Introduction
Human resource management is a branch of management which deals with matters that are related to employees of an organization. It covers areas that include the hiring process, development of workers, and safety of the workers, training and motivation among others. It can also be seen as the process of organizing and supervising processes that relate to employees of a firm.
It entails gaining the confidence of the employee as well as providing favorable environments for efficient output of the employees. The processes of ensuring efficiency of the employee could include training, motivation and enhanced communication among employees at different level of the organization’s structure. This paper seeks to explore and show that how an organization manages the human resources is fundamental to the goal of achieving collective efficiency.
The paper will explore the aspects of human resource management with the aim of establishing whether or not human resource management is a fundamental to achieving collective competitive advantage. The paper will therefore in detail examine the activities and processes that are normally undertaken in the department of human resource management with respect to ascertaining or otherwise, the validity of the above statement.
The department of human resource management has a wide range of activities it offers to its organization. The department for example has the responsibility of ensuring that its organization gets the best of available workforce. Mechanisms are for this matter established to ensure that thorough scrutiny is done on job applicants before they are absorbed into the firm. Also in the department of human resource is the remuneration and rewarding of a firm’s workers according to contracts and policies of the subject company.
The department also offers and organizes for trainings and workshops for employees in the bid to enhance their productivity in the firm. Other duties of the department include: ensuring that codes of conducts and company’s regulations are adhered to by employees, providing a working environment that ensures the workers safety as well as a discrimination free atmosphere and ensuring quality performances by employees among others (McNamara, n.d., p. 1).
The recruitment and selection process involves the sourcing and subsequent selection of candidates to be absorbed by a firm. It is an important process in the organization as it seeks to find out the person who can best fit into the need of the company. As Elearn (2009) expressed, “if the wrong person is appointed, it can affect team work” (Elearn, 2009, p. 1979).
A team player is important in motivating co-workers in order to boost productivity. Failure to get this kind of employee during the selection process can mean a reduced efficiency and productivity. It is the duty of the human resource management to analyze the necessity of the vacancy so as to obtain the best candidate for the job. The competent candidate who can build team work will be a key to achieving collective advantage in the organization (Elearn, 2009, p. 1979).
Training and seminars often yield benefits to the trained employees and the organization as well. One of the effects of training on an employee is the satisfaction derived from using the newly acquired skills. After the training, the employee will want to exercise the newly acquired skills. The eagerness, in its own merit, will enhance the performance of workers in terms of output.
The benefits of training also include employees’ performance. The concepts learnt during trainings normally have the effects of improving the work efficiency of the trained personnel. This has a net effect of improved individual productivity of the workers which translates to the corporate output of the organization. Buckley and Caple (2007) argued that trainings help institutions to meeting their goals.
Further trainings on leadership which is the key to team work and developments, are on the other hand key collective achievements in the organization. Training therefore is critical in development of aspects of operations of an organization (Buckley and Caple, 2007, P. 9). When employees are trained, they gain some sort of security at the workplace that instills in them some level of satisfaction. Their satisfaction then translates to efficiency and dedication in their work processes.
The overall result is an improved way of handling and maintains the equipments and machinery of the institution. This will also ensure that quality is improved in the firm as well as reduced chances of accidents. Training is therefore a very important aspect in improving the productivity of the firm at both individual and corporate levels. The main aim is however to improve the collective capacity of the institution (Singla, 2010, P. 13).
Retention of employees in the firm is another aspect of the human resource management that ensures achievement of objectives. According to Taylor (2010), the retention of employees involves measures that will make the employees feel part of the firms. For the employees to own the company they are working they must have confidence in it.
The retention of employees can be achieved in a number of ways. One of the strategies of retention is to take into consideration the views and feeling of the employees. Tailor’s case study (2010) on employee turnover rate indicates that enlisting the opinions of the workers is one of the ways to keep them satisfied at the firm (Tailor, 2010).
Flexible working conditions are other techniques of reducing the social strain on workers. The flexible advantages include leaves, paid or unpaid, which helps workers to improve the balance between work and social responsibilities at home. Promoting employees is another way of retaining workers.
This is a technique that an organization can use to source for personnel from inside the organization. This involves an organization molding its existing workers and taking them up the management ladder instead of recruiting for such positions externally. One of the implied advantages to this practice is that the administration will comprise of a class of individuals who have been at the firm for a considerable duration of time.
This class therefore understands the mechanism of the firm and its employees. A more effective management and administration will therefore be established faster than when a new manager or administrator was to be sourced from outside. The cohesion established by retention of employees is also a source of motivation and security that enhances the worker’s performances (Taylor, 2002, p. 3).
Mobility of employees also has a financial implication on an organization. There will be a cost of recruiting and selecting people to replace the lost employees. There could be another risk of losing good employees who could at times be irreplaceable. According to the Manager (2010), the cost of employee turnover is significantly higher than the employee’s remunerations, approximately fifty percent higher (Manager, 2010, p. 1).
Brandau Karla (2010) also describes retention leadership as a new tool that is “reemerging in the executive arsenal with powerful implications for driving business success” (Brandau, 2010, p. 1). Techniques should therefore be put in place by the human resource management to ensure that employee retention is a core value to be embraced by an organization. The retention can be achieved by offering lucrative conditions to the employees or by establishing the need for intention during contract signing (Brandau, 2010, p. 1).
The productivity of an organization can also be achieved through promotions. The promotions can be in terms of positions at the organization or incentives offered to employees based on performance. Many organizations offer outstanding motivational packages to top performing employees. It is often viewed as an appreciation to the particular employee for the good performance. The promotions that could include trips and even material offers are also meant to trigger other workers to excellent performance so that they can also achieve the promotions.
This type of promotion is characteristic of service providing companies in which the employee’s efforts can be directly traced to the product. Dewan and Sudarshan (1996) expressed the view that such promotions are also meant to show the employees that their contribution to the organization is “important and appreciated” (Dewan and Sudarshan, 1996, p. 1).
This can arguably build confidence and motivation among the rewarded as well as the others who would then aspire to be rewarded. The end result will be good performance by the employees on the ground of motivation and willingness, a move that will improve productivity of the organization (Dewan and Sudarshan, 1996, p. 22). Nyambegera (2005) on the other hand discussed the importance of structural promotion with respect to the organization’s structural levels.
Nyambegera (2005) argued that a vacancy in a company can be filled by either sourcing a new employee from outside the firm or by promoting an organization’s existing worker into the vacancy. He further argued that an organization’s existing employees are “familiar and comfortable with the people, procedures, policies, and special characteristics of the organization” (Nyambegera, 2005, p. 124).
The resources that would be spent in the recruiting and selection process, in terms of finances and time, can be saved for other activities of the organization.
Promotion, rather than sourcing an employee from outside the firm also reduces the risks of employing an incompetent person. According to Nyambegera’s (2005) argument, the management having had employees over their period of existence at the firm will be in a position to judge from the past performances of each employee to determine their capability to fill the new position.
The recruitment of a new employee however relies on representations of competence that remains to be proved if the applicant is given the opportunity to work for the company. This involves a risk of believing the applicant’s credentials and hoping that the applicant performs as good as his or her credentials represents him or her (Nyambegera, 2005, p. 124).
There is a need to ensure that all workers meet the requirements of the organization. The rules and regulations include external policies and the institution’s established guidelines that safeguards coexistence of workers as well as the codes of ethics and conducts of the institution.
Some of the regulations are instituted by a company to prevent acts that are deemed harmful or offensive to other workers. Some of the regulations are on the other hand implied by national regulations like the occupational safety and health act while others are internally instituted to ensure safety and good working environment. The ensured conducive and safe working environment is a motivation to the employee as the employee experience the care and responsibility of the company over the employee’s life and welfare.
The good state of a company can also enhance the effectiveness and productivity of the individual workers and the company as a whole (Panszczyk, Kennedy and Turan, 2004, p. 317). Kennedy, Schulz and Robert (2005) also expressed the need for compliance to rules and regulations by employees. In view of the authors argument, “compliance with laws and regulations is a necessary corporate motivator” (Kennedy, Schulz and Robert, 2005, p. 11).
Further measures are also required to instill values of integrity which all employees must be subject to. Compliance and commitment to regulations increases accountability both at employee level as well as the corporate level of the organization (Kennedy, Schulz and Robert, 2005, p. 11).
Compliance to national legislations could as well save a firm from mistakes that can lock out some talented and skilled candidates for employment. An organization recruitment plan that could otherwise be discriminative in the short run basis could lock out people who might be the best talent that the company ever wanted.
Legislations however try to protect citizens against such discrimination and the employment process is not an exception to these regulations. A company’s compliance with these anti-discriminatory policies gives it a wider range of sourcing for workers and this increased range, by mathematical concept, increases chances of getting the best of employees. The discriminations could be due to age, sex or even race (Buckley, 2008, p. 5).
To obtain at least reasonable output form employees, the organization that has employed the human resource must ensure that these resources are given an environment that will promote their working processes.
Most of the conditions to this work friendly environment are requirements subject to human rights adherence. An employing organization through its human resource management must ensure that its workers are in a safe and healthy environment. The safety and health conditions at workplaces are critically important especially in construction and chemical related industries.
The measures like preventing falls from high levels in a building construction sites and preventing leaks in a chemical manufacturing companies among others eliminates fears among workers as they carry out their activities. The fear of unsafe and unhealthy working conditions have the effects of scaring away workers or subjecting the workers to extra caution that could even draw their concentration away from working to taking care of the risks that could endanger their lives.
Other measures, according to Schneeman (2000) that the human resource management looks into in regard to work environment include: “fair employment practices, environmental protection and practices, compliance with laws and maintaining thorough leadership at all levels of the organization” (Schneeman, 2000, p. 201).
Peggy (2009) upon research noted that employees are keen on issues such as: equity in the provision of remunerations and motivational rewards, provision of a healthy and safe working environment, establishment of a workplace that is accommodative with respect to social and family issues, attention to the needs of the organization’s employees and communication of the organization’s plans and intentions among others.
These issues, depending on an organization’s human resource management’s approach in tackling them, have a direct effect to the attitude developed by employees towards the management in general. The developed attitude consequently will determine the productivity and efficiency of the individual employees and the organization as a body (Peggy, 2009, p. 73). Fernando (2009) identified human resource as perishable substance.
According to Fernando (2009), the responsibility of preserving this perishable item rests on the management of the organization. The human resource department should make sure that the employees are well taken care of so that the labor that they offer is not lost due to discouragements and lack of motivational innovations.
Issues such as “equal opportunities, encouragement of whistle blowing, humane treatment of employees, employee empowerment, participative and collaborative environment” (Fernando, 2009, p. 63) among others affect labor output of employees. The administration therefore influences the employee productivity depending on how it handles such matters (Fernando, 2009, p. 64).
Once the human resource has been recruited, selected, oriented and finally trained and molded into the organization’s expectations, the task that remains is to maintain the employee at his or her peak of performance. The management of performance at this level takes into consideration both an individual employee as well as the immediate team or group that the employee works in and finally the general organization.
This management should be strategic to explore issues from a wider perspective with focus on long term goals. The performance management should: be inclusive of various departments and levels of management, focus on sustaining the performance and even improving the performance, and develop the capacities of the employees and to build on behavioral practices (Sharma, 2009, p. 213; Singla, 2010).
According to Bohlander and Snell (2009), it is important for the human resource management to understand what its staff is going through during the period of development. This is specifically important to help employees not lap back from their achieved high performance levels.
An achieved high performance level should be monitored over time and matters that arise relating to the performance level addressed. The monitoring process should establish among others things: the existence of team work, availability of empowerment to the employees, success derived from training sessions and fair treatment of employees in the course of their duty (Bohlander and Snell, 2009, p. 730).
Pasmore’s research on performance (2010) indicated that even facilities that acquired a high performance level were liable to losing their performance efficiency. The loss of performance of the machinery can also translate to reduced performance levels of the employees. The loss of efficiency in the machinery can also be used to understand the fact that human beings can as well be trained to a level of performance and still lose it and experience inefficiency (Pasmore, 2010, p. 84).
Conclusion
In view of the above discussion, which has been exploring the aspects and activities of the human resource management, it is evident that this branch of management is very influential in the operation of an organization. Its processes like selecting, training and sustaining employees directly contributes to the individual performance of the employees which is then translated into team performance and finally the productivity of an organization.
Due to the interdependence of departments of every organization and the fact that a large number of processes in every organization require human attention, directly or indirectly, the management of these employees is a very important determinant in the overall operation of each organization. It can therefore be concluded that the management of the human resource is core to achieving competitive advantage of business entities.
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