HRM Issues Research Report an

¶ … HRM Issues Research Report An organization has several departments such as finance, marketing, logistics, administration and human resource. Human resource management or HRM is responsible for the management of organizations' employees. The prime function of HR is recruitment, training, evaluating and rewarding of staff. Moreover, HR also manages the overall culture and environment of an organization. Environmental forces play a vital role in determining the success or failure of an organization. An organization has internal and external environment.

The internal environment of an organization consists of elements in the organization itself, such as its workforce, management, and particularly the culture, which determine the workforce behavior. Even though, various elements influence the entire organization; others only affect the manager of an organization. Managers have their own philosophy or leadership styles. The leadership style of a manager directly affects employees. Some traditional managers provide explicit orders to employees; while some managers authorize the employees to make their own decisions. A nice organizational environment is enduring investment.

Employees appreciate the environment that presents opportunities for achievement and healthy livelihood. It also maintains a good relationship between employees with same goals. The workforce enjoys working in an organization that is successful; that obtains better results in every period and let them be a part of that achievement; knowing that employees are the most valuable asset of the organization. An organization with such an environment, it becomes easy to predict that the level of engagement will boost and accomplishment of results can be guaranteed.

HRM plays important role for developing the organizational environment, as it is the employees who make the organization run, who hold and build up a particular environment in the organization, any desired transformation in the environment of an organization is made by the people working in the organization. Over the last twenty years, there have been major changes in the organizational environment that mainly includes sociological, political and technological development.

In recent years, the entry of women into the workforce, significant changes in consumer behavior, preferences along with an increase in wealth of consumers and market saturation unprecedented. An increasing globalization and cultural exchange and the rapid development of new and improves technology is not only changing the habits and lifestyle but it is also changing how individuals work and interact with each others' within or outside the organization. The fundamental HR functions like selection, recruitment and training has an effect on the overall performance of an organization.

These functions influence the behavior of employees and they play a major role in determining the organizational environment and culture. The behavior of employees refer to how they act or conduct themselves, if practices of HRM could affect the behavior of employees positively, building a positive environment and thinking among the employees of an organization can help a great deal to create value for strategies and it yield positive outcomes for the organization.

In this rapidly changing environment, HRM is one of the important sources of an organization to get competitive advantage. According to Caliskan (2010), HRM can give persistent competitive advantage to an organization through assisting the improvement of competencies of a firm and managing the overall environment of an organization. Strategic HRM plays an important role in designing a connection among the HR strategy, the strategic aim of an organization and the implementation process.

The system of an organization to manage its human resource has an important relationship with the performance of organization (Caliskan, 2010). Every organization goes through change; it can be in the form of its environment, structure or hierarchy, technological change, or workforce. Boyne & Kenneth (2009) argued that organizations are always under pressure to the external environmental forces. These forces may be permanent and can be impulsive.

When organizations introduce new product or service in the various sectors of the market, there is always an uncertainty due to the fact that each and every sector of the environment is constantly changing. Thus, the new product or service must fulfill the requirements of changing environment, particularly if an organization is operating in a competitive environment. These changes within or outside the organization presents a tough challenge to managers.

However, proper planning and strategies to cope with the changes can simplify the things and it makes the life of a manager easier. To become a successful organization and to cope with the changes, managers must identify types of changes required in the organization. For instance, organizations can enhance and develop improved or latest technologies, improves techniques of production, identify need of new products in the market, implementation of new and effective management system within the organization, and upgrading skills of their workforce (Boyne & Kenneth, 2009).

Successful organizations adapt changes that are both profitable and admirable. Discussions Aging Workforce and Human Resource Management Aging workforce is a reality and organizations have to face it at some stage. The number of senior employees working in an organization grows because of multiple reasons; they might be having financial need, the absence of pension plans and sufficient health reimbursement (Feinsod & Davenport, 2006).

However, senior employees in an organization typically transmit several vital assets to their team members, such as their experience of life, good attitudes, flexibility towards work and eagerness to learn new things. On the other hand, the HRM has to consider various issues regarding their aging workforce, when it comes to the success and smooth running of an organization.

Some of the factors that the HRM has to think about such as, the first thing that the HRM has to consider are the number of aging employees working currently in the organization. They compare the figure with the past records and find out the average age of employees working in their organization. They are well-known of the fact that the aging of workforce is natural phenomenon. The HRM has to determine the retirement plans of employees.

The organizations make certain policies to make the life of their employees easy after their retirement. The HRM should consider the health issues of their employees. After the age of 55, the chances are high that the employees fall in this category of age might suffer from some health issues. The HRM has to make sure that the aging employees are healthy and there is no issue regarding their health so that they can work freely in the organization.

Other thing that the HRM has to judge is the allocation of health remuneration for their employees. The cost of health program for aging workforce might be high if they are suffering from certain health issues. So the HR has to make sure that proper budget is assigned to the health program of their workers. The HRM has to consider the age discrimination among the employees when they are assigning a certain project or task to a particular team of employees.

They have to consider the balance between the aging workforce and young employees so that the project or task can be accomplished without any conflict among the employees. When an employee retires, HRM has to make sure that they have a perfect backup to fill the gap of that senior employee. Although, it might take some time to fill the gap as there is no replacement for experienced employee who is working for years in the organization.

The young employee who takes the position of retired employee might bring some enthusiasm towards work and positive energy in the organization. The aging employees are generally considered as major trend in the market. Most of the organizations suffer loss because of the departure of baby boomers and also the increase in the ages of their labor force. Majority of managers agreed that aging workforce could cause shortage of labor therefore, distracting the stable supply of labor workforce.

The sectors such as: healthcare, energy and construction are likely to suffer the most from their aging workforce. As a result of aging workers, there is a possibility that the organizations could suffer decline in their production. Above all, the aging of workforce of labor could be a concern as it would affect the growth of an economy.

Technological changes and its uses in the Workplace In the context of global competition in which organizations operate today, it is essential to redefine the perception to successfully handle challenges in the market. One of the tough challenges that all organizations are facing today is the introduction of new technologies day by day. We can define the technology as a set of processes and structures used by an organization to convert resources into goods and services. Technology is a form of control.

Organizations should be aware of the advanced technology to be able to use the latest and most effective means of operations. Technology can be divided into three types: automation, computerization and robotics. Automation can be defined as the systematic organizing of work in such a way that it is fully or almost fully executed by itself. Automation is based on the feedback sensor information and control mechanism.

Computerization of production in recent years has become quite common, and there are now four versions of the application of computer technology in the production of computer-aided design (CAD) involves the use of computers to design parts and products, which increases efficiency, because it exempt the creation of prototypes. Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) involves the use of computers for planning and controlling the production process.

It is useful if the product or parts are bought frequently, because the computer can provide a better control over the ordering, receiving, assembly and product structure. Integrated computer-aided manufacturing (CIM) is the result of joining the CAD and CAM, where the computer system that controls the production, receives information and provides the appropriate setting on the machines; when production process starts. All activities for the design, verification and manufacturing are controlled by the computer.

Organizations use computer operated systems to develop a layout of equipment and its mode of operation which increase the complexity and flexibility of planning. Flexible manufacturing systems are the working robotic units, workstations, assembly lines, or other forms of computer-controlled transporting systems that are required by industries to move materials from one part of the system to another. Robots are the machines that are capable to do work instead of a person. Robotics is usually related the industries such as science, engineering, construction, maintenance automotive, aerospace manufacturing and communications.

The utilization of robotics has increased since 1980's, and it has continued to grow rapidly and more companies are realizing its benefits. Currently, there is a tendency to use small robots that are faster, stronger and smarter, and these are widely used in the service sector. Chester (2001) argued that the role of HRM becomes more important when the organization adapt new technology. The technology and HRM activities have strong relationship with each other.

It is the responsibility of HR to build up the skills and conduct training of their employees according to the requirements and demand of technology (Chester, 2001). Technology changes the way decisions are made and the demand of skilled employees increase with the use of latest technology. In today's work environment, we can safely say that technology has changed the way people work. The introduction of new technology also brings excitement among the employees. Moreover, organizations use technology to reduce or eliminate the chances of human error.

Human error can be caused because of work pressure or stress. Technology has also made the decision making process much easier and accurate. The acceleration of decision making process ensures that operational tasks are performed without any delay. Improved communication process in the workplace is one of the major advantages of technology. However, organizations have to consider that too much reliance on technology can make their employees lazy and it can destroy their skills and creativity (Kingston, 2007).

Recommendations for Aging workforce The role of HRM becomes very important to handle aging workforce in an organization. As an HR consultant, following are the recommendations to handle aging workforce: 1. Retention of Key employees It is very important for organizations to keep their aging workforce who have comprehensive understanding and expertise in their field. The organization should design their policies to retain their valuable employees. 2. Flexible Policies and Strategies Strategies like workforce expansion, flexible workforce policies can be put into practice to preserve the valued senior employees of an organization.

The flexible policies such as increase in their retirement age, alteration in retirement incentives and old age pension funds agreement. 3. Avoiding discrimination between employees Strategies should be made to avoid age discrimination and conflicts between young and senior employees. Strategies such as: making a team of employees of same culture or making legal efforts to ensure friendly atmosphere in the workplace. 4.

Training and Development Program Proper training and skill development programs should be conducted to make sure that there is no labor shortage in the workplace after the retirement of aged employees. 5. Relationship between Employer and Employee The employers should keep a good and healthy relationship with their aged workforce to make them feel comfortable and that they are still values and important asset of the workplace. 6. Addressing Health issues of Aged workforce Aged workforce should be given rest breaks and managers should not give them stressful tasks.

The health issues in the age's workforce are likely to increase therefore, organization should take care of the health issues of their senior employees. Good medical incentives should be given to senior members. Health awareness programs should also be conducted such as importance of physical activity, eating healthy food, avoiding tobacco use and timely health visits. Recommendations for Technological changes In today's world, technological changes have increased rapidly. The use of technology is the way to go for every organization.

Businesses use technology to make easiness to access the information, exchanging the information and facilitating knowledge. The effective use of technology is in the hand of its user. Therefore, organizations must make sure to their employees are fully trained to use the new adopted technology effectively. Following are the recommendations for organizations, which are facing technological changes: 1. Assessment of Current Employees The new technology should only be adopted after the assessment.