Challenges With Human Resource Management In Smith Shoes Ltd

Human Resource Management and its Dissimilarities with Personnel Management

With the passing span of time, every field has gained the advancement in their respective field. The management is considered to be an art with systematic methodology. Human resource management is considered to be very innovative type of management which currently prevails in an organization (Alfes et al. 2013). It is considered as without the assistance of human resource management good team of the working professional shall not be built up. It was stated by Aristotle that the whole is for sure more than the sum total of its parts. This is considered to be certainly true when it comes to the part of the managers in an organization. This is ensured through the process of checking weather all the managers are working in the right direction or not. For the development of the managerial skills the human resource management is significantly used.

Human resource management is such an arrangement of the employees, who work within an organization. This is basically related to the science which is required for the allocation of human resources in the work place. In other words, it can be said as managing the people or human (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). The main objective behind building the good human resource management in an organization is to meet the need according to capability and potential within the workers of an organization. HRM is responsible for bringing such people who have the potential to meet the organizational requirements, perform the tasks given and hence deal with the problems. So as to form an organization with such people who can survive accordingly, HRM plays a major role here. This is known as human resource management (Aswathappa 2013).

On the other hand, the personnel management is a sub part of human resource management. This can be defined by getting and maintain the human resources in such a way that they are satisfied. Personnel management is considered to be the whole function of the human resource management. It facilitates the performance and the effectiveness towards the delivery of strategic goals. This facilitates in managing the system performance of the employees. There is watertight difference between these two. However, the difference between the human resource management and the personnel management is described as below:

• Personnel management is considered to be the traditional approach which is considered to assist in managing the people in an organization. The human resource management is a modern approach, which is used for managing the people along with the potential, strengths and capabilities in the organization.
• Personnel management is considered to basically focus on the personnel administration, welfare of the employees and the labor relation. While the human resource management focuses on the development, motivation and maintain the human resources in the particular organization (Budhwar and Debrah 2013).
• With respect to the features, personnel management is considered to be put the assumptions as the input made by people which is responsible for achieving the desired outcomes or output. On the contrary the human resource management is such an administrative function which is undertaken so as to accomplish the goal or we can say for achieving the goal (Fee 2014).
• Under the personnel management the employees are usually given less number of training sessions. While in the human resource management the employees are provided with more training session and other such developing opportunities.

These are the differences between the human resource management and the personnel management.

There are certain strategic advantages of the human resource management which shall benefit the organization. Adopting the human resources functions in an organization the strategic objectives are to be achieved so as to improve the performance. The advantages of adopting the Human resource management are to make the organization larger and other benefits of the organization. The benefits are as follows:

• It helps in evaluating the human resources policies, within this the policies and procedures of the organization. The development leads to be the advantage, which shall help in the development of the current policies that the HR of an organization shall follow. Hence, as a result the old policies and outdated rules shall be replaced for the sake of development and advancement (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014).
• Another advantage is of excellent team building. With the help of the strategic human resource management, the sense of team spirit is developed within the organization. Creating such a vision along with the HR strategy aligns the sense of open communication, which has the major benefit over the stakeholders who has the feeling of the speak up the opinion that shall be valued and should be meaningful to the executive and other owners of the organization.
• Strategic human resource management shall help in monitoring the progress of the organization. Moreover, while creating the vision of the company can help with the influence in evaluating and creating the HR policies and vice a versa. With the help of human resource management, the proper evaluation according to the accomplishment of the goals in an organization can be monitored. HR is the key role, which shall ensure that all the components of the strategic plan are inculcated in an efficient and effective manner (Kramar 2014). These HR function helps in measuring the progress and procedure which shall help in monitoring the benefits of both the company and the employees. Human Resource Management (HRM) is the term used to describe formal systems devised for the management of people within an organization. The responsibilities of a human resource manager fall into three major areas: staffing, employee compensation and benefits, and defining/designing work. Essentially, the purpose of HRM is to maximize the productivity of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its employees. This mandate is unlikely to change in any fundamental way, despite the ever-increasing pace of change in the business world the basic mission of human resources will always be to acquire, develop, and retain talent; align the workforce with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business (Marler and Fisher 2013). Those three challenges will never change.
• Until fairly recently, an organization’s human resources department was often consigned to lower rungs of the corporate hierarchy, despite the fact that its mandate is to replenish and nourish what is often cited-;legitimately-;as an organization’s greatest resource, its work force. But in recent years recognition of the importance of human resources management to a company’s overall health has grown dramatically

Advantages of an HRM Approach

These are the advantages of having the human resource management in an organization.

From the case study, it has been observed that David Smith is the sole owner of the organisation and his leadership style is autocratic in nature. This is because the person expects his staffs to carry out his orders or instructions without any sort of discussion. Due to such leadership style of David Smith, the organisation has experienced a high rate in labour turnover as much as 42% with increased examples of stress and issues related to poor well-being. In order to mitigate this issue, David Smith is required to change his leadership style. The person could adopt a democratic leadership approach, in which the employees would be involved in the decision-making process. In order to ensure the participation of the staffs, David Smith is required to conduct weekly staff meetings, in which the staffs could express their ideas in a suggestion box for maintaining their anonymity and confidentiality. Accordingly, the best idea could be selected and reward would be provided to the staffs for the idea.

Some of the other current practices of Smith Shoes Limited that need to be addressed are associated with its personnel department and staff members. From the provided case study, it has been evaluated that the personnel department comprises of only two personnel and these individuals have not been provided with adequate training for the past 10 years. In a similar fashion, the only staff members that have received training have paid for training in order to enhance their knowledge and skills. This is because Smith Shoes Limited does not devise out any budget for providing training to its staffs and key personnel. Due to such situation, the HR issue has been aggravated further within the organisation. Therefore, in this case, the organisation needs to formulate budget for inclusion of training programs (Purce 2014). In order to implement this change, Smith Shoes Limited could appoint an effective management accountant for formulating necessary budgets for the organisation. Along with this, an industry expert needs to be recruited as well so that accurate training is provided to the employees and personnel department.

Another area, in which Smith Shoes Limited is required to pay attention, is related to personal staff development, upward communication and organisational development. It has been observed that the attrition rate of the organisation is relatively low and the individuals choosing to stay with the organisation need to conform the demands of David Smith. In order to improve this HRM issue, the organisation could think of initiating rewards, performance appraisals and bonuses to its staffs. For implementing this change, the HR department of the organisation is required to conduct monthly or yearly appraisals and accordingly, promotions or increments could be provided to the staffs based on their performance.  

Elements of Current Practice That Need to be Changed and Way of Implementing the Changes

Based on the case study, it has been found that almost 20% of the employees do not have a fair idea of their job descriptions and specifications. Along with this, the organisation does not have effective procedures for redressing staff grievances. The personnel department of the organisation is only responsible for short listing and interviewing the potential candidates. The process of selection comprises of a single interview round with a single person from the Personnel department. This depicts that the existing process of selection and recruitment is not effective, as additional interview rounds need to be there for increasing its effectiveness.

In order to improve the effectiveness of this current procedure, Smith Shoes Limited is required to recruit additional technical personnel in its personnel department. Along with this, the selection process could be improved by adding a written round followed by technical and HR rounds. In the first round, the candidates need to prove their theoretical knowledge by answering certain questions asked. The organisation needs to set a criteria based on which the candidates would be shortlisted for the second round. The same process needs to be followed in the other two rounds.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it has been evaluated that human resource management is such an arrangement of the employees, who work within an organization. This is basically related to the science which is required for the allocation of human resources in the work place. With the help of the strategic human resource management, the sense of team spirit is developed within the organization. Creating such a vision along with the HR strategy aligns the sense of open communication. However, there are certain areas of improvement for Smith Shoes Limited and these areas include leadership style, personal development of the staffs and training procedures. Therefore, adequate recommendations have been provided to the organisation for improving its existing HRM approach.

References:

Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Aswathappa, K., 2013. Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

Budhwar, P.S. and Debrah, Y.A. eds., 2013. Human resource management in developing countries. Routledge.

Fee, M.C., 2014. Human resources management.

Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.

Kramar, R., 2014. Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), pp.1069-1089.

Marler, J.H. and Fisher, S.L., 2013. An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 23(1), pp.18-36.

Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.

Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management. Routledge.

Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.