Balu Rankonda asked:




Now scope of human resource functions has penetrated through the organization and the management is realizing the importance of its role and existence. The responsibility of HR is to make employees to deliver their at most effort to the organization and be faithful. Simply the core aim of HR is to extract high returns on the company’s investment using trained and motivated people. Thus HR functions are more complex as it has to deal with the company’s management as well as with the employees working in the company.

The human factor and the management factor can be simulated with two similar poles of a magnet which never attract and try to repel each other. Human resource manager will pull employees by instituting various schemes and policies to maximize their output. Few important function of human resources department is given below.

Implementation of compensation and rewards:

To increase performance levels of certain positions, human resources are implementing incentives and rewards. The incentives and reward scheme is a strategic task that influences employees in the organization. These schemes should be well planned based each position connected with organizational goals for maximizing performance levels. For example, in sales jobs, the strategy to increase sales, goal driven commission policy is introduced. The sales person’s bulk salary is mainly from their sales commission. If they increase sales, there is more incentive in the form of sales commission to his salary. These are the strategies; human resources department is planning and implementing to satisfy everyone’s esteem needs and organizational goals.

Selection of candidates:

Human Resources Department in an organization will take the responsibility of selection and recruitment of eligible candidates for the organization. The entire process of recruitment which includes assessment of required posts, getting approval for additional posts from the management, notification, collection of applications from the candidates, scrutinizing the applications, compiling the data of applicants, invitation for interviews, conducting interviews, selecting proper candidates, recruiting successful candidates from the interviewed panel will be handled by HRD.

Execution of Performance Management:

Performance of each and every employee in the organization is monitored and evaluated HR sections for assessing them for appraisal benefits. During this process HR sections will know the weakness of the employees and plan for training them to impart knowledge and prepare them to stand at par with their colleagues who are in the race of intensive schemes. These efforts will boost the employee performance and in turn result in better returns to the organization on human investment.

Abhishek Agarwal asked:




The corporate world and the educational institutions the world over are rightly recognizing the need for human resource management skills. Many companies are working at developing these skills in managers to effectively manage human resources in the organizations. Human resources comprise the manpower any organization has and the skill to effectively manage these resources includes being able to communicate well with customers and employees of the organization.

Human resource departments are responsible for recruiting people for the various other departments and training them to suit the roles of the company they are hired to serve. Human resource training and development is an on going program for any HR department. New recruits need to be trained to work within the policies of the company and also carry out their duties flawlessly. It is the responsibility of the HR department to organize and train the people in their respective fields.

It is not only the manpower at the floor level that needs to be trained before they are handed over to the managers of the various departments but also the senior executives of the company must receive a training no matter what their experience may be. Policies vary from company to company and the heads need to be aware of the policies they will be working with.

Human resource training and development also encompasses training existing employees to work with new business processes from time to time. Employees may be shuffled between departments and this is where they need to be trained again. Refresher training is nothing new to human resource training and development.

Human resource training and development is a career option for many people who want to take up management as a career. There are many programs one can choose from as almost every university and college in the world offers a program in the field of human resource management. Human resource training and development is just one of the fields that the entire training program encompasses. HR management as it is commonly called these days is a very lucrative career with many career advancement opportunities. The skill set required by a successful HR training and development manager is communication, leadership, administration and computer skills, the better the skills the better the chances of climbing the ladder in the field of human resource training and development.

Human resources is by far the most important department an organization can have. It is the HR manager that recruits and trains the new employee so if an employee turns out to be more of a liability for the company it is the HR manager that needs to take the rap. It is the HR department that needs to recruit employees who actually turn out to be assets for the company and then it is the HR department that needs to retain the employee. It is not only the recruiting, training and retaining process the HR department is involved in but also the dismissal process as well – but that is another story.

Tony Jacowski asked:




If you are interested in pursuing Human resource management as a career, you must acquire the appropriate knowledge and specialized skills through training.

Roles And Responsibilities

With the onset of globalization of all businesses, human resource management is fast becoming a highly demanding and complex field. All over the world, professionals are now moving from country to country in search of new and better employment prospects. Furthermore, in order to stay ahead of the competition in business, organizations are now implementing advanced and innovative ways of carrying out their business and these include methods like downsizing, consolidating, merging, subcontracting of services and restructuring. All these methods contribute towards several issues regarding this which professionals concerned with this field are required to resolve. For instance, due to various methods that are implemented by organizations, the human resource personnel are required to compose certain retrenchment benefits, counseling programs, compensation plans and layoff procedures.

As a professional in the field of human resource management, familiarizing yourself with the various labor laws of your country is not good enough. Because of globalization of businesses and the movement of professionals from country to country, you might also need to familiarize yourself with the various labor laws of other countries. If you are required to draft policies, you must be impartial and must set certain nondiscriminatory rules to encourage equal employment opportunities. Beyond a doubt, more and more issues and factors are now involved with this than ever before.

To become a human resource professional, you are required to communicate and interact with diverse groups of people, from staff members to union members to insurance agents to job applicants. Thus, if you are interested in working in this area you must be comfortable interacting with people. Your communication skills should be excellent – even better if you are an outgoing person who likes to work on a team.

The Challenges Of Human Resource Management



Human resource management can be an extremely challenging field to pursue. There may be times when you will find that nobody is pleased with your work. For instance, a certain compensation plan set by you may not satisfy every member of the staff. Some people might be happy with the plan while the others might be dissatisfied. Additionally, while you may strive to take care of the welfare and benefits of the employees, at the same time you are also required to consider the policies of the company.

At times, you may find yourself caught in the middle of conflicts between parties involving unions, co-workers, supervisors, and so on. Delicate issues need to be handled with care and you are required to exercise patience and tact as when you encounter such trying situations.

Studying Human Resource Management



In order to become a human resource professional, you are required to undergo training in the field. Typically, a course will teach you the necessary skills to become a professional in the field. You will be introduced to subjects like compensation benefits and packages, motivation of employees, organizational behavior and structure, assistance to troubled employees and recruitment methods.

This is a very important field, but it can also be a very challenging and interesting one. It is a specialized field of work and taking a specialized course and obtaining a degree will definitely equip you with the skills required to work in this field.

Balu Rankonda asked:




The main responsible area for the HR section is to look for prospective staff required for the different branches of the company. Human resource management owns the responsibility of hiring skilled people who sincerely work for the company’s growth. All the documentation pertaining to up to date status of all employees and their insurance benefits will be maintained by HR sections and keep them very safely.

Human resource management should take care of all personal issues of the members and ensure all employees are doing responsibly their job in the organization. Some times big organizations manage and assign responsibilities for assistant staff to ensure the best performance where as for small enterprises it is difficult to manage assistant staff which comes as an additional financial burden and own the responsibility by the management itself. All the human resource management responsibilities are totally taken by the managements of the small companies.

HRM will educate all employees of the company to understand company’s rules, regulations and terms before working in the organization. HRM will provide the company’s manual containing company’s vision, mission, policies, terms and conditions to the recruited candidates before he decides to work in the company. Going through this manual, candidate will get full insight of the company and he will get clear idea in which field he is going to put his efforts for the growth of the company.

If the employee is unable to understand the company’s policies properly they can not put their efforts as per the company’s requirements which lead to deterioration of company profits. Also if employee’s performance will not be up to the mark, that causes his or her termination from the job. The candidate can seek the help of human resource management in thoroughly understanding the company policies, terms and conditions.

Now human resource management is the hottest topic among companies as well as students for their career growth. Many colleges and business schools are promoting human resource management as prospective course for students. Also many colleges and universities started resource management as the specialized courses and attracting more students. Students who specialized in human resource management will be having good prospects in different companies as many companies are seeking for the qualified candidates.

Companies prefer to hire students from good reputed educational institutions for their organizations. Even companies are conducting campus interviews in universities in search of talented students to hire for their organizations. Also companies need experienced candidates. Thus many fresh students are appearing for apprenticeship in small companies in order to gain experience. Those experienced are getting good openings in big concerns and getting opportunities to stick for the loyal organizations.

asked:




Human Resource Communications and Corporate Communications – are they one in the same? Both plan and develop written communication strategies to further the understanding and perceptions of their audience. Both provide counsel and editorial support for management communications.

Business communications transmits and manages messages that inform, persuade and collaborate by speaking the language of the company. HR Communications creates a “one company” culture, integrates acquisitions and facilitates information sharing company wide. Both work at the highest levels of the organization, aligned with senior management and the board.

The most successful HR professionals are consummate communicators. Typically their organizations over communicate with all constituents. Their leadership styles transmit the traditions and values of their company. You often find a strategic HR function when the spoken and written words parallel leadership actions.

Human Resource Communications is a subset of our corporate culture. Corporate cultures determine communication styles. Cultures as diverse as a business headquarters viewed as a traditional downward style with an abundance of males in dark suits and white starched shirts to other companies which express their identity by polo’s with logo’s and scores of identical sites around the country.

Which of the three following communication styles dominate your culture?


Downward – helping employees perform their jobs
Upward – senior management and board level
Horizontal – selling your value proposition and merging cultures




HR COMMUNICATIONS ARE SPECIALIZED

Human Resource professionals uniquely position themselves at both the start point and finishing point of the communication chain. New hire orientation and policy and procedure manuals exemplify downward communication intended to help employees perform their jobs. Employee opinion polls, employee focus groups and exit interviews deliver information upward to solve problems and make executive decisions. Employee newsletters help work teams requiring a coordinated action between units or locations.

How well is HR information exchanged in your company?

Human Resource Communications Consultants manage and direct the planning, creation and execution of communication strategies to further the understanding and perception of HR policies, procedures, programs or initiatives. This often involves conceptualizing, researching, writing, editing and design/production of materials. Either print or electronic, projects often involve web pages (internet and intranet) and e-newsletters. HTML experience and knowledge of Dreamweaver and other graphic programs will serve this function well by providing the HR Communication Consultant a larger repertoire of up-to-date tools.

Is your HR information timely, accurate and understandable?

What should I expect from my Human Resource Communications Consultant? First, excellent writing and project management skills. Either internal or external, this person should display a record of accomplishment of interpersonal and project management competencies. They must be experienced in managing multiple assignments, with strong problem solving abilities. This “internal consultant” must have your confidence in an environment of highly confidential matters. Perhaps their past included the responsibilities of corporate due diligence matters.

Have they work experience at the highest levels of HR?

Do they have the proven ability to motivate themselves and others to generate strong results? To round out your choice, have they led HR initiatives and cross-functional teams? Ad industry / communication industry exposure just could be the icing on the cake.

Formally by PowerPoint or informally by walking the second and third shifts, we demonstrate HR Communications leadership as we amass information, process facts and disseminate intelligence at lightning speed. Our free flowing atmosphere of dialog and written messages translates values, traditions and habits into words and actions employees interpret

Operating as an internal consulting agency, or external resource, HR Communication Consultants work with employees and vendors on communication matters relating to the highest work initiatives. By building and managing cohesive communication strategies and working closely with HR process owners, they oversee the integration of both print and multimedia content and distribution. They may also create HR Communication metrics to measure results using employee communications to create a distinct competitive advantage.

One-page field memos and one hundred page policy manuals present a challenge for busy HR professionals. Your Human Resource Communications requires advanced knowledge and professionalism. Our HR role, singularly positioned at both the start and end of the communications continuum, offers an advantage to HR professionals who initiate and advance HR correspondence for field and headquarters functions.

? John T. Mooney 2003 All Rights Reserved

Alvin Chan asked:




Introduction

The role of the Human Resource Manager is evolving with the change in competitive market environment and the realization that Human Resource Management must play a more strategic role in the success of an organization. Organizations that do not put their emphasis on attracting and retaining talents may find themselves in dire consequences, as their competitors may be outplaying them in the strategic employment of their human resources.

With the increase in competition, locally or globally, organizations must become more adaptable, resilient, agile, and customer-focused to succeed. And within this change in environment, the HR professional has to evolve to become a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or advocate, and a change mentor within the organization. In order to succeed, HR must be a business driven function with a thorough understanding of the organization’s big picture and be able to influence key decisions and policies. In general, the focus of today’s HR Manager is on strategic personnel retention and talents development. HR professionals will be coaches, counselors, mentors, and succession planners to help motivate organization’s members and their loyalty. The HR manager will also promote and fight for values, ethics, beliefs, and spirituality within their organizations, especially in the management of workplace diversity.

This paper will highlight on how a HR manager can meet the challenges of workplace diversity, how to motivate employees through gain-sharing and executive information system through proper planning, organizing, leading and controlling their human resources.

Workplace Diversity

According to Thomas (1992), dimensions of workplace diversity include, but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status, and work experience.

The Challenges of Workplace Diversity

The future success of any organizations relies on the ability to manage a diverse body of talent that can bring innovative ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge and problems faced of workplace diversity can be turned into a strategic organizational asset if an organization is able to capitalize on this melting pot of diverse talents. With the mixture of talents of diverse cultural backgrounds, genders, ages and lifestyles, an organization can respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively, especially in the global arena (Cox, 1993), which must be one of the important organisational goals to be attained. More importantly, if the organizational environment does not support diversity broadly, one risks losing talent to competitors.

This is especially true for multinational companies (MNCs) who have operations on a global scale and employ people of different countries, ethical and cultural backgrounds. Thus, a HR manager needs to be mindful and may employ a ‘Think Global, Act Local’ approach in most circumstances. The challenge of workplace diversity is also prevalent amongst Singapore’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). With a population of only four million people and the nation’s strive towards high technology and knowledge-based economy; foreign talents are lured to share their expertise in these areas. Thus, many local HR managers have to undergo cultural-based Human Resource Management training to further their abilities to motivate a group of professional that are highly qualified but culturally diverse. Furthermore, the HR professional must assure the local professionals that these foreign talents are not a threat to their career advancement (Toh, 1993). In many ways, the effectiveness of workplace diversity management is dependent on the skilful balancing act of the HR manager.

One of the main reasons for ineffective workplace diversity management is the predisposition to pigeonhole employees, placing them in a different silo based on their diversity profile (Thomas, 1992). In the real world, diversity cannot be easily categorized and those organizations that respond to human complexity by leveraging the talents of a broad workforce will be the most effective in growing their businesses and their customer base.

The Management of Workplace Diversity

In order to effectively manage workplace diversity, Cox (1993) suggests that a HR Manager needs to change from an ethnocentric view (“our way is the best way”) to a culturally relative perspective (“let’s take the best of a variety of ways”). This shift in philosophy has to be ingrained in the managerial framework of the HR Manager in his/her planning, organizing, leading and controlling of organizational resources.

As suggested by Thomas (1992) and Cox (1993), there are several best practices that a HR manager can adopt in ensuring effective management of workplace diversity in order to attain organizational goals. They are:

Planning a Mentoring Program-

One of the best ways to handle workplace diversity issues is through initiating a Diversity Mentoring Program. This could entail involving different departmental managers in a mentoring program to coach and provide feedback to employees who are different from them. In order for the program to run successfully, it is wise to provide practical training for these managers or seek help from consultants and experts in this field. Usually, such a program will encourage organization’s members to air their opinions and learn how to resolve conflicts due to their diversity. More importantly, the purpose of a Diversity Mentoring Program seeks to encourage members to move beyond their own cultural frame of reference to recognize and take full advantage of the productivity potential inherent in a diverse population.

Organizing Talents Strategically-

Many companies are now realizing the advantages of a diverse workplace. As more and more companies are going global in their market expansions either physically or virtually (for example, E-commerce-related companies), there is a necessity to employ diverse talents to understand the various niches of the market. For example, when China was opening up its markets and exporting their products globally in the late 1980s, the Chinese companies (such as China’s electronic giants such as Haier) were seeking the marketing expertise of Singaporeans. This is because Singapore’s marketing talents were able to understand the local China markets relatively well (almost 75% of Singaporeans are of Chinese descent) and as well as being attuned to the markets in the West due to Singapore’s open economic policies and English language abilities. (Toh, R, 1993)

With this trend in place, a HR Manager must be able to organize the pool of diverse talents strategically for the organization. He/She must consider how a diverse workforce can enable the company to attain new markets and other organizational goals in order to harness the full potential of workplace diversity.

An organization that sees the existence of a diverse workforce as an organizational asset rather than a liability would indirectly help the organization to positively take in its stride some of the less positive aspects of workforce diversity.

Leading the Talk-

A HR Manager needs to advocate a diverse workforce by making diversity evident at all organizational levels. Otherwise, some employees will quickly conclude that there is no future for them in the company. As the HR Manager, it is pertinent to show respect for diversity issues and promote clear and positive responses to them. He/She must also show a high level of commitment and be able to resolve issues of workplace diversity in an ethical and responsible manner.

Control and Measure Results-

A HR Manager must conduct regular organizational assessments on issues like pay, benefits, work environment, management and promotional opportunities to assess the progress over the long term. There is also a need to develop appropriate measuring tools to measure the impact of diversity initiatives at the organization through organization-wide feedback surveys and other methods. Without proper control and evaluation, some of these diversity initiatives may just fizzle out, without resolving any real problems that may surface due to workplace diversity.

Motivational Approaches

Workplace motivation can be defined as the influence that makes us do things to achieve organizational goals: this is a result of our individual needs being satisfied (or met) so that we are motivated to complete organizational tasks effectively. As these needs vary from person to person, an organization must be able to utilize different motivational tools to encourage their employees to put in the required effort and increase productivity for the company.

Why do we need motivated employees? The answer is survival (Smith, 1994). In our changing workplace and competitive market environments, motivated employees and their contributions are the necessary currency for an organization’s survival and success. Motivational factors in an organizational context include working environment, job characteristics, appropriate organizational reward system and so on.

The development of an appropriate organizational reward system is probably one of the strongest motivational factors. This can influence both job satisfaction and employee motivation. The reward system affects job satisfaction by making the employee more comfortable and contented as a result of the rewards received. The reward system influences motivation primarily through the perceived value of the rewards and their contingency on performance (Hickins, 1998).

To be effective, an organizational reward system should be based on sound understanding of the motivation of people at work. In this paper, I will be touching on the one of the more popular methods of reward systems, gain-sharing.

Gain-sharing:

Gain-sharing programs generally refer to incentive plans that involve employees in a common effort to improve organizational performance, and are based on the concept that the resulting incremental economic gains are shared among employees and the company.

In most cases, workers voluntarily participate in management to accept responsibility for major reforms. This type of pay is based on factors directly under a worker’s control (i.e., productivity or costs). Gains are measured and distributions are made frequently through a predetermined formula. Because this pay is only implemented when gains are achieved, gain-sharing plans do not adversely affect company costs (Paulsen, 1991).

Managing Gain-sharing

In order for a gain-sharing program that meets the minimum requirements for success to be in place, Paulsen (1991) and Boyett (1988) have suggested a few pointers in the effective management of a gain-sharing program. They are as follows:

A HR manager must ensure that the people who will be participating in the plan are influencing the performance measured by the gain-sharing formula in a significant way by changes in their day-to-day behavior. The main idea of the gain sharing is to motivate members to increase productivity through their behavioral changes and working attitudes. If the increase in the performance measurement was due to external factors, then it would have defeated the purpose of having a gain-sharing program. An effective manager must ensure that the gain-sharing targets are challenging but legitimate and attainable. In addition, the targets should be specific and challenging but reasonable and justifiable given the historical performance, the business strategy and the competitive environment. If the gain-sharing participants perceive the target as an impossibility and are not motivated at all, the whole program will be a disaster. A manager must provide useful feedback as a guidance to the gain-sharing participants concerning how they need to change their behavior(s) to realize gain-sharing payouts The feedback should be frequent, objective and clearly based on the members’ performance in relation to the gain-sharing target. A manager must have an effective mechanism in place to allow gain-sharing participants to initiate changes in work procedures and methods and/or requesting new or additional resources such as new technology to improve performance and realize gains. Though a manager must have a tight control of company’s resources, reasonable and justifiable requests for additional resources and/or changes in work methods from gain-sharing participants should be considered.

Executive Information Systems

Executive Information System (EIS) is the most common term used for the unified collections of computer hardware and software that track the essential data of a business’ daily performance and present it to managers as an aid to their planning and decision-making (Choo, 1991). With an EIS in place, a company can track inventory, sales, and receivables, compare today’s data with historical patterns. In addition, an EIS will aid in spotting significant variations from “normal” trends almost as soon as it develops, giving the company the maximum amount of time to make decisions and implement required changes to put your business back on the right track. This would enable EIS to be a useful tool in an organization’s strategic planning, as well as day-to-day management (Laudon, K and Laudon, J, 2003).

Managing EIS

As information is the basis of decision-making in an organization, there lies a great need for effective managerial control. A good control system would ensure the communication of the right information at the right time and relayed to the right people to take prompt actions.

When managing an Executive Information System, a HR manager must first find out exactly what information decision-makers would like to have available in the field of human resource management, and then to include it in the EIS. This is because having people simply use an EIS that lacks critical information is of no value-add to the organization. In addition, the manager must ensure that the use of information technology has to be brought into alignment with strategic business goals (Laudon, K and Laudon, J, 2003).

Conclusion

The role of the HR manager must parallel the needs of the changing organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable, resilient, quick to change directions, and customer-centered. Within this environment, the HR professional must learn how to manage effectively through planning, organizing, leading and controlling the human resource and be knowledgeable of emerging trends in training and employee development.