The Strategic Role of Human Resource - Paper Example

Human resource management is a critical element in the functionality of any organization. With its value about meeting companys needs, its core input is helping employees of any institution in meeting their career and personal goals. Human resource, therefore, is a well-strategized distribution of an organization's highly valued assets, employees, who contribute to the attainment and objectives of the business (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Human Resource team in every organizations core function is to determine the type of candidates competent enough to add to the companys workforce. Human resource is the use of various management systems to maximize the workforce of an organization by goals set by the employer (Ulrich & Brockbank, 1995). Therefore, this workforce will directly impact the institution's performance. Human resource, therefore, is an essential workforce in any organization in the realization of their goals and visions. The purpose of this paper, thus, is to explain and elicit a clear understanding and knowledge of various concepts of human resource about the goals of an organization.

The Strategic Role of Human Resource

For any organization to achieve its goals, it must have an efficiently working human resource department with competent management. The primary role of this office is to organize people so that they can efficiently perform various activities relating to the success of the organization. Criterion employed in strategic human resource management depends on the ability of the organization to state clear mission and the ways of achieving them (Riccucci, 2001). While spot checking workforce, human resource department do competency assessment to determine the performance of various individuals based on standards and requirements of the job. They are also involved in enforcing employment laws to protect the employees.

Human resource has a profound impact on any organization, for instance, it is directly involved in recruiting new workforce, managing the existing workforce and also directing people. Furthermore, its strategic role is to maintain workplace culture to provide a comfortable environment in which the employees have the competency and commitment to producing expected results. It is an integral part of an organization since it helps in carrying out various employee related assessments.

Firstly, human resource works to make sure the employees utilize their full potential in the company. Total employee dedication to their work gives the organization a competitive advantage over their competitors due to well-structured and high-quality service delivery models.

Secondly, human resource primary objective is to ensure that the right person is hired for the job. The right person goes in hand with experience in the field, the proper academic qualifications, ability to increase service delivery and also to convert the knowledge they have to results.

Thirdly, in any organization, employees must be paid according to the work and qualifications. Therefore, the human resource department is mandated to ensure that it maintains equity among the employees in the organization regarding payment of salaries and allowances.

Apart from the above functions of the human resource in an organization, they are again mandated to carry out various responsibilities. Human resource management collects data related to turnover, the summary of employee hiring, budgets and expenditure and employee concerns (West et al., 2002). This information can then be analyzed and compared with the market and used where necessary about company success. The departments are also mandated with carrying out interviews on behave of the top management. Among the factors discussed in the meeting are goals, policies required for improvement and proposing strategies that are effective for the organization (Yerlan, 2013). From this interviews, the draw conclusions which are then used to make decisions that directly affect the group. Additionally, the human resource has the responsibility to implement the changes based on the choices they make in an organization. Monitoring this changes ensures that the success of the policies enforced are kept at a check, and possible alterations are done and modified in favor of the organization goals and objectives.

In utilizing strategic roles of human resource in an organization, a case scenario can be appropriate. Company Y needs to expand their business online. Due to this business strategy of entering a new market segment to target more customers, competency is a crucial factor. The human resource department will, therefore, examine the existing employees to determine whether they have enough knowledge dealing with information and communication technology equipment and give a proposal if they need training on the same. Additionally, they may decide if the company needs more employees with different skills with the aim of determining future needs of the business.

Failure to utilize the human resource in any organization will lead to the reduced implementation of strategies which are essential to the success of the company. Furthermore, directly driving to reduced morale in the workplace and eventually decline in productivity.

Based on high qualification capabilities and skills gained while studying human resource coursework, I have learned much in return. In the field of human resource, I have adverse knowledge on ever-changing issues ranging from labor laws, government policies, and employee safety concerns among other topics. Ability to adapt to this changes in the society and at the same time producing favorable results gives me a competitive advantage over others.

To sharpen my knowledge and skills in the field of strategic human resource management, regular workshop training where I will meet various individuals with more capabilities. With this insight, extra knowledge will be at my disposal to apply in my organization to develop a better, efficient and results-oriented department.

Human Resource Metrics that Matter. Organizations measure performance regularly to determine future trends in different aspects. To do this, Human Resource Metrics are used. This is indicators that enable the Human Resource departments to predict future performances based on the current state of affairs. Using various indices, the human resource will demonstrate their efforts of their office in contributing to the general success of the organization. There are many metrics measured in Human Resource; Cost per hire measures the cost a company will incur in hiring new employees. It is calculated by adding all the time and expense incurred in recruiting in one year and dividing by the number of hires. Cost of HR per employee measure how much the company will pay the HR team versus the total number of employees. It is calculated by totaling the salary and benefits packages of HR teams dividing by the number of employees. Time to fill measures the efficiency of the hiring process and associated problems with difficulty in filling certain positions. Staff turnover measures the number of workers leaving the company per year. It is calculated by adding the number of employees in the beginning and the end of the year and dividing by 2. Satisfaction index measures how passionate the employees are. Employee absenteeism measures the number of times an employee reports sickness or fail to show up to work. It is calculated by summing up the number of hours out of work. Training spent per employee measure the amount of money spent to train employees. It is estimated by taking the total of money spent divided by the number of employees who participated in the training. Offer acceptance ratio measure the number of people who are offered jobs versus those who decline. It is calculated by dividing the number of people who accept the number of offers given. Above average performance, management yield measures the number of people performing at a higher level per set performance review criteria. Performance versus potential compares the performance of employees in the workplace against the potential of the employees. Average time until promotion measures how long it takes for an employee to get promoted for outstanding success. It is calculated by taking the employee base and calculating the time it took for promotion. Revenue or profit per employee metric is done to determine the level of staff in determining whether the organization is over or understaffed. It is done by calculating annual or monthly revenue or profits dividing by the number of employees who were actively involved. Overtime cost metric to measure the amount the company spends on overtime pay per year. It also determines the level of staffing in the business. It is calculated by summing the wages over a set period. Timesheet metric measures the number of hours an employee should work to conform to the numbers of hours required. This parameter gives insight into staffing level and the rates of absenteeism. It is calculated by finding the difference between the numbers of hours than an employee should work and the number of hours worked that week. Healthcare cost per employee measures how much money the company contributes to the employees healthcare over a period. This amount is then divided by the number of beneficiaries.

HR metrics in any organization is an essential approach in measuring performance based on current rate of work. Measuring of efficiency will help improve performance in the body. Furthermore, it helps in identifying weaknesses and strengths in an organization. The data obtained from measuring metrics in any Human resource department will be used to support organizational objectives and strategies ("HR Metrics," 2017). For human resource managers, their ability to keep their seat at the executive level depends on the ability to provide concrete evidence supporting the performance of the department and success.

Explain the HR metrics, a case study ca be that, Company X has employed 500 employees for the financial year 2017/2018 to produce various units of products. In this fiscal year, the total revenue collected by the company was 100, 000 US dollars. Therefore, the revenue per employee will be 100, 000 divided by 500. This will give the revenue per employee to be 200 US dollars.

Failure to utilize HR metrics in any organization will lead to a drop in performance in the workplace. It can be attributed to lack of accountability and efficiencies in determining how much each employee contributes to the success of the organization. Since HR metrics are essential in making future decisions, failure to use may result in uninformed future choices lacking concrete supporting data.

Ability to master various metrics in my organization makes everything measure to measure, interpret, analyze and produce a complete report. Therefore, with vigor and knowledge-driven dream of improving the department, my experience can allow me to run efficiently while giving employees the satisfaction they need for the success of the organization.

Developing competencies in this area of study requires, regular training, employee- department interactions, and quality checks are essential tools that can be used to streamline the success of a working human resource department. Each metric will be measured in real time so that decisions can be made as quickly as possible if need be. It will, therefore, prevent delays in service delivery in the organization.

In conclusion, human resource is the back born of every organization about service delivery. The connection associating workforce performance in an organization and human resource has been an essential research area in recent years (Hitt et al., 2007). Competent human resource t...