In your final assessment, you will present a high-level plan for the appropriate HR policies and practices that can support a major change or transformation in an organisation.
Identifying, assessing, and addressing issues that affect the long-term objective of an organisation is a key component of HRM; when done correctly, this process results in a solution that can constitute a “win” for human resource management. It is important to remember that successful implementation of HRM practices do not necessarily involve a big budgets and large project teams. Nor do they always require the introduction of a major HRM system to solve the problem. Research highlights that contemporary strategic HR practices can be implemented in a small ways, resulting in huge shifts in many firms.
The purpose of this essay is to conduct an in-depth analysis of a Human Resource Management (HRM) issue in an organisation. The HRM issue needs to be addressed using contemporary HR management theory and practice in order to recommend an initiative that can be introduced in a real-life organisation to solve a particular HR problem. Ideally, the scenario will be drawn from your own experience and be based on HR activities in an organisation that you have worked in or are still currently employed. If you have limited HR experience, please discuss a potential case with your Online Lecturer.
Remember that every single employee is impacted by the HR functions, not just leaders who are partly responsible for HR related matters with their team. As a result, you should think about any relevant challenges your organisation has faced in terms of these various key HR functions. This can be in either a past or current workplace to ensure you have a deeper understanding of the issue.
This assessment targets the following course learning outcomes:
CLO1: Discuss a range of effective HR policies and practices.
CLO2: Recognise how core HR functions are evolving to meet the needs of contemporary organisations.
CLO3: Evaluate the ways in which HR policies and practices impact employee outcomes and organisational objectives.
CLO4: Consider key HR policies and practices in the context of current cases and organisations.
CLO5: Generate recommendations for configuring HR policies and practices that can better respond to current events and meet future demands.
Instructions
You may select any topic or contemporary issue in HRM. The HRM initiative does not need to be a major HRM program as long as it can be considered an HRM initiative. For example, you might identify a problem that is related to:
HR planning
Recruitment
Selection
Induction
Training and development
Contracts
ER/IR
Reward and remuneration
Performance management and appraisals
Employee mentoring and coaching
Employee engagement and talent management
Employee wellbeing and mindfulness
Workplace health and safety
Career development and succession planning
Termination and redundancy
Employee exit and departure
You are welcome to discuss your proposed issue with your Online Lecturer. All organisations can be de-identified or renamed if required. However, keep in mind that this task is only for academic purposes and the information will not be used in any other context. Submissions are completely confidential and will not be shared outside the scope of the course.
The “case” issue that you select will preferably be based on your experiences. However, further academic research is required of both peer reviewed articles as well as relevant industry reports in the field you choose. This task seeks to ensure that you use the HRM literature along with the course content as a foundation for your analysis.
You may wish to consider some of the following aspects in your analysis. These are meant to prompt ideas and be guidelines and do not reflect a comprehensive list of considerations.
Description and evaluation of the HRM issue (overview of the issue/situation)
What is the history or background of this issue?
How did the problem originate?
How was the issue determined/discovered to be a problem?
What challenges have become present from the issue in the organisation?
What are the key features of this issue? What does the marker really need to know about the case to understand the scenario?
Why was it important that this issue be addressed in the organisation?
What forces (if any) were maintaining the status quo (was there resistance to change)? Explain if there was or is a deep embedment of the issue in organisational culture? What was or is required for significant change to occur? (Be careful to not simply tell a story or be overly descriptive here. Instead, focus on a concise yet detailed overview of the issue to present a picture of the situation to the marker.)
Recommendations and proposed solution (strategies moving forward)
What are some major arguments in field of literature around this topic? What is the research suggesting organisations do to support this HR function in contemporary workplaces today?
What is your overall proposed recommendation and solution to help improve the current or past state of play and shift the status quo?
What can be done to successfully plan, manage, communicate and implement a HRM solution?
If there has been any change already to the firm, has the change/initiative gone far enough as yet? Have all aspects of the issue been addressed? What else could be recommended at a strategic level to help offer a more effective solution in contemporary HR today?
Consider are there any downstream effects? How could the organisation ensure that the initiative is successful long-term?
How did or could the initiative solve the challenge and how did or could the organisation measure it?
NOTE: The assignment is to be submitted in a business report format but an extensive reference list should be included to affirm your ideas base on existing research of contemporary HR practices today.
NOTE: The emphasis of this report is on the HRM issue and proposed solution; the problem is important for context but do not focus your document only on telling a story about the issue. Instead focus on the literature and integrating the course outcomes to propose a meaningful solution based on research and contemporary practice in HR today.
IMPORTANT: Please see the following Task Brief for further clarification on your approach to the structure and the guidelines. Feel free to ask your Online Lecturer any questions to support your submission.
