Functions of Human Resource Management

Keywords: maintenance function of hrm, hrm essay, hrm funtions

SYNOPSIS

In this assignment the author has done a detailed study of human resource management and studied in detail the functions of human resource management – staffing, maintenance, motivation and training and development. In this the author has gone into details of staffing which involve the function of recruiting and selection. In motivation the author had done a detailed study of employee motivation by doing a study of theories and the author has connected these theories to his employees and has tried to find out various ways in which employees can get motivated. Then the author has done a study of employee maintenance which means to find out various ways to maintain the employees in the organization and find out various ways in which the employees can stay in the organization. The last function is training and development in which the employee has tried to find out ways of training the employees and also how does the training of employees help in the overall development of the organization. This assignment has altogether helped the author to understand well the importance of human resource management. As it says, the author has tried and connected each function of human resource management with the author’s assignment of restaurant development and it has helped the author to understand as to what employees want and what gives them employee satisfaction.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Human Resources is a term with which many organizations describe the combination of traditionally administrative personnel functions with performance management, employee relations and resource planning.

Human resources is an increasingly prominent field that is taking shape throughout industries and workplaces world wide. Recognizing the fact that people are a company’s greatest asset, business leaders across the globe are coming to rely more and more upon an effective management policy that applies specifically to the area of human resources.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The Human Resources Management is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.

The terms “human resources management” and “human resources” have largely replaced the term “personnel management” as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. Human Resource management is evolving rapidly. Human resource management is both an academic theory and a business practice that addresses the theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce.

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies.

The goal of human resource management is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees and also to manage them effectively. The key word here perhaps is “fit”, i.e. a HRM approach seeks to ensure a fit between the management of an organization’s employees, and the overall strategic direction of the company (Miller, 1989).

IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

The Human Resources Management function provides significant support and advice to line management. The attraction, preservation and development of high caliber people are a source of competitive advantage for businesses.

An effective HRM system allows organizations to address human resource issues strategically. This helps the workforce deliver high quality health services, despite internal and external challenges to the organization. A strong human resource management system helps organizations prioritize their organizational and business strategies while effectively managing the changes inherent in health sector reform and decentralization. HRM helps attract and retain competent employees, assists employees and managers in adapting to organizational change, and facilitates the use of technology to determine how and where work is done.

HRM is perhaps one of the most misunderstood, but most important management systems. Employees are an organization’s most important asset, as well as its most expensive: personnel costs often consume 70-80% of an organization’s budget.

With a strong and equitable HRM system, employees:

• Receive compensation that reflects their level of responsibility.
• Feel more motivated and understand how their work relates to the organization’s mission and values.
• Are more satisfied with their jobs.
• With a strong and equitable HRM system, organizations:
• Are better equipped to achieve their goals.
• Increase the level of employee performance.
• Save costs through the improved efficiency and productivity of workers.
• improve their ability to manage change.

CHALLENGES FACED BY HRM

Workforce diversity

As organizations become more diverse, employers have been adapting their human resource practices to reflect those changes. Many organizations today, such as bank of America, have workforce diversity programs. They tend to hire, promote, and retain minorities, encourage vendor diversity; and provide diversity training for employees. Workforce diversity requires employers to be more sensitive to the differences that each group brings to the work setting. For instance, employers may have to shift their philosophy from treating everyone alike to recognizing individual differences and responding to those differences in ways that will ensure employee retention and greater productivity. They must recognize and deal with the different values, needs, interests and expectations of employees. They must avoid any practice or action that can be interpreted as being sexist, racist, or offensive to any particular group and of course must not illegibly discriminate against any employee. Employers also must find ways to assist employees in managing work life issues.

Contingent workers, issues and HRM

All contingent workers are needed to be treated differently in terms of practices and policies. Human resource managers must make sure that contingent workers do not perceive themselves as second class workers as they are not given various amenities such as health and paid leave benefits what full time employees get. So, in this way contingent workers may tend to view their work as not critically important. Accordingly, they may be less loyal, committed to the organization or motivated at the job. When an organization makes its strategic decision to employ a sizeable portion of its workforce from the contingency works, other HRM issues come to the forefront. These include having these virtual employees available when needed, providing scheduling options that meet their needs and making decisions about whether benefits will be offered to the contingent workforce without sufficient planning. When strategic divisions are made, HRM must be an active partner in the discussions. After all, it is HRM’s responsibility to locate these temporary workers and bring them into organization. Finally, HRM must be prepared to deal with the potential conflicts between core and contingent workers. The core employees may become envious of the higher pay rates and flexibility in scheduling that the contingent workers receive.

FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

STAFFING

“Staffing is the function by which managers build an organization through the recruitment, selection and development of individuals as capable employees.” (Definition by Mc Farland, Management Principles and Practices, New York : Macmillan, 1979)

“The managerial function of staffing is defined as filling positions in the organization structure through identifying workforce requirements, inventorying the people available, recruitment, selection, placement, promotion, appraisal, compensation, and training of needed people.” (Definition by Koontz, in L.M. Prasad, Principles and Practice of Management)

Staffing is the process of acquiring, developing, employing, appraising, remunerating and retaining people so that right type of people are available at right positions and at right time in the organization.

Staffing function is related to employment of personnel of all types – managerial as well as operative in the organization. It includes a variety of activities through which an organization tries to ensure that various positions remain filled by the most suitable personnel. This function is performed by every manager in the organization like other managerial functions viz. planning, organizing, directing and controlling though they receive considerable staff assistance in performing staffing function.

RECRUITMENT

“Recruitment is the process of finding and attracting capable applicants for employment. The process begins when new recruits are sought and ends when their applications are submitted. The result is a pool of applicants from which new employees are selected.” (Definition by Werther and Davis, in Human Resources and Personnel Management, New York, McGraw Hill,1996)

“Recruitment is a form of competition. Just as corporations compete to develop, manufacture and market the best product or service, so they must be compete to identify, attract and hire the most qualified people. Recruitment is a business, and it is a big business.” (Definition by J.S. Lord, in External and Internal Recruitment, Wayne F. Casico, 1989)

Recruitment is process of creating a common platform between the employers and the prospective employees, so that both of them evaluate each other and take a decision which is mutually beneficial.

The three important recruitment factors are:

Job Specification

It is a written statement of qualifications, traits, physical and mental characteristics that an individual must possess to perform the job duties and discharge responsibilities effectively.

The first step in the program of job specification is to prepare a list of all jobs in the company and where they are located. The second step is to secure and write up information about each of the jobs in a company. Usually, this information includes:

1. Physical specifications
2. Mental specifications,
3. Emotional and social specifications
4. Behavioral specifications

Physical Specifications: Physical specifications include the physical qualifications or physical capacities which vary from job to job. Physical qualifications or capacities include physical features like height, weight, chest, vision, hearing, ability, to lift weight, ability to carry weight, health, age, capacity to use or operate machines, tools, equipment etc.

Mental Specifications: Mental specifications include ability to perform, arithmetical calculation, to interpret data, information blue prints, to read electrical circuits, ability to plan, reading abilities, scientific abilities, judgment, ability to concentrate, ability to handle variable factors, general intelligence, memory etc.

Emotional and Social Specifications: Emotional and social specifications are more important for the post of managers, supervisors, foremen etc. They include emotional stability, flexibility, and social adaptability in human relationship, personal appearance including dress, posture, poise, features and voice required by the job.

Behavioral Specifications: Behavioral specifications play an important role in selecting the candidates for higher level jobs in the organizational hierarchy. This specification seeks to describe the acts of managers rather than the traits that cause the acts. These specifications include judgments, research, creativity, teaching, ability, maturity (capable of accepting responsibility) trial of conciliation, self-reliance (self-starter sticks to own decisions), dominance (giving orders in a personal way) etc.

Employee Specifications

Job specifications information must be converted into employee specification information in order to know what kind of a person is needed to fill a job. Employee specification is like a brand name which spells that the candidate with a particular employee specification generally possesses the qualities specified under job specification, for example, the employee with the educational qualification of MBA generally knows the concepts, managerial skills like decision-making, inter-personal relationships, leadership etc. Employee specification is useful to find out the suitability of particular class of candidates to a particular job. Thus, employee specification is useful to find out prospective employees (target group) whereas job specification is useful to select the right candidate for a job.

Job Description

A Job Description is a list of the general tasks, or functions, and responsibilities of a position. Typically, it also includes to whom the position reports, specifications such as the qualifications needed by the person in the job, salary range for the position, etc. A job description is usually developed by conducting a job analysis, which includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to perform the job. The analysis looks at the areas of knowledge and skills needed by the job. Note that a role is the set of responsibilities or expected results associated with a job. A job usually includes several roles.

Job Analysis

Job Analysis is a process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. Job Analysis is a process where judgements are made about data collected on a job.

An important concept of Job Analysis is that the analysis is conducted of the Job, not the person. While Job Analysis data may be collected from incumbents through interviews or questionnaires, the product of the analysis is a description or specifications of the job, not a description of the person.

Methods of Recruitment

The following are the different recruitment methods:

• Internal Search

Many large organizations develop their own employees for high level jobs. This is done by posting new job openings and allowing employees to bid for the position. There is nothing inherently better about either internal or external recruitment. However, there are some advantages to internal recruitment. First, internal recruitment may lead to increased morale for employees; the organization is perceived to reward good performance or loyalty. Often, one promotion leads to another vacant position and this chain effect contributes further to increased morale.

Another advantage to the firm is that Human Resource data is immediately available for any employee recruited internally. Further, the employee’s work habits are known and previous performance appraisals are on record.

Similarly, an internal recruit will be familiar with the firm. This employee will be familiar with the firm’s products, clients, organizational policies, and corporate culture. Therefore, the firm might be able to save money insofar as orientation sessions for such an employee may not be necessary.

• Advertisements

Advertisements are one of the oldest and the most popular method of recruitment. This form of recruitment is mainly used for high level jobs like maybe for a vice presidency. Blue collar jobs are hardly advertised and even if they are the company just mentions a post box number where the applicant can communicate. Much details and job specification are not mentioned.

• Employee Referrals and Recommendations

The idea behind employee recommendations as a source of potential applicants is that the present employees may have specific knowledge of the individuals who may be their friends, relatives or acquaintances. If the present employees are reasonably satisfied with their jobs, they communicate these feelings to many persons in their communities.

• Employment Agencies

Many organizations get the information about the prospective candidates through employment agencies. In our country, there are three types of employment agencies : public employment agency, private employment agency and management consulting firms.

• Campus Placements

Many organizations conduct preliminary search of prospective employees by conducting interviews at the campuses of various institutes, universities and colleges. The organization hold interviews on the campus on predetermined date and candidates found suitable are called for further interviews at specified places.

• Professional Organizations

Many professional organizations like labor unions operate placement services for the benefit of their members. These include varied occupations such as industrial engineer, psychologist and seafarer. These organizations also publish job vacancy rosters and distribute it to their members.

• Unsolicited Applicants

The concept of Unsolicited Applicants or Gate Hiring is to select people who approach on their own for employment in the organization. This happens mostly in the case of unskilled and semi-skilled workers.

• Cyberspace Recruiting

It provides access to a worldwide databank of jobs, on line application and information resources through the Internet. One of the benefits of Cyberspace Recruiting is the provision for swift feedback and follow up.

• Recruitment Alternatives

This includes getting the work done through other methods such as Hiring independent contractors, outsourcing a particular department etc. For example, the banking industry will very soon outsource the clearing and cash operations of the bank.

SELECTION

Selection, as the name implies, picking for hire a subset of workers from the total set of workers who have applied for the job. Selections are done by comparing the requirements of a job with applicant’s qualifications. An attempt is made to find a round peg for a round hole. In doing so naturally many applicants are rejected. This makes Selection a negative function.

The Selection process consists of 8 steps:

1. Initial Screening
2. Completion of Application Form
3. Employment Tests
4. Comprehensive Interview
5. Background Investigation
6. Conditional Job Offer
7. Physical Examination
8. Permanent Job Offer

Thus, Selection process is very important as it helps in eliminating poor performers. This programme also helps in identifying people with a hobo syndrome i.e., tendency to frequently change jobs. It is a proven fact that providing potential candidates with accurate and complete information about organizational opportunities and constraints, and the job itself prevents high employee turnover.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

“The act of increasing the skills of an employee for doing a particular job.” (Definition by Edwin B. Flippo, Personnel Management, McGraw Hill, 1984)

Training is a process of learning a sequence of programmed behaviour. This behaviour, being programmed, is relevant to a specific phenomenon, that is a job. The process of training begins with Socialization and ends with Organization development. Three factors which necessitate continuous training in an organization are technological advances, organizational complexity and human relations.

Socialising

It is the means through which an employee understands the culture of an organization. This culture includes longstanding and often unwritten rules and regulations which govern the organization and its employees. There are three stages in the socializing process :

Pre arrival stage – During this stage a person arrives in the organization with a set of values and expectations.

Encounter stage – During this stage an employee considers the difference between his expectations and the reality.

Metamorphosis stage – During this stage the employee discovers the changes and adapt to them.

Orientation

Orientation includes the activities involved in introducing a new employee to the organization and his work unit. It is not unusual to confuse Orientation with Socializing. This programme familiarises an employee with the organization’s objectives, history, philosophy, procedures and rules. This helps reduce the initial anxiety faced by new employees.

Employee Training

Training provides a particular skill set required to do a job. The focus of employee training is on the current job requirements.

Employee Development

Employee development focuses on unveiling the hidden potential in the employees for future manpower requirements which might need additional competencies.

Career Development

Career development programs are designed to assist employees in advancing their work lives. The main focus of career development is to provide the necessary information and assessment in helping employees realize their career goals. It is the responsibility of an individual not an organization.

Organization development

Organization development deals with facilitating changes in the organization. The focus of organization development is to change the attitudes and values of employees according to the organizational strategic directions.

Methods of Training

• Job Rotation

Job Rotation involves movement of a manager from one job to another job, from one plan to another plan on a planned basis. The movement is not meant for transfer but, is meant for learning interdependence and broadening the perspective. This helps to develop more co-operative approach to different functions in the organization.

• Assistant to positions

Employees which have potential are made to work under a seasoned and successful manager, often in different areas of the organization. Under the watchful eye of a supportive coach, individuals perform many special duties and serve some special duties and serve some special duties too. All this gives a wide experience to employees and they come across a wide variety of management activities and they are groomed too for assuming the duties of the next level.

• Committee Assignment

This provides an opportunity for the employee to have a say in managerial decision making and to investigate organizational problems. It also helps in increases the employee’s exposure to other members of the organization, broadens his understanding and make recommendations.

• Lecture Courses and Seminars

This is one of the oldest method of training the employees. Lecture courses and seminars offer an opportunity for managers to acquire knowledge and develop their conceptual and analytical abilities.

• Simulations

Simulations were first introduced at the Harvard Graduate School of Business. Simulation exercises include case study, decision games and role plays. Though it is not possible to simulate the real life exactly in the learning situations, simulated training provides participants an opportunity to learn which may be useful in their actual work situations.

• Outdoor Training

The main motive behind Outdoor Training is to teach the employees the importance of team work. Activities might include trekking, games or surviving in the jungle. The purpose is to condition the employees in various stress related situations.

• Learning Logs

Learning logs is a mechanism which encourages a disciplined approach to learning. It can be focused only on one activity and is usually designed to encourage the writer to explain what happened, how they have reflected on this, what conclusions have they made and what future learning actions they wish to make.

• Self Development Groups

A group of individuals involved in a series of meetings where they discuss their personal development, organizational issues, or individual work problems. Groups may begin operating with a leader who is a process expert and who can act as a facilitator.

MAINTENANCE

Maintenance is the last phase which puts all the activities into place which further help retain productive employees. Human resource management must ensure a safety and healthy working conditions, caring for employees well being has a major effect on the commitment. It must also be realized that any problem an employee faces in his personal life will ultimately be brought to the workplace. This calls for employee assistance programs, which help individuals deal with stressful life situations. It calls for employee assistance programs such as programs that help individuals deal with stressful life situations. It is concerned with the maintenance of employee’s commitment and loyalty to the organization. This includes:

Employee Health

Organizations are obliged to provide employees with a safe and healthful environment. Health is a general statement of physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Safety is protection of a person’s physical health. The main purpose of health and safety policies is the safe interaction of people and the work environment. Poor working conditions may affect the employee performance badly. Employees may find it difficult to work. It would be too taxing for them to work for longer hours. Accidents and injuries may multiply causing enormous loss to the company. Absence and turnover ratios may grow. A company with a poor safety record may find it difficult to hire and retain skilled labor force. Each and every company need industrial health so that physical, social and mental wellbeing of workers can be promoted and maintained, the productivity and the quality of work can be improved, accidents, injuries, absenteeism, labor turnover can be reduced and workers can be protected against any health hazard arising out of work and conditions.

Employee Safety

The main purpose of employee safety programs in an organization is to prevent work related injuries and accidents. There should not be any physical hazards such as collision and obstruction, equipment, fire, hazards from falling objects.

Employee welfare

Employee or labor welfare is comprehensive term including various services, benefits and facilities offered to employees by the employer. The welfare amenities are extended in addition to normal wages and the other economic rewards available to employees as per the legal provisions. The working environment in a factory adversely affects the health of employees because of excessive heat or cold, noise, downs, fumes, dust, and lack of sanitation. Such oppressive conditions create health problems for workers.

Communication

The rules of communication are being rewritten as comprehensive, integrated information networks remove constraints on its uses. Employees should be able to communicate with anyone in the organization, no matter what the hierarchy says. The open communication system breaks down historical organizational pattern flows. They also refine how meetings, negotiations, supervision and water cooler talk are conducted. Human resource management must operate the effective communication programs in the organization and such programs help employees know what is occurring around them and vent frustrations. Employee relations programs should ensure that employees are kept well informed through the company’s intranet, bulletin boards, town hall meetings, or teleconferencing and foster an environment where employee voices are heard.

Employee relations

Employee relations have several major responsibilities and it is divided into employee relations and labor relations. Labor relations involve dealing with the labor unions. In a unionized organization, a specific grievance procedure might be detailed in the labor management contract, and might involve the union, management and the allegedly wronged employee. In an nonunion organization, employee relations specialists perform many tasks. One of their key responsibilities is to ensure that open communication permeates the organization. This entails construction of such an environment where employees talk directly to the supervisors and settle any differences that arise. ER specialists are also intermediaries in helping employees understand rules, policies, procedures etc.

Appraisals

“Performance Appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the individual with regard to his or her performance on the job and his potential for development.” (Definition by dale S. Beach, Personnel: The Management of People at Work, New York: Macmillan, 1980)

“It (performance appraisal) is the process of evaluating the performance and qualifications of the employees in terms of the requirements of the job for which he is employed, for the purposes of administration including placement, selection for promotion, providing financial rewards and other actions which required differential treatment among the members of a group as distinguished from actions affecting all members equally.” (Definition by C. Heyel, The Encyclopedia of Management, New York: Reinhold Publishing, 1973)

Performance appraisal is the evaluation of quality, worth or merit. It is also described a s merit rating in which one individual is ranked as better or worse in comparison to others.

Methods of Appraisal

Absolute Standards

In this method the employees are evaluated according to a standard. Here, each employee is graded independently without any comparison with his peers. This includes the following methods:

Critical Incident Appraisal

In this method, only critical incidents and behaviour associated with these incidents are taken for evaluation. A test of noteworthy on the job behaviour is prepared. A group of experts then assign scale values to them depending on the degree of desirability for the job. Finally, a checklist of incidents which define good and bad employees is prepared. The rater is given the checklist for rating. The basic idea behind this rating is to appraise the people who can do well in critical situations.

Essay Appraisal

In essay method, the rater assesses the employees on certain parameters in his own words. Such parameters include work performance, knowledge about the job, employee’s characteristics and behaviour, employee’s strength and weaknesses, employee’s potential and promotability etc. The essay method is useful in providing useful information about an employee on the basis of which he can be appraised.

Checklist Appraisal

In this method of appraisal, the rater provides appraisal report by answering a series of questions related to the appraisee. The rater concerned has to tick appropriate answers relevant to the appraisees. When the checklist is complete it is sent to the personnel department for further processing.

Graphic Rating Scale

Graphic scale, also known as linear rating scale, is the most commonly used method of performance appraisal. In this method, a printed appraisal form is used for each appraisee. The form contains various employee characteristics and his job performance. The rating is done on the basis of scale which is in continuum. The central idea behind this scaling is to provide the rater with a continuum representing varying degrees of a particular quantity.

Forced Choice Appraisal

This method contains a series of group of statements and the rater checks how effectively the statement describes each individual being evaluated. The most common method of Forced Choice contains two statements both of which maybe positive or negative. The rater is forced to tick only one statement which appears to be more descriptive of the employee. This method may be more objective but, it involves lot of problems in constructing such set of statements.

Relative Standards

This category compares one individual to another individual. This includes the following methods:

1. Group Order Ranking

This is one of the oldest and simplest methods of appraisal in which a person is ranked against others on the basis of certain traits and characteristics. Group order ranking requires the evaluator to place employees into a particular classification such as “Top 10 percent”. This method is generally used in the graduate schools to recommend students. For example, if an appraiser has 20 employees, only four can be in the top fifth and of course, four also must be relegated to the bottom fifth.

1. Individual Ranking

This includes rating the employees from highest to lowest. Thus, only one can be at the top.

Paired Comparison

In this method, each person is compared with other persons taking only one at a time. Usually only one trait is considered. This method is calculated by taking the total of [N {N-1}]/2 comparisons. A score is obtained for each employee by simply counting the number of pairs in which the individual is the preferred member. It ranks individual in relationship to all others on a one on one basis. If 5 employees are evaluated, the first person is compared, one by one with each of the other 4 and the number of times this person is preferred in any of the four pairs.

Using achieved outcomes to evaluate employees

The third approach to appraise uses achieved performance outcomes. Employees are evaluated on how well they accomplish a specific set of objectives. This approach is more commonly known as MBO – Management by objective. First of all appraisers convert all objectives into specific objectives (divisional, departmental and individual) for organizational units and individual members. MBO works from top to bottom and from bottom to top. The result is a hierarchy that links objectives at one level to those at the next level. For the individual employee, MBO provides specific personal performance objectives. Each person, therefore, has an identified specific contribution to make to his unit’s performance.

Performance Management System

Initially it was not a system; it was just feedback or performance evaluations to tell employees how they have done over a period of time. Performance appraisals should be able to convey how well employees are doing. Performance appraisals must be able to convey to employees how well they have performed on established goals. There should be a link between the employee and the supervisor and between goals and performance, if the link is not proper then, it might affect the performance. In performance management system, if the employee is not performing well then, he/she should be undertaken training. Now, the most important part is Documentation, each and every evaluation of all the employees should be documented, as it might show a change in his/her performance over a specific period of time. The most important part of performance management system is its players – Appraisers and Employees.

Employees are always helped by the timely feedback and development. Once an organization shows this picture to its employees, the effort – performance linkage becomes better. Appraisers must have a performance system which is in accordance with their needs, a system which facilitates giving feedback and development information to employees and one that allows for employee input.

MOTIVATION

“A motive is an inner state that energises, activates or moves (hence motivation), and that directs behaviour towards goals.” (Definition by Bernard Berelson and Garry A. Steiner, Human Behaviour, New York : Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964)

“A motive is restlessness, a lack, a yen, a force. Once in the grip of a motive, the organism does something to reduce the restlessness, to remedy the lack, to alleviate the yen, to mitigate the force.” (Definition by Fillmore H. Sanford and Larence S. Wrightsman, Psychology, Belmont, Calif : Books Cole, 1970)

While a motive is energizer of action, motivating is the channelisation and activation of motives, motivation is the work behaviour itself. Motivation depends on motives and motivating, therefore, it becomes a complex process.

“Motivation refers to the way in which urges, drives, desires, aspirations, strivings, or needs direct, control or explain the behaviour of human beings.” (Definition by Dalton E. McFarland, Management Principles and Practices, New York : Macmillan, 1974)

Motivation is one of the most important factors affecting human behaviour and performance. This is the reason why managers attach great importance to motivation in an organizational setting. It has been proposed that one’s performance in an organization is a function of two factors: ability and willingness to do the job. Many organizations today recognize that motivating employees also requires a level of respect between management and the workers. This respect can be seen as involving employees in decisions that affect them, listening to employees and implementing their suggestions where appropriate. The next step in the motivation process is to understand the implications of motivational theories. The motivational theories are :

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

The behaviour of an individual at a particular moment is usually determined by his strongest need. Psychologists claim that needs have a certain priority. A.H. Maslow, a famous social scientist, has given a framework that helps to explain the strength of certain needs. According to him, there seems to be a hierarchy into which human needs are arranged.

The different kinds of needs are:

1. Physiological Needs – The physiological needs are at the top of the hierarchy because they tend to have the highest strength until they are reasonably satisfied. These needs include food, water, shelter, clothes etc.
2. Safety Needs – Once the physiological needs are satisfied, other level needs become important. Next in the hierarchy are safety needs. This includes the need for being free of physical danger or self preservation. In the industrial society safety needs may take considerable importance in the context of the dependent relationship of employees to employers. Organization can influence these safety needs either positively – through pension plan, insurance plan etc – or negatively by arousing fears of being fired or demoted.
3. Love/Social Needs – When social needs become dominant, a person will strive for meaningful relations with others. In the organization, workers form informal group environment. This situation is made worse when workers are closely supervised and controlled, but have no clear channel of communication with the management.
4. Esteem Needs – The esteem needs are concerned with self-respect, self-confidence, a feeling of personal worth, feeling of being unique and recognized. Satisfaction of these needs produce feelings of self – confidence, prestige, power and control.
5. Self Actualisation Needs – Self – actualisation is the need to maximize one’s potential, whatever it may be. This includes competence which implies control over environmental factors, both physical and social, and achievement.

HERZBERG’S MOTIVATION – HYGEINE THEORY

This theory was devised by Frederick Herzberg and associates of Case-Western reserve University. According to Herzberg, there were two categories of needs essentially independent of each other affecting behaviour in different ways. His findings are that there are some job conditions which operate primarily to dissatisfy employees when the conditions are absent, however, their presence does not motivate them in a strong way. Another set of job conditions operates primarily to build strong motivation and high job satisfaction, but their absence rarely proves strongly dissatisfying. The first set of job conditions has been referred to as maintenance or hygiene factors and second set of job conditions as motivational factors.

Hygiene factors include salary, job security, personal life, working conditions and status. Motivational factors include achievement, recognition, advancement, possibility of growth and responsibility.

CRITIQUE

Over the years, highly skilled and knowledge based jobs are increasing while low skilled jobs are decreasing. This calls for future skill mapping through proper HRM initiatives.

Indian organizations are also witnessing a change in systems, management cultures and philosophy due to the global alignment of Indian organizations. There is a need for multi skill development. Role of HRM is becoming all the more important.

Some of the recent trends that are being observed are as follows:

The recent quality management standards ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 of 2000 focus more on people centric organizations. Organizations now need to prepare themselves in order to address people centered issues with commitment from the top management, with renewed thrust on HR issues, more particularly on training.

Charles Handy also advocated future organizational models like Shamrock, Federal and Triple I. Such organizational models also refocus on people centric issues and call for redefining the future role of HR professionals.

To leapfrog ahead of competition in this world of uncertainty, organizations have introduced six- sigma practices. Six- sigma uses rigorous analytical tools with leadership from the top and develops a method for sustainable improvement. These practices improve organizational values and helps in creating defect free product or services at minimum cost.

Human resource outsourcing is a new accession that makes a traditional HR department redundant in an organization. Exult, the international pioneer in HR BPO already roped in Bank of America, international players BP Amoco & over the years plan to spread their business to most of the Fortune 500 companies.

With the increase of global job mobility, recruiting competent people is also increasingly becoming difficult, especially in India. Therefore by creating an enabling culture, organizations are also required to work out a retention strategy for the existing skilled manpower.

NEW TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL HRM

International HRM places greater emphasis on a number of responsibilities and functions such as relocation, orientation and translation services to help employees adapt to a new and different environment outside their own country.

Selection of employees requires careful evaluation of the personal characteristics of the candidate and his/her spouse.

Training and development extends beyond information and orientation training to include sensitivity training and field experiences that will enable the manager to understand cultural differences better. Managers need to be protected from career development risks, re-entry problems and culture shock.

To balance the pros and cons of home country and host country evaluations, performance evaluations should combine the two sources of appraisal information.

Compensation systems should support the overall strategic intent of the organization but should be customized for local conditions.

In many European countries – Germany for one, law establishes representation. Organizations typically negotiate the agreement with the unions at a national level. In Europe it is more likely for salaried employees and managers to be unionized.

HR Managers should do the following things to ensure success-

• Use workforce skills and abilities in order to exploit environmental opportunities and neutralize threats.
• Employ innovative reward plans that recognize employee contributions and grant enhancements.
• Indulge in continuous quality improvement through TQM and HR contributions like training, development, counseling, etc
• Utilize people with distinctive capabilities to create unsurpassed competence in an area, e.g. Xerox in photocopiers, 3M in adhesives, Telco in trucks etc.
• Decentralize operations and rely on self-managed teams to deliver goods in difficult times e.g. Motorola is famous for short product development cycles. It has quickly commercialized ideas from its research labs.
• Lay off workers in a smooth way explaining facts to unions, workers and other affected groups e.g. IBM , Kodak, Xerox, etc.

HR Managers today are focusing attention on the following-

1. Policies- HR policies based on trust, openness, equity and consensus.
2. Motivation- Create conditions in which people are willing to work with zeal, initiative and enthusiasm; make people feel like winners.
3. Relations- Fair treatment of people and prompt redress of grievances would pave the way for healthy work-place relations.
4. Change agent- Prepare workers to accept technological changes by clarifying doubts.
5. Quality Consciousness- Commitment to quality in all aspects of personnel administration will ensure success.

Due to the new trends in HR, in a nutshell the HR manager should treat people as resources, reward them equitably, and integrate their aspirations with corporate goals through suitable HR policies.

Human resources have been part of business and organizations since the first days of agriculture, the modern concept of human resources began in reaction to the efficiency focus of Taylorism in the early 1900s. Throughout the middle of 20th century emphasis were laid on leadership, cohesion, and loyalty played important roles in organizational success. This view was challenged by the techniques of management, however they gained importance at a later stage after the 1980’s and human resources had gained a permanent role within an organization.

Trends in Human resource management

1. TQM – total quality management
2. EAP – employee assistance program
3. Balance score card
4. Human resource outsourcing

TQM – total quality management.

TQM is a management philosophy that seeks to integrate all organizational functions (marketing, finance, design, engineering, and production, customer service, etc.) to focus on meeting customer needs and organizational objectives. TQM views an organization as a collection of processes. It maintains that organizations must strive to continuously improve these processes by incorporating the knowledge and experiences of workers. The simple objective of TQM is “Do the right things, right the first time, every time”. TQM is infinitely variable and adaptable. Although originally applied to manufacturing operations, and for a number of years only used in that area, TQM is now becoming recognized as a generic management tool, just as applicable in service and public sector organizations.

The belief that organizations can gain a competitive advantage in the market by focusing on customer needs, continuously improving product and service quality, measuring improvements, and developing employees to their fullest potential is the core of TQM. HR must play a key role in building an organization’s TQM culture. In some organizations, HR managers champion TQM by sponsoring educational initiatives, communicating successes and bringing in outside consultants to redesign work processes. Other HR departments take a more direct, hands-on role in implementing TQM, training employees in leadership and team building.

Balance score card

The balanced scorecard is a management system that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results. When fully deployed, the balanced scorecard the balanced scorecard transforms strategic planning from an academic exercise into the nerve center of an enterprise. The balanced scorecard, a concept for measuring whether the activities of a company are meeting its objectives in terms of vision and strategy, was developed and first used at Analog Devices in 1987. By focusing not only on financial outcomes but also on the human issues, the balanced scorecard helps to provide a more comprehensive view of a business which in turn helps organizations to act in their best long-term interests. The strategic management system helps managers focus on performance metrics while balancing financial objectives with customer, process and employee perspectives. Measures are often indicators of future performance. In 1992, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton began publicizing the balanced scorecard through a series of journal articles and then in the 1996 book The Balanced Scorecard. Since the original concept was introduced, balanced scorecards have become a fertile field of theory and research.

Reasons for balance score card:

Focus on traditional accounting measures such as ROA (return on assets), ROE (return on investments) which give various misleading information to executives with regard to quality and innovation. It is important to look at the means to used to achieve outcomes such as ROA, not just focus on the outcomes themselves.

Executive program needs to be judged on success at meeting a mix of both financial and non financial measures to effectively operate a business.

Some non financial measures are drivers of financial outcome measures which give managers more control to take corrective actions quickly.

Too many measures, such as hundreds of possible cost accounting index measures, can confuse and distract an executive from focusing on important strategies.

Human resource outsourcing

Outsourcing rests on the premise that activities which are core and central to the organization need to be performed effectively within the organization. Most successful outsourcing relationships offer cost-savings, standardization of processes, increased speed and quality of service. Effective delivery of transaction is the first step in the journey of the HR department towards becoming a strategic partner. It is quite apparent by now that success in transaction offers the HR function the credibility to engage in transformation.

Outsourcing of HR function has to be a part of an integrated business strategy for it to succeed. The key, however, is for the senior management team and HR professionals to identify the core HR processes, and the non-core processes that can be outsourced. It is increasingly being recognized that human resources are a source of competitive advantage for organizations, particularly in the information and knowledge sectors. Various stakeholders in the organization such as the line managers, CEOs and employees have urged the HR department to play the role of a strategic partner. The core aspects of HR function related to transformation consist of attracting and retaining talent, building people capability in the organization, developing a leadership pipeline and creating a learning organization.

The role of a functional expert demands specialization. It would entail an understanding of the various HR systems and processes to solve routine and complex problems. The role of a strategic partner is to understand the business and work with line managers to create design and deliver high performance work systems which will ensure that the organization is competitive on an on-going basis. This would require the HR function to look at a fit between business strategy and HR strategy and also between HR strategy and the various HR processes and practices in organizations. What set of HR activities can be outsourced and what cannot? In my opinion, recruitment or the process of attracting talent can be outsourced, but selection of candidates to join the organization cannot be outsourced. Selection is the culture building process in an organization. While a large part of performance management has been automated, the task of ensuring that goal setting, feedback, counseling and mentoring happens is the role of HR.

Similarly, training delivery can be technology enabled, but ensuring that there is an ongoing development process which builds internal technical management and leadership capability is an in-house function. Building an organizational culture that enables innovation, learning and adaptation is the role of the HR function in an organization. These core and transformational activities of the HR function are the drivers of value in an organization.

Employee assistance program ( EAP)

The various aspects of HRM designed to create an environment where an employee can be productive. The main emphasis lies on finding the right employees to fit the jobs, training to do the job, then giving them a variety of opportunities to excel. All of this takes considerable time and money. Employees need considerable time to become fully productive – a process that requires the company to invest in its people. Contemporary employee assistance programs are extensions of programs that had their start in U.S companies in the 1940s. Formal programs were implemented on the company’s site to educate these workers about the dangers of alcohol and to help them overcome their addiction. The rationale for this program, which still holds today, is returning a productive employee to the job as swiftly as possible.

EAP’s rather then venturing only on the alcoholic employees; they are also focusing on areas such as adoption counseling, legal assistance, death of a loved one, and child parent relationship. No matter how beneficial EAP’s may be to an organization, one aspect cannot be taken over for granted: employee participation. To accept EAPs, employees need to know about the program and understand its confidential nature. Accordingly, they need extensive information regarding how EAP works and how they can use its services and its guaranteed confidentially. Further more, supervisors must be properly trained to recognize changes in employee behaviors and to refer them to the EAP in a confidential manner. Although, EAPs can help employees when problems arise, companies have given much support to finding ways to eliminate some factors that may lead to personal problems.

Author has a 45 cover restaurant, which is based on the concept of chocolate. The author would like to recruit and select people by setting the job descriptions and job specifications for every different people. The author would be recruiting people with the advertisement method or with the help of employment agencies who bring different candidates. The author cannot follow the internal approach towards the candidates as it’s a new restaurant, hence the method which needs o be followed would be external only. The author would like to look in for the fresher’s as which means just pass outs from the college. The author would love to have such graduates as they are in pace with the current trends and would help the organization run better. As mentioned earlier about the selection process the author would be following the same process for the candidates but might not follow all the steps for all the people because the author has a small restaurant. The author would not like to waste money and time on such long processes and would want to have the best recruits. After this the author has discussed about training and development, as every organization would do we would also have induction for our employees which would give them in brief a jist of the place they would be working. The process of socialization would not be needed to that extent as while the author are recruiting our employees itself we would be giving them a brief about the package and explain them the terms and conditions alongside. Employee training and development are considered to be of the utmost important as it helps in the overall development of the organization. Training, development of the employee is the way to reach the overall organizational development. The author would be having assistant programs and would also be holding seminars and projects for the employees in between their working hours as this will help them to know more and develop also. The author might want to tie up with another stand alone restaurant and arrange cross training programs for the employees to get exposed more towards the world.

Then the author moved on towards the maintenance function which means what are the ways that you keep your employees happy and keep them stuck to your restaurant. These involve keeping a check on employee health which means giving them medical insurance facilities and keeping a record of their health as well. The author would keep a safe working environment to avoid any injuries to take place in the working environment and any injuries that take place would be taken care of by the author. There would be an open communication system within the organization so that the relations between employees and the author are good.

There would be certain laws which will be enacted so that the employees feel protected in the work environment. The acts are as follows:

Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 – An act to provide for the payment of equal remuneration to men and women workers and for the prevention of discrimination, on the rounds of sex, against women in matter of employment, and for matters connected therewith, or incidental thereto.

Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 – This act means to provide employee with all the basic facilities like provident fund which means a basic security of life is present and along with this certain provisions which are provided to an employee which help them in sticking to the organizations.

These are the laws which would be followed in the organization under the author’s observation and these would help the employees retain themselves in the organization.

After this the author has written about employee motivation in which the author has made use of the two theories to understand what employee motivation is all about. The author keeping all this in mind would help in the motivation of the employees. Along with this the author would go out of the way to help his employees in being comfortable within the environment of the organization.

This assignment has altogether helped the author to come to a conclusion and know as to what will help the author’s restaurant to run well and have a successful business environment altogether in which the employees would be able to communicate with others without any restrictions and would have complete work satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

Of all the factors of production, man is by far the most important. The importance of human factor in any type of co-operative endeavor cannot be over emphasized. The human resource becomes even more important in the service industry whose value is delivered through information, personal interaction and group work.

Human Resource Management is a system of developing in a continuous and planned way the competencies of individual employees, dyadic groups (superior and subordinate), teams and the total organization to achieve organizational goals. It maximizes the congruence between the individual and organizational goals of employees and develops organizational culture in which superior-subordinate relationships, teamwork and collaboration among various units become strong and contribute to the professional well being, motivation and pride of employees.

Human Resource Management is based on the five functions of management which are:

Planning: This includes determining goals and objectives, formulating procedures, anticipating future occurrences.

Organizing: This includes determining the course of action, delegating authority, establishing communication and influencing authority.

Staffing: This includes recruitment, appraisal, induction, orientation, separation, compensation, evaluation and counseling of the employees.

Leading: This includes motivating the employees, setting an example in front of them and mainly getting work done through others.

Controlling: This includes comparison of actual goals achieved compared to the goals determined, analyzing as to why it fell short and taking corrective action.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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WEBSITES

• www.hr.com
• www.shrm.org
• www.mapnp.org/library/hr_mgmnt/hr_mgmnt.htm
• www.ihrim.org/
• www.athensams.net
• www.mercerhr.com/
• www.hr-guide.com
• www.knowledgepoint.com
• www.workforce.com
• www.osha.gov
• www.diversityhotwire.com
• www.wfpma.com