Strategic HRM: Roles, Functions, And Essay.

Training and Coaching

Question:

Discuss about the  Evaluating the Strategic Role of HRM.

HR department is essential in helping the organization achieve its goals and develop the competitive ability. These are obtained through various roles such as training the best employees, training and coaching, managing work atmosphere and building capacity. The specialists in the department play essential roles in the organizations which include harnessing human potential and directing it in the proper direction. These are aimed at the achievement of the set organization’s objectives (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Besides, the Department exists for the purpose of servicing employees for the benefits of the company. Therefore, a strategic HR function empowers, enables and involve the employees in the workplace for the common goal of the organization (Kramar, 2014). This is the same for Microtask as it has a strategic department that deals with the HR issues.

SHRM in the organization is concerned with the development of the organization and the employees. Strategic Human Resource Development is defined as proactive styles of management in the organization. The Strategic Human Resource Management is involved in issues such as hiring, payroll, and discipline, and also includes close collaboration with employees to address the issues of employee’s retention, training for career development and boosting the workers work experience such as those faced by Microtask and maximizing the benefit of the employees and the employer in the firm (Kramar, 2014). The department is not only engaged in developing and securing the employee’s talents but, also implementing programs to develop the competitive capability and the relationship between the management and the individual workers for the purpose of organizational development. The report explores the strategic human resource management roles such as job analysis and staffing, utilization of workforce, appraisal of performance, implementing the reward systems, professional development of workers, and maintenance of workforce (Sparrow, et al., 2016).

Job analysis is a function of the HR, and it comprises the role of determining the nature of the tasks and responsibilities of the various positions in the company. Specialists in the department are regularly engaged in defining the core competencies that are adequate for a particular job and the analysis of the industry trends (Storey, 2014). This means that Microtask HRM must keep projecting the skills and abilities that are needed for future employment. The tasks of a job analysis act as a cornerstone as it generates a valid information used in formulating the criteria that can be used to promote the workers, setting the minimum and maximum wages and identifying the training needs.

SHRM plays strategic roles in building organization competitive ability through recruiting the best employees, designing the best and efficient training programs, implement fruitful and active retention to develop competitive advantage of the company. While the firm rivals struggle to maintain a motivated and experienced workforce, the company get improved revenue when the HR department engages in the labour force development (Jackson, et al., 2014). For instance, Microtask can use it SHRM to participate in the review of the employees and the level of consumer satisfaction to come up with training strategy to fill the gaps.

Job Analysis and Staffing

Utilization and maintenance of the enterprise’ workforce are another strategic functions of the HRM. The specialists are involved in the designing of the framework to make maximum use of the human capital available and help in establishing systems that allow proper communication (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). On the other hand, HR is involved in the safety through compliance with the legal framework to protect the workforce from nay hazardous conditions that can affect their wellbeing. Maintenance responsibilities include relations primarily with labor movements and addressing any grievances linked to any misconduct like sexual harassment, theft among employees.

Strategic contributions to business process by the Human Resource Management is recognized because as a practice in the organization. For example, the department contributes to the overall business processes through the dissemination of the appropriate guidelines and further monitoring the behavior (Marler & Fisher, 2013). For example, Microtask SHRM ensures the organization is following the appropriate regulatory guidelines as per the country.  In the changing business environment, many firms are now paying greater attention to the department and placed it into a place where it shapes every business performance and process.

The HR section is involved with the practice of assessing the worker's job performance and formulating feedback regarding the positive and negative elements identified in the employee's performance. In Microtask, measuring the performance is essential for both the employees and the organization and the individual because the information gained is used to determine the reward and strategies to motivate employees (Sparrow, et al., 2016). On the other hand Reward systems is the function which falls under the category of HR services as well. The mechanism is imperative because it allows the company to provide workers with rewards for passing the set targets and achievements. It also promises for future incentives based on the performance and further address any form of problems using disciplinary techniques. The goal of this is to align the company to the set goals through better employment relation and motivates (Kramar, 2014).

The concept employee is associated with a particular country or an organization and issued to describe the group efforts applied in the management of relationships between the managers and the workers. If the relations program is right, it means the administration is providing consistent and fair treatment without discrimination. In response, the workers are committed to their tasks and responsibilities and thus shows loyalty to the firm. The objective of these programs aims at preventing and resolving any issues that may arise from issues at the workplace. There is a relationship between HRM and employment relations because the managers apply strategy to accomplish employee’s related missions such as pay and remuneration benefits, ensuring work-life balance and providing the safe working environment (Kersley, et al., 2013). The report uses three theories to explain how employee’s relationship can be conceptualized in the workplace.

The markets are seen as imperfectly competitive and not deterministic in nature. The workers seek to maximize profit and minimize the cost of production through a range of strategies. The primary assumption of the theory is that both the employers and the employees share common interests and this is known as ‘unitarist’ employment relationship. This means that the optimal strategies for the companies are aligned to that of the workers in the organizations and this result to long-term interests due to shared values and interests. Besides, the achieving profit is associated with fulfilling work, satisfaction and the fair treatment of employees (Greenwood & Van Buren, 2016).

Utilization and Maintenance of Workforce

The model is very relevant to the modern organization and reflects the reality on the ground. Therefore, the model can be said to be the foundation of the modern human resource management because it focuses on the creation of policies and ensures the implementation of practices that benefit both workers and the management which is also the case for Microtask. Conflict is treated as a suboptimal state of affairs, and the existence of conflict is a reality in the organization. Besides, it is seen as the failure of human resource management to manage it as opposed to embracing it in the employment relationship (Van Buren & Greenwood, 2013).

The pluralist model of the employment relations rejects the notions proposed by the unitarist and argues that there exists a plurality when it comes to the working relationship (Khan & Ackers, 2004). In other words, both employees and employers do not share the common interest conflicting interests. Both parties to the employment aspire for the organization to profit significantly and the workers to be productive, but this does not prevent the occurrence of conflict between parties. This is because conflict is viewed as the integral aspect of the organization and emerge due to issues of wages, workers flexibility, working conditions and job security (Aguinis, et al., 2014).

The model is very relevant in the modern organizations because imperfect labor markets cause the conflicts and the different interests witnessed, and the employment relationship exists in the industrial relations (Khan & Ackers, 2004; Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). The model can be used to explain the situations that face Microtask. Therefore, according to the model, a working relationship can be said to be a bargained exchange that happens between stakeholders who harbors competing interests and varied elements such as the state and the prevailing environment influences the exchange. While the egoist model argues for complete determinacy in the capitalistic market, the unitarist models propose for policies to balance the interest of all the stakeholders in cases of conflict. However, the pluralist model balances the equity and other interests through labor unions and government regulations (Rainbird, et al., 2004).

According to the framework, the aim of employees includes earning income while the employers are driven by the urge to make a massive profit. Therefore, labor is perceived as a commodity and similar to the productive resource (Rainbird, et al., 2004). The state has a role of enforcing contracts and protecting the property and the rights of both the workers and employers with an objective of fostering free economic transactions. Besides, labor markets are very competitive, and this makes remuneration, benefits, and others as the primary determiner of the employment relationship. These forces of the invisible hand and the labor market are responsible for determining the aspects (Ackers, 2014; Kersley, et al., 2013).

Therefore, under the model, the employment relation emerges from mutually-beneficial and voluntary transactions to exchange productive labor by the market offering. The model focuses on the issues of self-interest as opposed to conflict as opposed to other types who emphasizes on the conflict as the central aspect.  Besides, power is determined by the market forces such as supply and demand.  As such self-interested trades are essential to egoist employment relationship and the right to hire and employee and fire forms the key element of the model.

Appraisal of Performance

Changes in the international business environment have brought many changes in the organization which requires the company to adopt and makes certain changes for their survival. For the case of Microtask it has experienced success in their operations but these changes have occasioned the changes leading to increased competition which requires the managers to implement retention strategies, changes in remuneration packages and staff development which with an objective of reducing and controlling the cost of reducing business. As such, there have been increased turnovers for the year affecting the key management and engineering positions in the firm. The situations that face the company can be well explained with the pluralist framework as it will be used to explain how the management can change the existing policies and practices that have been there for long.

Pluralist theory argues that the existence of conflicts between HR and the employees takes place due to distinct interests. This can be best explained by the changing market forces which have led to imperfect labor markets the model can be used to describe the situations that face Microtask and the actions to be taken toward achieving the solutions (Khan & Ackers, 2004). The conflicting interests that Microtask encounters with employees can be managed and resolve through putting systems that allow for the existence of a negotiation system such as collective bargaining. This is an important method of settling the issues that cause high job turnover especially for the senior workers and important positions such as managers. This shows improved links between the employer and employee as compared to when employee have to rely on unions to solve an issue.

According to the pluralist theory, Microtask should adopt effective employment relationship interventions to address the conflicts facing the organization such as employee development concerns, remuneration problems, and employee development. The report recommends a consultative approach to the firm management to respond to the issues in the workplace. Furthermore, other alternative strategies and decision-making steps need to be considered to come up with the solution. The model is further useful in the organization it argues that any instances of Conflict should not be overlooked, but the best approach it to manage it effectively through the participation of the primary stakeholders. The problem with Microtask is ignoring the conflicts and proceeding to commission a new facility which is likely to affect its performance in the future (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). In fact, the pluralist perspective supports the use of conflict management approaches to engage groups which are in a grievance with the organization and implementation of the solution. For instance, the administration can formulate and implement employee relations policies and try to align them with the interest of the individual and that of the organization.

To deal with employee retention in the workplace, the management should apply some strategies such as satisfying the employees' desires and aspiration in the workplace. These includes providing excellent benefits, appreciating them through fair treatment of workers and challenging them by giving them an exciting job (Allen, et al., 2010). Therefore to deal with the issues of retention the management should address the issues highlighted. Further, the management can use incentives and other strategies that are meant to keep the workers motivated a making them feel equity of their rewards to keep them focused (Kramar, 2014). 

Reward Systems

On the issues of employee development, the management needs to embrace training, coaching, mentoring and personal development. The strategy ensures employees develop their physical, mental and professional experience in the workplace. It also helps them develop soft skills such as communication and self-awareness that makes them perform effectively. Training the employees helps in instilling competencies to employees, sharpen the existing expertise and knowledge to help them develop in the workplace (Schuler, et al., 2011; Khan & Ackers, 2004).

Conclusion

In conclusion, strategic human management in the organization plays a critical role such as job analysis and evaluation, employment relations, professional development and boosting the competitive analysis of the organization. There are three models of working relationship used in the study and they include unitary, pluralist and egoistic models that explain employee relation with the management. The focus of the models includes the presence and absence of conflict and the role of trade unions in the workplace. The report recommends the pluralist framework as the best model for the understanding of the management and employee relations and the Microtask should, therefore, ensure professional development with staff and collective bargaining to address the underlying issues of employee’s retention and remuneration.

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