Strategic Management of Human Resources
Assess the fit of Cadburys approach to managing its human resources and its business strategies with reference to relevant models of SHRM
Cadbury Schweppes approach to human resource management is one that can be deemed to best fit into its business strategy driving profits and stakeholder value. As the company adopted a culture to drive for profitability and stakeholder value, it steered its human resource management efforts towards driving its employees to give their full potential to the companys best performance and competitiveness. Bratton and Gold (2001, p 37) reveal that, if a global company is to function successfully, strategies at different levels need to inter-relate (Bratton Gold, 2001, p. 37). In many organizations, there may not be a strictly particular model of strategic human resource management to be used, however, despite the many that may be used, to best fit different organizational needs, there is always one that is used universally both nationally and internationally. Its only proper therefore to say that, there can be no universal prescriptions of HRM policies and practices (Armstrong and Baron, 2002, p. 71).
The best practice model seems to be one the highly integrative models of human resource management that the Cadbury Schweppes management team adheres to most. As Armstrong and Baron (2002) reveal, there are various aspects related to the best practice model and which are evident in Cadbury Schweppes case. The best practice model is based on the believe that there is a set of best HRM practices and that adopting them will lead to superior organizational performance (Armstrong and Baron, 2002, p. 68). The aspects of best practice human resource management model that are clearly defined in Cadbury Schweppess process of human resource management are mainly those that can also be defined under best practice.
First, Cadbury Schweppes is depicted in the case study as being a Family employer that provides housing, good factory working conditions as well as welfare rights, a strategy that the company has adapted in all its worldwide operations despite its expansion and acquisition of other businesses with originally different strategies of management. This may be seen as the foundation of its universality and cohesion in human resource and business management strategies. Employee security can be depicted in the way that the company handles its employees ownership of share in the company. Through this ownership of shares, employee job security can be assured and their job security can be assured since they own part of the company.
On the other hand, employee security means that the staff members cannot be easily rendered redundant or retrenched because they will be the best tool to use when driving for the companys development and growth. This can be see through the spirit of the employees to adapt quickly to change knowing its as much for the good of the company as it is for them as part of the company and as individuals. This is fundamental to the implementation of such high-performance management practices as selective hiring, extensive training, information-sharing and delegation (Armstrong and Baron, 2002, p. 69).
Selective hiring also seems to be the companys way of looking for aggressive leadership skills in its management team as depicted in the case study. Companies with selective hiring strategies of human resource planning and management often look for people with the right attitudes, values and cultural fit (Armstrong and Baron, 2002, p. 69). These are mostly attributes and characteristics that are hard to train or even change and more often than not, these attributes tend to drive performance and the likelihood that an employee with this kind of attributes would remain in the company for long. In Cadbury Schweppes case, the Human Resource Director, Bob Stack and the Human Resource Director for Great Britain and Ireland are two HR directors whose management attributes are depicted as portraying aggression and likened to the former world heavy weight boxing champion, Mike Tyson.
Through the integration of seemingly self-managed teams, the company has also been able to implement and carry through its core strategy since the 1970s to manage for value. By instilling this good work ethic, the company has been able to drive the employee to be accountable that is, taking ownership instead of seeing work as individual tasks but as team work. Adaptability also seems to be one of the Cadbury Schweppess employees attributes as they all strive to change with the changing business environment in terms of work processes and continual development of skills. Strategic human resource management drives for marching the human resource of a given company to its business strategies. In the case of Cadbury Schweppes, the management took the employees through various programmes that enlightened them on the business context the company was operating in and how each of their chores and tasks in the company were linked to the overall goals. This ensures that the employees stayed on course, were result oriented and tenacious enough to hold up its leadership strategy of aggression.
For Cadbury Schweppes to drive for accountability and aggression to adapt to change fast, it adapted the high compensation contingent on performance (Armstrong and Baron, 2002, p. 69). This means that the company, through its share schemes, could offer its permanent employees a way to gain from the company as it gained a market niche and profitability. On the other hand, this would then drive high performance knowing that they would all share in the company profits. Cadbury Schweppes knew that its fundamental strategy to human resource management would be to make its employees part of the company and give them a way to willingly invest in the company through such schemes as ShareSave and anticipate gain as the companys profitability was increased.
Through training, virtually all descriptions of high-performance work practices emphasize the importance of training to provide a skilled and motivated workforce that has the knowledge and capability to perform the requisite tasks (Armstrong and Baron, 2002, p. 69). Cadbury Schweppes knew the strategies to employee in developing its workforce and through various training programmes, the company was able to easily implement its strategies to manage for value, work better together, and achieve its goals. Through the culture that the company would work better together, adapting a decentralized kind of business structure, the workforce would collaborate through various online tools. This ensured that the companys workforce would be able to share information and work as a team irrespective of the distance or work environment in various operational sites around the world.
Sharing of information was one objective that was accomplished through the online tools and employees could feel valuable and valued by the company when they knew they own part of the company. In its business strategy to drive for stakeholder value, profitability would be a key indicator of this achievement. As the company developed over time, the move from viewing employees as mechanisms to attain stakeholder value to valuing them as core in the company became evident. The company knew that to attain its goal of being a strong market player listed in the UK Financial Times Stock Exchange Listings (FTSE 100), it had to invest in its human resource. Innovativeness in its way of implementing human resource practices is eminent in the way the company tries to develop strategic policies that would drive development. Having HR representation at the board is a strategic human resource management practice that draws on greater employee autonomy or empowerment (Bratton Gold, 2001, p 30).
The best fit model of human resource management is one of the seemingly pre-dominant models of human resource management at Cadbury Schweppes. Because strategic human resource management is concerned with the whole organization as a holistic entity, staff members are best suited to their jobs and placements in the company so as to ensure maximum utilization of their talent. This model of human resource management is depicted in the way the staff members are promoted. Those who show aggression seem to have been the one promoted to be Human Resource Directors.
In conclusion, Cadbury Schweppes management team can be deemed to have portrayed great determination and vigor in attaining the companys strategic goals for the growth and development of the business. The company aggressively sought what fit each and every era the company went through and employed the best strategies of management that they felt would steer the company to maintain its top position in the market and in its industry of operation.
Using your knowledge from Unit 8 and the related information about managing effective change evaluate the organizations approach to change assessing its impact and the role played by SHRM techniques and processes
In todays rapidly moving and highly competitive global business setting, change is continuous and unavoidable. Deeply rooted in organizational culture, type of leadership and level of communication, triumphant change is crucial, nonetheless incredibly elusive. It goes without debate that as managers make decisions for coping with change, they must consider not only how firm performance will be affected but also how employees will be affected (Parish et al, 2006, p.33). The role of the human resource unit as a strategic partner to the business strategy, both founded on the companys vision and goals are seen to be pivotal in the way Cadbury Schweppes has been able to successfully manage change.
Cabrera and Cabrera (20030 reveal that each and every day more organizations recognize that their people are a source of competitive advantage. Consequently, human resource units in these organizations are changing from being mere administrative systems and mechanisms to being part of the core strategic partners in charge of adding to the accomplishment of core business goals and objectives. In the case of Cadbury Schweppes, the team of managers, especially the human resource directors saw to it that new strategies were always implemented to ensure the organizational and employee needs were fully met and satisfied. As organizations increasingly realize how much competitive value and advantage their workforce brings on board, they strive to continually ensure that their employees are highly competent in terms of skills, knowledge and motivation.
The companys human resource directors have been on the upfront in aggressively driving for fast adaptation to change and the employees gladly adapt knowing they not only are represented in the board the policy making hub but permanent employees own shares in the company. By owning the shares, they feel responsible in making the company a success no matter how fast change comes and how fast they may be required to adapt to change. The employee climate at Cadbury Schweppes is one that motivates and encourages its staff relations to develop in the positive direction. This means that employees feel connected both to the company and to the management team. According to Leopold et al (2004, p. 433)
To sustain a competitive advantage, organizations are obliged to have the capability to adapt fast to change. This kind of change can be driven by various aspects of the business environment such as the economy, social setting, and environmental factors that affect the business. A lot of companies strategically draw on change to advance in their business and operational effectiveness. Given the accelerated rate and complexity of changes in the workplace, it is not surprising that there is a large and growing literature on the causes, consequences, and strategies of organizational change. What is surprising, however, is the paucity of research on employee reactions to change (Herscovitch Meyer, 2002, p. 474).
Employee commitment to the organization often determines how wiling they will be to adapt to change. In the case of Cadbury Schweppes, various methods are used to ensure the employees develop loyalty to the company and consequently become more willing to adapt to the changes that the company undergoes. The use of share owning schemes is one such method the company uses to make the employees accountable and loyal to the company.
Andrews et al (2008) state that being the complex interaction that takes place between different change agents within an organization. This concept seems to fit into the Cadbury Schweppes challenges of managing change. Though the companys employees seemed to have been able to adapt quickly to change and embrace it, the management team appreciated that all change the company had to go through was like a series of tough and aggressive processes. Despite this challenges, the companys strategy to get the employees on the companys side and working towards the companys success seemed to have worked well. In the end, change was always successfully attained and the company continued to score well in the business and financial rating nationally and internationally.
Continual, deliberate and well as un-deliberate re-organization of human resources management strategies as well as business strategies was key in the way the company managed to successfully attain organizational change. Cadbury Schweppes management constantly reviewed the companys needs to ensure that its resources were well fit for the rapidly changing business environment. By seeking to develop its workforce, the company knew what was required to steer the company to higher competitiveness. Training programmes, sensitization of employees on how their individual and team roles fit into the companys prosperity were some of the strategies the management team used to ensure the employees remained competent not in their placements. This would in return ensure that they accountably and aggressively worked towards the success of the company.
Evident from the employee survey is the fact that the employees have a healthy commitment to the organization despite them pointing out that performance management was a challenge. According to Noble and Mokwa (1999, p. 61) organizational commitment is the extent to which a person identifies with and works toward organization-related goals and values. In many ways, the response from the staff members and management team clearly showed that they all wanted what was best for the company and would work hard towards securing its competitiveness.
Knowledge management is yet another aspect of strategic management that the company adopted to ensure continual development of employees and the company. Davies Nutley (2001) reveal that, learning is collective learning. It builds upon past knowledge and experience and thus depends on organizational mechanisms for retaining and deploying knowledge. The three day workshop, culminating the growing our people programme is one of the success stories of how the company handled knowledge management to successful carry out the companys continual development initiatives. In some cases it may become challenging for an organization to change previously adopted organizational cultural values easily and directly and some first steps in the right direction might be made by attending to some of the structural mechanisms which facilitate organizational learning (Davies Nutley (2001).
Human resource management strategies played a major role in the way Cadbury Schweppes managed its mergers and acquisition. The company always integrated employees in making decisions on what culture would be universally adopted to integrate a newly acquired business as well as the company business culture. Diversity in the workforce was encouraged and embraced throughout Cadbury Schweppes operations as they acquired new businesses and hence acquired a new taskforce and integrated it into the old team. Gibson the HR Director for GB and Ireland - revealed that the company highly valued employee considerations.
Bundling of human resource practices is way Cadbury Schweppes tapped into the potential of its workforce. The main logic in favour of bundling is straightforward. First, since employee performance is a function of both ability and motivation, it makes sense to have practices aimed at enhancing both (Dyer Reeves, 1995) and ensuring that cohesion between both worked for the success of the company. The company employees were tactfully placed to add value to the organization by being motivated and trained for required skills for accountability, adaptability and aggression in achieving the company goals. By considering what the people would want means the management team would motivate the employees to give input when change was anticipated or faced. This would in turn make the employees less resistant to change and increase their participation and commitment to change.
Conclusively, change can be a challenging and almost impossible phase to not only go through but convince employees to go through. However, with proper organizational mechanisms, all staff members can be motivated to attain great change and achieve all objectives and goals through change management mechanisms and systems. All in all, a positive background information and employee management and appraisal is what can sustain an environment where employees can be readily recipient of change and implement it for the betterment of the company and individual growth.
From your knowledge of the course how does the HR Function seem to be supporting the Business Strategy at Cadburys In general how can HR best support an organization going through change
In any given organization, the greatest benefits occur when Human Resources is a strategic partner that fully participates in both the development and implementation of business strategy (Lawler Mohrman, 2003). The Cadbury Schweppes workforce starting from the management to the junior staff members all participated in giving input towards the attainment of the company goals. Though the junior staff members may have not been depicted in the case study to have been in the frontline of participating in the business strategy, their contributions were the framework upon which the companys success was coined.
The HR function participates in decisions concerning strategy development, strategy implementation, change management, and organizational effectiveness (Lawler Mohrman, 2003). In Cadbury Schweppes, the Human Resource sector has representation in the board meaning that it participates in the all processes that pertain to the development, implementation and sustenance of the company strategies, objectives and organizational change management. Through the survey the employees were able to point out an area that change was critically needed performance management.
To execute the role of working as a strategic business associate or partner the human resource unit has to take part in the strategic process of change management right from the instance when change is anticipated and brought forth by the management or business development unit. With a good comprehension of change, from the business requirements and needs, to the critical change management tools, vital techniques as well as employee responses to change, the human resource unit performs a vital role to cultivate and nurture thriving organizational change.
Change management through employee motivation can be achieved in various ways, in the case of Cadbury Schweppes the management team ensured that the workforce was motivated through being shareholders and being sensitized on how their roles fit into the whole success objectives of the company. Change management is generally known as the recognized process for achieving organizational change which is the methodical and logically organized approach as well as use of knowledge, management tools and organizational resources to control the benefits that would be attained from change.
Change management therefore can mean outlining and quickly adopting organizational business strategies, its organization, actions as well as technologies to adequately deal with change that may stem from both the internal as well as external business environment conditions. Change management in this context can then be viewed as a continual and or permanent organizational function that would steer improvements in productivity and increase a companys profitability just by maintaining the organizations adaptability to the rapidly changing and highly competitive business environment.
Through the use of online tools, Cadbury Schweppes was able to adapt to change fast by enhancing collaboration in the workforce. The organizational workforce management, motivation and deployment as well as the availability of strategic skills and knowledge all have a vital role to play in the how a business strategy will eventually be shaped and hence the way these aspects are managed is critical. In recent years it has become increasingly common to identify business strategies that are in tightly linked and integrated into the strategic human resource management of organizations, hence defining the way all the organizations resources are managed. Human resource strategies can therefore influence the business strategies and vice versa.
In order to achieve successful change management the identification of sources of conflict and the confrontation through problem solving and high involvement strategies are important change management skills (Leopold et al., 2004, p. 435). Change management is therefore requisite in all areas of an organization and all employees have to develop the right skills to be inputs in change management efforts. In the case of Cadbury Schweppes, both the management team and the employees took responsibility in striving for fast adaption to change through agreeably working towards creating a conducive and positive working environment. Each and every member of staff was ready to add value to the company and bring about the requisite success input in terms of potential and skill. The employees were ready to point out areas they felt they were not satisfied and the management team was already ready to look out for the welfare of the employees, though not initially but gradually.
Employee hiring and deployment is one aspect of HR that can greatly influence the development of an organization. As the organization goes through change, it can adapt a policy to hire new and more qualified staff or it can go on to develop and train the old staff and perform inter-departmental moves and rotations. This can greatly enhance the performance of the organization and enhance its adaptability to the rapidly changing business environment. Training aspects of employee development are evident in the way Cadbury Schweppes strives to manage change.
The definitive goal for the majority of organizations in todays business climate is to revolutionize both the business climate as well as culture. In any given organization, its climate can be clearly outlined just by viewing and analyzing how its workforce views the companys foundational reason for existing particularly through the defined overall mission, goals, objectives and how critically valuable the workforces sense of security and welfare can be to these particular goals. The company climate then leads to an organizational culture in which the workforce outlines how they view the managements attitudes and general value systems.
These crucial aspects, that is, climate and culture, consequently determine how each and every member of the management team and each employee helps enhance and shape their individual performance and manage their integral contribution to the organization. In the end, coherence is achieved even as the workforce performs individually and in teams. Each staff member forms individual performance targets that eventually lead to successful attainment of the company goals while ensuring individual as well as corporate success. These factors, on the other hand, influence each and every aspect of individual jobs, which entail the decision making process, organizational communication, accountability, and adaptability as well as performance aggression as seen in the Cadbury Schweppes case.
In wrapping up all research done on the HR function and how it augments the business strategies of all companies and global organizations, its has been conclusively appreciated and acknowledged that without human resource management, no business goal can be achieved This then means that no business strategy can be achieved as well. Its therefore only befitting to appreciate that the Human Resource Function is a vital and integral part of any given organization and highly crucial in attaining an organizations business strategies. In Cadbury Schweppes, the company management acknowledged how vital the HR function was and ensured that human resource representation was attained at all levels of the businesscompany.
What is the value to organizations in creating a learning organizational culture How can organizations work towards creating this culture through its HRMHRD Strategies
Its widely appreciated that those organizations that put value in lasting and constant learning and encourage employee welfare and security ultimately and definitely eventually provide superior services. An organizational learning culture welcomes change, puts value in continual creativity and innovation and discovers new opportunities for improvement, growth and development. In return stakeholder value is assured and attained and consequently confidence in both the investors and consumers is achieved. In his contribution to the book by Gallos and Schein (2006), Organization Development A Jossey-Bass Reader, Senge (2006, p. 765) reveals that human beings are designed for learning and learning leads to both personal and organizational growth and development.
In any given organization, creating a learning culture can be achieved in various ways. The main challenge for most organizations is how to repair a destroyed learning culture. Destruction of the learning culture is clearly evident in the way todays society where technology is making it easier for people from a tender age to avoid intensive learning and rather acquire just requisite skills through practical work. In essence, most people have concentrated on best fit skills rather than critical knowledge acquired through learning and a motivation to keep learning. Improved performance and fast adaptation to the rapidly changing business environment are just but two other benefits of creating a learning culture in an organization.
If employees focus on working for approval and appraisal, then mediocre performance is the resulting outcome. In recent years there has been a culture that depicts that classroom training is dead, that learning through technology is faster, cheaper, and better (Conner Clawson, 2004, p. 186). This may be an indicator that the latest generation of employees may well not have the motivation to adapt to a learning culture in or even out of their employment environs. However, if organizational develop modern and motivating learning systems and mechanisms, the workforce would be encouraged to adapt continual learning as part of their developmental strategies and hence the development of the organization.
Majority of learning organizations are engaged with the world outside as a rich source of learning opportunities Davies Nutley (2001). By creating a learning culture, an organization would be able to motivate its workforce to adopt continual learning which lifts the focus from the organization to the outer world and helps overcome the barrier of internal focus (Matheson, 1998, p. 121). In all organizations, there are shared norms, practices, objectives and believes which collectively are summed up to mean organizational culture. Developing an organizational learning culture is not possible without change. In order for an organization to become a learning organization, it has to motivate all employees to willingly participate in all continual processes where the organizational culture i.e. its norms, policies, goals and structures are regularly and frequently assessed and tailored in order to make them best fit for the organizational needs.
A critical part of creating an LO is to enable double-loop learning, i.e., the process where individuals evaluate the success of a new strategy, identify what has been learned, and assess what to done with the new knowledge (Davies Nutley, 2000). All leaders in the organization as well as the decision and policy makers have a core role to play in making an organizational, friendly environment that may be needed to develop a learning culture in the organization. There are many ways that the managerial team in an organization can create a learning culture through the human resource managementhuman resource development strategies.
First, its advisable to take charge and attend to how the employees will learn in the work environment. Majority of people always feel that they learn the best when they are practically doing something, and developing organizations appreciate that failure is only but a motivation to learning. As Davies Nutley (2001) note staff must be confident that they will not be castigated should they err as they experiment with new ways of doing things. Its intelligent to therefore avail to the employees, the requisite resources as well as all the support they would require to seek and attempt to explore new ideas devoid of any fear of punishment or retribution. These resources may include dedicating time for thorough planning, connecting with a mentor, providing coverage for current duties so that staff can devote their attention to implementing and monitoring new practices, and encouraging staff not to quit in the face of momentary setbacks (Pauls Sonpal-Valias, 2003).
In their article, Learning Organizations Come Alive, Gephart et al (1996) state that the culture is the glue that holds an organization together. Organizations that foster a learning environment always create a culture where employees practice openness and trust each other and the management. In this kind of environment, employees are given support, appraised and even rewarded for taking the personal initiative to continuously learn and be innovative. This on the other hand enhances an environment that encourages employees to experiment with new ideas, take risks hence exhibiting an organization that values the well-being of all employees (Gephart et al., 1996, pp. 39).
Organizations can also encourage learning curiosity in the employees in order to make them eager to discover new ideas. Its a fact that new ideas cannot crop up to anyone without contact or in isolation from other people and as the old saying goes iron sharpens iron so people sharpen each other in terms of improving each others intelligence through sharing of ideas. In order to create a learning culture and encourage curiosity its advisable for organizations to enable staff to participate in interagency groups. Allow time for learning, and recognize and reward those who use learning opportunities effectively (Pauls Sonpal-Valias, 2003). Its in providing staff members with the requisite learning resources as well as the professional advancement prospects and opportunities, in particular, opportunities that motivate and encourage critical thinking in areas besides their areas of appointment and placement, that employees can be encouraged to seek new ideas and learn.
Information sharing is critical in every organization just as its vital in creating a learning culture in an organization that would lead to skill development and a competitive edge for the organization. Davies Nutley (2001) state that although learning is something undertaken and developed by individuals, organizational arrangements can foster or inhibit the process. Organizational cultures and structures shape the way in which individuals engage with the learning process.
Each employees individual knowledge base can only enhance a learning culture if and only if, its shares with other employees, interpreted in all new ways and into new meanings each time and incorporated into the day to day organizational progression initiatives. In most cases the front-running workforce, such as supervisors, managers and other employees with leadership roles are assumed to possess the most accurate, detailed and wholesome knowledge of what organizational processes work best as well as where flaws may be experienced. In order to attain a good learning culture its advisable for organizations to allow, facilitate and empower, these front-runners to be available and to participate in organizational team initiatives and strategic task forces. Offering support as well as recognition and appraisal for such participation is also encouraged in order to successfully motivate the front-runners and other employees to develop competent learning cultures.
Another successful was to encourage a learning culture in an organization is through thr foster and nurture of trust amongst all levels of employees. A deciding factor for many people on whether or not to share or implement a new idea is its acceptance by their peers or those in more senior positions. As Davies Nutley (2001) emphasize a culture of mutual trust best suits organizational learning. Through practicing and encouraging open as well as honest communication cultures and implementing reliable communication systems, employees are able to go out of their cocoons and come up with new ideas as well as appreciate and value the ideas of fellow workers. It is consequently empirical that leaders acknowledge that allowing one team or task force to dominate organizational stagnation could be a consequence due to the suppression of potentially successful and strategic new ideas. It is therefore advisable to allow for free sharing of information, demand respect for each new idea brought up and considers each and every employees contribution(s) and input.
Jackson et al. (2008, p. 77) state that a learning organization continually finds new ways to satisfy customers and other stakeholders by skillfully integrating the resources of information, technology, and people to produce and then effectively use new knowledge. Creating a learning organization having a healthy learning culture in an organization brings out the full potential of both the workforce as well as the organizational operational capacity. The organizational full operational capacity is revealed and exploited when the workforce is able to employ the latest information, knowledge, technology and systems to ensure that the organization fully competes in the business environment and sustains its competitive advantage.
Organizations that foster a learning environment are able to set their employees free and motivate them to share ideas and challenge each other to contribute to their growth as well as to the growth of the organization rather than being just passive staff members. In the learning environment employees are able to break the authoritarian leadership setting and hierarchies while fostering an environment where each employees full potential is brought out and utilized. Effective and efficient learning organizations usually promote, cultivate, and maintain an environment where its employees are able to adapt group learning for the enhancement of the whole team and create the results they truly desire (Rheem, 1995, p. 10).
In conclusion, for any organization to be able to create a learning environment and encourage its employee to cultivate and sustain a learning culture, everyone must come to the realization that this can only be achieved through a a shift of mind - from seeing ourselves as separate from the world to connected to the world (Senge, 1996, p. 37). Everyone in the organization has to start seeing themselves as an integral and vital part of the organization and shift their minds from thinking that they are detached or separated and unimportant robotic machinery only employed to do what is outlines in their job descriptions. Its only through providing continuous learning, providing strategic leadership, promoting inquiry and dialogue, encouraging collaboration and team learning, creating embedded structures for capturing and sharing learning, empowering people toward a shared vision, and making systems connections (Gephart et al., 1996, p. 43) that organizations can eventually sit back and marvel at having achieved a successful learning environment and fostered a learning culture.
Why is human resource planning be such an important an aspect of SHRM
Human resource planning is defined as the process of determining the human resources required by the organization to achieve its strategic goals (Armstrong, 2006, p. 363). Human resource planning can therefore be collectively viewed as the outlining and implantation of strategies aimed at aligning the size as well as requisite skills of an organizations workforce to meet the overall organizational needs. Human resource planning therefore helps organizations to carry out the human resource management processes of recruitment, retention and optimization of the personnel deployment to various organizational departments in order to meet not only the business objectives and goals but also to adequately respond to continual changes in the external business environment. Fitting human resource planning to strategic human resource management is one strategic step towards achieving a competitive advantage. Commonly human resource planning involves the analysis of the existing workforces skills, forecasting the organizational manpower needs, and finally ensuring that the demand for manpower is met.
According to Storey (1995, p. 167) human resource planning is usually seen as an essential feature of the ideal-type model of human resource management even if it does not always appear to be given high priority in practice. Strategic human resource management seeks to tactically and advantageously ensuring that the human resource function best fits and successfully enables the attainment of the strategic business objectives. Through the intended outcomes of human resource planning, organizational front-running managers and leaders are able to attain the crucial ability to steer an organization to its success and future competitiveness through workforce requirement on-time forecasting and acquisition.
Conventionally, human resource planning was used to match people with the work they were meant to do and it only involved ensuring that there was the right people in the right work placement or position at a given right time. In the past the business environment would generally be described as being certain, predictable and stable hence putting less pressure on the human resource planning and management processes. However with the changing business environments, more advanced, ways of human resource management are demanded. On the other hand, as organizational operations change and evolve over time strategic human resource management combines strategic planning and HR planning (Bohlander and Snell, 2009, p. 50) to ensure that organizations achieve their objectives and attain their goals.
In the current times, there is increased instability, rapid shifts in the demographics, advancements and fast changes in technology as well as heightened national and international competition. Human resource planning is therefore becoming a part of the responsibilities of both the human resource planners and line managers. Human resource planning is a crucial componential process of strategic human resource management that is based on the belief that people are an organizations most important strategic resource and it addresses human resource needs both in quantitative and qualitative terms (Armstrong, 2000, p. 202). The implementation of strategic human resource management is due to the realization that the increasing human resource demand concerns call for urgent short-term as well as long-term solutions hence the advanced integration of human resource planning in strategic human resource management (SHRM). This means that without proper planning of the human resources supply processes in an organization, there would not be successful implementation of SHRM processes and policies.
Human resource planning provides a set of inputs into the strategic formulation process in terms of what is possible, that is, whether a firm has the types and number of people available to pursue a given strategy (Bohlander Snell, 2009, p. 51). Through recruitment, an organization is able to seek and analyze available talent to suit the organizational needs. Human resource planning aims to that there are neither too many nor too few recruits to meet the organizations future needs (Taylor, 2005, p. 104). This, on the other hand provides strategic human resource managers with the capacity to match skill with organizational performance and operations. In essence, strategic human resource management involves the projection of how an organizations workforce requirements will best be sought and placed to ensure competitiveness and achievement of the business strategy.
Human resource planning ensures that employee satisfaction is planned for and adequately managed throughout an organizations lifecycle. Without proper employee satisfaction, performance rates have been deemed to be lower than in organizations with high employee satisfaction. In some cases, it is the overall levels of satisfaction across staff which seem to affect business performance (Holbeche, 2009, p. 97). Strategic human resource management has been characterized as a strategic approach to an organizations total operational quality management. Human resource planning (HRP) is therefore an essential part of strategic human resource management that ensure both short-term and long-term employee needs are taken into consideration and their satisfaction mechanisms planned for and implemented in the right time.
There are three main ways that human resource planning can help analyze and determine an organizations capacity to realize its strategic objectives, these are cost economics, capacity to operate effectively, and capacity to undertake new enterprises and changed operations (Pattanayak, 2005, p. 39). Planning for personnel costs ensures that the strategic human resource management projections of the human resource financial implication of these costs are well integrated into the HRM budget and better controlled.
Organizational costs are key in the development, growth and profitability of an organization and ensuring that management is well controlled is crucial. Planning for human resources and the future financial needs related to human resource management is crucial in the financial stability of an organization. Human resource planning assists in cost reduction by aiming to work out in advance how organizational operations can be staffed most efficiently (Taylor, 2005, p. 104) hence strategic human resource management.
Redundancy in an organization can lead to great loses due to unnecessary payments. As part of strategic human resource management, HR planning can help planners and line managers to well in advance forecast future redundancies in the workforce and take remedial action such as recruitment freezes, retraining, early retirements (Taylor, 2005, p. 104), hence reducing the number of redundancies and the related costs that come from redundancy expensespayments. Strategic human resource managers are therefore ensuring that they have the right plans for all their human resource requirements and their related financial implication. Strategic human resource management seeks to ensure efficient use of HR function budgets and maximizing on the exploitation of the human resource potential and expertise while ensuring competitive advantage and profitability.
In todays business environment, human resource planning is more likely to be used to make future forecasts for human resource demands and preparation of supply mechanisms and timetables. Though short-term forecasts may be made, strategic human resource management, in recent years, has employed the tools of human resource planning to place the HR functions strategically as a partner and booster of the business strategies implementation processes. The projections made of the workforce requirements are used to ensure that the required skills, knowledge and expertise is availed in the alongside its continual demand.
Employee growth, development and training are part of strategic human resource management efforts aimed at ensuring that an organizations workforce skills are kept abreast the developments and advancements in the business environment. The types and number of jobs that will need to be filled can be forecasted through HR planning and the requisite skills training and development processes, resources and activities are then embarked on so as to ensure that existing staff and new recruits possess the required skills at the right time (Taylor, 2005, p. 104). Organizations continually train and develop their workforce to ensure they continually acquire the right skills to be strategically placed to attain the organizational performance goals and objectives. Human resource planning therefore plays a major role in ensuring that the projected requirements for employee training and development are taken into consideration way before the required day of training process implementation. This ensures that the required training and development resources are sought and availed on their due dates.
Increase in such demands as office use, car parking and other workplace facilities (Taylor, 2005, p. 105) can cause major changes and demands on an organizations operational processes and stability. In most cases where organizations expect fast and high expansion rates, its highly recommended that proper HR planning be done to ensure that the required level of facility provision is carried out. Whether there are forecasts for expansion or contraction in an organization, strategic human resource management calls for proper HR planning to ensure that the related costs are controlled and that there are no sudden or unforeseeable expenditures on emergency and controllable occurrencesincidences.
Human resource planning frequently depicts the processes whereby business strategies result in HR actions (Ulrich (1997). In connection with strategic human resource management strategies, HR planning would be a great tool to define the needs of any organization and outline the requisite procedures that are to be followed in fulfilling all human resource requirements both effectively and efficiently. Strategies in every level of an organization are meant to create efficient and effective, systems, processes and procedures that ensure successful attainment of a competitive advantage and achievement of objectives. The value and role of HR planning in strategic human resource management can therefore, never be underestimated, ignored or under-utilized. It always has to be key in all strategic HR management plans and procedures so as to ensure that the HR function provides an organization the framework for success in attainment of its goals.
When it comes to strategic human resource management, the human resource aspect is analyzed from the qualitative and quantitative view points. The number of employees required and hired must then match an organizations requirement and their skills and contribution to the organization will also be analyzed and well managed both for the short-term and long-term goals to be achieved. The focus is then shifted from just how many should be employed to how many employees will be required, how will they be acquired and what each of them will contribute to the organization. For the future, the strategic human resource managers will look into what skills will be required and how they will be acquired for the development of the organization.
In conclusion, its a fact that without planning, no objective or set goal can successfully, efficiently and effectively be achieved. Its therefore vital that each and every organization drafts a proper plan on how the organizational goals and objectives can be achieved. This provides the road map for attaining both personal and organizational visions. By creating a visionary organization, a road map is critical in creating the picture of where the organization needs to go, draft all requirements, how these requirements will be attained and eventually how the general goals will be achieved. Human resource planning is therefore an aspect of strategic human resource management that cannot be ignored or evaded.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment