Strategic HRM Report

This report analyzes the strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices within GIST Ltd., a company providing supply chain solutions. It examines HR policies and practices, analyzes the impact of external forces on HR strategic decisions, and discusses the organization of HR functions and the delivery of HR policies. The report also highlights the role of line managers in implementing SHRM strategies and addresses challenges faced by them.

Strategic HRM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
1. HR policies and practices within the organisation..................................................................1
2. External forces and their effect on HR strategic decisions within the organisation...............2
3. Organising HR functions and delivering HR policies and practices in an organisation.........4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Strategic Human Resource Management (Strategic HRM) may be defined as the
connection between organisation's human resource and the strategies, goals and objectives. Main
objective of strategic HRM is bring flexibility, innovations and competitive advantage for
organisation. It goes beyond traditional HR (Boselie, 2016). in order to drive long-term
organisation success. In this report GIST ltd. is taken an organisation which provide supply chain
solutions for wholesalers, retailers and manufactures. This report discuses about the HR policies
and practices within the organisation. This report also discusses about the external forces and
their effect on HR strategic decisions. Present report also discusses about how functions of HR is
organised and how HR policies are delivered in GIST Ltd.
TASK
1. HR policies and practices within the organisation
Human resource policies are the guidelines within the organisation to adopt and manage
the people. It services as an organisational backbone which helps in guiding the behaviour and
expectations of the employees and the management. HR. policies are the formal rules and
guidelines which a business put in place to recruit, train, assess and reward the employees within
the organisation (Cascio, 2015). HR. policies and practices in GIST Ltd have established a
framework to manage people within the organisation, as it covers everything, how business is
recruiting its staff members and ensuring employees are clear about the rules, procedures and
expectations and how managers of GIST Ltd resolve issues. High commitment HRM is a set of
HR practices in GIST Ltd which contributes towards the organisation's performance which is
manly related to increase employee performance, improvise employees behaviour and attitude,
reduce absenteeism, improve quality and customer services within the organisation. High
commitment HRM refers to the commitment oriented HRM and includes employee involvement
in various managerial decisions. It also includes training programs, participation programs,
socializing activities and trainings in group problem solving and also the maintenance of skilled
employees in GIST Ltd. HR practices related to the High Commitment HRM includes job
flexibility, team workings, problem solving, information dissemination and minimal status
difference within an organisation. It also includes the reward systems, selective staffing,
appraisals and comprehensive training which represents high commitment strategies for
employee motivation and commitments. High commitment HRM in GIST Ltd dominates
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employee knowledge sharing behaviours through perceived employee commitment and
organisational support. HCHRM shapes employee behaviour and attitudes within the
organisation and also enhances the quality of employee performance within the organisation.
HCHRM is the organisation's strategy which enables to facilitate high employee performance
and developing employee trust.
Best fit HRM states that what HR strategies and practices should be used or implemented
with in a given circumstance of an organisation (Baluchand and Ridder, 2017). It emphasis on
HR and organisational strategies should be aligned within the organisation to achieve best fit for
organisation. It is based upon the idea that HR strategies have to be focused on the needs of an
organisation and its employees. GIST Ltd should come up with strategic changes which will be
applicable and relevant so that it can fit to the organisation. HR of GIST Ltd can see culture,
behaviours, attitudes, structure and technology as an criteria to fit business needs of an
organisation. HR strategies should be suitable for different circumstance along with the
operational process as well as the culture of an organisation. An organisation has to provide fixed
and clear job descriptions in order to offer jobs which help the organisation to attract relevant
candidates who can apply for the jobs. HR managers have to properly define the jobs and define
the career paths of the employees within the organisation which will encourage employees
towards set goals and will also increase the efficiency of the employees within the organisation.
HR managers should closely monitor employees in order to analyse their performance during
work and can make compensation decisions on the basis of their performances. This will also
minimize errors from employees while performing a task. Providing proper employee training
and development programs which will suit to the organisation based on the different
circumstances will improve the employee performance in an organisation (Arunprasad, 2016).
GIST Ltd should involve employee participation in relevant to immediate work conditions and
for the jobs it self. In order to improve high degree of creative behaviours within the
organisation, Jobs which require coordination and close interactions should be performed in
groups. So these are the HR policies and practices which should be implemented by GIST Ltd
for improving employees performance within the organisation.
2. External forces and their effect on HR strategic decisions within the organisation
External forces are the kind of a force which are present outside the organisation and are
totally out of control of the organisation. External forces play an important role in formulating
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strategic decisions of recruitment. These forces are out of the grip of the organisation and effects
both employer and employee (Sarvaiya, Eweje and Arrowsmith, 2018). If these forces are high
in the market organisation has no chance but to mould their HR policies and practice according
to these forces.
There are various external forces which have effect on the HR strategic decisions of GIST Ltd
such as:
1. Employment rate: This force has a strong impact on HR strategic decisions of GIST
Ltd. If the unemployed rate in UK increases against the company's job opening, HR
managers of the organisation can choose perfect candidates for the job and on their own
term. Organisation will have broad options available for the jobs to be performed. If the
unemployment rate increase HR managers of GIST Ltd can make their recruitment
process simple but can go with complex selection process. So due to which organisation
can avail high skilled employees for an organisation (Krausert, 2016). If the
unemployment rate against the job decreases company will have minimum options
available and have to make decisions of keeping their selection process simple in order to
select employees for the organisation and also may have to compromise with the
organisations recruitment and section policies. So this force has will have have impact on
GIST Ltd and can effect the organisation's HR strategic decision.
2. Labour Laws: labour laws are the obligations to which each and every organisation have
to follow and have influence on the working conditions of an organisation. For example
there are some seats reserved for a specific location, specific posts, gender etc this will
have an impact on the organisation and will effects HR strategic decision of GIST Ltd.
The strategic decisions can that can be effected are like minimum employment terms and
conditions which are set down by law have to be observed by the organisation like what
minimum wages are to be set (Bakker, 2017). Also to what these terms and conditions are
to be agreed by the organisation. It can also effect the decisions like rights of trade
unions, rules governing trade unions etc. This is the force which GIST Ltd have to
consider while operating a business and have to formulate strategies as per these labour
laws of UK.
3. Demand: Demand and supply phrase not always related to goods and services but it is
also truer for talent hunt too. It also effects the HR strategic decisions of GIST ltd, if the
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organisation need employees with special skills in the market but shortage of specific
skilled professionals which may be required by the organisation will make HR manager
to suffer in the search. HR managers have to struggle hard or provide training to the
existing employees within the organisation in order to improve their skills to become
suitable for the job.
4. Competition: Competition within a specific sector also plays and important role and
have effect on the HR strategic decision of GIST Ltd. If competition in Logistics
increases if will be difficult for the organisation to find perfectly fit candidates for the job
which is needed by GIST. HR manages have to frame a strategies to attract more and
more candidates like perfect job descriptions, job position, skills required etc so that
candidates can find it easy to apply for the job. Managers of GIST have to redefine their
recruitment and selection process to face competition.
5. Trade unions: It is the organisation made by workers and its main aim is to protect and
advance the interest of its members within a work place. If the employees of GIST Ltd is
unionised then organisation have to make their decisions according to the needs of trade
unions and have to enter in to negotiations related to different issues within the
organisation. If employees of the organisation are unionised organisation have to be
careful in making strategic decisions. But if it is non-unionised then organisation can
formulate the strategies on their terms and conditions and can even frame strict
organisational policies which employees has to agree upon.
3. Organising HR functions and delivering HR policies and practices in an organisation
HR functions are the functions of the organisation that deals with different concerns
which are related to staff of the organisation in relation to performance, hiring compensation,
motivation, training, safety and wellness of the employees in an organisation. These functions
are important for an organisation are needs to be organised wisely (Boselie and Brewster, 2015).
Organising HR function in GIST Ltd is the function of HR manager which involves proper
planning which includes combination and synchronization of human resources within the
organisation. HR functions helps in achieving organisational results. HR manager of GIST Ltd
can organise HR functions in following ways:
1. Identification of activities: It is the first step of organising HR function to identify all
the activities which are to be performed in concern at first such a recruiting, selection,
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training, compensation etc. All these activities are grouped and are classified in different
units.
2. Organising activities: In this step HR manager of GIST Ltd have to combine and group
similar activities into units by dividing different functions into small units will help the
organising the HR functions in the organisation easily.
3. Classifying: Once the functions are grouped and divided then manger have to classify the
powers and give activities rank in order which function is to be performed first and which
is to be performed at last.
4. Co-ordination: HR manager has to maintain co-ordination and set relationships among
various actions which will result into the smooth HR functions in GIST Ltd.
GIST Ltd follows Dave Ulrich's model within the organisation which is used to organise
human resource functions in an organisation (Managing HR Roles: Davids Ulrich's Model,
2018). In order to deliver HR policies and practices this can be explained as
Strategic partner: Strategies for delivering HR policies and practices are been formulated by the
managers of the organisation.
Change agent: If there occurs any change within GIST these changes are delivered through
project leaders and line managers of the organisation.
Employee champion: GIST Ltd is maintaining relationship with trade unions for delivering HR
policies and practice within the organisation.
Administrative experts: GIST Ltd has such administration which maintains entire human
resource structure.
Line manager is a person who is directly responsible for managing other employees and
operations in a business while reporting to higher rankings (Vanhala and Ritala, 2016). Line
manager is also known as direct manager. Line manager are persons to whom teams or
individuals report and have responsibility to higher level of management. Role of line managers
of GIST Ltd are as follows:
 To organise shortage and distribution of goods in GIST.
 Transportation of of goods and service.
 To control stock within the organisation.
 To hire, train and make evaluation of the employees within the organisation.
 Monitoring the flow of goods in an organisation.
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Challenges faced by line manager of GIST Ltd in delivering HRM are as follows:
 Limited resources of training.
 Adopting new innovations and technologies.
 Retaining of best talent.
 Ensuring better employee performance in the organisation.
 Challenges from the Trade unions
Recommendations
 Company should provide high technical trainings to employees.
 Organisation should go for different sources of recruiting processes in order to minimize
external forces.
 Also HR policies and practices should be framed in such a way that it should suit both
organisation and employees as well.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the report that Strategic human resource management forms an
important part for GIST Ltd. In the absence of SHRM organisation would have to face many
problems in operating business. It can also be concluded that an organisation can frame their
policies and practices effectively with the help of High Commitment HRM. This report also
concludes that there are various external force which have an effect on GITS's strategic
decisions. It can be also concluded that an organisation can deliver its HR policies and practices
using Ulrich's mode and also line managers have to perform major role with in the organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arunprasad, P., 2016. Guiding metaphors for knowledge-intensive firms: Strategic HRM
practices and knowledge strategies. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Bakker, A.B., 2017. Strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement. Organizational
Dynamics. 46(2). pp.67-75.
Baluch, A. M. and Ridder, H. G., 2017. Strategic Human Resource Management. In The
Nonprofit Human Resource Management Handbook. (pp. 89-106). Routledge.
Boselie, P. and Brewster, C., 2015. 8. the search for panaceas in strategic Human Resource
Management: a wrong turn for HRM research?. Handbook of Research on Management
Ideas and Panaceas: Adaptation and Context, p.130.
Boselie, P., 2016. Strategic HRM. In Encyclopedia of human resource management. Edward
Elgar Publishing Limited.
Cascio, W. F., 2015. Strategic HRM: Too important for an insular approach. Human Resource
Management. 54(3), pp.423-426.
Krausert, A., 2016. HRM signals for the capital market. Human Resource Management. 55(6).
pp.1025-1040.
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.
Swart, J., Hansen, N. K. and Kinnie, N., 2015. Strategic Human Resource Management and
performance management in professional service firms. In The Oxford handbook of
professional service firms.
Vanhala, M. and Ritala, P., 2016. HRM practices, impersonal trust and organizational
innovativeness. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 31(1). pp.95-109.
Online
Managing HR Roles: Davids Ulrich's Model. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://blog.mettl.com/talent-hub/managing-hr-roles-david-ulrich-model>.
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