Change Affect Human Resources

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

Dragons and cities construction limited has been around for over ten years with over twenty branches in different countries; however they’ve decided to set up a subsidiary in Jamaica. As the director of human resources, it’s the researcher’s duty to go to Jamaica to facilitate planning and development and to ensure that the resources are being managed effectively.

However the researcher sets out to highlight the different intercultural and global challenges that are likely to affect the new subsidiary in Jamaica, and about the plans/ methods that human resource management will implement to forecast and determine the importance and requirement within the new location. The researcher also enlightens the reader about legal environment of Jamaica as it relates to human resource. Selection and recruitments methods are also mentioned in the research as it relates to how human resource management will go about selecting and recruiting staff members for the new subsidiary and how human resource will go about with training and development for new staff. It also mentions the different forms of employment contract that the staff will be given. The research will also inform you about the different methods of reward system and compensations and ways how to evaluate the performance of the staff within the organization.

Limitations

Upon embarking on this research, the researcher faced several challenges. The main purpose of this research was to ensure that planning and development is being facilitated and that resources are being managed.

The challenges that the researcher faced upon completing this research are as followed:

The researcher didn’t understand the concept of the assignment.

Little time to finish the new research proposal

Limited access to books

A questionnaire was given to a manager of a service station but the questionnaire wasn’t returned.

Objectives

At the end of this research, the researcher should be able to:

Understand why human resource is important in any organization

Know how to carry out the process of selection and recruitment

Understand the concepts of human resource management

Methodology

Information for this research was retrieved from several sources, most of which are from the internet because the research had access to the internet. The following methods were used to attain information for the completion of this research

The internet: online libraries, journals, articles and documents from websites were used to gather information for this research.

Observation: the researcher went to a service station to see how they go about carry out their recruitment and selection process

.

Books: books from both public and school libraries were used to obtain information regarding the research.

Literature Review

Human resource management faces intercultural and global challenges, some of which are: managing diversity of workplace, culture, employments laws and technological. Globalization is a process drawing people together from all nations of the world into a single community linked by the vast network of communication (Fchaudhry, 2009). The Jamaican legal environment is also known as the common law system it is one of the three major legal systems in the world (the ministry of justice, n.d). Legal laws have a great impact on human resource some of these laws are employment laws which means legislation directly addressing employees to employee’s relations. Secondly is the government roles of significant employment legislation this means recognizing the importance of the government’s role in establishing legal requirement affecting human resource management. (Hayes and Ninemeier, 2008).

Recruitment is a process of identifying that the organization needs to employ someone that is up to the point and qualified. New workers in a firm are usually given introduction programme in which they meet other workers and are shown skills that they will be learnt. Training takes place in the following ways: on the job training and off the job training (business case studies, 2013).There are several employee contracts some of which are fixed term, part time, job sharing and causal workers contracts (replaceOCHR plc, 2004).

The purpose of reward system in organization is to attract, retain, and motivate qualified employees. There are different types of reward system: these systems include base pay, incentive, indirect compensation, perquisites and awards (Griffiths and Moorhead, 2008). Performance and evaluation methods are used to measure non-monetary value of human resources. Several techniques are used to evaluate performance these includes ratings, ranking and checklist. (Flamholtz, 1999).

Global and intercultural challenges that pertaining to

Human Resource

Selection of personnel- choosing the appropriate personal for international assignments. The question is being asked should the company send people from the home office or select local manager. A number of enterprise have been opting force local managers, although top positions are often reserved. Management simply want someone in charge who understands what headquarters wants to be done and is able to communicate effectively with those at the home office.

Selection criteria- in choosing the best people to fill positions, the company must focus on identifying criteria that can be used to select the people most likely to do the best job. Typically both technical and human skills are evaluated.

The ability to adopt personally in an overseas or local assignment

Technical competence

Human relation skills

Pervious local and overseas experience

Training of employees- in many cases, those who are selected for overseas or local assignments are given special types of training and language training. Cultural training is designed to familiarize the individuals with the ways life is lived in the country.

Dealing with culture shock-leaving your home to work in a new country can be a stressful experience. People usually experience many emotions while adapting to a foreign culture. The term culture shock describes the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment.

Ethics and proper behavior-most companies are unaware of their obligation to provide ethics and compliance training to all employees. A legal, ethics and human resource survey was done and over 70% were unaware that such training is mandated by federal laws. (Hodgetts and Leagr, 2008)

Organizational change- an organizations business and operating climate may change frequently, which can also affect the role of the human resources.HR departments serves as a link between company managements and employee changes

Change affect human resources in the following ways

Staffing

Alleviating fears

Greater communication

Developing plans (Joseph, n.d.)

Technology- technology has changed the business world in many ways in the information age, the advent of computer and the internet has increase the impact significantly. Many organizations cannot function without techno and technology is a continuous practice in human resource (Lewis, n.d.)

Human Resource plans

Determining human resource required by an organization involves identifying the jobs, skills, and knowledge required by those jobs and the performance level of the current workforce by using data, forecasting hiring and recognizing needs for both the long and short term. Forecasting methods typically includes using pass data to predict the future staffing.

Step one- analyze work operation

Conduct a detailed job analysis for each function within the company and list policies and procedures required to complete each task.

Step two-conduct series of surveying

Ask several experts about what they think about forecasting needs, based on their employees experience in managing employees within an organization who directly contribute to the creation of products and services

Step three-read reports available from the department of commerce on workforce planning. This will help to learn about trends and forecasting budgets for hiring, training and paying staff required to complete in a global market place.

Step five-document forecasting process and follow it consistently throughout the organization so that all managers align their forecast to strategic direction, identifies skills gap, create action plan to address shortage, implement plans to hire and retain skill personnel and evaluate forecast on an ongoing basis. (Duggan, 2013)

Jamaica Legal Environment

Employment Labor laws

Employment (Equal pay for men and woman )act

Employment(Termination and redundancy payment) act

Holiday with pay act

Maternity leave act

Recruiting of workers act

Minimum wage act

Maximum wage act

Apprenticeship act

Pension act

Women(employment of) act

Workmen’s compensation act (Lexadin, 2020)

Jamaica legal environment

The Jamaican legal environment is otherwise known as the Jamaica legal system or the common law system. It is one of the three major legal systems in the world. Under common law system all citizen of whatever rank or status are subject to the same set of laws. Decisions from courts outside of Jamaica is not binding, but may also be referred to a persuasive authority if there is no local case which has settled the point in issue. (The ministry of justice, 2010)

Employment laws- arose as a result of demands of workers for better working conditions and the right to organize. Employment laws are defined as the body of laws, administrative rulings and precedents that address the legal right of worker and their employee. (Lexadin, 2020)

Strategies in Selection and recruitment

Recruitment is the process of identifying that the organization needs to employ someone up to point while selection consist of the processes involve in choosing from applicants a suitable candidate to fill the post.

Steps in recruiting and selecting

Asses the need for and establish the purpose of the position

Perform a position analysis

Prepare position description

Appoint and empower the search committee

Prepare the position announcement

Advertise the position

Conduct the search

Screen applicants

Arrange the candidate interviews

Arrange and confirm dates and times

Develop interview schedules and confirm with all individuals who will be involve in the process

Develop and evaluate tools for all interviewers to use upon completion of interview

Interview finalist

Conduct reference check

Make an offer

The names of those qualified for the job. (Winston and Creamer, 1997)

Training and development process

Employee training is responsibility of the organization. Employee development is a shared responsibility of management and the individual employee. For employee training and development to be successful, management should:

Provide a well-crafted job description

Provide training required by employees to meet the basic competencies for the job.

Develop a good understanding of knowledge, skills and abilities that the organization will need in the future.

Explain the employee development process and encourage staff to develop individual development plan.

The development process

An individual development plan is prepare by the employee in partnership with his or her supervisor. The plan is based upon needs of the employee, the position and the organization.

Self assessment- identifies skills, values, strengths and weakness

Assess current position and work environment-identifies job requirement and performance expectations of a position

Identify development activities- the best ways to achieve development goal

Put plan into action-prepare a draft of development plan and review plan with supervisor for his or her approval

Cost effective methods for employee training and development

On the job experience

Committees

Conferences and forums

Critical incident notes

Field trip

Job expanding

Job rotation

Job shadowing

Off the job training

Courses offered by colleges and universities

Professional association

Reading group

Self study (HRCouncil.ca, n.d.)

Types of Employment contracts

Annual hour’s contract:

This is where the company specifies the hours that an employee has to work over a year. The idea is to introduce more flexibility so that the employer can match the hours worked to fluctuation workflow over the year. There is no need to pay overtime at peak times or lay off workers when business is slack. (replaceOCHR plc, 2004)

Fixed term contract:

Employees are hired for a fixed period of time, example for a specific project or to replace an employee on sick leave or parental leave. Employer should provide employee with an agreement in writing that sets out the length of employment contract. Fixed term employees are entitled to the same annual, personal or other leave entitlement, but on a proportional basis for the period of their employment. (replaceOCHR plc, 2004)

Apprenticeship Contract:

They are for people between the age of 16-24 and it covers a training period during which employees have reduced benefits and a low pay compared with employees. The duration of this contract is no less than 18 months or more than four years. When the contract expires, the employer must offer a permanent contract if they which to retain the apprentices service (AngloINFO, 2000).

Work- Training Contract:

This was introduced to make it easier for young people to obtain jobs and only workers between the age of 16 and 37 years are eligible. There are two kinds of work training contract, neither of which is renewable.

A one year contract and a two year contract leading to an intermediate or high professional level. (AngloINFO, 2000)

Compensation and reward systems

Base Pay -For most people, the most important reward for work is the pay they receive. Obviously, money is important because of the things it can buy, but as we just noted, it can also symbolize an employee`s worth. Pay is very important to an organization for a variety of reasons. Finally, since pay is considered a major source of employee dissatisfaction, a poorly designed system can result in problems in other areas such as turnover and low morale.

Incentive System - Incentive systems are plans in which employees can earn additional compensation in return for certain types of performance. Examples of incentive programs include the following:

Piecework programs, which tie a worker`s earnings to the number of units produced

Gain-sharing programs, which grant additional earnings to employees or work group for cost-reduction ideas

Bonus systems, which provide managers with lump-sum payments from a special fund based on the financial performance of the organization or a unit

Long-term compensation, which gives managers additional income based on stock price performance, earnings per share, or return on equity

Merit pay plans, which base pay raises on the employee`s performance

Indirect Compensation is another major compensation package is indirect compensation, also commonly referred to as the employee benefits plan. Typical benefits provided by businesses include the following:

Payment for time not worked, both on and off the job. On-the-job free time includes lunch, rest, coffee breaks, and wash-up or get-ready time. Off-the-job time includes not worked includes vacation, sick leave, holidays, and personal days.

Social Security contributions. The employer contributes half the money paid into the system established under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA).

The employee pays the other half.

Unemployment compensation. People who have lost their jobs or are temporarily laid off get a percentage of their wages from an insurance-like program.

Disability and workers` compensation benefits. Employers contribute funds to help workers who cannot work due to occupation injury or ailment.

Life and health insurance programs. Most organizations offer insurance at a cost far below what individuals would pay to buy insurance on their own.

Pension or retirement plans. Most organizations offer plans to provide supplementary income to employees after they retire.

Awards At many companies, employees receive awards for everything from seniority to perfect attendance, from zero defects (quality work) to cost reduction suggestions. Award programs can be costly in the time required to run then and in money if cash awards are given.

Perquisites- Perquisites are special privileges awarded to selected members of an organization, usually top managers. For years, the top executives of many businesses were allowed privileges such as unlimited use of the company jet, motor home, vacation home, and executive dining room. (Griffiths and Moorhead, 2008)

Techniques used to evaluate performance

Performance Evaluation performance – There are several ways to facilitate performance.

Rating - this is a method of assessing a person`s performance in relation to a set of scale.

Ranking – forms of rating – An evaluator rank people one are more dimensions.

Performance Appraisal – In order to achieve the objects, a variety of performance Appraisal method have been developed.

Confidential Report – Evaluating the characteristics of subordinates as if intelligence loyalty, attendance, conducts etc. This is the most traditional method.

Graphics Rating Scale – measures the degree of characteristics required for adequate performance of the job it consist of a number of characteristics and quality which are judge example :

Quality of work poor average good excellent

Quality of work 1 2 3 4

Quality of work 1 2 3 4

Job knowledge 1 2 3 4

Dependability 1 2 3 4

Attitude 1 2 3 4

Ranking- simplest method of performance appraisal the supervisor evaluate all the Su-ordinates under him on an overall basis and then rank orders them from exceptional to poor

Force Choice Method- consist of providing a list of behavior related statements. The supervisor is asked to indicate one least and one most descriptive statement. (Flamholtz, 1999)

Recommendation/Conclusions

Global competition requires that employees be recruited, trained, developed and valued by an organization with strategic goals and clear outcomes in mind. Hr management should focus on acquiring and putting to use the most effective use of human capital, knowledge, skills and experience for success.

The HR manger should also facilitate the development of a strategic plan that will enable organization to achieve its mission and goals and assist management in developing, implementing and evaluating the plan.

Step in the planning cycle-

Identifies the organizational visions, values and missions- examination of the visions and missions of the organization

Develop a long strategic plan-gathering information and exploring the alternative and implications of current and future activities

Develop an operational plan and measurable objectives for each goal

Implement the operational plan- involvement of operational plans and making the actual work changes that is needed to support the plan.

Monitor and evaluate operational activities (Condrey, 2010)