Human Resource Planning - Essay Example

Summary of the Major Themes (Human Resource Management) Table of Contents Human Resource Planning 2 Recruitment 3 Selection 5 Induction and Culture 7 Reward 8 Retention and Knowledge Management 9 Portfolio Summary 10 References 13 Human Resource Planning From the overall understanding of the theme concentrating on Human Resource Planning (HRP) it can be summarized that it is developed in to order to understand the importance as well as pitfalls of planning in Human Resource Management (HRM). The importance of HRM in organizations has been a crucial concern for many theorists and analysts being regarded as a key to organisational sustenance and profitability. However, the most important question that has been asked in the presentation is concentrated upon the task delegation in the modern day organization. The history of tasks performed goes long back when work was conducted just for individuals’ needs and for livelihood. However, the emergence of businesses has changed the perception of work in the modern era by a substantial extent giving rise to a new concept called employment. This further raised a new paradigm in the industrial world called the Internal Labour Market (ILM) where man made labour was given more importance than that of the machine labour (Wachter & Wright, 1990). However, the scope in ILM is limited wherein wages, salaries and job roles hardly change. Furthermore, with the passage of time, the concept of Strategic HRM (SHRM) came into existence. It is in this context that HRP, as a part of SHRM ensures that the organisations make best use of its available resources with maximum productivity. It has also been noted that HRP should be simple so that it can be easily executed with minimum chances of discontinuation. However, the process of HRP also possesses certain limitations such as its complexity and time-consuming long term process. Nevertheless, the process of HRP is often regarded as cost effective as it manages human resources of organisations quite efficiently (Government Business Solution, n.d.). Fig: Human Resource Planning (Government Business Solution, n.d.) Recruitment From the understanding obtained through the study, it can be summarised that recruitment is a procedural framework used in HRM practices which involves searching of potential candidates for a particular job position either from the internal business environment of the company or externally. The process of internal recruitment generally comprise of selecting candidates from the existing workforce on the basis of their performance appraisals. Similarly, selecting potential candidates from the external business scenario engages different online job sources used in the modern day scenario. It has been analysed that the process of recruitment mainly include the involvement of HR personnel and some other top officials of companies. The concept of internal recruitment is quite beneficial for companies as it tends to be quite cost effective. It is also deemed as beneficial as it tends to motivate the commitment of the existing employees of the company. Along with these advantages, there are certain arguments raised against the concept of internal recruitment as well. The employees recruited for a higher post from the existing employees of the company will continue to work in the same way as he/she was performing in the lower designation. The candidate chosen might also lack fresh ideas or creativeness as he/she will be one of the existing employees. Similarly, external recruitment by advertising involves certain crucial factors such as publication choice, style and wording, use of precise versus vague information and other vital aspects related to proper advertising which needs to be considered. Certain difficulties such as response of the candidates and reachability to potential candidates for a particular job position play a vital role in processing effective external recruitment. There are few other approaches of recruitment which comprises of word of mouth or recommendations, recruitment agents and other recruitment programs in educational institutions which might be effective in providing some extraordinary candidates to the organizations (University of Washington, n.d.). Selection In accordance with this theme, it can be stated that selection is the process of forecasting the candidates that will be appropriate or suitable for a particular job position and is often referred as the next phase of recruitment practices. There are few models of selection out of which psychometric model is of primary importance. This model forecasts the performance of the job by measuring the behaviour of the employees. It can be assumed that these models are effective in depicting the personal characteristics of a person that are required for their successful on-the-job performance. In the modern phenomenon, these methods are widely considered as reliable and effective as this particular approach tends to be strategically based on the personal attribute of individuals creating a strong linkage with the organizational goals. This particular action is further addressed as a social exchange approach. Hence, it can be affirmed that the process of selection should fit in with the organisational objective and should further include mutual communication that will enable a two way flow of information within the various organisational structure. Furthermore, there are mainly three ways through which selection can be conducted, i.e. application form, interview and reference checking. Out of the three mentioned ways, interviews and application form methods are universally incorporated by organisations. However, these methods are heavily criticised on the grounds that they are unable to portray accurate behaviour of individuals. It has to be mentioned that different people have dissimilar perceptions regarding the concept which ultimately tends to obstruct the smooth conduct of the selection process. Selection is done in order to consider whether a person is fit for the job and for the organisation on the whole. Moreover, there are certain errors depicted in judgement while selection as it mostly depends on the perceptions of the interviewers. The errors basically include biases based on perceptions or being stereotyped while taking a particular decision which needs to be considered when performing a selection process (Reed, 2001). Induction and Culture Recruitment and selection process as included in the HRP in an organisation is followed by the offering or induction of the job to the chosen candidates along with conveying the terms and conditions of the organisation in terms of culture. This particular step depicts an unwritten psychological contract between the employees and the employer where they can express each other’s expectations in context to work. In the introduction stage, new employees should be made familiar with the working process of the organization. Notably, there are different perspectives of induction which comprises of administrative, social and corporate to name a few. The induction program is regarded as an HR task and is entirely performed on a checklist basis which at times is observed to lack in follow up. This particular aspect of the induction program can be considered as one of its major difficulties. According to the perspective of an HR, the concept of induction is imperative regarding making the entire working environment familiar so that the workforce can perform to their fullest potentials. This aspect would certainly increase the morale of the employees and contribute towards the advancement of the organisational culture. Theoretically, organisation culture can be portrayed as the personality of the organization that can explain its entire conduct. There are certain criteria such as strict dress codes, time restrictions and obedience as deciphered by employees through which organisational culture can be constructed. The culture management of organizations are further divided into two sections which include soft behaviour and hard systems. The aspects like values, commitments, loyalties and motivations are also considered as soft behaviour of the organisational cultures; while, the hard part of the organisational culture will include the policies, procedures and systems of the organizations (Reed, 2001). Reward With concern to the theme concentrating on reward as a vital facet of HRM practices in organisation, it has been analysed that the primary needs of employees in organisations concentrates upon monetary benefits. They need a relatively fair exchange from their work in organisations. Recognition, appraisal and satisfaction are also the key aspects for employees in workplaces wherein an employer desires top level performance from its employees. They want motivation of the employees through which the company can increase its performance and enhance its reputation over the long run. Thus, with regard to employee motivation and performance, reward is considered as a quite crucial. Simplistic theory suggests that reward provides an organization with the opportunity to fulfil the needs of the employees. Likewise, there are many other theories which depict the role of reward in organizations. Rewards are of various kinds where each one of it has its own affect to the employees. Few of the well known reward forms include salary, accommodation and bonus. However, there are two criteria on the basis of which rewards are given to the employees, include i.e. performance based and job position based appraisal systems. Job based reward mainly considers the job ranking and position for providing rewards while performance based rewards is completely based on the performances and productivity of employees both at the team and individual levels. At certain instances, motivation rewards are also offered to employees for their ready acceptance of any form of organisational changes or maintaining a deep association with the organisation which deciphers their commitment towards their job. All these systems of rewards can have a deep impact on the performance of employees yielding greater employee satisfaction and organisational competency (Reed, 2001). Retention and Knowledge Management There are various factors due to which people decide to discontinue their employmentship. The most vital in this regard is the attraction of a new job offer if better than the existing one. Dissatisfaction of the present job is also a major factor for employees to resign. In some cases, fusion of the two aforementioned aspects may also be the reason for employees to discontinue his/her relationship with the existing employer. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the rate of employee turnover is quite high in private sectors as compared to that of public sectors. Employee turnover affects the organisation as there are various costs that are involved in the recruitment, selection and development of an employee at every stage. This cost of the organisation goes in vain when a trained and experienced employee leaves the organisation. Long Term Orientation (LTO) of employees can be measured with the application of interviews involving exit employees and surveying the ex-employees. In order to reduce employee turnover, it is therefore quite vital for companies to consider aspects such as realistic job previews, effective employee selection, job enrichment and effective reward practices among others. However, retaining staff might not always be beneficial for organisations as it can cause career blockage, lack of promotion opportunities, deficiency of fresh ideas and skills and maintaining an older workforce. Despite of such disadvantages, it is crucial for organisations to retain employees as it will enable them to obtain people with good skills along with the understanding of the organisational system. Effective retention of the skilled employees will also be able to get self motivated and creative person. It is in this context that the modern day Knowledge Intensive Firms (KIF), are more concerned about expertise and effective retention of employees accordingly (Reed, 2001). Portfolio Summary HRP Human Resource planning is among the key elements of HRM. Through this study I was able to learn that the concept of work in modern day is quite different as compared to that of what it was perceived to be in olden days. I have further learnt that with the introduction of SHRM, the organisational process can become more systematic as well as effective. Planning of activities including performance, productivity and quality is indeed a complex procedure but can be performed with the assistance of HRP as an inseparable part of SHRM. Recruitment As per my understanding regarding the theme of recruitment, I came to know that recruitment is an important process for organisations that enables them to get a bunch of well qualified candidates for a particular job position. I have studied that there are different kinds of recruitment processes that can be implemented by organisations to acquire efficient set of employees so as to satisfy the organisational needs. Internal recruitment is considered quite beneficial for organisations as it is cost effective and also saves time of the organisation. To be precise, I have learnt that recruitment is among the most important activities that are today performed by organisations in conducting their wide-ranging operations. Selection Selection is also a significant process conducted by organisations. This particular approach is adopted to acquire the best possible candidate for a particular kind of job. I have learnt that selection is done by using some tests that measures the personal characteristics of people and depicts whether he/she is suited for a particular kind of job. Selection is mainly done so that the organisation could make sure that the candidate will be able to build a long association with the organisation. Rewards From my study on the concept of rewards, I have also learnt that rewards are quite vital in regard to motivate employees to perform better. Furthermore, I have come to know that rewards can be of various forms where each one of them imposes a significant impact on the employees at the individual level and also in the team level. Rewards are also given in order to encourage employees to accept change and build long association with the organisation. Retention From my study, I was able to learn that retention is one of the most prominent challenges that are threatening the operations of organisations in the modern day world. I have further discovered that due to high rate of turnover, the cost of recruitment, selection and training often goes in vain owing to poor retention programs. Consequently, to retain maximum number of employees, companies need to focus on rewards, positive motivation and effective employee selection processes. Induction and Culture My study also makes me familiar about the importance of induction and culture in an organisation. Induction is the process through which employees are made familiar about the terms and conditions practiced within the organisation while culture depicts the personality of the organisation. Both these aspects are quite imperative in the effective functioning of the organisations. References Government Business Solutions, No Date. Human Resource Management. Home. [Online] Available at: http://govbizsolutions.com/Portals/0/workforce_plan.bmp [Accessed April 28, 2013]. Reed, A., 2001. Innovation in Human Resource Management: Tooling Up for the Talent Wars. CIPD Publishing. University of Washington, No Date. Recruitment. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/studentaffairs/SI/documents/Recruitment.pdf [Accessed April 28, 2013]. Wachter, M. L. & Wright, R. D., 1990. The Economics of Internal Labour Market. Stanford university, pp.1-40. Read More