effective HR planning are getting goals to accomplish, routinely measuring yearly performance through the feedback gathered from employee’s performance. M&S customers are the main stakeholders that contribute to the company’s revenue, so they are involved with the company and information like their Plan A report. Therefore, it is important that staff members of M&S reflect the business in a proficient way when dealing with customers, as it is crucial that consumers are satisfied and that they are able to have a memorable experience with M&S. This would demonstrate the professional qualities competencies and attitudes through an ability to clearly articulate the role and value of human resources in meeting the needs of their customers.

This blog aims to explore implications of the gig economy on Human Resource Management as a whole, critically analysing and evaluating if the two can co-exist in the future or will HRM have to adapt and evolve into something more complex than it already is to ensure its effectiveness in the future. Although the “gig economy” lacks a concrete definition, it is a term used to define the future economy one that “comprises of intermediary platform firms that connect organisations and consumers with on-demand gig (freelance) workers in industries such as transportation (eg. Uber), cleaning (eg. Helpling), programming (eg. Clickworker) etc. This emerging gig economy showcases a trend to recast employment contracts into being more sporadic (on demand) and episodic rather than indeterminate. This poses a challenge to HR managers of the future as the gig economy eradicates a very fundamental keystone of HRM – that of an identifiable employee-employer relationship within the confines of an organisation. As the gig economy gains momentum especially following the CoronaVirus outbreak, HR managers will struggle to manage a talent pool across permanent and portfolio (gig) workers as well as failing to cope with the technological needs required to be put in place to ensure automation of leaving and joining processes in order to eliminate any physical interactions in recruiting as well as day to day operations.

While the gig economy poses an immediate and imminent threat to traditional Human Resource Management techniques, this part of the blog will stress upon the co-existence of HRM in the gig economy wherby despite the absence of an identifiable employee-employer relationship intermediary platforms must seek to design and implement creative HR solutions by leveraging workplace flexibility and advances in robotics and cognitive technology i.e factors we associate with the “Future Workplace”. If so, HR managers simply need to account for these factors while planning future HRM strategies and not view the gig economy as an outright threat to Human Resource Management.

In order to manage and integrate the future influx of gig workers, intermediary platforms will have to integrate more sophisticated HRM activities like, forecasting gig worker requirements to match present and future demand and devise online rating systems where gig workers can be assessed for performance management purposes. As for right now, HR departments should seek to evolve and prepare themselves for the gig economy as its impact on the future of business is inevitable and can’t be ignored. Human Resource Management must focus on embracing the future workplace by foremost integration of flexibility within workplaces as “workplace flexibility is no longer a “nice-to-have” or a “perk.” Instead, it’s a make-or-break part of job searches for most applicants” HR departments have to offer flexible time, work-from-home or telecommuting opportunities if they want to woo top candidates. Secondly, organizations cannot turn a blind eye towards transitioning into a gig economy and must introspect by identifying internal roles that could feasibly adapt to the gig economy with the primary focus being on vacant roles or soon to be vacant roles but also fulfilled roles as it allows organisations to gage an understanding of whether a role can be eliminated or freelanced should the candidate decide to leave. Lastly, as far as employee retention is concerned HR departments must foster collaboration by introducing gig workers to multiple points of contact or perhaps involving them in department emails to make them feel part of a team therby shattering silos and driving commitment. This is an important aspect of HRM in the gig economy as building relationships with freelancers is essential as it allows the HR departments to come up with a “go-to” freelancer shortlist for future use but also is an important aspect of retaining gig workers because contractually they have no obligation to be loyal towards any particular organisation as they are likely to be employed by a few.

Research shows evidence that a gig-worker outshines a permanent employee when it comes to the engagement index comprising of satisfaction, pride and advocacy associated with a project however they are also less committed making them unlikely to be team workers, share information freely, reach decisions by consensus and resolve conflict arising during work. Since HRM focuses primarily on the internal requirements of an organisation, HR managers cannot help but accept the cost effectiveness of gig workers and must reimagine the future of its own function including the possibility that most HR workers will become freelancing contractors themselves. HR professionals must embrace the new economy and step up as experts, architects and the orchestrators of a “boundary-less global workplace.”