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The HARM planning report views employees as economic resource while the human development programmer views them as people. Empowerment and Job autonomy is rendered to some departments in Kingsbury and it solely depends upon the capabilities of employees in trading the shop floor. Kingsbury practicing the soft model of HARM for managerial staff only. They are using the hard model for convenience staff. For example, the person has been recruited for tills he is getting trained on tills only.
Strategic Contribution From the strategic perspective of HARM, the major role of HARM is to provide effective delivering services to management decisions. The achievement of this strategic contribution is attained in Kingsbury by creation and constant development of fluid workforce and be able to adapt to the measures of the management. Also from the standpoint of operation execution, the HARM need to provide strategic advantage departments and Strategic Business Units of the organization.
This strategic advantage is accomplished by motivation and development of skills for the employees and promoting them to perform better so that management is rewarded in terms of cost efficiency People as Assets HARM This approach gained importance after the general acceptance of employees being the factor which influences the success or failure of any organization. Kingsbury truly believes in this approach as the most important quality of services rendered by the organization in not with the products but from the human contribution.
The people as assets approach lead to the development of approach called Human Capital Management where budgeting is performed for the development of workforce. Kingsbury is now investing in promoting the employees to acquire externally qualified certifications and allow them to gain external knowledge apart from internally developed knowledge. Goals of HARM Overall, the main purpose of HARM is to ensure that the organization is able to achieve its requirements with the workforce they control. Kingsbury possess “A great place to work” as one of the key goals to be accomplished by the strategic HARM of the organization.
Making Kingsbury a great place to work does not only limit these responsibilities to HRS department but also to the strategic management for better accomplishment of goals. The goals of Kingsbury HARM for making the workplace a great place to work are shown below; Rewards: It is proved scientifically that pay and monetary rewards are directly related to the level of Job satisfaction that could be developed for retention of employee. The motivation of workforce for long term retention is performed by making workplace immune to discrimination and providing bonus for colleagues with better performance reviews.
Jobs and Skills: As a part of the employee development needs, the employees would be rendered externally recognized qualifications for betterment of employees skill. The qualifications provided would allow them to advance in their careers and utilize the complete potential of Trainee Manager Scheme. Commitment and Engagement: The goal of Kingsbury in this regard is to provide increased Job security for the employees and provide them with better opportunities for employees by developing their skills base. In this process the organization gains by training and retaining the able employees.
Principles Policy is the guide for managerial decisions but principles are universally accepted truths generally applicable for all business organizations. The principles used by Kingsbury to ensure that the workplace is made a great place to work are shown below; Rigorous selection process for elimination of human bias in recruitment and selection process Communication lines are free and employee could contact the management or corporate (Right Line) for discrimination and other issues. Recognition of employees and providing them opportunity for advancement is provided equally.
Rewards are rendered equally to all the employees regardless of the management. However, Kingsbury does not promote trade unions in the workplace. Council reps are promoted and each department possess their own council reps. Models of HARM The Business partner model of HRS is focused on aiding the strategic management in planning and meeting the present and future goals of the organization. HARM functions are increased from conventional duties such as pay roll and employee relations to human development processes and satisfaction of employees.
Sweatshop, (2009) proposed that the very advantage of business partner model of HARM is that the business partner relieves the pressure of efficiency and productivity and other employee development functions from the parent organization. Sunburst’s uses business partner derived model of HARM but not entirely the theoretical model. Kingsbury uses third party organizations for HARM management functions especially at middle management level but not at the strategic level.
The non-usage of business partner model at strategic level provides greater advantages for Kingsbury in leveraging the disadvantages of business partner model but also limits the usage of external knowledge used by them. Shared Services Model This model is very revolutionary in terms of cost advantages and is at developing cooperation with other organizations for mutual benefit. Shared services also possess the issues of over-standardization and operational flexibility thus limiting them to be seed in sectors which may require over-standardization and linear flexibility.
Kingsbury does not uses shared services model for HARM. The shared services model may not be suitable for large number of employees recruited by the company. Centralized vs.. Decentralized HARM Centralized and Decentralized HARM In this type of HARM, the functions of HARM are performed centrally in one single location and its services are personalized in its business units. The advantage of centralized HARM is the cost efficiency and greater control for the organization. The centralized HARM also improves communication and ensures that workforce is soused on the goals of the organization.
The organizations with multiple locations could opt for decentralized HARM were the needs of each location could to manage independently. The decentralized HARM possess the advantage of flexibility to adaptation and also renders autonomy to the HARM. The decentralized HARM compromises on disorientation and unified standards but scores on flexibility and suitability for specific needs. Usage of Decentralized HARM by Kingsbury Kingsbury uses Decentralized HARM in all its stores for decentralized HARM. The usage of decentralized HARM is the complexity in making them centralized and the improvise of flexibility issues in them.
Even though HARM is decentralized, the control is levied by the corporate through channels of communication. The recent usage of ERP systems allows them to communicate with all the stores at very affordable cost. HARM Outsourcing The advent of Information Technology had paved way to outsource the HARM functions and provide greater cost advantage for the organization than shared services. The greatest advantage of outsourcing model is the ability to become a strategic partner and also save on both capital and operational costs incurred by organization in maintaining the human resources.
Outsourcing is not used by management would like to employ only those fit for the duties and expectations of the management. Conclusion Analyzing the features of HARM showed that both soft and hard HARM is required for greater sustenance of HARM in any organization and also from the strategic perspectives they provides greater advantage in organizational performance and employee retention. The people as assets approach aims to develop human resource into competitive advantage forces which pronounced to be not replicable.