Free «Strategic Human Resource Management» Essay Sample

Ways in which Employee and Industrial Relations are related to Strategic HRM.

When it concerns to strategic human resource management with regards to strategic approach to human resource management it basically refers to a managerial process that requires human resources policies and practices that is to be linked with the strategic objectives of a given organization. For many organizations intending to finding ways of gaining a competitive advantage the implications of the human resources strategic choices plays a critical significance. The roles played my human resource manager have evolved especially with the change in the competitive market environments as well as the realization that human resources management plays a strategic role as it pertains to the success of the organization. Therefore organizations that fail to put an emphasize on attracting as well as retaining talents may in the long run find themselves in dire consequences as their competitors may outplay them in the strategic employment of their human resources (Mittler, 2007).

Due to the increasing competition both locally and globally organizations must therefore become more adaptable, agile, resilient and customer focused in order to succeed. Thus the ever changing environments mandates that the human resource professional of the organization must be a business driven function with a thorough understanding of the big picture of the organization and hence be able to influence the key decisions and policies. Generally the main focus of today’s human resource manger is on the organizations strategic talents development and personnel retention. In addition to that the human resource professionals must promotes well as fight values, beliefs, ethics and spirituality within their organizations especially as it regards to the management of the work place diversity (Anonymous, 2005).

Engaging employee: today’s world of business is characterized by competition for talent which it has become extreme thus sophisticated employers no longer talk to workers but instead a human capital where an investment in personnel yields a greater success to such organizations and companies. Employees migrate from one company to another in such of the best environments that best suits their need which have in time become extremely complex in nature especially among the younger population. Some of the motivating factors in today’s world of business include work-life balance, safety and environmental policies as well as job security. This has made the aspect of human resource to be come more and more critical to the success of business and this is attributed to the robust for talent, experiences as well as expertise and all these is intertwined in employee engagement. Engaged population of employees is a competitive advantage that serve to result from a motivate employee population that demonstrate commitment and loyalty to their various companies and organizations (Pomeroy, 2006).

The principle outcome of any given employee engagement program is the abilities to leverage on human capital through techniques and tools that are critical in driving efficiency and productivity and this is mobilizes employees to attain goals faster. Companies with a more engaged employee group have been found to out perform their competitors and also be in good position to pinpoint pockets of both low or high engagement across the organization hence being able to asses a team as low as five employees and this allows the human resource professionals to counsel managers, coach supervisors as well as maximize the team effectiveness ensuring leadership development programs which yields practical and measurable impact. Moreover another advantage of working from employee engagement base line is that organizations success of human resource programs can be measured allowing more resources to initiatives that operational and improves the activities that don’t show the expected results allowing precise targeting of areas of concern ensuring that efficient allocation of the limited resources.

Some of the ways of improving employee engagement is by communication each an every aspect of human resource or strategies every step of the way ensuring that every plan, activity and event that the organization carries out. This is achieved through a single mission statement, issuing of straight -forward directives, elaborating the organizations big picture to employees, promote dialogue, enhance understanding, encourage open communications, regular review, linking job objectives to organizations goals, down- to-earth leadership and finally providing a right of training to help employees understand issues and the implementation process.

Employee performance and Documentation: employees play a critical role as it regards to the success of any organization thus a positive employee performance often leads to positive results while a poor performance can easily affect a company in multiple ways which are mostly negative. Therefore from time to a company must make difficult decisions regarding making of decision on retention of employee because of their performance issues and in these situations its very essential that companies understands the significance of fair and indisputable employee performance documentation as well as have implemented best practices to collect. Therefore if employees make positive contributions the company must have an accurate record of achievements thus is in opposition to reward the employee concerned accordingly. On the other hand if the employee fails to perform well documentation of such problem serve to providing a helpful feedback for the employee thus allowing him or her opportunity to improve (Krell, 2006).

More over if a former or a current employee challenges certain employment decision documentation helps a company or an organization to clarify on its actions thus documentation creates a record of performance problems and the efforts taken to help in addressing the specific situations. For instance in law suit, burdens of proofs lays on the employer thus the concerned company or organization must revel that it took the appropriate action for a legitimate and non discriminatory reason. In such situations good documentation often serve to saving the employer hence poor documentation causes many companies to losing of such cases. Absence of documentation may causes judges as well as juries to be skeptical as it regards to the employers motives and can even lead to questioning whether the employees was given a fair warning and the opportunity to correct his or her performance problems.

In addition to that documentation can be achieved by many employee through keeping of their own records of performance as well a company actions through taking of notes, blogs and even journals and all these serve to support an employees claims of any unfair employment practices in case of any law suit thus the company through documentation becomes aware of such cases hecen become prepared to produce such documentation in order to counter any employees claims in court. Accurate recoding of employees performance plays a critical role fro successfully responding to unemployment claims hence if any employee is requested to leave an organization because of his or her issues on performance the affected individual might not be eligible for unemployment and such proof is only available through a sufficient documentation provided by the organization or the company (Schreiber & Marshall, 2006).

To improve on the organization documentation on employee performance human resource professionals must develop company’s documentation policy which must be adhered to the latter and if such organization has operations in several regions or states it must be made sure that such policy reforms conforms to the laws that are applied to all the laws in such states’ also managers and supervisor must under go training to enable them facilitate an efficient documentation procedures especially is it regards to reasons of documentation, kinds of documentation, effectives, consequence of ineffective documentation process, tools of maintaining effective documentation and finally the roles played by employees when it concerns documentation of their own performance. Staff members to be trained include: executives and managers first-line supervisors, human resource professionals, consultants and executive coaches, business owners and office administrators.

Employee performance management relies heavily on employee work history consequentially on career development, termination as well as compensation decisions which also relies on it hence highlighting the necessity of proper documentation of such employee history. When documenting employee performance some critical tips are: recoding of both the positive and the negative behaviors, dating of each entry, writing of observation as opposed to assumptions, being specific, keeping out any based language, being brief and complete, tack trends and finally one must be consistent in recordings.

Complaint systems and whistleblowers: fraud undermines and destroys trust in organizations business resulting to catastrophic results and anonymous tips have been found to be the most effective means of detecting such fraud cases. The Sarbanes –Oxley Act of 2002 provides that companies establish procedures fro gathering as well as processing complaint information and must guarantee confidential. Some of the best ways of handling whistle blowing cases is by balancing the needs of the investors of the whistle blowers and the accused party to remain anonymous and secondly by screening complaints as well as separating those that have financial impacts from the ones that are non material in nature.

Communications and Trust: trust is defined as reliance on integrity, character or ability of a person or a thing and as it refers to a business setting employees trust is very critical intangible resource without which serious consequence for organization competiveness can result (Abbott, 2007). Thus mutual respect is an essential trait for employees to feel motivated and appreciated to contribute their organizations and such levels of trust can be lowered during economic instability and high stress impeding employee engagement thus calling for human resource and organization to appreciate the stress employees experience as a result of economy hence taking the correct counter measures to enhance stability (Krell, 2006).

A strong connection exist between communication, respect and retention and research as shown that employees who trust is placed on them or even are recognized for their responsibilities are more motivated at work place. Thus in order to foster job satisfaction one of the critical aspects fro both the human resource professionals and employees is the communion between both the employees and the senior management. Honest and open communication as well as emphasize on procedural justice helps in reduction of fear thus enhancing trust in the organization. Therefore procedural justice, improved communication and employee development creates an atmosphere that is able to encourage and celebrate employee abilities and talents in any given organization (Willock, 2007).

Unions and Management: unions in an organization usually serve in raising matters that relate to benefits and wages. Also they consider safety at work place as an important component and it’s an important provision especially in collective agreements. These trade unions can not be ignored as employees consider it as one of the duties of employee and such unions are stipulated by several government legislation on health, safety and environmental matters in the work place these laws cover termination, discrimination among others. In order to effectively handle such matters training is critical. Paying attention to workplace safety, difficult employee and female employees and finally by re examine the industrial position of the organization.