TEXTBOOK
Snell et al. (2015) argue that business executives currently understand that HR professionals help improve both the firm's bottom line and top line. They achieve this by streamlining employment costs, helping managers enter new markets, measuring employee effectiveness, designing new ways to recruit and utilize workers, and forecasting labor trends. Several companies assign their human resource representatives to crucial business teams to ensure that they understand core business issues. Instead of focusing on the administrative aspect of HR, firms promote and develop their human resource experts and issue them with main company statistics that they can utilize to improve all dockets of the company, including corporate social responsibility (CSR). There has been a growing focus on CSR as companies learn to be socially responsible locally and internationally. Focusing on CSR helps a company avoid lawsuits and improve its reputation; hence, improving their earning. Snell et al. (2015) state that most people would recommend a company whose reputation is high.
According to the textbook, HRM helps companies to capture opportunities and overcome obstacles both locally and internationally. The role of HR personnel has changed in recent years, making them a crucial tool in the success and efforts of corporate social responsibility. The expectations that executives have on their HR personnel indicate that they are crucial determinants of a company's success, including CSR performance (Snell et al., 2015). CSR is currently part of the competitive advantage since each firm is improving its reputation in the global market. Good human resource practices such as making appropriate adjustments in the labor force would help to improve the company's reputation. The company's reputation significantly depends on most of the decisions and practices made by human resource managers. Good practices enable the company to adapt to the changes adequately without interfering with its image in public.
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OUTSIDE SOURCE(S)
According to Strandberg (2009), human resource professionals play a core role in helping a firm attain its CSR objectives. For instance, CSR performance depends on employee involvement for its success. Therefore, HRM practices such as leveraging worker commitment would act as a driving force for the company’s CSR performance. Besides, HR professionals usually are responsible for preparing employee codes of conduct (Strandberg, 2009). Therefore, HRM practices of cultural integration of CSR norms into the employee codes of conduct would improve CSR efforts. Other companies establish an office of the Ombudsman to resolve workers' concerns around corporate alignment with organizational values (Strandberg, 2009). Compensation and performance management is another practice for HRM. Human resource professionals set performance expectations and standards and monitor results to ensure they are as per the performance objectives. A good HRM practice involves integrating CSR elements into team goals, individual performance plans, and job descriptions, which directly improves the effort in corporate social responsibility.
Company workers are among the vital stakeholders when developing any CSR program or strategy. People currently acknowledge employee engagement as the primary force behind stakeholder value in a company, and it is being used to monitor corporate performance by the management and Board (Strandberg, 2009). A good HRM practice involves engaging employees by involving them in charitable donation and community development programs. Human resource managers can implement specific policies that help to improve CSR efforts. For instance, flex-time, work-life balance, diversity, and wellness policies are some of the practices that improve CSR programs and directly depend on the influence of HR managers (Strandberg, 2009). It is also within the powers of HR to push for employee volunteering programs, which builds on the company brand and employee value proposition alongside achieving CSR goals. Implementation of these policies would help an organization work on its reputation, which improves its CSR performance.
CRITIQUE/ANALYSIS
I agree with the arguments presented by Snell et al. (2015) and Strandberg (2009) that human resource professionals play critical roles in ensuring the success of corporate social responsibilities. Since they make some of the crucial decisions, HR has adequate power to ensure the company attains its CSR goals (Lokhandwala, 2019). Some of the decisions made by HR professionals directly impact CSR performance, while others have an indirect impact. Nonetheless, I would recommend their services to any company that seeks to improve its CSR efforts. The success of a company's CSR plan depends on some of the HRM practices that improve employee and manager communication, enable a company to achieve efficiency and quality, and control and manages business goals (Lokhandwala, 2019). Training given to employees can help to enhance the link between the firm's actual products or services and society. It also helps to evaluate the value of a company to the community, which is an essential determinant of CSR performance.
Moreover, I think HRM practices help improve CSR efforts since creating a culture of corporate social responsibility and change begins with the human resource manager. Employing younger individuals who are environmentally conscious and training them towards safeguarding the company's reputation helps to improve the company's effort and morale to implement corporate social responsibility (Lokhandwala, 2019). Having good human resource management would create a committed team of employees who instill passion in CSR programs enabling friendly competition. The social connection given to employees through HR training encourages them to involve their firms significantly with the community. Hence, the connection between HRM practices and corporate social responsibility cannot be disputed.
References
Lokhandwala, S. (2019). What is HR'S role in promoting corporate social responsibility? https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-hr-role-in-promoting-corporate-social-responsibility-1917743.
Snell, S., Morris, S., & Bohlander, G. W. (2015). Managing human resources . Cengage Learning.
Strandberg, C. (2009). The role of human resource management in corporate social responsibility issue brief and roadmap. Report for Industry Canada. Burnaby, BC: Strandberg Consulting .
