HRM PRACTICES

HRM PRACTICES

 

Describe the main features of the ‘best practice’ and the ‘best fit’ approaches to strategic HRM. Are there any areas of common ground shared by the two approaches? (750 words max) (25 marks)

The best practices and best fit approaches are a widespread controversy in areas of human resource management. This is because it possesses a high degree of practical managerial significance. The human resource managers follow the guidelines of these approaches to ensure there is the efficient and effective performance of the organization. These two approaches help to integrate employee to the organization so that they can remain committed to do what they want them to do. There are some differences in the features of the best fit and best practices though they also share some common grounds

Some of the features of the best practice include; the best practice approach incorporates the bundles of human resource activities that support companies in reaching at high competitive pick regardless of the organizational setting. It implies a very close connection between the human resource practices and the organizational performance and is usually associated with high level of management commitments. There are groups of human resource policies that are very crucial for maximizing performance irrespective of market and product strategies

This approach encourages motivation of all employees and introduces a workable design that boosts employee commitment[1] . This lead to high level of quality production and low rates of employee absenteeism and wastage of input and resources[2]. Intrinsic motivation factors such as training and delegating key responsibilities to the employees trigger intent desire and self -motivation to move the company forward

However, the best practice approach suffers from a number of limitations. These limitations include risks that organization experience when implementing its standards while trying to introduce mutual prohibitive combinations like compensation based on individual performance and teamwork leading to deterioration of employee collaboration through excess exaggerated competition[3]. Also, the high commitment management systems are always complex that requires large inputs of planning and the top level management commitment. It also lacks the direct linkages with the organizational strategies and is coined by the brief which outstanding performing human resource will have to influence the strategy. Therefore this human resource policy risks the organization when this approach fails to support the particular needs of the employees resulting in a detrimental to overall strategic objectives

The best fit approach is based in developing human resource management policies according to the business strategies. The strategies are based on performance objectives, planning future activities and the policies focusing on reaching the corporate aims[4]. It highly emphasis on human resource activities and the development stages of the organization as well as the internal structure and external envelopment which includes suppliers, clients, labor markets and competitors[5]. This approach tries as much as possible to motivate the employees by enhancing the good relationship and communication between them and the organization.

The best fit approach is also open to criticism. It is being criticized that it is not possible to adjust the entire human resource system to upcoming challenges that occurs frequently in case of a changing business environment companies and their strategies when are subjected to multiple alternating contingencies[6]. Also, as the companies move through their life cycle, human resource practices are supposed to be aligned leading to an alternating treatment of employees that do have some demotivating effects as well as inconsistency in corporate culture is shown[7]. Therefore, this approach does have  various problem such as , miscommunication, low human productivity, low employee morale, low motivation among others

Despite some of above different features of these two approaches, they do share some common grounds that Cleary shows how it’s important to have both. It is clearly shown that, the best fit and best practice approaches offer the companies a very powerful tool that shape human resource management process. It is clearly indicated that an application of one bundle of best practice approach strategies across all the geographies is impossible because some regional differences in work related practices, in the laws, culture and in the characteristics of motivation. Similarly, the best fit approach cannot do alone because it is only aligned to the contingency of the strategy and a neglect of the environmental forces. The internal capability can result to a failure of human resource in the international markets. Therefore, the concepts of the best fit and the best practice approaches have to be adopted after analysis to suit the localized needs of the international subsidiaries so as to pave way to the overall global competitive advantages through human resource.

  1. When developing a recruitment strategy, what are the main issues that a Director of HR needs to consider? (750 words max) (25 marks)

Business strategy of the organization

Business strategy is the most important part of the issues that a director of human resource needs.  It is designed to give the organization the direction it is to take. Profitability and general performance of the organization heavily relies  on this strategy.  The structure of the human resource will be directed by the overall strategy of the organization.  This implies that the director will relly on the information of the strategy to be able to structure the human resource recruitment.  Moreover, the number of employees to be recruited will be determined based on the organization strategy.

Position of the organization on the job market

Developing a recruitment strategy is a countinous process that require market information.  The recruitment processes may differ in different organization due to the position of the different organization in job market.  A small organization would therefore, structure a recruitment strategy that it will be able to handle. These issues need to be carefully checked otherwise it will cause a lot of organizational risk that will lead to loss and much more poor reputation. The client and key stakeholders might lose trust and credibility of the organization associated with a poor recruitment strategy did not consider this issue thus causing the organization heavy production costs.

Recruitment channels

It is essential for the director of human resource to consider and evaluate the channels of recruiting.  Failure to assesss this may have far reaching conseguences on the reputation and profitability of the organization.  Some channels might be cost effective while others might be expensive.  Therefore, the director need to evaluate them ealier enough before restructuring the recruitment strateggy. This will enable the director to anticipate better and efficient channels that will facilitate improved performance of the organization.  In addition, some channels might not work for particular organizations effectively, thus a through evaluation of channels of recruitment is necessary for better structuring of recruitment strategy.

Recruitment styles

There are different recruitment styles. An organization has a specific or a combination of styles that it employees in the recruitment process.  This should be available to the director for consideration before coming up with a recruitment strategy. This will ensure that te strategy conforms with the required style of the particular organization.  Failure to do so would mean that the whole process be redone since it will be in conflict with the requirements of the organization.  Furthermore, recruitment style of an organization is a crucial part of the strategy that will determine the kind of employees the organization receive.

Differentiators from the competitors

Competition is health in any  given market.  The director of human resource need to be aware of the competitors in the market and their recruitment strategies.  This will ensure that he/she comes up with a strategy that is different from that of the competitor which is better and serves to give the organization a competitive advantage.  This should then be considered when coming up with the recruitment strategy.  This works to attract better skills and talent to the organization hence improving performance of the organization. This is essential since the competitors will be looking for the same talent and skills in the same job market as the organization.

Recruitment processes and employee branding

The recruitment process is the most crucial human resource activities that involve so many participants who interact together to make logical and acceptable decisions. It can generate many negative issues in the organization if not done well.When initiating a recruitment strategy, the director of human resource has to consider recruitment processes and employee branding to avoid later recruitment disputes and unnecessary risks. Some of these issues include job postings, interview questions, checking references as well as making job offers. When doing a job posting, the manager should not give a preference to race, political believes, Religion, family status, sex, marital status, sexual orientation among others because it will arise discrimination conflict that will lose the credibility of the organization and much more lose the job candidates who could have delivered effectively and efficiently to the growth of the organization making it very competitive in the market.

During interviews, the question asked should not be based on the grounds prohibited that will clearly indicate the discrimination in employment issues. It is very important to ask the job candidate the question that he or she can answer without feeling of intimidated or discrimination whatsoever. Checking the reference, it is also important not to include questions that will never been asked in an interview such as disability issues instead ask the job candidates whether they can be reliable and punctual.

Recruitment metrics

An effective recruitment strategy is one that has reliable and effective characteristics.  The director should therefore, evaluate the metrics to ensure that they are actionable and predictive so that trends are easily realizable over time in the recruitment process.  In addition, the metrics should be considered to be tracked to give analysis and benchmark for orgaanisational performance.  The director need to include the possible and desired qualitative and quantitative metrics aspect of recruitment.  This should include efficiency,productivity, performance, retention and time.  The director need to be relationshipdriven in the process of involving metrics in the recruitment strategy.

Costs associated with employees

Recruitment is essential, but it has cost implications to the organization hence the need to be considered before developing a recruitment strategy.  All costs associated with the employees including medical cover, salary and allowances need to be assessed and evaluated since they affect the profitability and performance of the organization. Orgnisations require decreased costs so that the more revenue are generated.  The resource manager has to take his or her time to write the job description which is clear, precise and detailed with regard to employee cossts. This will enable him/her to select the best strategy that will attract better employees who will  perform effectively and efficiently.

  1. “Strategic HRM helps organizations perform better, but does so at the expense of employees’ well-being”. To what extent does the empirical evidence you have read across the course support this statement?

The strategic human resource management is very important in an organization  where it deals with the utilization of human resources in a manner that enable the firms to reap long term benefits that is in terms of organizations profit, core competence and other organization’s goals[8]. The skills and knowledge that are necessary to achieve the organizational goals and objectives are obtained in the employees. The strategic human resource management system makes use of the human resources effectively so as to give the company a competitive advantage as well as enabling it to complete the set targets

Human resource management focuses on the cost reduction of production in the organization. The management hires people, design and develop related resources and most importantly, utilizing the employees skills, talents, creativity and compensating those services to optimize the profit of the business through their performance. In some places, they reduce the number of employees and retain just the few who are given maximum training to enable them do the work that can be done by at least two employee. This reduces the wage expenses of the company while increasing the production benefits of the company.

Strategic human resource management also focuses on the incorporation of human resource management into business strategies which takes into account of “what is”, identifies “what should be” and also plans that can help to get there (Guest .D. 2002). Strategic human resource management majorly focuses on cost reduction, improvement in quality and ensuring innovation. Strategic human resource management involves goal communication, involvement of employees in decision making, broadly defining jobs, results oriented performance appraisal, performance based compensation, employment security, development and training of employees and also supporting initiatives which may be personal.  This has been proved to be of enormous impacts on the performance of the organization or business both in terms of financial performance and employee productivity.

Employee training and development widens their skill and knowledge base and helps improve their competence that is required in the work environment. They are also acquainted with the skills to adapt to the dynamic business environment and ability to embrace change[9]. Discretionary learning that occurs when individuals are actively involved in seeking knowledge that helps in realizing the organizations goals and objectives is also encouraged.

It also focuses on managing intellectual capital and knowledge and provides learning opportunities and a basis to share knowledge and skills in a more systematic way. This ensures the flow of information, knowledge and proper learning within an organization.

Performance appraisal majorly is used as a means of making decisions in terms of pay, retention, demotion, transfer and promotion of employees. It is also used as a guide for employee feedback and needs assessment training. It is also a means of promoting employee-supervisor relations and understanding, validating hiring and selection procedures and supporting the culture of an organization..

It also develops a culture of performance which encourages high performance in areas of customer service level, productivity, profits, quality, growth and the increased shareholder value delivery. (Collings & mellahi 2009) Employees are also empowered to exhibit behaviors that are closely linked with high performance of business such as knowledge sharing, risk taking, innovation and trust establishment between subordinates and managers.

For organizations to perform efficiently, they are required to exhibit the flexibility to adapt and adjust to meet change. Rigidity involved in the pay scales use and job analyses that are commit ant denies organizations this flexibility. This results in a scenario where duties cannot be readily assigned to individuals and this especially is a problem in cases where these duties are from jobs that are defined to be of low grades. Although the pay may remain constant, the employee may view these low grade jobs as a setback to their careers. (Parker,2002)

Broadly defining jobs enhances flexibility and satisfaction that encourage high productivity and performance. It also gives individuals interesting and stimulating work and offers them the flexibility and autonomy to effectively perform their jobs.

However, As much as the strategic human resource management is beneficial to the company, it is not that a holistic approach to build on human assets and the relationship between them. The human resource management is a barrier to human growth if the strategic human resource management is not implemented properly. It exploits the workers when it emphasizes the need for all employees to remain committed to do what the organization want them to do. Employees are used as the means to and end of the organization performance where the majority looses since the version of human resource management system may be irrelevant while the hard version is likely to be an uncomfortable experience ( legge 2005).

The strategic human resource management system fails to consider the interest of the workers. It fails to exercise social responsibility that is being concerned about the interest of the employee and acting ethically with the regard to the needs of all people in the organization and in the community (Boxall 2008). The organization is required to treat people equally without any kind of discrimination in terms of the job opportunities, training and development provided for them. They should treat people according to the principle of justice that state that people must be managed fairly, consistently, transparently and properly consider the views and the needs of all employees.

Employees are treated as a mere factor of production in an organization. They are retained in the organization in the name of “you should be always committed to the job, have self-drive and motivation to move the company far” In returns, they get some remuneration which is not equivalent with their inputs to the organization. Sometime the management fails to understand they are human being but not a working machine where they are given a lot of tasks to finish before the end of the day. They are overburdened with a lot of work that exceed their ability. Since they fear losing the job, they end up doing all that work leading to bodily fatigue. This further lead to poor health where the clients always complain about back ache muscle pain, among others which also reduce their ability to think critically

Employees are exposed to hazardous working conditions where no adequate security is provided. The organization concentrates on the benefits and performance of the company even without paying attention to the working environment that give maximum protection to the employees as they claim. They get exposed to chemical and substance that threaten their health and safety. This increases employee discomfort and a lot of stress resulting in various diseases such as ulcers. The company must implement preventive safety and training programs to help the employee prevent the occurrence of any kind of risks and act diligently in case of a disaster occurrence.

Employees are exposed to harmful practices at work such as bullying, physical harassment and abuses. Since they get orders from the management level, they usually do what they are told to do in the interest of the company. Sometime they are shouted at in case of a small mistake even without being given a chance to express themselves. As a result, the employees remain unhappy being affected psychologically making them gloomy and less productive.

Employees spend Long hours on the job as well as training in order to increase their ability to deliver to the business. This reduces social interaction, less time to deal with their family matters and also to have fun with local and international people. The need of the company to make more benefits glue them in their specialized area doing as much work give to ensure the company continues to increase its growth and high competitive level in the market. On the other side, human health deteriorates because of less rest, less sleep which also reduces their growth and development

Therefore, it is very clear now that the company continues to benefit at the expense of the human well -being. They are being over utilized to ensure the company continues growing and developing as well as increasing the level of competition in the market. This happens as a result of employees long working hours among others that deteriorate individual growth which need to be checked when practicing strategic human resource management system to ensure human well-being is highly considered.

 

[1] Paauwe, J (2004). HRM and performance: Achieving long term viability. Oxford: Oxford University Press,.

 

[2] Guest, D. (2004). The psychology of the employment relationship: An analysis based upon the psychological contract. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 53, 541-555.

 

[3] Wilkinson, A. (2006). Contemporary Human Resource Management: Text and Cases. New York: Prentice Hall.

[4] Paauwe, J. (2004). HRM and performance: Achieving long term viability. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

[5] Guest, p. 76

[6] Legge, K. (2005) Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities, Macmillan, ch. 5. Redman, T. & Wilkinson, A. (2006) (eds) Contemporary Human Resource Management: Text and Cases, 3 (2)19.

[7] Dundon, T. & Wilkinson, A. (2006). Employee Participation. In Redman, T. & Wilkinson, A. (2006) (eds) Contemporary Human Resource Management: Text and Cases, (2) 17-20.

 

[8] Legge, p. 23

[9] Collins, p. 12

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