Management of human resources is regarded to be an effective way to build a base for a high-performance company. This course gave me a priceless opportunity to gain insight into the process of management in the field of human resources and study the trends of human resource management. The following reflection is supposed to summarize my personal discoveries, insights and learning throughout the course.
What did you learn about the importance of human resources practices and its impact on an organization?
The success of the company mainly depends on the efficiency of human resource management as it contributes to the company’s competitive advantage by hiring high-quality employees to provide necessary functions. It is difficult to find a talented and enthusiastic specialist or a manager in any field. With the development of technology, the methods of manufacturing, communicating and transporting continue to change.
Therefore, human resource management has to provide the company with the specialists to meet new requirements. It is possible to state that human resource management is responsible for analyzing and designing jobs, recruiting employees, training them, and improving their development and performance. Moreover, it has many other functions as well, such as managing pay and benefits that employees earn, maintaining positive relations among employees, and ensuring the execution of labor laws.
How will you incorporate leanings to your own professional and/or managerial perspectives?
At this course, I have analyzed my skills as a human resource manager and discovered that they include interpersonal relationship and relationship building skills which are my main strengths. It is also generally recognized that a human resource professional needs a lot of knowledge because of one’s varied responsibilities. I believe that gaining new skills will help me to find a good job. I have also understood the importance of explaining the strategic priorities to a company’s business managers. Supposing myself a human resources manager in a U.S. company, I have practiced in reviewing the importance of EEOC’s strategic priorities. This course has helped me to obtain specific knowledge about human resource management, which might be helpful in applying for a full-time job and passing interviews successfully.
Were there any surprises or discoveries made that allowed you to learn more about the impact of human resource strategies on your personal success as well as organizational performance?
It was a surprise to know about the new trends in human resource management and their impact on employees’ personal success and performance of a company. Nowadays, high-performance systems rely on knowledge workers who are given the power to make decisions regarding the development of product and customer service. It is important to use human resources specialists for employees’ professional development through training courses as it results in better customer’s satisfaction with products and services.
With the development of technology, the notion of teamwork has shifted to virtual teams because many organizations often involve in the process the employees who locate in different places. Teamwork is necessary for company’s successful performance, especially in information technology field. Human resource management helps in developing a company’s strategy, as well as in finding and developing talents to support it.
Talent management provides to employees the opportunities for training and development and creates the compensation plans to reward high performance. For example, when I had an internship in the Construction Bank of China, the manager of the department assigned an employee who taught me to perform my responsibilities. I have gained positive experience and learned a lot from my colleagues during this internship. In the future, I would like to receive customer service and performance management training. Human resource management may also be involved in quality improvement and development of low-cost strategy through downsizing, reengineering, and outsourcing. Offshoring and using global workforce is a common strategy which has a great impact on employees’ opportunities and success as well.
How did the case studies impact your thinking?
The case studies helped me to understand the effect of implementing various human resources strategies in different companies. The evaluation of the strategy success is a key point in gaining experience in the human resource management field. The experience of the described organizations gives an insight into the practical application of the knowledge obtained in the course. It also encourages improving students’ skills in assessing the positive and negative outcomes of the chosen human resource strategy, as well as detecting possible pitfalls and drawbacks according to the company’s business environment.
For example, evaluating contributors of job satisfaction in the Genentech case study has helped me to conceive the factors necessary for job satisfaction in the company performing in the field of scientific research. Moreover, the experience of suggesting new recruiting methods for SAP has helped me to gain experience in planning recruiting strategy for a strong, innovative company.
How has the course enriched your overall business knowledge and management perspective if you are in a leadership role or aspire to be in one?
The course has helped me to learn more about the assessment of employees’ performance and the methods of improving performance. It also gave me some knowledge about creating and managing high-performance work system through rewards, teamwork, and empowerment of employees. For example, for successful empowerment, a qualified manager should contribute in coordinating the team and providing it with the resources necessary to do the work.
Managers should also be involved in encouraging the specialists to share their knowledge with the team and less experienced colleagues, as well as in ensuring employees’ engagement and job satisfaction. If an employee is not satisfied with the job, it might lead to the certain behavior, such as physical and psychological job withdrawal. For the successful management, it is important to indicate the signs of job dissatisfaction among the employees to guarantee right decisions and necessary encouragements.
For example, when I had an internship, I have learned a lot from the experienced workmates, and it gave me satisfaction with this job. Maintaining employees’ performance is considered to be one of the most important skills of a successful manager. Career management may help employees selecting the activities for professional development that prepare them to meet the career’s goals. The management can also predict the “star” employees using the I.Q. tests.
Share your insights and learnings as you complete this course and focus on the lessons you will take away from the experience?
This course has provided me with the knowledge about the functions of human resources management and its role in maintaining a high-performance organization. I have learned various strategies of human resource management in recruiting, training, and achieving a company’s goals. The course has helped me to gain insight into the assessment and management of employees’ performance providing me with the tips to the changes in employees’ behavior and attitude to their work. It has also enriched my knowledge in providing equal employment opportunities and developing pay structure. I have learned about labor unions and their impact on a company’s performance, as well as about new approaches to labor relations.
This reflection has helped me to summarize my personal discoveries, insights and learning throughout human resources management course. It gave me an opportunity to share my knowledge and experience gained during the process of learning. It also enriched my business knowledge about management and approaches to effective strategies for a company to obtain competitive strengths in the market.