The Importance Of Job Analysis, Rewards Systems And Career Development In Human Resource Management

In a constantly changing work environment, effectively and efficiently managing the people that work within an organization is crucial in ensuring the success of any business. Human resource management views the people as an asset much like finances and technology and is responsible for the policies, practices and systems that encourage certain behaviors and performance within an organization. Globalization is defined by Wittmann (2014) as the joining or merging of areas that affect business worldwide today and is a term that explains the various processes in society, economy, politics and culture that businesses share. The advancement of technology and e-commerce have led the change into a globalized business sector as businesses are able to better communicate with other countries factories, businesses and experienced worker in order to grow their business domestically and in offshore environments. With the increasing number of companies who decide to use offshore factories or warehouses and build headquarters in various countries, it is highly crucial that human resource management develop policies in job analysis, rewards systems and career development that can be effective in both situations.

Job analysis is an aspect of Human resources that focuses on the description and specifications of a task and is described as the process of examining a particular job’s responsibilities, specific tasks and what an employee must have in terms of knowledge and experience in order to successfully complete that particular job. To have a clear understanding of a task, a human resource manager must consider why it exists, what they specifically do and in what environment in order to determine a description and then analyze the responsibilities, skill, personality characteristics and experience necessary for a person to be able to complete this job. It is also a key aspect in being able to implement appropriate training programs and policies that ensure the people of the organization are ready and effective for their environment. This training program will be implemented after acquiring data through interviews of current employees both in team and individual and revising current training programs in order to make the process more effective for the business. It will be mandatory that an online orientation is completed by all new employees that highlights the company’s mission and values but more importantly discusses the safety regulations and pre-existing policies of the organization, it will be in form of a video followed by documents so that people cannot chose to skip through information. In Australia, this process of training will be easier to implement as technology such as computers and good internet is accessible to majority of the population, if not in their household, community computers are available at most public libraries. However, in offshore locations for the companies where some factories may be, something like this may not be as accessible if the internet or computers are not as prevalent in their society, which is why there has been an increase in expatriates. In this instance, employees with a higher-level training and managerial skills may be promoted and sent, at their own will, to these particular places for a period of time to inform the people face-to-face about the procedure and policies of the company and train their human resource managers to be able to do this when new employees join their company. On-the-job experience is easily implemented both domestically and offshore, as long as there is a capable team member who overlooks the training process. When a new employee first begins at a business, they will be given a mentor with experience in the field that will follow them around until they understand the basics of the job and are capable of doing the job on their own.

Benefits and rewards are a key motivator for employees that have proven to increase work productivity and morale especially when looking at companies like Google. Benefits can include both financial or non-financial rewards, financial being health care, gym memberships and childcare where as non-financial is things such as recognition and promotions. Particularly with Google, they have introduced a benefits scheme called Kudos where people are able to send thank you notes or general recognitions to other colleagues through a forum online, where the receiver can then convert these to financial or non-financial rewards which have been hand-picked and placed in a catalogue by Google employees. This kind of approach to rewards is known as the cafeteria rewarding system, which is a flexible system where “employees have to choose between two or more incentives (flexible benefits) comprised of qualified and cash benefits”. Employees at Google are apparently “40% more productive than the average company” because they are able to choose rewards that are tailored to their particular personality and needs, it motivated the employee to want to do their job to the best of their abilities and due to the increased diversity within organizations, set rewards may not be beneficial to everyone. Nazir, Shah and Zaman (2014) also mention the importance of understanding the rewards systems in place, their impact and success on their employees to see what best fits preferences of majority of people. Implementing this kind of rewards system, a cafeteria benefits scheme, can be done both domestically and in an offshore environment as the concept is individualised and flexible. Being a flexible type of policy, it is easier for human resource management to manage the expectations of expatriates in offshore locations as they are able to take into consideration the types of benefits they want and “consider the local market and the trends of goods and services while developing expatriate packages in the host country” (Nazir, Shah & Zaman 2014, p. 194). The flexibility of this system will allow for human resource management to implement catalogues of rewards that can be slightly varied depending on location of the branch and the type of people to ensure that the rewards of based in individual needs, and like google, can help in increase productivity due to an increased motivation for both domestic workers and expatriates.

Having policies that revolve around the potential for career growth within an organisation is a crucial element in ensuring a company is able to secure talent and experience. Career planning and development gives human resource mangers the ability to help these individuals by setting smart goals that help them towards higher positions within their company both domestically and offshore. Career planning focuses on the employees and can include things such as self-assessment, goal setting and career counselling whereas career management is organisation centred and includes elements such as recruitment, selection, training and development. Career counselling is the process of helping to give advice on how to further develop someone within their career at a chosen company and can be anything from developing in a particular skill to developing in management. Implementing a career counselling policy is crucial to any organisation as it gives new employees an opportunity to set themselves up for their future within the business but it also important for current employees who would like to advance in the career that they have chosen to manager or supervisor. It would include an online appointment booking service where employees can choose when a time suits them to meet with a counsellor and would be a discussion led by the person who made the appointment to ensure that valuable time is not wasted, and the meeting is effective for the employee. In Australia, this kind of opportunity is widely available to employees in most business sectors with companies, mainly big corporations, having a specific manager that handles these situations. Being able to implement this strategy offshore would mean needing to train someone domestic for this specific job who could then move offshore to do this for other branches of the company, which would be done at their own will. Implementing this system offshore would mean having to have this manager move overseas and it could be difficult to find someone willing to do so, however if rewarded with the right motivators suited to them it is most likely to happen.

In an everchanging working environment, it is crucial that human resource management effectively and efficiently manage the people of their organisation. Especially those expatriates who have moved overseas in order to keep up with the globalisation of the business sector due to technology and e-commerce advances. In terms of training program, it is essential that a thorough and inclusive job analysis is performed in order to find a training program that could be implemented worldwide. The use of computer training is accessible domestically but may not be offshore. Having an individualised rewards program such as a cafeteria catalogue system, would allow rewards to be implemented at all branches of the business as its person centred and also career counselling would be beneficial to all and although a manger would need to move overseas it would mean that everyone person within the organisation would be given the opportunity to advance in their chosen career.

Reference List

1. Wittmann, V. 2014, 'World society and globalisation', Journal for Multicultural Education, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 194-206.
2. Nazir, T., Hussain Shah, S.F. & Zaman, K. 2014, 'Review of Literature on Expatriate Compensation and its Implication for Offshore Workforce', Iranian Journal of Management Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 189-207.
3. Vozza, S 2017, ‘Why Employees At Apple And Google Are More Productive,’ Fast Company, 13 March, viewed 20 May 2019, https://www.fastcompany.com/3068771/how-employees-at-apple-and-google-are-more-productive