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Evaluating HR Systems

According to the authors, human resources most distinguishing virtue entails the ability to thoughtfully challenge and be able to refocus unfounded conceptualizations of behavior, irrespective of the organizational status of the speaker and the apparent conviction behind his or her words. I agree with the author in this regard because of the fact that human resource in such instances has the required skills, capacities and knowledge regarding sustainable decision making. Their professional experiences expose them to a wide range of challenging scenarios and impart viable skills with which they are able to mold respectable and beneficial organizational culture.

They are in the best position to understand the behavioral functioning of the organization, besides being able to cite any weaknesses whenever they arise. In other words, human resources provide useful insights with which an organization can be able to align its decisions and behavior to the established organizational norm. Of great importance is the recognition that relative skills and knowledge enable the human resource to provide the management and other disciplines with credible information that then ensures that all decisions made at different levels are based on informed thought.

In their review, Barney and Wright (1998) contend that in some instances, the top management or other organizational disciplines tend to make unfounded assumptions that compromise the organizational culture as well as its performance. Such decisions are usually influenced by the presumed important role that relative disciplines play in the wellbeing of organizations. Besides undermining the performance of the organization, playing along demeans the role and importance of human resources management. To counter this, human resources need to be more aggressive and pursue their primal role of shaping organizational culture and behavior. This can be attained by use of positive and well thought out processes to nurture the organizational decision making to maturity.

Essentially, metrics are employed in human resource to not only measure performance but also identify non performing areas for relevant action. In addition, human resource metrics are imperative in formulating sustainable benchmarks that can be employed in regulating human resources behavior in future. Ultimately, Ulrich (1997) indicates that these measures seek to improve the holistic performance of the organization. Further, human resource metrics provide relevant guidance to the management that can be employed in enabling the same to meet its goals and objectives.

Examples of metrics that are employed in human resources include cost per hire, interviews per offer ratio and turnover ratio. There are also other human resource metrics that seek to determine the level to which programs as well as people related activities affect the productivity and costs of the organization. Examples of these entail the relationship between the practice of employee selection and relative performance and the relationship between the attitudes of the employee, absenteeism levels and the related costs. Essentially, the effectiveness of the human resource metrics is based on its ability to not only report relevant results with regard to performance but to also cite the cause effect relationship between different factors. This enables the management to employ sustainable approaches that would resolve the emergent issues effectively. In the long run, this enables the organization to save resources that can otherwise be employed in other development sectors.

Besides human resource metrics, customer surveys and performance appraisals can effectively be employed in measuring the performance and productivity of human resources. With regard to customer surveys, Ulrich (1997) ascertains that customers can provide credible feedback with regard to the performance of human resources. This is possible because they (customers) tend to be directly affected by the human resource services. Questionnaires and interview schedules can be employed in getting the feedback from the customers on various activities and practices of the human resources.

In order to attain optimal results in this regard, one needs to make a credible decision with respect to the aspects of the human resources that need to be evaluated at a given time. In most instances, emphasis is placed on the evaluation of human resources services like training development and staffing. This is because the relative activities are integral in not only developing skilled persons but also motivating the workforce and ensuring that it remains committed to its respective professions. This can be employed together with an external audit hat would accredit the results.

Seemingly, performance appraisals can also be instrumental in determining the performance of the human resource. These enable the human resources to learn about their performance and identify the weak areas that require their review (Ulrich, 1998). Being informed about these weak performance areas enables the organization to adopt accurate measures towards improvement. In addition, human resources employing this tend to be well informed about their progress and they use the relative feedback to make major improvements. Finally, clarification of the relationships between the employee goals and performance is imperative in development of viable performance strategies in future.

References

Barney, J. & Wright, P. (1998). On Becoming a Strategic Partner: The Role of Human Resources in Gaining Competitive Advantage. Human Resource Management, 37 (1), 31-46.

Ulrich, D. (1997). Measuring Human Resources: An Overview of Practice and Prescription of Results. Human Resource Management, 36 (3), 302-20.

Ulrich, D. (1998). Human Resource Champions. Harvard: University Press.