Essay Sample on HRM Functions: Recruiting, Motivating & Retaining People

Introduction

Generally, the roles of human resources management revolve around recruiting, motivating, and retaining the workforce within an organization. Human resources management can refer to a strategic approach to gaining, creating, motivating, and acquiring the organizations' critical driving force; people who work within and for the company. Thus, human resource is a critical department in any organization with several functions.

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HRM Functions Overview

The majority of human resource work is regulating performance management. The human resource creates spaces, whether the organization and its workforce can achieve maximum productivity and improve their overall performance using the right strategies. Performance management goes beyond developing a conducive working environment. It is about effectiveness in leadership, teamwork, interpersonal relationship, and positive feedback (Mcmahon & Mcmahon, 2013). To manage the process, there are numerous strategies the human resource department may apply to the operation of management more effortless. In the review of the plan, it is worth noting that they all fall under the umbrella of the performance management in; Setting goals for the performance and creating ways in which these goals can be achieved. In this case, the Human Resource (HR) should communicate the organization's goals and the performance objective of the company. For the employees to meet the performance expectation of the company, the purposes must be communicated, making this one of the essential effective performance management (Mcmahon & Mcmahon, 2013).

The second effective performance management revolves around monitoring employee performance productivity, with an intentional open meeting. HR uses performance management software to gauge the employees' output. The software streamlines the performance management plans, therefore making it crucial to incorporate the system. An excellent performance management system includes the 360s and traditional reviews, is workers friendly, and its user interface is friendly (Mcmahon & Mcmahon, 2013). Additionally, it allows a fast, actionable analysis and is easy to foster employee growth. The software assists both the employee and the HR to stay ahead of things; the implications of this are, the company runs smoothly, efficiently, and effectively. Some of this software includes Impraise, BambooHR, AssessTeam, and Perfomly.

Alternatively, HR can establish and offers regular performance-related feedback. It is essential for HR to have a clear overview of all the company goals and also individual goals. However, this alone does not guarantee any performance improvement. The managers need to be part of the process, especially in the constant check-ins on the teams, to gauge their performance and provide feedback. Excellent productivity feedback strengthens skillsets and positivity in the overall behaviors of the employee in addition to providing a clarification of the areas that need improvement (Mcmahon & Mcmahon, 2013). Additionally, HR can use peer reviews, which is also referred to as a 360 degrees review. Peer reviews are essential since they allow the co-worker to rate and praise the colleagues while highlighting all the positive aspects as well as the areas that might require some improvement.

The third performance management area is offering benefits and recognizing excellent performance, and resolving the issues around the poor performance. HR can formulate pre-emptive management and recognition. This is through implementing rewards in-terms of benefits and compensation and pro-active management. The employees will always know that hard work will be rewarded; thus, they are motivated towards doing and being their best. They minimize errors and strictly follow the company's objective (Mcmahon & Mcmahon, 2013).

Human Resources Planning, Recruitment, and Selection

Human resources play a crucial role in planning, hiring, and selection of the workforce. To create relevance of the positions that need to be filled in a company, the human resources department can plan ahead and anticipate the necessity of the new posts, the accompanying skills for competency purposes (Badawy, 2008). In some instances, human resources might find it difficult to hire from outside, thus retaining the existing labor. But that might compromise the competency goals of the company.

Thus, the HRM may decide to do on-job training, talent refining, and adjust the requirement of the position effectively. In this aspect, the human resources management can execute its role effectively via the job description and the accompanying vacancy. This forms the first recruitment task of the HRM in line with the business strategy (Badawy, 2008). The human resource (HR) should have a clear overview of the applicant's fitness to the position and how it aligns with their future needs, as well as the responsibilities that might be added in the future. The evaluation is then analyzed against the job description and the changing business needs. HR establishes the selection criteria in which defines whether the external search is necessary or an internal search could fill the existing position (Badawy, 2008). What follows is the evaluation and testing followed by the interview process, and all the required background checks are conducted in cases of the external approach.

Human Resources Development

Human resources development (HRD) refers to the framework for assisting employees in developing organizational and personal skills, abilities, and knowledge. HRD forms an essential opportunity that the workers can benefit from their respective employers (Heathfield, 2007). The workers' capabilities, as well as encouragement to enhance their skills, helps the organization to retain and motivate their workers in the highly dynamic contemporary environment. Some of the ways HRD plays a role in this are; on-job training, worker career development, development and performance management, mentoring, tuition assistance, organization development, succession planning, and critical employee identification (Heathfield, 2007).

HRD focuses on creating the best and most superior workforce, so the same can aide the company to achieve its objectives, and the employees can also achieve their career goals. There are two categories through which HRD can be involved in the development of its workforce and includes formal and informal methods. These methods can be done either internally or externally (Heathfield, 2007). The informal development is generally conducted within and where the assigned manager or an internal team, train the existing workforce. This form of training revolves around mentorship by the more experienced employees and is highly recommended for the recruit progression (Heathfield, 2007).

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation and benefits refer to the employee's remuneration, a stipend of wages, including other non-monetary and monetary payment by an organization to its workers in exchange for their services. Compensation and benefits form one of the most significant HRM aspects as it ensures that the workforce is continually motivated (Zigu, 2011). The employees are motivated since these benefits are directly linked with their performance and productivity in execution of their respective roles. Whereas the company hires workers to achieve the organizational goals, employees, on the other hand, mainly join an organization to build their careers and offer services, and in return, they are rewarded with benefits and compensation.

While there might be some exemptions to this, the higher the benefits, the more loyal the employees are to the company. Companies paying less are most likely to receive lower quality workforce and loyalty, leading to reduced productivity. Compensation and benefits fall into various components including, fixed pay, which is the primary worker pay, as stated in the employment contract (Zigu, 2011). Variable fee which comprises of all the additional benefits paid to a worker due to their productivity and the resultant impact on the company performance. Additionally, workers might be rewarded using the company shares a benefit called equity pay through which the employees earn money through dividends. Other benefits might include medical insurances, company vehicles, housing, as well as other insurance policies that keep the employee motivated and more loyal (Zigu, 2011).

Employment and Labor Laws and Regulations

HRM is highly influenced and substantially controlled by the States and Federal Laws, which govern the worker's issues. The legislations govern all the aspects of HRM, including, recruiting, placement, growth, and benefits/compensation. Among the most significant legislation that cuts across all the functional areas is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the accompanying adjustments, which include the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (Human Resources Management and the Law [HRM-L], 2018). The rules prohibited discrimination against race, ethnicity, religion, gender, color as well as the nation of origin. The legislation ensures that employers follow and regularly document the fairness practices associated with hiring, paying, training, compensation, which covers virtually all the activities related to HRM.

The 1964 legislation created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, whose role was to enforce the rules and provided for penalties in any event of open discrimination. The second legislation that is essential is the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which forbids salary or wage discrimination based on gender, and enforces equal pay for equal work (HRM-L, 2018). However, there exist controversies on how to measure the equality of outcome and the accompanying equality of worth, commonly known as the comparable worth.

How HRM Functions Work Together in Optimizing Organizational and Employee Behavior

Being one of the essential departments in any organization, HRM functions are critical in optimizing organizational and employee behavior. To get a more precise comparison, the functions can be subdivided into two to include the managerial and operative functions. These two functions are inseparable and are geared towards the overall smooth running of the company. In administrative functions, HRM plays roles such as planning, where HR decides the type and number of employees required to accomplish specific tasks that are aligned with the organization's goal. HR is responsible for the collection, analysis, and identification of the present and future requirements within an organization to better prepare, orient, and align the company's labor force with the current and future needs.

Organizing is another managerial duty of the HR and includes allocation of tasks depending on the requisite skills. This enables the company to tap its human capital maximumly in line with its growth objectives. In this, all the duties are assigned to each member and integrated towards achieving the same goal. Directing forms, a critical function as it involves activating the employees at different levels so they may contribute maximumly to the organizational goals. As such, the employee is often motivated, thus tapping their maximum potential. Controlling is the last managerial function which involves post-planning, directing, and organizing, where the performance of the employee is analyzed and checked against the goals. A slight deviation is addressed with the employee, where the key weaknesses are noted.

The operative functions includes hiring, which introduces a new pool of labor. The new pool, due to diversity and different backgrounds, introduces new ways around decision making and areas like increased talent pool. Job analysis and design form another operative function in which the HR issues a...