Strategic HRM Analysis of Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd in Maldives

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of strategic human resource management issues at Handy Holdings Pvt Ltd in the Maldives, focusing on communication, culture, and payroll. The report identifies challenges stemming from a culturally diverse workforce, leading to communication barriers and decreased productivity. Additionally, it addresses payroll inaccuracies and delays due to manual processing, which negatively impacts employee motivation. The report offers practical recommendations such as implementing cultural sensitivity training, adopting payroll software, and establishing open communication channels to improve employee engagement and organizational effectiveness. Data was collected through interviews and questionnaires. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of strategic HRM in fostering a positive work environment and achieving business goals.

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

6STRATEGIC HRM
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

8STRATEGIC HRM
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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