QUESTION 16- What role can HR play in improving organisation performance?

Recruitment

The Role of HR is to recruit talented staff and employees and keeping them in their positions and ensuring that they perform to expectation. It is also assisting in screening candidates with best qualifications to appoint to interviews.HR also plans for future venture and objectives for all staff and employees in the company. Employee champion – HR must create a productive work environment, ensure effective communication, and manage workforce relations.

Example:

A company needs an employee with a desirable skills and criteria, HR will have to look for a candidate which will fit these skills and criteria and also HR need to look for the best one, by recruiting the best with all criteria covers and someone having the experience for the job, this will enable time lost in training the new recruit and the performance of the new recruit be high when he start to work.

Training and Development

Training and development helps employees to grow and improve or obtain new skills. Training focus on learning the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to initially perform a job or to improve upon the performance of a current job. Training also increases motivation of employees and gives them that extra boost of energy needed to get them through tough times in their jobs.

(Cherrington, 1995). Training can be used in a variety of ways, including (1) orienting and informing employees, (2) developing desired skills, (3) preventing accidents through safety training, (4) supplying professional and technical education, and (5) providing supervisory training and executive education (Cherrington, 1995).

(Cherrington, 1995). Each of the training methods mentioned has benefits to the individual as well as to the organization. Some of the benefits are reducing the learning time for new hires, teaching employees how to use new or updated technology, decreasing the number and cost of accidents because employees know how to operate a machine properly, providing better customer service, improving quality and quantity of productivity, and obtaining management involvement in the training process.

Example:

HR role in Training and Development is to detect the gap in performance objective of individuals and analyse if the employee need a specific training for fulfil this gap to achieve the objectives set.

Performance Appraisals

After recruiting talented individuals in the organisation, another role of HR is to create an environment that will motivate and reward exemplary performance.

Cherrington (1995) illustrates how performance appraisals serve several purposes, including:(1) guiding human resource actions such as hiring, firing, and promoting; (2) rewarding employees through bonuses, promotions, and so on;(3) providing feedback and noting areas of improvement; (4) identifying training and development needs in order to improve the individual's performance on the job; and (5) providing job related data useful in human resource planning

Example:

A company has set goals and objective of each of his employees. HR will have to ensure that that the performance appraisal of each employee to be reviewed on a respected time table. A close monitoring of performance appraisals, enable employee to stay on track on their performance at work.

Compensations and Packages

To motivate employees, HR need to rewards employees especially those who have done well. HR needs to evaluate good performers and those who have exceeded expectations and these employees should be compensated for their actions like:

• End of year Bonuses
• Equities
• Awards
• Salary Increment
• Provision of flexible working hours
• Promotion schemes and career development

With these incentives, it makes the employees identify with the firm and instils a sense of loyalty,

If employees feel they are paid what they are worth, are rewarded with sufficient benefits, and receive some intrinsic satisfaction (good work environment, interesting work, etc.).

Compensation should be legal and ethical, adequate, motivating, fair and equitable, cost-effective, and able to provide employment security.

Example:

Giving rewards, promotions, car schemes and others have also been a method to motivate high performance at work. HR role is record and monitor high and low performance at work. Giving rewards and others to high performers will serve as example for low performance do their best at work to that they benefit same rewards.

Health & Safety

HR role is also to ensure that employees have a good and safety working environment. Having a safe environment is protecting employees from injuries by work related accidents and health and keeping employees free from physical or emotional illness.

Example:

Working in a safe and secured workplace will always motivate employees to work at their fullest potential and working in a safe workplace improves their performance at work and also employees work without the fear to be injured.