Trends Impacting HR Policies

This article discusses the role of social media in HR policies of present organizations. It explores how HR leaders use policies to mitigate risks associated with trends. It also highlights the importance of changing HR policies to support current trends and the implications of not addressing trends via HR policies. The article concludes by synthesizing the importance of organizational context in formulating HR policy and discussing the author's own experience.

Running head: HR POLICY
Trends Impacting HR Policies
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Use of HR policy to take advantages of opportunities posted by the identified trend....................3
The way through which the HR leaders use HR policy to mitigate the risk associated with
identified trends...............................................................................................................................4
Reasons for which the HR policy needs to be changed in light of the identified trends.................4
Implication for an organization of not addressing the trend via HR policy....................................5
Synthesizing the importance of organizational context in formulating HR policy and discussion
of the own experience......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
Social media plays a very important role in the human resource management in the
multinational organizations. Today, most of the business organizations have social media
presence on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. These social media platforms more informal
environment which encourage employees to communicate with each other. Social media today
plays significant role in this respect especially for multinational companies which employ their
employees all over the globe. Social media today enable organizations to build stronger bond
between employees which ultimately boosts their performances. The paper would explore this
role of social media in the human resources policies of the present organisations.
Use of HR policy to take advantages of opportunities posted by the identified trend
Social media application is a current social trend that has a big implication on HR policy.
On the other hand, the large organizations focus on the incorporation of corporate social
responsibility and sustainability in their business strategy (Bamberger et al. 2014). SPAR Group
is a large retailer in South Africa (Spar.co.za 2018). However, application of social media
facilitates the HR policy. For example, in SPAR group the HR department is able to improve
their recruitment process through social media. They can advertise their organization and
identify candidates through various social websites. As a result, the recruitment policy can be
maximized through social media trend. On the other hand, corporate social responsibility focuses
on increasing shareholder value. CSR boosts the employee engagement policy, which is a vital
HR policy. Therefore, incorporation of sustainability also facilitates the human resource
management in an organization.

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The way through which the HR leaders use HR policy to mitigate the risk associated with
identified trends
Social media trend includes risk as maximum people rely on various websites to get a
perfect employer. Many false organizations have taking advantages of social media and hamper
the image of a brand (Naim and Lenka 2017). In order to deal with this issue, the HR department
of the SPAR group has introduced their new policy by involving the employees to handle the
social media and find the right candidates for the desired position. The new HR policy empowers
the employees to monitor the social websites during the selection. This protects the brand image
of such an organization. The major risks of CSR and sustainability include high cost. Therefore,
CSR often makes the operation process slower. In order to deal with such risks associated with
the organizational trend, the HR of many organization focuses on the cost reduction process.
Reasons for which the HR policy needs to be changed in light of the identified trends
In order to facilitate the current trends such as the application of social media and
incorporation of CSR in business, an organization needs to change its HR policy. However, if the
HR policy does not support these current trends then it is difficult to gain a successful result from
these emerging trends (Fisher et al. 2008). Therefore, the HR policy such as recruitment policy,
employee engagement policy and cost reduction policy need to change to support the current
social and organizational change. In order to facilitate the social media application and the CSR
incorporation, the HR department needs to change their traditional policy to support these current
trends.

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Implication for an organization of not addressing the trend via HR policy
It is important for an organization to address these current social and organizational
trends via HR policies. In the context of SPAR group, they need to address the emerging trend of
social media and CSR via current HR policies. However, if an organization fails to establish a
relation between the current HR policy and the trends then the success of the organization can be
hampered (Schmidt 2013). Therefore, the HR policy should support the current trends otherwise
the profitability and growth of the organization can be hampered by the negative impacts of such
trends.
Synthesizing the importance of organizational context in formulating HR policy and
discussion of the own experience
An organization can formulate the HR policy by incorporating the current trends into
these policies (Bamberger et al. 2014). As an employee of SPAR Group, I have addressed that
the social and organizational trends leave a great impact on HR policy. It has been received that
the HR policy is changed according to the trends to maximize the growth of an organization.
Based on the above analysis it can be said that the HR policy should support the current trends
otherwise the growth and success of these current trends will be affected. As Bolman and Deal
(2017) point out in their article that human resource strategies of organisations should be aligned
to the market contexts. The multinational organizations are operating globally and using the
human resources of several host countries in thre world./ This brings them under influences of
political conditions of not only their home country bit also host countries as well. The companies
are subject to collaborations and bilateral agreements between their home country governments
and host country governments. The political factors have deep impacts on the economic
conditions as well which have direct impacts on these companies. Tietenberg and Lewis (2016)

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in this context point out that business organisations today are directly under pressure in the
economic contexts like growing inflation rate and growing costing of importing raw materials.
These companies in order to adapt to these factors often resort to sources of their resources
including human resources from their host countries. Thus, here also economic conditions have
direct impact on the human resource policies of the multinational companies. The work by
Armstrong and Taylor (2014) in this context points out that multinational companies in order be
able to exploit the human resources of their host countries consider diversity management as
significant component of their human resources policies. They form central human resources
policies and then adapt those policies to the market conditions of their host governments. This
again points out that social media plays a very significant role in the human resource
management in the multinational companies. Social media forms a platform which enables the
employees deployed in different locations communicate with each other. This helps in formation
of a virtual community within the company (Bamberger, Meshoulam and Biron 2014). This in
turn strengthens the understanding between employees which in turn goes forward to strengthen
the organizational culture. Thus, it can be inferred that social media and market context play
significant role in management of human resources.
Conclusion:
One can conclude from the above discussion that social media plays an important role in
the operations of business organizations. They enable the companies build strong employee
cultures which ultimately boosts their performances. One can ask the following question as the
outcome of the detailed discussion:

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Can business organizations use social media to curb employee conflicts? If yes, how? What
are the other areas of operations of business where social media can help in HRM and
performance boosting?

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References
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bamberger, P.A., Meshoulam, I. and Biron, M., 2014. Human resource strategy: Formulation,
implementation, and impact. Routledge.
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
John Wiley & Sons.
Fisher, S.L., Wasserman, M.E., Wolf, P.P. and Wears, K.H., 2008. Human resource issues in
outsourcing: Integrating research and practice. Human Resource Management: Published in
Cooperation with the School of Business Administration, The University of Michigan and in
alliance with the Society of Human Resources Management, 47(3), pp.501-523.
Naim, M.F. and Lenka, U., 2017. Investigating the Impact of Social Media on Gen Y Employees'
Engagement: An Indian Perspective. International Journal of Human Capital and Information
Technology Professionals (IJHCITP), 8(3), pp.29-48.
Schmidt, A., 2013. The implications of flexible work: Membership in organizations revisited.
management review, pp.179-198.
Spar.co.za. 2018. SPAR Group. [online] Available at: https://www.spar.co.za/Home [Accessed
27 Jul. 2018].
Tietenberg, T.H. and Lewis, L., 2016. Environmental and natural resource economics.
Routledge.

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