the challenges in hrm

THE CHALLENGES IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 1

The Challenges in Human Resource Management

Anthony Seo

Professor Mary Ann Benites

HRMN 300 Human Resource Management

January 31, 2015


The Challenges in Human Resource Management

The main purpose of the article is to identify the new challenges in Human Resource Management.

Moschetto refers to human resource management as maintaining productivity through certain

actions and processes (Moschetto, 2013). This can be broken down into specific focuses: employment-

law compliance, leave management, automated management and employee fatigue (Moschetto, 2013).

As companies become more global and begin to staff more complex types of employees, a simple

punch-clock is no longer going to be sufficient workforce management (Moschetto, 2013). These new

challenges need to be evaluated and handled with the implementation of new tools and methodologies.

In the beginning of modern industrial organization these focuses were ignored. It was primarily

about workforce allocation. Managers divided labor into levels, specializations, standards and

performance measurements (Saadat, Tan, Owliy, & Jules, 2013). Today it is important to also forecast

the labor requirement for the future (Saadat, Tan, Owliy, & Jules, 2013). Employers may have to

increase their workforce in the future but due to labor unavailability, it may become difficult. It only

worsens if employees are mismanaged and this causes increased turnovers that the company cannot

afford. For this reason managers need to stay on top of employment-law compliance, leave management,

and employee fatigue, because it directly affects employee engagement, satisfaction, and morale

(Moschetto, 2013).

Facing these challenges in a global setting can intensify the effects of these challenges. For

example when hiring an employee for a position in a foreign country that will represent the ideals and

strategies of the headquarters of the country based in the U.S., you have two main options. You can hire

a Parent Country Nationals (PCN) that are familiar with the company’s corporate culture, and can

effectively communicate with headquarters, however may have difficultly dealing with host country

employees and culture (Tarique & Schuler, 2008). Another choice is to hire a Host Country National


(HCN) that is familiar with the host country’s culture, economics, politics, and legal environment,

however may be less able to represent the parent country’s culture and strategy (Tarique & Schuler,

2008). Both types require paying attention to the employment-law compliance of both countries. Using a

PCN will have more significant impact related to leave management, and employee fatigue, especially if

the employee is not happy with working overseas long-term.

The key question that the author is addressing is what are the challenges in HRM.

By identifying that the new challenges are employment-law compliance, leave management,

automated management and employee fatigue, HR managers can then develop tools and methods to

mitigate the effect of these challenges to productivity (Moschetto, 2013). If there is a new regulation

reducing the number of hours an employee can work, a company has to hire more employees. This is

one example of how the constant changes occurring in a company can affect workforce allocation that

managers need to consider and deal with so there is a proper balance between available labor and need

for that labor (Saadat, Tan, Owliy, & Jules, 2013). On the global picture, these new challenges have a

heighten effect, as PCNs who are far from home can fatigue quicker and result in employees taking

more leave. Fatigue can even result in employees quitting completely as not everyone is able to handle

the stressors of living outside of their parent country. Employment-law compliance also becomes more

difficult because in addition to parent country laws, global companies must also consider the host

country’s laws concerning employment.

The most important information in this article is the new focus on the importance of HRM.

This increased focus allows for increased investment in new technological tools and investment

in analytics that help to improve how HRM is conducted (Moschetto, 2013). Previously HR managers

were given the daunting task of recruiting and retaining high quality employees while decreasing the

cost of doing so. Their budgets were restricted to the point where they could not invest in better


management tools, resorting to time intensive in-house manual systems of management. It is like telling

a carpenter to produce more chairs, in less time, of increasing quality, while decreasing their supply of

materials such as wood, and tools such as hammers. This only becomes apparent or important when the

demand of highly trained employees begin to exceeds the available supply.

The country of India exemplifies this problem. India has been smartly focused on improving

HRM on all levels, however it has not been as rewarding as it should be (Saadat, Tan, Owliy, & Jules,

2013). It would be expected that a country that has focused on HRM for over 30 years would have made

more strides in HRM (Saadat, Tan, Owliy, & Jules, 2013). They still suffer from the lack of skilled

manpower across all sectors but they are trying to change this by looking to communicate with colleges

rather than wait to see what’s available in the post-college labor pool (Saadat, Tan, Owliy, & Jules,

2013). Additionally they are quickly adopting more on-line automated management systems (Saadat,

Tan, Owliy, & Jules, 2013). This takes advantage of reduced costs and better-designed systems. They

are also doing more to combat turnover through mitigating fatigue or by increasing rewards for the

higher valued employees. India is quickly becoming a great source of talent for other countries and India

is focusing on HRM to keep this talent from leaving.

The main point of view presented in this article is investments in HRM now will yield worthwhile

gains in the future.

By increasing the focus on Human Resource Management now, meaning by spending more

money, time and effort on improving HRM, a company can develop processes and tools that will lead to

having to spend less time and effort on HRM in the future which will ultimately save them money

(Moschetto, 2013). This same idea is demonstrated in global staffing. A PCN and HCN both have only

half of the capabilities needed to manage a company overseas. By investing in training for the PCN in

host country culture or investing in training for the HCN in the parent country’s corporate culture, they


can both yield a better-rounded set of skills for the company (Tarique & Schuler, 2008).

The key concepts we need to understand in this article are Employment-Law Compliance, Leave

Management, Automated Management and Employee Fatigue.

Employment-law compliance refers to the need to follow changes in policies governing the

management of employees (Moschetto, 2013). This could mean increases in minimum wages, the

maximum hours allowed to work, or health care regulations. Leave management is ensuring all

employees are taking time off in a manner that does not greatly affect productivity (Moschetto, 2013). If

too many employees take leave simultaneously, this can effectively stop certain departments’

productivity. This becomes harder with the more employees you have. It can become impossible to do

manual. Automated management is one way to manage this task along with many others. If employees

could report their leave request through an automated system, this could allow for better scheduling of

leave that will not be detrimental to the company’s productivity (Moschetto, 2013). Employee fatigue

occurs when employees are overworked and overtired (Moschetto, 2013). This can lead to illness,

injury, a decrease in productivity, a increase in mistakes, or unplanned turnovers (Moschetto, 2013). All

of these symptoms of fatigue can cause significant costs and for this reason is a valid concern for alarm

for HR managers.

The main conclusions in the article are the importance analytics and the right tools for improving

workforce management.

Making the right improvements to workplace management also can improve employee

engagement, satisfaction, and morale (Moschetto, 2013). One such improvement is the use of analytics

platforms and leave-management automation that improve efficiency and prevent loss of productivity

(Moschetto, 2013). Overall, the management strategy needs to be formed by using the right tools in

order to produce the result desired.


References

Moschetto, M. (2013). Key Trends in Workforce Management and New Challenges for

HR. Employment Relations Today (Wiley), 40(4), 7-13.

Rao, T. V., & Varghese, S. (2009). Trends and challenges of developing human capital in India. Human

Resource Development International, 12(1), 15-34.

Saadat, M., Tan, M. C., Owliya, M., & Jules, G. (2013). Challenges and trends in the allocation of the

workforce in manufacturing shop floors. International Journal Of Production Research, 51(4),

1024-1036.

Tarique, I., & Schuler, R. (2008). Emerging issues and challenges in global staffing: a North American

perspective. International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 19(8), 1397-1415.

the challenges in hrm

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