Introduction
Managing human resource is critical for any organization to deliver value to its customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders. Some of the aspects of human resource management include; recruiting, developing, motivating and compensating employees. Effective HR management also requires an understanding of broader issues that affect a business such as legal issues, socio-economic issues and globalization. This paper seeks to evaluate four critical aspects of HR management by review different articles. The four aspects are; minimum wage, training, group compensation and recruitment
Minimum Wage
In most countries, including in the United States, there is a legal provision on the lowest amount an employer can pay an employee. That wage rate is often given as the rate of pay for an hour. In the United States, the minimum wage at the federal level was set at $ 7.25 per hour by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). However, states are allowed to determine their own the minimum wage. There are various socio-economic and legal issues that arise from the minimum wage. This section seeks to critique a recent news article on the minimum wage that was published in Huffington post titled; “There’s a new Push to Raise Seattle’s Minimum Wage to $ 15 Per Hour”
According to the article, there are campaigns in Seattle to increase the minimum wage to $15. This would make it the highest minimum wage. Currently, the highest minimum wage stands at $9.19 in Washington DC. This campaign to increase the minimum wage has sparked debate on the pros and cons of increasing the minimum wage from a socio-economic point of view. Proponents of an increase in the minimum argue that increasing the minimum wage will not improve the living standards of low income employees but also increase demand and consequently boost the American economy. Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist, argues that increasing the minimum wage will reverse the falling demand and consequently business performance since they will be able to realise higher sales. However, business advocates argue that increasing the minimum wage will increase the wage bill for businesses making it difficult for them to survive. In fact, the U.S Chamber of Commerce predicts that increasing the minimum wage will significantly reduce low-wage jobs. This is because small business pays the minimum wage in order to stay afloat. However, economist Chris Benner does not agree with these sentiments. Although he agrees that increasing the minimum wage may affect low-wage jobs in small businesses, he argues that increasing the minimum wage will create jobs in the entire economy. This is because after a wage increase, those low-wage workers will increase their expenditure using the additional income hence increasing demand for goods and services which consequently create employment as employers seek to increase production. These views are shared by economist Kshama Sawant. Benner also argues that increasing the minimum wage will have a very small impact on prices. His research on the Seattle minimum wage proposal shows that prices are likely to increase by only 4 to 5 per cent. Caroline Durocher, a low-wage employee, wonders how single mothers survive on minimum wage. Caroline still sleeps on her father couch since her pay is barely enough to sustain her. Caroline was fired by her previous employer for participating in a minimum wage strike.
The minimum wage should be based on the living wages which requires that the minimum wages should be founded on the cost of living in a given region. The minimum wage should afford an employee a decent life by enabling him/her meet their immediate needs and those of their dependants. However, in most states workers earning the minimum wage live below the poverty line. Businesses should adequately compensate their employees to enable them live a decent life. This will not only motivate employees but also improve productivity. However, businesses also need to consider the impact of paying high wages on the business bottom line. A high wage bill may affect business competiveness and its ability to stay afloat. Therefore, a business needs to plan in order to ensure that it wage bill that is sustainable, motivates employees and complies with legal provisions.
The article does not give justifications as to how the minimum wage of $ 15 per hour was arrived at. The article also states that Wal-Mart refused to accept a decision to raise the minimum wage to $ 12.5 per hour. However, the article does not whether any legal actions were taken against Wal-Mart. Complying with the set minimum wage is mandatory for all businesses failing which legal action will be taken against the business. However, the author creates a false impression that businesses can refuse to accept a new minimum wage that has been set by the state of they feel it is detrimental. Lastly, the article only gives opinions on the socio-economic impacts of increasing minimum wage. There are several states that have increased minimum wage in the past. The article should have included facts, figures and scientific research findings on the impact of increasing minimum wage to make it more objective and informative.
Employee Training and Development
The importance of training cannot be overlooked. Training has become an integral part of any organization today. The business environment today has become highly competitive and is constantly changing. Therefore, it requires more skills and knowledge from employees in order to retain relevant in the market. This has translated into more training to develop employees’ skills and advance their knowledge. Consequently, the training function has become critical to the human resource department in any organization. This section will discuss an article related to training that appeared on Network World titled; “Training/ Professional Development: If you build it, IT will come.”
The article reviewed a study on training and development of IT personnel in organizations that was conducted by Robert Half Technology. The study revealed that 68 per cent of IT employees who were surveyed indicated that the ability to enhance their skills and acquire new skills is very critical when evaluating job opportunities. 30 Per cent indicated that it is moderately critical while a mere 2 per cent indicated that it is not important. It also revealed that 64 per cent of the respondents were very concerned about enhancing their skills in the next 3-5 years while 29 per cent were moderately concerned and a mere 7 per cent indicated that they were least concerned. However, 44 per cent of the respondents indicated that their organizations do not have training and/or development programs for employees in the IT department. IT employees know that the industry advances rapidly and the tide favours employers that keep their workers’ skills current. IT Training programs are also beneficial to business because it allow IT workers to create internal teams that have skills that may not be available in the market. RHT recommended that companies should pay for pertinent educational conferences and classes for their employees in order to enhance the skills of their IT staff.It further recommended that firms should consider providing accommodation and adjust workloads for employees attending training to encourage and enable IT workers attend relevant training courses. Companies with limited training budgets should utilise internal experts or establish mentoring programs to enhance professional development. The author noted that companies are increasingly appreciating the importance of training and development as indicated by their expenditure in training. According to a report by Deloitte, expenditure on training by corporations in the U.S rose by an average of 12 per cent in 2012 alone.
The article has emphasised the importance of training and professional development in any organization. The article has increased my appreciation of the need for training and development. Training and development not only ensures an organization remains relevant but also improves its efficiency. In addition, it motivates employees. Most employees are keen on career development. To develop their careers they seek to enhance their skills and acquire new skills. Therefore, organizations that provide learning opportunities satisfy this need. I have also appreciated that the training should be relevant to the work the work performed by employees. For example, IT training programs should be developed to specifically target the training needs of IT staff.
The study by RHT concentrated on the personal opinions on training and personal gains to employees. The employees were not asked how training affected their service delivery and whether there were any significant changes in their productivity, performance and output occasioned by training. RHT also suggest that employees should be enrolled for educational conferences and existing classes. Whereas it may be beneficial, creating tailor-made training programs will add more value. This is because the training will be linked to the specific needs of the organization. RHT also suggests that organizations whose training budgets cannot allow them to enrol employees in educational conferences and classes should embrace mentorship programs. It should be appreciated that mentorship programs are not a substitute to training and development but a compliment. Even large organizations should adopt mentorship programs to develop junior staff members in addition to formal training programs. Lastly, the author did not mention the role of IT in reducing training costs. Organizations with small budgets can enrol their employees to online classes which are cheaper since they do not involve travel. For example, the Learning Management System (LMS) is being used by organisation to assess training needs and develop training programs.
Group Incentives
Group incentives programs are incentive are work-related incentives that are paid to all the workers as a team for collective performance. Therefore, it encourages co-operation and sharing of knowledge in order to meet the set performance targets. Group incentives is increasing being embraced as an alternative to individual incentive schemes which have always been blamed for encouraging individualism and encouraging unethical behaviours by employees. This section seeks to review an article on group incentive that was published in the Society for HR Management (SHRM) titled “Making Team Incentives Work.”
The article argues that in order to make sustainable change in employee behaviour by HR professional, incentive schemes are needed. The author argues that individual incentive schemes are good in organizations that have clear performance targets such as production environments that entail minimal team effort and tasks are autonomous. However, he points out organizations that are successful are highly innovative which requires team work to come up with new creative ideas and solutions. Team incentives enhance collaboration among employees in an organization. Team incentive benefit corporations by being achievement-oriented through shared goals, self-actualizing through group problem-solving and decision making, humanistic encouraging through reinforcing the need of working together and supporting one another and affiliate building through inspiring cooperative and collaborative behaviour. In addition, team incentives create a stronger bond among staff. It reduces the desire to work alone when reward is pegged on working together. Research also shows that group incentives increase performance by a larger percentage compared to individual performance. A joint study by the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) and the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) revealed that team incentive improved overall organization performance by 45 per cent whereas individual incentives increased overall organization performance by 27 per cent. However, for the benefits of team incentives to be realized the author notes that it needs to be properly implemented to avoid certain hurdles. The first hurdle is competition among different teams. Competition among different teams in the same organization can leading to infighting and sabotage in extreme cases. Therefore, the incentive benchmark should be the team’s previous performance or external such as a similar team in a competing firm. The second hurdle is talent management. The incentive scheme should avoid team members’ frustration when they feel their performance has peaked hence slackening productivity. The author suggests that the organization can widen the scope of responsibility for team members or create new opportunities that will allow lateral growth.
The article has made me appreciate why organizations are shifting from individual incentive schemes to group incentive schemes. Group incentive scheme encourage innovation, cooperation and creates stronger bonds between employees. I have also appreciated the role of human resource department in developing, implementing and monitoring the success of group incentive schemes. I have also learnt about the potential pitfalls to avoid when developing group incentive schemes. It is also important to ensure that group incentive achieves the purpose it was intended by constantly seeking and evaluating feedback from team members and checking to ensure that the incentive is unifying the team.
Realism in job Previews by Recruiters
Staff selection is one of the core functions of human resource management. The HR department needs to ensure that the right people are attracted, identified and recruited to provide their services to the organization. However, it is important to provide an accurate picture of the employment terms and conditions to reduce employee turnover by providing all the necessary information without ‘sugar-coating’ it. This section will review the subject of realism in job previews by recruiters as discussed by an article that was published in SHRM titled; “Majority of New Hires Say Job is Not What They Expected.”
The article summarized a Harris Interactive survey that was conducted in the U.S which interviewed 2,054 workers. The survey revealed that 60 per cent of American workers found aspects in their new job that they did not anticipate. They indicated that they felt they were misled during the interviewing process. The most cited aspect by the survey workers was employee morale. The other significant aspects in order of importance were job responsibilities, hours of works and supervisor’s personality. The survey did not reveal whether employees felt they were deliberately misled. However, the survey revealed that there is huge disconnect between what job applicant expect and what they discover once they have been hired. The author concurs with consultants and academics who blame it on interviewers. According to Richard Klimoski, interviewers deliberately exaggerate working conditions in order to make job applicant like the role. Jay Floersch, a recruitment consultant, argues that organizational culture changes rapidly. Therefore, interviewers need to communicate regularly with others so that they can give job applicants an exact picture of the working conditions they should expect. Tresha Moreland, a principal at HR C-Suite, argues that it beneficial to discuss with the interviewee how the organization intends to improve. However, it is human nature to hide your dirty laundry from the public. However, job applicants have partly been blamed. Job applicants should ask potential employers how an ordinary workday is, the organization management style and reasons why workers leave the firm. The author suggests that organization could improve the interview process my making sure that job applicant meets several people from the interviewing team. Interviewers should also communicate to job applicants how their performance will be reviewed, the challenges they should expect and the promotion process. Interviewers should also ask interviewees to communicate their understanding of the new job so that misconceptions are corrected before the job applicant accepts the new job.
The article has met me realise the gravity of the recruitment process. Exaggerating job conditions by recruiters result in unhappy employees since they do not get what they were promised. Once employees are unhappy it is difficult to close the gap between reality and their expectation. Besides, it can result in high turnover which will translate into high recruitment costs and time wastages. It is important to communicate to employees what their job responsibilities will be and they things they should expect including the negative aspect. That way, any disconnect between what job applicants expect and what they discover once they have been hired will be minimized if not eliminated. It has also made me learn the importance of selecting recruiters with the right behavioural traits.
The survey did not reveal whether there is a high turnover rate among employees who were misled during the interview process. This would be important to evaluate whether the gap between employee expectation and reality could explain high turnover rate in an organization. Similarly, the study did not reveal whether there is a relationship between the expectation gap as a result of being misled by recruiters and employee performance at work place. This would be important in evaluating whether being ‘sugar-coating’ of reality by recruiters has an effect on employees morale and performance at work once reality sinks in.
References
Noe, R., John, H., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. (2011). Human Resource Management (Fourth ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Bednarz, A. (2013, August 2). http://www.networkworld.com. Retrieved August 24, 2013, from Training/professional development: If you build it, IT will come: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/080213-training-development-recruiting-edge-272483.html
Blankinship , D. G. (2013, August 19). http://www.huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved August 24, 2013, from There's A New Push To Raise Seattle's Minimum Wage To $15 Per Hour : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/seattle-minimum-wage-campaign-washington_n_3778980.html
Marshall , A. (2013, August 8). Making Team Incentives Work. Retrieved August 24, 2013, from http://www.shrm.org: http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/compensation/Articles/Pages/Team-Incentives-Work.aspx
Steve, B. (2013, May 28). Majority of New Hires Say Job Is Not What They Expected. Retrieved August 24, 2013, from http://www.shrm.org: http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/employeerelations/articles/pages/newhiresfeelmisled.aspx
