Employee Rewarding and Motivation, Safety and Health - Essay Example

? Human Resource Management A Reflective Paper Submitted Human Resource Management The currently highly globalised market requires strategic approach in the objectives of the organization to meet the highly dynamic needs of the market. In order to attain and maintain a competitive edge over the market, the organization has to integrate all the operations of each department and align them with the overall objectives of the organization. As an organization grows in size and diversifies to different markets, the complexity of managing such an entity increases and requires sophisticated approach in ensuring a competitive edge has been maintained in the market. This calls for the strategic intervention of the human resource manager or the HR. the HR has many duties which include recruitment of the workforce, human resource development, benefits and compensation, safety and health and enhancing better employee and labor relations. These factors are instrumental to the success of the organization and the approach that is taken by the HR to achieve this largely defines the success of the organization in achieving its objectives. To achieve these HR functions and responsibility and ensuring a culture of performance in the organization, the HR has to adopt an operation excellence approach that ensures making of benchmarks in the global market today. Schuler & Jackson (2007) define operation excellence as a set of strategic results that an organization aims to achieve over specific time, as demonstrated by factors such as strategic improvement in all the areas of concern, sustained improvement in all departments of an organization and laying down strategies to achieve high benchmark results. These are the essential driving forces behind a globalised approach in HR functions. Human resource recruitment, planning and selection One of the most important functions of the HR is to recruit, and critically plan on human resource that would be entrusted with the task of ensuring the success of meeting objectives in the organization. Largely, the recruited employees and staff have a large impact towards the performance of the organization in meeting its objectives. According to Brumfitt et al (2001), the complexity and extensive recruitment criteria that is involved in workforce recruitment has led many companies to hire consultancy firms in recruiting its workforce. In the current highly competitive market, this approach by the HR might not offer a competitive workforce, and it is the role of the HR to ensure that employees are recruited as per extensive criteria that rhymes with the philosophy of the organization. Johnston and Johnston a leader in pharmaceuticals has such criteria that portray leadership in employee recruitment. The criteria involve more than 60 guidelines that guide the recruitment process and is highly integrated and linked with the philosophy of the company (Beiske, 2003). Such recruitment criteria would ensure that the process has a good fit and is well integrated to the values of the individual and the culture of the organization. The resulting workforce would lead to a culture of performance excellence. The use of assessment centers where prospective employees are critically evaluated over a short time has also proven to be instrumental in the recruitment process. Human resources development Human resources development ensures that employees are occasionally trained to meet the expected performance of a globalised market as well as improving their performance skills. It is the role of HR to plan, manage and implement occasional training of the workforce to ensure sustainable and consistent performance of the workforce. According to Saiyadin (2009) GlaxoSmithKline a giant pharmaceutical has some of the best global human resource development strategies. The company uses assessment centers where each employee has to undergo assessment after a certain time to compare their skills with the required skills to perform the expected duties. The center reveals areas of weaknesses and the HR plans accordingly to enhance training and impacting the required skills to the workforce. The newly impacted skills through training would eventually add value to the organization, and since the training relies on the most current skills in the market, the human resource development ensures that the company achieves benchmark performance in the market. Employee rewarding and motivation In order to enhance the culture of operation excellence, the HR has always to ensure that the employees are highly motivated and rewarded according to their extemporary performance in the organization. Kalia (2005) explains the role of HR in employee motivation to be aligning the reward system with individuals or general incentive of the group. These incentives would ensure that employees are motivated to offer their skills and expertise in meeting the goals and objectives of the organization. Kalia further elaborates that it is through a well integrated reward system that an organization is able to attract the best expertise in the field, ensuring that the organization attains its global leadership. Beiske (2003) explains some of these incentives to include benefits, training programs, appraisals, enhancing a culture of innovation that instills confidence and performance in employees, constantly reevaluating the wages and remuneration of the workforce among others. Affirmative action One important aspect that a HR has to ensure is maintaining a balanced gender ratio in the organization. Briscoe &Schuler (2004) argue that any organization that aims at achieving leadership in the market has to have a well integrated gender policy that appreciates and supports each gender as important in its objectives. Such a gender policy has to ensure equal employment opportunities for each gender and protect any gender from harassment by the other. The promotions and other appraisals should not be based on gender but have to be based on the performance of the individual and the skills to perform the tasks. Briscoe &Schuler (2004) further argue that since women have more elaborate needs compared to males, the gender policy has to adequately address such provisions. This would enhance competitiveness within the organization, which is key to achieving its global objectives. Employee and labor relations One important function of the HR is to design a well planned employee engagement plan that ensures that employees have the necessary channels to air their views, grievances, recommendations and such views are well listened to and offered the necessary priority. According to Silva (2009) employee empowerment is one of the best ways to ensure well planned labor relations between the management and the employees. Empowering the employee to control their operations in the workplace and offering a channel though which the views of employees are listened to and valued enhances the perception of value to the employee, which motivates them to perform even better. The traditional pyramid structure of relaying information from the management to the subordinates according to Beiske (2003), has been discarded in preference to a more flatter structure. This ensures that employees are adequately listened to and the HR has to ensure that they have a sense of belonging to the company. It’s through employee relations that many companies plan regular meetings between the management and the employees to listen to their views, contributions and suggestions, to impact a healthy and friendly working environment. Safety and Health Workplace safety is a major concern for both employees and the management. This has led to the requirement that a division of Occupational safety and Heath has to be incorporated in every organization to cater for the safety and well being of each employee. According to Kalia (2005), the HR has to ensure that each employee including the management has been offered a safe and healthy working environment. The HR has to define a safety policy in the organization that has to form a culture in all operations of the organization. The HR has to ensure that it is the prerogative of each and every employee to create a safe working environment by properly training of all employees regarding safety and health in the workplace (Kalia, 2005). A safe working environment not only avoids illness and injury, but motivates employees to perform better to the advantage of the organization. Defining a safety culture would therefore be in line with operation excellence in the organization. The human resource manager in an organization is instrumental in defining the strategies and approaches that have to be followed in meeting the overall objectives of the organization. It is through the HR that a firm might set benchmarks in the global market through recruitment of highly experienced staff, maintaining superior policies in the workplace and a labor force that clearly understands the goals and objectives of the organization. Defining a culture of performance largely depends on the HR. The complexity of the department requires elaborate strategies in recruitment, employee motivation, safety and health and other issues. Through benchmark standards in the global market, the HR is able to achieve a culture of performance excellence in the organization and ensure that the organization achieves and maintains its competitive edge in the market. References Beiske, B (2003). Recruitment: Johnson & Johnson Vs. Unilever. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag Briscoe, D. R., &Schuler, S. R.(2004). International human resource management: policy and practice for global enterprise. NY: Routledge. Brumfitt, K., Barnes, s., Norris, L. & Jones, J., (2001) Human resources. Cheltenham: Nelson Thomas Ltd Kalia, H.L., (2005). A reading for HR professionals. New Delhi: Kalpaz Publications. Saiyadain (2009). Human Resources Management. New Delhi: McGraw Hill Schuler, S. R. & Jackson, S.E., (2007) Strategic human resource management. MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Silva, S. (2007) Does empowerment motivate employees in the hospitality industry to increase performance. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Read More