Dream Job: Human Resource Manager

In this essay, I will focus specifically on my dream job, specific qualifications and skills that are essential in this job position. Further, I will analyze the major roles that are associated with my dream job. Next, the essay will focus on the compensation and benefits related to this job position in addition to performance appraisal for the same position. 

My dream career

My dream career is to become a human resource manager in a reputable fashion industry. I have been able to develop greater excitement in fashion since childhood. Throughout my life, I have been able to develop much interest working with people, to understand human nature, human behavior and how to bring together human efforts to achieve a given goal and objective. Based on the ideas by Jiang et al., (2012), I believe as a human resource manager I will be responsible for overseeing human resource management activities within the fashion industry. This is a lifetime opportunity that will enable me to interact closely with people and understand them even better. In the recent years, there has been an increased level of competition within the fashion industry forcing these companies to identify and recruit the right skills to enhance their level of competitiveness. Based on ideas by Langton, Robbins & Judge, (2013), I believe that having the right skills and competencies is the only step towards attaining competitive advantage. The career of human resource manager has thus changed fast over the years as a result of the companies’ changing needs of up to date human capital and increasing the level of competition in the global market. For many years, I have developed a higher level of excitement in the fashion industry because I wanted to work in an industry within a fast-paced environment. Further, I have always wanted to work with people because I believe human resources forms one of the greatest assets to the organization (Langton, Robbins & Judge, (2013),. 

Job Description for Human Resources (HR) Manager

The human resource manager in the fashion company is directly responsible for the organization’s overall administration functions, coordination of activities and evaluation of human resource functions. According to Jiang et al., (2012), the functions of the human resource in a most organization have evolved over the years as a result of high level of competition from being specifically concerned with routine human resource activities to other complex transformational activities. According to Jiang et al., (2012), the roles of employees, on the other hand, has transformed considerably from being simply the company’s means of production in the last century to the company’s core source of sustainable competitive advantage. The goals and objectives of the retail organization are attained by making sure that all aspects of staffs are considered and further by motivating these employees. Therefore, it is evident that the success of the company wholly depend on its employees hence the need to ensure that they are guided by a common goal. It can thus be noted that human resource aspect in the organization is very sensitive and should be taken with a greater consideration. According to Langton, Robbins & Judge, (2013), the human resource has an obligation to make sure that he or she improves the employee’s capacity. 

Other essential functions of the human resource manager include the following: develop human resource plans and procedures for the personnel and control activities of the firm’s department, implement and update the company’s compensation programs and develop personnel policies and procedures. According to Jiang et al., (2012), the human resource manager further develop organization’s affirmative action program, conduct the recruitment of exempt and nonexempt personnel and new-employee orientations, maintains the department’s records and evaluate reports about the established goals. An equal employment opportunity and the affirmative action within an organization will ensure that there is a fair action at work. This will, therefore, enable the human resource to ensure that all employees have an equal; employment opportunities. According to Jiang et al., (2012), the core competencies for the human resource manager include the following: human resources capacity, ethical conduct, strategic thinking, leadership, decision making, and financial management. The supervisory responsibility for this position is to manage all the department’s employees, performance management in addition to hiring employees in all departments.

Qualifications for HR

To qualify as a human resource manager, I found out that there are core requirements that are essential. To ensure that I have a long and highly prosperous career as a Human Resource manager, acquiring right qualification is critical since most organizations are after transforming their level of competitiveness in the industry hence will look for specific requirements. According to Jiang et al., (2012), one of the qualifications for this position is a Higher National Certificate or Higher National Diploma (HNC/HND) or a master’s degree in human resource management. However, due to a stiff level of competition in the market, most organizations will require that a human resource manager has additional qualifications such as SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) certification. For an individual who would wish to become a senior human resource manager, accredited professional qualification specifically from the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) is required. This will imply that the candidate is up to date with various HR developments (Jiang et al., 2012).

Compensation and benefits package related to human resource management position

Evidently, HR compensation and allowances will contribute immensely to the success of the company in addition to its profitability by making sure that the company’s pay structure and benefits are competitive to attract and retain a quality workforce (Salary.com, 2016). The wage that I chose for this position as specifically based on the information gathered from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (Salary.com, 2016). Therefore, the salary and benefits arrived at is for an entry level but actual wage generally will depend on the company that is hiring. Further, I also utilized various information that I obtained from job postings related to this job position and various salaries and benefits offered by several companies. First, benefits including medical and vacation benefits are standard benefits that are offered to all full-time employees irrespective of their position (Massad, 2005). I found out that the human resource manager is among the highest paid employees in every organization since he or she is in charge of the company’s human resources which are considered the pillar of the organization’s success. In addition to the base pay and cash, the human resource manager is further entitled to receive other perquisites for all the extra and hard work. 

According to Massad (2005), for the human resource manager, the following compensation and benefits packages often suffice at a minimum. First, the direct compensation which is in the form of the salary received in hand. It includes the base payment, but it varies with companies since every business has its own norms in the provision of salary to their human resource managers. Further, the direct compensation will also include overtime salary especially in situations where the human resource work for more hours than what is required. On the other hand, the indirect compensation will include various benefits and perquisites awarded to the human resources for their performances that are believed to exceed the company’s expectations (Salary.com, 2016). Within this category, the incentives will be added such as commission, profit sharing, and even bonus. Additionally, within the indirect compensation, there is deferred pay that tends to include the stock purchase, annuity and even the saving plan. Therefore, this is the total compensation package for the human resource, and it is in the form of cash. According to Massad (2005), the company may also offer benefits-in-kind to the human resource manager that is not directly attached to salary offer including the protection programs such as medical and life insurance, social security and pension. Secondly, there are benefits for time not worked including Sick leaves, vacations and even holidays. It is evident that these in-kind benefits that are offered to the human resources are essential since they are a means to which the organization provides job security to their employees to strengthen psychological contract between the company and its employees.

Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the compensation and benefits for the human resource manager in the year 2014 increased by 6 percent (Salary.com, 2016). It is clear that recently, the demand for human resource manager has been high as a result of high level of competition in addition to the complex employment environment. Therefore organizations have been forced to invest heavily in attracting and retaining competitive human resource and workforce to ensure that they remain competitive in the industry. Based on the latest statistics that have been done from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the human resource managers earns an approximated annual salary of about $108,070 in the year 2014 (Salary.com, 2016). Further, it has been reported that the lowest 10 percent earnings were approximately $58,370 and the highest 10 percent earned was approximately $187,000. “The median annual Human Resources Manager salary for the year 2016 was approximately $95,870, with a range usually between $83,051 and $108,551” (Salary.com, 2016).

Performance appraisal program to assess my job performance

The performance appraisal program used in appraising my performance was based on the criteria that were designed by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management when organizational supervisors are about to document a performance appraisal (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2013). Using rating scale, I will be able to provide a subjective evaluation of my performance in this position along a scale from high to low. By examining exhibitions examinations’ evaluation, I will be able to differentiate how my execution, employment, and activities will enhance and create my execution. Therefore, I believe performance examination is one of the most effective and formal assessments that will enable me to focus critically the extent to which I will be performing my occupation as a human resource manager viably. Appraisal outcome is vital since it will help in the determination of relative rewards, identify areas of poorer performance for counseling, demotion, dismissal or even decreases in pay. Using rating scales, I will be able to determine the performance gaps specifically when my performance fails to meet the organizational standards (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2013). I believe performance appraisal will inform me on what is required to perform my duties as a human resource manager, how well I have carried my obligations and meet organizational objectives and effective corrective actions that would improve my performance. The company will require performance appraisal system to establish core principles of managerial accountability.

Therefore, my execution examination for human resource manager will be precisely determined by a realistic rating scale. The use of realistic rating scale technique will enable me to appraise performance and objectives. The realistic rating scale is comprised of questions concerning a singular’s employment execution. Using this strategy, it is clear that the set of reactions tend to be plain and highly straight forward. I believe formal appraisal system is essential to introduce objectivity in the evaluation process. Studies have shown that rating scales is vital since it offers appraisers with a high degree of structure. Using this technique, my traits and characteristics will be rated on a scale that has points ranging from poor to excellent (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2013). For instance, based on this position, the features which will be assessed include communication capability, a level of cooperation, and punctuality in addition to the level of technical competence. This technique will specifically evaluate those traits that are specifically job-related. In designing the scale for this technique, it is essential to make reference to only appropriate job description related to human resource management.

Based on the information from U.S. Office of Personnel Management (2013), I believe that using the rating scale to appraise my performance in this position is important because the rating scales are structured and highly standardized. This will enable me to compare and contrast the ratings. Further, this technique tends to encourage equality within the organization regarding treatment all staffs equally. However, despite the rating scale being effective in my performance appraisal, there are certain disadvantages that are associated with it. First, there is the issue related to whether the traits selected are relevant to this job position. Further when standardizing the rating instrument those relevant factors that my performance might depend on could miss from the selected lists, and this could result in ratings that do not reflect clearly my efforts or values as a human resource manager. Further, I believe that there might be problems of selective perception hence resulting to biases. I will use the below rating scale as my performance appraisal program to assess my job performance as human resource manager as shown on figure 1 (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2013).

Figure 1

Based on the information from U.S. Office of Personnel Management (2013), I believe that performance appraisal will enable me to identify those areas that I need further improvement and how to achieve these improvements. Further, I will have the chance to express my concerns related to this job position and my desire to either branch out or even expand my position. Upon rating my performance, I will forward my evaluations to my supervisor for further evaluation and review. Later, I will meet with the supervisor to discuss potential pay raise and bonuses.

The essay as critical focused on my dream job as a human resource manager. I have analyzed the core competencies and qualification that are required for one to be a successful human resource manager. Additionally, I have explored various primary function duties of the human resource to an organization. Further, I have analyzed critically, the potential compensation and benefit for this position based on the international reports by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Lastly, I have focused on the use of rating scale as the most efficient technique to appraise my performance in this position. It was the most suitable performance appraisal method because the rating scales are structured and highly standardized. Therefore, based on the skills and competencies that I have been able to acquire, I believe I stand a better chance to become a successful human resource manager in one of the global fashion industry in the future.

References

Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Hu, J., & Baer, J. C. (2012). How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of management Journal , 55 (6), 1264-1294.

Langton, N., Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Fundamentals of organizational behaviour . Pearson Education Canada.

Massad, M. (May 23, 2005). Creating a smart compensation package. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77934 .

Salary.com (2016) "Human Resources Manager Salaries by Education, Experience, Location And More - Salary.Com". Retrieved from http://www1.salary.com/Human- Resources-Manager-Salary.html. 

U.S. Office of Personnel Management (2013). A supervisor’s checklist for preparing for employee performance reviews. Retrieved from http://www.opm.gov