The Role And Benefit Of Hr Strategy

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

I feel honored and lucky to get chance to work with Duo Technology (DT), which has a global presence in area like USA, Europe, South America, and Asia. Their HR department recently faces some problem in retaining and attracting top talent. As a HRM generalist I try to develop some comprehensive human resources programs and policies that help Duo Technology to achieve its strategic objectives, including employee retention, relations and safety.

Introduction:

Human resource management is comprised of the staffing, development, motivation, and maintenance function. Human resource manager is responsible for the people dimension of the organization. It is responsible for hiring competent people, training them, helping them perform at high levels, and providing mechanisms to ensure that these employees maintain their productive affiliation with the organization. As Duo Technology (DT) is a call-centre technology support company, its HRM procedure should be different from other organization.

Task 1

Evaluate the role and benefit of HR strategy DT:

The role of HR strategy:

As employees become the core competitive advantage in any industry especially technology, the human resource (HR) department function will and should play a more strategic role. Strategic HR goals are to build a working environment for employees to do things accurate the first time. It should aim to prevent mistakes instead of punishing them. HR strategy must be forward thinking. HR strategy must serve the organization by determining lowest-cost strategies to its HRM practices. It must look for ways to reduce personnel costs. HRM is a function of every manager’s job, not just those who work in human resource. HR strategy must ask the latest technology available to maximize output. HR strategy must make sure that employees know about corporate ethics policies and train employees and supervisors on how to act ethically in organizations. HR strategy must build an effective communication system. HR strategy must evaluate the training needs of employees. HRM should design reasonable compensation and benefit programs to attract employees. Strategic HR is not input driven rather than it is output oriented.

Benefit of HR strategy:

Effective HR strategy can help the organization to attract and retain skilled employees. HR strategy helps organization in reducing employee turnover. HR strategy maximizes the output of the organization. HR strategy minimizes employee absenteeism and tardiness. HR strategy helps to make a balance between work and life. HR strategy motivates employees to exert high level output. And finally an Effective HR strategy create positive image about the organization.

Task 2

Evaluate Employee commitment and engagement:

Employee commitment:

According to Wikipedia, "organizational commitment is the individual's psychological attachment to the organization". The three components of organizational commitment are:

Affective commitment (Affection for one’s job)

Continuance commitment ( Fear of loss)

Normative commitment ( Sense of obligation to stay)

Affective commitment: The tendency of employees to stay with an organization that is based on an emotional attachment. In a dynamic industry where DT is doing business, there is less affective commitment among employees.

Continuance commitment: Continuance commitment happens when an employee stays with a specific organization either because there are costs to leaving that surpass the benefits of taking a new job in another organization, or because there is a scarcity of alternative employment opportunities. In Duo Technology (DT), Continuance commitment among employees is low.

Normative commitment: Normative commitment occurs when the individual commits to the organization to stay out of feelings of obligation. It is generally low in high tech based companies.

Employee engagement:

According to Scarlett Surveys, "Employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee's positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organization that profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform is at work". There are three types of Employee engagement. Such are:

Intellectual engagement

Affective engagement

Social engagement

Intellectual engagement: Intellectual engagement is the extent to which an employee is mentally involved with an organization. In Duo Technology (DT), Intellectual engagement of employees is high.

Affective engagement: Affective engagement is the degree to which an employee is identified and satisfied with the existing organization. Affective engagement in Duo Technology (DT) is low.

Social engagement: Social engagement refers to the involvement of employees to improve quality by working collectively. Social engagement is also low in Duo Technology (DT).

Access the Areas for consideration for DT to create a more committed and engaged workforce:

As Duo Technology (DT) is focusing on employee commitment and employee engagement, it should consider the following factor:

Determine the reason behind employee turnover and associated problem faced by employees in the workplace.

Administer a survey to assess the need of employees.

Making a flexible working schedule that reduce stress on employees and encourage them to become more involved.

Assign target for each employee and announce reward for those who achieve target.

Making right appraisal method to evaluate employee performance.

Arrange tour and picnic in a regular interval of time.

Decorate the whole working environment.

Call meeting in regular interval of time to discuss the performance of each department.

Develop an intra-network for organization.

Task 3

Examine the benefits and barriers to work life balance:

Work life balance has become increasingly important issue for organization and employees. The benefits of work-life balance (WLB) are given below:

Reducing absenteeism and tardiness: Absenteeism’s are caused by legitimate medical reasons. Tardiness is another way to show dissatisfaction. A tardy employee is one who comes to work but arrives beyond the designated starting time. Work life balance helps in Reducing absenteeism and tardiness.

Raising morale: A perfect work life balance raise the morale of employees in high. Employees feel that they are important for the organization which ultimately increases morality.

Reduced turnover: Work life balance helps to make recruitment process and retention strategy improved. AS a result employees turnover of that organization decrease.

Better customer satisfaction: As a consequence of work life balance employees are motivated to provide better service to the customer which results in customer satisfaction.

Increase productivity: When the employees are satisfied with their working environment, their output automatically increases. As a result the whole organizational performances are improved.

Barriers to work life balance:

There are various types of barriers in executing work life balance. Such are:

It becomes difficult to employers to supervise employees.

It increases the cost of the employers.

WLB increases the workload of employees.

WLB sometimes create problems to customer.

WLB creates fear of termination in the mind of employees.

It also creates fear of negative career approach in the mind of employees.

Outlining of 10 options for achieving work-life balance:

Option 1: resist conveying work into every moment in your life;

Option 2: plan ahead of your working schedule;

Option 3: Concentrate on one thing at a time;

Option 4: sometimes making sacrifices to achieve balance;

Option 5: Take a look at your personal habits and general lifestyle

Option 6: Take a vacation

Option 7: Learn how to say "no"

Option 8: Hire a personal coach

Option 9: Get plenty of exercise

Option 10: Find a mentor

Task 4

The main problems with recruiting new employees in DT:

Recruiting is the procedure of discovering potential candidates for actual or predictable organizational vacancies. The more applications received, the better the recruiter’s chances of finding an individual best suited to the job recruitments. Duo Technology (DT) faces some problem in the time of recruiting new employees. Such are:

Lack of job analysis: job analysis is a systematic exploration of the activities in a job. It’s a technical procedure used to define a job’s duties, responsibilities, and accountabilities. Duo Technology (DT) does not conduct any effective job analysis method to determine job elements and the essential knowledge, skill and abilities for successful performance.

Lack of organizational policies: Internal organizational policies, such as "promote from within wherever possible," may give priority to individuals inside the organization. Organizational policies play vital role in people management in the organization. Duo Technology (DT) did not develop organizational policies to recruitment process.

Reliance on external recruitment agency: Too much reliance on external recruitment agency is not a good sign for the organization. Organization should have an effective HR department to conduct the recruitment process. But Duo Technologies HR department is not that much strong for which they have to rely on external recruitment agency.

Lack of HR knowledge of line manager: Line managers are not HR specialist. They have little or no knowledge about HRM. But in Duo Technology, line managers perform the role of a HR manager which ultimately results in selecting the ‘best of the worst’.

Suggested sources of recruitment highlighting their strengths and weaknesses:

Certain recruiting methods are more effective than others for filling certain types of jobs. The most effective recruiting sources for Duo Technology are given below:

The internal searches: Internal search refers to the promotion from within concept. Many big companies attempt to build their own low-level employees for higher positions. The promote-from-within-wherever possible policy has strengths. Such are:

It is good public relations

It builds morale

It encourages good individuals who are ambitious

It is less costly than going outside to recruit.

Those chosen internally already know the organization

It improves the probability of a good selection

Weaknesses of internal searches are:

They could be dysfunctional

Internal searches also may generate infighting among rival candidates for promotion

It may decrease the moral levels of those who are not selected

Employee referrals and recommendation: Employee referral means recommendation from current employee regarding a job applicant. Employee referrals are an excellent means of locating potential employees for hard-to-fill positions. The strengths of employee referrals and recommendation are:

the employee’s motivation to make a good recommendation

the availability of accurate job information for the recruit

Employee referrals tend to be more acceptable, to be more likely to accept an offer and to have a higher survival rate.

Weaknesses of employee referrals and recommendation are:

the possibility of friendship being confused with job performance

the potential for nepotism

the potential for adverse impact

Cyber-space recruiting: Large organization or those planning to do a lot of internet recruiting often develop dedicated sites specially designed for recruitment. The best designed of those web sites include an on-line response form, so applicants need not send a separate resume by mail, e-mail, or fax. Applicants fill in a resume page and hit the "submit" button. The strengths of using internet recruiting are:

Internet recruiting provides a low-cost means for most businesses

It provides an unprecedented access to potential employees worldwide.

Cyberspace recruiting also helps increase diversity and finds people with unique talents

Weaknesses of Cyber-space recruiting are:

It is somewhat dependent on an effective employer reputation in the job market

The organization may be inundated with responses, many of them from unqualified candidates.

Technological issues, lack of logistic support and poor website may lower the effectiveness of internet recruitment.

Advertisements: When an organization inclines to tell the public that it has a vacancy, recruiting advertisement is one of the most popular methods used. The types of job often determine where the advertisement is placed. The strengths of advertisements include:

It is an effective way to reach local audience

Employer get quick response from the candidates

If the recruitment budget is small, newspaper advertising allows for flexibility in the size and placement of the ad

Weakness of advertising recruiting includes:

Recruitment advertisements may not reach to the target audience

Sometimes it may be costly

Task 5

Selection methods:

Selection activities maintain a formal pattern, commencing with an initial screening interview and concluding with the final employment decision. The selection process consists of several steps. Such are:

Collecting application form: Applicants are asked to complete the organizations application form to generate specific information the company wants. It generally includes "employment-at-will" statement. It also involves statement giving employer the right to dismiss an employee for falsifying information.

Employment test: Organizations historically relied to a considerable extent on intelligence, aptitude, ability, and interests test to provide major input to the selection process. Even handwriting analysis and honesty tests have been used in attempts to learn more about the candidates-information that supposedly leads to more effective selection. It also involves Performance simulation tests and Work sampling. Performance simulation tests needs the applicant to involve in specific job behaviors necessary for doing the job effectively. Work sampling means Job analysis that is used to develop a miniature replica of the job on which an applicant demonstrates his/her skills.

Comprehensive Interviews: organizations often take face to face interview from applicants. Interviews are a widely used selection tool. Interviews often are inordinate, ineffective, and not job-related. There are Possible biases with decisions based on interviews include interviewee order, prior knowledge about the applicant, and stereotypes. Structured interviews use fixed questions designed to assess specific job-related attributes.

Background investigation: Background investigation is the procedure of testing information from the application form. Typical source of information verified includes: education; former employers; credit references; previous job performance; legal status to work; and criminal records. Research suggests that one-third of all applicants exaggerate their backgrounds or experiences. Individual’s past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior. Background investigation can be done by three ways. Such are: Internal investigation; External investigation; and Documentation.

Medical/Physical Examination: Medical/Physical Examination should be used only to determine if the individual can comply with the required functions of the job. Aside from its use as a screening tool, the physical exam may also show that minimum standards of health exist to enroll in company health and life insurance programs. Additionally, an organization may use this exam to provide base data in case of an employee’s future claim of injury on the job.

Reliability and predictive validity in choosing the right person for the job:

For any predictor to be successful, the scores it generates must possess an acceptable level of reliability or consistency of measurement. This means that the applicants performance on any given selection device should produce consistent scores each time the device is used.

Validity means the proven relationship of a selection device to relevant criterion. There are three kinds of validity. Such are: content validity; construct validity; and criterion related validity.

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Figure: Key Elements for Successful Predictors

SELECTION METHOD

accuracy and predictive validity

Collecting the Application form:

0.65

Employment test

0.54

Comprehensive interviews

0.05 – 0.19

Background investigation

0.38

Medical/Physical Examination

o.53

Task 6

The most common reasons for staff turnover in firms:

As might be expected, higher job satisfaction is associated with lower employee turnover, which is the proportion of employees leaving an organization during a given time period. The more satisfied employees are likely to stay with their employer longer. The most common reasons for employee turnover in organization are given below:

Lack of attractive Reward: The most obvious reward employees receive from work is pay. However reward also include promotions, desirable work assignments, and a host of other less obvious payoffs- a smile, peer acceptance, work freedom, or a kind word of recognition. Some rewards are intrinsic and some are extrinsic in nature. Lack of a complete and attractive reward program may result in employee dissatisfaction. And dissatisfied employees ultimately leave out from the organization.

Work environment: Working environment is an important factor that makes employees feeling comfortable. Employees provide better output in an organized working environment. So, if the working environment is not favorable for the employees, they will not stay with that organization in future.

Flexible working arrangements: Working schedule is a significant issue for both the parties, employees and employers. Workers always want a flexible schedule that allows them enjoying the work. Because, job is only a part of life satisfaction. There are other responsibilities rather than job they have to perform. The common belief is that job is for life, life is not for job. So, if the working schedule is not flexible and if it creates stress on employees, they will not stay with the organization in longer period.

THREE priority staff-retention strategies for DT:

Duo technology (DT) should take the following strategy to retain staff in the organization.

Training and development: Every organization needs well-adjusted, trained, and experienced people to perform its activities. As jobs in today’s dynamic organization have become more complex, the importance of employee education has increased. It seeks a relatively permanent change in employees that their job performance improves. Thus, training involves changing skills, attitudes, knowledge or behavior. The most frequently used training methods are job rotation; understudy assignments; classroom lectures; simulation exercise; and vestibule training. On the other hand, employee development involves future oriented training that focuses on employee personal growth. Some employee development techniques are job rotation; committee assignments; and outdoor training.

Managing expectations: The management should determine what employees really expect from the organization. Expectation may be in form of money or in form of other benefits rather than money. The HR department should administer a survey to understand the psychology of the employees and take action according to the result.

Attractive reward program: Many types of pay are required for a complete economic reward system. Job analysis and wage surveys rate jobs, comparing one job with another to determine base pay according to levels of responsibility and market pressure. Money is important to employees for a number of reasons. Economic rewards provide social as well as economic value. No matter how the wage structure is developed, employees must know how the system is derived.

Conclusion:

It is people, not buildings, make a company successful. It is important to note that achieving organizational goals cannot be done without human resources. And of course, global competition has increased the importance of improving workforce productivity and looking globally for the best qualified workers. Thus, organization needs HRM specialists trained in psychology, sociology, organization, and work design, and law.