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Introduction
“Human resource management is the collection of policies, practices and systems
that influence employees’ behaviour, attitudes and performance.” (Frankie, 2017)
Often, HRM is “concerned with recruitment selection, learning and development,
reward, communication, teamwork and performance management”. (Julie & Amanda,
2014:4)
Tom Peters, the author of “In Search of Excellence” said that “the simple act of
paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity”
(Inspiration Unlimited eMagazine, 2017). In the 19th Annual Global CEO Survey
conducted in January 2016, 76% of CEOs define business success by more than
financial profit. (PwC CEO Survey. 2016) Therefore, when we talk about achieving
success in an organisation, it is not only about making profit but also to achieve
organisation’s mission, vision, strategy, and goals.
The following essay will briefly discuss how HRM adds value to an organisation
through the following strategies: job design, diversity management, reward system
and training and development.
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Job Design
According to American business executive and former AT&T chairman and CEO
Michael Armstrong (2006), Job Design is the process of deciding and outlining of the
contents of a job in terms of responsibilities, qualifications, and required duties on
how the job should be carried out, in terms of techniques, systems and procedures,
also on relationships between the employee and his or her superior, subordinates and
colleagues. HRM design job to help an organisation to reduce and/or overcome job
dissatisfaction and alienation in employees with the following techniques: Job
enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, and job simplification. (Shma 2013)
Job Enlargement is the horizontal expansion of a job which involves additional tasks
within same hierarchy of skill and responsibility. (Shma 2013) For example, a small
company with flat organizational structure may not be able to provide a lot of
promotion opportunities to employees, job enlargement is used to motivate employees
as the employees’ workload increase from 3 activities to 5 or even more and this can
provide a sense of achievement and individual benefit. It benefits the company by
enabling variety of skills and save cost on salary billing since lesser employees are
needed for the same load of work.
Job enrichment is an idea that was developed by the American psychologist
Frederick Hertzberg in the 1950s (Shma 2013) aimed to motivate employees by
offering wider range of tasks and challenges physically and/or mentally. For example,
Mr. A who is previously working independently now gets involved in a project where
the team can control and decide how they want the work to be accomplished. Mr. A
felt appreciated and developed sense of belonging and is more willing to take up more
challenging tasks.
Through job rotation, employees are assigned to various jobs and departments over a
period of a few years, allowing them to pick up new skills. (Shma 2013) For example,
Miss L, who is originally a working in XXX hotel’s housekeeping department is now
working in the hotel’s F&B department.
Job simplification means that jobs are break down into smaller or relatively easier
sub-parts which aims to enhance the individual’s productivity through minimisation of
physical and mental efforts required to perform a difficult task. (Shma 2013) For
example, a company producing ice-cream will simplify the process by hiring
employees with different skills in the ice-cream making process. This helps
