The Principles Of Ethical Human Resource Management

Introduction

“Human Resource Management is the set of organizational activities directed at attracting, developing and maintaining an effective workforce.”- Ricky W. Griffin

The overall objective of human resources is to ensure that the organisation is able to attain success by people. HR practitioners manage the human capital of the organisation and focus on the execution of strategies &processes.They may play a vital role in finding, recruiting, training, and developing workers, as well as maintaining employee relationships or rewards. Training and development practitioners ensure that employees are equipped and established on a continual basis. This is accomplished through training programs, performance evaluations and incentive programs. Employee relations resolve workplace issues when procedures are violated, such as cases involving bullying or discrimination. The administration of employee benefits requires the design of pay packages, parental leave programs, promotions and other incentives for workers.

Ethics in HRM

Ethics basically are the moral principles that regulate the behaviour of an individual or the conduct of an operation. Ethics in an organization play a very vital role for its development and helps the employees and motivates them to work with more efficiency. Ethics in hrm is primarily concerned with the employer's positive moral obligation to maintain equality and fairness towards the worker.

HRM Policies

Human Resource policies are the guidelines on the conduct of an organization basically described as rules to pilot any decision within the organization. Good HR policy provides general guidance on the approach taken by theorganisation and therefore by its employees with context to multiple aspects of employment.Each organisation has a different set ofchallenges and thus it develops an individual set of human resource policies. The proximity in which the organisation operates also specifies the content of its policies.

Health and safety policy

Occupational health should concentrate on the promotion and replenishment of the highest level of physical, mental and social wellbeing of workers in all professions, the prevention among workers of health departures due to their working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks arising from adverse health factors; the placement and maintenance of workers in employment ,it is mainly the employers responsibility. Organization as well as Human resources professionals both play an important role in ensuring employee health and safety, as they know the workplace, the employees and their job demands,although human resources practitioners are not forced to learn the technical aspects of health and security at work, they should know when and how to use available resources to react to employee concerns. • Preventing accidents and illnesses related to work.

• To foster a culture of safety at work in which employees and their superiors work with each other to ensure safety at work.
• Develop administrative methods that facilitate employees to inform unsafe conditions and unsafe practises to their supervisors without fear of discipline.
• Retaining records of injuries, sickness and employees ' remuneration
• Developing proper training programmes for the employees.

Pay-roll policy

The term 'payroll' refers to the database of employees who receive compensation from a corporation. Payroll may also refer to the company, unit or software used to process social security checks and taxes or to calculate and distribute paychecks for employees.Payroll processing is a very important function of any industry and requires an understanding of current rules, detailed tax knowledge to ensure optimal retention and filing, and a highly coordinated system that can be used to pay each employee the right amount of money. Payroll has different elements such as:

• Employee Details - Before you can run your payroll, you will need to obtain the particulars of your workers, such as their name, email, national insurance number and pay.
• Employee hours - When you pay your workers at an hourly rate, you should also have a program in place to track the hours they work so that you can make sure they are receiving the exact amount.
• Salary, wages and Net pay - Company will have to keep a record of whether your employees areon an hourly salary or pay, as this will establish how you calculate their pay. The salary is a pay package that the employee receives on a monthly basis. These payouts are based on an annual amount which is divided into 12 individual payments. Nevertheless, depending on the nature of your company, you can choose whether to pay your workers a wage or a salary. A wage is an amount total hours worked instead of just a fixed amount per year. You must set an hourly wage and subtract it by the number of hours worked to determine their total pay over a given period.
• Employee benefits - In your company, you can give your employees a competitive benefit package, which can help to improve your corporate culture as well as employee retention and motivation. That may include private health care, a retirement plan and workplace discounts. It is vital that you include these variables in your payroll, as some may affect the amount that employees are paid for each time.

Labour management Relations

Labour relations are a complicated subject, because they contain a human element. Labor-management interactions are interpersonal partnerships between employees and management (employers). Management and Labour is the English term used in EC law to refer to organizations serving employees and employers. The alternative term used in other localizations is the term ' social partners.' Based on the argument, the nature of the labour-management relationship is of conflict and cooperation. Relationship between employers and employees and their relations with one another. In most sectors, wages and conditions are set by unrestricted collective bargaining between employers and unions. It is understood that salaries and other economic benefits for workers reflect not only their current income, but also the opportunity for economic growth and the ability to live comfortably during active life and after retirement. World economic crises have shown that the role of wages in stabilizing demand in a context of stagnant growth and very low inflation is very important and needs specific attention from the management boards, governments and employees, through their representatives. Efficient management of labor relations allows HR managers to create a harmonious atmosphere within the organization that, in turn, enables the company to achieve its aims and objectives effectively.

Workplace Diversity

Encouraging and helping to promote diversity in the workplace is an essential part of good people management - it is about considering everyone in the company as a whole. The legal basis for creating fairer and more diverse labour markets and workplaces is undeniable, irrespective of our gender, context or circumstances, we all deserve the right to grow our skills and talents to the fullest extent possible, to work in a secure, supportive and welcoming atmosphere, to be equally compensated and respected for our work and to have a say on the issues affecting us.

These were some of the HRM policies which are practiced by the organizations in the world, now critically evaluating whether, on balance, that is ethical HRM evident in reality.

HRM can potentially make an ethical contribution to the responsible business practices. However some companies are better at doing this than others due to the different ways in which ethical HRM is employed and it differs from company to company.

Arguably, some supposed that ethical practices are more of a public relation exercise than being rooted in responsible business practices.

An example of ethical practice would be paying a real living wage or genuine level of employee participation, an increase in employee voice, Fair trade which comprises of the fact of not partnering with subsidiaries in companies with poor labour standards one such example we can see of this is that of the company JOHN LEWIS (Toynbee, 2012) where twenty years ago, before the reign of Charlie Mayfield, the current CEO, the company's cleaning staff and caterers were all outsourced to save money. Around 3,000 people do not share any benefits and are removed from the magic circle of John Lewis staff who enjoy not just profits but all sorts of sports clubs and leisure pursuits. His constitution says the partnership's ultimate purpose is 'the happiness of its members'. But in his day, cleaners were happy members. For two and a half years now, London Citizens have been organizing and campaigning on behalf of John Lewis Cleaners as part of their low-paid living wage campaign. Most of them are on £ 6.08 an hour. The goal is to see them back in collaboration with the same holiday, sick pay, retirement and workplace benefits as the other workers–and finally to give London a living wage of £ 8.30 which is not even earned by some full partners. When the outsourced labors expressed their wish to be the part of john Lewis family it was explained that some colleagues are more concerned that taking in another 3,000 partners will dilute the value of the bonus and perks paid to the existing 70,000, some said the cleaners are not worth the status of partnership. The constitution grants the management the authority to make decisions, which are then enacted by the partners ' representatives. But this is a simple ethical question. If the answer to the cleaners is no, the John Lewis brand will be permanently and correctly tainted.

In this example we could see how the companies who claim ethical practices to be conducted at their workplace and at the same time contradict it by their actions here we could see how the company was negligent of the Labor Management Relations inside the firm, how it violated the payroll norms within the company and discriminated on preferential basis.

Another example we see is of NIKE which is one of the leading sports brands of the world “intentionally and willfully discriminated against [women] with respect to pay, promotions, and conditions of employment” in new lawsuit. 'The career paths of women are blunted because they are marginalized and handed over for promotions. Nike judges’ women more severely than men, which means lower salaries, lower bonuses, and fewer stock options, 'the lawsuit reads. 'Women's human resources concerns about discrimination and harassment, including sexual assault, are dismissed or mishandled.' Former female employees are suing Nike for being discriminative and creating a hostile work environment. 

Here we could see how gender inequality, discrimination on the basis of sex, unequal work opportunities, sexual harassments at workplace are being practiced in such big firms.

Later Nike took many corrective measures by ousting 11 executives and altering its pay practices.

Summary

By restoring a sustainable ' social contract ' at work, HRM would shape not only its legitimacy but also its future impact in organizations and society. When worker concerns are taken into account when constructing, developing and implementing organizational systems and with a view to finding common ground and maintaining cohesion between the various stakeholders at work, HR will have to be part of its inner strategy and to restore ties with the workforce and other outer stakeholders.HR managers need to focus more on understanding the rights of the employer as well as the employee practice fairness at the workplace can fail mainly when there is too narrow focus on business rather than employee welfare and well being the one which we saw in the john Lewis firm’s example.

Bibliography

• Golden, J., 2018. Nike accused of fostering hostile workplace in new gender discrimination lawsuit. cnbc.
• Toynbee, P., 2012. The John Lewis motto should be 'never knowingly underpay. The Guardian.