Understanding Work Systems for HRM goals

Canada is having large number of firms in different kinds of industry. All these organisations have different set of tasks that needs to be done in a specific time period. Organisation accomplishes these tasks by making a series of tasks that are done as per the requirement. Some of the work that is done by these systems is selling services, responding to customers and hiring employees. All these tasks are placed in a synchronised manner through interconnected systems (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). This report highlights the factors that lets organisation choosing one system over the other in order to achieve strategic HRM goals. It also describes the HRM strategies that are implemented while adopting a system for achieving sustainable work systems. In the last section of the report, the new methods that a company would adopt for establishing more inclusive organisational culture has been elaborated.

Work system is a collective effort and is created to achieve a specific goal. The system must be defined to know which machines and workers are needed, what each will be doing and how the system will go from one task to another so as to achieve efficiency at maximum level. Any organisation must select the work system on the basis of the requirement they have. In the case of HRM there are certain challenges that they face especially in term of managing workforce (Boxall & Purcell, 2011). Due to the changing requirement of the business process, the number of employee that will be required on a particular day will be different. Hence a resource planning along with the forecasting is required. Every job post that gets vacant within the organisation has a specific requirement. A company needs to hire those people that fit in that position more appropriately. For this a work system will be required that will analyse all the applications that have come for any specific position (Jiang, Lepak, Hu & Baer, 2012).

Before choosing any work system, it is crucial that company understands the type of the employees they have. This is as important as the nature of the work. The work system must support the workforce and add value to their operations. Organisation will always choose the system that increases the efficiency and productivity of their employees. Performance management is always a bigger challenge for HR department of any organisation and hence while making the choice a company must pay attention to this fact (Jiang, Lepak, Han, Hong, Kim & Winkler, 2012). This will help in establishing a better reward culture which is essential for the motivation of the employees.

Apart from this, an HRM must consider the fact that in various organisational units the nature of the work is different. For example in the manufacturing unit the work will be more repetitive while in the client service the work is more flexible. It is essential that HRM understands the specific needs of each organisational unit and then adopt the work system (Alfes, Shantz, Truss & Soane, 2013). Effective communication which is a challenge for any HR department within any organisation must be taken care with at most priority. Since HR department has a huge responsibility related to workforce development hence monitoring their performance becomes highly crucial. An organisation must select the work system that is capable of maintaining the records of the employees and hence monitor their work on timely basis. It must be capable of building a network of large number of people so that operations can be done smoothly.

Challenges in HRM

Magna International Inc. is a large Canadian organisation. It is the largest automobile parts manufacturer in the country. There are various operational units within the organisation and it is essential that a company understands the requirement of these units in the long term. In order to ensure the sustainable development of the organisation, it is crucial that a company adopts a work system that helps in this sustainable development (Messersmith, Patel, Lepak & Gould-Williams, 2011). In order to adopt the sustainable work system, there are different kinds of HRM strategies used by the organisations.  Magna International Inc. must ensure that they have an acquisition strategy. This strategy must be capable enough to understand all the requirements of the firm. At the same time it must be able to improve the overall operational mechanism of the HR management team. HRM strategies that will be adopted for achieving sustainable work systems are:

• Safety at workplace: The work system that will be adopted at the workplace must be capable of providing safety to the workers and hence bringing safety culture to the workplace. HRM must bring the work system that is capable of resolving all the safety related matters (Kim, 2012). The systems like risk management system needs to adopted. These systems must cover the aspects such as compensation insurance in case of casualties.
• Compensation and benefits: According to the performance of the employees, the work system must be able to give compensation to the beneficiaries. This improves the motivational level of the organisation as well as it gives the organisation a new boost (Crook, Todd, Combs, Woehr & Ketchen Jr, 2011). The performance management system can be an effective in giving compensation and rewards to the people that deserve it.
• Employee training: Training of the employees is very essential in the modern day business and it is responsibility of the HRM department to provide training to the employees on then regular basis. Work system that is capable of giving training to the employees needs to be installed at the workplace so as to ensure that training is given to the workplace at regular intervals (Collings, Wood & Szamosi, 2018). The training to the employees must be given on the basis of the requirement they have in their role.
• Low cost: This is another essential strategy that any HRM checks while adopting the Work system. Since the return on investment must be on the higher side hence such strategy would be helpful for the organisation while ensuring sustainable work system gets adopted within the organisation (Bamberger, Meshoulam & Biron, 2014).
• Resource utilisation: Since the quality of resources is very much essential for the sustainability of the organisation. Strategic planning can be an effective way in which resources could be utilised within the organisation (Albrech, 2011). There must be accumulation and utilisation of resources on the basis so that it can be used for longer time period. For example the development of the human resource is crucial so that it can provide services to the firms for the longer time period and still remains highly productive. In the manufacturing sector where the company sells its products to various other big firms, quality becomes a very crucial aspect.

It is essential that every company has its own organisational culture. It must be inclusive of all the things that makes the human resource management easier (Stahl, Björkman, Farndale, Morris, Paauwe, Stiles, … & Wright, 2012). Modern day organisation has more number of people that are from diverse cultural background. The inclusive organisational culture helps in respecting all the diversity. New methods that could be used by the HRM are:

• Representation: There must be hiring of the people from every section of the society. All of them must be given range of roles within the organisation (Quast, 2017).
• Receptivity: It is crucial that company starts respecting the working style and well as provide flexibility in tailoring positions to the abilities and strengths of the employees.
• Fairness: All the employees must be given equal access to all the resources, networks, opportunities as well as decision making processes (Van De Voorde, Paauwe & Van Veldhoven, 2012).

There are various types of problems that a company might face in the sustainable and green HRM. Some of these problems are as follows:

• Higher production: The small scale organisation always tries to utilise their resources at most. This creates a challenge to green HRM. In order to achieve higher production, it is difficult to build skills in the work force so that they can contribute to green HRM.
• Resources: It is difficult for the organisation to train the employees on different aspects. The resources that are present with the small scale organisation are not sufficient enough to train all the employees at the same time (Sharma & Gupta, 2018).
• Over demand: The demand in the market is increasing and to satisfy this demand small scale organisations do not have sustainable plans. In the small scale organisations there is limitation of the quality resources. This puts the pressure on the HRM so as to use the resources in an effective manner.

Conclusion:

From the above based report it can be concluded that in order to do the entire task within the time frame companies use the work systems. There are various aspects that a company has to check before choosing one work system over another. Employee performance is the major factor in this that needs to be considered. Magna International Inc. uses different types of HRM strategies so as to achieve sustainable work system. Safety at workplace, Compensation and benefits, Employee training, Low cost, Resource utilisations are some of the strategies that is used by this firm. New methods like Fairness, Receptivity, and Representation can help in bringing inclusive organisational culture. Problems like higher production, over demand and resources are some of the problems that a company might face in the green HRM.

Reference: 

Albrech, S. L. (2011). Handbook of employee engagement: Perspectives, issues, research and practice. Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(7).

Alfes, K., Shantz, A. D., Truss, C., & Soane, E. C. (2013). The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), 330-351.

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Bamberger, P. A., Meshoulam, I., & Biron, M. (2014). Human resource strategy: Formulation, implementation, and impact. Routledge.

Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2011). Strategy and human resource management. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Collings, D. G., Wood, G. T., & Szamosi, L. T. (2018). Human resource management: A critical approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.

Crook, T. R., Todd, S. Y., Combs, J. G., Woehr, D. J., & Ketchen Jr, D. J. (2011). Does human capital matter? A meta-analysis of the relationship between human capital and firm performance. Journal of applied psychology, 96(3), 443.

Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Han, K., Hong, Y., Kim, A., & Winkler, A. L. (2012). Clarifying the construct of human resource systems: Relating human resource management to employee performance. Human resource management review, 22(2), 73-85.

Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Hu, J., & Baer, J. C. (2012). How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of management Journal, 55(6), 1264-1294.

Kim, S. (2012). The impact of human resource management on state government IT employee turnover intentions. Public Personnel Management, 41(2), 257-279.

Messersmith, J. G., Patel, P. C., Lepak, D. P., & Gould-Williams, J. S. (2011). Unlocking the black box: Exploring the link between high-performance work systems and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(6), 1105.

Quast, L. (2017). 6 Tips For An Inclusive Organizational Culture. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2017/04/17/combating-gender-discrimination-6-tips-for-an-inclusive-organizational-culture/#3350bbb6f5da

Sharma, R. & Gupta, N. (2018) Green HRM: An Innovative Approach to Environmental Sustainability. Retrieved from: https://www.aims-international.org/aims12/12A-CD/PDF/K723-final.pdf

Stahl, G., Björkman, I., Farndale, E., Morris, S. S., Paauwe, J., Stiles, P., … & Wright, P. (2012). Six principles of effective global talent management. Sloan Management Review, 53(2), 25-42.

Van De Voorde, K., Paauwe, J., & Van Veldhoven, M. (2012). Employee well?being and the HRM–organizational performance relationship: a review of quantitative studies. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(4), 391-407.