Introduction
In any successful organization, the human resource department plays a big role in the realization of organizational goals. Successful Human resource Management (HRM) strategies are therefore imperative for any organizational to scale up heights of success.
The importance of HRM has especially been exemplified by the need for organizations to thrive in today’s chaotic and turbulent business environment, since organizations have to be constantly innovative in coming up with new strategies to stay ahead of the curve. From this increased need by organizations to stay at the top, HRM has been adopted by many managers as one of the most crucial tools to enable organizations achieves high levels of success.
From previous HRM studies, we have come up with specific HRM facets that propel HRM management as one of the most basic in organizational operations.
These facets are: equal employment opportunity (EEO) and affirmative Action, human resources planning, recruitment, and selection, human resources development, compensation and benefits, safety and health, and employee and labor relations. These facets have so far been identified as some of the basic tools in increasing the level of effectiveness of employee input in the organization.
This study provides a reflective analysis of these elements with a special reference to how they work in synchrony to attain the goal of increasing the effectiveness of human workforce in the organization. This study will also shed light on the most important facets in this category of HRM tools in addition to identifying factors that cause some elements to be more important than others.
Finally, with all the information gathered at this point, I will be able to demonstrate how the role of HRM can be used to shape both the organizational and employee behavior.
Recruitment, Selection, EEO and Affirmative Action
Recruitment and selection is one of the most basic HRM practices to date. It is usually closely followed by management because it determines the type of employees the organization is to have. This process however encompasses EEO and affirmative action as one of its major complimentary process.
The two work together to ensure new and existing employees are the best fit for the organization’s needs. Its importance cannot be overemphasized because it is at the core of human resource management. Recruitment and selection process also stands as one of the core processes in HRM because it predetermines the outcome of all other HRM practices.
EEO and Affirmative action however determines the outcome of the recruitment and selection process, in that, it improves the process to be of high integrity and of high quality (EEOC, 2010, p. 1).
EEO and affirmative action is able to achieve these goals by increasing the profile of an organization so that it can attract high potential staff. This is achievable because EEO ensures all applicants or prospective employees get equal opportunity for available positions, thereby increasing the level of competition for competitive spots in the organization.
Competition here is key to the attraction of competent employees because as the competition for vacant positions in the organization increases, more competent employees are bound to apply for the said position. This principle actually works in the context that incompetent employees will be discouraged from applying for competitive positions because they are likely to be weaned off by strong competitors.
When EEO and affirmative action is absent, the likelihood of weak employees streaming into the organization is high because they are bound to be favored from vices such as nepotism, racism and discrimination on the basis of religion, gender, creed and the likes (Witlin, 2003, p. 14). EEO and affirmative action therefore increases the profile of the organization in attracting the best human capital in the market and this improves the success and goals of the recruitment and selection process.
In fact, the most successful organizations have a very critical and fair recruitment and selection process which is very fair to all individuals because through this process, the organization is able to attract the best human capital in the market, which will ultimately drive organizational success to new levels (EEOC, 2010, p. 1).
However, in as much as affirmative action and EEO compliments the recruitment and selection process, new areas of research have pointed out many other factors that are essential for the recruitment and selection process to be a success. This is new area of learning is important because researchers have realized that it is not enough for organizations to adopt a sound recruitment and selection process, as its core strategy for attracting competent staff, they have to make sure the process is also efficient (Ivancevich, 2007, p. 23).
Efficiency is hereby emphasized because new studies point out that the process needs to be done in the shortest time possible, and in the words of Ivancevich (2010), the process ought to be “robust enough to operate excellently in the moment of the insufficient number of candidates on the job market, but most importantly, the process must be able to process a large number of candidates within the given time limit” (p. 6).
Considering EEO and affirmative action compliment the outcome of the recruitment and selection process, it is important to note that these process works best if it is in alignment with the human resource planning process. In other words, the human resource planning process will provide the blue print through which the recruitment and selection process will operate.
For instance, when the HRM seeks to attract new employees, it ought to establish that the new employees will complement the overall human resource planning objectives in the organization. For example, if the organization seeks to be more technologically sound, as its core focus in the human resource planning process, then the recruitment and selection process will be undertaken with a special emphasis of seeking new employees who are technologically savvy.
Human resource planning therefore remains a fundamental administrative function for any organization because it steers the organization towards a growth path, and in the same sense, ensures all other HRM functions are in alignment with this goal. Some researchers however note that for the process to be successful, it requires a critical assessment of the availability of qualified resources which will be required to make the entire process a success (McGraw-hill, 2010, p. 2).
Human Resource Development, Compensation, Benefits and Labor Relations
Human resource development outlines HRM’s growth plan in the organization where the organization sits down and creates a framework of how the organization will grow with regard to its human resource. This may involve elements like mentorship, coaching succession planning and the likes.
Nonetheless, the biggest goal of human resource planning lies in the fact that it is majorly aimed at helping employees grow in the organization (McGraw-hill, 2010, p. 5). HRM managers therefore aim at developing one of the strongest workforces through human resource development so that they are able to improve organizational success.
With the aim of improving employees along their career growth paths and enabling the organization achieve high levels of success; other important HRM facets come into play to improve the human work force. Compensation and benefits are some of the most important tools used by most managers today to increase employee performance by boosting their morale in the workplace.
This is an integral part of human resource development because through establishing a rewards and compensation program, employees are able to determine their limits in performance and set higher, but achievable goals to surpass their previous accomplishments.
A rewards and compensation program is therefore likely to increase an organization’s scoreboard because indirectly, it sets a benchmark to employee performance and encourages employees to always emulate the best, and the best to challenge their goals.
Also if management is able to recognize outstanding employee performance, employees are likely to reciprocate the same show of goodwill through increased performance. This can create some form of new culture where employees feel more appreciated thereby increasing the level of motivation in the organization.
The contrary can be observed in organizations where there are no reward or compensation programs because employees are usually demoralized, such that, there is no drive to increase organizational performance since employees feel drained, because management fails to recognize the input of the few employees who give it their best to improve organizational performance and therefore they fall back into the same group of demoralized employees.
Quite frankly, it is quite difficult for this group of employees to compliment the goals of human resource development because in this type of environment, no growth can take place. Growth can therefore only take place in organizations where the employees are full of life, and properly motivated to positively resonate with management’s quest to improve human resource practices in the organization. This also defines how employee behavior is affected through management’s relation with employees.
From an understanding of how employee compensation and rewards program compliments the human resource development plan, we can also easily understand how a safety and health scheme for employees also compliments the compensation and rewards program.
The two are more or less related because they have the same effect on employee development programs since they align employees to positively resonate with management’s human resource development plan. This is true because even if employees were well compensated or rewarded for their outstanding performance, unhealthy and unsafe employees cannot positively respond to managements’ human resource development plan.
Safety and health are therefore very important components to the realization of a sound human resource development program. Safety should especially be emphasized in organizations which engage in dangerous operations, maybe involving industrial processes or machinery and the likes. Health however remains universal for all types of organizations. The most basic effect healthy and safe employees have according to conventional research studies is the increase in employee morale and retention (Ivancevich, 2007, p. 5).
New studies show that organizations which have a sound health insurance program and an efficient employee safety program, attract and retain some of the most competent employees in the job market (Ivancevich, 2007, p. 5). To a significant degree, health and safety programs also outline employee labor relations with the organization because an establishment of the above programs defines a good labor relations program as well.
Application
The above HRM analogy can be applied in most institutional settings, family life and even in personal life. Compensation, rewards, safety and health programs can be applied in personal life because of their positive effect on personal motivation. I believe that it is prudent for people to invest in a good health scheme, at a personal level so that they can have peace of mind when going about their daily duties.
In the absence of a good health scheme, many people may live in fear and fail to operate at their optimum potential because they dread the day they will fall sick or suffer some form of bodily harm. This also exposes the need to always take important safety measures when carrying out day to day operations, especially involving risky careers which may cause bodily harm to individuals.
Ultimately, a good reward and compensation scheme stands out as a good practice for individuals to compensate and reward themselves at a personal level, as opposed to waiting for someone to recognize their good performance. I believe this is a good way to which someone can motivate himself to break personal limits and challenge oneself to take up more demanding challenges. In this manner, one is able to grow.
There are however, many ways I can think of, for someone to compensate or reward himself. For instance, if one sets a new sales target, one can go out of the way and take a vacation, or on a smaller scale, eat out in some fancy restaurant as a way of recognizing ones own potential in doing something commendable.
The most important reason why people should take this initiative is because people may sometimes fall short of acknowledging good performance, both at a personal and institutional level. It is therefore, important for one to take the initiative and reward or compensate himself or herself.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, we understand the fact that human resource management is a multifaceted experience. More importantly, we need to realize the fact that the core facets of human resource management are related and work interdependently.
In detail, we can deduce the fact that equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, primarily compliments the recruitment and selection process and when analyzed much deeper, the recruitment and selection process stands out as the most important human resource management function because it predetermines the outcome of the other human resource functions.
This is true because from the recruitment and selection process, an organization is bound to attract the most competent human workforce, which is also likely to respond positively to its future human resource programs.
These programs outline human resource development and from the study, we note that a proper compensation and benefits program, coupled with a prudent emphasis on the health and safety of employees, motivates the workers and prepares them to positively resonate with the human resource development program. Also, an observance of prudent health and safety programs which looks into the welfare of employees, influences employee and labor relations between the organization and employees.
However, this latter analysis is not as important as the impact affirmative action and recruitment and selection processes have on the improvement of organizational productivity. Comprehensively, these integral HRM components can be potentially applied in personal life and even in an institutional setting because they can improve one’s morale to take up new challenges.
References
EEOC. (2010). U.S. Employment Opportunity Commission Questions and Answers. Retrieved from: https://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html
Ivancevich, J. (2007). Human Resource Management (10th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Ivancevich, J. (2010). Human Resource Management (11th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. ISBN
McGraw-hill. (2010). Human Resource Management Online Learning Center. Web.
Witlin, S.J. (2003). The Supreme Court’s recent affirmative action decisions may provide some guidance for the workplace. Employment Relations Today, 30(3), 85.