Strategic HRM

This report discusses the HR related issues of communication and culture and payroll in Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd. It provides recommendations to overcome the challenges.

Running Head: STRATEGIC HRM
Strategic HRM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Overview of the company............................................................................................................4
HR related issues.........................................................................................................................4
HR issues related to communication and culture........................................................................5
Consequences of poor communication........................................................................................6
HR issues related to Payroll.........................................................................................................6
Consequences of poor payroll system.........................................................................................7
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11
Appendices....................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
The strategic human resource management is the relation the human resource of a
company and the strategies, the goals, objectives. The aim of the strategic human resource
management is to advance the innovation, flexibility and the competitive advantage too (Noe et
al. 2017). It is also focused on the development of a fit for the purpose of organizational culture
and the improvement of the business purposes. In order to make the human resource
management effective, the HR practitioners must play the role of a strategic partner when the
organizational policies are established and implemented (Farndale et al. 2017). The strategic HR
can be demonstrated by various activities such as hiring, rewarding, training and others. Notably,
the HR related issues can pose as difficult hurdles for many companies and there are many types
of different components which can confuse the business owners.
The present report will deal with two key HR related issues such as communication and
culture and the other is payroll. The chosen organization is Handy Holdings Private Limited
located in Maldives. The report will discuss the issues and recommend strategies to overcome
those issues. The report will conclude by elaborating the main points and attach the script of the
interview in the appendices.

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Discussion
Overview of the company
In Maldives, Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd. is a well –established business which began in the
year 1992. The owner of the company is Hassan Haleem started his career with selling
undergarments. Later, he tried on other businesses in various areas. The philosophy of the
company is that it is passionate about what it does for the customers. The team and the
professionalism is the most important asset. Handy trading is considered to be one of the leading
trading companies in the entire Maldives.
HR related issues
There is a wide range of organizational issues which the business owners must address
related to the operations of the company and the relationships with the clients, the government
authorities, the suppliers, the HR, the suppliers and others along with the government authorities
(Rizvi 2016). Few of the most significant HR issues in an organization include the finding of
right people, establishing the business for the payroll taxes, competitive compensation packages
offering and communication and culture. In a new organization, the human resource decisions
take an extra importance (Dickmann, Brewster and Sparrow 2016). Taken for example, the
success or the failure of the organization’s primary efforts can impact on the dedication and
competence of the first employees. On the other hand, the established companies can employ
those people who are much concerned about the financial well-being of their own. As a contrast,
the small organizations require the employees to be committed completely to the company’s
success.

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HR issues related to communication and culture
In the contemporary world, clear communication within the organization can help in
ensuring the success of the company (Peretz, and Parry 2016). The maintenance of transparency
in the communication level among the employees and the executives can retain the loyal and
potential customers, can build the overall public perception of the company. The existence of
poor communication can be dangerous for a company and can threaten to sink the corporate
existence like an iceberg. In the business organization, effective communication has always
been a challenge. Although the methods of verbal and non-verbal communication has been
highly advanced by the technologies but few challenges still remaining. The challenge in the
proper communication can occur due to so many reasons such as the lack of feedback, email
overload, cultural and lingual barriers, increased number of remote employees and others (Truss,
Mankin and Kelliher 2012). The Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd Company is facing communication
challenges due to the culturally diverse workforce they possess.
It has been found that culture is combined set of socially transmitted behavior such as
arts, languages, symbols, beliefs, ideas, rituals, traditions, signs and others which can be learnt
and shared too in a specific nationality, religion and ethnicity (Rizvi 2016). Although it is true
that the cultural diversity is required in a business to heighten the talent pool and ensure
innovation in the organization, it makes the communication difficult. It is because, there are
different people coming from different backgrounds and ethnicities with different culture and
language (Raza et al. 2017). The difference in the culture can give rise to ethnocentrism,
prejudice and variety of opinions. It is to be noted that when people from different cultures come
across each other to accomplish a common goal, these factors become barriers to
communication.

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In the Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd, there are 75 employees and among them 43 employees
are found to be foreigners. Hence, the organization is facing issues in delivering the necessary
business information related to their projects due to the language barriers. Those 43 people are
not from Maldives and belong to different communities, cultures and backgrounds speaking
different languages too. The cultural diversity is affecting the internal communication and
subsequently the business endeavors.
Consequences of poor communication
The lack of proper communication in the workplace can lead the company towards
decreased productivity and loss of motivation. In a particular business, in order to exceed the
goals, the relationships and communication system should be in proper place (Sarvaiya, Eweje
and Arrowsmith 2018). The relational breakdown, the unmet expectations, low morale and
dissatisfied clients might lead to loss of reputation and create workplace issues. The team might
start missing the deadlines of delivering the projects, there might also be relational breakdown
due to cultural diversity and heighten employee de-motivation (Stokes et al. 2016). The
employee turnover rate increases with the increase of low morale. The workplace discrimination
due to diverse culture might also lead to poor communication and business inferiority (Sanderson
and Mujtaba 2017).
HR issues related to Payroll
Another HR issue is the challenge in tackling the payroll of a company. There is no doubt
that the payroll management poses challenges for all size businesses (Dickmann, Brewster and
Sparrow 2016). The time, attendance, tax, compensation are the major components in the payroll
services of a company (Rees and Smith 2014). The payroll services include ensuring the
payments to the employees are paid on time; the legal obligations of the company are met

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properly (Farndale et al. 2017). It is not just writing of the checks or the setting up of the
payments through deposits. It is rather a set of various duties such as monitoring the time and
attendance of the employees, the establishment and adjustments of the direct deposit accounts,
calculation of the payroll taxes along with the correct deductions, proactive monitoring of the
relationship between actual payroll and worker’s comp premiums, integration of the third party
plans, maintenance of the electronic payroll records and compliance with the staffs and the
federal laws having governed the payroll (Krausert 2018).
The Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd is facing challenges in employee motivation. The
employees are losing their motivation due to the repeated inaccuracy in the payroll system. The
payroll errors are common if these are handled manually. There is room for the human errors. In
the Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd, the employees are facing problems with their paychecks and their
job satisfaction is decreasing consequently. The company might need to invest on the advanced
payroll software to avoid such issues. The employee motivation is decreasing more die to the
added issue of missing deadlines in paying checks every month.
Consequences of poor payroll system
Since there are less number of employees, the organization used to accomplish the task of
payroll manually which insured less expenses. However, it is facing challenges due to the
manual handling of the accounts and the payroll (Brockbank and Ulrich 2016). In a particular
business, payroll is an essential part of the business which must be taken seriously. The errors in
the payroll management might bring in negative results for the Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd. The
employees will accept the inaccuracy and delay in the payroll of a single month but they will not
accept is happening repeatedly (Dias, Zhu and Samaratunge 2017). The payroll mistakes can also
make the company more prone to the IRS penalties.

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Recommendation
From the above discussion, it can be seen that the Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd is facing HR
issues related to payroll and communication and culture. The challenges in the communication
have been accentuated by the cultural diversity and the payroll challenge is happening due to the
manual handling of the payroll taxes and accounts. The Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd can follow the
recommendation to address the challenges. The recommendations are as follows:
 The employees might be foreigners and the company must ensure that their contributions
are not buried under the cultural and language differences. Handy Holdings must try to
learn how the different cultured people like to receive the information. Taken for
example, there are employees who do not feel comfortable being praised in front of
everyone. In such cases, the company should adopt the way to praise them in a private
office.
 The employees belonging to foreign backgrounds must be trained early and often. The
incoming employees must be trained through the orientation sessions. They should be
communicated properly about the goals and mission of the company in order to make
them acculturated with the works of the company.
 Along with the foreigners, the non-foreigners also must be trained so that they become
aware of the significance of the cultural diversity and mission of the company. They must
be trained in a way that they become able to get into the shoes of others and respect the
mindset, opinions and perspectives of others too.
 A mentor must be assigned to take care of the spouses and help them in integrating
easily. The mentor must be a well-respected person who can assist desirably. As an

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inspiring example, Coca –Cola Company has put a one-to-one mentoring program to
avoid such hindrances.
 An open door communication must be practiced carefully by the organization. Every
employee must be given the opportunity to talk about their issues and queries. It will lead
to strong communication and collaborating mending the communication gap. The payroll
related errors in the company can be avoided by the introduction of payroll software. It is
one of the most popular method for doing payroll. It can be expensive than doing the
payroll by the company itself but it is cheaper than hiring an accountant or bookkeeper.
 The payroll software will enable the company to stay constant in controlling during the
whole payroll process. Taken for example, the companies like Xero, Gusto are popular
payroll service providers which can take proper care of the financial aspect of the
company.
 The company should ensure that the Federal, state and the local regulation related to the
tax are followed to avoid the expensive penalties.
 The salaries of the employees must be calculated avoiding any human errors. The payroll
software can reduce the error rates keep the motivation level of the employees high.
 The alert systems must be placed to receive any notification in the payroll system. The
notification must be sent to alert that the employees are approaching the overtime.
 The company must introduce self-serve portal for the employee so that they can view
their payroll data online. The data keeping process will be streamlined through this and
will reduce the need for the back-and forth communication among the members of the
organization.

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Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the strategic human
resource management is highly important because the companies are more likely to be benefited
when all people are working towards a same goal. The employee analysis is done by the strategic
HR having determines the actions required for increasing the company’s value. An organization
can become highly benefitted by the strategic HRM, which increases the job satisfaction,
improves the customer satisfaction, increases the efficiency of the resource management and
boosts productivity. The Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd is facing issues of HR related to
communication and culture and payroll. The report has well demonstrated the key issues,
discussed the issues properly and provided situation specific recommendations. The company
can easily evade the challenges by following the recommendations.

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Reference
Brockbank, W. and Ulrich, D., 2016. HR Business Partner model: past and future perspectives:
international waters-HR strategy. HR Future, 2016(12), pp.16-21.
Dias, D., Zhu, C.J. and Samaratunge, R., 2017. Examining the role of cultural exposure in
improving intercultural competence: implications for HRM practices in multicultural
organizations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp.1-20.
Dickmann, M., Brewster, C. and Sparrow, P. eds., 2016. International human resource
management: contemporary HR issues in Europe. Routledge.
Farndale, E., Raghuram, S., Gully, S., Liu, X., Phillips, J.M. and Vidović, M., 2017. A vision of
international HRM research. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 28(12), pp.1625-1639.
Krausert, A., 2018. The HRM–capital market link: Effects of securities analysts on strategic
human capital. Human Resource Management, 57(1), pp.97-110.
Meijerink, J.G., Bondarouk, T. and Lepak, D.P., 2016. Employees as active consumers of HRM:
Linking employees’ HRM competences with their perceptions of HRM service value. Human
resource management, 55(2), pp.219-240.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

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Peretz, H. and Parry, E., 2016. Impact of National Culture on the Use and Outcomes of E-HRM.
In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2016, No. 1, p. 10891). Briarcliff Manor, NY
10510: Academy of Management.
Raza, S., Kanwal, R., Rafique, M.A., Sarfraz, U. and Zahra, M., 2017. The relationship between
HRM practice, workplace communication and job performance of service industries employees
in Vehari, Pakistan. International Journal of Information, Business and Management, 9(2),
p.122.
Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2014. Strategic human resource management: An international
perspective. Sage.
Rizvi, Y., 2016. Human Capital Development Role of HR during Mergers and Acqusitions. The
South East Asian Journal of Management, pp.17-28.
Sanderson, I.J. and Mujtaba, B.G., 2017. Applying HRM Policies and Principles in the
Subsidiary: A Comparison between Anglo-American and Chinese Cultural
Contexts. International Journal of Contemporary Applied Sciences, 4(4), pp.48-60.
Sarvaiya, H., Eweje, G. and Arrowsmith, J., 2018. The roles of HRM in CSR: strategic
partnership or operational support?. Journal of Business Ethics, 153(3), pp.825-837.
Stokes, P., Liu, Y., Smith, S., Leidner, S., Moore, N. and Rowland, C., 2016. Managing talent
across advanced and emerging economies: HR issues and challenges in a Sino-German strategic
collaboration. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(20), pp.2310-
2338.

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Truss, C., Mankin, D. and Kelliher, C. 2012. Strategic Human Resource Management. Oxford:
Oxford University Press

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Appendices
(The Script of data collected from 5 selected candidates of Handy holdings Pvt Ltd)
Participant 1
What is your designation in the organization?
My designation is the Human Resource Manager in the Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd.
How long are you working in this company and what are your duties?
I have been working in this company since last 4 years and the responsibilities of recruiting,
interviewing, screening and placing the workers are solely on me. I also plan, direct and
coordinate the functions related to administration in the organization. Furthermore, I oversee the
specialists at their duties, discuss with the executives regarding the strategic planning link the
management of the company with the employees. The training of the employees is the major area
where I focus more.
What do you find regarding the cultural issues aggravating in the organization?
As per my observation, our company employs people from all parts of the world. They are
mainly from India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand and Philippines. Since they belong to
different countries, different cultures and ethnicities, it is obvious that there will be language
problems. Although the language barriers can be addressed through our training programs, the
cultural discrimination and disrespect to other culture must be developed individually.

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Participant 2
What is your designation in the organization?
My designation is the CEO in the Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd.
How long are you working in this company and what are your duties?
I have been associated with Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd since past 6 years. As I am the Chief
executive officer of the company, my primary responsibilities are taking the important corporate
decisions and manage the overall operations of the company. Moreover, I act as the main point
of communication between the corporate operations and the board of directors. I am also a
member of the board of directors. It is a wonderful organization which gives opportunities to all
types of people and acknowledges their individuality and talent.
Would you like to share anything that the company is finding difficulty in processing?
According to my speculations, in spite of the common organizational goals, there are differences
among the employees grounded on different set of values, traditions, practices and the beliefs.
The differences in the style of working, disability and education can also pose significant
problem in the work culture. In this organization, the diversity of cultures is creating
communication problems. Few employees who are familiar with the work culture of this country
and this organization are seen as hesitating to ask any question or share their opinions.
Participant 3
What is your designation in the organization?
My designation is Chief Financial Officer in the Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd.
How long are you working in this company and what are your duties?

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I have been working in this company since last 3 years. I primarily look after the management of
financial actions of the organization. I track the cash flow, do the financial planning and analyze
the financial strengths of the company as well. Furthermore, I take corrective measures to
strengthen the financial aspect of the company.
Do you find any discrepancy in the financial aspect of the company? What are the
implications of those discrepancies (If any)?
Yes, since the last six months the company is facing financial downturn. The clients are sending
negative reviews on the service we provide and attribute it mainly to frequent cases of deadline
missing. Yes, the company has 75 employees and among them 43 are from diverse cultural
backgrounds. The employees belonging to foreign backgrounds have still not adopted the
organizational culture, the language and ease at work. Moreover, they are finding difficulty in
communicating with the colleagues and the executives. I believe, they must be accepted
integrally by each member of our organization and supported to the most. It will motivate them
such discrepancies can be avoided.
Participant 4
What is your designation in the organization?
My designation is Accounts Manager in the Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd.
How long are you working in this company and what are your duties?
I have received the privilege of working in this organization since the past 6 months. My duties
are developing long –term relationships with the portfolio of the clients and connecting with the
key business stakeholders and the executives. Every day, I work as a liaise between the cross-

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functional teams and the customers for ensuring that the successful and timely delivery of the
customer needs. I also lead a team of the account managers who are dedicated to meet the
operational needs of the clients. The customers are supported by me through the online
presentation, phone, emails and in – person meetings. The forecasting of the account metrics is
also my responsibility.
What do you think about the payroll system in your organization?
Since I am very new to the system, I know little about the details of the payroll system in the
organization. However, I know that it is still being done manually and there are instances of
employee outrage due to errors in their monthly payroll.
Participant 5
What is your designation in the organization?
My designation is Payroll Manager in the Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd .
How long are you working in this company and what are your duties?
I have been associated with this company since the last 2 years. I am responsible for the
administration of all types of business payroll data , process of all types of monthly payrolls ,
conduction of the reconciliation and others. As a payroll manager, I maintain the confidentiality
regarding the business and the team members. I am also responsible for the coordination and
development of the procedures for the payroll management. The payroll management department
consists of 6 members.
According to your perspectives, why the employees are losing motivation?

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Our company is a well-known company and values the employees up to greater extent. Recently,
there are some disturbances in handling the payment of the checks and other payroll related data
because the number of employees is increasing rapidly. The company is hiring people from
every parts of the world. Hence, it is becoming quite difficult to handle the record or every
employee one by one. The payroll officers are trying their best to satisfy the employees but they
are a little de-motivated due to such delays and errors. We are trying our best to address this
issue as soon as possible. Our employees are valuable for us.
(A questionnaire to all employees)
1. What is your name and destination?
2. Where do you belong do?
3. What are the languages you can speak?
4. Are you aware of the company goals, vision and mission?
5. How do you communicate within yourselves and with the management?
6. How do you prefer to be communicated with?
7. Have you ever experienced any type of cultural conflict?
8. Are you happy with your project partner?
9. Do you receive your salaries and incentives timely?
10. Have you faced any discrepancy in your accounts data ?
11. Do you want to share any suggestion which can improve the present situation ?