Human Resource Management Report: Challenges and Solutions

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of Human Resource Management (HRM), examining critical ethical issues within the garment industry, the impact of technological advancements and automation, and the challenges of global talent management. The report highlights ethical concerns such as worker exploitation and discrimination, emphasizing the need for improved HRM policies to ensure fair treatment and worker well-being. Furthermore, it explores the transformative effects of artificial intelligence and automation on the workplace, including the shift towards capital investment over labor, the need for employee skill adaptation, and the rise of remote working. The report also addresses the global talent crisis, analyzing the shortage of skilled workers and the strategic steps HRM must take to prioritize talent development, optimize existing talent, and adapt to changing workforce demands. References to relevant articles and studies are included to support the analysis.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Response to Question 1
Human Resource Management is an integral part of all the organization throughout
the world. It is responsible for the wellbeing of the people within the organization. The better
the human resource policies the better will be the productivity and goodwill of the
organizations. HRM is the process of how to recruit and select the employees and motivate,
educate and train people. It includes deciding about the compensations, benefits and
employee safety. All these help in retaining employees for long period of time. Improper
human resource management leads to increase in ethical issues within the organization (Fryer
2018). The ethical issues that may grow because of improper human resource management
are harassment of the employees, gender inequality, discrimination and many more. The
following paragraph discusses about one such ethical issue that is still prevalent and is a
serious problem for the society.
According to “The Guardian” article, the garment industry had always been the victim
in terms of payments. The commitments that were given by the global fashion brands to pay
the living wage have not proved to translate into any meaningful change, as the article states.
University report says that in spite of the ambitious commitments by the officials of the
clothing companies in relation to payments, there have been no improvements and the low
pay still continues to be a status quo in the garment industry. A research of around 20 global
brands has been done (Fletcher 2019). Most of the garment workers suffer huge accidents
because of the poor infrastructure of work places. It had been noticed that despite cracks
appearing in the buildings, the workers were asked to go for work. Other than this there had
also been a lack of transparency in the wages being paid through their supply chains. The
research also found weak freedom enforcement that does not provide any power to the
employees in raising concerns about the wages that remain unpaid (Sabiu, Mei and Joarder
2016).

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The above article clearly shows that there has been harassment and discrimination
from the end of the global companies as they are oppressed by the top management and are
forced to do work at a poor condition and at low pays. In the long run this would obviously
harm the garment industry and therefore international pressures are also arising. This pressure
has led the HRM of most of the companies to take the necessary steps. Human resource
management is therefore of a great implication. The implications are as follows:
i. The human resource policies and procedures ensure that all the employees within
the organization are taken care of, the needs and the preferences of the employees
are respected and proper benefits are given to them in terms of the work being
performed (Greene 2019).
ii. It helps in proper redressal of grievances and smooth and quick solutions.
iii. They protect the employees from facing any kind of improper behaviour from the
other employees and the organization itself.
iv. It helps the employees in receiving a proper compensation.
v. A proper work discipline can be maintained within the organization.
vi. Helps in the training, development and growth of the employees in the long run.
Response to Question 7
Emerging technological advancements and automation has brought about a global
transformation in the future of the work. The work that took a number of employees and huge
time to complete can now be finished within a small time by the help of one computer itself.
The emergence of artificial intelligence and robots has led to automation of a number of tasks
and hence now a day’s most of the organization invests more in capital than that of labour.
Technologies have reduced the task of performing repetitive tasks manually. A very few
works are hired for manual tasks and most people are hired for creative and strategic
thinking. The employees working within an advanced technological organization need to

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retool their skills life- long and adapt to the changes quickly. The advancements in the
artificial intelligence and automations will lead to an increase in the work being done by
smart machines rather than manually and it would affect 100 million knowledgeable workers
in the future. There has been rapid increase in the process automation, usage of cloud based
communication platforms, digital talent platforms, AI driven technologies and quantum
computing. Automations help in reducing process timings and increasing the efficiency. A
process if automated can do calculations and other tasks automatically without providing
much manual efforts. Thus it will help in increased productivity at a lower cost (Johnson and
Szamosi 2018). There will be a reduction in the traditional jobs. A study shows that 47% of
the automation in the business process will reduce about 40-75 million jobs worldwide. There
will be remote working in the future. Most of the HR believes that remote working in the
principal driver of change for the future work.
There are examples of several organizations that have adapted to the automation and
technological innovation processes. The example of McKinsey can be taken as an example
of process automation. There has been emergence of the robotics, sensing ad process control
capabilities of the organization. It has scaled artificial intelligence across the business.
Woolworths has harnessed both technology and automation. They have introduced the
concept of the robot warehouses. There has been an investment of around $560 million by
Woolworths for process automation like picking and packing robots. Similarly, HSBC has
also started to use IBM analytics technology in order to process 100 million documents like
insurance documents, invoices and other reports. It has started robotics process automation as
well. The human resource management team plays a great role in these situations. The human
resource management needs to select and recruit people who are flexible to changes and are
always ready to learn new things (Vaiman and Collings 2015). They need to hire people who
are specific to the process and hence the process of selecting and recruiting knowledgeable
people are becoming tough. Automation leads to a number of changes in the existing process

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and most of the existing employees does not react positively to such changes. In such cases
the human resource management system needs to set up a strong coalition for training,
development and counselling of the employees in order to ensure a smooth change
management.
Response to Question 6
The rapid change in technology and automation has led to the change in the demand
for the employees. The organizations now require to employ highly talented intellectuals in
the middle of a global talent crisis. It becomes very difficult for them to acquire talents that
accurately fit with the organizational mission and vision (Elegbe 2016). The global talent
crisis cost nations trillions of dollars. The talent crunch affects both the developed and
developing economies. It has been estimated that by the year 2030 the demand for skilled
workers will outstrip the supply and there will be a huge shortage of around more than 85.2
million people. The human resources currently have divided the human resources into three
different skill levels – Highly Skilled Workers, Mid Skilled Workers and Low Skilled
Workers (Marler and Parry 2016). The booming technology, media and telecommunications
play a critical role in the global economy with the Google, Amazon and Apple booming at
the top of the stock market indices. The human resource management must take the following
steps:
i. Prioritize talent and skill development programs. Employee performance
management and talent management should be the focus of the human resource
management (Noe et al. 2017).
ii. Optimization of the existing talents. The companies should focus in the creation of
clear path of succession and roles at the entry level so that good talent stays inside
the organization and so that the talent is nurtured at its full potential.

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iii. There should be a right balance between the people and technology. Human skills
are still very important factor for the service industries and hence the human
resource team must focus on developing strong frontline employees.
iv. Proper team of change management must be set up by the HR team. Strategies
like Kotter’s model and ADKAR model can be implemented for training and
developing the existing talents and drive the change within them.
v. The selection pool should be widened. The HR must embrace diversity and must
consider the advantages of introducing the older staffs or foreign workers in the
team.
vi. The organizations must consider in leveraging a contingent workforce, so that the
specialist knowledge or skills can be supplied whenever needed.
vii. The recruitment and the selection process must also be properly set. They must
screen the candidates correctly, establish proper employer-employee relationship
and manage exceptions. The HR must also ensure that the employees must stay
motivated and happy.

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References
Elegbe, J.A., 2016. Talent management in the developing world: Adopting a global
perspective. Routledge.
Fletcher, K., 2019. Clothes that connect. The Social Design Reader, p.229.
Fryer, M., 2018. HRM: an ethical perspective. In Human Resource Management (pp. 98-
116). Routledge.
Greene, A.M., 2019. HRM, Equality and Diversity. The SAGE Handbook of Human
Resource Management, p.238.
Johnson, P. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. HRM in changing organizational contexts. In Human
resource management (pp. 27-48). Routledge.
Marler, J.H. and Parry, E., 2016. Human resource management, strategic involvement and e-
HRM technology. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(19),
pp.2233-2253.
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.
Sabiu, M.S., Mei, T.S. and Joarder, M.H.R., 2016. Moderating role of ethical climates on
HRM practices and organizational performance: A proposed conceptual model.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 7(1), p.291.
Vaiman, V. and Collings, D.G., 2015. Global talent management. The Routledge companion
to international human resource management, pp.210-225.