One of the main reasons why strategic human resource management should be adopted is that it would create a competitive advantage through a more robust workforce. Strategic HR ensures that employees are experienced, motivated, well-trained, and dedicated. This can serve to help the organization improve its efficiency and productivity in operations. It can also serve to boost the quality of its products and enhance customer experience. Additionally, strategic HR management focuses on hiring employees that have a high potential for professional growth. Employees would have the opportunity to learn and grow in their fields. The development of expertise of employees would enable a company to have access to the industry’s brilliant minds. The company may benefit by leading in terms of innovation in its field.
Strategic human resource management ensures that the succession process for employees retiring or leaving the company is smooth and effective. This is because it focuses on grooming potential successors of a company through grooming by mentorship. HR management that is purely administrative will focus on replacement strategies for top managers in a company when it could be too late. An interim manager usually has to step in as the company or department ownership is being transferred to a new individual. This shows that strategic HR management follows proper planning. A good plan ensures that the company is heading in the right direction as it anticipates for any changes that could occur and cause a leadership change.
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Strategic human resource management focuses on employee development. It creates a comprehensive and systematic human resource training system to develop various types of talents in an organization. It can achieve employee career development and development of the enterprise which results in a win-win situation. This is different from operational HRM that is focused on labor safety, organizational discipline, and rarely organizes training of other aspects of employees. Strategic HR management would include the creation of plans to develop employees that are most promising on a personal and professional level. The entire enterprise would have a corporate identity and the ability to advance through the highly competitive market.
Strategic human resource management would handle the hiring and firing of employees effectively. The human resource department would interview candidates throughout the year and have a large pool of interviewees which they can call on a short-notice hiring situation. The strategic HRM also focuses on the values the candidates have and how it aligns with the core values of the company. This ensures that when hiring employees, they would be able to stay in the organization for the long-term. Administrative human resource can focus on filling new positions or trying to find the replacements of employees that have left a company.
When firing employees, no manager wants to get rid of any of their employees. However, the decision is important for a company so that it come successful in its endeavors. Traditional HR departments are usually hesitant to fire any individual regardless of the issue they faced in the organization or how badly the employee’s efficiency and productivity have dropped throughout the given years. Strategic human resource fully understands the person that it can let out of the company go and individuals that should stay for the benefit of the company. They ensure that when individuals are fired, it is done based on the terms of the agreement and the laws and regulations pertaining to the company and the country. Such a strategic approach would prevent any legal disputes that could arise as a result of firing employees.
Strategic HR department has a well-structured system to ensure that they recognize the top performers in the company. Administrative HR departments only focus on dispensing pay rise using arbitrary metrics like that of the number of years an employee has served in the company. Strategic HR can single-handedly point out individuals that have contributed to the success of the company and reward them. The method adopted ensures that high compensation is awarded to employees that have the largest contribution to a company. This can work towards improving the motivation of hardworking employees that drive the company to success.
Strategic human resource managers ensure that the company abides by the laws and regulations that protect employees. They are proactive on policies that are in place that prevent workplace discrimination and promote employment opportunity and equality. It would identify the fact that it should structure its workforce to embrace diversity. This ensures that it is not biased towards a certain racial or ethnic group or individuals of a given gender. Abiding by laws and regulations prevents any fines that could come up as a result of breaking the law. Promotion of diversity also creates a healthy working environment that can drive a company to success.
Background of Human Resource History
The development of human resource in the past century can be traced to show the changes that took place throughout history. The changes show how human resource first evolved into an administrative and operational system. It was only in later years when strategic human resource management was introduced. Human resource management started out as personnel administration that became fully formed in the 1920s in the United States. The department was focused on maintaining technical aspects of employees such as hiring, training, evaluation, and compensation. They did a large portion of the work that was centered on the functions of the staff.
The exact development of human resource can be traced to have occurred during World War I. Personnel development was emphasized and increased since the government encouraged a proper utilization of people. It later became compulsory in 1916 to have a welfare worker in the factories. Most of the work in the department was carried out by individuals in the armed forces. They focused on how they would test the IQ and test abilities of individuals through the use of human factors. The field of psychologists published and established the results of studies dealing with interviewing techniques, training methods, and selection tests of employees (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Much of the focus throughout this time was on the administrative and operational purposes of the human resource department. It was later in the 2nd world war that there was a focus on the selection, recruitment, and training of employees. Various studies sought to identify ways that could be used to improve the motivation, moral, discipline, and the health and safety of employees. To achieve this, it meant that the human resource department needed to have a well-trained staff.
As the years went on, there came a time when consultation between workforce and management became very important. The workforce wanted to air their views concerning work policies. Human resource department was thus responsible for the administration and operation of the two groups. Workers would raise several issues regarding their payment and their health and safety. Most human resource departments established a spokesman for the organization that would handle discussions and communication between the workforce and top management. Such an individual acted as the human resource manager that would negotiate deals concerning employee pay and other issues that could come up.
It was later in the 1990s when employees became highly vocal and were seeking flexible arrangement in hours that led to the establishment of strategic human resource. The society was changing with the introduction of the internet and organizations had to think strategically about the proper management of their employees. The workforce and patterns of work started becoming diverse and the traditional recruitment and firing practices started becoming ineffective. Most companies also realized the need for proper management and caring of its workforce in order to be successful.
It was during this time that strategic human resource became well-defined. Strategic HR management was defined as the process of linking human resources with the strategic goals and objectives of an organization so as to improve the performance of the business and to develop an organizational culture that would foster flexibility, competitive advantage, and innovation (Bailey et al., 2018). Strategic human resource management would ensure that the company can focus on strategy factors and not simply engage in the administrative and operational matters of the organization. This was an additional responsibility for the human resource department that had to change its structure of operation.
Traditional human resource management and strategic HR management later became clearly defined. Traditional HRM was focused on maintaining administrative tasks of the organization. It involved only the management of various people in the organization. Administrative tasks included hiring, firing, and motivation of employees through compensation. Strategic human resource was tailored towards the company’s mission and goals. This would ensure that a company would thrive in the ever-changing global market that became increasingly and highly competitive. In case workers were poorly trained or demotivated, a company could experience massive losses and would be outpaced by its competitors. Strategic HR management was thus created as a result of the pressure in the competitive human resource market.
The Success of Google in Strategic HR Management
Google has been ranked as one of the best companies to work for in the world. The philosophy adopted by Google is that it makes use of the right tools and the best working environment to attract and retain talent. The company has also experienced massive success as a result of its reliance on strategic human resource management. The HR management makes use of a given set of strategy, techniques, and methods for recruitment, selection, and the retaining of high-quality workers. Google has a recruitment and selection process that is done several times over the year. This ensures that the company always has a sufficient amount of workforce throughout the year. In case an individual chooses to leave the company, the company has a large pool of workers that can readily fill out the vacancies.
Google also makes use of retention programs that are geared toward retaining employees that are highly excellent. For instance, Google runs several surveys regarding employees that are leaving the firm. In one of its study, it established that there were more women leaving the firm as a result of maternity leave. These women would have maternity leave and most of them would never return to the organization. Google identified the issue and made a difference in the company’s maternity leave. It became more flexible so that it can ensure that it can retain talented women and reduce the gender gap in the company (Rodionova, 2016). Such a program attracts several employees to the company.
Most of the employees in the company can attest to the fact why Google is one of the best employers. They tell stories of how great it feels to work in Google’s offices. Everything in the company is geared towards ensuring that every employee is treated equally and that they are provided with enough space to use their talent and perform at their best. Google maintains a high level of transparency with its employees compared to other companies. The company also focuses on technology in order to drive performance and improve employee motivation. The main focus of Google is to employ maximum assistance and care to its employees so that they can work with the required dedication. The perks offered to Google employees are one of the best in the industry. The company ensures job security and job satisfaction for all of its employees.
One of the strategies used by Google to ensure that its employees are continually motivated is the use of the 70-20-10 rule. Through the strategy, employees have to work 70% of their time in the company on core activities such as search and advertising work. 20% is dedicated to working on a project of their choice while 10% is dedicated to working far-out ideas. Such a system ensures that employees have a high degree of flexibility as they work on projects that they enjoy. There have been several initiatives such as Google Talk and Gmail that have come up as a result of the 70-20-10 rule (Satell, 2018). The company has benefited significantly as a result of the 20% off time which opens for the creation of new ideas that push the company to success.
The nature of success with Google’s strategic HR management has driven the company to huge levels of success. The company amounts an average of $100 billion in sales every year. Google is also the most valuable company in the world and it is worth $520 billion("Google: revenue 2017 | Statista", 2018). The success of Google can be attributed to its founders and how the company implemented a strategic HR management to motivate employees. Google today retains the best talent in its field that pushes the company towards higher levels of success and innovation. The nature of success experienced by Google should convince executives in other companies to make use of strategic human resource management to propel the company to huge levels of success.
In conclusion, having a strategic HR management is important for companies to have a competitive advantage. It ensures that high performing employees are hired, employees are retained, and that they undergo proper training and developing. All these factors ensure that the workforce can drive the company to productivity and success. History shows that strategic HR practices were introduced as a result of the ever-increasing global and competitive market. Traditional HR management focused on administrative and operational purposes and do nothing to develop employees. One of the best examples of a company that has achieved success with a strategic HR management is Google. Google has been ranked as one of the best companies to work for and is also the most valuable company in the world.
References
Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C., & Garavan, T. (2018). Strategic human resource management . Oxford University Press.
Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management: theory and practice . Palgrave.
Google: revenue 2017 | Statista. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/266206/googles-annual-global-revenue/
Rodionova, Z. (2016). Google’s paid maternity leave has halved the number of new mothers quitting. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/google-s-paid-maternity-leave-halved-the-number-of-new-mothers-quitting-youtube-ceo-says-a6841326.html
Satell, G. (2018). The 70-20-10 Rule for Innovation – Innovation Excellence. Retrieved from https://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2018/09/20/the-70-20-10-rule-for-innovation/
