QUESTION: DESCRIBE THE KEY HUMAN RESOURCE FUNCTIONS AND ESTABLISH CLOSE LINKS BETWEEN THEM, I.E.

EMPLOYEE RESOURCING, REWARD AND COMPENSATION, TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYEE RELATIONS.

1.

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS Employment relationship defines the interconnections that exist between

employees and employers in the workplace. They may be formal, e.g. contracts of employment or informal, in the shape of psychological contract, which expresses certain assumption and expectations about what managers and employees have to offer and are willing to offer. They can have an individual dimension (individual contracts and expectations); or a collective dimension (relationship between management and trade unions, staff association or members of joint consultative bodies). Human resource specialists can contribute to the development of a positive and productive employment relationship in the following ways; (i) Presenting the unfavourable as well as favourable aspects of a job in a realistic job preview. (ii) By encouraging use of learning and development programmes to underpin core values and define performance expectations. (iii) By ensuring through managers and team leader training that managers and team leaders understand their role in managing employment relationship.

(iv) By encouraging the maximum amount of contact between managers and team leaders and their team members to achieve mutual understanding of expectations and to provide a means of two-way communication. (v) By adopting a general policy of transparency ensuring that in all matters that affect them, employees know what is happening, why it is happening and the impact it will make on their employment, development and prospects. (vi) By developing human resource procedures covering grievance handling, discipline, equal opportunities, promotion and redundancy and ensuring that they are implemented fairly and consistently. (vii) By ensuring that the reward system is developed and managed to achieve equity, fairness and consistency in all aspects of pay and benefits.

2.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Training is the use of systematic and planned instruction activities to promote

learning. It involves the use of formal processes to impact knowledge and help people acquire skills necessary for them to perform their jobs satisfactorily. Development is an unfolding process that enables people to progress from a present state of understanding and capability to a future state in which higher level skills, knowledge and competencies are required. Training and development can be utilized by an organization to achieve competitive advantage through innovation

3. REWARD AND COMPENSATION Reward and compensation are concerned with the formulation and implementation of strategies and policies, the purposes of which are to reward people fairly, equitably and consistently in accordance with their value to the organization and thus help the organization to achieve its strategic goals.

AIMS OF REWARD AND COMPENSATION (i) Reward people according to what the organization values and wants to pay for. (ii) Reward the right things to convey the right message about what is important in terms of behaviours and outcomes. (iii) Help to attract and retain the high quality people the organization needs.

4.

EMPLOYEE RESOURCING Employee resourcing is concerned with ensuring that the organization obtains

and retains the human capital it makes and employs them productively. It is also about those aspects of employment practice that are concerned with welcoming people to the organization and if there is no alternative, releasing them. Employee resourcing has various aspects which include: i)Human resource planning which determines the human resources required by the organization to achieve its strategic goals. It is the process for ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements. Human resource planning is based on the belief that people are an organizations most important strategic resource.

Human resource planning addresses two basic questions; how many people and what sort of people? It also looks at broader issues relating to the ways in which people are employed and developed in order to improve organizational effectiveness. ii )Talent management Talent management is the use of an integrated set of activities to ensure that the organization attracts, retains and develops the talented people it needs now and in the future . The aim is to secure the flow of talent, bearing in mind that talent is major corporate resource. Talent management should not be concerned only with exceptionally capable employees. It should be aimed at developing and maintaining a talent pool consisting of a skilled and commited workforce. iii) Recruitment and selection. The overall aim of the recruitment and selection process is to obtain a minimum cost the number and quality of employees required to satisfy the human resource needs of the company. Recruitment and selection has three stages. (1) Defining requirements preparing job descriptions and specifications; deciding terms and conditions of employment. (2) Attracting candidates-Reviewing and evaluating alternative sources of applicants, inside and outside the company, advertising, using agencies and consultants. (3) Selecting candidates-Sifting application, interviewing, testing, assessing candidates, assessment centres, offering employment, obtaining preferences; preparing contracts of employment.

(4) Selection interviewing. Selection interviewing is aimed at obtaining and assessing information about a candidate which will enable a valid prediction to be made of his or her future performance In the job in comparison with the predictions made for any other candidates.

(5) Selection Testing. Selection tests are used to provide more valid and reliable evidence of levels of intelligence personality characteristics, abilities, aptitudes and attainments that can be obtained from an interview.

(6) Introduction to the Organization. Introduction to the organization also referred to as induction is the process of receiving and welcoming employees when they join a company and giving them the basic information they need to settle down quickly and happily and start work. (7) Release from the organization. The employment relationship may be ended voluntarily by someone moving elsewhere. Or it may finish at the end of a career retirement. Employment relationship may also and through redundantly and disciplinary measures. Human resource professionals should make an important contribution to managing the process in order to minimize the distress and trauma that organizational release can cause.

CLOSE LINK BETWEEN KEY HUMAN RESOURCE FUNCTIONS The key human resources functions are closely related for their ultimate valued assets the human capital. They take cognisance of the fact that people possess innate abilities, behaviours and personal energy which if well managed, immense benefits can accrue to the organization. The main goal of the key human resource functions is to produce sustained competitive advantage.

REFERENCE 1. Edition. 2. 3. 4. Management; Chuck Williams. Marketing Management; Phillip Kotler, Kevin Keller, 13th Edition. The Strategy Process ; Henry Mintzberg et al ,4th Edition. Human Resource Management Practice; Michael Armstrong, 10th