The Effectiveness of HR policies and Practices

Human Resource Management plays a vital role in the management of the company. Department of HR involves in the management decision as well as practices in the workforce, which directly influenced the people or human resource (Bratton and Gold, 2017). It could be considered as the main aspect of evolving individuals to get the best out of them and refining their work for better performance at the workplace (Bailey et. al., 2018). The main role of human resource management is to design, implement, as well as maintain the strategies to manage the employees for proper business performance which also cover the policy of development. The HR also involves evaluating the people those who are operating in the company or business (Brewster, Chung and Sparrow, 2016).

Moreover, Human Resource Management is a sequence of actions that is one of the essential aspects of any existing companies. It has clear intentions that are to be trained by other staffs in order to get an expected set of goals for the organization. HRM is a mean of motivating the employees, working in an organization, response to the grievances, training, the process of recruitment and selection (Albrecht et. al., 2015). In the recent scenario, the HR department greatly influenced the management of the organization by implementing various strategies. They are the main key of success in an organization such as HR of Microsoft play a vital role in their organization, their work starts from the process of recruitment to the management of the whole organization that made the company more effective and able to compete in a competitive market (Brewster, 2017).

In the following part, there will be a detailed discussion on the effectiveness of the HR policy which helps the company to grow in a competitive market as well as the factors which greatly influenced the practiced of HR within the workplace

HRM policies are the rules and regulations or procedures which helps an organization to achieve its goals effectively. HRM policies are designed in such a manner that maximum utilization of the resource is there in order to have a competitive advantage. As most of the population are aware that business or companies do work in a dynamic environment which requires constant monitoring and support by which companies are ready for the changes which are going to happen in near future (Paille et. al., 2014). It analyse the needs and requirement of the future and molds its policies accordingly. Flexibility is one of the key parameters which are required in this dynamic surroundings, it helps the business to have first mover advantage.  HRM is one of the critical segments of an organization and its policies and procedures decide the success of an organization. If HRM policies are flexible enough then companies are able to do the planning and control can be done effectively which gives the organizations added advantage from the competition and by moving early changes in to the system helps the companies to capture the market without any hustle and if there is proper palling companies can utilize the resources effectively (Pfeffer, 2014).

Microsoft

Microsoft is one of the global giants in the software industry across overseas. It has expertise in development, manufacturing, Licenses and holds a huge range of products and services majorly focusing on computers. It is based out of USA and its headquarters are in the USA only. In Microsoft, Mission and visions are aligned in such a manner that it helps and guide all its employees and businesses associated with it to utilize their full capabilities in achieving better results (Ulrich and Dulebohn, 2015). The Prime reason for taking up this company is due to skills, capabilities, knowledge, and expertise in their field that companies goals are achieved without hustle. Therefore, to justify effective HRM policy and process can help companies in delivering strategies effectively and have the added competitive advantage. In this report, we would be seeing how human resource policies help Microsoft in achieving effectively (Raza and Tariq, 2016).

To understand this concept, there is need to understand that businesses do work in a dynamic environment which involves many factors associated to it i.e. innovation, competition, technological advancement and so on which plays a vital role in the success of the organization. At times, companies have to amend its policies and procedure just to cater the need of the hour. From Microsoft viewpoint, the knowledge of the employees should be increased at any cost as they are the major reasons for the success of the company in addition to it if the company is required to hire new resources it should do so that overall business could be benefited out of it (Mullins, Brandes and Dharwadkar, 2016). Most of the individuals are aware that the resources of the companies are limited hence to utilize them properly makes the responsibilities of HRM more complicated. In most of the organization people aspect is considered as one of the biggest asset for the companies and same thing is being taken by the Microsoft in different manner from the competition as they hire the best resource available into their company and that is the main reason that they are able to deliver the best products in the market throughout so many years. The Microsoft believes that its five business segments provide the best potential to cater to the needs of its customers/ clients. Therefore it can be referred to as the company’s strategies are based on mission and vision to achieve the desired results (Kampkotter and Sliwka, 2016).

There are few policies which help the organization to take or manage strategies effectively:

Recruitment is one of the vital aspects of HRM which helps the organization in achieving their results effectively. Recruiting right man for right job at right time is curtail as Human resource needs to work according to the need of the hour and to recruit a best suitable candidate for the profile is a crucial decision which Human resource has to take. Microsoft has the strong selection procedure which ensures that best of the best candidate is selected for any profile so that business can utilize it effectively and results can be derived out of him in short period of time. A bad decision could impact a lot of monitory and non-monitory. Microsoft takes an application from the websites and in papers, scrutinizing the applications in details and analyzing them properly to move it to next level so that best candidates are only passed into next rounds, then there are several evolution tests which company does. If the candidate has passed the certain test at good grades then only he/she would be selected (Green, 2017).

It is one of the important aspects of the human resource policy which most of the companies does not value much but Microsoft ensures that whatever the resources they have hired are retained within the company itself as hiring involves cost, time and efforts from all the available resources. In 2007, Microsoft was awarded as one of the best companies to work with. As per the facts available that only 5% is the workforce turnover. This shows that how much Microsoft has put its efforts in retaining and long terms plans for the employees. This also reflects that employees are motivated enough that they want to work in the same organization from years to years. Microsoft has given freedom to its employees to explore themselves and to design their bays in their own manner and they can have subsidized food within the office campus. There are many policies which allow there to have the opinion or they can voice out their opinions. The company gives the equal right to everyone and it allows the sense of ownership to the employees so that they can associate themselves to the organization goals, mission, and vision (Ulrich, 2015).

It is one of the biggest aspects for human resource and companies to have as it gives the growth and opportunities for the employees to enhance their skills set and knowledge while they are working. They can up skill themselves according to the business requirements and can help the organization to achieve its goals more effectively and they can contribute to a great extent. Microsoft ensures that is employees have the best of the knowledge with them while working as it gives enormous opportunities for the business to grow at a faster pace even if the cost is involved as cost could be recovered if the resources are utilized in an efficient manner. Learning and development requires the training need identification method which ensure or identifies that what is the current requirement and what can be of the future and training plans and programs are designed in such a manner that it caters all the needs and requirements so that companies can utilize their existing resources first and still more skill set is required then they can go for new hiring which is not possible for the companies every time.

It is one of the most important factors that Human resource needs to cater to all the employees are working to get their salaries and incentives but every time monitory befits are not enough to cater the need of the employees they have to ensure that all the deserving employees who are putting their best efforts and contributing their best outputs in achieving the goals and mission of the organization are recognized and awarded at some forum or in a non-monitory manner. It is one of the biggest motivators for an employee, it not only boost up the confidence of the employee but also enhance the performance of the employee and other employees also feel motivated enough to work towards the goals effectively so that they could be next receiving the awards and recognition. All the criteria’s are shared in advance to its employees so that they can work on it and can achieve it (Moeller, Harvey and Maley, 2017).    

The mission and goal of the company are complements by the success of human resource strategies. The factors that are influencing the activities of HR are not statics. The company needs to continuously monitor the internal and external environmental factors to maximize recruitment and retention as well as to minimize the issues of the employees (Stone and Deadrick, 2015). The HR need to adjust their strategy according to the factors affecting the business. There are certain internal and external factors which affect the policies and activities of HR such as:

External environmental factors play a vital role in the success of the business. They cover positive as well as negative impact on the corporate. Ignoring the environment of external factors can have to devastate the effect on a company. There are certain external environmental factors are:

The legal, as well as administrative environment, provides a framework within which the company needs to operate. In some countries, the legal and political environment is very strict as well as has a great impact on all aspect of the business. The policies or HR depends on the policies or regulations of the country that gives rise to it. Therefore, the influence of the political factor greatly affects the activities of the HR department. The HR department needs to operate according to the laws of the country within which their company does their business (Kuratko, Hornsby and Hayton, 2015).

The government of UK increases the period of retirement of the male workforce from the range between 65-70 years. It will divest the company of hiring the young folk; however, the HR manager prepared a backup plan after such announcement such as retirement voluntarily as well as a programme of early retirement for their employees. This strategy helps most of the companies to minimize the negative effect on the organization (Tillsley and Taylor, 2017).

The changes in economic are mainly occurred due to with the influence of economic conditions upon the affluence of a big organization in regional, national, as well as international market. This factor influenced the activities of the HR at a greater level. Sometimes, the economy of the country is optimistic, sometimes a book or plenty, unemployment is low. At the other time the economy dips and high. The HR manager needs to adjust according to the alternative peaking as well as dipping of the economy. They need to prepare themselves for these internally in the situation of evitable. The HR department needs to keep focusing on this economic pressure as well as seek a possible solution to minimize the negative impact and they have to seize the advantage when they occur (Marchington et. al., 2016).

According to the report of BBC news, the Human Resource manager of Virgin Airline has put a sturdy argument which is depressed for the rational in the reduction of hours of their staffs and cutting the job due to the slump in the economy. They have promised to back with the new jobs as soon as the situation will get improve (BBC News, 2001). In contrast, in the instance of British Airlines, the argument was not that much sturdy as well as was not satisfactory for their employees that have steered to a series of strikes done by their employees. This growth has cost in the form of loss of millions of pounds of British Airway (BBC News, 2011).

The internal factors that majorly affect the human resource are current rate of the company and projected growth. The extensive growth, as well as rapid expansion of the company, depends on the recruitment and staffing process of human resource department. Most of the stagnant companies may place a great focus on retention of employees and improving the culture of the company as well as a workplace environment. The downsizing of the companies may also have to take some regrettable decision to lose some of their staff which often on HR to relay (Koryak et. al.,2015).

It was stated in the case study of Easy Jet, that in the year 2002, the major airline, EasyJet mainly focuses on the recruitment stage to providing a right place to the right people especially pilots. It is also said that it is one of the most costly resources of the company in term of the remuneration, career development, as well as training. It was presented in the year 1999, as well as how now been expended to the staffing of the cabin crew as well as employees of the call center. In the practice of human resource, the recruitment and selection play a vital role due to the reason that it is one of the effective ways of selecting those individuals who are appropriate and skilled as well as also able to contribute in the profitability of the organization, in growing which tips to competitive advantage contrary to the rivals. Therefore, the HR manager greatly affected the process as well as the level of growth of the company (Smith and Rees, 2017).

The internal factors that mainly affected the human resource planning are the willingness of the HR department as well as the management of the company to use technology to aid in certain key resource function. The organization makes greater use of certain tools in their work such as online benefits management, where the staff can able to changes the benefit plans on their own. The department of human resource spends their more time focusing on the areas like recruitment or training as well as the development of the employee (Mukherjee, Bhattacharyya and Bera, 2014).

Tesco is one of the leading companies in the UK. The technology has greatly influenced the development of many products of Tesco. The innovative technology benefits the customer as well as an organization. The business has taken an initiative by launching Efficient Consumer Response (ECR). The company also use other devices in the organization such as Wireless Device, Self-check-out machine

The adoption of Electronic shelf labeling, electronic scanner have effectively developed the productivity of delivery and carrying undertakings in Tesco. Other than due to the advancement of technology, in the process of recruitment, the candidate can apply for a job through filling an online form which makes easy for the HR of Tesco to not deal with the paper resumes or personal calls in the recruitment process. With email, text, and messaging app, it would be easy for the HR of Tesco to get in touch with the rest of the company. Therefore, the practice, as well as the regulation of HR, will do according to the advancement of technology (Geetha, 2017).

Conclusion

From the above context, it can be concluded that human resource management is the key to the success of any business. They manage the whole organization in an effective manner. The HR department plays a different role according to the requirement of the company. They help the company in finding an effective human resource which may help the company to succeed in the competitive market. The best example of effective HR practice is in the leading company Microsoft. The effective HR practices in the company help Microsoft to lead in such a competitive market. The retention ratio of the company is quite high in a comparison to other companies due to the satisfaction among the employees of the company. The application of the effective HR strategies in Microsoft, help the organization to grow in an effective manner. Moreover, the practices of the HR are highly influenced by the internal and external factors. The change in the law or any regulation force the HR to change their regulation accordingly, other than that the advancement in the technology enhances the performance as well as activities of HR in an effective manner which help the company to get succeed in a competitive market such as Tesco as well as other companies.

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