Kaplan's HRM201: Evolving Challenges in Human Resource Management

This essay addresses the evolving challenges in Human Resource Management (HRM) within a rapidly transforming business landscape, as required for the HRM201 Human Resource Management course. It identifies key challenges such as change management, leadership development, employee retention, compensation disparities, and research & development. The essay provides recommendations for anticipating and managing these challenges, including creating effective training programs, redesigning compensation systems to motivate employees, structuring comprehensive benefit packages, leveraging technology to enhance HR functions, and implementing performance management practices. The analysis emphasizes the importance of valuing employees and adapting HRM strategies to the changing business environment to strengthen the HR department's role. Desklib offers a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and past papers.

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

1HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The rapidly transforming business landscape means that in the future there might be
various human resource challenges that will evolve in the coming years. According to Purce
(2014), the restrictions of the recession are still prevailing in the business environment and the
companies have realized that they will be required to take steps in order to ensure that there
exists adequate workforce and the organization can carry on its business successfully. The role of
the Human Resource Department has been changing considerably and in the present
environment, the HR Professionals have acted as a counselor, employee advocate, strategist and
much more (Alfes et al. 2013). As the human resource department is a business function, the
effectiveness of the department is primarily based on understanding the key policies and
decisions. There exists various challenges leading to which solutions need to found. The essay
will be discussing the human resource challenges employed and the recommendations for
helping the firm to face the challenges being faced.
Challenges related to HRM
The employee challenges that would be faced by the organizations are many. These
include change management, development of leadership, retention, compensation and research
and development. The first bigger challenge is related to that of Change Management. Change
management is referred to be as a considerably new phase and for this reason there are various
challenges associated with it (Marchington et al. 2016). As the facets of the organization keep
changing, the different organizational members need to be provided with training facilities in
order to ensure that the training is successful in making the different employees understand that
the organizational competencies can be dealt with.

2HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The next challenge being faced by the human resource management is that there needs to
exist leadership development initiatives in the organization. The human resource departments
will be bound to act as a partner of the management and to provide the different employees with
structures,, tools and procedures which are needed in the future of the firm (Cascio 2018). This
strategic initiative can be stated as the process of ensuring that the correct employee is appointed
for the correct organization and there exists enough scope for development in the long run of the
firm.
The next challenge is the challenge of the presence of adequate and efficient measures to
measure the efficiency of the human resource department. There are various indicators present in
order to understand the future in other aspects of the business house but for human resource
department, there needs to be the use of an appropriate measure or a matrix which goes a long
way in determining the role of HR as a role of importance in the organization. It is believed that
when an appropriate measure will be formed, only then the organization `s HR department be
viewed as a strategic partner in achievements of objectives.
According to Grant (2016), previously there were not proper measures present to analyze
effectiveness but now there are various ways in which an organization ca measure its
effectiveness and the movement of simply counting the number of employees to formation of
ROIs has greatly build up the game for the realm of human resources.
The challenge which is related to the compensation of the employees also tends to form
huge problems for the different induvial (Bratton and Gold 2017). In the present problem, one
human resource challenge also remains the inequitable income disparity and the presence of a
glass ceiling for the same. The male employees are given extra preference which leads to the
disparity. Many activists and women have spoken against this in the social media platform and

3HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
therefore, it becomes increasingly important for the different companies to ensure that the pay
structure is fixed and both the genders are provided with good opportunities.
The last challenge being faced by the department is the challenge related to the retention
of employees. The retention of the employees in an organization is taken as a crucial indictor of
the success of the organization (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). However, in the present century,
talent management and retention of the employees has become increasingly difficult and the
employees do not want to spend time on a job which does not possess certain prep determined
features. Hence, retention of employees is crucial as it lifts the brand name along with the fact
that it helps in reducing the costs (Mok, Sparks and Kadampully 2013).
In order to support the argument being made with respect to the challenges of the human
resource department in future, it has been reflected that in case true leadership is provided to the
employees, the performance can improve by 25%. Secondly, it was also witnessed that the
decline in employee engagement has increased this year.
Hence, the various challenges being exerted by the human resource department in an
organization had been defined, however there are certain recommendations which could
contribute towards overcoming these challenges and helping the firm to attain success.
Recommendations to deal with these challenges identified
The first aspect in dealing with the given challenge is creation of an effective training
program. The training and development forms an essential aspect of the organization and training
helps an employee in understanding the kind of behavior he must portray in the organization
(Krajcsák and Gyökér 2013). However mostly, it helps in understanding of the different
procedures that ca be used to carry out the given task especially in the stage where the change

4HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
management is taking place Humans often find it difficult to compete with the change and thus,
training for it can help them in overcoming these aspect.
The second way in which an organization can overcome the various challenges is the re-
designing of the compensation system in a manner such that the employees get motivated.
According to McDermott et al. (2013), it is important for the organization to motivate its
members regularly. This is because the employees who are motivated tend to perform better than
the ones who are not. Fir this purpose, the firm can improve the package structure being offered
to the employees. The package which is offered to the employees acts as a major source of
motivation and hence, it must be redesigned.
The third way in which the given challenges with human resource can be dealt with
includes structuring benefit packages which help the employees in the long run and the capability
of being able to measure the given success. Although the package being offered to the employees
is an important factor providing motivation, other non-monetary benefits being provided to the
employees may go a long way in making them value the different members of the organization
and instigate them to perform better. These non-monetary benefits may comprise of benefits
which include health, lodging, food and educational benefits (Alfes et al. 2013). As these
benefits often form a huge percentage of employee expenses, certain companies tend to provide
these to the companies in order to help them in the long run.
With the advent of technology, the whole business process has become fully automated.
Technology has been successful in opening various ventures and for this reason they can be
included well in the human resource department as well As technology is well known to save
time and processes of business, it is the same case for the human resource department.

5HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Using technology, the different jobs in the field of human resource like staffing, payroll
maintenance, performance management and other activities be done successfully and this shall
ensure error free job. The error free job may further assist the customers to make repetitive
purchases.
Lastly as employees tend to form the most important part of any organization, it is
important for the firm to make them feel valued and thereby this and this can only take place
when the different practices of performance management, 360 degree evaluation and other key
improvement tools are applied in order to make the different workers understand the gaps which
exist within them and the different measures to fulfill these given gaps (Chelladurai and Kerwin
2017). When the employees of the organization improve continuously and tend to perceive the
long term benefit of the organization, it goes a long way in assisting the organization when
facing turbulent times of change management and external pressure.
Conclusion
Therefore from the given analysis it can be stated that the field of human resource
development has been revolving regularly and with this the attitude of the potential employees
has also been changing. As businesses tend to increase in size, it becomes relatively important
for the given organization to ensure that their human resource department is well prepared for the
changes which the firm might face in the near future of the firm. Hence, the given essay outlines
the various challenges being faced by the human resource department in the current business
landscape. These challenges included challenges like change management, compensation,
development of leadership, retention and research and development. However these problems are
not static in nature and several solutions have been suggested like the importance of a new
revenue structure, extra benefits, leveraging technology to enhance the contribution of the hrm

6HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
function, training and performance management may contribute towards improving the scenario
and strengthening the position of the human resource department in the changing landscape of
business.

7HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
References
Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human
resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation
model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.
Alfes, K., Truss, C., Soane, E.C., Rees, C. and Gatenby, M., 2013. The relationship between line
manager behavior, perceived HRM practices, and individual performance: Examining the
mediating role of engagement. Human resource management, 52(6), pp.839-859.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Chelladurai, P. and Kerwin, S., 2017. Human resource management in sport and recreation.
Human Kinetics.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Krajcsák, Z. and Gyökér, I., 2013. How to increase workplace commitment?. Periodica
Polytechnica. Social and Management Sciences, 21(1), p.39.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource
management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.
McDermott, A.M., Conway, E., Rousseau, D.M. and Flood, P.C., 2013. Promoting effective
psychological contracts through leadership: The missing link between HR strategy and
performance. Human Resource Management, 52(2), pp.289-310.

8HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Mok, C., Sparks, B. and Kadampully, J., 2013. Service quality management in hospitality,
tourism, and leisure. Routledge.
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.