LO 1 – AC 1.1: Objectives of People Practice
The dynamism in the human resources management (HRM) is reflected in the shift from the basic roles of recruitment and selection to broadened people practices. In the January 2017 CIPD research report, it was revealed that HR professionals are facing varying situations, characterised by disagreements in the values between stakeholders (CIPD, 2017). The contemporary organisation’s HR professional is concerned more with the people and working with diverse individuals. Besides being ethical stewards, there are also concerns about ensuring that the people needs and preferences, specifically the employees have been met and achieved (Heaton, 2020). This introduces the people practice concept, crucial in organisational performance and competitive advantage. Another important element entails the HR working as strategic business partners that adapt to the business needs. This section entails the major way through which the HR function add value for an organisation.
A major manner through which the HR function add value for an organisation entails working as the business partner. According to Antony and Merila (2019), the HR business partner is an HR professional that proactively integrates the organisational strategy with the people practices. As a HR partner, the professional is the link between the business and HR, supports, advises managers on the strategic aspects, assists in the implementation of integrated and high-performing working practices (Afsar et al., 2018). At Almarai, the HR demonstrates the partner aspect through working with all stakeholders, regardless of the diversities in levels to ensure that each individual participates in the decision making process. For instance, there are several brands that the company works to provide, including the foods, dips, liquid dairy, and Yogurt. As a business partner, the HR collaborates with the heads of these departments, including the line managers to ensure quality products for sustainable performance.
The HR partner function is profoundly explained from David Ulrich model that espouses on the HR roles. The effectiveness of the model is centred on the introduction of key elements of the human resources management realm and adding the highest value. Drawing from the history of David Ulrich’s HR Model, as described by Narayanan and Ferreira (2019), there is functional HR whose focus is more on developing strategic partnerships. A key factor that HR professionals in contemporary organisations is that business partnering cannot be achieved without a transition in the HR organisation. The benefits of these aspects is flexibility and responsibility in the HR, which allows for the professionals to become respectable partners. As a strategic partner, the HR activities and initiatives are aligned with the international business partners (McMackin and Heffernan, 2021). Although Ulrich’s model defines the key elements for the success of the entire HRM function, the challenge is that one area cannot exist in isolation. Rather, they have to be applied collectively to achieve the intended function and objectives.
A HR business partner works with other leaders and managers to address the organisational needs and preferences. The key knowledge areas and skills of the HR as business partners are described in the new profession map (CIPD, n. d). The important skills of the HR business partner include business acumen, people advocacy, understanding the HR, data analytics, and stakeholder management. In the business acumen area of core knowledge, it involves a comprehensive understanding of the company, the commercial aspect and the broad world of the job (Makhele and Barnard, 2020). At Almarai, for instance, the HR function is to examine the current and the future environment and trends. In the food market as an example, the HR function is to collaborate with other professionals, including research and development personnel and marketing department to understand the market needs and develop innovative strategies for competitive products and services. These strategies are important in maintaining competitive advantage.
The HR function as a business partner involves understanding various people practices for one to become a profound people professional and promote the employees’ performance. The CIPD defines people practices as the approaches and processes that HR professionals use throughout the workforce lifecycle. These include analysing the learning needs, developing the talent pools, making people policies, examining the people data, and an effective recruitment and selection (Rogers and Paul, 2018). At Almarai, the recruitment, selection, on-boarding, and retention is an effective process that involves diverse individuals. Almarai works with fresh graduates and experienced people. This offers the company an opportunity to work with competent individuals and train its own for long-term engagement and promote retention (Pandita and Ray., 2018). The value that effective people practices bring to Almarai include promoting innovation to ensure that the company becomes a global-class food company. As a business partner, the company also invests in talent and offers a work environment that provides the individuals opportunities to improve their capabilities and effectively execute their roles.
The HR business partner approach, including the people practices activities are however characterised by several costs. As an HR business partner, the costs of implementing the people practices are vast, such as investing in employee growth and development and approaches such as data management (Golenko et al., 2020). Although these strategies foster employee performance, wellbeing, and retention, the resources required to achieve the people practices objectives may significantly affect its financial wellbeing, especially when the benefits have not been realised. The value to employees is that the HR as a business partner ensures that their diverse needs have been met, which increases their satisfaction and motivation (De Sousa Sabbagha et al., 2018). Conducting a cost-benefit analysis for the people practice initiatives ensures that all the investments, such as learning and development and performance management are assessed for strategic and informed decision making. Also, there is an element of time in the HR function.
In summary, the major way of HR function adding value to an organisation is the business partnership, which is explained from the Dave Ulrich model of HR roles. The benefits to employers is enhanced organisational performance, workplace relationships, and ensuring that the business’ needs and future are met (Hategan et al., 2018). The challenges of the business partnership are mainly in the costs and time involved in implementing the strategies. From the example of Almarai, the organisation applies the HR business model to examine the current and future needs, implement strategic changes, and work with diverse professionals. The downsides include time and cost. Also, the HR business partnership area cannot be implemented in isolation but collaborative with other areas of the Ulrich model, including employee advocate, change champion, and admin expert.
References
Afsar, B., Shahjehan, A. and Shah, S.I., 2018. Frontline employees’ high-performance work practices, trust in supervisor, job-embeddedness and turnover intentions in hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Antony, T. and Merila, A., 2019. How Do Companies Integrate and Adapt to the HR Business Partner Organizational Model?
CIPD, 2017. HR professionalism: what do we stand for? Research Report. Available [online] at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/professional-identity-research-report-updatedPFFMay20_tcm18-17960.pdf [Accessed June 5, 2022].
CIPD, n. d. Explore the Profession Map. Available [online] at: https://peopleprofession.cipd.org/profession-map#gref [Accessed June 5, 2022].
De Sousa Sabbagha, M., Ledimo, O. and Martins, N., 2018. Predicting staff retention from employee motivation and job satisfaction. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 28(2), pp.136-140.
Golenko, X., Radford, K., Fitzgerald, J.A., Vecchio, N., Cartmel, J. and Harris, N., 2020. Uniting generations: A research protocol examining the impacts of an intergenerational learning program on participants and organisations. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 39(3), pp.e425-e435.
Hategan, C.D., Sirghi, N., Curea-Pitorac, R.I. and Hategan, V.P., 2018. Doing well or doing good: The relationship between corporate social responsibility and profit in Romanian companies. Sustainability, 10(4), p.1041.
Heaton, C., 2020. People practices in 2020: an HRD handbook. Available [online] at: https://www.hrdconnect.com/2020/08/17/people-practices-in-2020-an-hrd-handbook/ [Accessed June 5, 2022].
Makhele, L. and Barnard, B., 2020. The Impact of Business Acumen and Startup Skills on Entrepreneurial Development. IUP Journal of Entrepreneurship Development, 17(1).
McMackin, J. and Heffernan, M., 2021. Agile for HR: fine in practice, but will it work in theory? Human Resource Management Review, 31(4), p.100791.
Narayanan, N. and Ferreira, K., 2019. How Does HR Need to Change its Operating Model to Align More to Changing Times?
Pandita, D. and Ray, S., 2018. Talent management and employee engagement–a meta-analysis of their impact on talent retention. Industrial and Commercial Training.
Rogers, E. and Paul, J., 2018. Strategic people practices in startup organizations. People & Strategy, 41(3), pp.32-36.
LO 2 – AC 2.2: Linking People Management Practice with Improved Outcomes
There is a significant relationship between people practices and organisational performance. Among the key practices are learning and development and effective recruitment, selection, and on-boarding. A meta-analysis by Rauch and Hatak (2016) that examined 56 studies, focusing on the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) revealed that there is a positive and significant correlation between the HR-enhancing practices and firm performance. In the high-technology sectors, particularly those characterised by rigid and tight labour conditions, the relevance of HR practices is high to ensure that the workforce has the right skills and competencies, in line with the current and future needs. However, there is a difference between the SMEs and large organisations concerning the implementation of the HR practices to lift their performance. These differences involve the resources and time. This introduces the importance of organisational strategies focusing on enhancing the employees’ performance, which is the foundation of the discussion below.
The relationship between HR practices, empowerment, and enhancing the employees’ skills to increase the organisational performance is anchored on human capital development. Drawing from the human capital theory, human beings enhance their productivity and capacity through skills training and education. As noted by Pereira et al. (2020), human capital entails the investment on developing the workforce skills and competencies in line with the current and future needs. Through evidence from the business clusters, Pereira et al. (2020) demonstrated that human capital is the foundation of developing resilient and high performing companies. Relating the human capital with the resource-based view (RBV), organisations focus on developing the right resources. Employees’ skills and knowledge are part of the assets and capabilities. As noted by Collins (2021), RBV is an essential strategic human resources management with the potential of resulting to the company’s competitive advantage. Companies, both the SMEs and the large corporations should invest in developing the employees’ capabilities.
HR practices, including recruitment and selection, learning and development, and performance management are part of organisational design aimed at ensuring that the organisation has the relevant skills and competencies for transformation and competitive advantage (Elrehail et al., 2019). At Almarai, employees are acknowledged as the most important asset. Therefore, the company has invested in attracting the right individuals, training, and offering sufficient resources to meet their requirements. Almarai has invested in regular performance appraisal to examine the employees’ strengths and weaknesses. These insights, as described by Jungert et al. (2018) are essential in developing learning and development programs and investing in providing a work environment that influences development through autonomy and learning from others. Part of Almarai’s strategy is to increase the workforce awareness of issues surrounding health and safety. This is important in their satisfaction, motivation, and retention, which are fundamental in sustainable performance, growth, and development.
A new HR practice should focus on examining the micro and macro environmental factors and using the insights in developing the learning and development strategies. Rauch and Hatak (2016) study outlines some of the key HR practices to enhance performance, including equipping the employees with knowledge and skills, empowerment, and motivation. Although these factors are suggested in the SMEs context and are relevant compared to the large firm dimension, they can also be applied but should be drawn from an evaluation of the micro and macro elements (King and Vaiman, 2019). This relationship can be described from the Warwick model, which encompasses five elements of macro environmental forces, micro aspects, business strategy, HRM context, and HRM content. Large corporations, such as Almarai are characterised by a supportive working culture and structure, which describe the inner context. In the outer context, the factors influencing the new HR practices include the technical, socio-economic, and competition (Tiwari et al., 2019). At Almarai, for instance, it acknowledges that the technology advent is crucial for the growth and competitiveness of the firm. Therefore, learning and development for the employees has focused on equipping the employees with the information and communication technology skills.
The new HR practices to lift performance involve a transition from the traditional approaches and a consideration of new strategies, including the structure. An example is the shift from hierarchical or matrix to flat structure where employees are involved in the decision-making process, as described by Cagliano et al. (2019). This ensures they are empowered for autonomous decision-making. Another area of new HR practices is the recruitment, selection, and on-boarding process. At Almarai, the recruitment and selection process follows creating an account with the company, searching for vacancies, registering for the job, and getting it upon a successful recruitment and selection process. An improvement in this regard involves recruitment from a wide approach, such as the social media and a comprehensive three-months on-boarding strategy. During the change management process, it is essential to apply a profound model, such as McKinsey’s 7-S which outlines the seven aspects that assist companies meet their objectives and implement the changes (Chmielewska et al., 2022). The use of a change model is to ensure that various aspects are considered in the process, including the strategy, systems, shared values, staff, skills, style, and structure. The importance of shared values to ensure that the new working practices are aligned with the overall work ethic.
In summary, the importance of new HR practices is to ensure that the company implements strategies that will promote performance and help in meeting the organisational goals and objectives. However, the relationship between the HR practices and performance remain uncertain. This can be confirmed from Guest et al. (2003) study that explored 366 UK organisations through longitudinal and cross-sectional data. This study confirmed that HRM practices are associated with financial performance and productivity. However, the study failed to show that HRM results in high performance. Two other critical concerns or issues concerning the new HR practices are the costs of implementing the strategies and the need for advanced skills. For instance, implementing learning and development programs is cost intensive (Darling-Hammond et al., 2020). However, this cannot be compared to the benefits, which include increased performance and employees’ productivity. Another critical consideration is the need for advanced skills and knowledge by the HR professionals. Drawing from Warwick model, the HRM content and context include the roles, HR outputs, rewards, work system, and employee relations. Large organisations, such as Almarai have to demonstrate competence in HRM to implement the new practices.
References
Cagliano, R., Canterino, F., Longoni, A. and Bartezzaghi, E., 2019. The interplay between smart manufacturing technologies and work organization: the role of technological complexity. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
Chmielewska, M., Stokwiszewski, J., Markowska, J. and Hermanowski, T., 2022. Evaluating Organizational Performance of Public Hospitals using the McKinsey 7-S Framework. BMC health services research, 22(1), pp.1-12.
Collins, C.J., 2021. Expanding the resource based view model of strategic human resource management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(2), pp.331-358.
Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B. and Osher, D., 2020. Implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development. Applied Developmental Science, 24(2), pp.97-140.
Elrehail, H., Harazneh, I., Abuhjeeleh, M., Alzghoul, A., Alnajdawi, S. and Ibrahim, H.M.H., 2019. Employee satisfaction, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: The case of Northern Cyprus. European Journal of Management and Business Economics.
Guest, D.E., Michie, J., Conway, N. and Sheehan, M., 2003. Human resource management and corporate performance in the UK. British journal of industrial relations, 41(2), pp.291-314.
Jungert, T., Van den Broeck, A., Schreurs, B. and Osterman, U., 2018. How colleagues can support each other’s needs and motivation: An intervention on employee work motivation. Applied Psychology, 67(1), pp.3-29.
King, K.A. and Vaiman, V., 2019. Enabling effective talent management through a macro-contingent approach: A framework for research and practice. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 22(3), pp.194-206.
Pereira, V., Temouri, Y. and Patel, C., 2020. Exploring the role and importance of human capital in resilient high performing organisations: evidence from business clusters. Applied Psychology, 69(3), pp.769-804.
Rauch, A. and Hatak, I., 2016. A meta-analysis of different HR-enhancing practices and performance of small and medium sized firms. Journal of business venturing, 31(5), pp.485-504.
Tiwari, V., Srivastava, S. and Kumar, D., 2019. Adoption of HRM practices: A practical model-case study of a hotel. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM), 21(4), pp.59-63.
LO 3 – AC 3.4 Employee Relations, Employee Engagement, Diversity, and Inclusion
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