Introduction
Managing human resource in an international company is considered one of the most challenging tasks for managers and other executives in overseas companies. Human resource managers for overseas offices must keep close contact with office bearers located miles away from their own offices. Effective communication skills enhance and facilitate coordination of activities done in these overseas offices.
In Costco, the real issues surrounding human resource management were made clear through their specific roles present in the company. Apart from the theoretical skills, exposure is as important as any other skill involved in decision making. The following are the skills that are useful in decision making as the head of human resource for overseas offices in multinational companies.
Roles of Managers
Managers are hired to ensure work is done, implying that there are people above them who give directions to managers; these directions are finally passed onto the subordinates. Moreover, managers should establish a good relationship with their subordinates. I
n contrast, leaders do not have subordinates; rather, they tend to have a charismatic and transformational management style. Leaders have to remain humble and show empathy to positively influence their subordinates (Leban & Klein 2005, p. 32).They must remain appealing to their followers, attract their attention and fully utilize their skills and knowledge.
They tend to build the best out of the followers through encouraging them, and showing the best they can become if they accept to work ‘out of their hearts’ rather than from instructions. While managers focus more on work, leaders focus on people. They tend to be good but not always friendly. Efficient managers do their duties in a charismatic way to remain outstanding and unique from junior employees (Leban & Klein 2005, p. 33).
Effective Management Strategies
Human resource managers are responsible for setting out the company’s goals and objectives. This department sets up the code of conduct which employees must follow in their day to day activities. It therefore develops the overall culture in the organization (Gerson 2009, p. 67). In order to achieve an effective culture within the company, the leaders and the management strive to display the characteristics of both the management and leadership styles.
They have recognized the relationship that exists between them and the employees. Business leaders and managers must employ maximum commitment and enthusiasm towards every person in order to distinguish the effective and ineffective followers and subordinates (Leban & Klein 2005, p. 56).
Information element is an important tool that managers and leaders of any business organization use to support the employees way of making decisions and the improvement of their performance towards the best of their ability.
Methods of Performance Management
Communication Skills
The human resource manager must show the highest degree of communication abilities, whether vocal, written or electronic. The manager must be able to express himself and convey the information easily and accurately. The manager must also be clear in words and nonverbal communication.
This would ensure that there is fluency and understanding between the employees and the managers. Without proper communication capabilities, it becomes hard to develop a good relationship between the managers and staff members.
Managers need to know how to approach their colleagues either when they want to compliment them or show dissatisfaction. In whatever situation, composure and confidence reflect the manner in which the junior employees think about managers. The managers should have excellent and unique communication skills, in order to establish a stronger network between the senior and junior staff.
There is a realization that one needs significant knowledge in communication skills from communication class, but there was perceived gains in the largest portion of it in the field. Through taking courses in international languages, such as French, Spanish and English, the languages were improved.
Provision and Facilitation of Training and Education
Regional managers and other managers in overseas offices must be provided with management skills to facilitate effective activities and maximize profit (Nankervis, Compton, Baird & Coffey 2011, p. 45). Continued education provides good means of providing employee development, which motivates them with an aim of getting the best service from them.
From various experience in human resource management there were skills in international training through video, audio and internet. Through the use of effective management all possible methods were used to train new and novice workers in remote offices.
There are different categories in training. One of these categories is the refresher training, the other one involves introduction of a purely new concept. The refresher course entails a frequent training process that keeps the employees knowledge fresh and active. If it becomes dormant, knowledge tends to get erased from individuals’ minds.
Dormant knowledge can be defined as ideas and skills that were hitherto acquired by an individual, but have stayed for a long time without being replicated in practice. Such knowledge is very common among employees since most company activities involve a repeated sequence of operations, which leave other prior acquired knowledge dormant.
The dormant knowledge is very important since it helps companies maximize on certain opportunities. For this reason, successful managers are supposed to tap relevant knowledge for the benefit of the company. The other category of training involves increasing the already existing knowledge of the employees.
This mostly happens when a company changes its technology and other applications. In order to keep up with the new ideas and concepts, managers should formulate training programs for all their staff members.
Formulation and Implementation of Policies and Procedures
There have been experiences from management positions concerning formulation of effective policies for guiding regional managers in day-to-day work at their place of work.
These officers always request for guidance from the head office especially when a problem occurs at their work place, and thus, the human resource manager must always be ready to provide the best solution and advice to counter the problem. This taught me the need to apply the technique of troubleshooting.
Company policies should be followed by all the employees irrespective of the positions they hold. Implementing these policies requires a collaborative initiative between all the senior management officials to ensure a thorough representation and distribution of duties.
Policies are formulated depending on either external pressure, or internal objectives of the company. In the case of external policies, the managers must ensure that all the employees are well conversant with the specifications and contents of the policies. This makes the implementation program smooth and easy.
The manager’s role as a mentor to the junior staff should be reflected in his ability to observe and show obedience to the available policies. For any procedural requirements, managers are taken as leaders and the junior level employees always look up to them for guidance and assistance.
Through collaborative and consultative approaches, managers are in a position to offer guidelines that outline the employees who should perform various tasks, while still doing this within the policies’ requirements.
Financial Control Skills
Through the courses taken in accounts and economics, there were guidance in the facilitation of financial control, in addition to coordinating finance department to ascertain budget revenue on monthly basis based on contracts and percentages.
These skills include those required to review compensation and benefits to overseas employees of the company, salaries and wage ranges, contracts and oversight of negotiations of employment programs.
Companies are established on financial stability. This means that all the finances to and from the company should be well monitored to avoid experiencing losses that may be harmful to the company. Although the human resource manager is the person who is charged with the responsibility of taking care of the welfare of employees, there are some financial responsibilities that are attached to this position.
These responsibilities vary according to each managerial position, but their objectivity is ensuring stability and accountability from each individual. Following the relevant financial management strategies and documenting each transaction made, ensures finances are properly used within a company.
Human Resource Management
Human beings make the most resources in all business firms. By conducting training on several human resource management techniques, this was provided by the company. This training was guidance to the human resource manager especially to coordinate human resources and to address the issues and problems concerning this field. The human resource manager is one of the most challenging positions in a company.
This is because of the direct interactions made with all the company’s labor force, including managers, and senior and junior staff. In addition, this position acts as the pillar of an organization. If the human resource was to collapse, then the entire company would certainly collapse.
Combining corporate affairs with individual preferences and characters is a challenging concept. For this reason, frequent seminars and training for the human resource manager are not only mandatory but also essential.
While working at Costco, I realized the need for frequent refresher and update seminars in order to remain vibrant and effective in the managerial position. Understanding the underlying responsibilities through conducting frequent review of the policies and guidelines helps in maintaining a unified work force for increased production.
Leadership Skills
Human resource managers must coordinate labor flow in all offices located locally and in overseas branches of the company. For the human resource manager there are opportunities to learn leadership skills as well as meeting other high profile and very successful human resource managers working for multinational companies.
Leadership does not entail only giving commands. It is made up of a collection of responsibilities and obligations which are influenced by an individual’s ability to reason and inspire the other people around them.
The ability to make decisive actions towards the growth of the company is one of the expectations a leader cannot evade. In order to be a good leader, there are several traits that must be possessed and upheld. Firstly, a leader must be well informed and educated than the rest of the team. For this reason, leaders must always have an urge to learn new things.
Leaders should also be very rational and sound-minded. This enables them to make decisions that are fair and development-conscious. Rationality ensures that decisions made are not influenced by personal tastes and preferences, but rather by logic and objectivities of the company.
Therefore, it is the duty of each leader to dedicate his knowledge and abilities to the success of the organization he heads. Learning to listen to advice from the junior staff is also another trait that should be possessed by excellent leaders. This aspect ensures that various alternatives are available to choose from during decision-making processes.
Involvement of the employees in some levels of decision making process is an important tool in ensuring that a fit culture is developed in the company, especially where such decisions affect the employees and their environment.
In addition, managers should also ensure that the resources of the organization are only applied towards the activities which bring in significant returns and improve the quality of the products thus satisfying the customers (Nankervis, Compton, Baird & Coffey 2011, p. 54). The top management must be actively involved in ensuring that the customers get maximum satisfaction from the products the company offers for sale.
In modern businesses, there are challenges which affect the way a healthy culture within an organization is developed. Managers must therefore initiate strategies in alignment with the company’s mission and objectives. Culture must be constructed socially, and conversations as well as dialogues should be a key tool here.
Any initiative must in turn be in line with the reality, while managers and leaders must act as catalysts or bridges in creating new understanding and guiding employees to adopt new behaviors, or to improve what they already practice. It is the responsibility of managers and other leaders in business to identify clarify and highlight the understanding of actions and principles that construct the desired culture (Gerson 2009, p. 73).
It is important for leaders in business develop pilot studies to test the effect of the new culture on the employees, the customers and other parties involved in day-to-day running of the business. The leaders should, at this level, ask themselves questions related to the new cultures.
Credibility of a company as well as the ability to influence customer loyalty is influenced by the organization’s ability to maintain a clean culture of quality, extemporary services and accountability, among other business requirements. For this reason, it is the manager’s role to ensure that each of these aspects is maintained at its highest standard.
By formulating effective management strategies, they are in a position to influence loyalty and trust. Cultivating accountability and efficiency from the employees requires proper employer-employee relationships as well as mentorship facilities to ensure growth and overall success of a company. This concept became clear to me while serving as at Costco.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the skills and exposures gained from the field have put me in a position to work with multinational companies as operational manager for any company. I feel comfortable when I say that I am quite an experienced human resource manager, and specifically for overseas coordination of offices.
I am also at a better position to pass this knowledge to other students in the management class, and to influence them through encouraging them to take similar positions. Although it is a challenging position, human resource management is an important career especially to multinational companies with overseas offices that require coordination from a central point.
References
Gerson, L, 2009, The Costco experience: An unofficial survivor’s guide, E-reads/E-rights, New York, NY.
Leban, B, & Klein, A, 2005, Managing organizational change, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey, NJ.
Nankervis, A, Compton, R, Baird, M & Coffey, J 2011, Human Resource Management: Strategy and Practice, Cengage Learning, South Melbourne.