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2-Assignment1.docxHR STRATEGIC PLANNING AND MEASURING TASK FORCE 10
Human Resources Strategic Planning and Measuring Task Force
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People are the biggest asset for every organization including BANKS Industries. Consequently, to attract, inspire, and maintain the most capable employees and entrust them into jobs for which they are well suited, a competent, professional human resources department is mandatory. Looking at the high-attrition rate of the job market, managing human talent is of considerable concern nowadays. The HR department must continue making smart decisions during the screening, hiring, and retention stages of employment and continue to resolve issues, motivate staff to move towards organizational goals and keep in perspective the aspects influencing particular matters. As a key department within any company, human resources cover:
· Recruitment, retention, and dismissal of employees:
· Working conditions
· Health and safety
· Training, development, and promotion
· Dealing with/working with employee organizations and trade unions
Increasingly, HR professionals are also involved in legislative compliance, strategic decisions about organizational change and industrial issues. BANKS Industries HR department must continue the use of their ability to forecast the future and to transform the organization’s requirements into plans, policies, programs and actions.
Apart from the thorough knowledge of the internal working of the organization, the HR department also needs to judge the long-term ramifications of shifting public opinion and new legislation. Thus, the responsibilities of BANKS Industries HR department have expanded and changed. Not only is the department tasked with selecting and recruiting appropriate and qualified employees for the organization, they are also accountable for training and motivating all employees and limiting job turnover.
The HR department must continue to aid the organization and management team allowing for practical use of each employee skill set, while at the same time offering training for new skills and increasing opportunities to sharpen those skills. The HR department should also be concerned about the employees’ satisfaction of the work environment and their jobs.
BANKS Industries HR professionals must continue to implement and follow these steps to boost morale and productivity, which will help improve their performance. When recruiting and selecting staff for an organization, no matter the scale, the human resource department has to face the problem of choosing the right people at the right time and the right place. The recruitment and selection process consists of selecting the right applicant having the proper knowledge, skills and motivation. As in any company, the primary task of the human resources department is to make sure that the business has the right employees for the successful operations of the company.
Training and development programs are designed to improve the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees. BANKS Industries views workers as an “investment” in human capital and to achieve an adequate “return” on this investment, management must be confident that employees are competent and possess current job skills. Some employees may require periodic training and development to prevent their skills from deteriorating or becoming obsolete. The HR training and development programs include skill instruction designed to improve employee efficiency and management development programs whose primary purpose is to enhance the decision-making abilities of managers and career development programs.
The HR department works closely with management and other departments, increasingly in a consultancy role, assisting managers in understanding and implementing policies and procedures such as promoting equal opportunity and diversity as part of the customs of the business. The HR department must also act as a go-between involved in areas such as race relations, disability, gender, age, religion, health and safety. Among the many important jobs of the HR department, one of the most essential is the recruiting of staff including developing job descriptions, preparing advertisements, checking application forms, interviewing and selecting candidates.
The HR department supports the hiring of talented individuals enabling them to grow and develop their talents, as well as retention of existing talent. BANKS Industries realizes the importance of attracting and retaining top talent. The human resources professionals must have the level of expertise needed to drive the development of people-driven systems and adaptive and reconfigurable organizational infrastructures, which is likely to lead to better employee performance and long-term business success. The BANKS Industries HR department is tasked with finding a qualified workforce that is committed and motivated to grow within the organization. The job market has brought about concerns for HR departments and management due to increased turnover rates. To reverse this trend, the human resources department has to identify the problem of retainment and use strategies to recruit and keep personnel.
The changing demography of today’s global workforce presents challenges and opportunities to individuals and the organizations of which they are a part. The Human Resource community has been essential in administratively bridging human capital’s cultural differences. For any business, of any size to be successful and well organized, it must build a strong team of diverse employees. Personnel job planning involves placing the right person in the right job at the right time. Businesses often have unpredictable needs for employees. Nearly all companies experience employee turnover due to resignations, retirements, and discharges. Employees also shift from one department or job to another by way of promotions and transfers. At any one time, an organization may find out that it has a shortage of employees with specific job skills and an excess of other. The HR department of BANKS Industries must continue to accurately project staffing needs and make decisions to have on hand a sufficient number of employees whose knowledge, skills and abilities can meet the company’s demands, without any loss of productivity.
Motivation and teamwork are two of the main concerns in human resource management because they provide a good understanding of the motivational and shared systems that any business should incorporate in its management practices. They also link the importance of goal definitions and feedback to promote motivation - “Goal setting and feedback seeking about goals are the core of self-regulation” (Latham & Locke 1990) supporting the organization should align its aspirations with the employees. The HR department should create strategies to reach goals in a successful way that can be monitored for effectiveness.
Achieving goals enables management to match its worker's skill set to the areas of need to meet the targeted objectives. Motivated employees, not only work on improving their ability, but also gain a sense of individual value in the company and thus improve their motivation and work satisfaction. Motivation is related to the external and internal characteristics that drive one person’s attitude in a firm. Therefore, to effectively motivate an employee to achieve corporate goals, leaders must fully know them, their needs, wants and values. Realizing this, gives the employees incentives aimed to improve work performance and motivation. Recent studies show that managers sometimes lack the insight of what really drives and motivates their employees, resorting to practices that theorists and scientists have firmly been defending for the past half century, with a primary focus in rewarding and punishing incentives whereas to intrinsically drive motivation – basis of the “carrots and sticks approach” (Pink, 2010).
The HR department’s practices of engagement and commitment enable the management team to communicate the value of each job and required capabilities to all employees, allowing for the effective conveyance of tasks. Engagement and Commitment also emphasize the behavioral and attitudinal components of employees, ensuring their loyalty through the maintenance of their work passion, enthusiasm and satisfaction. Studies show that value must be given in creating an emotional attachment between the organization and its members by making sure everyone shares the same values and are seen as an essential element to the workforce - “In engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during role performance” (Khan, 1990).
As previously discussed, the human resources department comprises an extremely valuable tool to the success and competitive advantage of any company. It is the responsibility of the human resources department to ensure that the organization recruits the right staff and that the teams are trained to ensure that the business meets its aims and annual targets. The HR department is central to the success of the company. Sometimes in human resources, there have to be corrective actions for staff. What is important is that all employees are treated fairly and in line with company policy. “The Human Resources Department is responsible for four primary functions; Human Resources Planning, Recruitment and Selection, Training and Development, and Performance Management” (Jackson, S., Schuler, R., 1995).
Human resources, in itself, is a practice that is dedicated to cultivating human capital for an organization’s benefit. Many companies, including BANKS Industries, spend top dollar annually on human resource management and programs to nurture its human capital. Common human resource practices include training and development for employees, competitive payroll and incentive programs. Organizations go to great lengths to attract potential talent and retain current performing employees for their skills, knowledge and work experience. These qualities are the employee’s work value, often determining the employability of the individual as well. Also commonly referred to as an organization’s core competency, the human capital is a critical factor in an organization’s sustainability (Wright and McMahan, 2011).
The human capital is, potentially the most valuable, and an elusive asset to businesses. “It is an intangible asset that can be influenced, but never completely controlled, invested wisely, or wasted thoughtlessly, and still has tremendous value”( Weatherly, W., 2003).
The explanation for this statement is that the intrinsic value of an organization’s human capital can be fostered through the right strategic decisions. The organization’s capabilities in managing human capital, if done right, may create a competitive edge that will, in turn, provide financial returns. There is a multitude of factors that can contribute to striving for human capital. One of the key drivers is to keep employees engaged. Employee engagement, as defined by Simon (2011, p.64-65), is a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organization and its values. An engaged employee is conscious of the business environment and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.
Businesses often neglect the importance of human capital and the effects that it may bring due to external distractions such as industry politics and market changes. BANKS Industries, HR department must continue to lead in this area. In a tight economy, employees are often expected to work long hours and perform functions beyond assigned job role with little to none incentives. This causes unhappiness in employees and affects workplace morale, driving the employee to become disengaged from the organization. When an employee stops sharing the same vision or becomes apathetic to an organization’s business goals, productivity dips (Simon, S., 2011).
When the person and the job fits or matches his or her skills, knowledge and past experiences contribute to an organization’s profitability and values and each become a pivotal brick to building a strong business foundation. The human element drives and operates an organization’s daily functions with workplace skills that cannot be replaced nor replicated by technology. A good, valuable employee is one who bears the necessary skills, knowledge and personality to address complicated issues that cannot be handled by machines. As such, human resource is considered the most important asset of an organization. Moreover, the HR department is at the forefront of this essential step in the running of a successful business.
The Accenture High-Performance Workforce Study done in 2002/2003 found that the main shortcoming in many companies is “a lack of measurement on the impact of HR, which is preventing executives from understanding where and how they should best apply resources” (Jamrog, J., & Overholt, M. 2004). The report continued, the companies that are achieving success in this arena are more likely to see HR functions as valuable and strategic. The management team at BANKS Industries believe that the HR department is critical and an essential strategic business partner and that the department must be involved in organizational effectiveness. The HR department must continue to develop processes that directly measure the impact HR has on the company’s effectiveness and the overall strategic priorities.
To effectively manage the growth and success of our staffing needs, BANKS Industries HR department has designed and implemented a human resource strategy. Establishing this HR strategy ensures that our company continues to run efficiently and smoothly. BANKS Industries overall strategic plan for the company mandates the direction of the HR department’s strategy. The strategy is fluid and based on the changing needs of the company. However, it is always directed and working towards the company’s goal. BANKS management team will monitor the performance of the HR department by comparing across time how the department leaders rate the scope of its actions and the value of the in-place HR system features. Management will collect and make use of three types of HR measures: efficiency; effectiveness; and impact. Efficiency refers to the number of resources used by HR programs, such as cost-per-hire. Effectiveness refers to the result created by HR activities, such as learning from training. Impact refers to the business or calculated value produced by the HR activities, such as higher sales. Using HR metrics and analytics to compel efficiency, effectiveness and impact are all notably related to HR effectiveness.
Based on research, a mix of all three types of measures should be used to determine the success of the HR strategy. Measuring all three are essential to understanding how HR investments affect organizational performance entirely. Even though each calls for somewhat different metrics and analytics, they complement each other when they are used together. Measuring the pivotal impact of talent, as well as leadership decision quality, is also essential. Research has provided evidence that the strategic use and outcomes of HR metrics and analytics are increasingly associated with the HR department’s efficacy and organizational performance.
References
Jackson, Susan E., & Schuler, Randall S. (1995). Understanding human resource management in the context of organizations and their environments. Annual Review of Psychology, 46, 237.
Kahn, W. (1990). Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work. The Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692-724.
Locke, E., & Latham, G. (1990). Work Motivation and Satisfaction: Light at the End of the Tunnel. Psychological Science, 1(4), 240-246.
Pink, Daniel H., & Pink, Daniel H. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us New York, NY: Riverhead Books.
Simon, S. (2011). The Essentials of Employee Engagement in Organizations. Journal of Contemporary Research in Management,
Weatherly, Leslie A. (2003). Human capital--the elusive asset; measuring and managing human capital: A strategic imperative for HR. (2003 Research Quarterly). HRMagazine, 48(3), S1-S9.
Wright, P. M., & McMahan, G. C. (2011). Exploring human capital: putting ‘human back into strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal, 21(2), 93-104.
