Human Resource Management Best Practices in Contemporary Organizations

HRM Best Practices in Contemporary Organizations

Contemporary Organizations embrace a variety of HRM or Human Resource Management Practices. These include mandatory leaves, weekends off, variable pay, company provided transport, fun and entertainment activities, handsome bonuses as well as subsidized food and other aspects.

Western Transnational corporations first introduced these practices in response to the emerging needs of people enabling and people management.

While Manufacturing firms did follow some of these employee and labor-friendly policies, it was only after the advent of the services sector that firms in the Software and Financial Services sectors began to take people enabling seriously.

SHRM and HRM Best Practices

This was necessitated because people are the main assets in these firms when compared to manufacturing firms where plants and lands were the main assets. Also, the emerging SHRM or Strategic Human Resource Management paradigm which placed human resources at the center of the organizational universe and viewed them as sources of sustainable competitive advantage meant that employee-friendly HR practices were introduced.

Soon, what began in the West was adopted by Eastern firms as well wherein many Chinese and Indian firms started to follow some of the people friendly HRM policies of the Western firms.

Uniquely Asian HRM Best Practices

There were some policies that were uniquely Asian in their nature such as firms in India providing company rented accommodation as well as free transport to their employees.

This was because some Indian firms located in the Big Metros often felt that due to the scarcity of affordable accommodation as well as constraints to do with accommodation in the central parts of such cities, it would be better if they saved their employees the trouble of finding accommodation on their own.

Moreover, the fact that commute times were longer, as well as lead to lower productivity, meant that many Asian firms started providing free pickup and drop to their employees.

Uniquely Western HRM Best Practices

However, there are some best practices that are uniquely Western in nature. For instance, Google and Apple, as well as Facebook, let their employees bring their pets to work including providing for Dog Spaces and other aspects.

This is done to ensure that employees de-stress at work by engaging with their pets during breaks. Indeed, most of the HRM Best Practices are introduced with the aim and objective of actualizing a fulfilling and engaging workplace culture.

This is also recommended by HRM experts who often point to the highly charged and stressful modern workplaces and hence, suggest that unless employees are allowed to de-stress and rejuvenate and take time off during work, they might not contribute to their best.

Further, some of these Best Practices have also been introduced due to the highly creative nature of the work that firms in the Software sector do. For instance, Google and Facebook, as well as Amazon, have workplaces that are highly creative as well as demanding, these firms go the extra mile as far as ensuring that their employees are engaged and relaxed at work.

In addition, they also provide for their employees to work on their personal projects and initiatives during some part of the month to ensure that they are motivated by their inner need for fulfillment of their personal desires.

HRM Best Practices Worldwide

On the other hand, there are some HRM Best Practices that are common to many Western and Asian firms, though they were first embraced by the former. These include mandatory leaves wherein firms such as Citigroup introduced this concept as a way to both ensure that employees take time off as well as reduce the organizational dependence on them.

Apart from this, the concept of variable pay as well as performance-linked pay is now followed uniformly across the world.

Further, fun and entertainment budgets are now common to most firms worldwide which see such activities not only as a way to enhance employee relaxation but also for team building through offsite camps and experiential training in resorts.

Thus, it can be said that modern and contemporary organizations have realized the need for embracing best practices as far as human resource management is concerned.

What the HRM Theory States About These Best Practices

The key point to note about all these best practices is that they are embraced with a view to motivate employees to give their best to their work. As HR theory states, all of us are motivated and driven by both internal needs as well as external rewards and hence, most contemporary organizations embrace best practices to ensure that employees are sufficiently motivated.

The main aspect here is that there needs to be a balance between internal and external motivators and this is where contemporary organizations often stimulate the inner drives and needs for self-actualization as well as by providing external rewards that act as other motivators.

For instance, many organizations provide their employees with stimulating and challenging work so that they are internally motivated and on the other hand, they also reward them appropriately so that their need for money and other material benefits is fulfilled.

Conclusion

Lastly, contemporary organizations often take a toll on their employees’ physical and mental aspects and hence, it is our view that to avoid burnout and stress among their employees, they must adopt as many people-friendly policies as possible.

Indeed, it is better to let the employees relax and de-stress instead of losing them to ill health as well as extended medical leaves that can cause monetary and non-monetary losses.

To conclude, the HRM Best Practices create a win-win situation for both the organizations and their employees.