The Role of HR

• Explanation of the role of HR and the contribution that effective HR management makes to effective business management in differing types of organisation/sectors.?

• An identification of the legal and organisational requirements laid on business in relation to equality and diversity, and HR s role in ensuring that all legal obligations are met  ?

• An identification of the reasons for the need to recruit and retain a flexible labour force in all organisations and an identification of the HR strategies used to achieve this aim.?

• The provision of a critical analysis of the main perspectives on HRM in the academic literature and an identification of  the similarities and differences between current HRM perspectives?

Human resource management is a significant part of the organization mainly concerned with the dimension of “people” or “workforce”. Employees are considered to be the asset of an organization which shall lead a company towards a sustainable growth.  Moreover, HRM is an approach that consist of four key functions i.e. recruitment of people, staffing, training, development and motivation of employees (Alfes, 2013).  In other HR management is involved in four main activities that include getting people, preparing them, stimulating them and retaining them.

The purpose of the discussion is to analyze the role of HR in contemporary business. Moreover, this report will shed light on the role and contribution made by HR management in varied organization and sector thereby giving rise to an effective business management.

The role of Human Resource significantly revolves around acquiring the right talent in order to develop a company’s competitive advantage. An effective HR management considers efficient recruitment and selection process of candidates that can only done with a clear knowledge about the type of talent needed by the company. Moreover, the human resource initiatives put forwarded by multinational companies or contemporary business models enforce on building cross-cultural workforce (Amarakoon, Weerawardena and Verreynne, 2013). The trend to develop diversified workforce is increasing at a higher rate with the focus to get the most of diverse ideas   from people having different cultural background. According to Buller and McEvoy (2012), the concept of “integration and learning perspectives” is eventful for an organization as it adds value, augment synergy, and directly contribute in strategic growth of business. However, Caligiuri (2014) opined that, companies or HRM should should integrate and value the skills, insight and experiences that employees tends to acquire over time as a part of their cultural uniqueness. Hence, the recommended approach clearly promote relationship building  that leads to cooperation- an initiative to  work together that the international HR counter parts can help facilitate.

Staffing Objectives

 Moreover, the functioning of HR supports the underlying objectives and not only ensures its compliance with the legislation but also enable an effective move towards strategic development. The HRM objectives are considered in details below:

HR ensures staffing of the right person that is available at the right time in the right place (DuBois and Dubois, 2012).HR is responsible to implement appropriate recruitment and selection process considering the nature of job. In addition, HR must ensure that the people recruited are retained either offering them with development process or reward systems. 

Once the staff is recruited they should be motivated to perform. Performance targets can be introduced through development processes and appraisal programs where employers invite the staff members to have a discussion about their future ambitions and performance (Edwards, M.R. and Edwards, 2013). In addition, HR management is responsible to develop necessary strategies to enable the employees meet their ambition.

For example, House of Fraser store make use of appraisal programs with the focus to enable its staff receive training in specific domain, for personal development and improvement skills.  Such an approach by House of Fraser is done not only improve expertise but also to identify future managers in line.

Change management is essential for organizations in order to keep up with the fast pace of development in contemporary businesses. Organizations should be flexible and adaptable, which is enforced by the HR management to maintain the objectives and policies in place to manage change (Jamali, El Dirani and Harwood, 2015).

For example, The market share of Apple computers was declined due to the monopoly of Microsoft Windows OS. However, the company is now leading the way in music technology on re-inventing itself with the iPod. Hence, it is evident that, Apple would have faced a tough time to respond the rapid changes without implementing a change management in system. Hence to achieve this, the process of recruitment, selection and development strategies needs to be feed into the objectives of change management.

 This portion of the paper broadly discusses about the significant functions and role played by Human resource management in contemporary business model. Shedding light on the functions, the four key functions of HR are considered in details below:

HR department is responsible for a range of target hiring that are established prior to filling up a position based on the following criteria:

Budgeted fund for the position

Performance Objectives

Identification of experience or skills suitable for the position

Paying salaries by assessment of the relevant competitive market

The hiring budget in case of contemporary businesses must range between $3000 to $8500.For certain highly specialized positions , a wider spread should be appropriate

HR department is responsible to maintain regular records of employees that include attendance, time-keeping, maintenance of discipline, etc (Jiang et al. 2012).  In addition, HR duty comprises of Payroll maintenance of employees. Their payroll functions involve balancing and reconciling of payroll data, depositing and reporting of taxes.  Moreover, the HR payroll department takes care of record keeping, wage deduction, and verifying the reliability of employee payment data.

The salary of hire or internal promotion is determined by the effective negotiation by the HR department. A demotion normally requires a reduction in salary. The negotiation of salary for hiring, lateral job changes, promotion or demotion is established by the HR department considering the following factors (Knies et al. 2015).

Individual experience and credentials are compared with those in similar positions within the employing unit.

Individual experience and credentials are compared to the relevant market.

The expected level of performance of an individual is considered

HR department facilitate the employee-employer relationship by enforcing employee relations programs which forms a typical part of Human resource strategy (Minbaeva et al. 2013). This significant program put into effect consistent and fair treatment to all employees, focuses and resolves issues that affects employee performance, support work-life balance, consider pay and benefits, offer safe working environment.

Employment legislation needs to be adhered encompassing the areas of equal opportunities, diversity management, dealing with remuneration and compensation, reward system, retention and training programs (Park, 2012). The HR department must follow the employment legislation mainly the Civil rights act 1964 that made discrimination against employee recruitment respective to   race, religion, color, nationality as illegal. It also  fosters the employees to  follow fair practices  in relation to hiring, training,  payment, promotion and benefit, virtually all  encompassing activities  related to HRM.

The HRM should be integrated and organized in a way to fit within the organizational structure and fulfill its mission thereby making an overall organizational development. Referring the Michigan model, HRM focuses on strategic control by putting the systems in place for managing people (Purce, 2014). Organizational development is evident when HRM can effectively identify the needs of human assets and potentially manage to attain the strategic goals.

Change Management

HR professionals tends to posses three significant roles that include strategic partnership, employee advocate, change mentor

HR professionals act as strategic partners with the business by demonstration of support for the organizational strategies, deliver value, and thereby demonstrate credibility. Increasing credibility leads to intensify trust, which in turn cements the position of HR department as a strategic partner in the organization. 

HR professionals’ plays the role of employee advocate by encompassing their involvement in day to day problems, needs of employees, workforce concerns, solve their issues, etc.  As an employee advocate HR professionals make a clear alignment between the employee interest and organizational goals and objectives  which in turn  intensify a positive psychological contract between the employee and employers(Rahman, Mondol and Ali, 2013).

HR professionals act as the mentor for employees in order to make them familiar with the organizational change by providing personal support,  increasing their confidence,  Revitalizing their interest in work, as a whole it provides a positive angle of the changes taking place.

Conclusion

Every organization operates with significant mission, vision and objectives in order to achieve competitive growth and long term sustenance. Business organizations implement strategies to achieve organizational growth, improve market penetration, increasing their sales products and make profit as a whole. All of the factors are driven by efficient group of people. This is when the role of HR comes into play as all of the above mentioned objectives can be obtained by the deployment of human resources in place.

References

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