Human Resource Management

Introduction

Human Resource Management is taken as a fundamental pillar for the successful working of an organization. The purpose of this study is to interpret the importance of the effective application of HRM within the organization. The role, function, and purpose of Human Resource Management within the organization are identified and evaluated in the study. Apart from that, various practices of HRM have also been discussed to provide a comprehensive report on various aspects and benefits of having an efficient Human Resource Department.

Nature and Scope of HRM

Definition of HRM

The Human Resource Management of an organization is responsible for the overall planning of the business, starting from recruiting employees to ensuring employee productivity. Human resource management not only looks after the job roles within the organization but also looks after the potential candidates for specific job profiles. One of the primary roles of human resources is to look after the recruitment process, as per the view of SiriyanunMukem and Jermsittiparsert(2019). Other roles of the HRM include employee retention, formulating employee relations, managing the work environment, and more.

Function and Activities of HRM

The functions of human resource management are to seek and achieve a competitive advantage for the organization, as per the view of Ahammad(2017).

Recruitment and Selection

The HRM of an organization is responsible for screening, captivating, and selecting qualified and potential candidates based on the specific job profile. The HRM is also responsible for formulating and executing appropriate staffing plans for the organization, as reported by Azeem and Yasmin (2016).

Maintaining Working Conditions

One of the fundamental functions of HRM is to provide and maintain the right work environment. This involves motivating the employees and ensuring that the relation between the employees and the management is maintained, as commented by Chowhan, Pries, and Mann (2017). They provide non-financial and financial benefits through various welfare programs to the employees.

Controlling and Development

The HRM regulates the overall activities of the organization concerning the objectives and plans of the organization. This department observes different approaches that they can implement to ensure effective planning and resourcing of the organization, as suggested by Ahammad(2017). Every department of the organization is independently overlooked by the HRM department that helps in identifying areas of improvement for increased productivity within the organization.

Difference between Best Fit Vs Best Practice

The term best-fit approach explores the internal close relationship between the strategic management as well as HRM by taking into consideration the main influence and nature of the vertical integration (Malik, 2018). Vertical integration in HRM is associated with the specific approach in which leverage is gained with the help of close link of different HR policies to the business objectives and thus the external analysis has taken as a main theme of the strategic HRM.

On the other hand, best practice mainly highlights the particular relationship between the good Human resource practice and business organizational performance that are evaluated in terms of employee satisfaction. Thus best practice theory of HRM has acknowledged the importance of business organizational strategy on performance.

Figure 1: Best Fit Vs Best Practice

(Source: Malik, 2018)

Hard and Soft Model of HRM

Hard Model

The main focus of the hard model is to clearly identify the workforce that is needed by the organization for recruitment (GADO, A.S.K. and ÜLGEN, 2018)

• Little business transparency
• Implementation of appraisal system that is focused on both good and bad performance

Soft Model

This model of HRM mainly treats employees as an important resource for the business by creating a progressive outlook for the business.

• Focus on long term planning for business success
• Employee Empowerment

Figure 2: Soft and Hard HRM

(Source: GADO, A.S.K. and ÜLGEN, 2018)

Workforce Planning

Human resource management looks after the performance management of the employees across the organization. This helps the human resource department to understand an individual employees’ level of efficiency, as commented by Arvanitis, Seliger, and Stucki (2016). The performance of an employee can be measured with the help of various elements such as appraisal history, daily-work completion rate, employee attendance, and more. Furthermore, to improve employee engagement and motivation, human resource management develops various interactive and communicative sessions that would help both the employees and the management to know each other. To ensure cultural integration, human resource departments of various organizations influence the celebration of cultural activities, as reported by Bamber, Bartram, and Stanton (2017). This helps in maintaining workplace diversity while avoiding any workplace conflict.

Labor Market Trends

The internal labor market is the segmentation of the market in which workers are hired into the specific entry-level job and the wage factor is determined internally that are free of market pressure. Data from the Labor Force Survey analyze that the large increase in the overall unemployed rate which the total employment rate has continued to fall. In this section, an explorative analysis has been made of some of the UK labor market statistics.

• UK Employment rate in November 2020 was 75.2 % that is 1.1 lower than November 2020 and 0.4% lower than the previous quarter
• UK Unemployment rate in the three months to November 2020 is estimated to 5.0% that is 1.2% higher than the previous year and 0.6% higher than the previous quarter (Ons.gov.uk, 2021).

Figure 3: UK Employment and Unemployment Data

(Source: Ons.gov.uk, 2021)

Recruitment

The human resource department would first shortlist potential candidates depending on their work eligibility, past experience, and qualifications for recruiting them in the organization. However, prior to recruitment and selection, the human resource department identifies the need for resources and the vacancy within the organization, as opined by Manzoor et al. (2019). Some HRM practices also involve the conduction of background verification on potential employees via an external organization.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Approaches to Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment is the process of finding and acquiring potential candidates who have suitable experience, skills, and knowledge for the required job profile. Selection can be taken as the final step of the recruitment process, as propounded by Farndale, Nikandrou, and Panayotopoulou(2018). It includes interviewing and assessing both the personal and professional qualities of the applicant. Recruiting the appropriate candidate is important for an organization as it offers a competitive advantage while ineffective recruitment can result in major disruptions in long-term costs, customer, service, operations, productivity, and personal hardships.

There are two primary approaches of recruitment and selection that organizations follow. These include external recruitment and internal recruitment, as per the view of Klementováet al. (2016). These approaches will be explained in detail with their strengths and weaknesses below.

The external Recruitment approach of recruitment involves the hiring of potential employees from outside the organization. The process of external recruitment significantly involves hiring new and fresh ideas in the workplace. This process includes a larger candidates pool, website, social media, referrals, increased branding, job boards, etc, and also the process of receiving the CV or resume of the candidate, assessment of the candidate through interviews, tests, and more, and finally the selection of the employee. Internal required select the employee internal from the business organization

Job Analysis of Sales Manager

• Development and support along with the implementation of the initiatives of the systems and the HR.
• Providing counseling on procedures and policies
• Being actively involved in regards to recruitment by the preparation of job descriptions by posting of advertisements and the management of the process of hiring.
• Implementing and creating effective plans of onboarding
• Developing development and training plans.
• Proven experience as an HR or an HR Officer or an administrator
• Knowing of functions of an HR that is payroll, recruitment, development, and training
• Understanding of laws of labor and procedures that are disciplinary
• Proficient in Microsoft Office and knows the basics of HRMS
• Organizational and time-managing faculties are exceptional.

Job Description of Sales Manager

The job descriptions of the sales manager can take wide ranges of activity that starting from determining the annual gross profit plan by incorporating the different marketing strategy and then analyze the trends as well as the final result. In addition, the Description of the Sales Manager includes maintaining the internal sales volume, selling the price by maintaining the current supply-demand, and monitoring the economic indicators.

Personal Specification

• Good communication and presentable skill
• Problem solving and Analytic skill
• Decision-making skill

Competency Framework

The competency framework of the sales manager is associated with the essential traits that the sales manager required during their decision-making process. Ability to coach salesperson and motivates salespeople are the major treats of the salesperson (Salessense, 2021).

Figure 4: Competency Framework

(Source: Salessense, 2021)

Selection

There are a total of three methods of selection that we are going to discuss in this section

1. Preliminary Screening
2. Telephonic Interview
3. In-Person Interview
4. Cultural Fit Selection

Strength and Weakness of Selection with Key Criteria Analysis

Strengths

Through proper selection, the organization has the option to hire from a diverse pool of potential candidates, as suggested by DeVaro(2020). Job boards are considered the most effective and popular method related to external recruitment as this method significantly allows managers in terms of reaching a broad audience and also helps speed up the process of hiring. Social media recruiting helps the hiring managers find outside candidates. Hiring managers can post ads regarding jobs and their requirements on job portals, like Linkedin, Naukri, and Monster, and job websites, like Quora. Recruiting referrals is considered one of the great ways to find candidates. Hiring managers find referred and potential candidates through their network. There are some effective ways such as video calls, telephonic interviews, online tests that impact the selection process to hire new and potential talents, as opined by Farndale, Nikandrou, and Panayotopoulou(2018). Overall, hiring external employees can also help increase overall productivity through healthy competition.

Weaknesses

The process of selection seems time-consuming and more costly than the internal process. The process of social media recruitment can create trust issues among candidates as they often find fake jobs. In job portals and job websites, there are many fake consultancies that charge for jobs and do not provide genuine jobs to candidates. Some consultancies also charge more in terms of providing jobs. Job referrals are considered a kind of job recommendation where a potential talent may miss the opportunity of getting a job and recommended one get the job with low skills and knowledge. The only limitation of this approach is that companies with limited resources cannot opt for this recruitment process. This can prevent the organization from hiring someone with adequate expertise and skills. Apart from that, new employees will also take time to adapt to regulations, culture, and traditions of the organization that can result in poor employee engagement and productivity during the initial stages of the recruitment.

On-Boarding and Induction

There are a total of five common problems that employees face during the onboarding Induction

1. Giving new employees and Intern too much information at Once
2. An interpersonal induction experience
3. They are trying to do everything on the first day
4. Getting lost in the details
5. Not utilizing Digital for support

Conclusion

The concept of Human Resource Management is not only limited to the recruitment of employees in the modern business world. The HRM of business organizations is shifting towards high involvement practices for integrating the business functions more efficiently. Therefore, this study has been formulated for understanding the role, functions, scope, and importance of the human resource department within an organization. Various aspects of human resource management have been identified and analyzed to understand its effect on the successful functioning of an organization. The key elements and benefits of different HRM practices have been discussed that helped in demonstrating its relation with the employees and the company as a whole.

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