Necessary aspects to perform primary function

HRM deals with the employees under a certain organisation. It is essential to manage the human resource of a company because of the dynamic nature of human beings. None of them is similar to each other whether according to sentiments and behaviour or as per their abilities to execute the assigned job. The concerned area of HRM is not only to focus on the benefits of the company but also they need to provide a work atmosphere where employees can find their growth and job satisfaction (Bratton & Gold, 2017). The primary function of human resource management is to motivate the employees to perform better so that the organisation can attain its goals and objectives. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of HRM for shaping both the organizational and employee behaviour.  This essay will shed light on all the aspects of HRM, which work at the same time together to perform the primary function and along with that my personal perspective will be included to justify the answer precisely.

The role of HRM within a company is to plan and develop the policies of an enterprise, which are designed to make maximum use of human resource to increase the production. The goal is to motivate the employees to deliver better performance so that the organisation can achieve an uplift in market position (Opatha & Arulrajah, 2014). All the areas of HRM have been discussed here to attain a clear concept of the primary function of human resource management and how it works to increase the effectiveness of both the employee and the organisation to fulfil the planned objectives.

EEO and affirmative action – These terms are much familiar to the people who deals with HRM policies. Yet, people generally get confused while dealing with these two concepts. Both the theories promote fairness in workplace. Implementations of these theories can make the organisation free from all the discriminations. EEO stands for equal employment opportunity, which means this theory prohibits every kind of discrimination in workplace on the respect of disability, non-English speaking background and gender. It ensures equal training and facilities to all the employees irrespective of their origin and gender. Affirmative action defines the policy of protecting the people from minority groups who have a prior experience of facing discrimination. Due to past practices of discrimination, there are reservation policies for the minorities. The policy does not encourage hiring unqualified candidates in order to provide solution. Yet the purpose of implementing this theory while recruitment is to uplift the lifestyle of minority society and not to enhance the further practice of discrimination. An occurrence of quota situation is normal in many countries whereas across United States it is not a regular phenomenon. EEO protects the human rights while Affirmative Action prevents minor communities to experience discrimination and arranges opportunities.

Human resource planning, recruitment and selection- The objectives of HRM planning is to deliver efficient employees according to the organisation’s need (Gamage, 2014). Considering the present and future needs of the organisation, they prepare their target and strategies. Both the long term and short-term strategies are framed to meet the employee requirement of an organisation. This managerial function ensures three major things.

1. Proper planning leads to adequate supply of man- power.
2. It ensures the good quality of the work force of a company.
3. The planning also includes the utilization of the human resource in a way, which will be effective for the development of an organisation.

EEO and affirmative action

Organizational goals can be achieved if human resource planning correctly incorporate the demand of resource. In order to discuss HRM planning we need to know why this kind of planning is necessary for an organisation. A number of employees leave the organisation annually because of retirement, accidental death or personal reasons. HR department appoints employees to take over those vacant positions. Again, turnover of employees is a major issue, and if the organisation have to fight against it, they have to go by effective HRM planning in order to balance the work and the workforce. Whenever the company is assigned for a new project or thinking of expanding their business, management hires a large number of workforce. As planning is the root of every successful venture, the assumption needs to be done correctly in order to distribute responsibility among the employees. In the addition, an organisation works under dynamic technological atmosphere. The human resource plan should incorporate necessary technical training for their workforce to make them comfortable with the changing scenario. Most importantly, if the number of employees are higher than the workload, it will be difficult for the company to accommodate them under their authorization, on the other hand, the opposite scenario is not acceptable either, as every organisation has some target to meet and that cannot be possible without an adequate number of employees. HRM planning ensures that the selection process must help the staff to synchronise their expectations with the job specifications.

Human resource development- Resource development concentrate on developing the skills of the existing employees or new joiners by providing them necessary training. Better performance comes with better skills. Their knowledge needs to be brushed up by arranging development programs to avoid obstacles during execution of any sort of job (Kim & Sung-Choon, 2013). The benefit of the company directly depends on the personal and professional skills of the workforce. Apart from organizational growth, some companies focus on individual growth of an employee as well by arranging opportunities of higher studies.

Compensations and benefits- This part of primary function of the HRM is known as one of the major motivation of the employees. Wages and benefits are the main factors for which employees come to work for an organisation. The administration of a company scientifically distribute the salary among the workforce without being biased.

Safety and health- An organisation’s high rate of production depends on how efficiently and consistently the employees are doing their job. Physical and mental fitness of the work strength largely influence the production of a company. Therefore, the company tries to ensure the fact that it lowers the cost of medical and insurance of the company. Job seekers find the organisation, which offers health and safety policies, more convenient to work for than other existing organisations. Management tend to distribute the workload equally, according to the expertise and provide an employee friendly work environment to promote better mental health among the workers.

Employee retention policies of HRM- Employee retention refers to the policies applying which a company retain its workforce (Das & Baruah, 2013). However, it is considered as one of the HRM strategies too by many. As we can understand that employee turnover defines serious internal issues of an organisation, hence retention of skilled and experienced employees is helpful to achieve the goals and objectives. In order to resolve turnover issues the management incorporate various programs such as, they guide the employees towards finding a better career within the company, arrange rewards and recognition for good work and build up better relationship with workers to avoid conflict in future (Terera & Ngirande, 2014). HRM ensures a healthy work environment where every employee feels comfortable while working and delivers his or her best (Arulrajah, 2015). By applying such methods, HRM strengthens the workforce and as a result, company experiences both the benefit and growth.

Human resource planning, recruitment and selection

All these aspects are equally important as far as primary function of HRM is concerned. Recent developments in this field of management incorporate treating the employees as social and psychological beings who contribute greatly to make the company’s economic condition brighter than before. HR management has shifted their concentration from old policies to the new inventions. Based on new findings and research, EQ is taken as important as IQ and knowledge workers are preferable over skilled workers (Gonzalez & Martins, 2014). As hierarchical structure does not allow the workers to be open in front of their superiors, HRM has started to provide a flexible and virtual structure of designation in order to continue flawless communication between the employees and the management. Since 2014, talent management and flexible HR policies have become the priority. After examining all the aspects of primary function of the HRM and considering some of the recent developments, we can understand that HRM offers a set of programmes, activities and functions, within an organisation, which are framed and executed to increase both employee and organization’s effectiveness in the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. A recent application of HRM strategy in our workplace is an instance from where the primary agendas of the management can be understood thoroughly. An IT company, like ours, needs an amount of employees every year for their new project openings and most of those projects are international. In order to balance workload with the resource HRM annually plans to recruit skilled and knowledgeable candidates and simultaneously manage comparatively weak resources by policies of turnover. International projects provide bright career opportunity to the employees, which is a strategy of workforce retention and in the era of globalization, international exposure is equally necessary for the organisation’s benefit.

In conclusion, it can be said that all the six aspects work at the same time to perform the primary function of HRM, the reason why one aspect is more essential than others, has been identified. In the addition, the importance of HRM’s role within an organisation to shape the employee behaviour in order to achieve goals has been recognised. I believe that employee retention and development of the company is the most crucial factor while implementing HRM strategies and plans. This implementation of plans is related to the evaluation of what can be done in future in order to be successful and what should be done to build a more productive and satisfied workforce. However, the needs of an organisation is dynamic and to cope up with this changing scenario HRM should develop multiple layers of perspective to act appropriately according to the situational needs. In my opinion, HRM should be concerned of employee needs, as they are the pillar of any successful organisation. Therefore, if the policies are action-oriented, future-oriented and globally acceptable then only HRM can guide the enterprise towards success and improve both the employee and organizational behaviour.

References

Arulrajah, A. A. (2015). Contribution of human resource management in creating and sustaining ethical climate in the organisations. Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management, 5(1).

Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.

Das, B. L., & Baruah, M. (2013). Employee retention: A review of literature. Journal of Business and Management, 14(2), 8-16.

Domínguez Gonzalez, R. V., & Martins, M. F. (2014). Knowledge management: an analysis from the organizational development. Journal of technology management & innovation, 9(1), 131-147.

Gamage, A. S. (2014). Recruitment and selection practices in manufacturing SMEs in Japan: An analysis of the link with business performance. Ruhuna Journal of Management and Finance, 1(1), 37-52.

Kim, H., & Sung-Choon, K. (2013). Strategic HR functions and firm performance: The moderating effects of high-involvement work practices. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 30(1), 91-113.

Opatha, H. H. D. N. P., & Arulrajah, A. A. (2014). Green human resource management: Simplified general reflections. International Business Research, 7(8), 101.

Terera, S. R., & Ngirande, H. (2014). The impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee retention. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), 481.