Human Resource and Performance Management- MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theHuman Resource and Performance Management. Answer: Introduction HumanResource Management Human resource management is an approach that helps business organisations in managing their workforce in a way that can allow them to optimise their performance levels. Human resource management was founded during the industrial revolution and has greatly evolved since then (Hendry, 2012). The approach uses different functions and practices, such as performance management, training and development, career development, recruitment and selection, etc. to effectively manage a workforce by ensuring better employee relations and workplace environment to work in. Work Life Balance The modern day business world has grown highly complex and the competition between rival firms has reached a global scale. In such a scenario, it has become very difficult for business organisations to rely upon their operations or processes to achieve market competencies. Business organisations are becoming greatly dependent on their workforce to help them in achieving market competencies and their expectations from the human resources in constantly increasing. The way in which the expectations of the employers are increasing, it is becoming difficult for the employees to fulfil their expectations. Employees are working harder than before and in their attempt to fulfil the expectations of the employers, they are getting involved too much into their work lives and are not able to manage their personal lives (Delecta, 2011). The loss of balance between the work lives and personal lives of the employees is having some serious complications for the employers as well as for the employees. The stress levels amongst the employees is constantly on the rise and the organisations too feel a drop in their overall performance levels when the employees are stressed and cannot fulfil their job duties and responsibilities properly (Bird, 2003). Therefore, business organisations are getting increasingly aware about the importance of employee work life balance and are taking all the necessary steps to assist them in achieving a perfect balance between their work lives and personal lives. Importance of Work Life Balance Before getting further into the topic, it is important to understand the importance of having a proper balance between work life and personal life for an employer as well as for an employee. The importance of maintaining work life balance is discussed below: First of all, helping the employees in maintaining a balance between their work life and their personal lives can help business organisations in avoiding situations of excessive employee burnouts. When the employees are unable to meet the expectations of their companies, it becomes impossible for them to maintain their calm and its starts to have an impact on their personal lives, which increases their stress levels and results in a burnout (Australian Institute of Business, 2015). Secondly, allowing the employees to maintain a perfect balance between their work lives and personal lives will help the company in becoming more efficient and productive. Employees who have a better balance between their work and personal lives are more satisfied with their jobs and are are able to perform better in the workplace, which will ultimately help the organisation in performing better on the overall (Scotto, 2016). Thirdly, employees with better balance between their work lives and personal lives are able to stay healthy and focus more towards their jobs. This in turn can help the employers as there will be less sick leaves and health insurance expenditures. From the above information, it is clearly evident that the concept of work life balance can be beneficial for the employees as well as for the employers. Therefore, the present day business organisations are trying their best to identify new ways of fostering a better work life balance for the employees. Use of Applications for Maintaining Work Life Balance Technology is one of the best gift of science to the human world. Technology has been evolving at such a fast pace that there are new technological innovations taking place on a daily basis that are aimed at making the life of humans easier than before. One of the best gifts of technology to the human world has been smartphones and smartphones applications. There was a time when the world wide web was considered to be the biggest technological invention ever possible and there could be nothing ahead of it but soon the world was taken over by smartphone applications that could perform more functions and tasks as compared to the world wide web. As of today, there are billions of applications available in different smartphone application stores that can perform millions of different functions. Smartphone applications are becoming increasingly important in business organisations as they are not only helping the employers and employees in ensuring better productivity, performance and communication channel but are also being used by them for ensuring a better balance between their work lives and personal lives. The usage of smartphones for the maintenance of a balance between work life and personal life will definitely have implications for the employees as well as for the employers, which are discussed below: Implications for Employees Technological inventions of the modern ay world are having a huge impact on the life of the employees. They are not only helping them in becoming more productive and competitive but are also helping them in ensuring a proper balance between their work life and personal life. Mobile phone applications have allowed the employees to stay connected with their work as well as with their families at all point of times, which helps them in managing their work even if they are home and vice versa. The implication of smartphone applications for the employees are discussed below: First of all, smartphones applications will help the employees in managing their time in a better way. Using smartphone applications like Timeneye, employees are able to keep a track of their activities along with the time spent on them. By analysing the time and the work patterns, time management applications are able to provide useful suggestions to the employees that can enable them to design their work schedule accordingly (Prokopets, n.d.). Further, there are also multiple smartphone applications that have been designed for the humans to create reminders and get notifications about important events. Using such applications, employees can set their schedules in advance and can maintain a better balance between the work life and personal life (Donnelly, n.d.). Secondly, smartphone applications also allow employees to check their work related information even when they are away from their office. They can get notified about important e-mails, client messages, updates about their company, etc. within real time and can also provide immediate feedback if necessary. Further, a number of applications have been designed that can also enable the employees to be start a video conference call, which saves a lot of time that they would otherwise have to spend in travelling from one place to another in order to attend meetings. Thirdly, smartphone applications in addition with fitness devices can create miracles in the business industry. One of the latest inventions of technology has been the wearable fitness devices, such as Fitbit watches, Apple watch, etc., which are aimed at monitoring the day-to-day activities of the users. Wearable fitness devices can track physical activities of the employees through the day and can also track their stress levels. In case of long sittings, the devices can also give haptic feedbacks to the employees, reminding them of the time since they have been sitting and that they should take out time for a walk or breath properly (Lunney, et al., 2016). Such applications and devices can regulate employee stress levels and can assist them in living a healthier life. Lastly, employees will have to become more competent and will have to gain more knowledge about smartphone applications. As there are millions of applications that have been designed to solve different purposes, the employees will have to carefully chose the applications that will target the right aspects in their work and personal lives. Implications for Human Resource Management Human resource management has been evolving since the industrial revolution and has undergone a great number of changes since then. The changing external and internal environment factors are forcing the human resource managers to adopt new management practices and redesign some of their core functions in order to become more efficient and productive. The evolution of smartphone applications will also have a great impact on the management of human resources. The implications of smartphone applications on the human resources are discussed below: First of all, the management of human resources will undergo a great deal of change because of smartphone applications. Even though the management of human resources might become easier because of the advantage of technology but understanding the technology will still pose a great threat to business organisations. Human resource managers will have to identify certain applications that will fit well with their strategies and will be able to satisfy their needs and demands. Further, they will also have to ensure that the applications that they use to assist the workforce in maintaining a healthy work life balance are efficient enough and are achieving what they are desired to. Secondly, the use of mobile phone applications for managing work life balance of the employees will increase the cost of human resource management operations. If the business organisations start using smartphone applications themselves and incorporate them in their business activities to manage their workforce, the overall expenditure will increase because they will have to maintain an infrastructure and professionals that will use the applications to achieve the desired results. Thirdly, the usage of smartphone applications will require human resource managers to increase their technical knowledge as they will have to ensure that the information creates, stored and accessed as a result of smartphone applications is secure and is not used by outside entities. Fourthly, on the overall, usage of smartphone applications to help the employees in maintaining a healthy work life balance will make human resource management more effective and efficient in achieving its objectives. Allowing the employees to use smartphone applications to manage their work life balance will enable human resource managers to regulate their stress levels and ensure that they do not experience burnouts because of lack of time for family. Ultimately, the workforce will become more satisfied with their jobs and will be able to focus more on their work. Such positive outcomes will help them in showing greater performance at work, which will be a huge plus point for a business organisation from the perspective of human resource management. Fifthly, human resource management departments will be able to improve the overall condition of the organisation using smartphone applications that will be aimed at helping the employees in maintaining a better balance between their work lives and family lives. Using the data form applications and wearable fitness devices, human resource managers will be able to identify those employees who will be experiencing greater stress levels (Fritz, et al., 2014). Further, human resource departments can choose different strategies to deal with such employees and try to reduce their stress levels, which will increase their level of job satisfaction and help in preventing them from quitting the organisation. Thus, it will become easier for the human resource managerial departments to retain talented pool of employees. Lastly, mobile phone applications cannot just help human resource managerial departments in helping the employees to establish a healthier work life balance but will open up more opportunities for them. Smartphone applications can be design and developed to cater to certain special needs of human resource departments, such as viewing payroll schemes, tracking employee schedules, storing and assessing employee information and data, sharing information, etc. which will ultimately make human resource management easier and much more efficient than ever before. Implications for Managers and Leaders The proposition of using smartphone applications for managing work life balance is not just beneficial for the employees or for the human resource managers but can also provide a great deal of benefits to the managers or leaders of the companies. The implications of using smartphone applications in managing work life balance on the jobs of managers and leaders are discussed below: First of all, using smartphone applications for helping the employees in maintaining a healthy work life balance will greatly help the managers in accessing and sharing important information related to employee schedules and work hours. The manager or leaders of the organisation and the employees can use a same smartphone application that will allow them to access information and data that is related with their work schedules, holidays, week offs, upcoming leaves, etc. Thus, it will become easier for the leaders or the managers to manage the people working under them as they will be able to access and share information easily and more effectively (McPadden, 2016). Secondly, managers and leaders will be able to perform their job duties and functions more effectively. One of the most important job duty of the managers or the leaders is to keep their employees motivated and engaged in the workplace, so that they can meet the performance objectives that are set up by the human resource management. using smartphone applications, managers will be able to track the activities of all those employees that are working under them. Moreover, in addition to smartphone applications, managers can also gain access to information and data collected by wearable fitness devices and can use that data to assess the stress levels of the employees. Using data related with the stress levels of the employees, the managers or the leaders can lead the employees in a better way and can help those who are experiencing greater stress levels. As a result, it will become easier for the leaders to keep their employees motivated, engaged and less stressed (ADP Research Institu te, 2014). Lastly, to achieve success and better end results, leaders and managers will have to undergo training and development programs that will increase their awareness in the field of smartphone applications and will also help them in learning about the operations of such applications and how data can be extracted from it (LAUBY, 2011). Conclusion The business world is transforming at a very fast pace and only the fittest of all business organisations can survive in the market competition. To ensure long term survival in the market, it is important for the business organisations to depend on their human resources and ensure proper management of human resources to achieve the maximum benefits. One of the best ways to enhance human resource competencies and performance is by allowing them to maintain a healthy work life balance and smartphone applications can offer a great potential to human resource managers and leaders of the organisation to help the employees in achieving a perfect work life balance. Bibliography Hendry, C., 2012. Human Resource Management. s.l.:Routledge. Delecta, P., 2011. Work life balance. International Journal of Current Research, April.3(4). Bird, J., 2003. Work-Life Balance Defined. [Online] Available at: https://www.worklifebalance.com/work-life-balance-defined.html[Accessed 23 May 2017]. Australian Institute of Business, 2015. 3 Reasons Why Work Life Balance Is Important. [Online] Available at: https://aib.edu.au/blog/work-life-balance-is-important/ [Accessed 23 May 2017]. Scotto, K., 2016. The Importance of Work-Life Balance and Health. 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