Reflection: Human Resources and CSR

This essay would cover three major aspects of human resource management in my previous employment.

• HRM in my organization
• HRM and CSR
• HRM policies during recession

Human resource management can be described as an approach to management that consider people as its key resources. For every organization their employees are the key resource for success. Without co-operation or commitment from employees, organizations can't achieve heights. In a broader sense HRM is defined as 'the part of management process that specializes in the management of people in work organizations.HRM emphasizes that employees are critical in achieving sustainable competitive advantage, that human resource specialists help organizational controllers to meet both efficiency and equity objectives'(The human resource management:Theory and Practice pg11)

HRM in my organization

In my limited experience I have seen a range of HRM activities by HRM professional in my organization.HR managers are considered as single point of contact for employees for all the HR related issues.HRM holds a significant role in managing employees in an organization. Behaviour theorists suggests that behaviour and performance of the 'human resource' is a function of at least four variables: ability, motivation, role perception and situational contingencies.(McShane,1995). Strategic management of people has been considered as a primary goal for HRM. Strategies has been formulated at the organizational level by the senior management and then it has been distributed to the Business level and then to Functional level.HR managers has to leverage the organizational strategy to the line managers.HR managers has to motivate employees to achieve the common goal or the organizational strategy.

HRM activities includes a range of activities from recruitment, training, appraisal and rewards.HR managers are linked to an employee from the time he joins the organization to the time he leaves the organization. An HR manager has to keep record of all the employees working in the particular organization. In my experience HR team conducts recruitment based on the requirement from each business unit to carry out a project.HR team first analyze the available internal work force and then if not found enough resources, then conduct recruitments. Appropriate candidates are shortlisted and then interviewed.HR manager role also includes planning induction training for the new joiners, creating training plan from the employees, making a buffer pool to manage surplus employees in the organization and also to take care of employee separation processes.

In my personal view my previous employer Tech Mahindra limited follows Guest model of HRM. According to Guest model of HRM core set of HRM practices can achieve superior individual and organizational performance. The central hypothesis of HRM is that if an integrated set of HRM practices are applied in a coherent fashion with a view to achieving normative goals of high commitment, high quality and task flexibility then superior individual performance will result.(Braton, Gold : Human Resource Management:Theory and Practice pg21).In Techmahindra HR practices are performed in such a way that employees are given proper training and are rewarded properly so that their commitment to the organization will increase. They are made aware of the organizational strategy and the organizational goals. By doing like that each employee will work towards achieving that common goal. We also had a forum call "JOSH" which represents fun and entertainment of employees in the organization. JOSH club will organize events throughout the year so that employees can participate in those events and can relax from the work load. This will create a good work environment for the employees. I consider this as a good HR strategy to give employee a warm feeling in the organization.

Picture adapted from Lecture2 hand out.

I can clearly say that in my previous employment the HRM cycle was similar to the HRM Cycle developed by Fomburn(1984).Once the employee is selected to the organization then he will be evaluated yearly based on his performance. Manager will assign goals to employee that needs to be achieved during the financial year. At the end of financial year appraisal discussion will take place between employee and manager and will review how far the employee achieved his/her goals. Based on that if required manager will ask the employee to attend training programmes or if the employee performs exceptionally then he/she will be nominated for a reward and will receive a hike in his/her pay.

HRM and CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR), also known as corporate conscience, corporate citizenship or corporate social performance, is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model.(Source: Wood, D. (1991)). CSR focused business promotes public interest by encouraging community growth and development and eliminating practices that harm public sphere regardless of legality.

All major multinational firms have CSR policy associated with their organizational policy. All organization has a responsibility to the society. Many organizations follow different procedures for CSR.CSR based business promotes public interest by encouraging community growth and development. Organizations focus on growth of the community and society by implementing several welfare schemes.CSR is also considered as a welfare policy that each multinational firms or organization dedicate to the society.

In my previous employment we had several schemes included in the CSR policy. In my organization it was considered as an initiative which is voluntarily undertaken by every employee to improve quality of life in the society.CSR reflects organizations brand and value by addressing societies most complex problems and try to bring a sustainable solution(source:TechMahindra website). HR policies are tailored in such a way that organizational and project goals are not affected by employee participation in CSR activities.

Several issues that a society faces include lack of proper education in villages, lack of computer in some schools etc. So these issues are taken as part of CSR and each organization with the help of their employees tries to find out a solution. In my previous employment we have taken care of an orphanage. We have supplied them with all the necessary food, provided education and invited them for all the celebrations that we conducted in our office. All employees who are actively involved in the CSR spend valuable time with them when they visited our office. Similarly we have also conducted tree plantation and also implemented "Go Green" policy in office premises. We have taken up a rural village and provided education for women and children. Employees can actively participate in these programs during their free time and on weekends.

We have 'Techmahindra foundation' to help and support Education in rural areas, women empowerment and to support the needy. HR policies are made in such a way that employees can provide support to the foundation by giving donations or being a volunteer of the foundation to help and support the CSR activities.

HR Policies during recession

Every organization has a change in their organizational strategy during the economic recession time. Senior management has asked HR professionals to come up with a new HR strategy to deal with the financial crisis. The primary objective of senior management was to reduce cost and maintain financial stability in the organization. Due to financial crisis many organizations had to shut down their operations, many employees lost their job and those organizations that survived the crisis are due to proper organizational and HR strategies. Creative human resource management is necessary during the recession period.

HRM function has to develop new ideas to bring change to HRM process. These changes bring change in the procedure in which an organization works. The main idea behind brining in new procedures is to reduce cost of the organization. Usually recession period is not considered as a good time to bring HRM Innovations. For most organizations during recession their policies and practices should be base lined on cost cutting

In my previous employment, during recession period HR professional came up with a strategic plan to find out number of employees that are currently working on projects and employees that are not allocated to any projects. As cost cutting was one of the main objectives HR professionals implemented job rotation scheme so that employees that are working on a project is given an opportunity to work on another project where the organization was actually looking for an external resource. When they found that by job rotation the requirement of external candidate is not required as the internal employee was able to manage the new challenge.

Another HR policy was to identify real key employees in the organization. This was done to ensure that key employees don't leave the organization during the recession time. They were made intact to the organization.HR professionals has also implemented some policies to find out employees that are not performing up to the expectation. Those employees were put in a job pool and have given opportunity to develop their skills and apply for new roles outside the organization. Most organizations were following lay-off scheme during the recession time as an easy way of cost cutting. In my organization we valued commitment of employees to the organization. So instead of relieving employees they were given a nominal amount as salary and a space to develop their skills. If an employee shows his/her skills then he/she will be taken back into project with the normal pay.

During recession period HR officials were forced to revisit the training plans and make suitable arrangements so that trainings will not incur heavy cost for the organization.

CONCLUSION

I could clearly state that in my previous employment the HR strategy was intact with the organisational strategy, where the strategy was driven by HR. Resource based view of strategy was given more importance.HRM policies and practices should be tailored by considering employees as their key resources.