Human resource management roles in modern organizations

Trends in Workplace: HRM's Role

The HRM is responsible for many essential roles in organizations (the main ones are described below). Other department managers, over and above their core competencies and assigned responsibilities, also carry out some of these functions (Dias, 2012).

Staffing

One of the major HRM roles in organizations is staffing that involves a process from advertising a job to negotiating on salary (Dias, 2012). It also involves the growth of a staffing plan. Staffing plan make it easier for HRM to anticipate how many persons should be hired depending on their revenue expectations.

Workplace Policies Development

In every organization, various policies are introduced in order to ensure fair work and flow. It is HRM's job to create the verbiage associated with these policies. HRM, executives and management take part in the development process of these policies (Dias, 2012). For instance, HRM should identify if there is a need for a strategy change, asking ideas related to policy, document them, and convet them to employees. The HR department needs to involve other sectors in these matters, as they cannot work alone (Dias, 2012).

Benefits Administration and Compensation

Compensation means any form of payment made to an employee for his services. HRM specialists need to ensure whether compensation is paid fairly, meets the standards of industry and is enough to motivate the people to work and perform well. Additionally, they also need to ensure that payment is equivalent or close to what others are being paid for similar jobs. This can be done by creating a system that calculates the pay based on working years with business, education, experience and other related measures (Dias, 2012).

Training and Development

Once the employees are hired, HRM need to ensure that not only are they trained to fulfill the job responsibilities but also continue to improve and learn new skills. This can increase employee's motivation as well as productivity for the business. Employees who develop their skills and grow in their jobs tend to be much happier, which also helps increase retention of workers (Dias, 2012).

Protection of Employees

Safety is one of the major aspects in organizations. New laws are often implemented with an objective of setting standards of state or federal to guarantee employees safety. Unions and their contracts can also affect the need of employees' protection in organizations. It is the duty of Human Resource Manager to be up-to-dated regarding worker safety requirements and make sure the organization is meeting all the safety principles (Dias, 2012).

Employment Laws of Equal Opportunity

Religion, Race, Sex, Color, National Origin

According to the amended Title VII of the Civil Human Rights Act of 1964, employees and applicants are protected from discrimination in contracting, upgrade, pay, fringe benefits, discharge, training, referral, classification and employment aspects based on their race, religion, nationality, sex, pregnancy or color. Religious discrimination occurs when employee's religion practices are not welcomed where the accommodation does not enforce any difficulty (Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), n.d.).

Disability

According to the amended Title I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, employees and applicants are protected from inequality on the basis of physical/mental disability in employing, promotion, pay (including perks), discharge, training, referral, classification and other employment aspects. Disability discrimination occurs when a person with disability who can be an employee or an applicant face difficulties and is not accommodated properly (OFCCP, n.d.).

Age

The amended Discrimination of Age in Employment Act of 1967, protects workers and applicants who are 40 years of age or older from intolerance on the basis of age in hiring, promotion, pay, fringe benefits, discharge, training, referral, classification and other employment aspects (OFCCP, n.d.).

Sexual category (Wages)

Besides the sex discrimination forbidden by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the amended Equal Wage Act of 1963, forbids sex discrimination in paying wages to men and women performing equal tasks in jobs that requires equal talent and strength and under equivalent working conditions at same workplace (OFCCP, n.d.).

According to the Goldman Sachs' Policy of Business Behavior and Ethics, HR policies should be entirely made on the basis of merit that includes devotion, capability and accomplishment rather than race or gender. The organization runs a policy where equal employment opportunities are given and diversity across business functions and structures is appreciated.

Particularly, according to the Goldman Sachs seventh rule of Business, 'For organizations to progress, men and women must exhibit the mixture of cultures and societies in which they operate'. Breaching such policy can create consequences such as cease of employment (Balnaves, 2015).

Goldman Sachs designs, implements and pursues many programs in order to encourage the diversity in workplace. These programs are introduced in Asia and include an Asia Disability Awareness Forum, Working Parent Forums, Business-wide Women's Systems and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Systems (Balnaves, 2015). The Human Rights Operation Institution, a LGBT advocacy organization had nominated the firm as 'best workplace' according to its Annual Report of 2013. Goldman Sachs is also named by a working mother as one of the Best100 Organizations and a Best Organization for Multinational Women in 2014. In addition to that, it is also listed in the 50 Top Employers for Women by The Times in 2014 (Balnaves, 2015).

Regarding gender equivalence, as of August 2013 in the U.S., women form 21.1% of the organization's senior officials and executives and 36% of the overall workforce. This percentage is greater than 'female supervision/senior level officers and managers' at 18.2% for U.S. corporations operating "securities, service contracts and other monetary investment and related activities" in 2013. Statistics of Goldman Sachs are also above than the 16.1% of women employed at the same level in similar companies for 2013 (Balnaves, 2015).

The organization's total percentage of female workers in the U.S. is less than "securities, commodity contracts and other financial investment and related activities" organizations, and little higher than "dealing securities and banking investment" organizations, at 40% and 35.4% for 2013. There are two woman directors working at Goldman Sachs, less than the average of 16% of women board directors in Fortune 500 Organizations in 2012 and 2013, and 19.2% for U.S. Stock Index Businesses in 2014. Goldman Sachs may seem as a succeeding company, in accordance with its developed policies but also requires a continual and improved commitment, implementation and execution of equal employment policies to attain gender equivalence (Balnaves, 2015).

Significant Workplace Trends

Old Age Employees

There is no doubt about the fact that large number of workforce is getting older in U.S. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Figures, it is expected that the number of persons who are 55 years of age or older in the workforce will increase by 12 million, which amounts to about 43% of the total workforce, by the end of 2018. Increase in life expectancy and labor force contribution of post- retirement age people means that the upcoming labor force will have a broader range of age groups employed together (Society for HRM, 2011). Workers of all ages feel a sense of development and decrease the tensions between generations of workers. One more important aspect is that older employees could impose cost of health care, which tends to increase as the risk of illness is higher in older workforce.