The Essay On HRM In Australia

Discuss about the Concept of Human resource management in Australia.

The purpose of this reflective journal is to analyze the concept of Human resource management in Australia. It will reflect the HRM practices implemented in a telecom company of the country along with their legal context. Moreover, it will discuss the recruitment and selection process conducted by the company. Furthermore, it will focus on the various policies to manage the diversity in the workplace and maintain the work-life balance.  

Human resource management is a management practice for the selection, recruitment and overall management of the employees or human resource of an organization (Boxall et al., 2015).  HR management involves processes like recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management and career management. HRM strategies enable the managers to make informed decisions about recruiting the best employee for the benefit of the organization.  Strategic planning, high-performance culture strategy are some of the strategies used by these organizations.  HR strategies are used to analyze the turnover of the employees and managing the performance of the organization. HRM includes HR policies to provide equal opportunities to all the employees of the organization. These policies also include vacation policies, meal breaks, compensations and sick leaves policy.  A secure environment will allow better flow of communication, and increase the productivity of the organization.  It will also encourage the employees to express their doubts and register complaints against any form of misconduct.  

During my internship at a telecom company, I came to know about the various HR management practices implemented in the workplace. They have encouraged the employees to come forward with reports of sexual harassment in the workplace. An employee has anonymously lodged a complaint against a senior employee. The management investigated the matter and take necessary actions against the offender. I learned that having better HRM policies will increase the employee satisfaction of the organization thus increasing its productivity (Connell and Burgess, 2016).  The policies within the organization enable the employees to communicate directly with the management in case of any doubts or queries. This policy has helped them to save some time during the business activities of the organization like marketing campaigns, service delivery etc.    

Strategic human resource management includes the practices of attracting new talents towards the organization as well as retaining the old employees for the benefit of the organization.  It also focuses on the benefits of the employees by ensuring their personal development and rewarding them for their performance. With the help of strategic HRM, the organizations can identify new processes to evaluate their assets and measure their human capital (Rees and Smith, 2017).  It allows the management to ensure the consistent performance of the organization.  The quality of the performance can be maintained with the help of strategic management. It aligns the HRM practices of the organization with their business needs and increases the flexibility of the employees of the organization. Legal considerations are important for the effective employment of HR policies. The department must follow all the rules and regulations of the country to avoid any issues in the future. During my internship, I observed the strategic human resource management practices employed by the managers. The managers are committed to increase the flow of communication within the organizational structure and ensure overall employee satisfaction.

Strategic Human Resource Management

The managers of the organization have implemented beneficial practices to enrich the job of the employees. They conducted training sessions to develop the personal and professional skills of the employees. Various HR policies implemented by them is effective to retain their existing employees as well as attract new employees to the organization (Bratton and Gold, 2017).  I learned that strategic HRM practices can align the processes of HR department of the organization with the business activities of the organization. The organization was facing the issue of employee retention. A majority of the employees are leaving the organization as the organization was unable to provide a safe environment to them. The employees were facing a lot of pressure and there was a communication gap between the management of the company and them.  To solve this problem, the managers redesigned their HRM policies to increase the employee retention capacity of the company by providing a safe and secure environment.

The process by which the management of the organization searches for the candidates for a particular job is known as recruitment process.  The companies advertise with the job description to encourage the eligible candidates to apply for that specific job.  The selection process is defined as the bunch of processes performed to select the right candidate from the group of talented candidates.  After the advertisement, the company will review the resume of the applicants (Susomrith and Brown, 2017). Then the companies conduct a pre-hiring test to evaluate the skills of the candidates. The organizations can also evaluate the work ethics of the candidates.  Then the candidates are selected on the basis of the organizational requirements.  During my internship, I have observed the recruitment and selection process implemented by the organization.  They have identified the areas where they need more candidates in a specific area.  Then the HR department develops a position description to use it as an advertisement for the job profile.

The managers then planned a recruitment plan approved by the board of executives.  This is developed to attract the new talents towards the company.  The recruitment plan includes a posting period, placement goals in it to increase the convenience of the recruitment process.  Then a committee is formed to oversee the recruitment and selection process.  The board is responsible for the successful employment of the recruitment plan (Taylor, 2014).  The resumes from the applied candidates are selected and they are reviewed. The candidates who meet the criteria for the position is then selected for the pre-hiring test. This test reveals the core skills of the candidates along with their work ethics. After the test, they are shortlisted for the interview. The management conducted a face-to-face interview with the candidates (Harvey and Allard, 2015).  The right candidates are selected for the interview for the finalizing the recruitment and selection process.

Recruitment and Selection

The differences in the opinions between the employees of the same organization are known as diversity in the workplace. Workplace diversity includes employees from different races, genders, and ethnicities as well as the physical and mental conditions of the employees. Diverse workplaces benefit the profitability of the organization, as it allows them to hire qualified candidates for various positions in their workplace. However, management of diversity in the workplace is a serious issue for the HR managers, as it can effectively hamper the growth of the organization.  Work-life balance is defined as the concept that an employee needs definite time for both the professional and personal aspects of his or her life. Mismanagement of the work-life balance and diversity in the workplace can hamper the growth of the organization (Chaneta, 2014).  During my internship, I Learned the diversity in the workplace can be effectively managed by giving importance to communication and treating each employee of the organization (Goodwin and Graebe, 2017).  The employees should be encouraged to work with a diverse group and keep their mind free of any bias or stereotypes.  The company has implemented a strict policy to encourage diversity in the workplace as well as to promote the idea of work-life balance (Vickers et al., 2014).  The company has many programs related to the occupational health and recreational activities for the employees of the company.

Conclusion 

This reflective journal discusses the type of Human Resource Management practices implemented in the organizations of Australia. It can be concluded that proper implementation of strategic HRM practices following the rules of the country will benefit the growth of the organization.

References 

Boxall, P., Bainbridge, H. and Frenkel, S., 2015. 33. Styles of HRM in Australia and New Zealand.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.

Chaneta, I., 2014. Recruitment and selection. International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering, 4(2), p.289.

Connell, J. and Burgess, J., 2016. The quality of working Australia and its relevance for HRM and organisational effectiveness in the Asia Pacific. In Asia Pacific Human Resource Management and Organisational Effectiveness (pp. 171-192).

Goodwin, G.C. and Graebe, S.F., 2017. Work-Life Balance. In A Doctorate and Beyond (pp. 179-185). Springer, Cham.

Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M., 2015. Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases, and exercises. Pearson.

Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2017. Strategic human resource management: An international perspective. Sage.

Susomrith, P. and Brown, A., 2017. The core processes adopted for outsourcing HRM in Australia and its outcomes. Management Decision, 55(7), pp.1521-1535.

Taylor, S., 2014. Recruitment and selection. Strategic Human Resource Management: An International Perspective, 10(6), pp.139-14.

Vickers, G., McDonald, M. and Grimes, J., 2014. A cross country comparison of best practices in recruitment and selection. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 15, p.1.