The developing role of HR within the present-day business

The developing role of HR within the present-day business

Introduction

The developing role of HR in present-day business involves the practices, procedures, and policies that persuade the performance of employees in an organization. In this article, a detailed analysis of the developing role of HR is discussed in detail. The practices of HR are involved in recognizing, pooling, screening, and evaluating the necessary channels that a company must use to ensure the organization runs effectively. Thus, HR plays a vital role in the retention programs of the company’s employees and in the process of enhancing the performance of the organization.

HR plays a major role in an organization in myriad sections ranging from the company image to strategic planning. HR practitioners provide many expertises, services that maintain control by enhancing the employees’ experience in the organization by strengthening the functions and operations of the entity.

Roles of HR in the organization

1. Strategic management of the company- the HR in the company improves the bottom line of the organization using its knowledge of how human capital influences the success of the firm. HR through HR strategic management help in the decision-making processes of the organization that underline the current staffing assessments and projections for future workforce needs of the entity based on the business demand.
2. Compensation structures of salaries and wages of the organization- the HR specialists develop a compensation realistic structure that sets the organization’s wages competitive with other business sections in the firm competition for employees with similar skills and expertise. The HR conducts extensive salary and wages survey to ensure the organization maintains compensation costs in line with the projected revenue and the current financial status of the firm.
3. Analysis of the benefits- the HR benefit specialists work to reduce the expenditures associated with attrition, turnover, and hiring replacement employees. HR is essential to the firm because they have the expertise and skills necessary to negotiate the benefit packages for employees within the economic situation and the consistent budget of the company. Moreover, the HR expertise understands the benefits they can use to attract and retain employees, which can reduce the costs of the organization associated with hiring replacement employees, attrition, and turnover.
4. Risk and safety management- HR ensures the organization provided safe working conditions for employees, through complying with the Health Administration regulations and Occupational Safety through maintaining accurate records, work logs, and developing strategies that reduce the causes of workplace fatalities and injuries. The HR specialists also engage programs that promote awareness among the employees on the safe handling of equipment and types of machinery.
5. Minimization of liability issues- the HR minimizes the liability and exposure relations related allegations of unfair practices within the organization. The HR investigates, identify and resolves the issues that arise in workplaces because if the issues are left unattended, they will spiral out of control and end up in embroiling the firm in legal matters about the state anti-discrimination and harassment laws.
6. Development and Training- HR through the training and development specialists coordinate the orientation of a new employee, a vital process that forges a strong relationship between the organization and the employee. The training and development of HR specialists also provide training that ensures the fair employment process by the organizations in preparing personnel with management and supervisory qualities.
7. Employee satisfaction- the HR employee specialist relation in the organization helps the firm to attain high morale, performance, and satisfaction levels of employees throughout the organization by creating ways that strengthen the relationship between the organization and the employee. The HR administers employee opinions, and conduct by ensuring job satisfaction and the ways the organization can sustain good working relationships.
8. Onboarding and Recruitment- HR manages the recruitment process from screening the resumes to planning interviews of the new employees. HR typically determines the most effective way to determine the best applicants who suit the needs of the organization.
9. The hiring of personnel – the HR practitioners work together with hiring managers to ensure good hiring decisions in the organization according to the needs of the firm. The HR guides the managers who are not familiar with the standard hiring to ensure that the organization hires suitable personnel.
10. Maintenance of Compliance- HR ensures that the organization operates in a manner that complies with the state requirements and employment laws. The HR normally completes the necessary paperwork for documenting the eligibility of the organization employees to the state laws. The HR also monitors compliance with the regulations for the government contracts by maintaining a written affirmative action plan, applicant flow logs, and disparate impact analyses.

Contemporary business issues of HR

According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) Special Expertise Panels more tight work markets, monetary vulnerability and globalization are the key issues that shape the work environment and the HR functions of the organization. These issues are comprised of the HR proficient individuals accused of detailing developmental patterns in the firm, for example, morals, worldwide practices, HR disciplines, work relations, and innovation. All through the previous functioning of the organization, HR has recognized a wide scope of difficulties and prominent patterns that include the following:

• Stepped-up talent competition. As the performance economic situations of the firm improve and the requirement for skilled and experienced laborers ascends everywhere, the firm is thinking that it is harder to pull in the best brands. The issue makes it progressively important for HR to help assemble a strong manager brand. Smart HR experts feature the organization by joining the essentials of an extraordinary work environment, including corporate social duty activities, solid laborer wellbeing, and safety efforts, and a larger air of consideration and regard in the work environment. The tight rivalry for talent is likewise affecting remuneration and advantages systems, movement approaches, and the company migrations.
• New improvements in technology. New apparatuses, for example, talent systems, crowdsourcing, and interior networks in the organizations hold the guarantee of expanded adaptability and profitability. Yet, their utilization in supporting a virtual workforce keeps on making the employee and the board management difficult.
• A rising feeling of insecurity. With innovation, information security concerns emerge for both the HR and the employees. The organization faces the danger of information breaching and the dangers to the firm’s supply chains. Simultaneously, the dread that the HR may end up in a dangerous circumstance due to the occurrences of work environment brutality and political or social precariousness in the organization.
• The outcome of the economy. While monetary pointers have improved in the firm, the HR keeps on feeling a strain on their financial plans. The process has affected the recruiting techniques and other HR choices of the firm. Likewise, expanded globalization and political turmoil in certain departments of HR are keeping on making economic vulnerability a new normal.
• Demographic changes. Populace changes in the company have a mounting sway on numerous sectors of business and HR practices. These headways incorporate the aging workforce, various ages cooperating in the firm’s developmental functions together, increased social diversity, and the nature of family and parental jobs.
• Data-driven HR rehearses. The developing significance of huge information by the HR presents the Organization HR professionals with a chance and puts them under tension. In the company, many business pioneers are progressively requesting that HR experts should use measurements and in-depth evaluation to make sound judgment and exhibit the return on the organization’s key expenditures.

The HR management Models

There are four major HR management models, which serve various functions in the organization.  Firstly, the models provide an analytical framework for HR functions such as situational factors, strategic choice levels, situational factors, and competences. Secondly, the models legitimize the HR practices in the organization by training and selection through an individualized approach to the matters of selection and training. Thirdly, the models provide a characterization of the HR strategies that establish the relationship and the variables of the organization. Lastly, the models serve as a heuristic device in the organization to help in understanding and discovering the firm in explaining the significance and nature of the key HR practices.

The Harvard model

The model claims to be the most comprehensive as it seeks to compromise six critical elements of HR. The model encompasses the following dimensions: interests, stakeholders, HR policy choice, situational factors, long-term consequences, HR outcomes, and a feedback loop through. The output of this model flows directly into the stakeholders and the organization.

The Warwick Model

The Warwick model was developed by two researchers Hendry and Pettigrew from the University of Warwick. The model is based on five components the macro-environmental forces, firm-specific or microenvironmental forces, business strategy content,  the HR context, and the HR content. The model takes cognizance of the HR practices, business strategy, and the process by which changes take place in the organization, including the interaction between changes in both content and context.

The strength of the Warwick model is that it identifies and classifies important environmental influences on HR. The model maps the connection between the environmental and external factors and explores how HR adapts to the changes in the context of an organization. The HR creating an alignment between the internal and external contexts will ensure the organization achieves growth and performance.

The Guest Model

David Guest developed the Guest model in 1997. The model is superior to other HR models. The Guest Model suggests that the HR specialist in an organization has specific strategies to start with, which require certain practices that will execute an outcome.  The outcomes of this model include performance-related, behavioral, and financial rewards. The Guest Model emphasizes six elements that include HR practices, HR strategy, behavioral outcomes, financial consequences, and performance results. The main reason that makes Guest Model superior to the other models is the fact that it maps up the field of HR and delineates the output and incomes.

The Fombrun, Devanna and Tichy Model

The model emphasizes four functions and their relation to an organization. The functions include selection, development, appraisal, and rewards. The functions constitute components of HR which contribute to the effectiveness and success of the organization. However, this model focuses on only the four functions while ignoring the other HR contingency and environmental factors that influence HR functions in an organization.

External Factors Impacting the operations of the organization

Changes in the international economy

Due to the changes in the international economy, the organization is affected in a short period, because of the integration of the economies of the world. Consequently, the recession in the nation which is significant in the economy of the world usually fuels the same impact on other economies. Hence, in unstable conditions of the world economy, it becomes difficult for the organization to bargain with its union. That is to say, negative developments of an economy results in undesired situations in the company.  In the organization, negative development has resulted in a decrease in the rates of sales and employment that has weakened the social status of the workforce.

Changes in Technology

The advancement of technology in the organization has provided the more appropriate infrastructure for the physical and mental health of the organization workers. The development in science has made it possible for HR to set up a better organizational substructure for the development of the firm. Consequently, the technology has also ensured the income of the organization grows which has resulted in improved salaries and wages of the employees. Hence, an increase in the number of technological innovations and alternatives in the firm functions creates a positive image that increases the revenues earned. Moreover, change in technology has ensured the company HR functions such as education, selection, training, recruiting, observing, appraisal, and determining salaries and wages are improved.

Besides, technology ensures international developments in HR are learned and implemented faster to ensure all the human resources functions are practiced efficiently. However, the changes also harm HR policies. The changes have decreased the need for labor, which has resulted in lower employment levels in the company.

Culture and Traditions

The culture and tradition also have influenced the HR activities in the organization in terms of transferring necessary related cultural characteristics into the life of the organization. The behavior of top managers and HR of the company are under the influence of the cultural activities of the local community, and thus impacting directly and indirectly on the HR programs.

Sector Characteristics

The sector characteristics in the organization influence HR in various ways. For instance, the retail sector has a system of human resource management. The influence shows how the organization is more dependable on the characteristics, abilities, and skills of the HR.

Legislation

All the policies of the organization are per the legal necessities of the HR. The organization behaves in the frame of rules that are an implementation of a law that is put into practice, which structures the practices of the HR.

HR Strategies

The strategies of HR set out what the organization intends to about the practices and policies in the human resource management, and how they are integrated with the organization strategy each time. The strategies are the internal consistent packages of human resources practices. The HR strategies of the organization have two key elements that comprise the objectives and plans.

Moreover, the HR strategies aim to clarify what the company anticipates to do about its human resource management practices and policies presently and in the future because if the organization anticipates succeeding in the future it must perform well in the present. Hence, the HR strategies meet both the human and the business requirements in the organization. The strategies set out the intentions of the organization by providing direction and purposes, but they are usually not long term plans.

HR Strategies shaping in the organization

HR has many tasks that should accomplish and the HR strategy is the most important thing of all the tasks. The HR strategy determines how the management process will function and how it should be made effective to assist the organization to achieve its objectives and goals. When the HR strategy is identified by the organization, it acts as the basic foundation on how the HR department plans and does its roles in all levels of the firm.

Shaping the HR strategy involves many aspects and hence it is effective if the HR specialists analyze and evaluate the aspects. The HR personnel in the organization look at four aspects when they are working on the strategies. HR considers the organization itself, the culture of the organization, the general HR system, and the people in the organization.

However, the HR strategy is affected by the culture of the organization such as the values, norms, and the belief standard of the organization. Thus, the HR strategy must work in line with the organizational culture and moral beliefs to avoid ineffective strategies.  The aspects of the organization include the structure of the organization itself, the job description, and the position needed by the organization management. The organization line and culture affect HR expertise from working on the HR systems for training and recruiting. Therefore, HR considers the levels of personnel based skills, capabilities, and expertise to the needs of the organization.

The General HR Strategies

The general strategies describe the overall bundle and a system of the complimentary HR practices the organization recommends to put into effect and adopt to improve its performance. The approaches to general HR strategies include;

• High-performance management- this strategy aims at making an impact on the performance of the firm in such areas as quality, productivity, growth, levels of customer service, and profits. High-performance management practices comprise of demanding selection procedures, recruitment, relevant and extensive training, incentive pay systems, and performance and development management. These practices facilitate the involvement of employees, motivations, and skill enhancements.
• High commitment management- High commitment is a type of managing system that elicits a commitment so that the organization’s behavior is primarily self-regulated instead of being controlled by pressures and sanctions external to the HR and the relations are based on trust.
• High involvement management- these are specific sets of HR practices and policies that focus on employee power, access to information, incentives, training, and decision making.

Specific HR Strategies

The specific HR strategies set out what the organization plans to do in areas such as the:

• Human capital management- this entails analyzing, obtaining, and reporting on the data that directs on the process of value-adding people management, investment, strategic and operational decisions.
• Corporate social responsibility- this involves a commitment to ethically managing the organization businesses to make a positive impact on the environment and society.
• Organizational development- this involves planning and implementing activities designed to ensure the effectiveness of the functions and operations of the organization.

Principles of an effective HR Strategy

• Satisfies the needs of the business
• Founded on the detailed study and analysis and not wishful thinking
• Easily can turn to actionable programs that anticipate problems and implementation needs.
• Easily integrated and coherent, and contain elements that support and fit with each other.

How the Organization develops its HR strategies

The organization considers the following procedure in developing the HR strategies;

• The organization first gets the big picture- this involves the process by which the company understands its business. The company highlights the key driving forces that it incorporates in running the business such as the technology, competition, distribution, and the market. After analyzing the driving forces, the organization identifies the implications of the forces in the firm and the fundamental contribution of the workforce in the performance of the organization’s functions.
• The organization develops a statement of intent and mission statement- in this section the company relates the workforce to its business. The process entails an evaluation of what the workforce contributes to the organization by avoiding a put off negative reactions and idealistic statements in the explicit plans the organization aims to achieve.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis of the organization- the company focuses on the internal weaknesses and strengths of the business. The process entails a consideration of the current capacity issues and skills of the individuals working in the company. The organization carries vigorous research on the market environment and the external business by highlighting the opportunities, skill shortages, new technology on staffing, and their impact on the organization. From this analysis, the capability of the departmental personnel is reviewed by considering a detailed current operation of the department, the competences, and the service levels of the personnel staff.
• Conduct a detailed HR analysis- a concentration is given specifically on the culture, organization, people, and the HR systems by considering where the organization is currently, where it wants to be, and the gaps that exist between the current levels and where the organization wants to be.
• Determination of critical people issues- the organization considers the business strategy by analyzing it against the SWOT and the culture, organization, people, and the HR system. A keen evaluation is done on the critical people issues that must be addressed and those that have a key impact on the delivery of the organization’s business strategies. A priority is given on the critical people issues by analyzing what might occur if the organization fails to address them.
• Development of consequences and solutions- an option for managerial action generate is highlighted for each critical issue. The step is vital because frequently individuals jump from the known instead of challenging the existing assumptions about the way things have been done before. The best thing is an analysis of the consequences of incorporating various courses of action. A mixture of the HR systems needed to address the critical issues is considered by evaluating places that require improvements such as training and communication, the implications of personnel functions, and the business. Once all these processes have been analyzed the action plans are translated into broader objectives by a break own into HR specialist system areas of management development, employee training and development, performance appraisal, organization development, manpower planning, employee reward, communication, and employee selection and recruitment.
• Implementation and evaluation of the action plans- after identification and analysis of the critical issues a date is set to accomplish the targeted objectives and goals. The main reason for developing an HR strategy is to ensure that the objectives set by the organization are mutually supportive of the functions and operations of the firm so that the payment system and reward systems are integrated with employee career development plans and training.

Changes in the Business Environment

In an organization, the business environment change can occur all the time because of various positive outcomes.  Not all firms like change, the organization does not wish to get out of its comfort zone, adapt to new emerging changes sometimes the change creates a traumatizing effect. However, the organization should not worry and panic about changes, it should take them as positive factors and work towards acclimatizing and accepting them.

The image was retrieved from www.designing-it-organizations.com  on 7^th August 2020.

The possible cause of the business environment changes include recession, increase in market pressures, reduction in the organization budget, advanced technology, improved customer service, change in government legislation and regulations, improved operations of the organization, globalization, increase in competition, improved efficiency, reduction in profit, loss of finances, decrease in performance, expectations of customers, change in departmental and the organization structuring.

Despite many of the changes harming the operations of the organization, any change in an organization implemented using the correct means will result in huge benefits of the organization, its departments, individuals, and its teams working in the organization. The benefits of environmental business change to an organization include the organization being able to get rid of old technologies and operations and keep up with the emerging innovations.

Responding to the Changes in the Business Environment of the organization

Once the business environment changes have occurred, the organization needs to respond to the changes to keep on track the performance before and after the change occurred. The significance of identifying the effects of business change is to aid in deciding whether new tools, resources, and training are needed. The identification also helps in exploring new ideas and sort out any problems that could have flourished as a result of the change.

The ways through which the organization responds to the changes include; firstly, an observation using statistical information is made for instance on the customer feedback, the organization’s turnover, calculation of costs, and the measurement of the complexity of tasks. Secondly, is the comparison of statistics and other data before after the change, and identification of the advantages and disadvantages over past practices. Thirdly, is checking on how the organization’s workforce has responded to the changes through one on one meetings and questionnaires. Lastly, is checking on the skills gained through the change and carrying out assessments on the effects of the change before and after the implementation.

Conclusion and Recommendations

            HR is an important section of the organization and developing its role in the business is an investment that ultimately benefits the organization more strongly and effectively. When the organization develops its HR it is strengthening its assets by making the HR section more valuable.

When the organization changes each individual in the organization involved in the change process is expected to respond effectively for the process to happen without any negative consequences. Each individual in the organization should be able to identify the effects of the changes to their organizational operations and the reasons that led to the changes. The teams and persons responsible for implementing the changes should frequently review the effects of change on the processes, employees, analyze and record the outcomes. Moreover, the HR and the employees in the organization should understand their roles in responding to the changing process. After the change has occurred, it will become a usual thing and a continuous phenomenon in the daily businesses of the organization.

References