Management Mentor

My management mentor was highly motivated and inspired by the ideas of us learning the leadership experience directly from the organizational setup. He is passionate and willing to dedicate his valuable time to attend to me. Additionally, he has the hands-on experience on nearly all the management topics that we learned in class. Some of the management concepts that we intensively discussed with him include human resource management, project appraisal, budgeting, policies, and decision making.

Under human resource management, the mentor illustrated to us the functions, objectives, and benefits of human resource planning. He also outlined the job description and specifications of a human resource manager and even gave me guidelines on how to be a successful manager. Human resource management is a fundamental aspect of the organization as the success or failure of any enterprise lies with its personnel. The employees always react proportionally to how they are treated by their seniors. For instance, if you oppress your staff by subjecting them to harsh working conditions and low salary, then they will be demoralized and hence perform poorly. However, if you motivate your workers by creating job enlargement and job satisfaction, then their output will be high.

From the mentorship program, he delineated the expectations of a human resource manager by the organization. Some of the critical activities that a personnel head is required to implement include workforce forecasting, advertising vacancies, receiving the applications and scrutinizing them, conducting interviews, personnel training, and promotion of employees. Human resource forecasting is a systematic approach that projects the future workforce requirements of the company. If the organization plans to expand its sales, then the number employees must consequently be increased. The human resource personnel determines the projected number of staff that it requires to achieve both the short term and long term goals of the organization. In case the firm needs to downsize, then the human resource personnel is responsible for implementing early retirements and retrenchment of redundant employees.

The recruitment process is also another critical duty of the human resource head of an organization. The recruitment process starts when a department is overloaded with work due to the shortage of human labor or inadequate skills for the existing employees. The personnel department then advertises the position including the specific job requirements and specifications. Minimum acceptance requirements for the job are set, and then interested candidates are allowed to bring in their applications. Before conducting the interviews, the applications received are reviewed to verify that they meet the set-out standards. Those who do not meet the qualifications are rejected while the qualified candidates are invited for an interview. Aptitude and oral interviews are conducted to measure the suitability of the shortlisted candidates for the specified job. Those candidates who portray excellent performance are offered the job. However, they are through the induction training before being absorbed. The HR personnel also determine the training needs of its staff and consequently arrange for training, seminars, workshops and field trips that increase the knowledge and experience of the workers.

Project management is another vital role that executive leaders of an organization must possess. For an enterprise to grow, the organization must critically choose and pursue projects that generate adequate income for the organization. Employees come up with numerous technical ideas that help the organization, but only a few of them are feasible. For instance, when a company is having problems with its transportation system, some people may recommend purchasing new trucks while others may support subcontracting the transport services. Therefore, project appraisal of the two ideas must be conducted to determine the best solution. Some of the techniques of project appraisal which we discussed include the net present value and payback period. They are useful approaches to assessing the idea to pursue in a business.