Importance Of Strategic Human Resource Management Academy

Effective Strategic HR Planning

Discuss about the Strategic Human Resource Management Academy.

Human resource planning is an important concept to predict the future requirements of human resources needed for an organization as well as to examine that how the existing human resource can be used to fulfill its objectives (Weatherly, 2004). Nowadays, human resource planning is actively utilized for the effective complexion of big and complex projects to taking with political considerations into account. The main aim of this essay is to determine the significance of human resource planning for the successful complexion of large scale and complex projects especially where political considerations exist (Armstrong, 2006). This essay would determine some major political constraints and issues that may come in the way of efficient human resource planning of an organization.

Human resource planning is a simple procedure to analyze HR requirements to make sure that the current number of employees matches the required skills while strategic human resource planning is quite different. It is the determination of the overall organizational objective and a proper mechanism to attain its major goals (Bernadin, 2007). In this regard, requirement and availability are two important component of human resource planning and strategic human resource planning is considered to be an important component of HR management. Its main objective is to provide sufficient human resources to meet the strategic goal of a firm and provide the right people with the right skills at the right time to attain organizational objectives with an ease (Mathis and Jackson, 2010).

Strategic HR planning is a step by step process to determine the mechanism to pursue long term goals of an organization with the help of available resources. It is an important approach to analyze the opportunities and threats to examine all the political constraints in the environment with the main aim to enhance the efficiency and productivity of an organization (Paauwe, 2004).

On the contrary to this, human resource planning is basically the estimation of future requirement to analyze the demand and supply of human resources to attain organizational goals without any kind of major difficulty. Nowadays, both HR planning and strategic HR planning is used for the effective complexion of big and giant projects of an organization. It has been analyzed that organizations are now juggling with some major HRM issues like high staff turnover, tight labor market, skills shortages, ageing population and diversity. Organizations are required to become strategic and competitive in the global market place to deal with these issues (Storey, 2007).

HR Planning and Project Management

Due to the presence of political complexities and constantly changing government norms make it difficult for companies to manage its employees and organizational activities in an effective manner. Among all the HRM challenges, rapidly changing worker profile is a big challenge. This is because the presence of demographic changes across the world is putting major pressure on the government as well as the private sector to implement creative solutions to educate and retain a diverse workforce with an ease (Wright, et al., 2005). For instance, male employees had a major ratio at their workplace but the government in many countries has made it mandatory to hire equal number of female employees at workplace and provide special privileges to them such as maternity leave. To overcome this issue, organizations should now impartial in terms of gender of their employees and promote their employees as per their caliber instead of their sexuality.  

Apart from this, it is believed that ageing population is likely to pose a major challenge for the business world across the globe. This is because preparing the young generation for the workplace as there are great chances that young people may leave the workplace permanently producing a lost generation in countries with higher number of employment rates. Another major HR change is to retain and engage a changing workforce as it is not a cake walk to recruit potential employees. This is because HR of a company has to make sure that its staff is committed and productive and may not leave the organization after a short span of time so that company’s substantial turnover costs and invested training may not get wasted (Paauwe, 2004).

To compete in such highly competitive global era, HR needs to overcome this issue by implementing effective retention activities and providing workplace satisfaction to its employees.  On the contrary to this, hiring and retaining talent while reducing the labor cost is a major challenge before the HR of a company. This issue can be overcome by strategically implementing the significant strategies. Henceforth, organizations can be strategic and competitive in the global market place by preparing for the future and staying with the laws in order to avoid any legal obligation (Mathis and Jackson, 2010).

HR planning plays a significant role in the successful execution of a company’s project. It is the responsibility of project managers to determine the resources needed to conduct a project successfully. It is his duty to manage the overall activity of a project by ensuring the optimum utilization of resources so that money may not get wasted. In this way, proper human resource planning is done to define the roles and responsibilities of team members to make them perform their duty well. It is notable that a complex large scale project depends heavily on skilled manual labor along with other resources, and thus to apply a good HR planning is necessary in big projects (Mathis and Jackson, 2010).

The Resource-Based View (RBV) of the Firm

HR planning is often considered as nuisance and as a secondary function which does not add directly to the accomplishment of project objectives. In the viewpoint of Loosemore, Dainty Lingard (2003), there are innumerable examples of corporate and long term project crises, which have political considerations that are the result of lack of HR planning. One such example is of Queensland rail disruption, in which numerous numbers of commuters suffered because 100 trains cancelled in Brisbane, due to lack of staff that can drive trains. This aspect really annoyed the customers and impacted the goodwill of firm due to sudden cancellations of trains.

Due to the characteristics of large scale complex projects that have political consideration and different project participants, the need to implement HR planning becomes crucial for managing relationships among project members, enhancing team performance and encouraging value for individuals. HR planning help human resource managers in considering different factors while constituting and implementing HRM strategies and practices at the large scale project (Armstrong, 2006).

With respect to the Queensland rail disruptions, it is noteworthy that the rail network was under-resourced and not prepared for the novel Redcliffe Peninsular line. This was the outcome of ineffective HR planning because if the management would have done HR plan effectively, there will not be any shortage of skilled human resources (ABC News, 2016). This is because HR planning helps in managing human resources by guaranteeing ample supply of human resources, ensuring their proper usage and timely analysis of any surplus or shortage of human resources for addressing the needs of the project. Queensland Rail required more manpower, which was not available due to lack of HR planning. Queensland Rail had impractical assumptions of the train crew needed to run the new timetable, but is there have been HR planning, Queensland Rail would have been able to manage necessary staff at right time without any delay (Aslam, et al., 2013). It is true that large scale project management is quite a complex process but effective HR planning is like a ladder to ensure the success of a complex project, particularly which has HR considerations.

The resource-based view (RBV) is an approach that considers resources as the key to superior organizational performance. As pet the RBV approach, it is necessary for companies to look inside and find sources of competitive advantage, rather than looking outside. The supporters of resource-based view of SHRM argue that human resources are a sparse, precious, organization-specific and difficult-to-imitate resource or strategic asset for companies (Colbert, 2004). RBV gives emphasis to the fact that it is the assortment and exploitation of an organization’s resources, including human resources that give an organization its source of competitive advantage and its uniqueness. Therefore, the RBV considers the HR function in an organization as the chief ‘strategic’ player in creating sustainable competitive advantage and the human resources of an organization as the chief assets for maintaining sustainable competitive advantage (Barney, 1991).

It is notable that RBV emphasizes and directs effective HR planning. This is because it suggests that to make sure that human resources or HR function generate sustainable competitive advantage, firms need to guarantee that they are organized so that they can capitalize on their human resources. This demands focusing on horizontal integration, or incorporated, logical systems of HR practices, instead of individual practices, that allow employees to attain their potential at fullest (Barney, 2001). For this organizations needs to make sure that their HR practices and policies are coherent and coordinated, rather than being contradictory from other organizational practices. In this manner, RBV guides in effective HR planning because it helps organizations to focus on their human resources and consider them as a significant part of their planning and implementation process (Conner, 1991).

The powerful and clear connection to the RBV serves the SHRM field in twofold manner; it forefronts the role of human resources in questions of strategy by enhancing the significance of research and practice in SHRM, and secondly it persuades a more specific focus for HRM. The RBV is of pertinence because it encourages the fact that human resources should not be considered as the core of every strategic move in an organization, but along with it is also essential to clearly state their duties in the HR plan of the organization (Grant, 1991). RBV supports that an organization should utilizes its human resources effectively for attaining objectives and the HR plan helps in the effective utilization of human resources by assessing and recruiting skilled personnel and addressing the manpower requirements of a firm.

With reference to large scale, complex projects, it is noteworthy that if the project managers should have consider internal resources crucial along with the external forces it becomes difficult to manage the project in an effective manner and yield outcomes within specified timeframe (Helfat and Peteraf, 2003). Since, the RBV emphasizes on the role of human capital for attaining competitive advantage, it ultimately points towards the role of HR planning. Moreover, it is substantial to note that there has been a lack of skilled, qualified and talented human resources for projects and organizations, and HR planning helps in dealing with this scarcity of human resources ensuring adequate supply of manpower, ensuring their appropriate usage, assessing any surplus or shortage and forecasting future requirements (Aslam, et al., 2013).

Conclusion

To conclude, it can be stated that in the current report it has been argued that human resource (HR) planning is crucial for the successful complexion of large scale, complex projects, especially where political considerations exist. It has been stated that HR planning covers numerous vital goals and responsibilities, including appointing talented staff, managing payroll and employee policies along with employee training programs and so on. An HR plan helps in addressing both the tactical and strategic requirements of a large scale complex project.

In order to emphasize the significance of HR planning in large scale, complex projects where political considerations exists, the example of Queensland Railway has been used. In this project, required project outcomes could not be attained because of ineffective HR planning that lead to lack of drivers availability at the right time. Moreover, the report has also included the Resource Based View (RBV), which also emphasizes on the role of internal resources, especially human resources for attaining sustainable competitive advantage. Overall, it has been argued in the paper that human resources are the strategic assets and HR planning is the strategic function and both holds enormous importance in large scale, complex projects, especially where political considerations exist.

References

ABC News 2016, ‘Queensland Rail disruptions: Annastacia Palaszczuk ‘furious’ over 100 cancelled trains in Brisbane’, [Online]. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-23/annastacia-palaszczuk-furious-over-queensland-rail-disruptions/7957862 [Accessed on: 25 March 2017].  

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Barney, J B 1991, ‘Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage,’ Journal of Management, 17 (1), pp.99-120.

Barney, J B 2001, ‘Is the Resource-Based “view” a Useful Perspective for Strategic Management  Research? Yes’, Academy of Management Review, 26 (1), pp.41-56.

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Conner, KR 1991, ‘A Historical Comparison of Resource-Based Theory and Five Schools of Thought within Industrial Organization Economics: Do We Have a New Theory of the Firm?’ Journal of Management, 17, pp.97-108.

Grant, RM 1991, ‘The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formation’, California Management Review, 33 (3), pp.114-35.

Helfat, CE and Peteraf, MA 2003, ‘The Dynamic-Resource-Based View: Capability Lifecycle’, Strategic Management Journal, 24 pp.997-1010.

Loosemore, M, Dainty, A and Lingard, H 2003, Human Resource Management in Construction Projects: Strategic and Operational Approaches. London: Taylor & Francis.

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Paauwe, J 2004, HRM and Performance: Achieving Long-term Viability. Oxford University Press.

Storey, J 2007, Human Resource Management: A Critical Text. London: Thomson.

Weatherly, L.A 2004, ‘Performance management: Getting it right from the start’, SHRM Research Quarterly, 2, pp. 1-10.

Wright, P, Gardner, T, Moynihan, L and Allen, M 2005, ‘The relationship between HR practices and firm performance: examining causal order’, Personnel Psychology Journal 58(2), pp. 409-446.