Valuable human capital
The purpose of this essay is to amplify the steps to be taken to ensure that Human Resource (HR) practices addresses the need for long-term productivity and for a workplace in which relationship are built on trust and mutual respect. Productivity is a measure of quantity and quality of work done, taking into account the costs of resources used (Mathis & Jackson 2011). However, productivity in workplace is far more than the simple definition, it is how organizations prepare itself for the changes in technology or to achieve innovation, quality or cost reduction objectives in the long-term.
A workplace with trust and respect provides employees with confidence and sense of belonging in the organization. The two main points covered are interrelated, with trust in workplace motivates employees, increase job satisfaction and increase productivity in workplace. Human Resource Management (HRM) is introduced to enhance productivity in an organization by addressing their working environment and treating them as valuable human capital.
The key for productivity is the employees, thus HRM practices ensure attraction and retention of talents and the right people are on the right job doing the right things, which helps organizations create competitive advantage. The essay will flow according to the employment cycle, how HR practices in each cycle address to the topic with examples from organizations such as Citibank that are based on my personal experience. PRE-HIRING PHASE The first phase of employment cycle involves HR planning and job analysis. Planning maps out strategic HR plan to prepare organizations for changes related to technology or resources.
The first step of planning is to determine the organization’s business objectives. Organization has to focus on innovation, quality or cost reduction to ensure the HR practices align with the focused objective. This essay will emphasize on the objective of innovation as the need for long-term productivity. Only with a clear business objective can an organization develop HR practices, which motivate and lead employees on the right track. Increasing education levels creates demand for jobs that are interesting with career advancement and training provided.
Jobs have to be consistently redesigned to meet the current demand. Job analysis specifies the position’s functions, requirements and future opportunities. It helps to provide a clear guideline on selection process, performance appraisal on what to assess, what type of training to resolve underperformance and the rewards entitled for hard work. It identifies the competencies related to the job. Data could be collected from various sources to ensure credibility. Line managers could verify the information regarding employees’ roles to ensure they are aligned with organization’s objectives.
A good job and person specifications will help to attract qualified applicants. Purpose of person specifications reduces stereotypes during selection process and mainly focused on their ability. A well-structured job description enables employees to be aware of what is expected from them, reduce their uncertainty and increase trust level in organization. HIRING PHASE The second phase of the employment cycle involves procedures and polices that organizations used to attract, recruit and select the suitable candidates.
The key to high productivity in recruitment is to recruit people whose values and goals that match with organization’s objective. Organizations have to take both internal and external policies into consideration. Internal polices are set by organization itself, while external policies are not within their control. Recently, Singapore tightened its restrictions on foreign labour (Teo 2012), organizations are to take these policies together with business strategy, time, cost, and criteria developed from job analysis into consideration to determine appropriate recruitment strategies.
Internal recruitment such as job rotation or promotions builds employees’ trust in the organization that their performance is assessed fairly. Often, a promotion creates an indirect mutual trust between organization and employees of their responsibilities. However, organizations should have a fair practice on recruitment methods to allow internal promotion as well as recruitment externally to bring in new employees. Citibank recruitment system recruits permanent positions internally, advertising on its website or internal referrals, while temporary positions are recruited through recruitment agencies.
It creates a workplace built on trust through announcing of opening positions through internal mails and encouraged employees to apply if they are interested. This open system practice reflects fairness and how Citibank value its employees. By treating employees as assets, it could increase overall motivational level and job satisfaction. Shorter time was also spent on sourcing temporary positions in order to focus on permanent positions and development of other HR functions. A planned procedure allows fair and organized practice in selecting suitable applicants.
Assessments are another tool to determine applicants’ personalities or behaviors fit the job. With technology implemented into our daily operations, online recruitments are used instead of the traditional jobs advertising in newspaper. Starbucks uses software, which has the ability to record of all the online applicants and their answers based on a variety of questions designed by Starbucks (Weber, 2005). This shows how technology are intimately linked to engaging fair HR practices by eliminating non-qualified applicants through assessment and job specifications (Dauda & Akingbade 2011).
Lastly, successful applicants are required to go through selection interview. Creative interview questions allow creativity replies from interviewees and highlight their competencies. Hiring the right people for the right job creates is the key to organization success. POST-HIRING PHASE In the post-hiring phase, it is crucial for organizations to maintain strong relationship and trust among employees to create a better workplace or enhancing innovation and productivity. High satisfaction will lead to higher commitment and lower turnover rate.
First impression often shapes employees’ attitude at work. Orientation has to be well designed to reduce anxiety, develop positives attitudes and encourage innovation in the new employees that lead them to job satisfaction and long-term commitment (Nankervis et al. 2011). Regular follow-up and evaluation of their progress helps to encourage feedbacks regarding orientation and daily operations for improvement. Efforts in monitoring new employees’ progress and listening to feedbacks can build employees’ trust in organization.
Currently, globalization and changing demographics creates workplace of different generations, nationalities, races, genders, education levels and culture. Organizations should develop a platform that supports global interactions and exchanging information on diverse market, resources, skills and experiences, allowing employees to apply these gained knowledge in work. Workplace that enhances collaboration and teamwork forms comparison, which helps trigger employees’ creativity and self-esteem (Dauda & Akingbade 2011).
Long-term productivity can therefore be achieved in high trust and commitment workplace. Training Employees build trust in organization based the perceptions of organization’s ability to provide trainings that benefits their career (Vanhala & Ahteela, 2011). On the other hand, organization provides training when they trust employees to have the potential to apply competencies in work. Proper planning in training investment helps organization to ensure the increase productivity benefited and costs are on the same scale (Mudor & Tooksoon 2011).
To generate productivity, training objectives have to reflect the organization’s business plan in order to tailor effective trainings. Organization first has to analyze and fills the gap between employees’ actual and desired performance with suitable trainings. Objective for training can determine the appropriate training methods such as on-the-job learning, off-the-job learning, seminars, and workshops. Next, each training objective must be delivered to ensure the understanding of how specific training programs help in their career to motivate their learning interest.
