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Human Resource Management

Latrice Jones

Northcentral University

10/03/2021

Research and Articulate Challenges and Issues in Human Resource Management

Human resource management (HRM) is a department in organization that has the responsibility is implementing strategies designed to ensure effective and efficient management of workforce in an organization to ensure they help the organization achieve its goals and objectives and also gain a competitive advantage in the industry. As the business world continues to advance, activities in human resource management broaden. The concept of a global market has intensively changed the responsibilities of HRM due to exchange of culture across borders. Furthermore, diversity and inclusivity has become popular in workplace and this has changed the hiring process of the human resource department. Technological advancements have also affected the functions of HRM. To achieve its objectives, this paper will discuss challenges and issues in human resource management at the Walmart Company while considering the policy implementation plans at the company, highlighting the necessary steps in the implementation process. Additionally, this paper will discuss issues and challenges in resource allocation and measurement of the outcomes.

Rework the Vision and Mission of the Company

Human resource management is becoming an important part of strategic planning in organizations, where employees are motivated to proactively work towards organizational goals and initiatives. This means that a larger part of the functions are focused on achieving organizational goals and ensuring that the company meets the needs and requirements of its customers (Knap-Stefaniuk, & Burkiewicz, 2018). With a broader work scope, each employee is called upon to give their best towards company goals, while the organization gets committed towards providing education, training and communication to the employees.

As the scope of responsibilities increase and the HRM department gets involved in strategic planning, the department is required to restructure its mission and visions and this is likely to affect its operations and affect the accomplishment ability of employees to deliver on their responsibilities at Walmart. The success of Walmart is based on how the employees accomplish their responsibilities based on the mission and vision of the company.

The visions and missions of an organization determine where the organization is and where it wants to be in future. However, with challenges in human resource management, companies may need to review its mission and vision thus making it challenging for companies to achieve their goals. The HR department is the backbone of most organizations and if it fails to deliver on its objectives in most instances, the organizations will most likely fail to meet their goals.

Information & Knowledge Age

Information and knowledge have become some of the most important assets to an organization and they are replacing manufacturing and production. People are no longer embracing human resources but are replacing them with machines and computers in offices. Additionally, people are increasingly choosing to work with ideas and concepts rather than going physical like in the manufacturing industry. The information age ushered in a new desire for knowledge making it an important resource within many organizations. Companies no longer operate while depending on the traditional factors of production only, but have embraced other activities including structure, development, sharing and application (Cooke, Liu, Liu, & Chen, 2019).

As the amount of data increases and the success of organizations are dependent on it, it is likely that more organizations will hire and retain individuals who have the skills and experience of analyzing data and using the information to achieve company goals and objectives. Companies are investing more in people who can use available to solve problems and predict future activities in the industry thus being able to foretell the performance of an organization.

The right information for an organization earns it a competitive advantage in an industry and also increase its ability to deliver on the needs of its customers. A company that has information on the most effective and efficient ways of manufacturing is able to implement better educational and training initiatives for their employees. Training and development of employee careers acts a motivator pushing them into putting in more efforts towards achieving organizational goals.

Attracting and Retaining Talent

Talent and experience are some of the greatest assets to an organization and as the world continues to advance, the competition for companies to attract and retain exceptional talent has increased. One of the essential responsibilities of HRM is to facilitate capabilities that can drive an organization towards its goals and objectives. Furthermore, the ability to attract the right talent and retain it is a core function of and it is becoming challenging to sustain by the day. As more competitors enter the market and the world turns into a global market, companies are now investing more into HRM (Keller, & Meaney, 2017).

For example, the companies need to maintain an exceptional employer brand both internally and externally, through ensuring people can grow their careers while working at the company. Apart from maintaining a good employer brand, the companies are also required to offer better compensation packages to talented employees. Talented employees are an asset to an organization and offering them the bare minimum can see an organization lose its employees rival companies. Attracting and retaining the right talent has become an expensive endeavor especially for companies that require talented employees but are running on a tight budget.

As much as mot companies are attracted to high quality talent among employees, it has become expensive to acquire these talents especially for companies operating on a budget. To retain an employee, organizations are forced to offer high remuneration and other benefits that can be detrimental for the financial position of organizations. Talent has become an integral part of an organization’s success and most companies are investing most of their financial resources into ensuring their hire the best minds in the industry.

Empowering Employees

Empowering employees is a crucial aspect in any organization and it acts as a motivator towards organizational goals. It facilitates a mutual influence and distribution of power in the company through sharing of responsibilities. Additionally, empowering employees creates a democratic and trusting relationship between employees and the management. Empowering employees gives them the opportunity for employees to develop their capabilities and skills in the company and also fosters self-accomplishment. This means to become an empowering manager requires managers to showcase leadership skills and facilitate tools that their employees can you to meet the needs of the company and also grow their career.

However, this is no longer the deal as many companies start operating on the global market, they have a large pool of employees to mentor and empower thus becoming challenging to serve all of them.

Additionally, the global workforce comprises of employees from different backgrounds and also different career goals thus making it challenging to empower all of them. It is also becoming expensive for organizations to train and develop the skills of their employees from all their branches globally. Furthermore, since, empowerment is a continuing process, it becomes challenging for organizations to empower employees in an industry where there is a lot of competition for highly qualified employees.

Managing Global Workforce

As the world turns into a global village, companies are taking their operations across borders and this calls upon the human resource department to re-evaluate its hiring processes (Narkhede, & Joshi, 2007). Operating in different countries and regions call upon organizations to embrace diversity and inclusivity and this means that people from different backgrounds will have to work together. One of the greatest challenges affecting HRM when it comes to managing a global workforce is understanding and developing systems of education and training that will shape employees into embracing their social and cultural differences.

Although educational institutions have invested much into these areas, still they have not been able to they have still been unable to change the perception of some people about working with people from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, the global workforce has advanced thus redefining the status of employees, for talented people in the world are becoming unwilling to work as full-time employees and thus forcing companies to hire them on a freelance basis. As large companies like Walmart make a decision to go global, they need to understand that HRM will face a lot of challenges managing a group of employees not just from different backgrounds but also those who have different career goals.

A global workforce is an issue in human resource management because the more diverse a workforce, the more challenging it becomes to effectively manage it. Managing employees from in different branches that have a responsibility of achieving a similar goal is becoming a challenge affecting many companies. Technological advancements like teleconferencing are also becoming an issue in monitoring the performance of employees especially those in remote areas where senior managers may find challenging to access. The future of companies operating on the global market greatly depends on its ability to manage the diverse workforce.

Enhancing the Supplementary Services

In the current corporate world, technological advancements have enabled many companies to compete on the global market, and this competition to serve a large pool of clients has increased the amount of stress that employees have to deal with. For example, the employees are loaded with work and stress, both mental and physical stress making it hard for them to have the health necessary to develop competencies required to deliver of their responsibilities in the organization (Narkhede, & Joshi, 2007). Due to these health and mental challenges, HRM becomes a challenge as the company will have to put in place infrastructure and programs to help these employees.

For example, some companies have psychological counselors, spiritual guides, gyms and other recreational activities that are designed to help employees maintain proper physical and mental health while working under pressure. It is essential to note that if these organizations fail to handle the health of these employees by setting up supplementary services, then it will be challenging for the employees to work towards achieving the goals and objectives of the company.

Additionally, employees are going through a lot of challenges at home which eventually affect their output in the organization. Mental health at the workplace especially for employees working under pressure is becoming an emerging issue as the number of employees suffering health complications continues to raise hence companies establishing psychological centers at the workplace. Companies are also setting up gyms and paying gym subscriptions for their employees to ensure they remain fit and health while delivering on their needs at the workstation.

Also, health and safety standards at the workplace have become obvious challenges with some companies finding it challenging to handle them. However, labor laws are implemented to ensure employee’s wellbeing is protected while at their workstations. Psychological health of employee has become a major factor and the human resource managers are called upon to monitor they workload given to employees to limit the amount of stress that employees are subjected to. Training managers to have emotional intelligence can help them understand the benefits of a healthy mental state especially among employees. Other training that managers need to look out for is general stress management methods which can help them create resilient workforce that can deliver on its responsibilities and remain healthy.

Managing Workplace Diversity

The future growth and success of companies is based on the ability of managers to control a diverse workforce that can bring about innovative ideas and perspective that can help the company stay ahead of its competitors. Companies can convert some of the challenges experienced due to diversity and turn them into strategies as the company will be able to benefit from a large pool of diversified talents. These talents can earn an organization competitive advantage thus increasing its success in the industry (Chand, & Markova, 2019). A diverse workplace includes cultural backgrounds, age, gender, lifestyle, educational background and an organization that has employees from these areas is more likely to appeal to the community and attract more clients.

Furthermore, an increase in competition for exceptional talent means that if an organization fails to present a suitable work environment, then they risk losing the employees to competition. All organizations are striving to ensure they retain employees and will therefore implement all measures to establish a suitable work environment. For example, most companies operating on the global level try their level best to ensure they have exceptional ethical and cultural backgrounds.

To manage the workplace diversity for multinational organizations, the managers need to think global in most instances especially those that may affect the performance of organizations. This means that human resource managers need to undergo training on the best way they can manage employees that are highly experienced but from a diverse background. Also, to ensure that the companies control the amount of resistance they receive from local professional, they need to assure them that foreign talents hired at the company are not a threat to their career advancement and growth.

The effectiveness and efficiency of managing workplace diversity is based on the ability of HR managers to skillfully manage and motivate these employees. One of the reasons why organizations fail to implement effective workplace diversity is the predisposition to place employees in departments where their diversity profile belongs to. When it comes to practical operations, diversity cannot be categorized and organizations that are able to leverage talents at their disposal irrespective of an employee’s diversity profile stand to benefit the most from a diverse work environment.

Challenges of Mergers & Acquisitions

Changes in ownership and management of an organization are also another challenge faced in human resource management. An increase in competition in most industries all over the world has forced mot organization to come up with ways of surviving the competition, grow and achieve their goals (Samuel, 2018). Mergers and acquisitions are some of the popular ways through which companies have devised to remain relevant. However, when they are implemented, they alter the business environment and operations within the company. Mergers have been known to kill morale among employees as a wave of uncertainty spreads among employees due to changes in management making employees become unsure of their job securities. These changes affect the attitude of employees to deliver on their responsibilities and they may even lack the motivation to increase their output in the company.

If an organization implements a merger and acquisition process without proper planning, then the company that comes after will face a lot of challenges especially when it comes to achieving its goals and objectives (Chand, & Markova, 2019). Another challenge associated with mergers and acquisitions is that the HR team will experience a lot of work setting up transition teams, managing the learning process and redesigning the HR department according to the goals of the new organization. Additionally, the HR team will have more responsibilities embracing new roles and developing new competencies and providing input into managing the transition process.

Outsourcing

Another issue in human resource management outsourcing where organizations decide to get expert services from outside the organization on a freelance basis rather than hiring permanently. Outsourcing is most efficient in fields or projects where expert knowledge is required but not for a long time. Although outsourcing is an option for most companies, it also presents a challenge where some of these experts may not be registered members of the relevant bodies. Additionally, it is challenging to monitor freelancers when it comes internal standards and requirements. An ideal HR system needs to ensure it has implemented necessary measure to control the quality of services offered by freelance experts.

Managing Cross Cultural Communication

Due to global advancement and technology, many companies are now operating on the global market. However, communication is still a challenge since the language barrier is yet to be managed. Operating on the global level means that organizations will have to embrace employees from different backgrounds and this means managing a team of employees who speak different languages and are likely to face communication challenges at the work station (Chand, & Markova, 2019). Communication is not just essential in ensuring that employees deliver on their responsibilities in the organization but also guarantees the organization will understand and deliver on the needs of its customers.

Companies have tried to invest in providing cultural practices to employee send to work in other nations with the hope they will understand the communities within which they will operate. However, this process is expensive and most organizations find it challenging to offer it to all employees. The future of an organization on the global market depends on how its team of employees is willing to adapt to the new environment, failure to which it becomes impossible for the HR department to manage the employees and motivate them towards organizational goals.

Employees from different cultures are like to conflict with each other and this can be detrimental to organizational goals (Narkhede, & Joshi, 2007). HR managers for companies operating on the global level need to undergo training on the best ways through which they can resolve cultural conflicts within a diverse work environment. Cross-cultural communication is becoming an emerging issue as most companies start operating internationally.

Conclusion

To conclude, the HRM has become a diverse work environment that includes a lot of activities and people and thus it is subject to a lot of challenges. After assessing the Walmart Company, this paper was able to discuss several challenges and issues in human resource management. Some of the challenges discussed include communication challenges which can be tired to language barrier. In as much as some companies have mitigated the language barrier through training employees, some companies are experiencing this problem. Additionally, the paper discussed employee compensation and mergers and acquisitions challenges impacting motivation among employees and making it almost impossible to manage the workforce. Based on the findings of this paper, we can also conclude that most of the challenges and issues in HRM can be attributed to global and technological advancement. As people get an opportunity to travel and work across borders it becomes challenging to manage people from different cultural backgrounds. Language barriers is surely an HR issue because these barriers can slow down production, have an effect on department collaboration, make it hard to retain some customers, and could hinder market expansion.

Signature Assignment: Research and Articulate Challenges and Issues in Human Resource Management

For your final assignment, you will choose one global organization and utilize your previous assignments to complete. It is recommended that you pick an organization in which you have access to its documentation. Once you have selected your organization, review their policy development processes, determine how they are implemented, and then examine the outcomes resulting from the policies being deployed. You will need to consider various forces that affect HR policies, including the needs of global environments, organizations, and employees. Explain each step of the process to ensure that there is alignment to each of the various dimensions discussed throughout this course. Your comprehensive paper should include the following: