Human Resource Management play an essential role in employee development activities. Employee development activities refer to initiatives taken by organization and employees to enhance their skills with time and keep themselves acquainted with the latest developments.
Required:
Explain TWO strategic importance of Human Resource Management and employee development. (4 marks)
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- To increase productivity: Developing employee skills might make employees more productive, hence the recent emphasis on public debate on the value of training.
- To enhance group learning: Employees work more and more in multi-skilled teams. Each employee has to be competent at several tasks. Some employees have to be trained to work together (i.e. team working skills).
- To reduce staff turnover: Reducing staff turnover, apart from cutting recruitment costs, can also increase the effectiveness of operations. In service businesses, such as hotels, or retail outlets, reductions in staff turnover can be linked with repeat visits by customers. As it is cheaper to keep existing customers than to find new ones, this can have a significant effect on profitability.
- To encourage initiative: Organisations can gain significant advantage from encouraging and exploiting the present and potential abilities of the people within them
Alternative answers - Recruitment and Training
This is one of the major responsibilities of the human resource team. The HR managers come up with plans and strategies for hiring the right kind of people. They design the criteria which is best suited for a specific job description. Their other tasks related to recruitment include formulating the obligations of an employee and the scope of tasks assigned to him or her. Based on these two factors, the contract of an employee with the company is prepared. When needed, they also provide training to the employees according to the requirements of the organisation. Thus, the staff members get the opportunity to sharpen their existing skills or develop specialised skills which in turn, will help them to take up some new roles. - Performance Appraisals
HRM encourages the people working in an organisation, to work according to their potential and gives them suggestions that can help them to bring about improvement in it. The team communicates with the staff individually from time to time and provides all the necessary information regarding their performances and also defines their respective roles. This is beneficial as it enables them to form an outline of their anticipated goals in much clearer terms and thereby, helps them execute the goals with best possible efforts. Performance appraisals, when taken on a regular basis, motivate the employees. - Maintaining Work Atmosphere
This is a vital aspect of HRM because the performance of an individual in an organisation is largely driven by the work atmosphere or work culture that prevails at the workplace. A good working condition is one of the benefits that the employees can expect from an efficient human resource team. A safe, clean and healthy environment can bring out the best in an employee. A friendly atmosphere gives the staff members’ job satisfaction as well. - Managing Disputes
In an organisation, there are several issues on which disputes may arise between the employees and the employers. You can say conflicts are almost inevitable. In such a scenario, it is the human resource department which acts as a consultant and mediator to sort out those issues in an effective manner. They first hear the grievances of the employees. Then they come up with suitable solutions to sort them out. In other words, they take timely action and prevent things from going out of hands. - Developing Public Relations
The responsibility of establishing good public relations lies with the HRM to a great extent. They organise business meetings, seminars and various official gatherings on behalf of the company in order to build up relationships with other business sectors. Sometimes, the HR department plays an active role in preparing the business and marketing plans for the organisation too.
Any organisation, without a proper setup for HRM is bound to suffer from serious problems while managing its regular activities. For this reason, today, companies must put a lot of effort and energy into setting up a strong and effective HRM.
(Any 2 points)