Human Resource Management And Its Importance In Organizational Effectiveness

BBD Inc. Corporate Strategy linked to HR functions

Human resource management involves setting up of formal systems which enable management of people within any organization (Inc., 2017). It is the one of the most essential systems that is required to be in place for effective functioning of any organization. In fact it is often observed that organizations are unable to hire proper leaders. In the United States of America, a study reports that 75% of employees believe that their direct manager is the worst aspect of their job (Harvard Business Review, 2017). Presently, many firms understand the increasing importance of their human resource, but only few are conceptualizing them in strategic terms (MacMillan & Schuler, 2006).

In the given case study the author is throwing light on various issues faced by Jennifer after being recruited as Director of human resources at BBD Inc. BBD Inc. is a Chinese firm with its wholly owned subsidiary in Australia. It was established as a joint stock ltd. As the case states, BBD is a leading metals and mining company in China with large capital reserves, 10 branches and 12 wholly owned subsidiaries. The organization has passed all international standard requirements and has kept its quality in check.

Upon joining, Jennifer is facing various issues for reasons like increasing Sino phobia in Australia, strict government rules pertaining to foreign investments, cultural differences in the organization and interference by top management in administrative recruitment. This report seeks to answer four questions as follows:

1. Recruiting only from Australia: It is often noticed in the case that there are numerous culture differences appearing between Australian employees at BBD Inc. and their Chinese counterparts. In order to, overcome those differences, it is rather advisable to recruit locally as not only can such employees remove those differences but also they have better and varied knowledge of the local ethos and markets which will be an added advantage for the firm. According to Forbes, vetting of local candidates is comparatively easier and less time consuming.
2. Marketing recruitment in Australia: It is observed in the case that students and recruitment consultants are not well aware of BBD Inc. and hence don’t prefer to work there. It is recommended that appropriate marketing strategies are implemented to make students and recruiting agencies aware of BBD Inc. Efforts must be put to position it as an employee friendly workplace. College campus placements essentially help in providing organizations with a pool of freshly graduates students from numerous fields at a single place (The human resources program, 2003).
3. Open door policy: Open door policy is essentially a corporate practice wherein the senior officials or the top management of a firm leave their office doors open, welcoming their subordinates. Open door policy is rather imperative for a scaling company (Entrepreneur, 2014). There are four important advantages of keeping an open door policy. It increases accessibility, creates an open flow of communication, access to information gets faster and helps in developing closer working relationships (Forbes, 2013). BBD Inc. can adopt this policy so that the company employees both Australian and Chinese, feel comfortable and their issues can be addressed immediately.
4. Training and Development in English language: Natural resource sector invests immensely in their training and development. In the case also, it is noticed that BBD Inc. also faces a shortage of talented manpower and hence spends a lot of its time and other resources in training of its employees. If induction and training are conducted strictly in English, it sets the tone for the rest of the employee tenure. This is why BBD should ensure that English is used as the official mode of communication from the first day.
5. Fair appraisals irrespective of country origins: Performance Appraisal is the assessment of individual’s performance in a systematic way (HRWALE, 2010). Although we don’t see any case of unfair promotions in the case, but it is noticed that during the recruitment for an administrative profile, a Chinese candidate is referred by the top management to be shortlisted despite an unimpressive resume. One of the most important company policies should be to ensure each and every member of the organization must be treated fairly irrespective of his or her country origin.

Team building activities: It is observed in the case that Jennifer has failed at the attempt of trying to know her colleagues. In fact the entire office suffers from an overall lack of interaction predominantly because of a language barrier between Australian employees and their Chinese counterparts. Conducting team building activities with mixed composition of teams can effectively help in active inter-employee interaction. Active team building ensures that employees engage amongst each other and the bottom line improves. (Forbes, 2016). Also, this will help employees be at ease around each other which will also improve the team’s productivity in the longer run.

Penalizing non English speaking in office premises: As noticed in the case, that French employees speak in French and Chinese in Chinese. This makes them sit at different places in the cafeteria as neither of them are aware of each other’s languages. It is imperative that English be made the corporate language at BBD Inc. and non-abiding employees can be penalized to develop a sense of seriousness over this issue.

1. Setting an example: Jennifer noticed that despite presence of signboards reading “English is our corporate language” and a personal discussion with Mr. Liang, CEO of the Australian subsidiary, he was himself seen communicating with a fellow employee in Chinese. Nothing teaches better than example if it is expected of employees to communicate in English. Setting an example is more effective and it makes people want to follow you (Forbes, 2016). The foremost step must be taken by the top management by firstly using the English language in their communications and secondly discouraging other employees to use any other language by their own behavior.
2. Marketing the company to students and recruitment agents: The case mentions that most of the students are not willing to work for BBD Inc. despite positive government attitude towards the firm because students or recruiting agents were not aware of the organization. It is vital that BBD Inc. be able to make its presence felt among its employee target market. Campus recruitments in top universities and tie ups with recruitment agents can help achieve this goal.
3. Creating transparency and decentralization: There is a high level of interference of top management officials in case of recruitment even for administrative profiles. This makes the job of an HR manager difficult and is also disrespectful. According to The economist, since the inception of a large firm, it goes through various phases of centralization and decentralization. Hence in case of BBD Inc. the recruitment process should be made more transparent and the final selection authority should remain with the HR so that senior level managers cannot intervene or urge partial treatment of candidates.

1. Edited signboards: Upon learning that language is a major barrier among employees, Jennifer put sign boards at various locations in the office reading “English is our corporate language” in order to encourage communication throughout the organization in a single language. However the next day, there were changes made on the billboards which now read “you must learn Chinese”. This shows how employees took offense and retaliated when they were asked to shift slightly from their culture. This distinctly illustrates how culture of an organization affects the work environment.
2. People eating separately and not talking to each other: One of the disturbing incidences disclosed the lack or rather absence of interaction among employees of different cultures. This was when Jennifer visited the cafeteria and noticed people conversing in their regional local languages and sitting separately making it difficult to interact amongst each other. This sort of culture adversely affects working environment.
3. Top Management talking in Chinese: Efforts have been put in to establish English as the corporate language at BBD Inc. in order to bring uniformity in communication in the entire organization. However, it was noted that Mr. Liang was conducting a meeting with his colleague and the language used was Chinese. It becomes increasingly difficult to implement policies or follow guidelines if the top management of the firm does no adhere to them. This promotes the culture of indiscipline and lack of respect for guidelines and thus impacts the work setting.
4. Communication gap: As stated in the case, Chinese employees consider it rude to make statements like ‘I don’t agree with you’ or ‘you are wrong’. Whereas this is considered absolutely customary in Australian conversations. This difference of understanding of each other’s culture often creates a communication gap and can even lead to ineffective communication or miscommunication.
5. Nepotism: Nepotism refers to the practice of people in authority favoring friends and relatives. A classic case of nepotism was observed in the given case when Mr. Tong who is a general manager asked the HR director Jennifer to shortlist his friend’s daughter for and administrative position despite the fact that her resume was unimpressive and credentials not up to the mark. This culture makes the work surroundings rather difficult to work with as it unpleasantly impact the HR’s authority and decision making. Nepotism conflicts so fundamentally with basic Australian values of egalitarianism to the extent that certain professional institutions have reinstated anti-nepotism policies.(HBR, 2007).

1. Localized selection: Due to increasing cultural differences, BBD Inc. should focus on hiring locally as this would reduce the language barrier glitch. The locals of the Australia would also be better aware of the local markets, their customs and professional behaviors of Australian stakeholders.
2. Campus placements: Because of an mounting competition, the employers are more interested in recruiting on-campus so that they can directly access the sharpest and the best obtainable talent in the Educational Institutions (LinkedIn, 2014). Also, it was observed that many students in the region are not aware of BBD Inc. and in order to attract recruitments, one of the finest strategy is to associate with universities and offer students a job after their studies post a tedious selection procedure.
3. Recruitment agents: Another recruitment strategy could be tying up with local recruitment firms and agents who aim to manage talent in an efficient manner. They receive immense number of resumes and hence have a large database of job seeking applicants and they go through a strenuous filtering process before being shortlisted to be interviewed by the firm. This will help BBD Inc. hire effective manpower without investing long durations.
4. Digital and print media– Job seeking contenders often refer to newspapers to look for job opportunities. When the firm in in need of additional manpower, it can get advertisements printed in newspapers which will make it easier for contestants to apply for required positions and different job roles.

Also, social media today plays a very important role. Earnest job seekers bank on the opportunity of social media develop their skills and charm hiring manager’s recruitment pages (Business News Daily, 2016). Facebook and websites like LinkedIn have bridged the gap between a pool of candidates looking for jobs and organizations looking for manpower. It has digitized the entire procedure of receiving applications and shortlisting nominees. Most importantly, these websites provide employers to get a glimpse of who you are outside the confines of a resume, cover letter, or interview (Forbes, 2013).

Referral policy: A strong referral policy goes a long way in selecting the right candidate. More often than not, employees of the firm are aware of friends or relatives with similar or better credentials and if they receive remuneration for candidates they refer, they will also travel that extra mile to recommend applicants. It also has added advantages like cost and time saving, attracting like-minded staff and increased employee engagement (LinkedIn, 2016).

References:

Business news daily, 2016, https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7728-social-media-job-seeker-guide.html, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

Edwards, J & Scott, J, 2003, the human resources program, Sage Publications Inc., California.

Entrepreneur, 2014, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234217, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

Forbes, 2013, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/04/16/how-social-media-can-help-or-hurt-your-job-search/#3514aa597ae2, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

Forbes, 2013, https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2013/10/07/new-managers-4-reasons-you-need-an-open-door-policy/#3fcb40e77cde, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

Forbes, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianscudamore/2016/03/09/why-team-building-is-the-most-important-investment-youll-make/#1e00f7ed617f, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

Forbes, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2016/02/04/the-best-managers-always-lead-by-example/#2738ea8f279d, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

Forbes, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2016/09/13/5-benefits-of-hiring-locally/#481c607c4c1b, viewed on 1 September, 2017.

Harvard Business Review, 2007, https://hbr.org/2007/09/nepotism-the-unspoken-rules, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

Harvard Business Review, 2017, https://hbr.org/2017/06/when-leaders-are-hired-for-talent-but-fired-for-not-fitting-in, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

HRWALE, 2010, https://www.hrwale.com/performance-management/performance-appraisal-methods/, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

Inc., 2017, https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/human-resource-management.html, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

LinkedIn, 2014, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140913065436-76762275-advantages-of-campus-recruitment, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

LinkedIn, 2016, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/11-pros-cons-employee-referral-schemes-charles-trivett, viewed on 2 September, 2017.

Macmillan, I. & Schuler, R. (2006), ‘Gaining competitive advantage through human resource management practices’, Human Resource Management, Vol no. 23(3), PP: 241-255.

The Economist, 2009, https://www.economist.com/node/14298890, viewed on 2 September, 2017.