Introduction
Human resource management refers to the part of management that mainly deals with the management of employees in an organisation (Martin &Tylor, 2014). The human resource department involves a combination of processes such as understanding, revising, and applying all activities in both external and internal working environments to positively impact the organisation’s human resources (Becker & Gerhart, 2016). International human resource managers take care of international human resource activities for multinational companies and foresee the recruitment of new employees in different regions or countries (Dresser, 2013).
Employees play a critical role in ensuring the organisation maintains a sustainable competitive advantage against other companies. They play a key role in ensuring equity and effectiveness while working together with organisational controllers. The history of human resource management dates back to ancient China, where it was practiced during the evolution of the first communes and the development of classical societies (Martin & Tylor, 2014). The army and the navy were the first to use advanced techniques in developing their staff. The reason and motivation were the same as those used today; organisations and firms wanted to maintain a competitive advantage over their opponents and project their interests.
The first rapid development of human resource management began during the British industrial revolution, where an increase in large factories brought the need to have a people management department. Additionally, the second rapid development of the office began in the 20th century, when many organisations launched the personnel department for managing employees (Storey, 2017). As new advanced technologies led to the growth of many multinational corporations, the personnel departments were changed to human resource management departments (Fomburn, 2015). These began working based on a globalised agenda.
Recruitment and Selection
The recruitment process involves a strategic planning process where the human resource managers consider factors such as staffing resources against business and assessing the current business situation and the parts that need changing; planning of the workforce; reduction, attraction, selection, and transition. Recruitment needs to be considered under the strategic balance between the senior leadership in an organisation that runs the process of buy-in from line managers (Gilmore & Williams, 2014).
During recruitment for the JetBlue flight crew, certain strategic considerations are taken into account; these involve skills shortages, technology, population statistics, and the national and global economic situation. Thus, these give alternatives on whether to recruit or pursue other actions, defining the qualified applicants and cost and quality balance. The process has to be efficient (cost-effective regarding resources), practical (ability to produce enough skilled applicants and identify the best-suited candidates for the vacancies), and fair (that the process is based on merit alone) (Storey, 2017). The recruitment process in the JetBlue international airline has well-set-out routines for recruitment whenever there is a vacancy. The method of hiring is different from selection since it involves attracting people from a specific pool, while selection involves deciding the best suited for the job.
The process of recruitment begins when someone leaves the organisation, when the resource manager deems it fit to review and redesign the organisation’s human resource department, when the company signs a new contract, and at times, it can also affect the process (Dresser, 2013).
Staff Training
The human resource manager is involved in workforce planning of an organisation, thus when an employee shows a need for training for their next role or maybe underperforming, they are taken through a learning and development process. The manager identifies their learning and development needs to see the gaps between desired levels and the real levels of performance (Fombrun, 2015). Also, the organisation may want to increase its profit by a certain percentage, after identifying that more training would help achieve this target, then specific employees are taken through a training session (Dresser, 2013).
The learning and development process involves in-house training, on-the-job training, external training, and national qualifications training. Training can be an expensive process, but this does not have to be the case. Mostly, it should take place on the job via an assigned employee. A well-organised learning and development process can save money as long as the team is well motivated and can meet clients’ specifications (Gilmore & Williams, 2014, p.120). If more development is not done for talented employees, they may leave the organisation if they are not given enough opportunities. These opportunities can be done through leadership courses and assigning senior mentors.
When an organisation is active in learning and development, the employees stay motivated and tend to be more productive regarding sales and client satisfaction (Martin & Tylor, 2014). If learning and development take place, even in the typical workplace, there are costs involved. Hence, the human resource manager has to measure the returns on investment in the training.
References
Becker, B. and Gerhart, B., 2016. The impact of human resource management on organizational performance: Progress and prospects. Academy of Management Journal, 39(4), pp.779-801.
Dresser, M.A., 2013. The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance. Academy of management journal, 38(3), pp.635-672
Fombrun, J.T., 2015. The impact of human resource management practices on perceptions of organizational performance. Academy of Management Journal, 39(4), pp.949-969.
Gilmore, L. and Williams, I., 2014. Managing two fits of strategic human resource management. Academy of Management Review, 13(1), pp.116-128.
Martin, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Storey, J., 2017. Human resource management: A critical text. Cengage Learning. EMEA
