Overview
An organization’s workforce is a vital resource needed for an organization’s success. An organization that has progressed or has a vision for a brighter future can be determined by an analysis of how it takes care or manages its human resources.
The current business age calls for comprehensive strategies from business organizations aiming to remain in the market. With globalization as the target mark for many companies, every business organization will strive to achieve it.
However, the only route for the achievement of the same lays in the careful planning and implementations of an all inclusive market related plans termed as corporate strategies.
The formulation and implementations of corporate strategies has been seen as a decisive tool in the growth of a company only if a proper correlation between the same and the human capital has been made.
Organization’s workforce experiences various problems that may affect the objectives of the company. There are several problems whose solutions are tasked to the human resource department.
The Current Problem faced by HRM
Among the major problems facing human resources today is the management of employees’ behavior. The way employees behave determines the attitude to which they will approach work and duties assigned to them.
The behavior of employees influences the culture of the organization. An organization is defined by the culture and attitude of working displayed by its employees (Schuler & Jackson, 1987). In order to achieve a designed strategy, the organization has to manage employees’ behavior.
How Employees’ Behaviors Influences Performance Improvement and Organizational Strategic Objectives
Market related plans aimed at improving a given organization and steer it to the desired direction constitute the strategic objectives for that organization. Normally, business strategies are aimed at improving the performance of the organization.
On the other hand, employees’ behavior is reflected on the performance of the organization. Behaviors are mostly reflected in the attitude to work. If the attitude is right, the employees will work hard toward the achieving the same.
Human Resources Management Approaches to Address Employees’ Behaviors
From the information above, it means that employees’ behavior is vital to an organization’s goals. As a result, the human resources management has to device strategies to address human resources behaviors in the organization. There are various approaches toward the same.
They include training, change management, motivation, and performance appraisal among many others. From the mentioned approaches, training is the vital approach that can be used to counter employees’ behavior in an organization to achieve strategic objectives. It is discussed throughout this paper.
Managing Employees’ Behaviors through Training
Because of the changing nature of the production process, employees will be required to have special skills as time goes by, such special skills will require on job training for the already established workers and recruits so as to fit the demand of the market. At the same time, the management may define certain strategy that requires a corporate response toward the same.
In such an eventuality, training is necessitated to check employees’ behavioral response toward the same. Organizations approach training and development through a complex system that involves a number of distinct interrelated phases. It considers the efforts before and after trainer and trainees are together.
Training Model
To carry out a comprehensive training program that will enhance the strategic objectives, the human resources management should carry out the same through a given model. The model is shown bellow (Neider & Schriesheim, 2003).
Phase 1
In this phase, the need of the organization is assessed. The process comprises of the organizational analysis, task analysis, operations analysis, and the person analysis. Organizational analysis entails the problems, achievements, and goals of the organization.
The operations analysis involves the knowledge, ability, and skills of the employees whereas the person analysis necessitates performance, skills, and ethics test and assessment sentence.
Phase 2
This is where the employee decides on the training program to undertake that includes the methods, workbooks, exercises, and activities available in the organization. A well-designed program focuses on co-related issues, instructions, objectives, trainee readiness, and motivation principles of learning and characteristics of the instructors.
Phase 3
It involves implementation of the concepts of the training. During this phase, employees are brought to the actual problem and equipped with the needed skills for countering the same. The process can take place for a period depending on the nature of the training.
Phase 4
During this phase, an evaluation of the whole program is done. The managers access the programs successes and failures to determine if the trainees learned new skills, attitudes, and knowledge because of the program.
Employees’ Behavioral Parameters
The behavior of an employee can be assed using various parameters, which should be addressed through training. The parameters used in this case are those that affect the strategic objective of the company.
One of them is lack of job satisfaction. When employees are not satisfied with the working conditions, their behaviors will be in a manner to suggest the same as it will affect their attitude at work. Another parameter is the productivity. The behavior of employees will increase or decrease the productivity of employees.
This means that before training is carried out, the productivity should be assed and be included in the training. Another parameter is motivation. Motivation can be determined by the mood and zeal with which workers approach a given task. The behaviors of employees can therefore be determined from the same.
From these parameters, it means that the behavior of an employee in an organization is determined by his or her level of commitment, satisfaction, and motivation to wok. These three areas must therefore be addressed by a given training model.
Impacts of Training on Employees’ Behaviors
Based on the employees’ behavioral parameters, there are some behaviors displayed by and employee before training. Before training, employees are plagued by shortcomings in their skills and knowledge needed to handle a particular job in line with the objective of the organization.
As a result, they are not satisfied or motivated in their job positions. At the same time, employees in an untrained state feel alone and left out by the company. As a result, they cannot fulfill the objectives of the organization.
As a result, employees need training to change their state and bring them to the objectives of the organization. Through training, employees’ knowledge and skills are enhanced. Training therefore seeks to change the behavioral parameters and is interlinked to the same as shown in the diagram below.
From the diagram above, it can be seen that the training program designed by the organization addresses possible routes where employees’ behavior is likely to be affected. Since the objective of a given organization is geared towards productivity, training will address the same through impartation of needed skills and knowledge to carry out company’s strategic goals.
Employees are imparted with given expertise and knowledge needed to perform a given task. At the same time, new programs contained in the strategy and objectives of the organization are imparted in employees.
With knowledge and skills in place, employees feel confident and proud of their work. As a result, they will be motivated to utilize their skills form training at workplace. This will enhance their motivation at work and thereby working toward the objectives of the company.
In the process of working, there are other issues that arise as a result of the same. These issues are directly related to work and may affect the objects of the company if not well addressed through training. In the diagram above, they are represented as Potential Endogeneity.
They include supervision issues, management structure, relationship at workplace, industrial deputes, and accidents among many. Through early training, some of these issues are avoided. However, even if they occur at workplace, they can well be handled through effective training.
Training is vital for the success of any organization. The behaviors of workers are widespread and if not well checked can lead disrupt the objective of the organization. From the figure above, training also goes beyond the factors outside the workplace, which are likely to affect the organization.
For instance, alcoholism and smoking can be considered personal. However, if left unchecked, they can affect the mood and physical health of the workers. This means that training is an all-round approach that ought to be adopted by human resources management in solving employees’ behaviors.
References
Neider, L. & Schriesheim, C. (2003). New directions in human resource management. Kansas: IAP.
Schuler, R. S. & Jackson, S. (1987). Linking competitive strategies with human resource management practices. The Academy of Management Executive 1(3), 207-219.