The importance of aligning HRD with business strategy!

Introduction
Previous findings have suggested that human resource management practices and beliefs play important roles in the management of businesses today especially when it comes to planning, recruiting and motivating employees to commit themselves for the organisation. Comes to issues of Therefore, there is a unique relationship between the human resource management practices and techniques employed by an organisation and its overall performance. Certain sets of human resource practices are critical for any organization restructuring and if they are not implemented, they will lead to poor performances. These practices as discussed below are important in jump starting the organisation’s revenue and profit growth if well utilized. This paper will examine various functions of human resource management in relations to business objectives.

Alignment
Strategic human resources management, alignment with mission achievement, strategic alignment these terms are some of the phrases which are being used to explain the latest, evolving function of human resources management (HRM). Different people will give different meaning for these terms. Consequently, it’s imperative to ascertain from the starting what we are really talking about. Human resources department alignment implies integrating decisions concerning employees with decisions regarding the outcomes a business is attempting to reach the objective of the company in relations to its business targets.

Agency wide Planning
To a number of organizations, strategic planning means a manner of life to them. To other organization is an exercise, while to many organizations it is obligation. Many organizations pursue an unbroken, three stage strategic planning practice.

Examples of companies
Starbucks Corporation
Starbucks Corporation is a big multinational coffee and coffeehouse chain/outlet company which is based in United States. Starbucks currently is the biggest coffeehouse company in the whole world.

Evaluation of HRM
With human resource rising as the primary asset of an organisation, human resources (HR) management are being faced with new challenges to come up with strategic approaches that can add value to the organisations when sourcing for new employees. To address this issue the human resource have to formulated sourcing strategies that will add value to an organisation in pursuit of identifying, recruiting, developing and retaining highly talented employees who can take the company to new heights and provide a competitive advantage to the company (Armstrong, pp76-83). However, global workforce has become extra mobile and much more aware of its worth. Today, talented employees are hot items on the global labour market, thus, employers are forced to work more hard to be able to retain, motivate and develop good employees.

Human capital is the most important and expensive resource of an organization, many professional, and market analysts do agree that up to 80% of the organisation worth is contained in the organisation work force. Armstrong (76-83) observes that, highly successful organisations understands this vital differentiators and do take the required measures to get the most out of their human resource assets. Strategic recruitment, hiring, retaining and training programs by the human resource management should focus on getting the best out of its workforce of the organisation. (Armstrong 76-83)

Each employee requires more learning in order to improve his /her skills, no matter how best a candidate is, he/she can not be 100% percent qualified. Thus, the human resource management should implement learning management system. (Beardwell & Holden, 1997)

Starbucks Corporation has understood this aspect and that is why it recognizes that its employees are one of their highly valuable resources. The very first guiding rule in their mission statement also addresses the Company’s principle towards its employees: “Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity”. The management recognizes that the Starbucks employees play a foremost function in the expansion of the company. (Hoovers.com, 2007)

Starbucks Corporation training can be termed as systematic enhancement of knowledge, skills and attitudes of the needed by an employee in order to perform a given task. Development is the growth of an employee in terms of capability, understanding and awareness. In Starbucks Corporation training and development has helped the company to;
Develop a workforce that can perform higher-grade assignments
Increase efficiency, effectiveness and standards of performance by the employee
Keep the employees informed
Provide the usual training of new recruited workforce (Armstrong, 2006)

Compensation and benefits
Workers need to be compensated for their performance in order to encourage them to keep up or improve on that performance. The moment the human resource establishes the performance of the worker, managers should reward to commensurate with the worker’s achievement. These will ensure maximum production and effectiveness of the worker; current compensation programs should include a mix of basic pay, equities and variable pay. (Dainty, 2000) this has been taken care well by the Starbucks human resources management as All Starbucks employees are known as partners no matter which job position the employee occupy. Starbucks’s cultural values bestow employees with a feeling of meaning to their duty even if it is just only serving a cup of coffee. Each one of the partner (even part-timers) is entitled to get health care, take part in the Bean Stock program, and also get a free pound of coffee every week. In the Bean Stock program, Starbucks employees are given stock lower than the fair market value a number of times per year. At the same time the employees also take part in a 401(k) profit sharing plan. (Hoovers.com, 2007)

Human resource management (HRM) practices of Starbucks Corporation are among the best as attested by being rated as on of the best companies to work for by Fortune magazine. (Fortune.com, 2002) The management knows that the most important asset for any organisation-its human resource-requires extensive investment, commitment, financial benefits among others to be highly motivated and also committed to the company. (Armstrong, 2006)
Humana Inc. Company is a marketing company for health care services that was founded in 1961. Currently the company has more than 11.5 million customer base in America and it is considered to be the biggest company with revenue of over $21.4 billion.

Humana company human resource planning strategy
Employee recruitment, training and selection practices
The best method in which Humana Company has directly improved its performance in successfully dealing with the technological and sociological changes in the near future is to employing, selecting and training the right people in the organisation. Humana Company used the best strategic practice to achieve this that is normally referred to as a job-fit practice. This practice is was use by Humana company has it did not want to have its employees undergo extensive training but rather conduct their duties right away using their skills gained elsewhere pertaining the new technology. (Dainty 2000)

Another strategy that was used by the company is the person-organisation fit practice. In this case, Humana Company seek to recruit and select persons with good morals who are able to meet the organizations’ values, culture and structure in the changing sociological aspects of the society. Human resource management practices in the company have been utilized in measuring the analysis of the task to be carried out by organisations. These practice guided the management in selecting persons with desirable attitudes and characteristics suitable for the job description.

The human resource managements in Humana Company also carried out management training for its entire workforce in preparation for future managerial duties that will be in line with the new technological and social changes which are expected. This was done in response to business demands for the company. The human resource management of Humana Company has kept its employees well trained, recruited and selected as per the current and expected changes in the sociological and technological aspects of the company. These strategies have enabled the company to be a world leader in the industry.

Literature review
With human resource rising as the primary asset of an organization, human resources (HR) management are being faced with new challenges to come up with strategic approaches that can add value to the organisations when sourcing for new employees.

Performance management
Dainty (2000) suggests that, it is important that the human resource management have a way of tracking employee performance based on objective of the organisation and evaluate development of the employee competencies and skills. The old way which was paper based has been proven to be ineffective cumbersome and time consuming. The management need to replace these manual ways with complete automated performance management system allows the managers to easily connect organisation objectives to individual objectives, giving the human managers a complete outlook of how effective the staffs are. Human resource management can then analyse the whole staff in order to sport concerns across the organisation hierarchy. (Dainty, 2000)

He further argues that, tracking the employee production will enable the management to know where and which are need improvement, those employees who does not perform to the levels of set standards can be told to improve on their abilities or given duties which they can perform best. Armstrong (2006) also supports this, by stating that, since the aim of any organisation is to maximize profits and reduce costs, tracking the employees production will also enable the organisation to cut cost of production by for example, lying off those employees who are not producing. Ultimately these measures will add value to the organisation in terms of cost effectiveness.

Developing human resource strategy
Faced with the need to add value to the organisation, human resource need to come up with a more coherent and focused approach in sourcing practices. According to Dainty (pp 43-46), to develop such strategy, two issues have to be addressed.

What type of workforce does the organisation need in order to manage and also run the organisation so has to meet the organisation strategic business goals?
Which type of workforce programs and schemes must be planned and implemented so as to attract, develop and retain a workforce that can compete effectively?
For these questions to be answered the human resource has to align four key areas of an organisation these are;
The sourcing culture of the organisation; norms, beliefs and the management way of the organisation has to be structured in manner that it encourages sourcing or recruitment based on merit alone and on any other factors.
Human resource has also to address the organisation structure; this will define proper job descriptions, reporting lines in the organisation and job descriptions.
The workforce; the human resource has to address the issue of level of skills, management abilities of individual employees and staff potential.
The human resources will have also to address its systems; the human resource should have a workforce focused mechanism that will deliver a plan of workforce selection, training, communication, career development and rewards.

Druker (1995) also states that, If the human resource need to add value to the organisation in terms of quality and better services then, it has to retain its workforce, reward them, carry out appraisal, open communication systems and then re-examine the organisation human resource management plans. These strategies will ensure that the organisation is able to get and retain a workforce which will drive the organisation to new heights. (Druker, 1995)

However some market experts disagree and they argue that aligning the HRD does not ultimately lead to an organization achieving its objectives. Human capital is the most important and expensive resource of an organization, many professional, and market analysts do agree that up to 80% of the organisation worth is contained in the organisation work force. Armstrong (2006) observes that, highly successful organisations understands this vital differentiators and do take the required measures to get the most out of their human resource assets. Thus strategic realigning of this vital asset of the company is bound to create distraction to the smooth employment perspiration of the company and this will make the company not to achieve their market targets.

Sound employment policy
Grant (2005) suggest that, along term employment policy that projects fairness in promotions and career advancement is important in order for the workers to work harder so as to earn promotion. An organisation need to base on merit as the main consideration of promotion, this will ensure that employees feels that fairness is being done and will be satisfied with their jobs and the organisation at the same time. Otherwise, if the organizations have a constant approach of changing its human resources to achieve its marketing objectives, it may not realize the intended goal. (Grant, 2005) This point is also supported by Hunger & Wheelen (2003) who states that creating a culture of good performance in an organisation is much better than aligning the structure of human resources management. it the company is well structured and cultured it will clearly adapted to changes without being aligned.

According to Hunger & Wheelen (2003) they points out that for a company to achieve its marketing goals, it is more important to create an environment which can make the organization realize its goals. In order to a work to be comfortable and satisfied in an organisation, he needs to work in a working environment that is positive. The employee will feel worthwhile and also important if he/she is in a good working environment. The management should welcome each employee and be ready to listen to all their problems. This way, an employee feel satisfied and will produce more when in such a relaxing atmosphere. (Hunger & Wheelen, 2003) However, if the organisation does not want to listen to employees, the employees will definitely be unsatisfied with the organisation and this will lead to low production.

Grant (2005) ague's that human resources aligning are not the best strategies to employ when a company is looking for achieving its market goals. To him a company should use market orientation concept which stresses customer orientation. He further observes that, Customer orientation entails continuous improvement of business processes. This according to him will bring about the needed achievement instead of targeting the human resources. He further points out that changing people from their long time duties may kill their morale reduce their performance to the company. More so aligned employees will take time before adjusting to their new tasks and, this will certainly lead to reduced production during the time of adjustment which according to Grant will definitely reduce the overall projected sales target.

Conclusion
Business strategy remains important in ensuring that a business performs well. It is important that human resources management is carried out in a proper manner the human resource has a function of delivering strategy insights in the organisation so as to enable the organisation to be more effective in sourcing, evaluating and motivating employees in this increasingly unstable business environment. In addition the human resource has to continue providing administrative services which are dependable, responsive and cost effective to the needs of the organization. Starbucks and Humana companies have been able to be successful because of their good human resources management practices. It is clear that, for any company to be able to achieve, its market goals, it has to have correct human resources management. However, aligning the human resources does not guarantee 100% success towards achieving the market objective of a company.