Essay: Excellent HR Manager: Business Driven, Workforce Designer, Cultural Leader.

The Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) is the national association representing human resource and people management professionals. AHRI have over 20,000 members throughout the world and provide education and training services in HR and people management and business skills.  AHRI also organises world-class conferences which bring HR practitioners together and holds seminars and networking opportunities all over Australia.  AHRI also sets standards through accreditation of HR qualifications at universities across Australia (including LaTrobe’s HR degree), conducts research into people management practices, and assists governments in the development of policy and legislation that affects people at work.

AHRI have released a ‘Model of Excellence’, which explains the capabilities and behaviours of an ‘excellent HR manager’.  This model provides a conceptual basis for the accreditation of HR practitioners and training offered by AHRI and universities.    

oBusiness driven;

oA strategic architect;

oAn expert practitioner;

oAn ethical and credible activist;

oA workforce and workplace designer;

oA cultural and change leader; and

oA stakeholder mentor and coach.

In this assignment, you are to select three (3) of these capabilities and address the following (in your own words, with referencing as required):

oWhat does this capability entail?

oWhy would it be important for a Human Resource Manager to have this capability?  Draw on appropriate frameworks to support your arguments.

oIf you were applying for a graduate HR position, what evidence could you offer to show that you possess this capability? Draw upon your own experiences, whether it be your work, university life, home life, volunteering or sporting experiences.   

Capability 1: Business driven

The report brings about the discussion on the assignment of human resource management which explores the capabilities of an excellent HR manager. These capabilities are offered by the AHRI and other universities. AHRI is a national which represents human resource and the people management professionals. Thus, three amongst seven capabilities will be described and their relative importance from the personal experiences (Australian HR Institute, 2018).  

• Meaning

Business driven capability, also known as business-oriented approach in any organisation refers to the process of identifying the data which is required for human resource to support or conduct their business activities. It first requires an HR manager to acquire and capture the data which is essential for their organisation, and then maintaining them in the data resource. To keep the stability and credibility of the business while dealing with the global market, using the medium of internet, an HR must ensure the safety of the critical data and information within organisation. A business-driven approach requires keen analytical planning to attain the goals, through research on the needs of potential buyers (Boshyk, 2016).

• Significance for HR manager

It is important for an HR manager to have this capability, i.e. business driven approach play a vital role in effective performance of the manager leading to improved organisational growth. The capability will facilitate the manager in the organisation to make efficient use of resources; proper allocation of resources will save time for the analysts to strategize their goals in better way. Business-driven capability also helps an HR manager to collect, analyse and communicate necessary information and ideas to their employees in the organisation. This will further lead to healthy relations with the organisational members, and effective stakeholder management (Mallén et al., 2016).

• Evidences for HR position  

Applying for a graduate position of HR, in any organisation based on the parameter of business driven capability, it can be stated that my previous work experience can demonstrate the presence of this capability to a major extent. I worked in the IT sector previously, through which I acquired enough confidence and notable experience to understand the importance of acquiring, maintaining, and allocating the resources for conducting the business activities. Moreover, I learnt that one needs to align their perspective, and goals to the organisational models and strategic or the mission set at their foundation to be achieved in the later years.

• Meaning

Workforce designing has been a paradigm shift in the approach of planning for the workforce to be hired in the contemporary organisations. It defines about breaking down of the current workforce, and consists of a mix of the varied talents in the organisation, which would determine the staffing of the right category of worker for the required job. The capability of workplace designing is to be achieved along with workforce designing for an HR manager to perform to perform efficiently. An HR manager must ensure designing the workplace in a way which ensures the safety and high performance of the workers in the organisation (Paauwe and Boon, 2018).

• Significance for HR manager

The capability of workforce planning/designing and workplace designing is necessary to be performed by the human resource manager in any organisation. HR must ensure in the industrial settings that their employees are able to perform their routine functions, and carry out other procedures which would determine their wellness. This will lead to reduction in the rates of employee turnover reducing the burden on HR manager to hire new employees for their organisation (Reilly and Williams, 2016). Thus, it is important for employers or HR mangers to focus upon optimization of the health and wellness of workers by improving conditions air, lighting quality at the workplace.

• Evidences for HR position

Capability 2: A workforce and workplace designer

In context to the workforce and workplace designing as the key selection criteria, as the required capabilities to apply for HR manager in any organisation, I would provide certain evidences. This evidence includes from the past experiences in which I volunteered one conference during my college years, a national conference, and I took the role of managing the people at auditorium. It was a personal experience which involved my role to maintain the safety of audience, till the end of session. Thus, I instilled the capability which forms a basis for me to become a future HR manager, and attain success.

• Meaning

The capability of a change and cultural leader describes about the leadership qualities of an HR, to introduce and manage change in the organisation. The capability ensures respecting the people or employees from different socio-cultural background working in the organisation. Change leader is the one who is able to influence and persuade others to accept or adapt to the change, through personal advocacy, vision, and the drive towards attaining organisational success. It is the important capability which represents the excellent HR behaviour and performance, therefore an excellent HR manager must possess the ability to manage cultural differences, and change in the organisation (Georgalis et al., 2015).

• Significance for HR manager

An HR must possess these skills and capabilities significant to ensure survival, improve organisational performance and attain higher success in the future. It is the responsibility of an HR manager to consider the culture as their main feature of the organisation, as they deal with the humans who belong to different cultural backgrounds, therefore they must practice effective strategies for brining change or innovation in their work (Stark, 2016). Being, a cultural coach, HR leaders or managers, they need to align managers and employees within aspired culture. Thus, it has been analysed that it is an important capability for an HR (Mcdonnell and Sikander, 2017).

• Evidence for HR position

To apply for an HR position, it can be stated that the capability of cultural and change leader is used as a selection criteria, for which I found myself suitable. It can be described from a personal experience from the first year of my graduation, when I took admission in the college. Being into a different environment, and people from different cultures, I found it difficult to communicate effectively with them which were one of my major loopholes. Then, later on I took the lead of the projects given in our classes, which motivated me to manage people, build leadership skills, and ability to accept change.

Conclusion 

To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that an HR manager requires certain set of skills and capabilities to attain their predetermined goals and objectives. Hence, the report mentioned in detail about three capabilities to become an efficient HR manager, and their relative importance to an HR in an organisation.

References 

Australian HR Institute (2018) Model of Excellence. [online] Available from: https://www.ahri.com.au/education-and-training/webinars/how-hr-can-enable-leadership-capabilities [Accessed 28/11/18].

Boshyk, Y. ed. (2016) Business driven action learning: Global best practices. Berlin: Springer.

Georgalis, J., Samaratunge, R., Kimberley, N. and Lu, Y. (2015) Change process characteristics and resistance to organisational change: The role of employee perceptions of justice. Australian Journal of Management,  40(1), pp.89-113.

Mallén, F., Chiva, R., Alegre, J. and Guinot, J. (2016) Organicity and performance in excellent HRM organizations: the importance of organizational learning capability. Review of Managerial Science, 10(3), pp. 463-485.

Mcdonnell, L. and Sikander, A. (2017) Skills and Competencies for the Contemporary Human Resource Practitioner: A Synthesis Of The Academic, Industry and Employers' Perspectives. The Journal of Developing Areas, 51(1), pp.83-101.

Paauwe, J. and Boon, C. (2018) Strategic HRM: A critical review. In Human Resource Management  (pp. 49-73). United Kingdom: Routledge.

Reilly, P. and Williams, T.  (2016) Strategic HR: Building the capability to deliver. United Kingdom: Routledge.

Stark, E.E. (2016) Undelivered promises from the hr profession: A plea to return to a more defensible motivation for embracing diversity. Journal of Behavioural and Applied Management, 4(3), p.1080.