Custom «Human Resource Management Evaluation Report» Essay Paper Sample

Introduction

The human resource department acts as the fulcrum of a company because it bridges the organisational vision, mission and strategic plan with the workforce. In order to appreciate the significance of human resource management in the firm’s operations, it is important to note that the employees of the entity are its most important assets and thus managing them effectively is the best way to ensure that the business in question operates according to the expected parameters. The greatest challenge for most organisations comes in concepts such as total rewards, human performance and absence management. Each one of these aspects is considerably important if the company at hand is to be managed successfully with respect to its human resources. While each organization has a number of unique features that make it different from others, the basic tenets of a human resource management apply to most of these areas as will be demonstrated in this report. 

Total Reward

In human resource management (HRM), total reward is a concept that focuses on the most valuable aspects of employment from the perspective of the employees (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2014). Every organisation dreams of a competent total reward system; however, to realize that, the management must create an integrated reward system where personnel are able to derive maximum returns from the service rendered. In an attempt to implement a total reward concept, most companies often integrate elements of compensation, benefits and work experience in their HR strategies as a way of ensuring that employees get total reward (Upadhaya, Munir, & Blount, 2014). The main concern in this situation consists in the way the firm is able to balance expenditure with workers’ engagement and organisational performance. Correspondingly, total rewards must include not only monetary compensations but also focus on other important aspects that are likely to be of value to the employees. The main aim of implementing a total rewards system should be to enable the firm to maximize its outcome without necessarily increasing organisational expenditure. Currently, most businesses are widely embracing the idea of total rewards as a way to solve the issue of unrest that always comes with endless demands for salary increase from employees (Datta, 2012). The need for remuneration increment often means that the workforce is not satisfied with the compensation and, therefore, feels that the provided earnings do not correspond with the services workers render to the company. To address this issue, most organisations used to increase salary. Initially, high wages might have worked but if firms keep increasing their employees’ compensations they may not be able to sustain their own operations in the long run (Engelbrecht & Mahembe, 2014). Companies have to find another way to attract and retain personnel using the things that they value the most. Usually, a good reward system that addresses issues such as compensation, benefits and the work experience may solve most remuneration challenges. Most employees not only want to get paid well but also to enjoy fulfilling their duties and receive all the associated benefits that they need. 

Theories that Underpin Total Reward

Organisational effectiveness is defined differently in different areas and situations, but the underlying pretexts require a positive improvement in firm’s performance. An effective company must be able to get the most out of its workers without threatening its employee retention rates. The equity theory is one of the most relevant approaches that underpin the total rewards system. According to it, employees only make as much effort as high they perceive the value of rewards they get from the organisation in question (Wadongo & Abdel-Kader, 2014). The equity theory is grounded on the logic of personal interests where each worker has his/her own set of needs that have to be attained. Therefore, every employee’s level of engagement in the organisation is pegged on how many rewards he or she is getting from the company (Kumra & Manfredi, 2012). As a result, it is important to note that each worker is likely to have his or her own definition of rewards. Some employees work hard because they believe that working diligently may lead to promotion. Others put their best efforts as they are looking forward to a salary increment. Similarly, other employees also work hard because they appreciate the vacation days that they are likely to get when they deal with their workload. The equity theory, in this case, hypothesizes that the worker is only able to give as much as he/she thinks he/she is likely to gain. Based on this approach, if the company applies the same employee-related policies and practices in all cases, it is likely to have many discrepancies in employee commitment and involvement (Carpinetti, Galdamez, & Gerolamo, 2008). Some workers may appreciate something that the organisation has to offer while others do not see value in the same thing. This means that it is all about employee perception and orientation towards the rewards in question.

Correspondingly, in order to lever organisational effectiveness, managers often have to find a way to offer the things that actually interest their employees. Larger companies may have a hard time accomplishing this because they have too many workers with too many different needs (Gibson, 2013). They, however, have to find something that the employees will value. This may explain the presence of far too many different policies and practices for personnel motivation in a given organisation. For the most part, managers have to analyse their workers and find out what the needs of the latter are. The employer would have to meet the employees’ needs or demonstrate that they are being addressed to promote good performance. Each individual has something that he/she is working to achieve. The ability of the manager to provide whatever it is that the employee is looking for is what determines whether the personnel will be giving their best to the organisation or not.   

Human Performance

Human input is the expertise or professional service that employees provide to their employers at an agreed fee. In order to work effectively in the organisation, workers often need guidance on how things are to be done. The company must empower and motivate its workforce as it strives to achieve its set goals and objectives. One of the most challenging concepts in business is empowering the employees and evaluating their efforts (Wickramasinghe & Liyanage, 2013). Human performance can be defined as the accomplishment of set tasks in the organisation with the highest adherence to specified quality standards, accuracy, efficiency and completeness. Simply put, this concept refers to the capacity of an individual to live up to the company’s expectations in relation to his/her work.

Facilitating Human Performance in Business

In order to facilitate human performance in a firm, the first line would be to ensure that the organisational standards and expectations are clear to all those involved. Most of the time, the greatest obstacle to company’s operations is lack of communication (Shaffer & Postlethwaite, 2013). Poor employee-employer communication or lack of it breeds alienation among the workforce. Therefore, with accurate mechanisms for informing the personnel, the company will be able to ensure that everything that needs to be done is completed as required. The organisation as the employer mainly has to ascertain that each of the employees knows what is expected of him/her.

The second line of action would be to ensure that the employees understand how to accomplish their tasks. While it may be rather obvious that the workers are given the kind of tasks that they are qualified for, some additional training would go a long way in making certain that everything is up to the standards set in the organisation. A continuous learning program would, for example, ensure that the employees acquire any additional skills in their respective professional fields. Training, in this case, is thus a considerable course of action based on its potential effects on the business, both in the short and in the long term. Well-trained employees are not only capable of performing up to the standards set in the organisation, but also remain with the company for a long time owing to the potential for personal and career growth the latter provides (Wickramasinghe & Liyanage, 2013). Enabling teamwork is another way of facilitating human performance. Working together in the organisation simply allows each individual employee to provide better results. Teams that are effective are the ones in which the members are able to support one another and move together towards the set goals and objectives. This means that a manager can facilitate human performance in a respective organisation by creating teams and encouraging teamwork. When employees learn to cooperate and support each other when fulfilling their various tasks, they not only learn together but also achieve more in the firm.

Taking responsibility for one’s actions in the organisation is also a way of facilitating human performance. When the employees in the company are fully responsible for their actions, they are able to give their very best to the latter because if they fail, it will be their fault. Such cases push workers to go an extra mile where necessary provided that they do not tarnish their reputation in terms of poor performance or questionable quality of work (Snell, Morris, & Bohlander, 2015). However, in order for these individuals to take responsibility for their actions, they have to be empowered to make the relevant decisions that affect their duties. This means that each employee would have to be given the decision-making power as related to his/her specific scope of work.     

Evaluating Human Performance in Business

In business, the need for sustainability cannot be undermined. Companies are only as effective as their operations in the long run. Therefore, there is a need for the organisation to maintain certain standards when it comes to performance of the employees. In order to ensure that these standards are maintained, there is a need to evaluate the workers on a regular basis to ascertain that any unfavourable changes are captured and reversed on time. The first option for assessing human performance relates to organisational output (Snell et al., 2015). In most cases, the extent to which the company is achieving its set goals and objectives is an indication of its human performance. If the organisation is losing customers or dealing with too many negative reviews from its clients, it is rather obvious that its employees are not doing their job as expected. Another way of evaluating the human performance in business is to consider the individual effort of each worker.

In most cases, generalizing the results of the organisation’s operations limits leaders’ capability of spotting the troubled employees. Individual performance evaluation, in this case, will ensure that each worker is scrutinized based on how much quality work he/she actually does in the company (Brewster, Sparrow, Vernon, & Houldsworth, 2011). Performance appraisals may be tedious but they provide a chance for both the leader and the employee to estimate the output of the latter and make necessary adjustments depending on how poorly or well the individual in question is working. For the most part, performance appraisals are used to create a strategy for moving forward in the organisation thus making them the best and most effective evaluation tool.  

Absence Management

Absenteeism is a very common problem in any company’s operations and it is associated with many good and bad organisational situations. In extreme cases, even dedicated employees find themselves in situations where they need to be absent from duty. However, some workers choose to stay away from work for one reason or another simply because they can. In such cases, they may not even have a reason for being absent, but they are always willing to use any opportunity to be away from work. In business, absence management involves managing cases of absenteeism in order to avoid harming the organisation more. Sometimes, allowing the employees to be absent could be good for the company but only if the leaders get to understand why their personnel want to be away from work. Some of the most common absence management practices involve taking disciplinary action against workers who are consistently late or play the wag without good reason (Bucker & Poutsma, 2010). In other cases, the management simply chooses to negotiate working hours with the employees to allow everyone to meet their performance standards at their own time. Personnel often end up choosing working hours that would best fit them, meaning better results and a stress free attitude to the work. 

Impacts of Absence Management on Individuals

Absence management entails restricting the number of absenteeism cases to minimum in the organisation. The company through the HRM department must initiate disciplinary action against employees who miss work with no good reason. In extreme cases, the employer will be required to limit the days that a worker can take when he/she is sick or the number of times that one can be late to work without facing any consequences. With such restrictive measures in place, absence management can have two impacts on the individuals in the organisation (Bucker & Poutsma, 2010). First, employees may become more stressed with their work environment owing to the new restraining rules against being late and missing work without a good reason. While personnel may understand that these restrictions are for the greater good, they may have a hard time coping with the environment that is too limiting. There is a chance that employees who work in such conditions would have a higher stress level and thus fail to enjoy their jobs. When absence management is practiced wrongly or too strongly, it could ruin the work environment and make it difficult for the personnel to perform effectively. The employees may start working as required but with little interest in their tasks or with too many distractions. They may also have had other things that they needed to do away from work but since they are afraid of the disciplinary action, they end up coming to work and staying distracted all day. This implies reduced productivity as the employees lose their enthusiasm and focus necessary in the work environment. 

Another potential impact of absence management on the individual is positive change in relation to time management and being present at work. When the rules are strict and binding, the employees are likely to change their attitude towards work and thus take it more seriously. This would result in more commitment to the organisation and, consequently, higher productivity of the worker in question (Noe et al., 2014). Sometimes, employees take unnecessary days off simply because they do not feel compelled to be at work. With the strict regulations on absenteeism that would come with effective absence management, these personnel would be bound by the rules and they will be present at work as expected and come in time. Additionally, committed individuals often have a higher productivity in the work place.  

Impacts of Absence Management on Organisations

Absence management can affect the organisation in one of two ways. If the process is effective, it will reduce the cases of absenteeism in the company. This means that the firm will not be losing working hours and thus that the employees will be generally effective in their work. Consequently, the organisation will be able to register higher productivity owing to the absence management practices being implemented. This, however, is not always the case. The absence management may, in some situations, reduce the rate of absenteeism in the organisation but have no impact on productivity (Noe et al., 2014). This is especially true when the employees are forced to be at work without considering their specific circumstances. They come to work but remain distracted or displeased for a better part of the day thus limiting their productivity in their respective duties. In such situations, the absence management is seen affecting the organisation negatively.

If the absence management is carried out correctly, the company may benefit from having employees who work for as long as they can and achieve the set goals and objectives without feeling too limited and restricted in terms of their working hours. The best forms of absence management strategies do not just focus on reducing the absenteeism rates. Rather, they concentrate on creating flexibility so that the individuals can work within their own frames. This means that instead of restricting the employees, the absence management actually gives them freedom to manage their own schedules provided they work as expected in the organisation. In such cases, the company benefits more from the absence management as the personnel get to fulfil their duties while also attending to whatever they need to attend outside work (Noe et al., 2014). This balance implies happier workers who are able to focus on their functions and thus register high levels of productivity. When implemented correctly, absence management can actually reduce stress, improve employee concentration and create a better work environment. This would translate to higher organisational productivity and thus better performance.

Conclusion

Human resource management requires a focus on the human capital of the organisation in order to understand what the personnel want and need and how best they can be utilized for the benefit of the company in question. This explains why the best HR practices have to be formulated with the employees in mind. In addition, although there are cases where the workers need stricter rules in order to function as expected, for the most part, the organisation stands to benefit more by giving the former what they want.