Introduction
The business world is getting more competitive each day; as the competitive nature of the business environment increases, there is a need for business organizations to develop strategies that will ensure that they remain competitive and do not lose popularity with the consumers.
One of the most important aspects that will ensure that the business organizations are able to remain competitive and meet the customer expectations is the quality of the products and services that are offered by the organization.
In today’s business environment, customers want value for their money; they are willing to pay more for the products and services that they are getting, but they want to get quality products and services for the money that they pay.
Recognizant of the need for offering quality products and services, organizations are investing even more into their businesses to ensure that they are able to meet customer expectations. Thus for most of the business organizations, quality has been recognized as the major component of a product or service, which will ultimately determine the popularity of the product in the market.
The organizations are investing in resources to ensure that the quality that is demanded from the customers is available; because the customers are willing to meet the price as long as they get quality products, the organizations can be able to recover the investments that have been made in order to get the required quality (Caldwell 2004).
One of the key area s which can determine the quality of the products and services is the human resource department; the human personnel in an organization are responsible for the process of designing products and services to be offered by the organization.
It is also worth noting that it is the same people who will be responsible for the implementation of the developed plans so as to deliver quality. It is one thing to come up with good ideas, but implementing the same ideas into products and services is another thing.
In line with this, most of the organizations are making numerous efforts to ensure that they are able to recruit the best human resource personnel. They are carrying out rigorous recruitment exercises to ensure that they get the best-suited persons to fit the qualifications for the working personnel that they need in the organizations.
However, getting and maintaining a highly competent workforce also comes at a high cost especially in such a highly competitive workforce and therefore there is a need to continuously review the benefits and rewards which are offered to the workers to ensure that they are not poached by the competitors (Carter, Hirsh & Aston 2002).
This essay will, therefore, consider the process of resourcing for people in an organization as well as the formulation of a reward scheme to ensure that the workers who are recruited are well remunerated and rewarded and thus, their level of motivation is improved.
This is the only means through which an organization can ensure that they are able to offer quality services to their customers and that they build and maintain a good reputation in the market
People resourcing
In order to acquire a productive workforce, one of the most important aspects to consider is to ensure that the selection of the workforce is carried out in the best possible means. The importance of hiring the best people for the tasks at hand can be proven by the fact that most of the business organizations are taking the process of hiring the working personnel as a very serious exercise.
In most of the organizations, the workers recruitment exercise is very rigorous; the candidates vying for the posts are put through many tasks and interviews to determine whether they are suitable for the positions that need to be filled. The candidates are tested for mental sharpness, their mechanical reasoning, verbal reasoning, as well as their ability to think constructively when faced with a challenging task.
All of this emanates from the fact that the management of these organizations fully understands that in order to have a qualified workforce to meet the quality that is demanded by the customers in the market then the starting point is to hire the people with the right qualifications.
One of the best means of ensuring that the people are well managed in the organization is to ensure that there is a clear framework for guiding the workers in the process of carrying out their duties; people management is a critical aspect for the overall success in any organization and in line, with this, the management ought to formulate a clear framework for guiding the process of the training and management of the members of the organization (Dyer & Holder 1998).
It is important in the process of sourcing for workers to ensure that the management of the organization is able to retain the workers who are experienced and at the same time make efforts to ensure that fresh high-quality individuals are recruited from the market place to fill in any new posts the may arise.
The management of the organization needs to have the capability to develop a skill profile for the workforce, this profile should be developed at all the levels and it should be geared towards delivering improved service to the workers for all the customers.
The most important thing to remember in the recruitment and training of the workforce is to always keep in mind that ultimately the final consideration and priority should be given to the customers who will be buying and consuming the products.
Thus in employee resourcing the issues that need to be addressed should not only be about looking for people who understand the internal structure and mechanisms for the organization, but also about the people who are able to fully comprehend the external market and the requirements of the customers.
This will ensure that the management is able to cover all the possible shortfalls and that the competitors are not given any undue advantages in the market place.
There need to be a clear guideline on the promotion of the workers and any conditions that are associated with this promotion, this will ensure that all the workers fully understand and comprehend the current situation and in this way they are able to remain fully committed and dedicated to their work (Cappelli 2000).
When considering sourcing of workers for any openings that may be available for the organization, most of the organizations result in internal sourcing to fill these positions. Whereas this is a good trend and it enhances customer motivation, it is also important to consider that internal sourcing is also associated with a limitation of the creativity of the workers.
Since most of the workers have not experienced a working environment beyond the current organization, they might not be well aware of any new development and strategies that might help in the improvement of the production process so as to ensure that quality products are obtained to meet the customer needs.
In sourcing for workers some other aspects that are very important include the composition of the workforce in terms of the ethnic background and the regional balance; these factors play a key role in ensuring that the workers are able to be dynamic in their decision making as well as the process of being creative and coming up with new ideas that will be useful for the organization.
It is very important to address the challenges that are facing the current businesses and one of the ways in which this can be addressed is by ensuring that the recruitment process for the middle and senior management positions is done considering both the internal as well as external candidates.
This will improve the thinking process for the workers as well as ensuring the workers are able to be dynamic, creative and open-minded and are able to adapt to the changing nature of the market.
The staffs also need to be mobile and be in a position to easily adapt to any changes that may be required so as to improve the quality of the goods that are to be delivered to the workers. The expectations of the workers need to be clearly understood right from the time that they are hired; this will ensure that they understand what is required of them to meet the organizational challenges successfully (Brown 2001).
The planning of the work activities at the workplace needs to be done not only for the current work activities but also for the future activities that need to be carried out in order to maintain the profitability for the organization.
Finally, the recruitment process should be an all-out activity that involves the entire organizational management; this will ensure that all the members of the management are actively involved in the selection of the workers.
In this regard, all the heads of the departments need to be involved to ensure that the needs of their respective departments and the character traits that are necessary are well addressed and met in the people who are recruited to fill these positions.
Another method that can be used to make this process more successful is the use of an online recruitment process which will ensure that all the candidates who are invited for the interview are suitably qualified; an online test can be used and a pass mark can be set in order to ensure that all the candidates who are invited for the interviews at least do meet the basic requirements that have been set out.
Allocation of staff resources should be done in such a way as to ensure that there is an effective coverage of all the aspects of the recruitment process as well as the training and meeting the future growth needs and expectations of the workers.
People Strategy
In order to be able to effectively manage the workforce, it is very important to come up with a people strategy that will ensure that all the needs of the entire workforce are addressed.
The strategy that is formulated for the organization must be able to meet the requirements for the workers not only at the present time but also in the future; there must be efforts to comprehensively analyze the issues that are affecting the workers in the organization.
This analysis will make it possible to determine the levels to which the workers are needs have reached and the best way in which these need can be effectively met and maintained.
The senior management needs to have confidence in the strategies that have been put in place in the organization as well as ensuring that the policy that has been put in place to address the needs of the workers is a sound strategy that will enable the organization to meet its business goals and objectives (Caldwell 2004).
In order to remain fully competitive in the market place, it is important to ensure that all the members of the organization are given an opportunity to contribute effectively in the success that needs to be attained at the workplace. The ultimate success should be a result of teamwork and giving every employee to feel as a part of the team that contributed to this success will ensure that the motivation levels of all the employees are improved.
One of the best ways to build a culture of success in an organization is by ensuring that any achievement that is attained in the organization is owned by all the workers; no member of staff should feel alienated or left out in the process of celebrating success.
Teamwork should be encouraged and just as the workers are united and work together to achieve the success, the workers should also be able to come together to celebrate the success that they have been able to achieve.
This is what employee motivation is all about and it is always a very important tool in ensuring that the members of staff are able to deliver the required quality services and products within the timeframe that is available (Cappelli 2000).
Thus people strategy is a very important strategy that can be used to ensure that all the workers are considered and also ensure that the top management is in touch with the needs of the workers and in this case, the motivation levels will be highly improved and all the concerned parties will be satisfied.
Employee Rewards
After an organization has put in place strategies for ensuring that the recruitment process was carried in place considering all the needs of the organization and that the right personnel has been recruited to meet the available positions, it is then very crucial to ensure that the training process is carried out to meet the organizational needs.
The training period is a decisive moment whereby the management of the organization is able to meet and interact with those who have been recruited to determine whether really they are suitable to fit the positions that they were recruited to fill.
The training of the employees needs to be carried out in a systematic manner to ensure that the workers are made aware of what is expected of them and the roles and responsibilities that they are expected to play in delivering quality products to the customers.
After the employees have undergone training and they are aware of the expectations of the management then they are inducted into the duties that they are expected to perform and after that they are incorporated into the structure of the organization.
However, it is important to note that due to the competitive nature of the market today, the needs of the workers need to be well-considered and effectively managed (Carter, Hirsh & Aston 2002).
The management has an important responsibility of ensuring that all the workers are treated well and that the benefits that they receive will act as a motivating factor for them in the course of the performance of their duties. This, therefore, leads to a very important aspect in the form of employee benefits and rewards.
The employees value their jobs according to the treatment and attitude of the management towards them. It has become a common phenomenon in the current market for workers to seek employment elsewhere if they are not satisfied with the current working conditions; therefore, an organization needs to ensure that they give their workers a working environment whereby they feel comfortable.
It is worth noting that since the workers are expected to have a total dedication and commitment towards their work, the management should ensure that in the same way the workers feel valued by the organization and that their services are valued and treasured (CIPD 2005d).
The best way to recognize the efforts of the workers is to ensure that the rewards and the benefits that they get at the workplace give them a sense of value and belonging.
The workers must be remunerated at competitive rates, this will ensure that the loss of talented workers to the competitors in the market is avoided; it also ensures that the organization is in a position to attract new workers who can enable it to meet the goal of producing quality products to the customers.
The reward system must also be structured in such a way that any disparity that might exist within the system is reduced; the gap between the rewards for the workers who are engaged at the various levels should not be too wide.
The reward system must be viewed by the workers as being consistent with the duties that have been assigned to them; when setting the basic pay rates, the management needs to ensure that the rates that are set are in tandem with the standard rates that have been set by the regulation authorities.
It is important to remember that in the same way that the customers want to feel the quality for the money that they offer in exchange for the goods and services, the management also wants to get value for the remuneration that they give to the workers. On the same premises, the workers also want get good rewards as a compensation for the services that they are offering to the organization.
Therefore in the formulation of the reward system for the workers, the management needs to consider that the workers need to be given benefits that will leave them feeling that they are valued in the organization (Dyer & Holder 1999).
The management should put in place a system that encourages the workers to put in more efforts, this can be done by ensuring that in case workers are expected to work beyond their specified mandate or beyond the working hours that have been specified, then there is a reward system that is in place to cater for such a situation.
Therefore, beyond the basic pay the worker should be able to receive extra compensation either as an over-time payment or as a bonus; this will leave the workers highly motivated or they will also feel that their efforts are valued by the management.
Another important aspect of the reward system is the performance management at the organization; it is important to come up with a good system for reviewing the individual performance of the workers.
A basic standard should be set for the performance of the workers; this would effectively mean that all the workers are expected to meet that benchmark during the performance of their duties (Fitz-enj 2000). On the same basis, it is very crucial to set a means of managing the workers who are not in a position to meet the basic requirements that are required to enhance performance at the workplace.
The reward system should have a provision that can allow the workers to be able to earn more depending on their work efforts or needs. This can be by allowing the workers to take extra shifts or having rewards for working overtime or any other activities which might be done outside the stipulated working conditions for the workers.
There are also other rewards which are non-financial and which can play a crucial role in enhancing the motivation levels for the workers; these rewards might be applicable in cases whereby the workers need to be rewarded for long service at the organization, technical competence in a given field or carrying out specific job roles at the organization.
There are other rewards and benefits which can also be incorporated into the management structure to ensure that workers motivation levels are improved considerably. Such benefits might include medical cover for any injuries that might occur at the workplace or even any medical expenses that the employee might incur while working for the organization (Deloitte & Touche and Personnel Today 2002).
Towards this end the employees might also make a little contribution and the medical benefits can be extended to cover even the members of their families. Another benefit might include transport for the workers to and from work, which could play a crucial role in ensuring that the workers remain motivated in the course of working for the organization.
Conclusion
For any organization that is involved in business activities with the aim of making profit, the human resource personnel play a very critical role in the continuous provision of quality services to the customers. It is therefore very critical to ensure that only suitably qualified people are recruited to fill the positions that are available.
The training process needs to be thorough and rigorous so as to ensure that the workers are properly oriented on the duties that they are expected to perform at the workplace. However, the most important aspect in relation to the workers is to ensure that the management can be able to maintain a healthy and highly motivated workforce (Cooper 2000).
Motivation can be achieved by ensuring that the workers are rewarded adequately for their efforts at the workplace; a good and well-formulated reward scheme will ensure that the workers remain at the organization and others are also motivated to join it. Ultimately, a good reward system will ensure that the organization is able to continuously offer quality services to the customers.
Reference List
Brown, D. 2001, Reward Strategies, From Intent to Impact, CIPD, London
Caldwell, R. 2004, Rhetoric, facts and self-fulfilling prophesies: exploring practitioners’ perceptions of progress in implementing HRM, Industrial Relations Journal, 35(3), pp 196–215.
Cappelli, P. 2000, A market-driven approach to retaining talent, Harvard Business Review, January/February, pp 103–11
Carter, A., Hirsh, W. & Aston, J. 2002, Resourcing the Training and Development Function, Report No 390, Institute of Employment Studies, Brighton
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2005d) Reward Survey, CIPD, London.
Cooper, C. 2000, In for the count, People Management, 12 October, pp 28–33.
Deloitte & Touche and Personnel Today 2002, Measuring Human Capital Value, 2002 Survey, Deloitte & Touche/Personnel Today, London
Dyer, L. &Holder, G. W. 1998, Strategic human resource management and planning, in L Dyer (ed) Human Resource management: Evolving roles and responsibilities, Bureau of National Affairs, Washington, DC.
Fitz-enj, J. 2000, The ROI of Human Capital, American Management Association, New York.