Introduction
Human resource management (HRM) is a critical component of a business. Since it involves the management of people and meeting the business standards, the human resources (HR) function calls for HR managers to be proactive in dealing with managerial problems. The rapid change, technological innovations, and increased competition necessitate HR professionals embrace change and adopt a mechanism that will enable them to strike a balance between employees and business. This paper aims to appraise the effectiveness of HR planning and international recruitment and selection measures, with a reference to the case study: “Ethnography: An effective tool to Business Solution.”
Analysis of Advantages of ‘Proper Training’ as Applied in the Case
The lack of proper training for the employees raises several managerial issues in the workplace. Some of the human resource management problems that arise due to lack of proper training are balancing between the management and the employees, recruitment and selection, and training, development, and compensation. In Das, the owner of Das Services Pvt. ltd, these HR Management issues are clearly evident. He is faced with balancing between delivering quality services and meeting the institution’s management requirements, and handling his delivery boys. His delivery boys do not have proper training as they receive training from their colleagues or Mr. Das during the official meetings. This is a critical issue in human resource management, particularly relationship with external stakeholders.
As a result, Mr. Iyer finds himself in a difficult situation that requires him to decide whether to terminate the water supply contract with Mr. Das, the general manager of the subcontracting firm or retain him for avoiding exacerbating the current financial strain on the institution. On the other hand, the institution also struggles with the managerial problem of recruitment and selection. Presented with the high number of applicants who needed the tender, they were confronted with the dilemma of giving the job, hence gave Mr. Das underperforming. Mr. Iyer finds himself in a challenging situation as he has to answer a call and decide whether to fire Mr. Das or give him the last warning. Proper training in such a situation will help solve managerial problems in the following ways:
Improved Employee Performance
With proper training, employees will understand the sensitivity of the work they are doing, and as a result, they will be able to improve their performance. Training gives an employee a greater understanding of their responsibility within their specific job, and in turn, this builds their confidence. With confidence, an employee can enhance the overall performance, which is an advantage to the company. With Das and his delivery boys, lack of proper training is the source of poor performance and dirty work. The delivery people do not clearly understand their role and the importance of the hygiene required.
As a result, Das Services ends up underperforming and delivering substandard work to their client. Esteban-Lloret et al. (2018) observes that role ambiguity and conflict are one of the major determinants of employee training. Upscaling the knowledge and skills of workers through training enables them to understand their responsibilities and expectations, improve their morale, and enhance their job performance (Ahmad & Manzoor, 2017). Therefore, if delivered effectively, training can be a sound solution to the managerial problems facing the company.
Improved Employee Satisfaction and Morale
Proper training creates a supportive workplace and creates an impression to the employees that they are valued. It makes the employees understand whatever they are doing and helps them gain the proper training they would never seek independently. Employees who feel valued tend to take their work seriously, feel motivated, and improves their performance. In the case of Das Company, providing the delivery staff with the relevant training they needed in packing, rinsing, and capping the water bottles could have increased their morale, job satisfaction, and loyalty to the organization.
Consistent with Ahmad (2017), this strategy could have helped them recognize and understand the importance of packing and recapping bottles the right way to comply with hygiene standards and regulations. Washing their hands would not be a problem too, since they know the tangible benefits of hand hygiene in packaging and other business operations.
Improved Productivity and Adherence to Quality Standards
Proper training improves productivity, which in turn increases efficiency. Effective training also means employees understand the standards expected from them and the company they are working for. In the process, this will result in the company’s success and an increase in the market share. If Das had given satisfactory training to his delivery staff, he would not have compromised quality standards, and there will be been no issues between him and the management. Also, this would solve the management issues arising, such as the ones that Iyer is facing.
Emotional and Physical Stability of Employees
Remunerations, salaries, and wages are not enough to make employees stable, happy, and loyal in the contemporary world. Maintaining a proper emotional balance is a critical part of human resource management. They should try to understand the feelings, requirements, and attitudes of the employees. Also, encouraging the employees whenever they require motivation is a vital part of human resource management.
Human resource managers can only achieve these issues through proper training of employees. In return, this training leads to employees’ emotional and physical stability, cohesion, performance improvement, and productivity. If all employees had proper training in the case of Das, there would be no argument whenever he addressed the issue of delivery staff acting appropriately. He would also not be worried about his employees getting employed to the food outlets on campus as no employee wants to leave when they are emotionally and physically stable. All the issues they were having could not be here if the employees had received formal training.
Comparison and Contrast of Actions taken by Nair and Sharma
The actions of serving Mr. Das with a warning letter done by Nair are fair. A warning letter served to an employee is a part of the human resource formal processes which facilitate the recording of misconduct, poor performance, or a disciplinary issue. It serves as an HR way of discussing the issue with the employee formally. The letter is also a critical HR part of setting expectations to the employee for future behavior, and it can also act as a precursor for termination. For HR managers, a warning letter is vital. It formally communicates a mechanism for them to control the situations and take necessary actions about the company policy.
When verbal communication between supervisors and employees does not yield fruit, the warning letter is the best way to record the gaps and highlight the situation. In the case of Mr. Das, Iyer had a meeting with him, and they had talked verbally concerning the water issues on several occasions. However, the verbal communication did not provide any desired results.
Nair had executed his HR-related tasks correctly, and he formally communicated to Mr. Das through a warning letter. This would also act as a precursor to the termination in case Das failed to improve his performance. Moreover, Mrs. Sharma also performed her HR-related task as compliance management is part of human resource activities. Her actions are utterly justifiable as she brought to the limelight complaints about Mr. Das’ Performance. It served to make people aware of the products they were being served with and their hygiene standards. However, Mrs. Sharma did not do it the right way by putting it on the notice board. She could be more sensitive to other people and the company’s reputation and address the issue through direct communication with the management and directors before writing an email to the public notice.
Appropriate Human Resource Management Practices
Human beings are complex, and having to manage them every day can be tricky. Due to the complexity of humans and the digital era, human resource management is a complex task that involves constant identification and overcoming of human resources challenges. This also means considerable effort, time, and money since employees are the greatest assets that a business or company can boast about. Therefore, with this in mind, human resource managers need to adopt and apply appropriate human resource practices to solve the managerial problems they face. Here are some practices that human resource managers should adopt.
Embracing Change with Grace and Ease
Change is inevitable, and it influences our competitors, workplace, and customers too. However, humans are always afraid of change due to the unknown and the anxiety that comes with change. These are the most frequent challenges that HR faces since they are tasked with managing employee morale, happiness, cooperation, and upskilling them and meeting the constant demand of the business.
However, to keep your business competitive and performing, human resource managers need to embrace change and deal with it. At Arumalai research institute, human resource management needs to embrace change and employ another company that can deliver water on the campus with the standards needed. Having talked with Mr. Das on several occasions and served him with a warning letter without getting the desired results, it would be better for them to accept it is time for a change and issue the contract to another dealer who would supply the water from the RO plant with the standards required.
Looking after Health and Safety
Health and safety are some of the significant challenges of human resource management in almost every business. These concerns are governed by labor law and are critical for employees’ wellbeing since they are not only about hygiene. Due to high demand, employee burnout, and limited time, the employees’ physiological wellbeing can highly deteriorate. This implies that the human resource managers need to keep a check on the stress levels and the escalating workload on the employees.
They should also adopt an open door policy for discussing employee working hours, unfair expectations, and anxiety. In the case of the Arumalai research institute, looking after the health, safety, and hygiene of the drinking water would help solve managerial problems since they would give the contract to the best person who will deliver the required standards.
Attracting and Retaining Good Talent
Competition is one of the most critical factors in business and human resource management. Attracting the right individuals needs a proper understanding of the job and the organization. Since jobs and roles keep changing while the organization’s culture keeps adapting, HR jobs become very challenging. Therefore, the human resource needs to focus on people who fit their organization, look for evidence that they employ likes learning, and are flexible. They also need to recruit a person who is adaptable to change and is up to the challenge. By focusing on such qualities, they will be able to recruit employees who will achieve business development and training goals while meeting customers’ standards.
Creating a Quality Employee Experience
Maintaining employees is one of the greatest human resource challenges. As a result, there is a very high turnover rate in fast-paced companies. Human resource managers need to create a quality employee experience through flex-time, work-from-home arrangements, arranging engaging online training, and other incentives to avoid this situation. This will lead to a culture that is welcoming and inspiring.
Recommendations
Based on the specific issues and challenges evident in the case study, the HR department should consider the following recommendations to manage and mitigate the current managerial issues:
- Evaluate which training is essential and offer to their employees.
- Employ various mechanisms and tools to access the capabilities of their employees.
- Be proactive to get ahead of their competitors.
- Align the business strategies with internal and external factors.
- Embrace change and deal with it when it occurs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this case study demonstrates that HR plays an integral role in the overall performance and success of any business enterprise. However, HR managers face complex challenges in the macro and micro business environment. As a consequence, organizations need to strike a proper balance between the employees and the company’s expectations. Organizations expect their workers to deliver consistent and higher productivity. These expectations are valid only if HR managers become more proactive in relation to addressing employees’ needs. Most importantly, they ought to ensure that their employees have the right skills and training to perform to their expectations.
References
Ahmad, I., & Manzoor, S. R. (2017). Effect of teamwork, employee empowerment and training on employee performance. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(11), 380-394. Web.
Esteban-Lloret, N. N., Aragón-Sánchez, A., & Carrasco-Hernández, A. (2018). Determinants of employee training: impact on organizational legitimacy and organizational performance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(6), 1208-1229. Web.
Obeidat, S. M., Al Bakri, A. A., & Elbanna, S. (2020). Leveraging “green” human resource practices to enable environmental and organizational performance: Evidence from the Qatari oil and gas industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 164(2), 371-388. Web.