Human Resource Management in Wordsmith

Question: Describe the issue in detail using relevant theories and frameworks. Explain why the issue needs improving in the organisation, make a case for change. You could include in your analysis a comparison of practice in your own organisation with industry best practice or with practice in another organisation? Answer: Introduction: The report aims at highlighting upon an organization named Wordsmith in Australia. It provides us with information about human resource management in general and that of in the mentioned organizational context. In the report, it has been discussed about an issue related to human resource management that the organization has been on the process of combating. The human resource challenge that is discussed and said to be faced by Wordsmith is that of lack of effectiveness in training and development of organizational workforce. It lays brief information about the organization and related human resource management issues. The information has been backed by relevant theories as well as frameworks. Suitable comparisons have also been drawn with that of other organizations in the same functional department. The report finally ends with a vivid conclusion and a suitable recommendation that state what strategies the mentioned organization along with its management must undertake and adopt to ensure effective training practices within the organization. Company Profile: Wordsmith organization is engaged in making products for human-driven analysis of real world data. It aims at creating the best user experience of the world to allow working with raw data, that which empowers individuals to ask as well as answer critical questions without the need to excel querying languages, command line, or statistical modeling (Sheehan, Fenwick Dowling, 2010). For achieving such objective, the organization builds platform to integrate, manage, and secure data. The company has been successfully performing in the competitive environment with increased effectiveness as well as efficiency. The human resource management has been quite efficient in its operations. Human Resource Management in Wordsmith: Professional engaged in human resource management at Wordsmith take up the usual functionalities of human resource management in general. They undertake important personnel decisions within organizational scope(Nery Kjerfve McLean, 2012). They are responsible to conduct ongoing training of members in different functional areas. Since human resource managers are meant to manage individuals from different backgrounds or qualifications, various challenging issues emerge out from time to time and these must be dealt with. Such issues may vary based upon its size, industrial concentration and urgency of situation. An effective strategy for organizational training is a key to bring about success in an organization. It often serves as an approach for developing organizational workforce, including that of an essential tool for successful recruitment as well as retention of workforce. One of the key challenges that a human resource department face is usually about the need to hire skilled and competent employees. Wordsmith being a large international company and has been growing quite well in Australia, is recently faced with this key personnel issue. Although it is a large Company, its employees seek for better opportunities outside the organization due to various motives (Mumford, 2000). Because of lack of adequate opportunities in the organization for its employees to grow and achieve excellence, employees have been leaving the organization in search of better opportunities. On research it has been identified that the key problem lies in the training aspects of employees. The managers at the respective department undertake various responsibilities to enhance employee loyalty as well as productivity. However, some issues exist that do not allow the organization to excel in the human resource management. It has been a normal practice within the organization after recruitment and selection, employees are not trained adequately. They lack enough skills and competencies in undertaking their respective jobs. This tends to decrease their motivation to take up challenging tasks and lead to organizational sustainability (Armstrong Stassen Templer, 2005). Lack of training sessions lead to waste of energy and resources allocated in the hiring process. Often it has been observed that within the organization, the low-performing employees spread a feeling of negativity about the firm. This potentially infects others as well as leads to overall downfall of potentials of the entire work culture. Due to the lack of effective performance management, the workforce fail to meet the objectives in due time. Role of Human Resource Management in Firms: The department is responsible for suggesting the management regarding the ways to manage strategically the employees as business resources. It includes management of recruitment of employees, coordinating their benefits, and also recommending employee training as well as development plans. Hence, the human resource professionals act as consultants in a way. They usually advise managers regarding several issues associated with employees and achievement of goals. Human resource management is greatly responsible for functions like collaboration, building commitment, and building capacity (Agarwal Kapoor(Kohli), 2013). The mangers collaborate with different professionals at organization to get various tasks performed in a planned and effective manner. Collaboration helps in quick deliverances of organizational functions. Human resource management plays the key role in building commitment among organizational employees. The department enables creation of capacity among the employees to m aintain effective inventory of organizational assets(Zafar, 2013). All strategic decisions undertaken by firms may possess important effects upon the organizational staffs as new recruits, retrenchment, and increased training may be needed. The senior human resource experts are placed at a position whereby they are required to several important decisions about managing human resources in an organization. In case of Wordsmith, it has been observed that the human resource department is engaged with several essential functionalities associated with human resources. However, the Company suffers from few drawbacks due to lack of effective planning and implementation of strategies. The key area of deficiency is training and development of employees (Adkins, 2005). The leaders, specially human resource managers must formulate and assess various strategies to adopt effective training and development strategies in order to counteract the difficult and crisis situation of Wordsmith related to aspects of training needs of the organizational workforce. Concept of Training in Organizations: All newly hired employees of an organization may or may not possess the essentially required skills and competencies related to particular tasks within an organizational culture. Once an organization hires employees for conducting business functions, the main aim must be vested in the need to provide these employees with increased quality of training and developmental sessions whereby employees would be thoroughly trained about the tasks they are meant to undertake at the organization (Baruch, 2006). Training provides the employees with the tool to conduct deliver their roles and responsibilities in the best possible manner. Organization must arrange for training sessions at regular intervals so that the employees are updated with the latest knowledge and skills. This is helpful for the organization to operate competitively and stay ahead of all its business competitors. Often, retraining becomes essential for restoring forgotten skills, or even to enhance present skills, or to acqui re more (Boon, Van der Klink Janssen, 2013). Training is considered to be one of the commonest issues which every human resource department is prone to facing, and also regarded as an essential requisite for employee development. Major Challenges: During the times of economic crisis, the human resource development department of Wordsmith faced some key challenges regarding the training and development of the workforce, beginning ensuring stability of increased performance of employees that helps in driving the firm till coaxing of success from untapped capable employees as well as underachievers(Tourigny Pulich, 2006). Development of Employee Potential This refers to the help that is provided to organizational employees in their capabilities to benefit the overall abilities of the firm tio perform effectively. The organization Wordsmith has been becoming stagnated and thereby constantly losing its ability to part itself from other rival or competitive companies (Westerman, 2001). The employees of the firm are unprepared to move upward direction within the company. This often leads the workforce to fail at promotions due to lack of improve career advancement. Managing Performance This is something more than providing encouragement to high performers. Often it has been observed that within the organization, the low-performing employees spread a feeling of negativity about the firm (De Cieri, Holmes, Abbott Pettit, 2005). This potentially infects others as well as leads to overall downfall of potentials of the entire work culture. Due to the lack of effective performance management, the workforce fail to meet the objectives in due time. This results in slowing down of wide progress. This often resulted in increased terminations and high training costs. Identification of High Potential Higher potential workforce are those who reflect the ability to perform most efficiently and contribute to a great level (Subramony, 2006). The organization as mentioned here lacks efficiency in identifying increased potential of employees. The human resource management department fails to adopt suitable strategies to identify potential workforce. Engaging Workforce Disengaged workforce exhibit a key challenge to productivity of workforce that may prove costly for several firms. This has been a key issue at Wordsmith(Frock, 2015). The managers fail to keep their employees engaged within jobs and this result in dissatisfaction among employees at their positions. The workforce is not encouraged thoroughly to deliver their best performances by staying engaged in organizational activities. Standard Effective Training Strategies: An effective strategy for organizational training is a key to bring about success in an organization. It often serves as an approach for developing organizational workforce, including that of an essential tool for successful recruitment as well as retention of workforce. Development of training strategies provides an organization a competitive advantage that would enable it to survive through the competitive future (Hardr Reeve, 2009). Such a plan needs to be precise, comprehensive, and that every organizational member needs to clearly understand it to ensure proper training facility at the right time. In case of Wordsmith, the higher authority needs to ensure proper planning and execution of a desirable training strategy as depicted below: Strategy: Step 1 The very first stage ensures that the organizational leaders including that of higher management must determine business strategies as well as mission statement. The goals as well as objectives of the organization are to be discussed thoroughly including that of needs of human resource. The management must meet with the head of the human resource management and its managers to discuss various needs of employee development. All previous files in the department are to be reviewed. Those identified human resource needs are to be discussed with operational managers as well. Step 2 The next step is to identify and analyze all training needs by contrasting with overall goals and needs of human resource within an organization. The gaps between organizational goals as well as employee development needs are to be discussed. Creation of training goals for meeting performance goals would be followed (Howell, Kirk-Brown Cooper, 2012). Then it is important to formulate particular learning strategies for overcoming performance gaps. Step 3 the next step demands developing training plan for narrowing of performance gaps. It is important to establish learning goals for individual training program. Programs are to be identified and that all members must attend to it. It is to be ensured that training is conducted in evaluation of every employee. A management system needs to be created which would allow administration, registration, and tracking of all programs related to employee training. Step 4 Management support is necessary to agree to implement such plans. Plans must be reviewed along with organizational leaders to achieve success. Every raising question is to be answered and all issues need to be resolves that are related to training needs. All material are planned as well as plans are finalized (Lai Wan, 2007). Step 5 The plan that is finalized needs to be scheduled as well as implemented. Resources for training must be identified, along with selection of training instructors and facilities. The training schedule must be distributed and reviewed with concerned managers as well as leaders. Conclusion: Thus from the elaborate study about the organization, it may be concluded that the organization Wordsmith along with its topmost management must act in good faith so that the employers may adequately consult with the employees and team members about various organizational changes that may impact the organizational workforce (Manoharan, Muralidharan Deshmukh, 2012). This has been deemed true in the issue of employee training and development process within the organization. The strategies need to be reviewed and revived in order to fetch the maximum benefits in favor of the employees of Wordsmith. The organization also needs to ensure that implementation of these strategies has effective positive impacts upon the workforce. One of the key challenges that a human resource department face is usually about the need to hire skilled and competent employees. Wordsmith being a large international company and has been growing quite well in Australia, is recently faced with this key personnel issue. Although it is a large Company, its employees seek for better opportunities outside the organization due to various motives. Because of lack of adequate opportunities in the organization for its employees to grow and achieve excellence, employees have been leaving the organization in search of better opportunities. Recommendations: Human resource management department may encourage growth by placing employees under a mentor with respect to their target position or move out of the comfort zone with increasing base of knowledge as well as experiences with sustainable growth. The department at Wordsmith must build a clear understanding of workforce, determining definite goals, maintaining timely reviews for creating effective communication that is essential (Liakhovitski, Stone-Romero Jaccard, 2008). Managers at Wordsmith must utilize effective assessment tools like maintaining topmost level of organizational competence, with consistent tangible outcomes which exceed expectations as well as leading to achievement of organizational goals for identifying highly potential employees. It must be bored in the mind of the organizational managers that ensuring constant engagement of employees in their jobs refers to increasing their comfort at their specific positions, and also engage the in further achievement of goals. It must be noticed by the managers that employees who are contented and happily engaged into tasks are more likely to progress at a faster rate. They in fact lead to increased production as well as effectiveness of organizations. 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