Human Resource Management - Essay Example

Human Resource Management in Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi Currently, the level of globalization across the world has increased tremendously. This result from the entry of multinational firms which have diversified their operations, an aspect that has enabled them to segment the market, attract the loyalty of the customers through intensive advertisement, and position their products strategically in the market through combining the pull and push strategy. This aspect has intensified the competition levels in the local and international markets. As a result, in order for the business to remain competitive in the market, it must manage its human resource effectively in order to enable the workforce to work together as a single unit towards a common objective. This has been a major challenge to many organizations which have internationalized their operations and diversified their products and services so as to reduce the risks and uncertainties associated with focusing on a few products and markets. In order to achieve these objectives, the organizations have diversified their workforce so as to deal with the varying challenges that emanates from the dynamic market. However, diversified workforce has been associated with constant conflicts, an aspect that slower the overall growth of the company. Nevertheless, for a company to succeed in the global market, it must have the face of the market, i.e. subordinates who acts as a representation of the whole population (Sims 2007). The human resource ensures that this aspect is achieved by balancing the interests of the customers and those of the employees. The strategic human resource management in Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (Eni) plays a critical role in recruitment and training. The market has become very demanding. With the increasing number of substitutes in the market, it has become very critical for the organizations to hire the right people who are able to identify any change in the taste and preferences of the target market. As a result, the organization is able to make the necessary changes in order to regain the loyalty of the customers. Eni is a company that has diversified its operations to different parts of the world. As a result, it requires employees who have the necessary skills and experience to handle clients emanating from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, through the recruitment process, the panel is able to identify the right candidates who can work with different groups of people. Furthermore, teamwork is a critical aspect towards the overall success of the organization. As a result, the human resource department has a role of recruiting employees that can easily integrate with the rest of the subordinates. This is to ensure that there are no constant conflicts that can affect the overall performance of the business. On the other hand, the customer demands keeps on changing. With the modern technology, they are able to get reviews from different sources concerning different products in the market. Therefore, in order for the company to keep up with these changes, it keeps on training its workforce in order to meet the demand in the market. This has been critical in enabling the company to meet the varying interests of its expanding market (Grieves 2003). Besides recruiting and training, the human resource department in Eni formulates the specific objectives and the scope of the tasks that will be assigned to the employees. Based on these two factors, the contract that will govern the relationship between the employer and the employee is prepared. The strategic human resource department in Eni plays a critical role in preparing the performance appraisal to be used in rewarding the best performing employees. The working environment has become challenging with subordinates required to meet strict deadlines. Motivation is very critical towards the success of the company. In addition, it ensures that the employees remain committed towards the set goals and objectives, an aspect that reduces the turnover rate in Eni. However, drafting of a performance appraisal is a process that involves the management together with the employees. This is to ensure that there is transparency and employees are confident about the whole process. Through the performance appraisal, the human resource department in Eni is able to analyze the performance of each employee. This is looking at their weak and strong areas and addressing their weak areas. This plays a significant role in ensuring that any issue that might affect the performance of the employees is addressed before it gets out of hand. In addition, it enables the department to assign duties according to the strengths identified through the use of the appraisal. Furthermore, they are able to develop an effective rewarding system which is based on credible information. This motivates the employees to work harder in order to be rewarded. Furthermore, the rewarding system creates room for healthy competition between employees and department. Nevertheless, the strategic human resource department ensures that this competition does not bring conflicts which might affect the working relationship of different employees. Strategic human resource management plays a significant role in maintaining a serene working environment. A safe, clean, and healthy environment plays a significant role in motivating the employees. Eni is an organization that has a very large numbers of employees. In order for this organization to meet the expectations of its workforce, it has introduced different strategies that will make them feel appreciated and integrated as part of the organization. Eni has been achieving this strategy through providing the employees with incentives and benefits to its employees. For instance, the human resource department has been providing its workforce with health insurance. This motivates the employees because they feel that in case of accident or disease, the organization has catered for their welfare effectively. The department also advises the top management on how to motivate the employees. For instance, it has enabled the top-level managers to implement an open office strategy. This strategy is very critical in enabling the subordinates to air their grievances directly without the use of intermediaries. Therefore, the managers are able to intervene and address these issues before they get out of hand and start affecting the mental stability of the employees (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner 2012). Furthermore, through interacting with the employees, the top managers are able to understand in depth the organizational culture and how to navigate it in order to integrate it with the organizational goals and objectives. Strategic human resource management is significant in resolving work disputes. Disputes are inevitable in the organization. They can be between employees and employers or between the employees. With increasing interdepartmental competition, several disputes keep on arising. Failure to address these disputes on time might affect the performance of the employees. As a result, resolving these disputes play a critical role in ensuring that the employees remain motivated and focused. With the increasing levels of competition in the market, human resource department in Eni ensures that the interests of the employees remain the first priority. This is because these are the people who interact with the customers. As a result, they are an important source of information to the company. Through their information, the company is able to make the necessary changes in order to maintain customer loyalty. On the other hand, the working conditions keep on changing. In some cases, the working conditions remain the same despite these changes. This has a major impact on the level of satisfaction by the employees. In Eni, the human resource management plays an important role in forwarding the grievances of the employees to the relevant authority. This is because the top managers cannot be able to listen to each and every grievance being raised by the employees. Furthermore, in case the dispute is between the employer and the employee, the human resource department has a mandate of representing the employees. In many cases, this department agitates for better remuneration and working conditions on behalf of the employees (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner 2012). This is to prevent employees from being distracted from the main course while trying to negotiate for better working terms with the employers. Strategic human resource management is critical in improving public relations within the organization. Human resource management in Eni has a sole responsibility of establishing good public relations through organizing meetings, seminars, and other official gathering on behalf of the company. This aims at building a strong relationship with other business sectors. For instance, during the internationalization process, employees need to learn from other subordinates in different subsidiaries who have worked in different market settings. In such a case, the human resource department organizes the meetings and what is to be discussed in order for the meeting to be of great success to both the organization and employees at large. The strategic human resource management in Eni has an important role of promoting, demoting, transferring, and providing the employees with bonuses. With the authority from the top management, they use the information they have concerning the employee to decide the best candidate to be promoted to a higher rank (Truss, Mankin & Kelliher 2012). Furthermore, through the same statistics, they have the authority to demote the employees who fails to meet the working expectations in the company. Moreover, it provides bonuses to employees as a way of motivating them or compensating them for the extra tasks that have been assigned to them. One of the major human resource plans is to restructure the organization in order to meet the varying needs. For instance, the cost of production has increased tremendously. As a result, Eni Company is under intense pressure to reduce the cost through trimming its workforce and replacing human labor with modern technologies. The company intends to address the oversupply of workers through termination of the extra workers. Although there are costs associated with this approach, the company is expecting to get immediate results. In addition, it is also intending to use attrition strategy. This entails not replacing employees once they leave the company. Instead, the company is planning to promote its existing workforce in order to reduce the costs associated with hiring highly experienced workforce. However, this strategy requires close evaluation in order to ensure that the performance of the organization in the market is not affected (Sims 2002). Nevertheless, no matter the strategy that will be selected the human resource plans to ensure that the level of employee satisfaction is not affected by tension that some of their colleagues have been terminated from the service. Human resource in Eni plans to intensify its training and development strategies. With the changing local and international market, the company intends to keep up with the competition in order to retain its competitive advantage in the market. This plan intends to provide the workforce with training to take on new roles. In addition, it will provide the current staff with opportunities to prepare for the future jobs which might emerge in the organization. This is being implemented through paying the employees in order to upgrade their skills (Mello 2006). Furthermore, the organization is sending some of the employees to local and international schools in order to take courses that will boost their skills. In the meantime, many subordinates have been able to complete these courses successfully, an aspect that has added a new dimension to the organization. The human resource department is intending to enhance its collaboration strategies. Collaboration with other organizations has been said to have better success especially in dealing with a shortage of certain skills in the organization. In the meantime, this plan is being implemented through working together with institutions of higher learning in order to influence the courses being offered to the employees. This is to ensure that these courses are geared towards the goals and objectives of the company. In addition, the company is working together with other firms in order to reduce the costs of training the employees (Truss, Mankin & Kelliher 2012). This relationship has made it possible for other organizations to allow employees to visit their premises in order to gain in-depth skills and insight. The human resource is planning to introduce an outsourcing strategy. This will be implemented through using external individuals or organizations in order to complete specific tasks in the organization. Some of the operations have turned to be more costly when handled by the company. As a result, the human resource has been mandated with finding the best candidate of handling issues such as logistics in order to enable the employees to specialize on other internal operations within the organization. Young graduate plays a significant role in pumping new ideas to the organization. New research is being released in the market and incorporated in the curriculum of institutions of higher learning. However, the information can only be absorbed in the organization through new and young employees who have graduated recently from schools. Nevertheless, in order for the graduate to be incorporated into the organization, they need to be trained on important aspects that are expected from them. This is to be achieved through taking them through a three week training whereby they will be trained on importance of teamwork and different strategies to identify any change in the consumer behavior (Price & Price 2011). The plan will enable the graduates to work together with the rest of the subordinates and not to take long before they fit in the organization. This will close the gap that was left by the employees that left the organization. The HR management policies ensure that the management acts as a link between the employees and employers. Therefore, it does not side with employer and suppress the workers. Furthermore, the policies are important in ensuring that the activities undertaken by the department are aimed at improving the working conditions of the employees. Moreover, policies act as a guideline to the human resource department. This is through outlining the areas that need to be addressed by the management and the strategies to be applied in order to achieve these results. The regulatory requirements on HR policies in Eni ensure that the policies are geared towards improving the working relationship between the employer and the employees. This is through highlighting different aspects that cannot be amended because by doing so; one will have altered the major aim of the human resource department. Moreover, regulatory requirements ensure that the company is compelled to support the operations of this department. One of the policies that affect Eni is on work diversity. The policy makes a commitment to anti-discriminatory practices through removing systematic barriers and instead fostering equal opportunities for all people. This policy ensures that the organization acts as a representation of the society. This is through enabling the interview panel to select employees who emanates from different religions, cultural backgrounds, and gender. Although this aspect slows the intake of new employees, it improves the customer confidence towards the organization. This is because many employees like to be associated with organizations that appreciate the current diversity in the society. The organization has an outside employment policy which protects its best interests. With the toughening economic times, many employees are opting to work for two to three organizations. However, this affects the concentration of the employees. In order to avoid such issues, Eni has a written policy that outlines what is expected from the subordinates who obtain additional employment. Some of the conditions include not to work for a competitor and to get approval from the appropriate authority in the organization. This ensures that the administration verifies that the organization is legit and it cannot manipulate the employees in order to give out the secrets of Eni. Eni has a conflict resolution policy which plays a critical role in enabling the firm to be secure. Conflict exists in every organization and to some extent; it signals a healthy exchange of ideas and creativity among the employees. However, counterproductive conflicts can affect employee satisfaction, reduce production, lead to poor service to the client, absenteeism, increased turnover rates, stress that is related to work, and harassment. The conflict resolution policy promotes open communication and fosters a healthy environment to help in addressing the differing opinions. In this policy, there is a clear statement that protects the employees from retribution for raising complaints that are legit (Amos 2008). The policy and procedures of resolving conflicts mainly implement a progression of interventions, an aspect that increase the involvement of management based on the seriousness of the conflict. Eni has a policy on employee privacy and other forms of confidentiality. With the increasing levels of technologies in the world, organizations are under intense pressure to protect the information concerning their employees. In some cases, the top-level managers have been said to use personal information of the employees to intimidate and suppress them (Truss, Mankin & Kelliher 2012). This has a major impact on their morale. Therefore, in order for the organization to avoid these cases, it has set up policies that guide the human resource department in regard to handling of the employees’ information. On the other hand, the policy puts the employees under an obligation to maintain high levels of confidentiality while handling confidential information about the clients or other staff members. The policy outlines the consequences of preaching confidentiality. The functional structure in Eni has eased the management of human resource issues. This is because the employees are grouped according to their area of specialization. As a result, handling conflicts, rewarding systems and remuneration issues is easy. In order to improve the effectiveness of human resource management, the organization needs to organize frequent meetings between the employees and employer. This will give them a platform to air their grievances and discuss any issue that might affect their performance. In conclusion, human resource management is critical in the overall success of Eni. In the meantime, it closes the gap between the employees and employers through acting as a link between these parties. In addition, it addresses issues related to performance of the employees. This is through creating a serene environment for the employees. Furthermore, through providing the workforce with various benefits, the human resource management is able to motivate them and make them to remain focused towards the organizational goals and objectives. The department is also responsible for training, recruitment, and promotions in the organizations. These are activities that lead to a smooth running of Eni. References Amos, T. 2008. Human resource management. Wetton, Cape Town: Juta. Grieves, J. 2003. Strategic human resource development. London: Sage Publications. Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Werner, S. 2012. Managing human resources. Mason, OH: South Western/Cengage Learning. Mello, J. A. 2006. Strategic human resource management. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western. Price, A., & Price, A. 2011. Human resource management. Andover: Cengage Learning. Sims, R. R. 2002. Organizational success through effective human resources management. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Sims, R. R. 2007. Human resource management: Contemporary issues, challenges, and opportunities. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub. Truss, C., Mankin, D., & Kelliher, C. 2012. Strategic human resource management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More