Free Custom «HRM Capstone Project» Essay Paper

Organizations today recognize the importance of their employees in providing their competitive advantages. As such, organizations now adopt HRM (human resource practices) that help them use their employees to their benefit. Human resource practices have the ability to determine how an organization performs against its competition. Research today has shown a direct link between the performance and best human resource practices. On this basis, organizations today require practices and procedures that have the capability of helping organizations employ their best human resources. The current trend in HRM practices is to align an organization’s vision, mission and goals with its business strategy. The human resource factor in an organization’s success mainly depends on how well treated and valued an organization’s employees are. An organization that treats its workforce with dignity and respect gets the ability to utilize its workforce to add its value. Human resource management strategies can be designed to enable an organization to sustain its competitive advantages. This is mainly resulted by understanding that an organization’s core competencies emanate from employee’s embodied skills. The HRM strategy, therefore, should be designed to successfully develop a workforce with the capability of undertaking all the required tasks to become the best asset in the organization. HRM practices and procedures have developed overtime, but cannot be imitated in creating the need for each organization to formulate their own practices and procedures.

Background

This paper will use a virtue organization to develop HRM practices and procedures. Smith Systems Consulting is a consulting organization located in Huston with a workforce of three hundred and fifty employees. The company provides business systems and information technology consulting services. The company’s clientele consist of companies from varied industries, which include financial services, manufacturing, retail, transportation and education.

Selection

• EEO (Equal Employment Opportunities)

The equal employment opportunity practices have the main aim of ensuring the employment equity. This is in line with employment laws and the company’s goal. The company, therefore, expects all its employees to be indulgenced fairly and with esteem. The working environment should be free of any form of harassment and discrimination. All employees should have equal chance for recruitment, selection and promotions. The company also should ensure that employees can choose and pursue the most preferred career paths. Training and career development opportunities will be accessible to all employees.

The company’s equal employment opportunities are “giving an equal chance to all employees to enable everyone to achieve his or her full potential and pursue his or her preferred career paths”

• Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action is a policy, intended to ensure that previously discriminated groups are given employment opportunities. Protected groups or the previously discriminated groups can be defined in terms of age, disability, marital status, family status, pregnancy, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation or the national origin. The company prohibits treating employees on the defined discriminatory definitions. The company’s recruitment practices should ensure that diverse applicants have an opportunity to gain the employment. The recruitment process should be designed to ensure that the most qualified individuals get employment opportunity, due to consideration to the protected or underrepresented groups. The company should affect management practices that provide a working environment inclusive, and have the capability to foster human diversity. In addition the working environment should be able to add value to the organization and its employees. The company commits to ensure that its working environment accommodates all the named protected groups, unless undue hardship can help to avoid making such accommodations.

• Affirmative Action statement

The company undertakes to provide a working environment that is free of unfairness on the center of age, marital status, family status, pregnancy, disability, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation or national origin

• At-Will Employment

At -Will Employment agreements can be used to describe the situations, where employees and their employers can terminate the work relationship at any given period. The termination of their employment relationship is, however, not considered legal without consequences at any given point. This implies that the company can terminate the services of its at-will employees at its pleasure without the fear of legal action.  The company’s policy for it’s at -will employees is, therefore, to end their services without noticing whenever it fails to meet their employer’s expectations. On the other hand, at-will employee can terminate their service to the company at any given point without any legal consequences. At-will employees are not required to give the company any reason for ending their services.

• At-Will Statement

Given the unfair nature of at-will employment, the company does not engage in this category of employees.

Definitions

• Independent Contractors

Contract employees can be recruited from time to time to perform supportive tasks, or to provide the required additional capacity, in case there are skill shortfalls. Contract employees can be hired, according to the functions required or their specialized skills. The period of employment for contract employee can range from 6 months annually, depending on their tasks.

• Part-time Employees

Part-time employees can work for up to forty hours a week. Their work is based on a different schedule from that of their full time colleagues. Part-time employees have one year renewable contracts with the company. Part-time employees enjoy medical benefits, retirement benefits among other benefits provided by the company. In addition full time employees enjoy paid vacation, sick leave and bonuses that have to be determined by their job performance. Part-time employees have a job security guaranteed by their contracts.

• Full-time Employees

Full-time employees can be described as employees, employed by the company to work for not less than forty hours per week. Full-time employees have three years renewable employment contracts with the company.  They should enjoy medical benefits, retirement benefits, among other benefits provided by the company. In addition full-time employees enjoy their paid vacation, sick leave and bonuses that have to be determined by their job performance. Full time employees receive compensation depending on their skills and job description. They also enjoy security guaranteed job by their contracts with the employer. The company should have a fair mechanism for determining its employees’ compensation base on fairness and the job level.

• Temporary Employees

Temporary employees are hired for given period to assist the company to undertake extra tasks, required to meet its client demands.  The need to hire temporary employees occurs, when there is a surging demand from the clients. They undertake tasks that the company deems as temporary or seasonal. This implies that the cost of hiring and maintaining fulltime employee to undertake such tasks would be costly and unnecessary. Temporary employees do not enjoy such benefits as; health cover, retirement benefits, leave allowance and vacation allowances. Temporary employees may leave employment, once they complete the tasks that they are hired to undertake.