HR strategies and law are crucial aspects for all businesses and organizations. HR, or Human Resource, is responsible for ensuring skills, competencies, and behaviors necessary to achieve the company’s strategic objectives. Thus, HR strategies and law have to be aligned with company’s corporate strategies and objectives. Besides, these strategies are subject to various contemporary trends, which cause several changes and responses. In addition, HR must comply with various laws of equal employment, diversity, and so forth. This session discusses HR trends, strategies, and law, which are the topics of Part 1 (Introduction, Chapters 1, 2 & 3) in Human Resource Management 2020 Book, as per the 1st figure below. It is the 2nd book within the 2nd Year Program in the service of Global Management English & Leadership books in your channel Management with Merits (MANWIM) – Manage to Prosper. We have introduced this book before. We have also established a dedicated playlist at our YouTube Channel for the book’s sessions, as well as a dedicated category at this website for the book’s posts. To download the associated presentation (PDF) with this session, kindly go to the video at YouTube and click on the appropriate link in the description section below the video.
HR Strategies and Law : HR Distribution
HR Distribution is one of the HR strategies that modern companies follow as a response to current and contemporary business trends. It also helps HR departments to comply with HR Law, especially equal employment opportunity, by allowing more decentralization in employment decision making. There are several trends within the environment of companies in general and HR strategies and law in specific, which include economic, global, workforce, and technological trends. Thus, HR strategies can not take the responsibility of human capital development and talent management alone within such trends and complex business environment. Therefore, companies distribute the roles and responsibilities of HR Management, including recruitment, placement, training, and employee relations, around all managers and even staff. Therefore, the HR functional management collaborates with the companies corporate management in the development of human capital and HR management in the long run to strengthen, develop, and sustain the company’s competitive advantage. The below figure explains the concept of HR distribution.
People Strategy of the World Food Program (WFP): An Example of HR Distribution
A great example of HR distribution is the People Strategy within the World Food Program (WFP), an specialized agency of the United Nations (UN). The WFP strives for “Zero Hunger” by saving lives and changing them to better, as per the first below figure. Thus, the Program requires unique competencies and skills to turn its vision and mission to reality. However, due to the challenges and trends of modern business environment, coupled with the complex nature of the Program’s humanitarian industry and emergency work, the HR function in the Program (Figure 2 below) can not handle this responsibility alone. Thus, the Program has invented the People Strategy that focuses on the people’s element in the program, which includes the beneficiaries (Program’s customers) and workforce (Figure 3 below). With respect to the workforce, the strategy aims to build the right workforce with the required competencies and skills to be of value for the program’s beneficiaries. This doesn’t mean that the People Strategy is a replacement for the HR strategy or department. In fact, the People Strategy is an example of HR distribution. Thus, the Strategy is guided and enhanced by the HR function and strategy of the program. Both strategies interact positively with each other as shown in the 4th Figure below.
To achieve this people strategy’s mission, the program defines four key imperatives, as per the 1st figure below. Leadership building is one of these imperatives because the program aims to make their employees true leaders who have great positive impact on the others. To build and embed leadership through the whole work force, the program develops the Leadership Framework to explain how to fulfill this key imperative (Fig 2 below). Bounded by the Program’s corporate and HR strategies, the Leadership Framework consists of 3 elements (Fig 3 below). One of these elements is the 4Ps (Purpose, Partnership, People, Performance), which are also called the 4 organizational capabilities. This is why the Program lists these 4Ps within the job descriptions of all job profiles and openings, as shown in the 4th figure below. The Program wants to ensure that all new and current employees are equipped with these 4 organizational capabilities (4Ps) to build strong impact leaders.
HR Strategies and Law – Equal Employment Opportunity
It is not enough for organizations to have coherent, agile, and effective HR strategies. Companies and their HR functions or departments must ensure compliance with employment and other relevant HR laws, as per the 1st figure below. Based on that, companies are not allowed to list job requirements that are not necessary for job performance or that may contain explicit or implicit discrimination. That’s why the WFP lists “competitive base” as the only means of placement at Program, as well as the strict compliance with the Program’s humanitarian values, especially diversity and gender balance, at the beginning and end of each job description (Fig 2 below). In addition, the WFP lists only relevant job requirements which don’t contain any form of explicit or implicit discrimination. The 3rd & 4th below figures show the job tasks and job requirements respectively for a Logistics Assistant (Shipping) job with the WFP in Hodeidah (Yemen). I personally applied for this job yesterday (the deadline). On the other hand, the 5th figure below shows the requirements for a Communication Officer job at an international humanitarian organization in Yemen, which I also have applied for. The requirements are not realistic at all, and I am sure that nobody, at least in Yemen, fulfills all of these requirements. Please note that I have purposefully covered the identity of the organization and avoided showing any indication of its identity, including the job’s context, duties, and responsibilities. An important point to highlight is that the reality and practice of recruitment, employment, and other organizational HR practices contradict with such laws and values at various occasions. However, the corrupt parties disguise their illegal actions by taking precautions that make these practices (seem) to be lawful.
Griggs VS Duke Co. : A Key Case in Employment & HR Laws
One of the great historical stories or cases in HR & employment laws, which is listed in the 1st above laws figure, is the case of Griggs VS Duke Power company. In 1971 (U.S.A.), Willie Griggs, a black American, was not accepted for a coal worker job at the company because he didn’t fulfill the requirement of high school certificate. Griggs raised a court case which claimed that such requirement was neither necessary for the job nor fair because it held implicit discrimination against black Americans who had problems in education and certification (1st below figure). Backed by strong support from the black American workers at the company, Griggs won the case and got the job (2nd below Figure). The case made great implications for companies with respect to their HR strategies and laws in terms of listing necessary requirements for jobs and avoiding any forms of explicit or implicit discrimination. The case also empowered applicants and people in general to accuse companies for any equal employment or discrimination breaches and put the burden of proof and defense on the companies. Thus, companies must have logical and lawful explanation for all their employment and HR practices.
End of Session:
Potential employees and job seekers shall never give up with respect to job applications despite burdens and corruption. To maximize employment potential, applicants must take applications seriously and focus on all elements of job descriptions. On the other hand, organizations must take utmost care of their HR strategies and laws . They should be aware that they have a social, legal, and ethical responsibilities to ensure equal employment opportunity and fairness in their job profiles and employment practices. They should also be ready for any objections or discrimination accusation via providing strong, legitimate, and logical explanations and justification for their employment practices and job profiles’ elements.
That was our session for today. Thank you so much for being with us. Next Session, we will start discussing Part 2 of the book by highlighting Job analysis, talent management, and recruitment. Please support the channel strongly so we can continue our glorious and prosperous mission. Our production is every next Thursday temporarily until the 2nd annual anniversary of the channel (Aug 13, 2021). Please subscribe to the channel at YouTube and activate the notifications bell there. Please interact with the website by subscribing to the mail’s list, activating RSS Feed, reading, writing comments, and sending messages. Please stay with us, follow us, participate with us, and widely share the channel and all its electronic contact platforms.
