Human Resource Management and Organizational Challenges
Human resource practitioners form one of the most important disciplines in an organisation. They are responsible for assigning their employees to various tasks so they can thrive and reach organisational goals. Human resource management regards people as very important individuals in an organisation. Human resource professionals are in charge of recruiting various employees for various jobs; they suggest employee training strategies and advise those in authority, like managers and directors, on how the organisation should run to achieve its goals. Many human resource management issues are present that impact both employees and employers. Some of them include the employment gap in relation to social groups, the business case for flexible working, the small number of women employed as directors in an organisation, and the role of human resource management in organisations. All of these issues and how they affect the organisation are discussed below.
Firstly, the employment gap in relation to social groups affects the organisation. A labour market comprises capital, goods and services offered to the company. Employment gaps exist among various disadvantaged people such as disabled people, lone parents, ethnic minorities, individuals aged 50 years and above, people with different levels of education, and people of different sexes. Some of these people have difficulties in securing a job or continuing in employment. According to Ruth (2010), statistics clearly indicate that the employment opportunity rate for the disabled, based on time-series data from June 1998 to the end of 2009, increased at a constant rate compared to the rate for those who are not disabled, whose graph decreased slowly. This shows that during that decade, the gap between disabled and non-disabled people was narrowing. This predicts that in the near future, there will be less discrimination in employment opportunities between disabled and non-disabled people.
For ethnic minorities (Ruth, 2010), the employment rate for minorities was lower at 57.2 per cent in June 2001 compared to that of white people, which was 75.8 per cent at the same time. Since June 2001, the rate of employment for minorities has been increasing, narrowing the gap with white people. In 2009, the percentage for minorities had increased to 59.6 per cent, while that of white people had narrowly dropped to 74.0 per cent in the same year, narrowing the gap.
Flexible Work and Employee Engagement
Secondly, another Human Resource Management (HRM) issue that is affecting employees and employers is the business case for flexible working. Halpern (2005) defines a business case for flexibility as the process of trying to start a project with a particular model to be followed with the aim of outlining the effects on business of providing employees with flexibility in when, where, and how they work. Many benefits are associated with business cases. One of them is that people who are self-employed tend to be more engaged and committed to their work than employees who are working in an organisation.
These self-employed people tend to have more ideas and are highly creative. This leads to high returns and capital obtained from their businesses. People who have their own jobs tend to contribute more to their businesses than those who are employed by a particular organisation or company. The business case for flexibility allows the participants to be freer with their work. This allows them to schedule their work activities at any time. They can visit their relatives, friends and families with fewer restrictions. As a result, they don’t suffer as much stress as employed workers in an organisation who are being pressured by their employers and directors to attain certain organisational goals.
Another positive effect of the business case for flexible working, according to Halpern (2005), is that there is high productivity in terms of capital and costs from the total revenue created. Due to the high profits generated, workers are well paid, leading to more of them being recruited and absorbed into the business. Due to this flexibility, more women are attracted to these jobs, and they are guaranteed various leadership roles. Finally, flexible jobs lead to good financial performance due to an increase in the efficiency of handling claim files without any inequality.
Gender Representation in Organizational Leadership
Thirdly, there is a small number of women employed as directors of an organisation. This is another challenge that Human Resource Management faces in different organisations. Overall, the number of women who are participating in the labour force continues to increase. For instance, in Canada, women’s participation in the labour force increased to 47.3 per cent in 2016 compared to 37.1 per cent in 1976.
Despite this increase in women working in the labour force, their progress in reaching senior levels has stopped or is not improving at all. In Canada, the majority of managerial positions are held by men. Statistics clearly show that two-thirds of all managerial positions seem to be held by men. The same trend is also seen in other countries like the United States (CIPD, 2016).
To tackle this issue, the glass ceiling, which acts as a barrier for women to rise to different managerial positions, must be dealt with by conducting several boardroom discussions and creating awareness of nonessential discriminatory reasons for setting women aside from those managerial positions. Some reasons exist for women not being able to achieve senior positions in various organisations.
Barriers and Strategies for Women in Executive Roles
There is a high perception that women can’t lead compared to their male counterparts. Also, historically, people have held low opinions of women in leadership when they look at those who have broken the ceiling and behaved rudely. Another eminent reason is that women lack role models whom they can look up to in order to aspire to be leaders, as there are few of them who exist (CIPD, 2016).
Companies should take various measures to increase the number of women in executive positions. These measures include motivating women and encouraging them to aspire to become leaders and compete with their male colleagues (CIPD, 2016). Another measure is that companies should start creating mentorship programmes for women who are in top positions to encourage the importance of leadership. Finally, the companies should have clear goals to nurture women in leadership by training them on how to be leaders.
Finally, the government should also implement measures such as giving equal bonuses to men and women in the same positions without any bias. Also, a wide range of boardroom diversity should be encouraged in various organisations to develop women’s leadership and promote a culture change in norms that do not allow women to be leaders (CIPD, 2016).
Strategic Functions of Human Resource Practitioners
Finally, Human Resource Management (HRM) plays a very important role in an organisation. Human resource professionals help the company in many ways. Firstly, they are responsible for the recruitment process and hiring qualified professionals for the organisation. Most of these recruiters have well-developed knowledge of where to find the best talent to recruit, such as various high-performing universities and colleges (Amin & Yudi, 2013).
Human resource practitioners are also important to their managers and directors in that they help implement activities that will keep their workers happy and motivated to work all the time (Amin & Yudi, 2013). Most human resource professionals are close to the employees, which is not the case with directors. In this situation, they tell their workers to be open enough to explain the ways in which the company is not satisfying them properly. Thus, this enables the organisation to rectify those problems before they reach their peak, which might affect the company negatively.
Labor Standards, Performance, and Organizational Governance
Highly qualified human resource managers understand the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA) more than owners of start-up companies. In this case, they are able to provide a good salary range for all workers without overpaying for work, which most directors of small businesses do to attract employees. By doing so, they are able to maximise the profits of the organisation without incurring any losses. Also, they help create various laws that help improve the performance of an organisation and disciplinary laws that help terminate the contracts of employees who are underperforming without breaking the law (Amin & Yudi, 2013).
Human resource directors also help directors plan the organisation well. This includes assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the company and identifying threats that the company is facing. These contribute to the high performance of the companies, increasing their revenue earned (Amin & Yudi, 2013).
In conclusion, Human Resource Management and organisations perform various roles that improve the business, leading to increased profits. Organisations ensure that there is gender equality by allowing more women to take high managerial positions. Business cases for flexibility allow their employees to work more freely with fewer restrictions. Human resource practitioners help in the retention and management of company employees and draft various laws to govern the company.
References
Ruth Barrett, June 2010, “Economic & Labour Market – Disadvantaged groups in the labour market” Review Volume 4 Number 6, June 2010.
Halpern, D.F. (2005, May). How time-flexible work policies can reduce stress, improve health, and save money. Stress and Health.
Statistics Canada, “Labour Force Characteristics by Sex and Age Group” (2017).
CIPD. (2016), Employee Outlook: Focus on employee attitudes to pay and pensions. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Aminu Mamman & Yudi Somantri (2013) What role do HR practitioners play in developing countries. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25:11, 1567-1591.
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