Republic of the Philippines

BICOL UNIVERSITY
OPEN UNIVERSITY
Legazpi City

MPA OU 210: HUMAN RESOURCE, ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

First Semester, SY 2021-2022

MODULE 16
ISSUES, PROBLEMS AND TRENDS IN MANAGING AND DEVELOPING
HUMAN RESOURCES

By

MARIA LOVELLA M. DIAZ-CASTRO

Master of Public Administration Student

DR. RAMESIS M. LORINO

Faculty-in-Charge
Activity 16-1
 Integrating Theory and Practice

1. Identify and Discuss the issues and concerns relative to the future role of the
human resources management officer; the organizational location of the HR
Department; and the functions of HRM. Based on these issues and concerns,
what do you think the role of the HRM Officer should be? What should be the
functions of the HRM Department or unit in the organization?

The Human Resource function has been changing over the years. More organizations
are realigning the role of Human Resource so they can best manage and grow their
organization cost effectively. Some organizations have decided that it’s best to
outsource some functions to third parties so that internal resources can focus more time
on strategic issues. It’s safe to say that organizations today are constantly examining
their Human Resource function with a goal of figuring out best practices and best
allocation of time.

Human Resource deals with many issues, but probably the biggest challenges facing
Human Resource Officer today are Recruitment, Retention & Motivation, Leadership
Development and Corporate Culture. As Human Resource works to move to a more
strategic role, addressing these issues and concerns has become a continual and time-
consuming process.

Recruitment, Retention and Motivation

This may be the most challenging issue that challenges Human Resource today.
Human Resource Officers anticipate that retaining the best employees will be the
greatest Human Resource challenge in 2022. Predictions indicate there will be a lot of
people looking for new jobs when the economy improves. There is always the
perception that the “grass is greener on the other side of the street”. In times of
economic slowdown and periods when growth is slow, employees become more open
to considering other employment options.
Human Resource Officers today must find new methods to attract talent through
social media, postings on job boards and even other traditional methods such as
attending job fairs and sending out promotional mailings to generate interest. The new
generation employees are looking for jobs that provide a balance between employment
and family, and desire autonomy and the ability to make a difference within the
organization. Companies are well advised to search for diversity that can generate new
ideas, better productivity and a sense of equality that builds teamwork. Lack of technical
talent has made it difficult for companies to fill specialized positions.
Even during periods of high unemployment, technical and technology-driven
companies find a shortage of employees with the training and competencies to perform
in niche jobs.
 Retention has become tougher than any time in the past and has become a
heightened issue. Companies sometimes need to offer more in terms of benefit
packages or incentives, because people increasingly look for jobs that reduce their risks
in tough economic times. Employers are advised to identify their key employees from
entry-level to upper-level management and take the appropriate steps that are unique to
their businesses to retain these individuals. Employers should consider merit pay
increases, projects that increase an employee’s responsibilities, and other benefits like
flex time, telecommuting, or technologies to keep employees happy.
Building a workplace where employees are motivated is an ongoing issue
confronting HR Officers. Offering positive reinforcement and feedback to team members
has become an ongoing initiative for HR. Company managers must inspire employees
and coach them to become top performers. HR professionals need to understand what
motivates company employees and incorporate them into compensation or rewards
systems. Finding out why people are leaving and addressing the issues is a role HR
also plays.

Leadership Development
The workforce is aging quickly, leading many HRM Officers to consider putting
formal succession plans in place and to begin more emphasis on developing future
leaders. As companies grow and expand, developing leaders has become a major
initiative. Successful companies that work on leadership development will also make
strides with better employee retention.
Employees repeatedly say that poor leadership as a reason for leaving jobs.
They also want a more active leadership role in decisions within their jobs, which may
necessitate training. Unfortunately, businesses sometimes struggle to produce the
budgets necessary for strong employee training and development programs that
emphasize leadership and growth.

Culture
Research has proven that culture influences organizational performance,
whether performance is defined in terms of customer satisfaction, attendance, safety,
stock price or productivity. Human Resources plays an active role in the development of
an organizational culture. Great workplaces with a great corporate culture are more
financially successful than their peers. Great workplaces have lower employee turnover
than their competitors and can recruit top talent that fits their culture and needs.
The result is they provide top quality customer service and create innovative
products and services that contribute to their overall financial success.
There is a strong relationship between cultures and hiring that comes into play
with employee sourcing, selection, and retention. Cultural fit is the makeup of someone.
It’s who they are and what they bring to the table. Generally, it can’t be taught. If your
corporate culture is not in synch with your candidate, it will be difficult to change them.
Most people can pick up new skills with relative ease if you have the time to train them.
Most companies pay relatively little attention to culture despite its importance. It has
been proven that actively managing and developing culture through hiring can
significantly improve employee retention and performance. In the end, this directly
influences organizational profitability and growth.
As Human Resource Management Officers recognize the need to evolve the HR
function to address Recruitment, Retention & Motivation, Leadership Development and
Corporate Culture challenges, outsourcing some or all of these functions allows them to
take a strategic approach to these challenges while cost effectively growing their
company.

HRM is a distinctive approach to employment management that seeks to achieve

competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed
and capable workforce, using an integrated array of cultural, structural, and
personnel techniques.

1. Human resource planning

The first HR function is all about knowing the future needs of the organization.
What kind of people does the organization need, and how many? Knowing this will
shape recruitment, selection, performance management, learning and development,
and all other human resources functions. Human resources planning is similar
to workforce planning. Both focus on where the organization is today and what it needs
to be successful in the future.

2. Recruitment and selection

The second HR function involves attracting people to work for the organization and
selecting the best candidates. Attracting people usually starts with an employee brand.
Being an attractive employer has plenty of advantages – just as it is the other way
around. A good example of the latter is the tobacco industry which struggles to attract
talent due to its tainted reputation. With a strong employer brand and the right sourcing
strategies, you’re already halfway there. Once candidates apply, the selection
process is an HR instrument to pick the best qualified and highest-potential candidates.
Technological developments in recruitment have gone very fast and as a result, there
are different types of recruitment tools for each part of your recruitment funnel. 
3. Performance management

Performance management is essential in ensuring that workers stay productive

and engaged. Good performance management involves good leadership, clear goal-
setting, and open feedback. Performance management tools include the (bi)annual
performance review, in which the employee is reviewed by his/her manager. It also
includes 360-degree feedback tools in which peers, managers, subordinates, and
sometimes even customers review the employee’s performance. These kinds of tools
can be very helpful in providing feedback. Performance management is also an
instrument to close the gap between the workforce you have today and the one you
want to have tomorrow.

4. Learning and development

Enabling employees to develop the skills they need for the future is an essential
responsibility for HR. This is also related to the first HR function we listed, in which HR
bridges the gap between the workforce today and the workforce needed in the near
future.
Traditionally, organizations have a set budget for learning and development. Despite the
differences in regulation, almost all employers understand the value of investing in the
(future) skills of their employees. It’s the responsibility of the HR department to lead
these efforts in the right direction.

5. Career planning

The fifth function of Human Resource Management is career planning, guidance, and
development for employees, together also referred to as career pathing. Showing
employees how their ambition can align with the future of the organization helps to
engage and retain them. For the organization, there are the benefits of better
succession planning, higher productivity, and a stronger employer brand.

6. Function evaluation

As an organization and society changes, so too must an efficient HR function. Function

evaluation is a technical aspect of HR. By evaluating the HR function, the department
ensures that the company is successful at both a strategic level and with service
delivery and support. The company needs to deliver the level of services required,
whilst operating strategically. Practically, function evaluation involves comparing various
parts of the overall HR operation.

This can include the quality, and availability of workers, job location, working
times, the economic situation, job responsibilities, and how much value a job adds to
your organization. The idea behind function evaluation is that similar jobs should be
rewarded similarly.

7. Rewards
 Rewarding employees for their work is a function that is impossible to
miss. Compensation and benefits are integral to attracting the right kind of candidate for
the role, and company. These will vary across different fields, countries, and cultures.
Yet the total rewards framework shows that rewards are more than just money. They
can also be relational and psychological outcomes. Rewards include salary but also
growth and career opportunities, status, recognition, a good organizational culture, and
a satisfying work-life balance. For example, fantastic colleagues and meaningful work
are also rewarding to employees. The monetary reward of the job consists of financial
rewards and other (secondary) benefits.

8. Industrial relations

Another function of HR is maintaining and cultivating relationships with labor

unions and other collectives, and their members. Maintaining good relations with unions
will help to spot and resolve potential conflicts quickly and will also be beneficial in more
difficult economic times when layoffs or other actions are required.

9. Employee participation and communication

According to Dave Ulrich, one of the key roles of HR is to be a credible activist

for the employees. Employees need to be informed and heard on different topics that
are relevant to them. Communication relates to spreading information relevant to
employees.
People Advocacy includes culture building, people practices, workplace champion, and
communication expert. 

10. Health and safety

HR plays an important role in creating and implementing health and safety

regulations. Making these regulations part of the company culture is one of the main
functions of HR. A famous example is oil company Shell where it is forbidden to walk
the stairs without holding the railing – also in the company’s HQ. This is part of Shell’s
‘Goal Zero’, which stands for zero accidents. Although holding the railing is much more
important on an oil platform, safety is such a big part of the company culture that safety
roles are applied everywhere.

11. Personal wellbeing

HR has a function in assisting and taking care of employees when they run into
personal problems. Personal wellbeing is about supporting employees when things
don’t go as planned. Problems in the workplace and outside can negatively impact
employee performance, engagement, and productivity. This, in turn, harms a company’s
bottom line. Good personal well-being led by your HR department must work at the level
of one-on-one communication with employees, and communication across teams, and
companies. For example, a company may offer an employee assistance program by
which anyone with mental health issues, can access counseling. On an organization-
wide level, the company could hold a mental health awareness day.

12. Administrative responsibilities

The final function of HR is its administrative responsibility. These include

personnel procedures and Human Resource Information Systems. Personnel
procedures involve the handling of promotions, relocations, discipline, performance
improvement, illness, regulations, cultural and racial diversity, unwanted intimacies,
bullying, and so on. For each of these situations, policies and procedures need to be
developed and followed to successfully comply with the requests or overcome these
challenges. Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) store employee data. These
systems need to be purchased, implemented and managed so the data can be used for
better decision-making.

HRM is a multi-faceted role that enables companies to get the most out of their
workforce. As an HR professional, you need to have a wide-ranging skill set to perform
across these core HR functions. Within HR, education cannot end with gaining your
core qualification. Society and the workplace are constantly changing and evolving. You
too must continuously develop, to lead your workforce confidently through change.

2. Based on my module’s notes, observations, and experiences, what do you

think the critical challenges facing the field of HRM?

There are many challenges faced by the filed of Human Resources

Management, but there three critical challenges based on my observations and
experiences in our agency. These are the following:

Change Management
Since this is generally not a focal point for HR professional training and
development, change management represents a particular challenge for personnel
management. This may also be the reason why it is cited as the foremost issue as HR
continues to attempt to help organization move forward. An intensified focus on training
may be needed to develop added competencies to deal with change management.
Leadership Development
As the second of the biggest challenges for human resource management,
leadership development needs to be a critical strategic initiative. HR professionals are
faced with being expected to provide the essential structures, processes, tools, and
points of view to make the best selection and develop the future leaders of the
organization. Across the globe leadership development has been identified as a critical
strategic initiative in ensuring that the right employees are retained, that the culture of
the organization supports performance from within to gain market position, and that
managers are equipped to take on leadership roles of the future so that the organization
is viable in the long term.

HR Effectiveness Measurement
How can improvement happen without the right tools to measure HR
effectiveness? As with many other areas of the organization, this profession also needs
to be able to measure results in terms of transaction management, as well as in terms
of the positive influence on organization. “Utilizing metrics to determine effectiveness is
the beginning of a shift from perceiving HR’s role as purely an administrative function to
viewing the HR team as a true strategic partner within the organization,” the WFPMA
says. “In fact, the next section reports that survey participants believe a critical future
issue for HR will be organizational effectiveness – again supporting HR’s critical role as
a strategic partner to management.”

This world federation also notes that “Where HR departments have traditionally
focused on measuring their own effectiveness, there is an evolving recognition that they
can provide organizational value by measuring the effectiveness of the entire business
organization. The shift is significant as it represents movement from simply counting the
numbers hired to determining the ROI of collective and individual hires on a long-term
basis. Going beyond measuring turnover, this new approach considers ‘bad’ turnover
and ‘good’ turnover along with the overall cost of replacement hires.”