Employee Relations (Blog 4)

Introduction to Employee Relations

Employee relations consist of human resource management that involve in relationships with employees directly and through collective agreements where trade unions are recognized. Employee relations are concerned with generally managing the employment relationship (Armstrong, 2006).

Another view suggested by Armstrong, (2006) is that the employee relations policy set out to the rights of employees to have their interests represented to management through trade unions, staff associations or some other form of representative system. It will also cover the basis upon which the organization works with trade unions. Defining the intentions of the organization about what needs to be done and what needs to be changed in the ways in which the organization manages its relationships with employees and their trade unions.

According to Gennard and Judge, (2002) Employee relations is a study of the rules, regulations and agreements by which employees are managed both as individuals and as a collective group, the priority given to the individual as opposed to the collective relationship varying from company to company depending upon the values of management. In discussing the psychological contract and employees’ and employers’ interests, suggest that, in addition to a reward package representing the monetary and extrinsic aspect of the relationship, employees may have expectations too.

(Video 1 : What is Employee Relations)

Employee Relations Strategies

Employee relations strategies set out how objectives in organisation to be achieved. Employee relations strategy may emphasize processes of involvement and participation, including the implementation of programmes for continuous improvement and total quality management (Armstrong, 2006).

According to Muller, (2014) Every organization is aware it needs a solid employee relations strategy. Building a strong employee relations strategy involves creating an environment that delivers what people want now. Employees want to feel good about who they are, what they do and where they work. And you want to feel good about productivity, overall performance and the emerging leaders in your organization.

(Figure 1: Good employee relations)

Muller (2014) states Key Performance Indicators for Employee Relations Strategy as,

• Culture: Employees need to feel good about what they do and where they do it. 
• Communication: Employees need to know what’s going on. This also ties to how quickly and how often your employee relations team responds to both positive and negative employee situations.
• Compensation: Employees need to feel valued for the job they are doing. People, who are paid at industry standard or slightly above, feel better about their jobs than those who receive less than market rate for the same work (obviously).
• Complaints: Employees need to feel good about how they are treated. A strong employee relations strategy has little to do with managing complaints but more about everything you are doing to create a positive work environment. 

References

• Armstrong, M. (2006) ‘A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice’, 10th edn., London, Kogan Page, pp. 127-778.

• Gennard, J. and Judge, G. (2002) ‘Employee Relations’, London: CIPD.

• Muller, D. (2014) HRAcuity. [Online] Available at: https://hracuity.com/blog/16-potential-kpis-to-include-in-your-employee-relations-strategy (Accessed on: 30 August 2018).

• Figure 1: STUDYBLUE (2018) Good employee relations, [Online] Available at: https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/c11-managing-employee-relations/deck/14305899 (Accessed on: 30 August 2018).

• Video 1 : What is Employee Relations (2018). [Online] Available at: https://youtu.be/5_btNIdvEfo (Accessed on: 30 August 2018).

Learning and development (Blog 3)

Introduction to Learning and development

Learning and development is a function of human resource management concerned with organisational activity aimed on better performance of individuals and groups in organisational settings. Towler and Dipboye (2009) emphasis that learning and development can be a source of competitive advantage where employees gain appropriate new knowledge and skills which provides a strong argument for organisations to invest in their employees, so that they can reap the benefits and differentiate themselves from their competitors. 

(Figure 1: Components of human resource development)

Learning: A person acquires and develops new knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviors and attitudes is the learning. ‘Learning has happened when people can demonstrate that they know something that they didn’t know before and when they can do something they couldn’t do before' (Honey and Mumford, 1996).
Development: Development is that ensuring a person’s ability and potential are grown and realized through the provision of learning experiences or through self-directed learning. 

Strategy of Learning and Development  Process

                                                               (Figure 2 : Learning & Development Process)

Learning and development strategy represents the approach an organization adopts to ensure that now and in the future, learning and development activities support the achievement of its goals by developing the skills and capacities of individuals and contribute to Departmental effectiveness. Anderson (2009) says that the extent to which learning and development can be linked to the strategy depends on how close an alignment exists.

The steps required to develop a learning and development strategy as described by Harrison (2005) are:

• Agree on the strategy-making team.
• Clarify organizational mission.
• Explore core values.
• Identify the strategic issues facing the organization.
• Agree on strategy and strategic plan.

In an Organization, line managers are playing a critical role in facilitating learning in the organization reinforces the earlier findings of the Industrial Society and lack of line manager support is one of the main problems encountered in evaluating training (Beattie, 2006).

All Departments need line managers and staff with the requisite knowledge, skills, behaviors and attributes (competencies) to enable it to fulfil its mandate and achieve its objectives. To establish if the current competency level is adequate to meet current and future business needs, a Training Need Analysis (TNA) is conducted to identify gaps and any learning and development needs. Training Need Analysis ensures that training focuses on those skills which are to be acquired by the trainees to perform their assigned jobs and trainings must be relevant, and organized in a manner that an interest and value is created to ensure active participation by the trainees.

References 

• Anderson, V. (2009) ‘The Value of Learning’, London, CIPD.

• Beattie, S. (2006) ‘Line managers and workplace learning: Learning from the voluntary sector’, Human Resource Development International, 9(1), pp. 99-119.

• Harrison, R. (2005) ‘Learning and Development’, 4^th edn., CIPD, London.

• Honey, P. and Mumford, A. (1996) ‘The Manual of Learning Styles’, 3^rd edn., Honey Publications, Maidenhead.

• Towler, J. and Dipboye, L. (2009) ‘Effects of Trainer Expressiveness, Organization and Training Orientation on Training Outcomes’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(4), pp. 664-673.

• Figure 1: Armstrong, M. (2006) Components of human resource development, . ‘A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice’, 10th edn., London, Kogan Page, p. 534.

• Figure 2 : SketchBubble. (2018). Learning and Development Process. [Online] Available at: https://www.sketchbubble.com/en/presentation-learning-development.html (Accessed on: 20 August 2018).

Talent Management (Blog 2)

Definition of Talent Management

Talent management is set of integrated activities to ensure that the organization attracts, retains, motivates and develops the talented people it needs now and future. The aim is to secure the flow of talent, bearing in mind that talent is a major corporate resource (Armstrong, 2006). The term ‘talent management’ refers to the activities related to recruitment, selection, development, and retention of employees. Ariss, Cascio, and Paauwe, (2014) conceptualize Talent Management as “those activities and processes that enable identification of positions and talent pools that are critical to building and sustaining an organization’s competitive advantage”.

Talent Management and Human Resource Management

          (Figure 1: Talent Management from HR View)

‘Talent’ takes an important role as a part of human resource function to manage the all people within the organization to high performance. Lewis and Heckman (2006) said that the term ‘human resources’ of the organization should replace with the ‘talents’ of the organization.

Talent management applications are not just for discovering and educating the abilities, they are also for Recruit, retain, develop, reward, promoting and make people perform in the organization is part of talent management which referred as Strategic Human Resource. Retaining knowledgeable employees is a key goal of senior management and one of the primary motivators for having a talent management program. Although pay and benefits initially attract employees, top-tier leadership organizations focus on retaining and developing talent (Lockwood, 2006). 

Talent Management in organizational Employment

Organizations should combine internal development and external recruitment in talent pools. This facilitates the management of quantitative risks associated with ensuring there is sufficient talent to meet organizational needs and not an oversupply which represents a waste in resources. It is clear that for organizations, it is more effective to develop talent within the broader context of the organization, to prevent developing employees to fit narrow, specialized roles and once developed employees can be developed with broader competencies which would fit a range of roles (Cappelli, 2008).

Talent management is a rapidly growing area, although there is a serious debate on conceptual framework, the definition, context and the criteria about the practice of talent management. In a competitive marketplace, talent management is a primary driver for organizational success (Lockwood, 2006). Talent management has been strategically important by the companies and the concept described by several theories and perspectives. Talent Management exists to support the organization’s overall objectives, which in business essentially amount to making money. Making money requires an understanding of the costs as well as the benefits associated with talent management choices (Cappelli, 2008).

References

• Ariss, A., Cascio, F. and Paauwe, J. (2014) ‘Talent management: Current theories and future research directions’. Journal of World Business, 49(2), pp. 173-179.

• Armstrong, M. (2006) ‘A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice’, 10th edn., London, Kogan Page, p. 390.

• Cappelli, P. (2008) ‘Management  Challenges  for  the  21st  Century’. Harvard  Business Review, 86(3), pp. 74-81.

• Lewis, E. and Heckman, R.J. (2006) ‘Talent management: A Critical Review’. Human Resource Management Review, pp. 139-154.

• Figure 1: whatishumanresource.com (2018) 'Talent Management from HR View'.  [Online] Available at: http://www.whatishumanresource.com/talent-management (Accessed on: 20 August 2018).

Introduction to Human Resource Management (Blog 1)

Definition of HRM

We can find many definitions that describe “what is HRM or What it should be” and there is not a specific or widely accepted definition that can define what HRM exactly is. In early age society also faced with resource problems as how to find skilled people for the right tasks and how it make sure that people do what they should do, how to retain people when the times are tough, etc. time to time social, cultural, economic and political systems of the society have changed the way of people work and their working conditions also changed tremendously (Zorlu, 2009).

Human resource management involves more than one person gathered to achieve one or more specific goals and objectives. As we can see, it starts at the family level where family members having their different roles and responsibilities to accomplish objectives of the family. The head person of the family would find all available resources to achieve whatever may be needed or desired (Josephat, 2011). In an organization, employees are considered as human resources (a cost) and its main aim is to improve, develop and retain this resource. HRM manage to maintain the employee as efficient and effective workforce in order to minimize cost and increase productivity to gain competitive advantage within the organization (Zorlu, 2009). 

Functions of HRM

Human resource management mainly refers the activities of staff that are actively engaged with the processes of organization. Manager or head of department is responsible for establishing and implementing strategies for the human resource by acquiring, retaining and developing the human resource of the organization. Staff members are responsible for providing best results as expected by both management and organisation. The policies of the Human Resource Department affect the entire workforce (Manmohan, 2013).

According to Armstrong, (2006) A Human capital can be regarded as the prime asset of an organization and businesses. Therefore, management taking steps satisfy people needs and to enhance and develop the inherent capacities of people by providing guidance on people management strategy and practice. A productive and harmonious relationship can be maintained through partnerships between management and employees by enhance motivation, job engagement and commitment by introducing policies and processes that ensure that people are valued and rewarded for what they do and achieve.

Organisational systems, processes and activities are integrated through a strong organisational culture and it made up of values, attitudes, norms, and practices how things are done and doing in the organization. Human resource managers recognise and appreciate the need for keeping people at the top of the agenda in achieving organisational objectives. This encouraging employees to feel first in all HRM functions in the organisation and they are responsible in guiding the organization to be the first among competitors (Josephat, 2011). Successful organisations are fully utilise the maximum potential of their employees by different approaches used in job design, recruitment of multi-skilled employees.

References ;

• Armstrong, M. (2006) 'A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice', 10th edn., London, Kogan Page, pp. 32-33.

• Josephat, I. (2011) 'Fundamentals of human resource management', African Studies Centre, Netherland & Tanzania, pp. 1-16.

• Manmohan, J. (2013) 'Human Resource Management', 1st edn., p. 9. [Online] Available at: https://bookboon.com/en/human-resource-management-ebook (Accessed on: 02 August 2018).

• Zorlu, S. (2009) 'Managing the Human Resource in the 21st Century', pp. 14-18. [Online] Available at:  https://bookboon.com/en/hrm-managing-the-human-ressource-ebook  (Accessed on: 02 August 2018).