Staff development and sustainability
It is not enough to have in place employees within an organization. It has been shown that with time workers tend to lose focus, as well as morale in their works especially when there are no programs in place to help in staff or career development and sustainability. Staff development means providing opportunities for employees to grow within the organization. Such opportunities are usually offered to the individuals identified through performance management methods. The obvious benefit of career development to any organization is that employees will be motivated to perform to the best of their abilities knowing that their performance will be rewarded.
The department set in place a comprehensive plan that ensures each and every employee is given a fair chance to develop their jobs into full careers. Once a new employee is hired he would sit down with the human resources manager for an interview where he/she is encouraged to bring forth their goals and ambitions with regards to their careers. During this interview, the current skills of the employee are identified and compared against the skills that would be required for the career they seek. Once this is done skills gap is established. The human resource departments together with the individual employees seek to narrow the skills gap through regular reviews and interventions as opportunities for upward movement on the career ladder arise.
Based on the results of the performance appraisals the human resource department looks at ways of improving the performance of individual employees, the options available to the department include initiating a training and development program for the staff or increasing performance incentives such as bonuses. Another option could be sending some of the employees to educational institutions to receive additional skills; promotion can be used or even increasing salaries.
All these approaches will generate employees that are happier and confident. Feeling encouraged makes them be productive, fully committed to the bottom line of their employers as well as the social and environmental objectives of the organization.
Theoretical approaches to HRM
There are basically three theoretical approaches to human resource management; behavioral, political-influence, and resource-based. These theories attempt to model certain aspects of the empirical world which ultimately helps in making predictions as well as creating an understanding of how the process is carried out with regards to the various attributes under study.
The resource-based approach of HRM centers mainly on the links among strategy, human resource practices as well as the capital pool associated with HR. It is worth noting that the behavioral approach/view focuses mainly on the interrelationship among strategy, human resource practices as well as behaviors. The political-influence model has not been fully applied. The approaches here are dictated by the characteristics of the organizational context which will ultimately influence HR practices
Recruitment processes
The initial step of having employees in recruitment has been thought of as a process in which an organization attracts screens and selects individuals deemed to be qualified to take a certain job. Recruitment can be done by professional recruiters retained within an organization or outsourced from agencies dealing with recruiting.
Identifying the vacant position is paramount. The request is usually received by the HR from the various departments within a company. The request usually contains information such as posts to be filled, the number of individuals required, duties to be carried out, and the necessary qualifications. It is important to note that beginning with recruitment characterized with accurate job analysis as well as job description helps in ensuring that the entire process will be successful.
Regarding sourcing, advertising via print media such as newspapers, professional publications, and the internet follows. There are some individuals with desirable talents who will not respond to the adverts. There is thus a need to conduct recruiting research. This will lead to coming up with a list of identified individuals who can be contacted to establish whether they are interested.
After going through the responses, the HR departments generate a list of individuals to be contacted. In most cases, not all applicants will be called up for interviews. The shortlisting provides the names of applicants who will proceed to the next stage.
Screening and selection then follow in that order. The shortlisted candidates are taken through a series of interviews and times written tests. Among the skills being looked at include communication, computer proficiency, leadership skills among others. The resumes, job applications, interview experiences in terms of education, and professional gives insight on candidates’ qualifications. It is at this stage also that issues relating to the previous position and length of service are scrutinized. Based on all these, a decision has to be arrived at. There are normally two; suitable candidates are selected and in situations where all did not meet the desired results then the previous stages opt to be repeated.
Lastly, where the suitable candidates have been selected, on-boarding is then done. This is a process in which the new employees are helped to quickly fit into the system. The process helps in employees’ retention.
Purpose of performance management
In human resource management, it is important to ensure that employees are motivated and satisfied with their work. This makes them give their best in their place of work. It is worth noting that one way to motivate and satisfy employees is by carrying out employee performance management. Performance management is “A strategic and integrated approach to delivering sustained success to the organization by improving the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities of teams and individuals contributors”
Strictly speaking, there are typical outcomes/purposes associated with performance management; strategic, administrative, and developmental. Assuming that the methods of performance management will be implemented in the best way possible with certain objectives linked to operational plans and strategic plans an organization will realize efficiency, effectiveness, and competence when doing business.
Performance management helps improves how information is shared within an organization. The system compels both managers and employees to frequently get in touch and share information. With such an approach, there is a dialogue that results in consensus bringing a sense of ownership of decisions to both relevant parties. Additionally, performance management ensures that each and every worker is aware of the rules of the game.
Assessment criteria make both the employees and managers aware of what is expected of them. Where communication is open, there are higher chances of reducing stress which ultimately results in a happier working team. More importantly, PM create an environment in which the organizations turns into being a learning organization. Commitment from managers as well as employees ensures that personal development is sought after. With this, workers feel part of an organization and realize that the two are interdependent. Financially, it helps grow sales and revenue, cut operation cost and stops project overrun.
Strategic HRM
Strategic human resource management has been thought of as a concept which is proactive in nature aimed at helping organizations to be in a better position in meeting the needs as well as aspirations of workers while at the same time promoting the goals and objectives of the company. Ideally the concept calls for the HR department to be thinking a head of time. This usually affects everything that happens within an organization ranging from hiring of workers to how they are trained educated and developed.
Strategic human resource management ensures that the work environment is conducive for workers ultimately increasing productivity. One major reason is that thinking a head helps in retaining skilled employees; this results to a lower employees’ turnover rates thereby reducing costs for the organization. The whole idea of SHRM is essential for both small and larger organizations.
There are two components of strategic management; strategy formulation and strategy implementation. The former entails mechanisms of arriving at a decision on the direction to be taken by the organization in terms of mission, goals, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The later refers to the processes of coming up with structures as well as allocation of resources in order to achieve the best chosen strategy. A strategic decision can be taken for instance when dealing with competition. The major issues to be addressed include the market in which the organization will compete, the various characteristics to engage in such a competition and the products to be offered when competing.
Key arguments concerning diversity management
It has been acknowledged that the concept of globalization characterized with free movement of people, capital, goods and services usually propelled by technological advancement has made the world a global village. Presently, organizations not only have workforce that are diverse in terms of age, gender, education background, sex orientations, skills but also race. It has been argued that human beings are the most important asset that dictates the future of any organization.
Workplace diversity has been define severally but one definition adopted is; variety of differences and uniqueness among and between individuals within an organization. The concept entails issues relating to age, sex, religion, ability, disability, race, ethnic groups, color, nationality and even sex orientation, educational background, job title to mention but a few.
If the HR have in place best strategies and policies to nurture diversity, the results are better as it helps in increasing adaptability, widening service range, more effective way of executing duties as well as bringing a diverse ideas that can yield the desired satisfaction to customers hence propelling the organization to greater heights. Additionally, proper management of employees’ diversity will help make the organization be in-line with the concept of Equal Employment Opportunity hence having an improved image in the eyes of the relevant stakeholders.
Proper management of diversity makes it possible for employees to positively contribute to attainment of the goals and objectives of an organization as well as experiencing personal development as the environment. On the other hand, there are challenges brought about by a diverse workforce and this include resistance to change, hindrance on implementation of diversity in place of work polices and difficulties in sharing information.
The general notion just like the one held when it comes to technology adoption is that; organizations that do not have in place strategies to manage diversity have few chances of surviving in the future and if they do they will undergo serious issues unlike those that adequately and effectively manage the same. Two major techniques used in successful implementation of work diversity management are diversity enlargement and diversity training.
The formers entails efforts aimed at fostering a greater number of representations of groups having certain personal characteristics while the later is where there are programs in place to train workers to change their attitudes regarding diversity as well as developing skills necessary to comfortably work with individuals possessing varying personal or group characteristics.