Role of Human Resource Management

Question: Discuss about strategic human resource management. Answer: In the rapid changing environment, strategic human resource management has become an important part of an organization. As Jiang et al. (2012) stated that, in order to retain a sustainable position in the competitive market, a company need to give empowerment to those employees, who have knowledge about organizational strategy. According to Renwick Redman and Maguire (2013), in order to provide empowerment to the employees, a company needs to follow an appropriate strategic human resource management (SHRM) strategy. SHRM approach indicates that employees are the key to a company's competitive advantage. As Buller and McEvoy (2012) mentioned that, present knowledge economy requires employees to contribute their ideas to the management. The management needs to implement those ideas in order to develop an appropriate business strategy. As Renwick, Redman Maguire (2013) stated that, in order to gain a sustainable advantage in the market, a company requires the most active involvement of employees with their organization. According to Alfes et al. (2013) efficient human resource management can increase employee engagement within an organization. Human resource management of an organization has a higher contribution towards formulation, planning and accomplishment of business objectives. In accordance with the business objective, human resource department developed its own objectives and hence affected every aspect of service in the business. In this essay, the identified changes in the role of SHRM have been discussed. There are four key HR elements in the context of hospitality SHRM ha ve been identified and their significance and relevance in the present business context have also been discussed. As Purce (2014) mentioned that, with the increase of competition in the global market of hospitality, the role of HR is changing. Presently human resource management is becoming the strategic partner in a company. There are some additional functions that HR department has to play beyond their administrative roles such as payroll processing (Dries, 2013). At present, managers need to think more widely and broadly how workers can contribute more to organizational success. As Lepak et al. (2012) mentioned that, in previous years HR managers are more focused on the compliance of the role. However, they are now more focused on positive outcomes and results. They observe how employees use their existing skills and knowledge to attain goals. In order to motivate employees, HR managers need to focus on some key aspects such as increasing innovation, flexibility, common goal development, friendly environment, training and recognition (Morgeson et al., 2013). As Lengnick-Hall et al. (2013) stated that, motivation is the key element that helps employees to allocate effort to generate and implement innovative ideas in their work. HR department needs to motivate employees properly to go beyond their designated role. As Chuang Chen and Chuang (2013) mentioned that, organizational culture plays a significant role to increase innovative behaviour. In the hospitality industry, an employee can make show their innovation in the expression and communication process. HR department should develop an organizational culture, the welcomes new strategies and innovative solutions. Employees need to provide empowerment so that they can take their decisions to handle critical conditions. The second major role that SHRM needs to fulfill is the flexibility of workforce. As Alfes et al. (2013) mentioned that flexibility is about employers and employees making changes in their working patterns and practices to fulfill organizationally and business needs. The human resource management of an organization needs to develop effective human resource policies, which will be beneficial to both employers and employees and will develop a positive outcome. As Lengnick-Hall et al. (2013) claimed that, there are two types of flexibility policies can be developed by SHRM department. They are such as formal flexibility and informal flexibility. Formal flexibility policies are the officially approved policies that provide supervisors with the detection to provided flexibility. On the contrary, informal, flexible policies are informal, which are available to only some employees in discretionary basis. It has been found by JP Morgan Chase that 95% of the workers feel motivated to exceed t heir expectation level, where managers are sensitive to personal life and work, which includes informal flexibility (Martn Alczar et al., 2013). On the contrary, 80% employees are able to exceed their expectation level with informal flexibility. In order to develop positive outcome, human resource department of an organization needs to develop friendly working environment (Lengnick-Hall et al., 2013). There are various ways in which HR professionals can develop friend working environment. Management needs to develop a positive attitude towards their employees. The HR department also needs to understand that the positive or negative working environment have an impact on how customers perceive their business (Purce, 2014). They need to treat every employee with respect. HR department needs to listen to all the issues and challenges that employees have to face while giving effective service to the customers in the hospitality industry (Chuang, Chen Chuang, 2013). They need to develop a relationship with their customers beyond professional work. HR department of an organization needs to concentrate on developing an effective team. As Lengnick-Hall et al., (2013) stated that, working together can help a team to achieve the posit ive organizational goal. According to Renwick Redman and Maguire (2013), it is one of the major roles of HR department to build trust within the team. HR department of an organization needs to understand that; employee training is an important part of organizational success. Workers become more efficient and effective if they receive appropriate training. In the case of the hospitality industry, HR department needs to provide communicational and behavioral training. As Lengnick-Hall et al., (2013) stated that, HR Department should provide training to their employees on four basic grounds. New entrants who join the organization need to provide training. As Jiang et al. (2012) mentioned that, providing training to new employees help them to become familiarize with the rule, regulations, missions and vision of a company. Sometimes existing employees are needed to provide training to enhance their knowledge (Lengnick-Hall et al., 2013). Training also helps employees to take responsibilities of higher level, which help them to achieve promotion and recognition. Another important role of SHRM is to recognize hard working employees of an organization. The human resource department needs to develop an appropriate monitoring system, to observe the performance of every individual working in an organization (Renwick, Redman Maguire, 2013). Depending on their performance, HR department needs to identify hardworking and skilled employees. The HR department also needs to reward their employees depending on their performances. They need to provide regular feedback to their employees so that can focus on their personal improvement (Jiang et al., 2012). There are particular challenges that the HR department has to face in the hospitality industry. The major responsibility of the SHRM is to find out appropriate ways to deal with these issues to gain a positive outcome. Presently the hospitality industry is facing some economic fluctuations. For this reason, it has become a tough job for the HR department to reduce employee turnover (Buller McEvoy, 2012). It has been found that managers or supervisors in hotel industry often commit discrimination with their employees depending on their age, gender, sex and religion (Alfes et al., 2013). For example, the hotels of Europe and America do not prefer to hire employees who are Muslim. HR department of the hotel industry needs to understand that, it is an unethical decision to prohibit Muslims to get employment. They need to develop an appropriate monitoring system to restrict any discrimination against their employees. HR department needs to hire employees depending on their qualification, talent and skills rather than their religion, gender or culture (Lengnick-Hall et al., 2013). Further than the fundamental needs for compliance with HR rules and regulation, there are four key HR elements have been analyzed in the context of hospitality SHRM. These four elements are such as selection and placements, job designing, diversity management and compensation and rewards (Martn Alczar et al., 2013). In high performing hotel, each of the four elements is aligned with organizational goals to reflect best practice. These four HR elements are also helpful to enhance employee performance of an organization (Alfes et al., 2013). In order to hire a suitable candidate in an organization, the HR department of an organization needs to gather technical competencies and behavioral competencies of all the applicants. In a case of the hospitality industry, the behavioral competencies of new entrants have to be focused on customer satisfaction. All the needs employees must have appropriate communication skills and behavioral skills. As Purce (2014) stated that, employees must have the ability to show empathy towards the feeling and needs of customers. The HR department also needs to find out those employees can cope up easily with the existing organizational culture of a hotel (Jiang et al., 2012). They need to discuss their corporate culture with new employees on the first day of their joining. As Alfes et al. (2013) stated that, it helps new employees to determine whether they are compatible with the present job environment or not. The second element is about developing effective job design. As Buller and McEvoy (2012) mentioned that, in order to make an effective job design, the HR department needs to put together various elements of jobs. They also need to remember about organizational and individual worker requirements. The HR department also needs to health and safety requirements of employees at the workplace. As Martn Alczar et al. (2013) stated that, in accordance with the job design, the HR department needs to provide necessary training to all the new entrants. For, example, new employees in hotel industry needs to provide communicational and behavioral training. They also need to provide computer training so that they can have basic knowledge on how to store the information of their customers (Martn Alczar et al., 2013). Hotel Marriott developed a paid leadership development training program that give training to university students about various areas such as event planning, engineering, accountant a nd finance, rooms operations, sales and marketing (Martn Alczar et al., 2013). It helps the university students to understand the global scale of Marriot's operation. As Buller and McEvoy (2012) stated that, this training program, helps the trainee to understand the broad portfolio of Hotel Marriot as a global brand. The third element of HR department is related to compensation and reward. As Alfes et al. (2013) mentioned that, HR department needs to develop a rewarding system, where employees can get incentives depending on their performance. HR department should give promotion to their employees depending on their team working capability, responsibility taking ability and ethical behaviour in the workplace. As Martn Alczar et al. (2013) mentioned that, the compensation system includes sharing profit, an incentive for good feedback from the customers, gainsharing. The HR departments also need to develop skill based rewarding systems, where those employees are rewarded who have gain knowledge about new skills and employed them effectively in their work. The fourth and the final element of SHRM are related to diversity management. In the present operations environment, the major factor related to the successful development of business is related to diversity. As Purce (2014) mentioned that, in the previous decade, diversity was indicated as prohibiting discrimination against female employees and minorities at the time of hiring. However, presently the concept of diversity has become wider. Diversity management involves appreciating those innovative ideas that employees bring to the workplace (Martn Alczar et al., 2013). In the case of the hotel industry, the management has to face customers who belong to various cultures and religions. Managing a diverse team from different gender, sex and culture helps a company to come up with innovative ideas to deal with customers who belong to different cultures. In this essay, a discussion has been developed in order to analyze the change of roles of SHRM in the context of the hospitality industry. Previously it was the only role of HR professionals to observe whether employees meet the rule and regulations or not. 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