Alignment Of HRM And Business Strategies

Alignment of HRM and Business Strategies

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Alignment of HRM and Business Strategies

Introduction

Human resource is a vital organ for any organization to function properly and achieve its goals. These goals may be short-term or long-term, human resource management plays a very crucial in the achievement of both. Human resource management (HRM) refers to the strategic approach that is adopted by various organization to effectively manage its workforce or human capital, to gain the maximum output from them and achieve its organizational objectives, efficiently and effectively.

In the previous times, the importance of human resource management was not much recognized and the organizations did not feel the need of establishing a separate department for this purposes, but in the current age of cut-throat competition and advanced technology, every organization has realized the importance of managing their workforce appropriately and thus, every company has a separate human resource or HRM department now. One of such prominent companies is Ford Motors, Ford Motor Company was established by Henry Ford in June 1903 (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2017). The company deals in automobiles and luxury vehicles under the brand name of Ford and Lincoln. The higher management at Ford Motor Company realized it long back that without a properly managed and regularized human resource management, the achievement of strategic goals is not possible, hence they started working ion the establishment and development of an integrated department to manage human capital of the company and now it can be seen that Ford ranks at top position, not only in the automobile industry but also at an overall level.

Discussion

Alignment of HR Strategy with Business Strategies

Strategic planning is the determination of the long-term and short-term objectives of and organization and deciding how to achieve those goals. Thus, a business strategy is a future-oriented plan that is meant to create and maximize the competitive advantage in order to achieve organizational goals. The human resource department, being the central unit of any organization, also plays a vital role in planning the strategic goals for the Ford Motor Company and in order to execute each plan properly (Armstrong, 2006), it is essential that the Human Resource strategies are well-aligned with the business strategies of the automobile producer. It can be done by understanding the current business strategies of the organization and then planning and executing the strategic plans according to them even in the human resource department.

HR job positions and responsibilities listed for the HR Department

Human Resource professionals basically manage a very important administrative function of the organization. The plan, direct, coordinate and execute the various plans necessary for the proper functioning of the organization. The professionals in the area of Human Resource Management are responsible for the recruitment, interview, selecting and then finally placement of a new employee in the company, in this case, Ford Motor Company. These professionals’ also look into the matters of payroll, employee relations, rewards and bonuses, benefits and training and development of the employees. There are various kinds of roles in an HR department but the most commonly found are the HR specialist and HR generalist.

Preferable HR positions and reasons behind this choice

In my personal opinion, the position of Human Resource Generalist is much better than the rest of the positions in the HR department. The reason for preferring this role or position over the rest of the positions although they are performing a similar function is that HR Generalist performs various functions in the same department at the same time. They look over and handle a number of tasks and areas simultaneously. Whereas an HR specialist is only assigned an area or the duty of looking after a specific function, Hence HR Generalist is a broad category whereas HR specialist is a limited position.

How Ford Motor Company can establish HRM Strategies to achieve a competitive edge

Organizations operating in the global market, design and align their business strategies with the departmental strategies of each and every department, so that that business can prosper and the organizational goals can be achieved in a much efficient and smooth manner (Wee, & Wu, 2009). Ford Motor Company can also take multiple measures in the area of Human Resource Management in order to gain a competitive edge in the market it is dealing. Some of these strategies have been listed below:

Creating a work-life balance

It has been proven through research that employees are always attracted towards those companies that are flexible in nature and understand the issues of the employees.

Performance Management

Although Ford Motor Company already has an excellent performance management system and it rewards its employees appropriately on the basis of performance, still there are some loopholes that need to b filled.

Ways in which Ford Motor Company can Increase Diversity

Diversity is an important and integral part of Ford's employee stratification. Ford has always tried not to discriminate while recruiting employees for its various departments, however, there are still some steps that can increase the level of trust of potential employers in the company and encouraging more and more people to come and work for Ford Motor Company. These steps can be

Being an equal opportunity employer.

Not looking into discriminatory practices like gender-based or racial discrimination and giving priority only to skills while recruiting an employee.

Taking pride in each other’s culture, instead of feeling ashamed of other people's values and norms.

References

Armstrong, M. (2006). A handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Wee, H. M., & Wu, S. (2009). Lean supply chain and its effect on product cost and quality: a case study on Ford Motor Company. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 14(5), 335-341.