Human Resources Development: Partner of Dynamic Organizations

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Imagine having to replace employees two and three times a year.  The lack of sufficient leadership can contribute to insurmountable employee turnover to the detriment and/or failure of organizational strategies and goals.  The challenges faced by organizations are important dimensions of HRM–the policies, practices, and systems that influence employees’ behavior, attitudes, and per­formance.
 Key HRM competencies that drive results today are integrated talent management, workforce planning with social networking, and HRM strategic planning.   HRM is a two-fisted fundamental of successful organizations.  

RUNNINGHEAD: Dynamic Organizations

Dynamic Organizations 15

Partners of Dynamic Organizations

Debra Johnson

BUS 303 Human Resources Management
Instructor: Jeffrey Lindeman
October 20, 2013

Human Resources Development: Partner of Dynamic Organizations

Imagine having to replace employees two and three times a year. The lack of sufficient leadership can contribute to insurmountable employee turnover to the detriment and/or failure of organizational strategies and goals. The challenges faced by organizations are important dimensions of HRM–the policies, practices, and systems that influence employees’ behavior, attitudes, and performance. Key HRM competencies that drive results today are integrated talent management, workforce planning with social networking, and HRM strategic planning.

HRM is a two-fisted fundamental of successful organizations.

Human Resources Planning, Recruitment, and Selection

Employees are the most valuable assets of an organization. HRM planning facilitates the success of an organization’s strategic objectives. It forecasts and evaluates internal and external personnel needs and balances the organization’s personnel demand. Another HRM function is to forecast future labor supply and demand to guarantee a vigorous business incentive. HRM ensures access to talent, knowledge, skills, and abilities consistent with the needs of the organization. HRM implements recruiting efforts to attract, hire, and retain personnel consistent with organizational needs. (Lorette, 2012).

Developing an HRM strategy to preserve the goals and strategies of an organization requires that HRM planning be recognized as a primary part of the business planning process. HRM’s broad principles affecting the perception and behavior of the entire organization are the underpinning concepts that people tend to do things well. (Briggs, Keogh, 2001).

Integrating HRM strategy and strategic planning is fundamental to organizational excellence. HRM strategic planning is the most important factor for achieving vision, mission, and goals. The integration of HR strategic planning and HR and planning achieve business excellence. HRM’s principles affecting the perception and behavior of the entire are the underpinning concepts that people tend to do things well. (Briggs, Keogh, 2001).

Recruiting

Being distinguished as an employer of choice contributes to the organization’s overall reputation and in turn attracts a wider pool of applicants. HRM implements the recruiting, selection, and personnel policies affecting the current employees and the overall allure of the organization in the job market. (Youssef, 2012).

When considering which recruitment and selection methods to use, a primary question is whether to adopt a low-involvement or high-involvement strategy, depending on the familiarity of the employer’s brand or a low-involvement strategy is best suited when there is little awareness of the organization, whereas a high-involvement strategy builds upon the knowledge already known about the organization. (Collins & Han, 2004).

Linking recruitment to the strategic HRM process is critical to the success of the organization. It ensures that the recruitment process is aligned with organizational strategies. Recruitment should be informed by HR planning, job analysis, and job design. Recruitment serves as the foundation for effective selection, compensation and benefits, training and development, and performance appraisal. (Youssef, 2012).

Today, most prospective employees apply for jobs on an organization’s website. They have a great deal of important information about the company available in front of them before they apply. Website aesthetics can play a role in getting an applicant to spend time on the site and learn about the organization and its culture. The traditional channels of recruiting include agencies, public job websites, advertising, and direct recruiting; these channels still have a small place in the recruiting process, but online recruiting is now the norm. (Youssef, 2012).

Social recruiting is also gaining momentum; it is a process where both online and offline social and professional networks of individuals and organizations connect and communicate to match jobs with the right candidates. Social recruiting has taken many forms, such as the sourcing of candidates on social networks. As employers search globally to infuse their organizations with talent, many recruiters will increasingly rely on social relationships through online communities.

Social recruiting has become the preferred method of recruiting for Realtors© and real estate brokerages. The recent downturn in the economy left the real estate profession frantically seeking more economical and efficient ways to do business. Realtors© have increased the ways in which they manage their businesses and to keep superior relationships with their clients. HRM will be a welcome and friendly face to the real estate business.

In attracting potential candidates, employers must carefully construct the message they will communicate. The message has to be credible, consistent and realistic in order to meet applicants’ expectations. It is also important to consider whom, how and when the message is conveyed. The importance of attraction is even more important than selection. Other factors influencing applicants’ view of an organization are employer branding and corporate image. The key is to build on any aspect that is distinct from that offered by competing organizations in the same broad applicant pool. (Collins & Han, 2004).

Global recruiting involves making recruiting and selection decisions for the purpose of hiring individuals for assignments in other countries. Global recruiting is extremely challenging, and the associated costs are usually very high. Accurate selection decisions have to be carefully considered and validated. Global recruiting also involves a variety of factors that HR managers have to adapt and prepare for, such as different tax laws for different countries as well as various customs, cultures, and traditions. For example, for a successful global employee selection process to occur, HR managers must exert themselves to depict the lifestyle, work environment, culture, and habits to selected employees. Only then will employees be able to deal with such issues as acceptable codes of ethics and moral and religious values. (Collins & Han, 2004).

It is important to recognize the two-way nature of the recruitment and selection process. Organizations want to find out about candidates’ skills, needs and experience in order to determine suitability. Applicants use the selection process as a way of gathering information about the job and company in order to self-assess their fit with the role or organization. Both parties use this opportunity to sell themselves to the other party. (Collins & Han, 2004).

Noticeable trends in recruitment and selection have emerged. Traditionally, the objective of recruitment was to attract a high quantity of applicants. Today, there has been an increase in the diversity of recruitment objectives including future work, mobility in and out of the organization, interaction with a wide range of potential colleagues, fit with the current social environment of customers, suppliers, culture and the physical environment, particularly technology. Person-organization fit is of growing importance. (Torrington, Hall & Taylor, 2008).

The Selection Process

The goal of the selection process is to predict future job performance through assessing a predetermined set of factors that related to applicants’ ability or motivation to perform the job. For example, organizations often hire applicants with the highest scores on a particular test, or those who received the most favourable ratings on an interview. The underlying assumption and rationale for this common approach is that test scores or interview ratings are accurate and consistent predictors of subsequent job performance. Linking the selection process to HRM, which includes planning, work design, and selection will ensure that all processes mesh effectively and have a unified goal. (Youssef, 2012).

Selecting candidates for employment entails the use of valid and reliable methodologies. There are several methodologies used as a means of ensuring that applicants to be selected will be a fit for the job and the general organizational culture. Many organizations continually look for ways to improve their methodologies, including creating and using more valid and reliable methods, instituting better training, and linking the selection to the HRM process. (Youssef, 2012).

Enhancing the selection process can facilitate other HR functions. Employees are more predictable when they are selected using valid and reliable procedures. Their performance level is more likely to be adequate and consistent. When organizational and job fit are carefully considered in the selection process, the process is likely to yield employees who stay longer, have better attitudes, and are more satisfied with their jobs. Planning for, training, and assessing this type of workforce is significantly easier than would be the case in an organization with high turnover and dissatisfied, low-performing employees. (Youssef, 2012).

Legal Issues in the Selection Process

By their very nature, employee selection methods attempt to differentiate between candidates who possess requisite job skills and those who do not. When selection methods treat applicants differently based on other factors such as race, age, or sex, they are said to be discriminatory. It is the imperative for HR professionals to understand the rights and obligations of both the company and the job candidate in this sensitive area. (Youssef, 2012).

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) means freedom from discrimination on the basis of sex, color, religion, national origin, disability and age. EEO rights are guaranteed by federal and state fair employment laws and are enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and its state counterparts. (SHRM, 2012).

Affirmative action plans (AAPs) define an employer’s standard for proactively recruiting, hiring and promoting women, minorities, disabled individuals and veterans. Affirmative action is deemed a moral and social obligation to amend historical wrongs and eliminate the present effects of past discrimination. AAPs include numerical measures with the intent of increasing the representation of minorities. (SHRM, 2012).

Diversity initiatives are goals devised to measure acceptance of minorities by embracing cultural differences within the workplace. Diversity initiatives are twofold: valuing diversity and managing diversity. The value of diversity is achieved through awareness, education and positive recognition of cultural differences within the workplace. The management of diversity expounds upon the experience and establishes the business case for diversity that is closely aligned with an employer’s organizational goals. (SHRM, 2012).

The combination of required or voluntary AAPs and diversity initiatives create opportunities for cultural inclusion, respect for differences, acceptance and respect for all workers. (SHRM, 2012).

Employee and Labor Relations

HRM is also bombarded with legal aspects of employment such as new legislation, managerial and executive orders, and court decisions. Maintaining nondiscriminatory practices while determining employee eligibility and predicting performance are serious challenges that HR managers face on a daily basis. HR managers must exercise extreme caution to ensure that selection procedures are appropriately and purposefully designed to address only information that pertains to a job. (Youssef, 2012).

On the other hand, organizations that successfully promote diversity in their workforces have the tremendous opportunity to leverage unique talent and build a competitive advantage. Many successful organizations pride themselves in having cultures that embrace and celebrate diversity, which attracts many talented employees from a wide range of backgrounds. (Youssef, 2012).

Union activities directly affect HR practices. For example, unions can impose pressure on management to give priority in job selection to union members rather than outside applicants when a position opens. Unions also influence the job selection process through negotiating shorter probationary periods and a quicker determination of employees’ suitability for positions. These activities can sometimes result in premature and poor judgment of individuals, which may ultimately lead to inaccurate selection decisions and unsatisfactory job performance. Other areas where unions influence HR decisions include testing, promotions, layoffs, and merit-based systems. Organizations often seek favorable relations with unions, but such relations can be challenging, as they can compromise the validity and reliability of the selection process. (Youssef, 2012).

Human Resources Development

Employee expectations have changed. Employees everywhere and of every generation expect more—more involvement, more accountability, and more transparency. When it comes to managing their performance, employees have shifted from being passive recipients to active agents. Not satisfied with a one-way download of performance feedback, employees want to participate in the performance data collection process.

Training needs assessment is the first stage of the training process. Training needs are assessed through evaluating performance at the organizational and individual levels, identifying any gaps between the current and the required competencies that might hinder the organization’s progress. If training is indeed necessary, then the next step is to determine the type of training that will most effectively strengthen the specific areas where employees are struggling (O’Connor, 2006).

Performance appraisals differ from organization to organization. Performance appraisals evaluate an employees’ work performance while the organization applies the results to assess the efficacy of achieving its goals and objectives. An effective performance appraisal system requires strategic HR Management that aids to promote a spirit of mutuality. Performance appraisals impart a better perception to employees about their jobs, skills and limitations, and it identifies an employee’s developmental needs. (Youssef, 2012).

Several aspects of performance appraisals reveal an employee’s personality, malleability and flexibility to the work environment. Employees’ efficiency, growth potential, communication skills, leadership skills, and other strengths and weaknesses provide Human Resources Managers (HRM) with important criteria to identify certain employees for promotions, lateral transfers, or termination. Other advantages consequent to employees and the organization of performance appraisals are the long and short-term goals. (Youssef, 2012).

Training and development constitute one of the eight critical practices in the HRM process. This is because the purpose of strategic HRM is to help an organization achieve its goals and objectives through people. Therefore, training and development should help improve organizational competencies and performance. This improvement can be realized by viewing training needs in association with strategic organizational plans and prioritizing them accordingly. Training and development should help improve organizational competencies and performance. This improvement can be realized by viewing training needs in association with strategic organizational plans and prioritizing them accordingly. (Lingham, 2007).

HR raises awareness among employees to improve competitiveness and to boost their morale. Developing an HRM role in training is important for an organization. For training to contribute to an organization’s strategic goals, it should be based on those goals and should be evaluated against those goals. Trainee reactions, learning, behavioral change, and individual and organizational performance outcomes should all be considered. HR enables the organization to contribute to the development of a company’s human capital, through its influence on education policies and systems and training by various training institutions, to better serve business needs. (Lingham, 2007).

Training and development can lead to higher employee productivity, talent retention, and the creation of a sustainable human-based competitive advantage. These benefits often outweigh the costs of training and justify training investments, even during difficult economic times. HR’s role enables it to influence organizations in regard to the need for them to invest more in training and development, which employers should recognize as one key to their competitiveness in the future. (Youssef, 2012).

Leadership development can be obtained in-house programs, professional programs, executive coaching, and mentoring. Action learning is a method in which employees focus on true business challenges and discussing progress and lessons learned. Leadership development can also be accomplished through a form of job rotation or management training. A management-training program is structured where high-potential trainees are trained for management positions through a sequence of short-term job transfers and rotations. These employees gain knowledge and skills within different parts of the organization, gaining increased levels of challenge and responsibility. Upon graduation, the employee i ready to assume a leadership position. (Youssef, 2012).

Training can also encourage employee retention. Candidates seek employers who offer and support training and career advancement. Training and career development are more treasured than high salaries, and they add to job satisfaction. HRM designs, implements, and assesses training programs to ensure quantifiable improvements that add to the organizations core competencies. Training can identify employees with exceptional skills and abilities who can contribute more significant knowledge and skills to the organizations objectives. HRM can impact an employee’s career development with opportunities such as formal education, full or partial tuition reimbursement, and professional certifications for specialized training in their areas of specialization. (Youssef, 2012).

The primary purpose of training is to enhance employees’ skills and enable them to perform their job more efficiently and effectively; training usually therefore has a positive effect on employee motivation, performance quality, productivity, and engagement. In addition, creating an environment that promotes training and offers career development opportunities will likely boost employee motivation, morale, and retention. HR planning, job analysis and design, recruitment, selection, and performance appraisal should inform and be informed by the organization’s goals and strategies. HR planning, job analysis and design, recruitment, selection, and performance appraisal should inform and be informed by the organization’s goals and strategies.

Training and development in real estate is different yet essential. It is one thing to get through a transaction or even a day feeling ambivalent because of new practices to be learned and where the time will come from to participate in the training. HRM practices will one day alleviate the woes of people whose time is not always their own. The concepts can be used to prioritize areas of personal lives as well.

Safety and Health

Workplace settings vary in size, design, location, work processes, and resources. Workers differ in age, gender, training, education, culture, and health practices. Industry-related accidents adversely impact the organization. Some of the techniques used by HRM to avoid health and safety issues include matching employee personalities with their job description, conducting job safety awareness and training programs, rewarding safe behavior, and distributing guidelines and handbooks that detail safety and regulatory policies of the organization. (Youssef, 2012).

Safety and health is probably one of the most obscure issues in the workplace. There are many ramifications legally, in terms of avoidable injuries, and to the organization. Often the organizational policies and procedures are ignored. Safety and health are also critical to HRM. As organizations evolve, so will the hazards.

Compensation and Benefits

An aggressive business environment is forcing organizations to re-examine the ways they attract and retain top talent without compromising organizational goals. Compensation and benefits are an organization’s crucial tools for attracting and retaining human resources, but they are scrutinized now more than ever.

Organizations look for methods of motivating employees, and compensation and benefits play a vital role in motivation. HRM administers the organizational pay structure. HRM monitors market conditions to ensure that the organization is competitive. HRM also collects and analyzes information on wages and salaries and evaluates the organization’s pay structure in comparison to other companies. The information is then utilized by HRM for future recruiting efforts. (Youssef, 2012).

Jobs within an organization do not necessarily have the same pay structure. Jobs should be evaluated through the HRM planning, job analysis, and job design processes. Through job analysis, an employer can identify a number of factors for specific jobs that can facilitate the establishment of appropriate compensation levels. For example, responsibilities and activities, skill sets, environment and compensable factors can be considered when establishing compensation levels. Each job is given a value and weighted in relation to others creating a compensation hierarchy that is crucial to creating consistent compensation systems. Some organizations have established internal equity for most of their jobs and use a market pricing structure for positions where unique, rare skills are needed. (Youssef, 2012).

Compensation can also be based on employee performance. Perceptions of equity and justice are associated with employees’ compensation, their performance, and their contributions to the organization in turn motivating employees to be more productive and effective. (Youssef, 2012).

HRM is a two-fisted fundamental of successful organizations.

References:

ACAS. (n.d.) Promoting employment relations and HRM excellence. Recruitment and Selection. Retrieved from: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=746

Briggs, S. and Keogh, W. (2001). Integrating human resource strategy and strategic planning to achieve business excellence. : Human Resource Management. Human Resources.com/UA. Retrieved from: http://www.management.com.ua/hrm/hrm017.html

Collins, C. & Han, J. (2007). Exploring Applicant Pool Quantity and Quality: The Effects of Early Recruitment Practice Strategies, Corporate Advertising, and Firm Reputation. Retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/44/

Lingham, L. (2007). Human Resources’ Role of HRM in Career Training and Organizational Development. AllExperts. Retrieved from: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Human-Resources-2866/role-HRM-career-training.htm

The Society for Human Resource Management. (2013). The New Recruiting Paradigm. Retrieved from: http://www.shrm.org/Pages/login.aspx?

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Lorette, K. (2012). The Three Key Elements of the Human Resources Planning Model. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/three-key-elements-human-resources-planning-model-4751.html
Parry, E. & Tyson, S. (2008). An analysis of the use and success of online recruitment methods in the UK. Retrieved from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2008.00070.x
Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. (2008) Human Resource Management and Development. Center for Financial and Management Studies. SOAS. University of London. Retrieved from: www.cefims.ac.uk/documents/sample-31

US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2012). EEOC Policy Guidance. Retrieved from: http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/index.cfm

Youssef, C. (2012). Human resource management. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.