Human Resources Sample Homework
Introduction:
This report is going to highlight the Human Resource related issues faced by ABC Systems, a leading company in the IT sector and analyze the most appropriate organizational structure along with laying down firm policies to address the issues. This report would also determine the importance of deploying a concrete personnel management, human resource management and strategic management system for smooth operations and overcoming employee resistance and dissatisfaction. In addition, the company`'s recruitment and hiring processes would be re-evaluated and changed according to the requirements so that the workforce is of the finest quality. For the purpose of thorough investigation and evaluation some major activities would be undertaken which include, Recruitment and Evaluation, Determining Objectives, Developing Strategies and Developing Policies. All these planning activities would help strengthen the company`'s internal policies and increase employee retention and satisfaction thereby leading to increased output. The strategies and planning would be done keeping in mind the expansion plans of the organization so as to compete with other companies in the market.
The Process of Evaluation, Investigation and Regulation about the appropriate organizational structure
ABC Systems is a fast growing company in the IT sector and with expansion the organization also witnessed an increase in the number of employees in the company. With no firm HR policies and a weak human resource department, the organization was facing numerous issues internally. Regular absenteeism and turnover, employee grievances against the company, low job satisfaction and morale amongst the employees are some of the problems that emerged. The Human resource department of any organization should be well-established since it is responsible for ensuring proper management of employees, laying down concrete policies and looking after the employee issues(Boudreau,2005). Although ABC Systems is way ahead in innovation and technology, its internal issues and increasing competition in the market are hampering its further growth. The Human Resource Division of an organization should ideally have four to five sub-divisions according to the requirements of the organization.
Approaches for Implementation:
In order to regularize the HR Department and policies a few planning activities are needed to be undertaken. Each planning activity would be divided into three stages; Evaluation, Investigation and Solution. On the basis of the theories of organizational behavior and management the planning activities would be analyzing the current scenario of the organization and then determining what can be the most appropriate and plausible solution for the problems at hand(Winstanley,2000). Extensive investigation and deep evaluation would be done at each level of the planning activity going to the root cause of each problem and then proceed further with laying down policies.
Furthermore, various employee retention strategies would be developed such as reward programs and timely incentives/promotions so that the employees give their one hundred percent to their respective jobs at hand (Boudreau,2006). Now, each issue faced by the company would be evaluated, investigated and the regulated one at a step-:
Recruitment and Staffing Policies:
One of the most serious issues faced by the organization was the lack of proper process for the recruitment of new personnel. The dire state of affairs was visible with quality of employees in the organization. The first HR department was not directly involved in the recruitment of many employees leading to degradation in the overall output of the organization(Lindsay,1996).
After evaluating the complete information the following changes and improvements are suggested-:
The HR department should look over the process of recruitment for each and every new employee. A Recruitment Cell should be formed within the HR department whose sole responsibility would be to look after the recruitment of employees. The method of recruitment of candidate is also of utmost importance. The candidates can be recruited in three ways which include Internal Recruitment, External Recruitment and Referrals.
Internal Recruitment-: This method of recruitment is highly recommended since it gives the employees a chance to earn promotion and also a sense of belonging. It also helps the company as the employee is already working with the organization and a fresh induction is not required. This method of recruitment also largely reduces cost of recruitment for the organization(Lindsay,1996).
Referrals-: This method of recruitment reduces the cost for the company and helps the HR personnel in identifying the suitable candidates.
External Recruitment-: This method of recruitment should be very strictly followed. The points that should be religiously followed while recruiting candidates externally include the preliminary screening, preliminary interview, general aptitude tests, technical expertise tests, psychometric tests and final face-to-face interview with the Hr.
After the candidate has been finalized, next is a very important stage of reference and background checks. It is very critical to do the background check to understand what the nature of the candidate is. It will help the Hr to identify whether the employee would stay with organization for a longer period of time or not( Useem,2005).
The reference check would help determine the quality of the work done by the candidate in the past. The final decision to keep or reject the candidate should be taken only after consulting with highest supervisory manager as the power of identifying the correct candidate comes along with experience. The recruitment process should not be focused only at the company`'s gain. It should also be flexible enough for the prospective candidates to come for interviews. The environment and reception of the candidates should be friendly and make them comfortable. In addition, to get the best candidate in the company should focus on providing good performance based bonuses, incentives and other benefits to the candidate(Hammonds,2005).
2. Employee Dissatisfaction-: A major issue faced by the company is regular absenteeism and low turnover of employees. A large number of newly recruited candidates left the organization in very short span of time. Major of the employees pointed out low job satisfaction, bad hr policies and very-high time/deadline pressure as the reason for their leaving the company.
An open and transparent human resource department is very important to help employees feel a since of belonging towards the organization. An Employee Helpdesk should be permanently set up in the HR department whose sole responsibility would be to cater to the queries and problems of the employees with prompt and appropriate solutions (Hammonds,2005) .
An open hall with the senior human resource personnel should be conducted every fortnight where the employees can ask questions openly about what and how things happen in the company. Not only should the employee ask questions but also the hr personnel should let their employees know how much business the company is doing and what are the future plans of the organization(Lindsay,1996).
Additionally, time to time interactions of the HR personnel with each team should be conducted in the absence of the manager of the team in order to understand the problems and expectations of the junior or mid-level employees. These employees are not able to express their dissatisfaction in the presence of the senior managers (Galbraith,2005).
The HR policies should be such that it gives the employees enough time to complete their work and also some time to relax during working hours. Extremely tight deadline and long overtime working hours can lead high job dissatisfaction which in turn would lead to very low quality output.
Contribution of Human Resource Department to enhance individual and Organizational Performance:
A very grave issue faced by the company was the ‘just in time’ attitude developed by the employees. The lack of planning and structure along with no firm hr policies lead to this attitude of employees towards their work.
At the time of joining and induction, the employees should be given a goal settings form in which they would clearly define what is their target and how much time they would take to complete it. The goal setting activity should be done by each employee in the presence of the reporting manager. The goal setting exercise would ensure that the employee understands beforehand how much work they are supposed to do in how much time. This would let them allocate and divide their time accordingly and thereby decreasing the pressure of end moment deadlines. This would consequently increase the quality and quantity of output of each employee(Useem,2005).
This activity would also enable the reporting managers/project leaders/team leaders to understand what the potential of each member of the team is. It would also help the manager/leader to identify which task to be assigned to whom in on the basis of the employee`'s preferences. An employee review exercise should be done at the end of each project or each month in the presence of the employee, reporting manager and hr personnel. A review form should be given to the employee consisting of questions related to his/her performance and then a rating. The reporting manager would then on in review the form and give the final rating in the presence of both the hr personnel and the employee (Galbraith,2005).
This activity would lead to complete transparency in the system. Both the employee and reporting manager would understand each other`'s requirements better. If not satisfied with his/her rating the employee can ask the manager where he/she lacks and improve on those points. This would lead to transparency in the system as the employees would no what rating they are getting and on what basis. They would have the right to ask questions if their rating does not seem justified to them.
Performance and Reward Strategy-:
Any organization that expects its employees to give their hundred percent must have a firm performance and reward strategy in place. The company should always follow an employee retention program to reduce the high level of turnover of high-performing employees. The really hard working and committed employees feel ignored and left out when not given any performance incentive and consequently start looking for other options. To retain its employees several bonuses, perks and incentives should given to the employees from time to time(Boudreau,2006).
The employee review form would enable the hr personnel to identify how each employee of the company has performed. The high-performing employees should be given bonuses in the form of a salary raise. The low-performing employees should also be treated with concern and the hr should discuss with them the issues they might be facing and what measures could be taken to improve their performance. Thus providing the employees some reason to work harder and produce better results(Kreitner,2001).
Each team should be marked on a performance meter and a budget should be finalized for each team on the basis of the revenue it generated for the company with which they can go for a team outing. This would help the team members to bond with each other, feel a sense of belonging towards the organization and thereby creating a comfortable environment for each employee to work in, directly leading to high outputs(Winstanley,2000).
Suggestions and Initiatives to promote harmonious and trusting environment-:
The Company should take steps and measure to create a harmonious and trusting environment amongst the employees. The more stressful and suspicious the environment is the lower is the quality of output of the employees(Boudreau,2005).
Team outings and team events once in a month are one of the best ways to promote harmony amongst the teams. Giving the team members some fun activities to involve would help them understand each other better and get the awkwardness out. Interaction and proper communication within the team is one of the most important factors that directly affect the team`'s performance. Celebrating the birthday of employees is another activity which creates a sense of belonging amongst the employees (Boudreau,2006).
Conclusion-:
Through the above mentioned human resource policies we can determine that well-established human resource management division can become the biggest strength for the organization. All the issues faced by the company can be alleviated by putting firm and transparent hr policies into place. Human Resource management refers to the management of the human workforce of the company and if the human workforce is not manage well the whole organization would suffer from low performance and output issues.
References:
Boudreau JW & Ramstad PM (2006). “Talentship and HR Measurement and Analysis: From ROI to Strategic Organizational Change,” Human Resource Planning, 29(1): 25–33.
Boudreau JW & Ramstad PM (2005). “Talentship and the New Paradigm for Human Resource Management: From Professional Practices to Strategic Talent Decision Science,” Human Resource Planning, 28(2): 17–26.
Galbraith JR (2005). Designing the Customer-Centric Organization: A Guide to Strategy, Structure and Process, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Hammonds KH (2005). “Why We Hate HR,” Fast Company, 97 (August): 40–46. Lawler EE III, Boudreau JW, & Mohrman SA (2006). Achieving Strategic Excellence:
Useem M & Useem J (2005). “Great Escapes,” Fortune (June 27): 97–102.
Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. (2001). Organisational behaviour (5th edn.). Boston: Irwin.
Lindsay, R.M., Lindsay, L.M., & Irvine, V.B. (1996). Instilling ethical behavior in organisations: A survey of Canadian companies. Journal of Business Ethics, 15, 393-407.
Winstanley, D., & Woodall, J. (2000). Ethical issues in contemporary Human Resource Management. Suffolk: Macmillan Business.
