Challenges Faced By Harvey Norman In Managing Human Resource Function

Importance of managing HRM function

Question:

Discuss About The Evaluating Human Resource Function Business?

Human resource management is one of the critical issues in the organization.  The report is based on the challenges faced by Harvey Norman in recruiting and retaining the employees.  Recruitment is one of the toughest decisions for a HR manager.  The possibility of an organization to overcome challenges directly depends upon HR department. Harvey Norman is a large Australian-based, multi-national retailer Consumer durable goods and electronic products. It mostly functions as a franchise with the chief brand and all company-operated stores owned by them.  The company has more than 280 company-owned and franchised stores in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and South-East Asia (CompanyProfile.2008).

Human resource management include managing human in an organization. For a multinational organization it is even more difficult to develop human resource practice.  Harvey Norman operates globally; hence it is difficult to manage the HRM function. Incorporating human resource policies internationally is a difficult task to manage. Harvey Norman has to operate well in managing the HRM activities in the best effective way. The purpose of an effective HRM is to allocate the resources in the best possible way. For any business organization, managing human resources is one of the most difficult tasks.  Harvey Norman faces issues in managing human resources due to heavy market pressure (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

The challenge faced by Harvey Norman is relating to managing human resource. The HRM department is facing issues in hiring efficient manager. The purpose is to hire managers who can manage the employees.  The purpose of human resource manager is to find the better employees. The Australian market is surrounded with lot many market players with a high level of accuracy in the market. This is the reason; Human Resource Department pays an extra attention on recruitment of efficient employees. The purpose of recruitment and retainment fail in case of hiring of inefficient employees. Harvey Norman faces problem in retaining employees due to existence of competition in the industry (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016). This affects the overall purpose of the organization in dealing with the upcoming issues.  Employees tend to switch to another organization in case they get a better opportunity. In order to stop them from doing such an activity, it is important to manage the organizational goals by hiring the most efficient employees (Purce, 2014).

One of the problems faced by the modern organization is in relation with the quality of the employees. Changing trends in the business process is creating gap in managing the business functions.  Employees with better knowledge and experience are taken by the other competitors. A long-time hiring process affects the employees and in turn hampers the growth of the organization (Marchington, Wilkinson, Donnelly and Kynighou, 2016).  HR department is looking on hiring employees with better quality and efficient who can be retained for a longer time-period.  There are majority of issues faced by the business organization in order to deal with the crises.  A decline in the hiring process does affect the growth of the organization in meeting results. The purpose here is to hire quality employees in order to meet the desired result.  With a decline in the quality employees, there is a fall in the organizational efficiency (Purce, 2014).

Issues in HRM function

 Another challenge faced by the business organizations is in term of better compensations and perks. Employees switch to another organization n case they get a better opportunity. Growth is important for an employee in order to grow. An organization failing to provide growth to its employees fails in meeting the regular targets. This is important in achieving desired targets and organizational accuracy. Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation is important in motivating the employees. In achieving the long term goal, motivation is important for retaining employees.  Incentives and perks act as a motivational factor in dealing with the employees (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). Harvey Norman should implement a creative strategy in order to gain market effectiveness.  Employees are upset of not getting result as per their expectations. In such a condition, it is important to handle the issue in the best possible way.  This is affecting the overall organizational productivity. Employees should be handled in an effective way so as to reduce the inefficiencies.  A competitive incentive strategy will allow in managing the organization in the best possible way.  In turn, one can see the best result out of the given activities. Employees are facing issues of trust in the organization. They are failing to gain results due to disparities in between the organizational objective and the purpose(Morgeson, Aguinis,Waldman & Siegel, 2013).

Organizations these days are facing issues related to employee retention and turnover. This is challenging for the business organization to retain the employees for a longer time-period. There is a problem in dealing with corporate culture.  Some employees leave the organization in search of better opportunities whereas some leave it due to excess pressure.  The high employee turnover affects the organizational efficiency. An employee faces issues in managing the organizational growth and development (Bamberger, Biron & Meshoulam, 2014). This in result creates pressure on the HR to recruit employees who will at least work for a year or more.  A high employee turnover reflects upon the issues faced by the business organization. This is one of the major challenges faced by Harvey Norman. This must be dealt with high efficiency with better output.  Restricted organizational growth hampers the organizational efficiency. Employees who do not get a better opportunity tend to switch to some other company.  Harvey Norman sees a heavy employee turnover. Employees are switching to some other organization in search of better opportunities. There is an urgent need to create better opportunity in order to gain certainty (Marler & Fisher, 2013).

Challenges in Recruiting and Retaining Efficient Employees

Training program is important for retaining existing employees and to deal with the new one.  Employees can only be retained if provided with a better opportunity. Training and development hold the interest of an individual and helps in gaining knowledge regarding an organization (Bamberger, Biron & Meshoulam, 2014). Timely training is important for an organization in managing desired result. Most of the organization fails at understanding the importance of training. In such a situation, it is important to manage the training and development.  In managing the organization, it is important to gain competencies in order to manage organizational growth. Harvey Norman faces problem in retaining employees due to existence of competition in the industry. This affects the overall purpose of the organization in dealing with the upcoming issues (Shields, et al 2015).

People belonging to different cultural background are involved in an organization. It is difficult for a HR to handle people with a different cultural background.  It is a herculean task for the HR manager to deal with every individual belonging to a different cultural background. Harvey Norman is a multinational organization working in different nation. In such a situation, it is important to develop effective policies to manage the cultural gap in the organization (Kehoe & Wright, 2013).

 Challenges are an integral part of managing human resource activities. A strategic implementation of goals is necessary to overcome the issues related to human resource.  Above mentioned are the challenges faced by Harvey Norman in dealing with the human resource function (Brewster, Mayrhofer & Morley, 2016). Diversity is the part of an organization that multiplies the task of a HR manager. The human resource manager has to frame effective policies to manage the functions in a better way. There are issues in the organization due to difference of opinion.  This terribly affects the organizational growth and development. In order to manage the organization, it is important to frame effective policies to gain market competencies. A HR manager finds difficulty in achieving a balance in between the organizational and individual goals (Gelens, Dries, Hofmans & Pepermans, 2013).

In order to gain better results, training and professional growth programs are important to gain competencies.  An organization can gain better results by implementing the growth plan by aligning the competencies in an effective way. Training helps in addressing the issue in a better way (Brewster, Mayrhofer & Morley, 2016). This is suggested to manage the organizational goal and to deal with the problems on daily basis.  A better understanding is important to deal with the training and development process.  The process of training and development is help in balancing the cultural gaps. A multi-cultural environment creates difficulty for the manger. It is tough for the HR to meet the requirements of each individual in the organization. In order to gain competencies, it is evident to manage the functions in the best possible way. Growth is important for an employee in order to grow. An organization failing to provide growth to its employees fails in meeting the regular targets (Al Ariss, Cascio & Paauwe, 2014).

Quality of employees

Change is an integral part of an organizational growth and development. HR Department has a duty to meet with the aspiration of each and every individual associated with the organization. It is important to create a healthy organizational environment so as to deal with the issues. A proactive approach of the organization will help in dealing with the issues in a better way. These organizational changes are important to be managed on a long run. This is the necessity in dealing with the problems an organization is going through (Aryee, et al 2016).

Retention is important for the organizational growth.  Employees are getting freedom to switch from one organization to another in search of better opportunities. There is a necessity to come up with a lucrative package, so as to deal with the issue of retention (Rao, 2014)…

Conclusion

Harvey Norman faces the HR challenges like other organization. In order to gain competitiveness, it is necessary to develop an effective HR plan. This plan will help in gaining better results. Training and development is recommended to create awareness in employees. Cultural diversity has become an integral part of an organization in the age of globalization. To deal with such a scenario, it is important to develop an effective plan to gain distinguished results.

References

Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W. F., & Paauwe, J. (2014). Talent management: Current theories and future research directions. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 173-179.

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Aryee, S., Walumbwa, F. O., Seidu, E. Y., & Otaye, L. E. (2016). Developing and leveraging human capital resource to promote service quality: Testing a theory of performance. Journal of management, 42(2), 480-499.

Bamberger, P. A., Biron, M., & Meshoulam, I. (2014). Human resource strategy: Formulation, implementation, and impact. Routledge.

Brewster, C., Mayrhofer, W., & Morley, M. (Eds.). (2016). New challenges for European resource management. Springer.

CompanyProfile.(2008). (Online).Available at:  https://www.harveynormanholdings.com.au/companyprofile.htm  Accessed on  27 September  2017

Gelens, J., Dries, N., Hofmans, J., & Pepermans, R. (2013). The role of perceived organizational justice in shaping the outcomes of talent management: A research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 23(4), 341-353.

Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Jiang, K. (2014). An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 1-56.

Kehoe, R. R., & Wright, P. M. (2013). The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management, 39(2), 366-391.

Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.

Marler, J. H., & Fisher, S. L. (2013). An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 23(1), 18-36.

Morgeson, F. P., Aguinis, H., Waldman, D. A., & Siegel, D. S. (2013). Extending corporate social responsibility research to the human resource management and organizational behavior domains: A look to the future. Personnel Psychology, 66(4), 805-824.

Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.

Rao, T. V. (2014). HRD audit: Evaluating the human resource function for business improvement. SAGE Publications India.

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., … & Plimmer, G. (2015). Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.

Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management. Routledge.

Sparrow, P., Brewster, C., & Chung, C. (2016). Globalizing human resource management. Routledge.