Role of Good Human Resource practices in Employee Engagement and Reward.

A Human resource department with good practices will always help an organization to move forward and be successful. Employees are the main resource any organization could ever have and the Human resource department of an organization is responsible for managing this valuable resource to get a competitive advantage to survive in the challenging business world. As clearly mentioned by Vulpen (2019), Human Resource (HR) professionals cannot stop their education after gaining their basic qualifications. They need to keep themselves updated all the time with what is happening in the business world. This helps them know the trends, grab the best practices and implement them into their organization to compete with the other organizations. Many research shows that good HR practices have a positive impact on employees’ satisfaction. These satisfied employees will do their best to give quality products to achieve organizational goals by being highly engaged in what they do (Pradhan et al., 2017; Alzyoud, 2018; Jose, 2012; Kerdpitak and Jermsittiparsert, 2020). Jose (2012) describes good HR practices as a “Forecaster of employee engagement”.   

Kerdpitak and Jermsittiparsert (2020), explain in their study that an organization's HR practices should include Employee training, Learning practices, and a strategic method to select employees to get a competitive advantage. In addition to that, Vulpen, (2019) highlights 12 key HR functions that will help the organizations to achieve organizational goals with employee satisfaction (Figure 01).

Figure 01 – The 12 Key Functions of Human Resources (Vulpen, 2019)

Vulpen (2019) individually described the function to get a better understanding of each function.

1. Human resource planning

This relates to where the business is today and where it should be in the future. It includes future planning regarding the people of the organization like employee recruitment, the number of employees the organization needs, performance management strategies, etc. which will give the organization the best output to be successful.

2. Recruitment and selection

This relates to the “Talent hunt” for the current business improvements. HR teams should look into ways to make the organization an employer brand so that they have the advantage of attracting qualified employees. Then to select the best of the best, the HR team should use new technological tools in every step of the recruitment (Anon, n.d; Kerdpitak and Jermsittiparsert, 2020).

3. Performance management

This is an important responsibility of the HR team where they have to include a 360-degree feedback tool the measure the output of the employees in the organization. It is important for organizations to create their future workforce through learning and development (Kerdpitak and Jermsittiparsert, 2020).

4. Learning and development

The HR department has the responsibility to make space in the organization to educate its employees. This helps them to retain the top talents of the organization with up-to-date knowledge. The HR team should direct the organization in the right way to get the best output from the learning and development investment for the employees’ future skills (Kerdpitak and Jermsittiparsert, 2020).

5. Career planning

If the organizations can assure its employees of their career growth or career path the employees will tend to stay longer and be more engaged with what they do. The HR department of the organization has this assuring responsibility which indirectly helps them to become the best employer brand.

6. Function evaluation

This responsibility of the HR department helps the organizations identify how jobs should be rewarded equally. The quality of work, place of work, availability of employees, responsibilities, etc. will help the HR team to evaluate the functions. To internally rank the functions of the organization the HR team can use the Ranking method, Classification method, Point method, and Personal methods.

7. Rewards

Rewarding the best talents for their work is extremely important for organizations to move forward in the current business world. It’s the HR department’s responsibility to identify new ways of creating total reward strategies for the organization which include intrinsic, extrinsic, financial, and non-financial benefits for the employees. This helps the organization attract the best talents and retain them (Alzyoud, 2018).

8. Industrial relations

As a precautionary method for an economic crisis or a fall down of the organization, the HR team should always look into ways to build an effective connection with the labor unions. This will help the organization resolve issues quickly as and when they emerge.

9. Employee participation and communication

Employee-related information awareness is a key function of the HR team.  This helps the employees to develop their people skills, motivation, and self-trust, which will help the organization to get a competitive advantage (Anon, n.d.).

10. Health and safety.

This is where the HR team looks at employees’ safety and health when they are on the organization's premises. The HR team is responsible for taking the precautions and all safety measures in the organization to ensure the safety of the employees (Anon, n.d.).

11. Personal wellbeing

Letting the employees know that they are not alone is another main responsibility of the HR department. When things do not go as planned, employees seek assistance from the organizations and the timely help given to the employees in need will encourage employee satisfaction, engagement, and quality of work.

12. Administrative responsibilities

Employee course of action and Human resource information systems (HRIS) comes under this function of the HR department. The HR department should develop strategic procedures to overcome organizational employee-related challenges (bullying, racism, etc.), and the HRIS which holds employee details should be up to date to make sound decisions on employees.

Finally, the organizations should always research good HR practices to implement within the organization, which satisfy the employees and attract the best talents (Jose, 2012). The top management should understand the Science of building a good relationship between the employees and the HR department (Alzyoud, 2018). Once this relationship is built, the organizations will end up with some loyal, motivated, highly engaged, highly satisfied employees’ who only wish the best for the place they work.

References:

Alzyoud, A.A.Y., 2018. The influence of human resource management practices on employee work engagement. Foundations of Management, 10(1), pp.251-256. 

Anon, (n.d.). BEST 7 HRM PRACTICES: what are they and how are they implemented? - HR Vision Event BEST 7 HRM PRACTICES: what are they and how are they implemented? • HR Vision. [online] Available at: https://www.hrvisionevent.com/content-hub/best-hrm-practices/. [Accessed: 11 April 2022]

Jose, G., 2012. Satisfaction with HR practices and employee engagement: A social exchange perspective. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 4(7), pp.423-430.

Kerdpitak, C. and Jermsittiparsert, K., 2020. The impact of human resource management practices on competitive advantage: Mediating role of employee engagement in Thailand. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(1), pp.443-452.

Pradhan, R.K., Dash, S. and Jena, L.K., 2017. Do HR practices influence job satisfaction? Examining the mediating role of employee engagement in Indian public sector undertakings. Global Business Review, 20(1), pp.119-132. 

Vulpen, E. van (2019). The 12 Key Functions of Human Resources. [online] AIHR. Available at: https://www.aihr.com/blog/human-resources-functions/. [Accessed: 11 April 2022]