Strategic Approaches to Planning and Management

Human resource management is the strategic approach to the effective management of people in the organisation. Human resource is an asset of the company which helps to gain the competitive advantage. HR is a concerned with the management of people within the organisation which is focusing on policies and systems (Bailey, Mankin, Kelliher, and Garavan, 2018). It has been seen that the HR department is the backbone of the company because it plays many functions. There are many functions which is plays by the human resource by employee-benefits design, performance appraisal, rewarding, training and development. In this report, the discussion is made on the topic of human resource management and its functions. In this report, Muscat Municipality has been taken into consideration to analyse the functions of the human resource. Muscat Municipality is an government organisation which is developed to provide the services to people of Oman (Muscat Municipality, 2018).

In this report the discussion is based on the human resources approaches and later on the performance evaluation method will be analysed. The employees satisfaction of employees will also analysed in the end of the report.  

Recruiting and Developing Talent

The main function of human resource is to recruit the right people at the right place. The human resource of the company finds the best talent among the various options. To appoint the right person at the right place the company has to develop the strategies and a plan to attract the large number of candidates towards the organisation (HR Solutions & Services, 2018). The Muscat Municipality adopt the advertisement strategy to attract the large number of people towards the organisation in order to attract the qualified talents. The company appoints the staff inside or outside the organisation so that the internal employees also have the opportunity to develop their personality. The company invest on research by understanding the local environment and it is observed that it has innovative consultancy services (Brewster, Chung, and Sparrow, 2016).

Training and development

Training is a human resource function which develops the personality of the staff by providing the training such as new technology, new equipment, and new legal and regulatory demands. Human resources manager train the employees who acquire new skills and understanding about their jobs. In Muscat Municipality, HR manager develop the training plan so that the employees understand their jobs quickly (Sikora, and Ferris, 2014).

There are types of internal and external in the recruitment and selection systems.  Muscat Municipality is a government organisation in which it prefers internal recruitment but it also appoint people from outside. Municipality Muscat adopts the both system to adopt the high skill talented in order to gain the competitive advantage.

It is a recruitment process which is organised by the organisation for the internal staff by providing them the opportunity to grow. Muscat municipality also offers the opportunity to their staff for the vacant position. There are three ways of internal recruitment such as transfers, promotions and re-employment of ex-employees. The municipality always prefers the internal recruitment instead of external recruitment in order to lead the employee’s productivity by increasing their motivation level. It also follows the appropriate process of internal recruitment:

Recruiting and Developing Talent

Internal Recruitment Policy

The first step of the process is of a successful recruitment process is creating and implementing the internal recruitment policy. This policy contains some rules in which the municipality is restricted to hire the limited managers for the specific position. The employees are promoted after qualifying the test as per the abilities of the position (Farndale, Nikandrou, and Panayotopoulou, 2018).

Job Positioning

The municipality is a government organisation in which the employees get the more chances in order to achieve the objective. It is required to provide the information to the employees related to the position. The municipality develop a job positioning system which ensures the widest reach to employees. It should include a job description, employee’s eligibility criteria, job department and position supervisor so that the eligible employees can apply for the position.

Screening Employees

In this process, the municipality select the employees as per the past performance and behavioural issues. It selects the eligible or more deserving people among the various options for the position.

Interviews

After the screening process, the municipality organise the interview to appoint the employees. Implementing this process, the municipality analyse the understanding of the employees towards the responsibilities.

Feedback

The municipality can only select the employee to fill the vacant position. After the recruitment, it is required to get the feedback from the employees related to the process so that the process will improve and the municipality hires the talent in the organisation for the position.

External Recruitment refers the hires the employees from outside the organisation.

Budgeting

The first step of the process is to develop the budget in the organisation. Accounting officers of the municipality develop the budget to conduct the external recruitment process (Slavi?, Bjeki?, and Berber, 2017).

Procedure

The corporate services department of the municipality ensure the selection procedure and recruitment process in order to hire the best employee for the specific position. The Municipality encourages the policy of open recruitment on the basis of qualification of the employees.

Vacant Position

The municipality is determined the vacant position of the employees with the best qualified and suited candidates.

Eligibility

The municipality select the candidates as per the qualification as per the eligibility criteria of the job position. Those employees are disqualified who have the information who did not match with the criteria.

Interview

The municipality organise the interview to analyse the confidence and understanding of the candidates towards the job position.

There are many steps taken by the municipality in order to develop the skills of the employees and these are given below:

Training and development

The human resource of Muscat municipality conducts the training program by targeting the senior leadership of the municipality with the aim of developing the knowledge and skills to them. The programme has focused on skills which is one of the most important parts of training. The training program develops the positive image of the employees due to increasing the knowledge and their communication. In the other aspects, it has been seen that the other professional training period is also covered. The idea of training programme is related to the municipality desire to prepare the staff with the high capabilities (Bell, Tannenbaum, Ford, Noe, and Kraiger, 2017).

Training and Development

Business Strategy and Policy

The Municipality persuade the best methods and strategies in order to provide the information to the employees related to the business. The program is conducted on the basis of the behavioural skills of leader, personal leadership, and the role of commander and the source of power in leadership in addition to computing skills.

The municipality adopt the business structure in which the junior manager can tell anything to their senior manager. It is the responsibility of the senior manager to describe the information to the employees. The senior manager of the municipality listen the queries and doubts of the junior manager which appreciated them to learn the new and development skills (Kramar, 2014).

Provide opportunity outside of job function

Nowadays, organisation has become so compartmentalized due to which the employees can operate within the department. The Muscat municipality gives the opportunity to the employees to learn the other works which are operates in the organisation. It helps the organisation to develop an employee’s personality for a larger role. The opportunity for the employee to take the new responsibility outside their job helps to develop the personality of the employee. This step will increase the awareness and knowledge of the employees as well as the effectiveness to operate the organisation work. It is also beneficial for the organisation as well just because of more responsibilities. The employees face the additional challenges while learning the new work or perform the other responsibility. The new additional challenges help to expand their skills and motivate them to think about their performances which help them to achieve success in future. This initiative taken by the municipality also create energy and excitement in the workplace.

Give Constructive Feedback

Feedback does not mean criticising or disapproving. Feedback is a source which motivates the employee to perform well in their responsibility. The feedback should be constructive and include the specific recommendation for the further development of the employee. It helps to encourage the employees to perform well in their responsibility. The Muscat Municipality provides the feedback to employees to encourage them. Constructive feedback helps the employee to know about their performance. This step helps the employee to grow further in their life.

There are many methods to evaluate the performance of an employee which is adopted by the Municipality. The Muscat municipality evaluate the performance in order to provide the services to the people.

Keep track on employee’s performance

It has been seen that the performance of an employees is evaluated by the manager. In this method, the municipality fixed the time of employees to deliver the services of the organisation. The system has been tracked to analyse the functions of the employees of the organisation. In the case of malfunction, the functions of the system are analysed and the staff go outside the organisation. This is the process of central monitoring the performance of the employee (Van Dooren, Bouckaert, and Halligan, 2015).

Analoui’ Model

It has been seen that the municipality implement the Analoui model of eight parameters to evaluate the effectiveness of the employee’s performance. This model is based on the eifhts factors which help to evaluate the performance of an employee and these are awareness, perceptions, organisational standards, degree of demand, constraints, motivation, presence choice and opportunity and skills. Senior managers of the municipality pay attention to the employees on the basis of these parameters (Kearney, 2018).

Recruitment and Selection System

Create Standards and Goals

The senior manager of the municipality set the standards for the employees in order to achieve the objective. Performance standard describe the target which has to be achieved by the employees. In the end of the month, the performance standard of the employees is compare with the actual performance. The comparison of the performance helps to evaluate the uniformity of the employee in the completing the targets. The municipality manager set the standard and goal for every employee as per their positions. It is also beneficial for the staff because this method also encourage them to achieve the setting target (Cardy, and Leonard, 2014).

Reward system

Reward system is a common strategy which is used by every organisation to improve the performance of employees. In the Muscat municipality, the senior manager implemented these strategies in order to improve the performance of employee. The reward system encourages the employees to give their best towards the society. The organisation provides the rewards to the employees in the terms of monetary and non-monetary. The municipality set the rewards as per the targets and the performance of the employees (Imran, Ahmad, Nisar, and Ahmad, 2014).

Keep Goals Clear and Focused

The municipality set the goals and explain the employees so that the employees are aware about their targets. The municipality sets the target as per the jobs and past performances ao it is easy for the employees to achieve the targets. The municipality use the SMART objective has been used to improve the performance of employee. SMART objective classified the terms of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (Muscat daily, 2017).

Feedback

Appreciation is a best source which encourages the employee to give their best in their jobs. Feedback is the only way through which the manager can appreciate the employee towards the organisation. The manager of the municipality gives the feedback to the employee as per their performance and efficiency towards the jobs. The manager appreciates the employees by providing them incentives or promoting them from their performance.

Planning

The municipality develop the plan in order to realise the responsibility of the manager. In this plan, target standards are set so that the employees clearly understand and try to achieve the objective. The employees are motivated to achieve the targets by give their best quality of services to people.

Act on lack of improvement

The municipality has to focus on the improvements which help the employee to improve the performance. It is necessary to focus on the improvement steps to improve the performance of employees. The manager of the municipality follows the many steps and strategies which help to improve the performance of the employee. The improvement step taken by the manager of municipality has to be analysed so that the performance of employees will improve. The act of lack of improvement implemented by the municipality improves the efficiency and capability of employees.

Clarify the exact problem

It is necessary to analyse the exact problem to improve the performance of the employees. The manager of municipality analyse the problems so that it can apply the strategies and plans to improve the performance of employees. After analysing the problem, it is required to inform the employee about the exact problem which comes into the inefficiency of problems of employee. The employees are requiring to being aware from those problems so that their performance will improve. The strategies and steps are taken by the organisation as per the problems so that the employee performance will improve (Muscat daily, 2017).

Internal Recruitment

The municipality provides the services to the employees in the terms of monetary because monetary is basic needs of the employee. After completing the one year with the organisation, the employee receives the money which is equal to one month basic salary. This one month pay excludes the allowances (Leder, Newsham, Veitch, Mancini, and Charles, 2016).

The other basic need of the employees is food, shelter and clothes. The organisation provides the government quarters to the employees or provide them housing loan. This facility also satisfies the consumer demand. New employees are facilitated with the hotel accommodations and furnished apartments till they did not purchase the land for their housed.

Health is a major concern for the employees as well as the organisation. The organisation provides the services to the employees so that the employees stay healthy and gives their best. The municipality provides the benefits to the disable people by insurance or by covering the expenses of the employees (Sundstrom, Lounsbury, Gibson, and Huang, 2016).

It is critically evaluated that the organisation provides the facilities to the employees so that their demand can satisfy and they give their best in their job. Although, it is a government organisation it satisfy the consumer demands but it has to improve and adopt the methods from which the employees completely satisfy.

There are various methods in which the municipality satisfy the consumer’s demands and needs and these are as follows:

Positive Working Environment

The municipality has to provide the positive environment so that the employees perform well and stay happy. A positive environment is required to motivate the employees or to stay healthy of the employees. The positive environment will develop by interacting with the employees and showing concern for their complaints (Men, 2014).

Reward and Recognition

The municipality has to provide the rewards in the terms of monetary and non-monetary. The rewards always encourage and satisfy the employee needs. The basic salary satisfy the needs of employees but rewards are the extra benefits which satisfy the employees luxurious demands which is also satisfy the employees demands (Jacobs, Yu, and Chavez, 2016).

Social connections

 The municipality has to promote the employees for the social connection so that there social demand and requirements are fulfils. The social interaction helps to stay happy and encourage them to perform well in their work. Social Connections presence of employee helps them to stay healthy and happy. It is a fact that the happy employee perform well as compare to the other employee (Mehta, Dahl, and Zhu, 2017).

Motivation

Motivation is the factor which helps the employee in performing well in their work. The senior manager has to motivate the employee so that the respect factor of employees is satisfied. Motivation is another factor which helps to satisfy the demand and needs of the employee. It is the technique to improve the performance of the employee and the employees has to provide the rewards and awards to motivate the employee. The demand and needs is increases of employees with the other extra benefits which are provided by the senior manager. Motivation is a technique which helps to satisfy the employee needs and demands.

External Recruitment

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it has been seen that the Muscat Municipality has the goods and strategic approaches related to human resource. There are many strategic are adopted related to human resources by the organisation. The municipality adopts the both process such as recruitment and selection process. Recruitment and selection process of the organisation somewhat different from the other private companies. There are different strategies follow by the company to develop the skills of employees such as training and development, and business policy (Ford, 2014). The organisation evaluate the performance of the employees by comparing the target with the actual output, quantity and qualitative.  The organisation provides the many facilities to the employees but it has to improve it in order to achieve the objective. It is critically evaluated that the employees demand is satisfy but the employees needs extra benefits which improve their performance. It is recommended that the employees performance is satisfy by providing them rewards, social connection and positive environment. The company will provide the good quality of services by satisfying the employee’s demands.

References

Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C. and Garavan, T. (2018) Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.

Bell, B.S., Tannenbaum, S.I., Ford, J.K., Noe, R.A. and Kraiger, K. (2017) 100 years of training and development research: What we know and where we should go. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), p.305.

Brewster, C., Chung, C. and Sparrow, P. (2016) Globalizing human resource management. Routledge.

Cardy, R. and Leonard, B. (2014) Performance Management: Concepts, Skills and Exercises: Concepts, Skills and Exercises. Routledge.

Farndale, E., Nikandrou, I. and Panayotopoulou, L., (2018) Recruitment and selection in context. In Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Ford, J.K. (2014) Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. Psychology Press.

HR Solutions & Services. (2018) Muscat Municipality. [online] Available from: https://ajyal-hr.com/muscat-municipality/ [Accessed 24/12/18].

Imran, A., Ahmad, S., Nisar, Q.A. and Ahmad, U., (2014) Exploring relationship among rewards, recognition and employees’ job satisfaction: A descriptive study on libraries in Pakistan. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 21(9), pp.1533-1540.

Jacobs, M.A., Yu, W. and Chavez, R. (2016) The effect of internal communication and employee satisfaction on supply chain integration. International Journal of Production Economics, 171, pp.60-70.

Kearney, R. (2018) Public sector performance: management, motivation, and measurement. Routledge.

Kramar, R. (2014) Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), pp.1069-1089.

Leder, S., Newsham, G.R., Veitch, J.A., Mancini, S. and Charles, K.E. (2016) Effects of office environment on employee satisfaction: A new analysis. Building Research & Information, 44(1), pp.34-50.

Mehta, R., Dahl, D.W. and Zhu, R.J. (2017) Social-Recognition versus Financial Incentives? Exploring the Effects of Creativity-Contingent External Rewards on Creative Performance. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(3), pp.536-553.

Men, L.R., (2014) Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), pp.264-284.

Muscat daily. (2017) Muscat Municipality experiments smart central lighting system. [online] Available from: https://muscatdaily.com/Archive/Oman/Muscat-Municipality-experiments-smart-central-lighting-system-54w9 [Accessed 24/12/18].

Muscat Municipality. (2018) An overview of Muscat Governorate. [online] Available from: https://www.mm.gov.om/Page.aspx?PAID=3#Details&MID=22&PGID=158&Slide=True [Accessed 24/12/18].

Sikora, D.M. and Ferris, G.R. (2014) Strategic human resource practice implementation: The critical role of line management. Human Resource Management Review, 24(3), pp.271-281.

Slavi?, A., Bjeki?, R. and Berber, N. (2017) The role of the internet and social networks in recruitment and selection process. Strategic management, 22(3), pp.36-43.

Sundstrom, E.D., Lounsbury, J.W., Gibson, L.W. and Huang, J.L. (2016) Personality traits and career satisfaction in training and development occupations: Toward a distinctive T&D personality profile. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 27(1), pp.13-40.

Van Dooren, W., Bouckaert, G. and Halligan, J. (2015) Performance management in the public sector. Routledge.