Human Resource Managements Role As A Strategic Partner

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Table of Contents

Increasing Role of Human Resources Management
HRM In Terms Of Organization Restructuring
Recruitment And Retention
Training And Development
Employee Performance Management
Regulatory Compliance
Compensations And Benefits.
The Most Effective HRM Strategies
Reference List

Increasing Role of Human Resources Management

The XXI century is a century of globalized world undergoing rapid changes and technological development. In such conditions organizations have to seek for different ways of maintaining their competitiveness. In the 1990s people started paying significant attention to the human resources and many organizations understood that Human Resources Management can be a very powerful contributor into the organization successful development.

Since then a lot of HRM strategies are being successfully implemented, some of them are recruitment and retention, training and development, employee performance management, regulatory compliance, compensation and benefits.

HRM In Terms Of Organization Restructuring

Many enterprises and firms face the necessity to operate in a less-cost mode now, due to different factors including globalization and technology development (Mathis and Jackson, 2007, p.19). A lot of firms try to improve their condition by restructuring the firm, usually by minimizing labor costs and closing facilities, though these measures proved to be quite unsuccessful. Thus, human resources management (HRM) is gaining more popularity becoming a strategic business partner.

Sims (2007) stated that it is often described as having a seat at the table, and contributing to the strategic directions and success of the organization (Sims, 2007, p. 31). There are many examples of HRM contributing to the organization success which can be illustrated by BASF (reduced labor costs up to 30%), or Wegmans Food Markets (reduced product costs but maintained employees benefits) (Sims, 2007, p. 31).

Recruitment And Retention

There are several powerful tools of HRM, which contribute to the organization success, for instance, recruitment and retention. These are primary issues of HRM, since recruitment and retention form the staff of any organization. Recruitment should be implemented in a very thoughtful, precise and professional way.

Especially during the organization restructuring it is essential to employ talented professionals who are able to bring the major possible profit for the organization. It goes without saying that professionals should be kept in the staff, and this can be achieved not only by extra payments.

For instance, there is a lot of evidence that employees and potential employees are more interested in developmental opportunities, especially structured ones (Torrington et al., 2005, p.362). However, it is necessary to admit that recruitment and retention strategies are often underestimated in terms of HRM especially during organization restructuring.

Training And Development

Another very important strategy of HRM deals with employees training and development. Bratton and Gold (2001) suggest that they are significant if not the pivotal components of HRM (Bratton & Gold, 2001, p.274). Of course, these strategies need some extra funds, which are quite restricted during restructuring.

However, Bratton and Gold (2001) point out that, first of all, it will be helpful to replace words training costs with investment, this can enable people involved to take a longer-term view, particularly with respect to the outcomes of these strategies (Bratton & Gold, 2001, p.274).

Moreover, technology development, globalization and never stopping changes have brought into forefront the necessity to keep organization staff up-to-date to these constant changes. Thus, a lot of organizations pay significant attention to these strategies.

Employee Performance Management

Employee performance management is one of the most effective HRM strategies during the restructuring, since it depicts all the major goals and principle of work for each employee. Armstrong (2006) defines that the overall aim of this strategy is to establish a high performance culture in which individuals and teams take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes (Armstrong, 2006, p.496).

Thus, each employee has the definite scope of what is being expected from him/her. Armstrong (2006) adds that performance management should be based on such basic element as agreement, measurement, feedback, positive reinforcement and dialogue (Armstrong, 2006, p.496).

These elements are especially valuable during restructuring, since organization management should not only set some overrated expectations, thus, all of the above mentioned elements should be present to enable employee be committed to following the necessary performance.

Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory compliance is another strategy which can be implemented during restructuring. This is quite effective regulatory strategy which can identify efficiency of each employee. During organization restructuring it is very important to define whether all the employees comply with the major goals of the organization and overall organization expectations.

However, this strategy implementation can meet strong opposition among the staff. Thus, Beardwell and Claydon (2007) argue that for small firms regulatory compliance may be very challenging, sometimes leading to negative results (Beardwell & Claydon, 2007, p.480). It is necessary to add that this cannot diminish the importance and value of this HRM strategy.

Compensations And Benefits.

The most popular strategies of HRM are compensations and benefits. Reportedly, these strategies can motivate employees and potential employees during recruitment and retention, though, quite insignificantly; since as mentioned above employees can be more motivated by structural development.

IT is also necessary to admit that during restructuring, implementation of these HRM strategies can be reduced. There are also some options of these strategies. Bratton and Gold (2001) suggest new models of compensations and benefits: cafeteria-style benefits, when employees can choose the appropriate benefit from the list provided by organization management (Bratton & Gold, 2006, p.263). However, during restructuring it will be more effective to motivate employees, implementing other strategies.

The Most Effective HRM Strategies

Thus, it is possible to conclude that the most effective HRM strategies which can be implemented during organization restructuring are recruitment and retention, training and development, regulatory compliance, employee performance management. At the same time such strategies as compensation and benefits can be superfluous in terms of organization restructuring.

Reference List

Armstrong, Michael. (2006). A Handbook Of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers.

Beardwell, J., Claydon, T. (2007). Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2001).Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. London & New York: Routledge.

Mathis, R.L., Jackson, J.H. (2007). Human Resource Management. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Sims, R.R. (2007). Human Resource Management: Contemporary Issues, Challenges, And Opportunities. Charlotte, NC: IAP.

Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. (2005). Human Resource Management. Harlow: Pearson Education.

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