HRM And HR Planning Essay For Palermo Safe Storage.

You have just been appointed to work as HR Manager for Palermo Safe Storage, an organisation which, despite its mission statement of ‘Our people are our future’, operates with a range of personnel and development policies which pay little heed to employees’ rights or needs at work. You find, for example, that wages and salaries are below the national average, that employees are required to work overtime at short notice, that several staff have been dismissed for trying to establish a trade union! Health and safety rules are frequently ignored, recruitment and selection procedures are haphazard and ad hoc, and training is non-existent.

You approach the chief executive and explain that personnel and development practices are out of line with the mission statement and that something needs to be done. She shrugs her shoulders, saying that this has not caused any problems in the past. Nobody has complained to her and, anyway, she runs a successful organisation.

In the end you persuade her to let you make a presentation to the board.

Your Assignment: Prepare a report which you will present to the executive board of the company based upon what you would do to improve the situation with Palermo Safe Storage. You should use the tasks below as your basis for the report.

Explain the meaning of HRM and the HR function and why it is important within the organisation. In doing so, explain how HR strategies and practices fit within the overall business objectives.

Demonstrate the purpose of HR Planning and how this can be useful in finding the right skills and competencies for the business.       

Explain how Training and Development contributes to improving the overall performance of the organisation.

Explain the process for managing change within the business and its global external environment. Use a HR change model to illustrate your argument.

Identify the ways in which the organisation can take account of employment legislation within its HR practices.

Suggest ways in which the organisation can take advantage of globalisation to add value to the business and sustain its future growth.

Meaning and importance of HRM

Organizations are made of people that are human resource, and this asset of the organization is the most important asset in today’s world because it is the people who constitute organizations. Productivity of an organization and achievement of its objectives completely depends on the efforts put in by its work force. Management of human resource in an organization can be defined as the strategic maximization of human resource capital in an organization for making good return on that investment (Gold & Bratton, 2001). Human resource management is an attempt to maintain the balance between the employees and organization.

This report contains meaning and importance of HRM, HR planning and its purpose, importance of training and development, change management, employment legislation, and globalization. Subsequently this report is concluded with brief conclusion.

Generally, it was common notion that HRM practices had initiated with revolution in industry, but roots of HR practices lie deep in the past. During ancient time, humans divided their task. Therefore, it is clear that from prehistoric times human practiced division of labor. They allocate tasks as per their skills such as ability to track animals, find food, cook, etc. but industrial revolution play major role in the development of HR practices in 1800. The term of HRM is defined as managing people in the organization and it replace the term Personal management. Human resource management is defined as hiring and developing the employees so that they can contribute their best to achieve organization goal (Price, 2007). In other words, HRM is considered as governance for an employee in the organization. Usually, HRM department create policies and monitor their implementation for the purpose of regulating the behavior of employees and also the behavior of company towards organization. The main functions of HRM are recruitment, training, monitoring performance, safety, motivating employees, and framing strategies for regulating the employee behavior.

HRM includes four functions that is staffing, training, development and motivation and also four responsibilities that is getting people in the organization, preparing them for achieving goals, stimulating them, and keeping them. In today’s world, professionals of Human resource area are the important elements for the success of any organization.

HR department developed strategies by in such a way so that they can effectively use the salaried staff working in an organization and achieve the objectives framed by management of the organization (Truss, 2001). Organizations already understand the importance of human resource for achieving their goals. For example standard chartered bank and Sony music entertainment are the companies who focus on understanding the importance of their employees for achieving the strategic goal stated by the organization. Organization also focus on the need of their employees, and when executives of the company make any major decision which affecting the employees of the organization then HR is responsible o represent the facts from the employees side before top management (Ali, 2013).

Human resource planning includes decision on number and type of employees required for managingeach job, unit and allover company at particular time for the purpose of carrying out the activities of organization. It includes process from which an organization moves from current position of manpower to its desired position of manpower. Generally, HR planning is influenced by the strategic management of the company.

Strategies fit with the objective of organization

The main aim of HR planning is to foresee the turnover of the employee, filling up the vacancies occurred consequently, and also minimizing the turnover of the employee whenever required. Following are the main purpose of HR planning:

• HR department is responsible to foresee the technology effect of work, and also to fulfill the requirements of the expansion programmers, diversification, etc.
• Improve the standards, knowledge, skill and discipline ability of an employee.
• Check the surplus and shortage of peoples in an organization, and also take actions according to them.
• Maintain the industrial relations by ensuring the accurate level and structure of human resources, and also to maintain the balance in case of non-availability of human resources. It is also the duty of HRM department to ensure the right kind, right number in the right time and right place.
• To make efficient and effective use of Human resource capital, and also estimate the cost occurred for managing this capital (BMS, 2011).

Role of HR planning in recruitment: any organization can achieve its goal only because of the skill, creativity, and dedication of its employees and managers. HR planning ensures that right people are appointed for the right position. Those peoples are required in the organization that possess the skills, experience and team work (Hill, n.d.).

The main aim of HR planning is to ensure that various departments of the company have accurate staff to perform all related functions.  It is the responsibility of HR department to make sure that workforce in the organization is balanced, and there is no overburden of work on any individual and department because of which it is not possible to complete the assigned task on time. Poor HR planning result in high stress level for employees and it also affect the ability of employees to perform the task such as missing deadlines, burnouts, mistakes, and errors. All these things ultimately affect the productivity of an organization and result in higher employee turnover (Sullivan, 2002).

Training is the process which upgrades the knowledge of the person, developed skills, develop positive attitude and also changes the behavior of person towards organization. It helps in improving the ability of trainee so that he can perform the task in effective and efficient manner (Robert & john, 2004). In other words, training and development is a process through which HR department ensures the effectiveness of employees for the purpose of meeting the goals stated by management.

Training and development programs generally focused on the performance of individual or team. For the purpose of increasing the effective of training and development programs, it is necessary that organization access the needs of employees on continuous basis and prepare the programs after recognizing such needs. Organizations have to consider different needs because every employee is different and their needs are also different. Needs of employees are changed as per time.

When organization conducts such programs for the purpose of increasing the knowledge and skills of their employees then they will get return in the form of increased productivity of the organization. In short training and development programs are important for the success of organization, and it is beneficial for both employee and employer (Ongori & Nzonzo, 2011). There are number of benefits of training and development and some are listed below:

Such programs directly affect the productivity of organization by improving the efficiency of employees. Employees get knowledge of new technology and use the existing technology in more efficient way. Well it is clear that employees who get training show both quantity and quality performance because they perform work in less time, money and resources which result in less wastage.

Trained employees also help the organization in situation when someone leaves the company in unexpected way or they accept the transfer or promotion in the company. Such training programs also trained the employees basic factors related to sales, customer service, administration and operations and this type of training is known as cross training. Cross training also help in increasing the spirit of team because employees perform the task done by their co-workers (Qureshi, 2016).

HR Planning and its purpose

In the present case, Palermo Safe Storage have no such programs and lack of training and development affect the productivity of the company and also effect the efficiency of employees.

Successfully management of change is considered as essential skill for any HR manger. HR department play important role in managing the change. It is the duty of HR department to ensure that employees are motivated sufficiently to adopt the change and participate in the change management system. For this purpose it is necessary that HR department recruit right people who can think in different way and present best possible perspectives (bayside, 2012).

Human resource department play key role in managing the change in the organization and there are number of ways through which HR can impact the organizational change. This process is started from the time when person is hired, and when person is hired it is the duty of HR manger to inform that organization are going through some change and he or she will be expected to adopt these changes with new opinions and ideas. Following are the primary role played by HR department in managing the change:

• Focus on developing leaders- in today’s world organizations facing new difficulties that is frequent turnover in leadership because peoples who have skills always looking for better opportunities and leave the organization for personal growth. In these situations HR department need to train their employees for becoming future leaders. It is necessary that they make promotions sooner to reduce such turnover.
• Build engagement and culture- it become harder for organizations to build internal culture in the organization because frequently employees are leaving the organization. HR department can communicate with their employees for the purpose of solving the problems of employees and ensure their stability in the organization. It is the duty of HR manager to ensure engagement of employees and also focus on the culture of organization (Changeboard, 2016).
• Respond to demand of skills- advancement in technology cause rapid changes in the skills required for job, and if any gap occurred in the capability of employee and job requirement then it is necessary that companies act quickly to cover that gap so that their employees fulfill the requirements of their job. This can be done through training and development programs which help in upgrading the knowledge of employees.
• Meet changing requirements- today workforce is dynamic in nature and it is necessary that organization frame strategies after considering the needs of employees. It is important that companies adopt the change and consider the changing requirements of their employees in the organization (Baran, 2016).

In the present case, HR department of the company is not able to manage the change which ultimately results in loss of human resource capital to the company.

Employment standards are those which are set up by law, and these are the minimum standards of employment for workplaces. These standards cover many factors related to employment such as minimum wages, unfair dismissal, health and safety, meal breaks, overtime, vacation pay, termination of employee, etc. It is necessary that while framing policies for the company, HR department must consider the legislation and regulations and ensure that their policies do not violate the employment legislation. HR department cannot frame policy which offered less than what is offered by legislation, but employers are free to develop policy which offered more than legislation (hrcouncil, n.d.).

Employment law is the area which regulates the relationship between employers and employees, and also includes expectations of employers or employees.  It states the rights of employees and remedies available to employees in case of breach of rights (CIPD, n.d.).

In the present case, Palermo Safe Storage develops number of policies which are not in favor of employees and also violates employment legislation of the country such as wages and salaries paid to employees are below the level of national average, at shorter notice period employees required to work for overtime, unfair dismissal, there are no health and safety measures, and recruitment process is not right.

Generally, law related to recruitment and selection includes provisions for discrimination, right related to work in UK, criminal records checks, and protection of data. At the time of staff recruitment, employer must fulfill their legal obligations and ensure that their recruitment and selection procedures comply with the law.

Employment law also includes provisions against unfair dismissal and it is necessary that employer does not breach the provisions. Such breach can cause legal consequences to the employer and also affect the reputation of an organization.

Importance of training and development for improving performance of organization

The role of the HR department is to frame policies and procedure related to people and also makes these strategies according to business strategy. HR provisions help the HR department to frame such strategies so that organization does not face any legal consequences in near future. This work of HR professionals is the most crucial work because it includes strategies and policies related to business. Therefore, it is necessary that HR department frame policies which does not violate the provisions of employment law (Murphy, n.d.).

Process of globalization is the powerful source which affects the organizations worldwide, and this process refers to intensification of economy at worldwide and dependencies at social inter level. It states the link between states, societies and organizations. In other words, globalization is the process by which events, decisions and activities happen in one part of the world also impact the individuals and organizations at worldwide. This process result in change and affect the market in which organizations operate. This process demands change at both intra and inter level of organization. These changes result in increase in competition at domestic and international level and because of this increase role of HRM becomes important (Bradely, n.d.). Following are some changes in HR policies and programs can help in future growth of the organization:

• Today manpower productivity is the most important issue in the organization because of risen prices of manpower and reducing prices of product. HRM play important role to fulfill this need and they also manage the human resource capital of the organization.
• Another area of conflict is joint ventures and mergers because in this there are number of cultural and other issues, and it is the responsibility of HRM to make such policies which are beneficial for organization.
• Focus on training and development programs must be increased for the purpose of retention of talent.
• It is necessary for companies that they pay attention to career growth and career planning for employee (Brooks, weatherston & Wilkinson, n.d.).

Because of globalization demand for talent is high but supply of talent is low, and this gap is the biggest challenge for HR mangers. In near future, there are chances that gap between demand and supply of talent will increase. There are number of nations with large populations who are not able to sustain surplus workforce for longer period. Therefore, global staffing and global leadership can help the organizations to deal with this issue, and only those multinational who are able to manage their human resource effectively will be able to attract, develop and retain the right talent, and will likely succeed in the global competition (Kapoor, n.d.).

Conclusion:

After analyzing all the above facts it is clear that effective strategies are not able to survive in vacuum, and for being effective it is necessary that these strategies must be aligned with the vision of the organization. Strategic vision helps the organization to find their goal and it also provide framework for achieving that goal. It is the duty of HR leaders that they review the strategy on continuous basis and also determine different ways in which HR activities can support that vision of the organization. Organization leaders must ensure whether their vision reflects the changes occurred in the market or whether their strategies support their vision or not.

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