FBLT050 Human Resource Management : Exploring the Mediating Role of Fairness

Provide an assessment of how the purpose and functions of Human Resource Management (HRM) applicable to workforce planning and resourcing can provide Google with appropriate talent and skills in relation to fulfilling its business objectives.  

 

Provide a critical evaluation ofthe strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection adopted by Google supported by specific examples

 

Provide a critical evaluation of HRM practices and application within Google in terms of enhancing organisational profit, productivity and employee motivation using a range of specific examples in relation to at least 2 of the following areas :

You are the newly appointed Human Resource (HR) manager of Facebook and you recently have had a vacancy in the HR department for the position of an HR administrator. The HR director, Ms Susan Robertson wants to assess your skills in relation to recruitment and selection and have asked you to carry out the following tasks:

Instructions for the tasks:

You are required to work in a small team (3-5 members) and prepare the following documentations to take part in a selection role play interview whereby you need to interview two candidates from an opposite team for the position of a HR administrator for Facebook. The selection role play activity should be between 5-10 minutes.

Introduction:

Human Resource Management is one of the major aspects of the management in any business organization. Human Resource Management (HRM) refers to the management and control of the people of the organizations. On the other hand, the HRM can be denoted as the formal system of management of the people within an organization for ensuring the intended and better performance of the fir in the market. In this regard, it must be mentioned that every organization must have a HRM department who takes care and manages the people of the organization. At the same time, the HRM of the firm is dependent on various factors as well as the same influences various aspects of the firm. The major areas of the HRM are the staffing, recruitment, employee retention, performance management and many others. However, the basic responsibility of the HRM is to the efficient employees for the longer times along with management of the same. For serving the said purpose the HRM conducts various activities that make the firm to retain the employees of the organization and attracts others to join the same. Along with this, it can also be mentioned that the HRM of the organization is responsible for making the business grow and maintain the usual workflow within the organization by properly managing the people of the same. Therefore, it can be said that the HRM is one of the important and necessary part of the organization the directly and indirectly ensures the firm’s profit from its business.

Task 1:

Organization Overview:

Google is one of the largest American multinational technology companies which provide almost every internet related services to the people all over the world. From online technologies to cloud computing, Google is the provider of every service related to internet. In fact, Google is the most popular and trusted search engine throughout the world. Google was founded in the year 1998 and gradually started gaining popularity for its wide range information and service across the globe (Karodia and Thomas 2014). Google has no such competitors in the market and running its business in the market of apps, browsers and smartphones.

Human Resource Management of Google:

The purpose of the HRM of any organization including google is to manage the people of the organization with regard to the organizational activities. The major approach of the HRM is based on the recruitment and selection and the workforce planning. The workforce planning of HRM determine the proper management of organizational activities in a systematic way, while the recruitment and selection refers to the employment of the new people in the organization. The HRM is responsible for incorporating a systematic approach to the planning of workforce for performing respective responsibilities. On other side, the HRM also responsible for recruiting and selecting eligible employees for organization activities.    

Purpose and Function:

The purpose of workforce management of google to maintain systemic activities of the employees in terms of meeting the organizational activities. The aim of the recruitment and selection process is to ensure the enrichment of the workforce with eligible and competent employees. In order to ensure the success of the company in all over the world, the HRM of the company emphasized on the maintenance and retention of high quality and skilled human resource along with the smartness and excellence of same. The functions of the HRM of Google are recruitment, selection, performance management, employee motivation and retention. These functions of Google are determined by the workforce planning and resourcing which is another aspect of Google’s HRM for talent and skill acquisition for achievement of the business objectives.

Critical Evaluation of Recruitment and Selection Approaches of Google:

Google uses both internal and external approaches for its recruitment process of rich human sources into the he company. The different stage of the recruitment and selection approaches are HR plan, job analysis, job descriptions, CV screening, candidate attraction, job advertisement and many others. The internal recruitments are transfers, internal job posting, promotions and recommendations and the external recruitments process are headhunting, advertisement and job posting on different website of Google.

Internal Recruitment:

Strengths:

The strengths of the internal recruitments and selections are the process is quicker and cheaper, the people to be recruited are already familiar with the organization’s business. Furthermore, this process provides a scope for promotion.

Weaknesses:

The weakness of the approaches implies that the candidates are already aware with the deficiencies of the firm and also the number of candidates are limited. In addition, the internal recruitment creates vacancy within the organization that needs to be filled.

External Recruitment:

Strengths:

 The new people bring innovative ideas which can be helpful for the firm. Along with this, the candidates from the outside may have wide range of work experience in the same domain.

Weaknesses:

The external process of recruitment and selection takes longer times. On addition, this process is expensive and complicated as it involves number of procedures for selecting the best candidates.

Critical Evaluation of HRM Practice of Google:

Among the various HRM practice of Google, the performance management and flexible working practice are the major ones that can be critically evaluated.

Performance Management:

Google is into the performance management of the employees for ensuring their continuous efficiency development which further leads the company to increase productivity. Performance management defines the management of the performance of the employees by the employers in order to enhance the productivity.  The performance management of Google is aimed at the employee retention and for the same the company provides customized performance reviews in order to specifically cater to the Smart Creatives 360-degree feedback. The feedback provides the employees to self-evaluate their performance in terms of skill development. For example, the staffs get the opportunities to improve their competencies and performance.

Figure 1: Performance Management

Source: Dewettinck and van Dijk 2013

Flexible Working Practice:

The flexible working practice of Google enables the employees to multitask and complete the given task smoothly and quickly. The HRM of the organization uses policies that includes number of opportunities for the employees to acquire the flexible working practice.  Google believes that flexible working practice is capable of retaining the employees and enhancing their motivation. Google is benefitting the from the flexible working practice in terms of execution of the same with regard to the Akinson’s model of flexible working practice. One of the benefits are multitasking staffs are employed for more than one responsibilities. The example of the flexible working practice are homeworking and flexible hours which not only motivates the employees but also ensure organizational profits.

Critical Evaluation of Employee Relation of Google:

Employee relation the major and primary aspect of Google which is aimed at the enhancement of the employee motivation and skills and the with regard to the increase of productivity and profit. The effectiveness and importance of maintaining meaningful employee relation is to influence the decision making of the firm. For example, Google encourages the employees to participate in the decision making process through various internal surveys. In regard to this, it must be mentioned that Google uses psychological contract between employees and employers in order to maintain a meaningful and understanding relationship within the same. This contracts influence the decision making process in terms of effective employee relationship approaches.

Key Employment Legislation: 

The HRM practice of Google also consider the key employment legislation as the same influence the decision making process of Google within the organization. For example, the Equity Act 2010 is followed by Google to ensure the avoidance of any discrimination while making decisions. Health and Safety Act 1974 is another employment legal consideration practiced by google in decision making that secures the health and safety of the employees within the workplace.

Conclusion:

Therefore, it can be concluded from the above report that the HRM practice of the Google is well organized and well managed. The report discussed various recruitment and selection approaches that are contained with both advantages and disadvantages. However, the HRM practice of the firm involves number of process like performance management and flexible working practice for enhancing the productivity and organizational profit of Google. On the other hand, the organization also emphasizes on the employee relation and key employment legislation for having a proper decision making process.   

Reference:

Dewettinck, K. and van Dijk, H., 2013. Linking Belgian employee performance management system characteristics with performance management system effectiveness: exploring the mediating role of fairness. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(4), pp.806-825.

Karodia, A.M. and Thomas, S., 2014. Human Resources Practices at Google in Terms of Some Management Perspectives: Exploring the Entrepreneurial Spirit. Nigerian Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 2(3), pp.15-27.