Managing The Human Resource Environment - Coursework Example

MANAGING THE HUMAN RESOURCE ENVIRONMENT Human resource management in Australia: Microsoft Corporation Micro Soft Corporation is one of the largest companies in the world that has set up branches in many countries. It deals with production of information technology software. This paper will evaluate human resource management in Australia in light of Microsoft Corporation. Human resource management is the systematic way in which an organization responds to the needs of it workforce. It describes the way in which organizations recruits and supervises the performance of its employees. Human resources management in many organizations is handled by the human resource department which handles all issue concerning hiring and permanence of employees in the organization. Human resource management takes the consideration that the workforce is the most important asset that an organization holds and hence it must be given priority for the organization a competitive edge. Human resource management stipulates that having a skilled and well catered for workforce can help an organization to have a competitive advantage that may be difficult for other organization to replicate. Hence human resource department works to develop the workforce of the organization. (David, 1998) Human resource department is bestowed with many responsibilities as far as the development and training of the work force is concerned. First it is given the role of recruitment. It determines the labour need of an organization and carries out recruitment to ensure that it gives the best labour to the organization. Second it is also given the role of staff development and training. Human resource management is given the duty of training and developing the staff. It conducts continuous study of the staff and in work training in order to give the organization a competence work force. Third human resource is given the duty of looking at the welfare of the employees in their work. As such it works for the employees to address various issues that pertains them. Human resource also worked with other department in the organization in order to ensure optimal performance of the employees. Human resource managers must have some basic skills in order to carry out their duties. They must have the necessary organization skills that will help them in coordinating the work of the human resource department. They must understand the workforce very well and understand the difference kinds of people constituting the workforce. As such, they should have an understanding of theories of personality and the psychology of the work force. They must also be skilled counsellors since they will be handling various cases regarding the workforce and even settling disputes between the workforces. In its operation the human resource management is faced with many challenges. The management of the workforce is faced by many constrains. The integral of the function of the human resource department with other department is one of the areas posing greater challenge. This is due to many areas of conflict concerning the function of the departments. Handling of employees is another challenging area in the department. Many of the employees who feel patronage in the organization sometimes fails to recognize the authority of the department in carrying out its functions. Acting as s mediator between the organization employees and the administration, the department is faced with the challenge of harmonizing the needs of both parties. Sometimes it finds it difficulty to lean on one side of to take side on the issue so as not to appear as partisan. (Dudik, 2000) But strategic human resource management has and other human resource management strategy has been applied in a creative way in order to address some of these challenges. The organization has been able to come up with at strategic resource management place the addressed the need of the employees and at the same time address the need of the organization. Strategic human resource management Strategic management is a process of strategic planning that makes use of the mission and objectives of the companies to integrate them with the operation environment in order trot come up with a working strategic. Strategic management income coming up with a plan which brings about a working strategy that is based on the mission and objectives of the company, environmental scanning which are used to formulate a strategy followed by implementation and evaluation and control of the strategy. Therefore strategic management can be said to be the process of formulating, implementing and evaluation some integrating decisions which enables an organization achieves the laid down goals and objectives. It is a plan that combines the function of various department of the organization. Microsoft corporation has been coming up with various strategies in it management of the human resources. (Ansolf, 2005) In the formulation of the strategy the cooperation has been taking a multidimensional approach. First it performs a situation analysis of both the macro and micro environment that surrounds the strategy. Then there is setting of the objectives that are to be achieved the strategic human resource management. This comes up with the vision and the mission statement of the strategy which is in line with the vision and mission for the corporation. The objectives are always in light of ht situation analyzing which helps to come up with a strategic plan. Implementation of the strategy is purely the work of the human resource department although it is implementing in collaboration with other departments in the corporation. The strategic is allowed implement in line with available resources like time, technology, financial and personnel. Duties are assigned to the relevant people who are supposed to help in the implementing. There is also the managing process in the implementing including monitoring, comparing with benchmarks, evaluating the efficacy of the process and controlling variances for the strategy to be well implemented. In the human resource management department, the corporation usually comes up their functional strategies which emphases on strategic plans and is purely implemented in the domain of the human resource department. However these functional strategies are very well integrated in the overall corporate strategy. However at time the department also comes up with operational strategy which is supposed to organize the day to day running of the human resource department. Once the strategy is implemented, it is usually put under a process of evaluation; this is supposed to know the effectiveness of the strategy. This involved the carrying out of SWOT analyses in order to find out areas of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that are faced by the organization in the implementation of the strategy. This is ensured through continuous monitoring of the process. In the organization, strategic human executive include those in the human resource depart and those in the management the organization. Those in the department are supposed to oversee the implementation of the strategy while those in administration are involved in the formulation and evaluation of the strategy. (Patrick, 2000) This means shows the human resource environment is managed through strategic human resource management. This ensures that the organization carries out human resource management in line with the mission and vision of the organization. Strategic human resource management helps the organization in management of the performance of the employees. It carriers out various strategic management which ensures that it gets the best from the employees and in return employees remain the most motivated work force in order to unlock their potential. Strategic human resource management in the legal context In Australia human resource management is supposed to operate under a legal environment like in other countries. This is dictated by the labour laws are put in the country. All organization operation the country is supposed to conform to these laws. To make sure that human resource strategy succeeds, it must be formulated to conform to the laws of the land. This will ensure that there is less conflict between the organization and the laws of the country. Microsoft cooperation has responded well to the need to conform with the law of Australia by ensuring that all its strategies conform with the labour laws. (Patrick, 2000) The corporation ensures that it provides employees with payment packages that are in line with the needs of the labour laws in Australia. The organization also caries out programs that enhances staff development through training to ensure that it has one of the most competent work force in the world. Any strategy that is carried out in the management of the human resource must be in line with the labour market. This ensures the organization is able to retain the most competence labour force in the market. Job analysis and job evaluation is also done according to the legal environment and in some case the company signs legally binding contract with the employees. The company has also put in place compensation and benefit mechanism that is in line with the legal environment in the market. It ensures the employees are compensation accordingly. The handling of complains in the organization is first handled in the human resource department and if the department cannot handle it, it is taken to the legal court but the company does not take law in the hand. Disciplinary matters and termination of contract and employment is also done in line with the legal environment. Occupation health and safety Safety in the work place is very critical for success of any business, regardless of the size of the business. Occupation health and safety regards the measures that are taken in the work place to protect the welfares of the employees at the work place. It also refers to the legislations, policies, and procedures including activities that are also aimed at protecting the health, safety and welfare of the employees. (Australian Government, 2008) The corporation has put in place measures which are aimed at enhancing the safety of the premises. This ensures that employees work in safe places. The human resource department in the organization ensures that all premises in the organization are up to the recommended standards. It also ensures that there is safe machinery and other tools of worker. This reduces the chance of causing injury to the employees and also ensures that work is performed efficiently. The department has also strived to put up a safe system of work. This means that procedures followed in the work place ensures that there is no exploitation of the employees. They work under the recommended conditions and are given enough rest. From time to time employees are given instruction and information on the changes that are taking place in the organization. They are also supervised in every duty they are doing to ensure that they perform to the standard of the organization. In case employees need to use new equipment, they are usually taken for training on the use of the equipments to ensure that they use it in the correct manners. The organization has ensured that it has a suitable working environment and facilities for the employees. This is one way in which the organization has been able to comply with the legal requirement in the land to ensure that it reduces chances of getting into conflict with the authority. The organization also carries out from time to time evacuation drills in case of break out of fire. This is order to prepare the employees on what to do in eventuality of fire breakout. These are the safety and health measures that have been put in place by the Australian safety and Compensation council (ASCC) and the same council enforces the guidelines. (Australian Government, 2008) Industrial relations The organization relates well with other organizations in the industry. The corporation recognizes that it is a part of a growing industry and hence it has to work in collaboration with others in the industry in order to play a part in the growth of the industry. From time to time the human resource department organizes integration activities between the organization and others in the industry. The corporation has played role in its corporate social responsibility in collaboration with other organization. The human resource department has been able to prepare various corporate social responsibility activities which are carried out in collaboration with employees from other organizations. (Australian Government, 2008) References Ansolf, I. (2005). Corporate strategy; McGraw Hill Australian Government, (2008): Human resource management issues: Legal Context. Australian Public Services Commission Australian Government, (2008): OH&S Acts, Regulation and codes of practice. Retrieved on 19th March 2008, from http://www.business.gov.au/Business+Entry+Point/Business+Topics/Occupational+health+and+safety/OH+and+S+Acts+Regulations+and+Codes+of+Practice.html David, F (1998). Strategic management; Columbus: Merrill Publishers Dudik, E. (2000). Strategic Renaissance; New York: Amacon Patrick, M. (2000): Human Resource strategy. CA: Sage Read More