Functions of HRM
1: The Human Resource Management of an organization is defined as a function within an organization that intends to recruit employees, retain them, look after their well-being as well as incentivize them. In today’s world, an organization in order to ensure its sustenance should not only focus on the financial resources, but should also manage its human resources in an effective way, as it is only the employees who deliver the work, offer products and services and looks after consumer well-being. Hence, the HRM is a system designed to employ, train as well as engages employees to perform respective tasks, for the overall successful operation of the company.
Initially, the function of HRM was to hire employees, staff the office, look after the financial matters so that each employee is able to get the compensation and benefits at the right time and terminate the employees if they are unable to deliver the assigned jobs satisfactorily. However, presently the function of the Human Resource Management has largely evolved as it performs a dynamic role in offering a sense of direction to the employees. Apart from the traditional functions, a HR manager is also expected to align the strategic goals of the organization with employee benefits, by formulating interesting incentive and compensation schemes for the employees (Meyer 2014). Again, the HRM also offers training facilities to the employees who do not possess the necessary skills and expertise to complete a work. At the same time, the HR manager presently recognizes the importance of ensuring a proper organizational culture, and hence organizes different seminars and workshops encouraging workplace diversity and effective leadership skills. Last but not the least, the HRM is also meant to formulate HR policies the employees are expected to abide by, and offer policy manuals and employee handbooks as well.
2. According to the Human Resource Managers, the success of an organization largely depends on the extent to which the company is able to engage and motivate its employees, and harness their skills. Hence, the financial resources cannot help in the sustenance of the company, and hence training and motivating as well as actively engaging the human resources form an important part of the organizational management of the company. The HR managers see the world as a place where everything can be achieved with the help of effective strategies. The strategies which are crucial for the growth of an organization must be aligned with the benefits of the employees (Liu 2015). This will not only help in motivating the employees, but also actively engage them in the organizational strategies of the company. Hence, although initially the HR managers used to see the organizational process by believing that just by offering salary and compensation to the employees, the organizational sustenance can be maintained, the HR managers presently see the world in a different way. In today’s world, the HR managers see the world differently. They believe that the world is a highly competitive place, with the presence of too many organizations, and hence they can easily lose their talented workforce to other organizations, which in turn will provide competitive edge to the latter. The HR managers see the world as a highly competitive place, where the sustenance of a company largely relies on the effective management of the skilled workforce. Hence, the HR managers believe that an organization can achieve competitive edge over the rival organizations, only if it can properly manage, train, and guide and motivate its human resources. The HR managers rightly believe that employee satisfaction will only lead to consumer satisfaction, and employee retention will lead to consumer loyalty.
Importance of HRM
3. In the last year, that in the year of 2016, the two industries that witnessed a huge growth in employment opportunity are the healthcare industry and the education industry. On the other hand, the industry, which witnessed a fall in the employment prospects in the last year, was the manufacturing industry. The healthcare industry offering curative, preventive and palliative care to the patients have been able to grow at a fast pace, and this accounts for it largest employment prospects in the last year. The aging population occupying a large part of the total population of most of the countries, the advent of modern technology as well as the modern lifestyle has made the healthcare industry indispensible (Hearn et al.2014). The Bureau of Labour Statistics has in fact predicted that the healthcare industry will be able to generate approximately 3 million new wage and salary jobs in the coming years. The demand for vocational courses as well as the rise of international universities offering the same has made the education industry a successful one.
The HR management considerations of the healthcare industry are as follows:
- The HR management will have to offer cross-cultural training to the healthcare experts so that they can offer service to the patients of different regions and ethnicity.
- The HR mangers will have to introduce the patient review and rating system based on which the healthcare expert’ performance will be reviewed (Plumb et al.2013).
- The introduction of a lucrative incentive scheme for those experts who show outstanding contribution by working overtime or going into the remotest areas for patient treatment will help in employee motivation and employee retention.
The HR management considerations of the education industry are as follows:
- The HR manger should encourage career growth facilities by arranging training facilities for the employees
- The HRM can also encourage employee referrals and internal recruitment to kee the staffs motivated via promotion
- Employment growth implies greater number of employees flocking in a single place, and hence offering training on organizational culture and importance of workplace diversity can help in effective management of employees.
The HR management considerations of the manufacturing industry are as follows:
- The HR Manager should train the employees and groom the existent ones
- The HR Manger should also communicate with the managers of the respective departments and consult and discuss regarding the immediate job positions that are vacant.
- The HR Manager should align the goals of the organization with the benefits of the employees.
4. The employees working in the organization (XYZ Limited) are expected to abide by a set of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour policies that are mentioned and explained below:
Offering proper assistance to the colleagues: In case a new employee is unable to perform his duty well, the experienced employees are expected to offer assistance to the new employees. It is important to note here that none of the employees offering help to the experienced employees should expect any form of financial return against the favour done. It is expected that the employees belonging to the same department will help each other as and when required, and if approached by a freshly recruited staff, the employees cannot refuse to help.
Becoming a representative for the company: In case an employee is on leave, or s/he has resigned from his or her position, the existent employees are expected to complete the remaining tasks . The employees will be asked to offer their little share of contribution and no employee shall refuse to work till the vacant position is filled again.
Helping the organization in future growth: The employees are expected that they will not be guided solely by personal short-term benefits, but will be able to contribute to the long-term sustenance of the company by focusing on the long-term vision of the company (Borman and Motowidlo 2014).
HR Management Considerations in Healthcare, Education, and Manufacturing Industries
Following organizational policies: The organizational policies have been formulated in order to ensure an effective workplace ambience and desirable organizational culture (Podsakoff et al. 2014). Hence, it is expected that the employees working at XYZ Limited will try their best to abide by the policies, the violation of which will attract penalties.
5. The job advert for the designation of a manger in a restaurant is as follows:
Fried Buns Hiring General Manager for its Restaurant Chain at Melbourne:
Fried Buns, the recognized Australian restaurant chain is looking for young, energetic and highly passionate Manager who can deliver exceptional service to our customers.
Job Functions:
- Monitor and administer the restaurant activities
- Accounts management
- Inventory management
- Review of employee performances
- Create production reports
- Manage the staffs and offer training opportunity to the staffs
- Get customer feedback and evaluate the same
Job Skills Needed:
- Possess a Diploma in Business Management Studies
- Possesses Effective leadership skills
- Have impressive communication skills
- Capable of strategic thinking
- Possesses analytical skills and logical skills
- Should be capable of critical thinking (Baker 2016)
- Must be able to coordinate with the other staffs and possess team spirit.
Salary: $54,469 per year. Salary is negotiable. Salary is no bar for the right candidates.
It is expected that the applicants applying for the designation of the Restaurant Manager posses relevant Diploma qualification in Management (or equivalent) with at least 2 years of experience in working in similar fields.
Experienced candidates having experience in the restaurant industry will be preferred. However, freshers may apply too.
Interested candidates are requested to come down for an interview within the next 7 days along with a resume and appear for an interview between 1 PM to 3 PM sharp at our Melbourne location.
6. The employees of an organization will work productively only if they are motivated enough, and since organizational growth is directly linked with employee performance, it is important to note which factors will exactly help in driving employee performance. First of all, every one works for money, and hence offering good pay scale and offering financial incentives in the form of bonuses will always drive employee performance. However, if the employees are well-aware that they will be able to earn a minimal salary even if they stop being productive, they will become easily complacent. Hence, to keep on increasing the efficiency rate of the employees, the organizations should not only offer a good pay scale, but to retain them, must offer lucrative incentive schemes, so that the employees working overtime feel recognized for their outstanding efforts (Shields et al.2014). The introduction of performance appraisal schemes also drives employee performance. As and when the employees realize that they are being observed and that their performance is being evaluated, they will feel driven to put more efforts to the task at hand. Again, if the employees feel valued, they will feel more driven at work, and this is the reason many organizations believe in offering training and development opportunities to its employees at free of cost. When the employees find the organization they are working for, valuing them and showing concern for their professional advancement, they also start working with greater enthusiasm. Finally, good leadership style of the leader also helps in driving the performance of the employee. In case the manager or the officer an employee is working under adopts an effective leadership strategy, communicates the immediate goals of the organization and explains the role of the employee in an effective way, the employee will feel more motivated to work harder.
Job Skills Needed
7. The Diversity Policy of XYZ Limited, Australia is as follows. Each of the employees working in the organization is expected to strictly abide by the policies stated blow:
- The organization will maintain a workplace portfolio that will ensure workplace diversity
- Employees will be recruited and promoted on the basis of skill, merit and performance. No form of cultural or sexual bias shall be entertained in the process of employee recruitment and employee appraisal.
- In order to ensure an inclusive workplace environment, the organization will follow a reservation policy, whereby a minimum of 2 employees belonging to the female sex and 2 employees belonging to non-Australian origin will have to be selected as members of the corporate board.
- A diversity council is being set up with the purpose of letting the organization review the diversity strategy and evaluate the effectiveness of the diversity policy of the organization (Bond and Haynes 2014).
- If any employee belonging to the higher management authority is being found to be involved in any act that exhibits his biased tendency in treating or favouring the employees of a specific cultural background or sexual orientation, heavy penalty will be imposed upon him.
- In case any employee is being accused of assaulting any employee belonging to a minor ethnic group, immediate action will be taken against him or her.
8. The human resource management of an organization plays a highly important role in ensuring the success of an organization, and hence it would be interesting to think what the future holds for the HRM. In the coming years, lesser employees would be interested in working 9 to 5 at office, and thus more flexible work schedule such as work from home facilities will be introduced by the HR managers. Intranet, internal social platforms, internal “Facebook”, and many other ways of promoting online collaboration and communication across the company will be part of HR responsibilities in the future. In future, it is expected that the HR function will evolve further, become more dynamic and will be more integrated, requiring employees possessing diverse skills and expertise (Cleveland et al. 2015). The copy writers will be hired for advertising for the vacant positions, while socially active people will brand the company and attract potential employees and again data scientists will be hired for reading the data and forecasting future trends in business.
Reference List:
Baker, T., 2016. The Job Description and the New Contract. In The End of the Job Description (pp. 63-78). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Bond, M.A. and Haynes, M.C., 2014. Workplace diversity: A social–ecological framework and policy implications. Social Issues and Policy Review, 8(1), pp.167-201.
Borman, W.C. and Motowidlo, S.J., 2014. Organizational citizenship behavior and contextual performance: A special issue of human performance. Psychology Press.
Cleveland, J.N., Byrne, Z.S. and Cavanagh, T.M., 2015. The future of HR is RH: Respect for humanity at work. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), pp.146-161.
Hearn, G., Bridgstock, R., Goldsmith, B. and Rodgers, J. eds., 2014. Creative work beyond the creative industries: Innovation, employment and education. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Liu, C.Y., 2015. Human Resources Management Process Transformation through HR Shared Services Center Mode: A Case Study of T Holdings Corp.
Meyer, M., 2014. HR Professional Practice Standards to strengthen the HR Management System: HR standards: update.
Plumb, M., Kent, C. and Bishop, J., 2013. Implications for the Australian economy of strong growth in Asia. Reserve Bank of Australia.
Podsakoff, N.P., Podsakoff, P.M., MacKenzie, S.B., Maynes, T.D. and Spoelma, T.M., 2014. Consequences of unit?level organizational citizenship behaviors: A review and recommendations for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(S1), pp.S87-S119.
Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., Robinson, J., O’Leary, P. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.