Human Resources Management Trends and Challenges
The Human Resources (HR) Management role has changed dramatically over time. With globalization of business and advances in technology, the HR role has grown into a necessary function of all business today. According to Fundamentals of Human Resource Management the HR management is “The policies, practices, and systems that influence employees' behavior, attitudes, and performance.” (Gerhert, Hollenbeck, Noe, Wright, 2003, p. 3). This role is so important because of the financial impacts of polices, practices, and employee behavior. This paper will discuss some existing trends and challenges in today’s HR management role with emphasis on a ...view middle of the document...
Today’s hiring process and success in business is not driven by how good one is at a function, but more by how such person will respond and perform in a diverse work environment.
The regulation of the workforce also makes HR management complicated. With Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), HR managers are finding the hiring and firing process influenced by forced policies. In today’s society, an unsupported or unjustified firing at will can be turned into a discrimination lawsuit. Without proper policies and documentation in place, a termination can be perceived discriminatory and most times win a case. HR manager’s today must work toward a generalized, un-biased approach to policies, procedures, and expected workforce behaviors.
To enforce and promote good behaviors among employees, HR management must approach appraisals and incentives correctly. The traditional approach to employee appraisal and monitoring is the yearly or scheduled meeting to discuss performance, expectations, and pay. This annual performance appraisal method creates problems that can be counter active to organizations goals. With this approach, the employee performs the job the same way all year, unless a behavior is so bad it is addressed prior to the yearly meeting. When the yearly meeting in approaching, both the manager and employee become uncomfortable about the meeting as usually the manager is forced to address the bad performance issues and set a plan to get the issue resolved over the next year. The employee then perceives what is expected and acts in that way until the next year. This approach is very outdated and counter productive because of the lack of communication and monitoring of the employee. The yearly review only leaves room for feedback once a year or when a situation gets so bad it has to be addressed and documented immediately. The major problem with the annual appraisal is that employee behaviors are not monitored close enough, leaving a year of bad behaviors. These bad behaviors have a negative impact on the organizations goals and typically lead to low productivity and turnover.
The new approach to employee monitoring and appraisals is the complete performance management system. According to Fundamentals of Human Resource Management a performance management system is “…the process through which managers ensure that employees' activities and outputs contribute to the organization's goals.” (Gerhert, Hollenbeck, Noe, Wright, 2003, p. 266). This is a very vague definition that emphasizes one major point; a manager in the complete performance system is responsible for monitoring, promoting, and coaching employee’s behaviors to match the organizations goals. The manager must emphasize why the behaviors are so important and prove the impact of such behaviors contribute to the company’s goals and objectives.
The complete performance management system relies on the idea of including the associate in daily operations. The system starts with the manager...
