CASE 8

Meeting present and emerging strategic human resource challenges

Human resource strategy is a firms use of human resources to help it gain or maintain an edge against its competitors in the marketplace. Human resource tactic is a particular HR policy or program that helps to advance a firm´s strategic goal. Environmental challenges are the forces that come outside of the firm and are beyond the managements control. These challenges today are for example the Internet, rapid change, workforce diversity and globalization. Organizational challenges are concerns inside the firm. Proactivity is important in this case, meaning the need to take action before problems get out of hand. Effective HR policies can impact on organizations competitive position in three areas; controlling costs, improving quality and creating distinctive capabilities.

Individual challenges are challenges to a specific employee. Individual challenges almost always reflect what is happening in the larger organization. Productivity is a value that individual puts and gives to the company and to perform tasks.  Empowerment is providing the employees with skills and authority to make decisions that could be made by managers traditionally.

Strategic human resource planning is a process of formulating strategies and establishing programs or tactics to implement them. Using proactivity rather than reactivity because then the company is looking into the future. Communicating of company goals which then sets clear goals for employees too. Stimulation of critical thinking and ongoing examination of assumptions means an ongoing effort to develop rather than do what is considered to be working ok. Encouraging the line managers to participate and to encourage the employees to succeed.

The challenges of strategic HR planning are maintaining a competitive advantage, reinforcing overall business strategy, avoiding excessive concentration on day to day problems, developin HR strategies suited to unique organizational features, coping with the environment, securing management commitment, translating the strategic plan into action, combining intended and emergent strategies

Strategic HR choices are the options available to a firm in designing its human resources system. These are work flows, staffing - the right employees at the right place at the right time,employee separations – voluntarily or involuntarily, performance appraisal, training and career development, compensation, employee and labor relations, employee rights, international management – how to manage on global basis.

Fit with the environment. Examining the environment from four dimensions; degree of uncertainty, volatility, magnitude of change and complexity

In the article `Child refugees in Turkey making clothes for UK shops` is a typical story of a retail company which tries to make as many clothes as possible in the lowest possible costs. I think it´s stupid that companies still are surprised about these news that there are some under aged workers for example at their factory. I feel that there is all the time news about this kind of findings or that the factories don’t have good enough conditions to work in. I think this big companies should have some kind of programme for supervising these issues. It harms the company´s reputation every time they are raised to news for this kind of reasons.

Sources:

Managing Human Resources, Global Edition 2016 Gomez-Meja, Balkin, Cardy. P.29-71

Child refugees in Turkey making clothes for UK shops. BBC news. 24.10.2016

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37716463 accessed 25.4.2018