Human Resource for Industrial Background -MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theHuman Resource Management for Industrial Background. Answer: Introduction Human Resource Management Human resource management is one of the most important departments of a business organisation that allows business organisation in managing their workforce in the best possible manner and optimise their performance. Human resource management uses different functions, such as recruitment and selection, training and development, career development, recruitment and selection, etc. to achieve its aims and objectives (Hendry, 2012). Human resource management works by fostering a positive work environment in the workplace and by allowing business organisations to maintain strong work relations between employers and employees (Armstrong Taylor, 2014). One of the most important functions of a human resource manager is to carry out recruitment and selection of employees, which helps them in staffing their companies with the required number of human resources. Industrial Background Retail industry is one of the biggest and the oldest industries in the entire world. Retail industry offers employment opportunities to millions of people in the world and constitutes a major portion of the worlds GDP. Retail industry has greatly evolved from traditional brick and mortar shops to huge supermarkets and online supermarkets. Today, major retailers like Walmart and Tesco are dominating the entire global market and are offering millions of products to their customers. Management of human resource is always difficult in the retail sector because the level of profitability and the quality of services offered to the clients is directly dependent on the number of employees that a retail company employs. Amongst various human resource management issues, workforce planning is one of the greatest issues faced by the human resource managers operating in the retail industry. In the retail industry, forecasting the demand of the human resources is considered to be one of the biggest issues that the managers face. Workforce Planning Problems in Retail Industry Workforce planning is an approach that allows business organisations in predicting the human resource demands of an outlet or a subsidiary. Workforce planning is a concept that ensures that the workplace operations run smoothly by maintaining the required number of employees in the workplace so that neither there is a surplus workforce or shortage of workforce. The retail industry is one of the industries that heavily relies upon human resources to carry out all its business operations. It provides employment opportunity to millions of people, which invites certain problems in the recruitment and selection of employees. The problems that the human resource managers face in recruitment and selection in the retail industry are discussed below: First of all, the retail industry faces a lot of fluctuations because of seasonal activities. In festival season, such as Christmas, Halloween, etc. retail outlets can experience a steep rise in the customer footfall number and can face shortage of employees. Shortage of employees can make it difficult for the retail companies to offer quality services to the clients, which can have an effect on its business and reputation (Kokemuller, n.d.). Secondly, recruitment and selection in the retail sector is mainly carried out by the managers of retail outlets themselves and they are not experts in the field of human resource management. They already have to handle a lot of complicated business operations and they never have the time to plan the workforce for their outlet. As a result, they fail to analyse the human resource needs of their outlet and have to experience difficult situation when the workforce in their outlets reduces and it becomes difficult to attend the customer or provide them with quality services (Barrett, 2016). Thirdly, the retail industry has no shortage of job applicants. The educational qualification required to work in a retail sector is not that high and almost all kind of people can work in a retail outlet. As a result, human resource managers experience millions of job applicants coming in every year in the retail sector but when there is an actual requirement for a candidate, the managers are less likely to find one because of lack of workforce planning. Further, most of the retail managers never maintain a record of the candidates that apply for a job, which makes them vulnerable to the issue even more. As a result, whenever they have to recruit new talent to fulfil the demand of the human resources, they are unable to find the right talent within the right time period (Welty, 2015). Fourthly, lack of adequate workforce planning also makes the retail industry complicated in terms of permanent and temporary jobs. The inefficiency of most of the retail industry to plan their workforce gives rise to conditions that bring about a lot of fluctuation in the human resource demand and supply patterns. In order to bridge the gap between human resource demand and human resource supply, most of the retail companies recruit employees on a temporary basis, which ultimately makes the management of human resources more complicated. Lastly, lack of workforce planning makes the issue of high employee turnover in the retail industry even bigger. In the retail industry, most of the workers are not much educated and tend to join the industry on a temporary basis. Once they find better carrier prospects for themselves, they tend to leave the retail industry, ultimately adding up to the high employee turnover rates. The rising employee turnover rates create trouble for the managers of retail outlets as they have to continuously carry out recruitment and selection processes, which results because of the inability of the managers to forecast the demand of the human resources by also taking the employee turnover rates into account (Sinha, 2009). Recommendations to Solve the Issues The issues being faced by the retail industry with respect to their recruitment and selection programs can have a great impact on their business operations. This is a major reason because of which some companies have been clearly dominating the global industry because of their human resource management competencies and ability to recruit and select employees properly. Some recommendations that can help the companies operating in the retail industry to become more competitive and deal with the issues related to workforce planning are discussed below: First of all, the senior management of the retail organisations need to understand the importance of workforce planning and should hire competent human resource managers to look after the human resource demand and supplies of the retail outlets. Further, rather than relying upon the store managers, the retail organisations should lay a greater stress on their human resource managerial departments for carrying out workforce planning and for identifying recruitment and selection procedures that can offer a strategic advantage to the company. Secondly, the managers of the retail outlets should constantly share the human resource data and information with the senior managers so that the company can establish a pattern of supply and demand and can arrange for temporary human resources before a seasonal spike commences. This will ensure adequate supply of human resources and smooth running of the business operations (SuccessFactors , 2012). Thirdly, human resource managers along with the retail outlet managers should keep a record of all those candidates that have directly approached the company for a placement opportunity. By keeping a record of such candidates, the management will find it less easy to fulfil the human resource demand of the company in conditions when there is an urgency and potential candidates are not readily available. Fourthly, the human resource management of the retail companies can also use information systems and human resource management systems that will enable them to create, store, access and analyse important information and data related with their human resources. Using this data can enable them to predict the human resource demand in the future and be prepared to fulfil the demand within the shortest possible time (The University Of British Columbia, n.d.). Using an information system for carrying out workforce planning will also allow the company to take certain important factors like employee turnover ratios, upcoming retirement, promotions, etc. into account and forecasting the human resource demand with a greater accuracy (Jue, 2012). Conclusion Recruitment and selection is considered to be one of the most important success factors in strategic human resource management. Workforce planning can prove to be the factor that can help business organisations in bridging the gap between failure and success. The global retail industry is one industry that is highly vulnerable to multiple internal and external environment factors and can experience changes in real time. The changing internal and external environment also makes it difficult for the human resource managers to manage their workforce effectively and recruitment and selection is considered to be one of the biggest issues in the retail industry. As a result, it is important for the companies operating in the retail industry to identify the issues that are related with workforce planning and can look into the above recommendations to bring about an improvement and ensure long term market survival. Bibliography Hendry, C. (2012). Human Resource Management. Routledge. Armstrong, M., Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Kokemuller, N. (n.d.). HR Challenges in the Retail Sector . Retrieved May 26, 2017, from smallbusiness.chron.com: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/hr-challenges-retail-sector-43858.html Welty, S. (2015, June 18). Retail Workfore Forecastin: A new approach. Retrieved May 26, 2017, from www.hr.com: https://www.hr.com/en/magazines/workforce_management_excellence_essentials/june_2015_workforce_management/retail-workforce-forecasting-a-new-approach_ib267zmw.html Sinha, B. K. (2009, October 11). Trends and Issues in Recruitment and Selection: A Critical Analysis . Retrieved May 26, 2017, from www.indianmba.com: https://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC1081/fc1081.html Barrett, D. (2016, October 4). Six recruitment challenges that retailers must conquer . Retrieved May 26, 2017, from www.hrzone.com: https://www.hrzone.com/talent/acquisition/six-recruitment-challenges-that-retailers-must-conquer Jue, N. (2012, May 2). Five Ways to Improve Strategic Workforce Planning . Retrieved May 26, 2017, from www.i4cp.com: https://www.i4cp.com/productivity-blog/2012/05/02/five-ways-to-improve-strategic-workforce-planning SuccessFactors . (2012, March 23). Six tips to improve workforce planning . Retrieved May 26, 2017, from www.safetysolutions.net.au: https://www.safetysolutions.net.au/content/business/article/six-tips-to-improve-workforce-planning--634623431 The University Of British Columbia. (n.d.). HR Information Systems . Retrieved May 26, 2017, from www.hr.ubc.ca: https://www.hr.ubc.ca/information-systems/hrms/