Introduction
The initial administrative roles of human resource management (HRM) have been subjected to changes in response to low efficiency and ineffectiveness of strategy applications. These changes are facilitated by various environmental and technological advancements experienced in the world today. In the environmental section, human resource (HR) has been surrounded by competition between businesses that seek the most appropriate workforce and skills. The recent finding of Armstrong (2011) dictated that businesses must evaluate environmental changes for successful operations. The advances achieved through information technology have critical implications for recruitment, training, selection, and diversity.
Consequently, HRM must pay attention to these changes when organizing long and short term goals. It is vital to review and acknowledge the evolution of HR after subjection to such factors. In a bid to perform this task, I will evaluate functional changes of HRM by reviewing its effects in Safaricom limited.
HR Department Rating
Safaricom limited provides communication networks, among other services, to over seventeen million subscribers. These customers require skilled employees to facilitate the provision of quality services efficiently. Otherwise, inadequate skills and experiences could cause poor service delivery. Moreover, the integration of information technology requires people who are willing to learn the upcoming advancements. This implies that a person could study to understand the changes affecting business and identifying new ideas for the progress of a company. Recruitment and selection of employees must be made in an apparent way that does not favor anyone. Legal documents to prevent workers’ misconduct are presented in a court of law. For instance, an anticorruption act preventing bribing led to the sacking of 70 employees in 2011 (Fayo, 2012). The HRM of Safaricom limited makes a close interrogation of each employee to ensure the employment of the best individuals. This implies that there are measures applied to evaluate and determine the most fitted employees. According to researchers, it has been identified that above 70 percent of customers are satisfied with the staff. Probably, this could imply that the arm of HR is 70% efficient (Fayo, 2012).
Safaricom recruitment strategies are amongst the fairest employment processes. First, Safaricom has open access to subscribers that allow advertisements about recruitments and qualifications to over 17 million individuals. Moreover, the advertisements reach all subscribers within minutes. Consequently, the dispersion of information is fast and enables the company to identify the best people from a huge crowd. The HR department has different ratings on various types of jobs. For instance, recruitment of top staff members requires an experience of 3 years and a masters’ degree. Telephone operators are selected from the graduate level of education. These graduates know information technology and various languages. According to the Safaricom HR department, extra skills create high chances of employment for a job seeker. An employee with skills could assist when other specialists are unavailable. For instance, it could be wiser to hire an engineer with good conduct and various languages than an engineer with a single language. The engineer could offer support services through telephones at the time of need.
Furthermore, good conduct raises the level of HR confidence in capital security. These arguments show that the selection of the best employees is an unexceptional attribute. Proper selection relies on comparative measures between the job seekers. In this way, the best employee can be identified to perform multiple chores and inherit the company’s leadership in the future.
Importance of HR Shifting to Strategic Role
HR strategic roles facilitate competition of workers and create a field of dedication, motivation, and commitment. Employees with a high level of skills could raise ideas and implement new strategies for the company’s operations. The employment of people who are qualified and skilled makes a company competitive in the market. Furthermore, workers’ experiences facilitate efficacy and quality services to the customers. The employees of Safaricom limited have promotions and salary increments by performance. The performance of workers is determined by customer satisfaction and achievements made after every year.
The management of Safaricom limited has levels that identify leaders and raise their positions through promotions. Experienced managers must be hired to succeed in the company’s ownership and ensure continued quality management. Consequently, promising employees must be selected to retain the future management of the company. Additionally, the employees should have the capacity to work in the company for a long time. Otherwise, skill attained from Safaricom limited could be drained into another company. In other cases, the knowledge attained from the company could be used against the proper functioning of the company. For instance, an employee who used to work at Safaricom limited had revealed the way to identify codes of airtime. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the most reliable and trustworthy workers who could reach executive positions to manage the company effectively in the future.
HR strategic roles allow an organization to acknowledge the wholeness of the company without paying much attention to daily chores. In operational roles, HR managers pay attention to daily issues and achievements without determining the whole status of the company. For instance, instead of raising the salaries of employees according to their ages, HR strategic roles recommend increasing salaries according to achievements or performances. Also, age does not guarantee work promotion. Instead, strategies are implemented to promote employees who achieve and perform adequately. Therefore, individuals are motivated to work tirelessly towards achieving high work positions. This leads to proper services and customer satisfaction that triggers an increment in profits.
Lastly, the strategic HR department applies policies to retain Safaricom limited in the right position. This facilitates the determination of threats before problems arise. For instance, Safaricom limited evaluates customer suggestions and implements the right strategies to prevent customer dissatisfaction. Also, these suggestions are used to improve customer loyalty. This is distinct from setting policies to restrict the reoccurrence of defiant incidences.
Effects of the Transition
Wielemaker and Flint (2005) argued that change leads to the variance of other surrounding attributes. This finding is approved by the changes that arose from the transition of HR roles. Strategic roles would facilitate the strengthening of the workforce and arouse competition. This would lead to quality services facilitated by employee satisfaction and competition.
Customer satisfaction allows subsequent repeats when seeking for similar or other services (Bratton, 2003). Consequently, the profits rise with an increase in satisfaction and allow expansion of the organization. The employees could raise innovative ideas that raise the level of efficacy and establish new ideas to make extra profits. Furthermore, an organization could retain a continuous supply of experienced managers to succeed in the prevailing employers.
Motivation would establish from within each worker and facilitate vigor when working without being monitored. For instance, workers could compete to receive recommendations from customers. For instance, Safaricom limited collects suggestions from customers regarding the quality of services offered by each telephone operator. Therefore, the employees must work diligently to prevent poor ratings from the customers. The employees work tirelessly to earn promotions and recommendations. It is apparent that the management does not have to monitor the daily operations of workers. In fact, the postulation made by Hedge (2008) identified the annoying strategies of monitoring workers as a factor that demeans their personalities.
Although the right individual could be selected and the right channels of recruitment applied, time and capital could be wasted when choosing the best candidates. For instance, twenty thousand job seekers could apply for one hundred vacancies of telephone operators. This implies that each position requires interviewing two hundred individuals. The interviews could require a lot of capital and time to complete successfully. Moreover, it could be annoying to the job seekers who waste time when waiting for the interview that 199 participants cannot pass.
Conclusion
HRM must evaluate the varying aspects of the world to facilitate proper functioning (Pynes, 2004). HR strategic roles are more effective than HR operational and administrative roles. Therefore, these strategies should be applied to facilitate the maximization of profits and reduction of losses. HR has evolved strategically to provide quality services and higher income than initial techniques. Many organizations are accommodating strategic HRM to improve productivity and profits. These organizations have considered their surroundings and focused on the advancements made in information technology. In so doing, they have aligned with the current changes and allowed people to accept the modifications that are implemented in the system.
References
Armstrong, M. (2011). Armstrong’s handbook of strategic human resource management (5th ed.). London: Kogan Page.
Bratton, J. (2003). Strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management, 5(2), 37-71. Web.
Fayo, G. (2012). Safaricom sacks 70 workers over theft and bribery. Business Daily. Web.
Hedge, J. (2008). Strategic Human Resource Management and The Older Worker. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 23(1), 109-123.
Pynes, J. (2004). Human resources management for public and nonprofit organizations (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wielemaker, M., & Flint, D. (2005). Why does HRM need to be strategic? A consideration of attempts to link human resources and strategy. The Business Review, 3(2), 259-264.