Human Resource Management: A Case Study of Nissan

The main areas of HRM to create sustainable performance.

Human resource management is one of the most crucial aspects of any business because sustainable business performance largely depends on the effectiveness of HRM policies and workforce work performance. HRM of an organization is responsible not only for managing people's organization one of the primary responsibilities of the HR department is to critically evaluate internal and external factors that influence employees' performance as well as business performance (Spreitzer & Porath 2012). HRM contributes to sustainable performance by focusing on and analyzing

· Cultural factors
· Industry trends
· Diversity issues
· Demographic factors
· Social factors
· Industrial relations
· Economic and technology factors (RMIT University 2017).
External and internal environment largely affects the sustainability of performance.

Performance sustainability largely depends on different factors that include;

Effective management of corporate governance
Consideration of ethical issues
Coordination among business processes and business vision (RMIT University 2017)

HR needs to ensure complete commitment from employees to reduce the negative impact on work performance. For this purpose, there is a need for university measures that satisfy employees' professional and monetary needs. In recent years, workers' representation through trade unions has negatively affected performance sustainability (RMIT Univeristy 2017).

The Human Resources department of an organisation is considered a moral compass that ensures the development and implementation of effUniversityicies. The primary purpose of HR is to create Coordination between different business processes that include;

Adoption of effective corporate social responsibility mechanism
Coordination between CSR and HR functions
Addressing performance sustainability issues and making a road map (RMIT University 2017)

To achieve these goals and to ensure high-level performance sustainability, HRM focuses on;

Improved engagement of employees
Improved communication with employees to discuss their needs and requirements
Adoption of motivation strategies to consider extrinsic and intrinsic implementation
Application of analytical techniques to alter and rethink business performance issues (Spreitzer & Porath 2012)

The identified points are significant to performance sustainability. The primary concept of the HRM role is thinking beyond the profitability issues ensuring good relationships among employees and developing certain relationships with employees to understand their surrounding environment.

One of the core factors behind HRM sustainable performance is thriving employees to boost their commitment and increase work efficacy (Spreitzer & Porath 2012). For this purpose, theorists believe that the concept of workforce thriving can be accomplished by using the following techniques.

Development of a strong mechanism for employees’ thriving
Involving employees in the decision-making process
Sharing information
Reducing incivility
Ensuring performance feedback (Spreitzer & Porath 2012)

One of the core factors behind HRM policy to ensure sustainable performance includes the recruitment of potential candidates who understand their job role. This process is also called the human resource cycle and is based on the following concepts (Piwowar-Sulej 2020).

Selection of employees
Performance analysis
Appraisal

Effects of the changing nature of organisations on human resources skills and knowledge.

The last three years have witnessed drastic changes in the business environment. Organisations bring change in business processes either because of performance issues or because of increasing competition in the market. To cope with market challenges, organisations require the presence of a skilled and knowledgeable workforce with the potential to overcome performance issues. The changing nature of business organisations demands employees to have different skill sets and capabilities along with professional knowledge (Piwowar-Sulej 2020). These include the following

Personal effectiveness competencies
Academic competencies
Workplace competencies
Technical competencies
Industry knowledge (Piwowar-Sulej 2020)

The changing nature of businesses requires employees to have different qualities and characteristics at the personal level. These include interpersonal skills, integrity, professionalism, initiative, adaptability, and flexibility. At an academic level, employees must understand science and technology to improve their communication and to delegate meaningful messages to other peers. Academic ability improves analytical thinking and critical thinking that help employees to overcome professional issues (Gavin and) helps the changing nature of businesses also impacts workplace competencies. This situation demands employees to improve

Planning and organizing skills
Innovate creative thinking
Be a problem solver and strong decision-maker
Opt for professional development opportunities to learn new techniques to perform tasks
Acquaint with technology tools to improve work performance
Learn how to schedule and coordinate to work effectively
Understand how to self-evaluate and check performance issues to avoid these in the future (Gavin 2019; Piwowar-Sulej 2020)

Similarly, industry-level technical competencies, skills, and knowledge are essential. Academics and professionals b believe that employees need to understand the business environment of their industry. This means understanding ethical standards, environmental sustainability issues, and impact, and quality issues. The understanding of health and, safety and an essential element of work-related competencies. The changing business environment has forced employees to understand the importance of negotiation skills, business management skills, leadership skills, emotional intelligence, and the importance of effective communication (Gavin 2019),.

HRM practices concerning recruitment and retention of employees for the achievement of business objectives

A complete understanding of the internal process is essential for HR professionals to recruit and retain employees to uphold business performance. The HR department of an organisation faces different types of strategic challenges that affect the recruitment and retention processes. To avoid strategic challenges, it is essential to form a recruitment and retention strategy that helps HR professionals approach the right method for this purpose (Bratton & Go2003). Professionals believe that the HRM department needs to consider two aspects carefully that include;

Size of the organisation: this means if the organisation is operating locally or internationally
Life cycle: this means consideration if the business is a start-up, mature, or expanding (Farnham 2015)

Planning process considerations

The concept of planning for hiring and retaining staff is essential. This means dividing responsibilities within the HR department to avoid confusion. The planning process entails different aspects such as;

Anticipation of needed employees
The recruitment process for new staff
Evaluation of employees
Training requirements and needs
Coordination among employees (Farnham 2015)

Recruitment and training considerations

Recruitment of staff is one of t, the daunting tasks especially, the recruitment of skilled professionals. The selection of the most suitable candidates is mandatory to achieve competitive advantages. Skilled human resources have unique knowledge and capabilities that make these people stand out among other candidates. Skilled people can revolutionize the working culture and inspire others through their performance. Thus, a unique competitive working throughure develops within an organisation (Friedman 2007).

HR professionals consider various aspects during the recruitment process that include evaluation of commitment level and understanding of the job recruitment. HR opts for succession planning to recruit and select the most valuable person who can contribute to sustainable performance. The purpose of succession planning is to ensure that clients know job requirements, specifications, and experiences, have the skills needed to complete the job, and understand the perks that the organization offers. The adoption of succession planning indicates that the organisations have a good team of professionals and all the members understand the changing nature of businesses (Rothwell 2010).

Succession planning is essential due to different reasons and Rothwell (2010) has categorized these reasons into four groups. Organisations often take a longer time to recruit talented people for key positions and such professionals are recruited from outside. The second reason is a strong belief by HR professionals that recruits with new technical knowledge can bring productivity. The third reason is the poor belief of HR professionals that replacement might not work. This generates a negative impact and competent employees leave the organisation. The fourth reason for succession planning is the belief that new leaders will bring new ideas with new business approaches.

Retention of employees

It is one of the most suitable options in certain contexts when organizations are unable to find experienced people or organizations financial issues recruiting new people. There are certain benefits of the retention of employees. Employees get confidence that they can make progress using the internal system and they do not need to look outside employment opportunities. Organisations can save money and the availability of trained staff makes it easy for managers to consult with experienced employees on different performance issues. Already working employees learn fast as they have an understanding of the organisational process (Farnham 2015).

External and internal factors that affect HRM decision-making to support organisational development.

The decision-making mechanism is subject to external variables and has been disputed frequently, and this has been a fundamental rationale for changing HR decision-making practices. External issues, however, are not the only sources of concern for businesses as internal elements are also a source of anxiety. The following are examples of external factors:

Laws
Culture
Politics
Unions
Labour market
Industry (Bratton and Gold 2003)

Internal elements that some academics believe are simple to modify by utilising the organization's internal capacity include:

Technology
Structure
Size
Life cycle
Strategy (Bratton and Gold 2003)

It is difficult for the HRM team to achieve targeted organisational goals without establishing a trustworthy atmosphere. The fundamental goal of human resources policies includes the making of a strong and positive relationship with workers because this is a key source of boosting an organization's employees’ abilities (Bratton and Gold 2003).

Increased productivity
Reduced conflict at worksites
Improved efficiency
Low turnover
Effective communication
Problem-solving behaviour
Involving employees in the decision-making process (Bratton and Gold 2003)

The greater influence of relations management enables an organization's HR department to focus on providing a bully-free workplace, employee incentives programmes, fair pay and employment chances for all workers, and no discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, or nationality is practiced (Bratton and Gold 2003).

Employment law is one of the most important resources available to both employees and employers. The UK has a solid framework in place that protects employees' and employers' rights and gives comprehensive guidance to all the parties involved in a dispute. In a disagreement, for example, concerned parties can seek assistance from the courts under several legal Acts.

HRM practices in a work-related context using specific examples to demonstrate improvement to sustainable organisational performance.

Nissan is one of the leading automotive producers. The organisation has different production sites around the globe and its work sites are full of people from different cultural backgrounds. The organisation believes in fair treatment of employees and provides many professional development opportunities for workers (Friedman 2007).

The HRM practices at Nissan show its commitment to sustainable organisational performashowThe organisation uses succession planning techniques for recruitment and retention and believes that experienced employees are a valuable asset of the organisation (Friedman 2007).

The work environment of Nissan is positive and provides a favourable working environment under favourable conditions. Similarly, the organisation provides compensation benefits to hardworking workers. Employee retention is one of the strongest practices of Nissan that motivate workers to work for the organisation (Friedman 2007).

The organisation provides ample opportunities for professional development and this type of learning provides chances for employees to improve their skills to perform better (Friforman 2007).

One of the strongest initiatives that Nissan follows involves aligning the HR initiatives and strategic initiatives to avoid confusion. For this purpose, the organisation ensures that its HR professionals have relevant knowledge, experience, and expertise and they understand how to handle employees,(Friedman 2007).

Hofstede Model of Cross-Cultural Human Resource Management

Nissan has fully implemented Hofstede's model of Cross-cultural human resource management. Hofstede'sdel helps the organisation to understand different cultural issues that employees face. This model ensures that there is complete coordination between Nissan's HR policies and strategic aims. This is a major source to boost organisational competitiveness (Friedman 2007). One of the strongest benefits of using the Hofstede model is a timely understanding of global challenges. These include;

Understanding employee's training needs
Initiation of a worldwide succession planning program to recruit people
Deeper focus on cultural differences and cultural sensitivity
A better understanding of regional and international law
Provides professional development opportunities
Ensuring that employees avoid cultural differences
No gender-based, religious, or culture-based differences are allowed
Adopts individualism and collectivism strategies as per regional requirements (Friedman 2007)

Nissan provides good reward and remuneration packages to its employees. According to Rothwell (2010), sustainable performance can be achieved by motivating employees. Remuneration packages include health insurance, allowance for housing, transportation, and performance allowances. Such initiatives increase employees' motivation and they work with full commitment.

References

Bratton, J & Gold, J 2003, Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. GB, Bath Press.

Farnham, D. 2015, Human Resource Management in Context: Insights, Strategy and Solutions. Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development. UK

Farnham, D. 2015, Human Resource Management in Context: Insights, Strategy and Solutions. Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development. UK

Friedman, B. 2007, Globalization Implications for Human Resource Management Roles. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, vol. 19, no.3, pp. 157-171

Gavin, M. 2019. 10 important business skills every professional needs. Harvard Business School Online. Accessed online: 1-19-2022. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/business-skills-every-professional-needs

Hartel, C., & Fujimoto, Y. 2014. Human resource management.

Piwowar-Sulej, K. 2021. Human resources development as an element of sustainable HRM - with a focus on production engineers. Journal of cleaner production, 278, 124008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124008

RMIT University. 2021. Role of HR in sustainable business. Futurelearn. Accessed on: 1-19-2022. https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/sustainable-business/0/steps/78349

Rothwell, W 2010, Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership Continuity and Building Talent from Within. 4th Ed. The USA. Amacom Publishers

Spreitzer, G., & Porath, C. 2012. Creating sustainable performance. Harvard Business Review. Accessed on 1-19-2022. https://hbr.org/2012/01/creating-sustainable-performance

Human Resource Management: A Case Study of Nissan