Organizations succeed because of their effective and efficient HR planning. This is because human resources are the most essential for a company and HR planning ensures that they are effectively selected, trained, and managed. For an organization to achieve its goals it is critical to identify the current and future needs of its human resources. HR planning enables identification of these needs and finds ways of meeting them. It is vital since it serves to link HR management with the overall strategic plans of a company. This process is a continuous one and needs to be flexible enough to solve both the short term and long term HR problems. This paper seeks to create a HR plan for Buy Buy Baby Inc. covering HR areas like recruitment and selection, training and development, employee compensation package, legal features of employment and performance appraisal.
Buy Buy Baby Inc. is a chain of children retail stores specializing in the sale of clothes and other items for infants and young children in the USA. According to Thomas (2007), it operates 90 retail stores across the country. Thomas (2007) asserts that the company has about 10,000 employees working in different shops. Some of the products sold in the stores of Buy Buy Baby Inc. include nursery and children furniture, cribs, bedding and accessories, baby formula, diapers, clothing and accessories and many other items. It is evident that the large number of human resources in the company presents a problem for its smooth operation. This is the reason why it is imperative for the firm to find a way to effectively manage its human resources. It is crucial for each retail store to have a HR department that will make it easy for the company to manage its employees.
The HR department is an essential section for any organization. This is because it provides support to all the other divisions of an organization. Buy Buy Baby Inc. has realized this importance and has therefore taken the necessary steps to develop HR departments in its stores. The company has decided to create a one person HR department for each of its stores. To make it possible the company must develop an efficient HR plan that will manage the various HR functions.
Recruitment and selection is one of the most significant functions of the HR department. Each HR department in Buy Buy Baby Inc. requires implementing a recruitment and selection plan. Before formulating it for Buy Buy Baby Inc, it is essential to understand the benefits that such a plan can bring to the company. According to Boyd (2008), one benefit of a proper recruitment and selection plan is that it ensures that the required talents of employees are available when they are needed by the company. Secondly, it provides there is efficient use of selection time. Planning of recruitment and selection increases the success in attracting the most suitable applicants. Before proceeding to formulation of a recruitment and selection plan, it is essential to understand the meaning of each term.
Recruitment is the process of searching and acquiring a pool of potential candidates with the essential knowledge, skills and abilities needed to do a job. In the views of Boyd (2008), Buy Buy Baby Inc. should use a recruitment method that will enable the organization to select the most suitable and qualified individuals to fill a job vacancy. In such a case, the company can expect only excellent performance.
Selection, in its turn, refers to the process of picking the best candidate among a pool of candidates. Buy Buy Baby Inc. should utilize methods such as interviews, referencing and a number of tests in order to find the best candidate for the current vacant position. This process will ensure that the organization is not disadvantaged by choosing the wrong people.
Buy Buy Baby Inc. just like any other company is affected with the changing nature of work and the work place environment, consequently, it and its employees must be constantly developing through training. Prashanthi (2013) asserts that this change in the nature of work and work environment requires the firm’s employees to always be skilled and knowledgeable. This ensures that the company can manage to keep up with these rapid changes. Training and development is essential in helping the organization to craft employees that can cope with whatever changes that can take place. It is important to first understand the meaning of training and development before formulating a corresponding plan for management.
Training is a process of teaching new employees the basic skills needed to do their jobs. It is however important to note that the process is not reserved to new employees only, but can also be used on current employees of an organization to help them adapt to a change in the organization or to enhance their skills. Buy Buy Baby Inc. uses training to foster growth of both the company and the employee. The firm also uses training to create a change in the overall performance of its employees. Niehaus and Price (2013) agree that this desired change will be essential for the organization in solving a number of problems. The company utilizes both on job and off job training methods to be able to achieve a significant change in the performance of the employees.
Development takes place after the employee starts to work in the organization. Buy Buy Baby Inc. develops its workers by providing them with opportunities to learn new ways of performing their tasks. Boyd (2008) notes that this enables the company’s employees to formulate their own personal and organizational knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA). The firm develops its employees through such methods like career development, performance management, coaching and mentoring. Development can be on the job or off the job, too.
Don't waste your time on boring tasks!
Save your time for something pleasant!
A compensation package refers to the total benefits employees receive from their employers. Buy Buy Baby Inc. provides both direct and indirect benefits to their workers. The direct benefits include salaries, allowances and bonuses. Thomas (2007) emphasizes that allowances are given to top management employees while bonuses are given to all employees annually. Salaries are paid monthly according to the job category of the workers. Indirect benefits given to employees by the company include pension plans, annual vacations days and medical plans for the employees and their next of kin.
Buy Buy Baby Inc. has come to understand the significance of good compensation packages for its employees. Firstly, it is essential in attracting top talented candidates during the recruitment process. Secondly, a good compensation package will enable an organization to retain its current talented team of employees. Keefe, Knight, Martin-Matthews, and Legare (2011) hold the view that when the compensation is poor, employees will leave the company in search of companies that will compensate them more. Thirdly, compensation packages act as a tool for motivating employees. For an organization to function efficiently with high productivity, it is vital to maintain the motivation of its workers. Many employees tend to work harder when their employer is willing to share the profits of the company. By compensating its employees fairly, Buy Buy Baby Inc. has managed to stay ahead of its competitors by attracting the best workers in its industry.
Buy Buy Baby Inc. HR personnel in the different retail stores has formulated their own compensation package that is acceptable by both the company and the employees. The plan highlights the scale of pay, the company benefits and other perks the firm is willing to offer its employees. The company has approached the issue of a compensation plan by creating one that will act as a mirror of the organization.
Before developing the compensation package plan it is essential for the company to consider a number of factors. The first issue to consider is how the plan will fit the company’s overall strategy for recruiting and retaining employees. Boyd (2008) affirms that the significance of this is determining a role compensation plays in the process of recruitment and retention of employees. The second factor to consider is the market. The company should strive to collect data from the market by carrying out surveys in order to find out what other employers are offering their employees.
Buy Buy Baby Inc. has adapted the recent compensation method that is based on performance of the employees. This acts as a way of motivating employees to become more productive.
Buy Buy Baby Inc. faces a number of legal challenges during its operations just like any other employer. Niehaus and Price (2013) hold the view that the government through a number of laws and agencies imposes various regulations and rules to employers in a bid to protect the human resources. These laws by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission touch on almost all aspects of employment such as contract of employment, compensation, health and safety, work place participation and equality and discrimination. Organizations are supposed to adhere to these laws. Failure to do so will have serious consequences for the retail stores operator.
For example, the law on compensation regulates the compensation of wages and other benefits to the employees. It like the Fair Labor Standards Act regulates minimum wage, child labor, overtime wages and equal pay. Another law related to compensation is the Equal Pay Act which forbids employers to base the compensation of an employee on gender because this is a form of discrimination. Keefe, Knight, Martin-Matthews, and Legare (2011) agree that the Equal Pay Act, on the other hand, allows companies to base compensation on seniority. It is critical that the HR departments of the different retail stores of Buy Buy Baby Inc. ensure that the company complies with all these laws. If the firm fails to comply with these laws it can result in facing penalties.
Performance appraisal is a vital component in an organization as it is important for a company to be able to assess the progress of its employees over a given period of time. Boyd (2008) insists that the HR department is charged with the task of evaluating the performance of each employee in the organization. Each worker is reviewed because it is the combined efforts of each individual employee that determines the overall success of the organization. Buy Buy Baby Inc. strives to maintain a high performance of its employees and ultimately the company. Maintaining such a high performance culture in the company entails employing talented, energized and motivated team of employees. For the firm to continue enjoying this high level of performance, it is critical to identify the best way of retaining this caliber of employees. One efficient way it can do so is by offering these employees competitive compensation packages. The company can also continue to develop these workers to ensure that their skills are up to date.
Our Benefits
A performance appraisal system will help the HR department to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the employees. Keefe, Knight, Martin-Matthews, and Legare (2011) assert that this will be essential in assisting the employees in cultivating their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses. Such a process serves as a step towards fostering effectiveness and increased productivity of the employees. Further, performance appraisal will help employees to set goals and objectives. Evaluating these goals and objectives after a certain time period will enable the company to determine the progress of the employee. They will be able to tell if they have improved or their performance has declined.
The performance appraisal system of Buy Buy Baby Inc. incorporates a number of methods to evaluate its employees. One such method is performance ranking. This style of performance appraisal evaluates employees comparing to each other and disregards the progress of the employee in relation to company goals and objectives. This method is essential because it fosters a more competitive work environment.
According to Thomas (2007), the second method utilized by Buy Buy Baby Inc. is the 360 degree method. This has proven to be an ideal method of appraisal since it offers feedback from the manager, employee’s supervisor, employee’s colleagues and all other employees who are in contact with the employee being appraised. This type of performance appraisal has proven to be essential for the company since it provides a wide range of perspective which enables a good measure of performance of the worker to be possible. However, it has the disadvantage of biasness which can strain relationships throughout the organization.
In conclusion, human resource planning is the heartbeat of any organization that looks forward to succeeding in any operations. For instance, Buy Buy Baby Inc. retail stores should prioritize HR planning for its human resource departments. For the HR plan to be implemented successfully, it should incorporate an efficient recruitment and selection plan, training and development plan, compensation package, and performance appraisal system that reviews what employees done to contribute to the organization’s performance. It should also pay close attention to legal aspects of employment put in place by the government. This HR plan will aid the company to manage its human resources effectively. The recruitment and selection plan ensures the organization attracts only the best employees while the training and development plan is essential in enhancing the skills of the company’s employees. A good compensation package will motivate the workers and increase their performance and productivity. The performance appraisal system ensures that employees strive to maintain the best performance possible throughout their work. Overall, successful implementation of the plan will place the organization above its competitors because of the benefits that will be realized.
How to make peace with academic deadlines?
Use our writing service!
Don't Waste Time