Human Resource Environment
Any profit-making institution requires an appropriate human resource environment in order to thrive in most of it operations. It would be vital to acknowledge the fact that it is this environment that the production capacity of an organization is achieved to optimality (Wheelen & Hunger, 2011). This forms one of the main reasons as to why most organizations tend to invest in time and resources in order to ensure that its human resource environment is conducive to both workers and the employees. Nevertheless, this analysis aims at addressing some of the most important elements of human resource environment that generally describes its composition and functions in terms of areas of concern.
Benefits and Compensation
One of the main attributes of a conducive human resource environment entails a suitable benefits and compensation policies. Research has shown that organizations which present amicable benefits and compensation plans tend to attract a highly-skilled labor force than organizations that overlook this particular phenomenon (Martin, 2014). It would be of essence to acknowledge that this element of human resource tends to be linked with motivational strategies deployed by the firm and therefore require high attention in terms of analyzing the strategies that define it. Similarly, organizations that tend to shy away from this business practice tend to have low returns on revenue since the employees work to pass the time and not meet the firm’s goals and objectives.
Some of these features of business are even protected by law (which would include Fair Labor Standards Acts). Employees should be equitably subjected to fair compensation schemes such as promotions. The same acts are also a key contribution in determining a base pay which employees should follow upon the day of their recruitment. In the eventual end, a value attribute is tagged on the jobs that employees perform as part of the day-to-day activities, tasks, and responsibilities.
It has been estimated that 20% of a well-founded organization with attracting benefits scheme collapse within a very short period of financial years, as depicted in most firms. This is mainly because these benefits plans tend to deviate their exact intention and have their beneficiaries out of the exact course. In other terms, workers only perform their tasks to achieve the laid down goals with the intention of benefiting from these rewards (Thornton III & Byham, 2013). It is for this reason, among others, that managing benefit plans should be addressed as a key administrative function. This particular responsibility should be well-accounted for in a conducive human resource environment.
Business Leadership and Strategy
From a keen objective, it would be very genuine to bring into conclusion the fact that strategic human resource forms a key inclusion in the operational nature of organizations. This is to imply that, the strategies employed in the human resource department should be analogous towards achieving the success of the particular organization. Nonetheless, there are several ways in which strategic human resource benefits an organization given its contribution to a firm in its entirety, and most especially in business leadership and strategy.
To begin with, the kind of expertise adopted by the human resource department is determined by the quality of strategies developed. This would mean that if the human resource does not come up with initiatives of recruiting personnel with ambitions that would benefit the organization, then it would be considered not strategic. Secondly, the kind of working environment developed for the employees by the human resource would greatly determine the level of success that would be achieved with respect to the planned goals and objectives.
One of the key roles of human resource management in business leadership and strategy happens to be how performance is approached and handled. On one end, performance is handled by effecting efficient strategies that are geared towards having operations directed towards succession. In most cases, this aspect of the human resource does not receive substantial recognition (Tang, 2015). On the other hand, there is the performance appraisal which revolves around having a platform of recognition for employees who deliver their tasks in a submission of high quality, and this is considered a crucial contribution towards maintaining a high level of business leadership and strategy.
Diversity
From a different perspective, diversity happens to another crucial element of human resource department for any organization. This is to mention the fact that without proper guidance on how diversity is used to mitigate conflicts. Most organizations have established that most conflicts in organizations tend to be as a result of diversity. Nevertheless, diversity is a broad terminology in business and could be used to imply a number of the situation (Simons & Rowland, 2011). However, most organizations relate diversity with difference in religion, race as well as a place of originality.
Research has shown that racism is one of the root cause of conflicts as this diversity phenomenon has eaten away many communities across the globe. Religion has also been a contributing element of diversity which has seen many conflicts take place within profit making organization. Nevertheless, human resource environment is described as the driver of conflict mitigation on issues of diversity across departments within the organization.
Employee Relations
As noted by many scholars of human resource management, employee relations happen to be a vital practice in any organization. From a keen perspective, it should be understood that employee relations determine the level of interactivity among the workers. In many cases, if employee relationship tends to be favorable, then it would be equitably genuine to conclude that the human resource environment is very conducive. Nonetheless, there are other aspects of employee relations that would be considered as would be seen below.
At times, organizations face the risk of losing employees due to unfavorable working conditions posed by various risks. It is for this substantial reason that organizations tend to come up with worker protection mechanisms which is intended to retain workers who are crucial to the achievement of different goals of the organization. At some point in time, a union is established to ensure workers of the protection in terms of working time, wages and equipment.
In as much as employees are considered subjects of employers, it should be made known that the former also enjoys some rights on different levels. For instance, the freedom of speech should not be curtailed or prevented by employees on the virtue of being a human being. These rights are protected by unions with respect to the subscription laid down. When directly related to the topic in question, unions happens to be very elemental in establishing employee relations.
Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Human resource environment is also concerned with the ethics aspect as well as the corporate social responsibility of most organizations. From a descriptive point of view, ethics and corporate social responsibility contribute substantially in creating a proper image of the firm in the market. Aside from being a legal requirement for all organizations across the entire industries, corporate social responsibility is viewed as a weapon of conquering the market by winning the trust of many consumers in the prospective markets.
As a means of improving the services of a firm, most human resource departments across different organizations tend to establish policies that align workers to best practices within the industry. Employees are expected to abide by these ethical policies since psychologist has shown that allowing workers to execute their professional services without guidelines tends to be very hazardous to institutions. This is in the sense that this kind of freedom see a performance decrease and this happens to threaten the existence of a firm.
Organizational and Employee Development
Organization and employee development happen to be a vital element of success in terms of revenue generation. Most organizations prefer molding employees into professionals who can rely on coming up with unique products to sell to the market. This process is mainly referred to as employee development which majorly forms a substantial part of organizational growth. As will be noted in the short analysis below, employee development happens to be a progressive initiative to the economic status of most countries. Various research has shown that most governments partner with organizations in improving employee development in a number of ways.
It has been proven that in most economies, the male gender tend to occupy most economic activities than women. This would be attributed to the historical perspective of the economic nature of mankind in his traditional social set-up. Nonetheless, modern economic trends seem to moving away from this norm with women occupying almost similar working positions as men. From a critical point of view, it would be wise to acknowledge that modern human resource environments are headed in a similar direction.
In as much as women are being integrated into most economies, various research shows that some organizations prefer men to women in senior positions. The basic argument around this norm is based on the fact that men have a more commanding voice than women in most aspects of organizational management. Nevertheless, human resource environment should be based on a free and fair platform where both genders compete for senior working positions on basis of merit rather than gender preference.
Talent Management
This aspect of human resource management generally entails promoting an environment where ideas and innovations can be transformed into profitable ventures. As an aspect of human resource environment, human resource environment in talent management tends to be the main propelling factor which ensures that an organization maintains relevancy in the market (Mathis, et.al, 2016). As will be discussed in the following analysis, talent management is an important element of any profit-making institution and hence should be adequately accounted for in the human resource department.
Talent management is one of the main difficult tasks that the human resource department finds hard to manage. This is mainly because it has two levels of management: personal and organizational management. All in all, talent management includes a succession plan which mainly encompasses a number of attributes (Olsen & Martins, 2012). It then leads to organizational-centered and individual-centered approaches when it comes to career planning. If both are not well distributed and managed, they could form a great source of conflict.
The major conflicts that arise from such a scenario involve career planning which should be addressed by both individual employees and the management of the organization. The lead to needs that would require a development plan which would revolve around a number of options. In the entirety of this development process, it should be understood that the management has a higher and final say on the development initiative taken into account within the organization.
Technology
When it comes to technology, human resource management happens to be a large beneficiary of this phenomenon. To begin with, technology has been influential in improving the services provided by this department in an organization. From a more specific point of view, technology has enabled effective and efficient recording of employee data and subsequent retrieval these records (Tang, 2015). Therefore, it becomes possible for the organization to track the performance of employees given the data that database in the resource department possesses.
From another perspective, it would be of essence to acknowledge that technology (especially the Internet) has enabled the human resource department to have an easy time of recruiting new employees into the firm. Through the Internet, as reflected in a number of findings, organizations are able to fish out some of the best applicants with astonishing skills to occupy vacant positions in the firm. Additionally, the consequent succession planning is made much easier with technology through record keeping whenever a senior position is to be occupied.
Conclusion
Human resource is a very broad business practice and should be managed with a lot of perspectives in mind. The above elements present a theoretical approach to the situation which faces many profit-making institutions (Olsen & Martins, 2012). Practically, principles used within the affected human resource organizations mainly rely on the actual situation on the ground. This is to mention that theory on human resource environment should not be based on one-size-fits-all.
References
Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.
Martin, G. C. (2014). The Effects of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. Journal of Diversity Management, Volume 9, Number 2.
Mathis, R. L., Jackson, J. H., Valentine, S. R., & Meglich, P. (2016). Human resource management. Nelson Education.
Olsen, J. E. & Martins, L. L. (2012). Understanding organizational diversity management programs: A theoretical framework and directions for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(8), 1168-1187.
Simons, T. M., & Rowland, K. N. (2011). Diversity and its Impact on Organizational Performance: The Influence of Diversity Constructions on Expectations and Outcomes. Journal of Applied Technology Management & Innovation, Volume 6, Issue 3.
Tang, M. (2015). A Practice Oriented Enterprise Resources Planning Course Design. In LISS 2015 (pp 1795-1800). Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2015.
Thornton III, G. C., & Byham, W. C. (2013). Assessment centers and managerial performance. Elsevier
Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D. (2011). Concepts in strategic management and business policy. Pearson Education India.