As numerous firms continue to venture into the global market, their activities and resources needed continue to become more dynamic day by day. This gradual change of activities has made the human resource to change from their traditional roles of hiring personnel and has now started to closely align with the strategic plan of various firms. Nowadays, the department of human resources needs to abide by the challenges of lacking power, being able to handle the workforce in difficult circumstances as well as balancing workers and employees to be fully accredited its due respect.
Generally, as companies continue to grow, there are some factors of human resources that need to be changed. Globalization, changes in technology, workforce demographics, ethical issues, and pressures to prove that its employees add value to the firm are some of the trends that have influenced the human resource management. This paper, therefore, seeks to discuss the aforementioned factors and their application to the evolving future of human resource practice. It will also elaborate on both the negative and positive influences of these factors on Coca Cola Company and the risks the company will experience if these changes are not adopted by the Company.
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Influence of these factors on the future Human Resource Management
One of the factors that are affecting the future of human resource management is the changing demography of the company. The changing demography is affecting Coca Cola Company in a great deal. For instance, the employees’ retirement coupled with a drastic population growth has brought a significant shortage of labor for numerous companies including Coca Cola. Due to the workers’ retirement coupled with a slow population, the process of hiring, retaining, and engaging employees has proved to be a significant challenge to the human resource managers making the talent maintenance a critical undertaking (Frank & Taylor, 2014). For instance, if different generational individuals in the workforce have various tastes and preferences, the strategic management has to tailor some benefits to attract and maintain talents.
However, this seems to be a challenge that will continue affecting the Coca Cola Company in future times. This is because most governments are advocating for families to have fewer children and low birth rates that will consequently result in the limited workforce making the ones present too expensive for the organization to afford without making losses. If successional management will be carried out in a clear and succinct manner, then maintaining these talents within various organizations will not be that challenging. This will be particularly important for organizational leaders. However, only a few companies have a working succession program in place. In changing the role of human resource managers, organizational leaders have to source as well as recognize talents from an extensive global environment. Additionally, they have to get the necessary individuals and systems to make them integrate.
Another factor that is affecting the future of human resource management is globalization. Globalization is defined as the act of the firm to thrive outside its home country boundaries. As Noe et al. (2015) notes, companies that have undergone internationalization and multi-nationalization have brought new challenges to human resources. Initially, human resource managers in various firms had to deal with sourcing the right employees for the right job but currently, human resource management has to align with the business strategies of their companies. They have to create the change, lead it as well as develop a global cooperate culture. With time, it is expected that more challenges that relate to labor acquisition and talents will escalate. Coca Cola Company also has to compete worldwide to get the appropriate talents.
Ethical issues are another factor that is affecting the future of human resources management. These issues have been a concern for many organizations. Since the general reputation of the firm is determined by the ability of the firm to employ and maintain, the evolution puts human resource managers on toes to maintain talent and treat their talent fairly. However, the future of the company relies on the brand name the company builds. If the company builds a good brand name, it will likely attract more employees that may have exceptional talents that may be beneficial to the organization.
Apart from globalization, technology has also changed the way in which traditional human resources are managed. The new technology has seen payrolls and information systems utilization, something that lacked in the past years. Through better technology, activities such as e-learning web recruiting are the new talks in human resource management that have grown tremendously (Eroğlu, 2014). The increased technology utilization is attributed to the learning opportunity of technology such as podcasts, blogs, and wikis that the organization is open to. The online simulations and web discussions have also contributed to the technological know-how of human resource managers that have adopted the technology. As different studies claim, technology is expected to be on the rollout and this shows that handling of data in the human resource office will be easier and efficient.
Effects of these trends to the future of Coca Cola Human Resource
As much as the trends characterizing human resource evolution are inevitable, it is clear that the human resource has changed in the way it conducted its matters. These changes in handling issues have transitioned the way issues in human resources management are handled as much as new challenges do present. Although every trend discussed above have various advantages to the human resource, they also have some disadvantages that will likely influence the future of human resource greatly. To start with, globalization has both advantages and disadvantages to Coca Cola Company.
The change in technology is a fundamental factor that is positively changing or will change the human resource management. The ineffective methods that were previously used are likely to be replaced with new, sophisticated, and faster methods that are not only accurate but also efficient in every manner. Therefore, the miscalculations that surrounded human resources will diminish or totally disappear with more knowledge. However, technology will displace many people (Obedgiu, 2017). The work that could have been carried out by several individuals will now be done by a single machine. Technology could create massive unemployment worldwide including basic talented workers. Additionally, the integrated solutions in technology provide fewer customization options. As a result of the large scale and integrated nature of these solutions, the integrated solution in technology might be expensive to customize and maintain as newer versions emerge. Technology does not also provide the best solutions in each functional area and also makes it difficult to upgrade since a change to one function might cause dramatic impacts on others slowing down the initiation of new features and upgrades due to complexity.
As mentioned earlier, globalization allows expansion of Coca Cola business territories. However, these expansions bring disadvantages to both the organization and its workers. The employees have to spend their time abroad making it difficult for them to see their beloved ones and friends hence resulting in psychological torture to some. According to Mahoney and Deckop (2016), finding the right workers in the host country might also be challenging and therefore the company is forced to spend a lot of money to research consumers’ tastes in the region to suit their culture. As much as globalization leads to expanded markets of Coca Cola products, it negatively influences the future of human resources by creating more challenges than solutions.
As opined by Asrar-ul-Haq (2015), companies are expected to create strong brand names for their products that will positively influence the future of human resources of companies such as Coca Cola. As the company becomes more reputable, it will find little problem sourcing employees and maintain them because employees will prefer working in a reputable company instead of working in a company that has a bad reputation. Notably, the reputation of the company is built by the quality of the product it produces, the management of the firm, and the way it handles its employees and the favorable working conditions that it provides to its employees.
The above-mentioned factors predict what is likely to occur in the future. If the company such as Coca Cola decides to ignore the indications of such factors and trends, it is likely to collapse. Companies across the world ought to analyze these factors to come up with a strengthened business plan that will be the driving force of the company. If Coca Cola Company does not heed to these facts, then the company will fail to learn the changing demography, never adopt the changes in technology, and eventually may not see the need to create its brand name. As these factors are a sure way to the fall of human-related activities, it is important for companies to analyze them categorically and follow them keenly.
As a result of the various trends in the world, companies should prepare for the uncertain future adequately. This will only be achieved if the factors of the ever-changing human resources are identified and correctly analyzed. By putting this into consideration, it is significant for the company to resolve the right course of action to undertake to remain viable and relevant in the competitive market.
References
Asrar-ul-Haq, M. (2015). Human resource development in Pakistan: evolution, trends and challenges. Human Resource Development International, 18(1), 97-104.
Eroğlu, O. (2014). International human resource management and national cultural challenges. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 91-102.
Frank, F. D., & Taylor, C. R. (2014). Talent management: Trends that will shape the future. Human Resource Planning, 27(1).
Mahoney, T. A., & Deckop, J. R. (1986). Evolution of concept and practice in personnel administration/human resource management (PA/HRM). Journal of Management, 12(2), 223-241.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2015). Human resource management. Gaining a Competitive.
Obedgiu, V. (2017). Human resource management, historical perspectives, evolution and professional development. Journal of Management Development.
