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Solution
Question 2
In today organisations areas of operation, Head of People Function core function is ensuring employment policies and practices are supporting attainment of organisation strategic objectives. Adopting the definition of Trzeciak et al. (2022), the strategic objectives represent the strategic roadmap pursued by an organisation, set initiatives and projects which guide their vision and mission. In this regard, they are classified as short and long-term based which are either set or occur automatically. To attain the set organisation strategic objectives, head of people function is influencing the obtained results and steps of implementation. As illustrated in CIPD HR Professional Map, their core mandate is overseeing daily business practices (CIPD, 2024).
I fully agree to the role of Head of People Function. This is in regard to their responsibility of ensuring policies and practices are supporting attainment of their strategic objectives. The areas of support include;
Aligning organisation operations with available laws/legislations/policies– In order to ensure an organisation attain strategic objectives, employment cycle activities need to be aligned with a country laws and other policies (Blanck, 2020). For example, as part of Head of People Function, their operations is executed in an environment which is free from any form of discrimination or harassment. This is with the employees with disability being provided with support or included as part of the employment workforce. An example of the legislation is the Equality Act 2010 which must holistically be adhered to (Bhopal, 2020).
In my organisation which is Riyad Bank, a key strategic goal is to enhance social relations while embracing innovativeness of their operations. In order to achieve this goal, the Head of People Function in the organisation ensure that any of operation of the organisation prioritise on Saudisation legislation (Al Nasser & Jais, 2020). This legislation require that social inclusion of KSA citizens while ensuring that priority in issuance of contracts and employment opportunities is granted to the citizens. As part of Vision 2030 which is a KSA government policy, Riyad Bank ensure that they are increasingly embracing innovation as part of their operations while at the same time enrolling into different corporate social responsibility programs (CSR).
Developing guidance/employees handbook– As part of facilitating achievement of an organisation strategic objectives, the Head of People Function play the role of initiating the guide or employees handbook to be used by all employees (George et al., 2023). Through this, the employees are found pursuing common direction which is for the prosperity of their organisation and competitiveness. With Head of People Function mandated with the role of developing the organisation design, they ensure that their organisation structure is fit for purpose.
In Riyad Bank, which is my current placement, one of strategic objective is to increase market dominance in KSA banking sector from the current 30% to 42% by 2025. For the purpose of achieving this strategic objective, Head of People Function ensure that they regularly execute performance appraisal programs using 360-degree framework (Tambunan et al., 2021). The outcome of this has been engaging the most qualified employees while relieving job functions to the employees who derails the organisation success to be appropriately positioned in the KSA banking industry. Similarly, in order to be competitive, the organisation functional structure has transitioned to hierarchical which offer the organisation a broad view of their operations as part of their strategic objectives. Already, the organisation has increased their profitability with upto KSA56 Million Riyals in the first quarter of 2024. This is directly linked with the Head of HR function responsibility of creating an appropriate platform and system for all employees collaboration.
Employee Rewards and Recognition– In modern organisations, having a strategic reward policy or total rewards is essential for appreciating the employees roles in their assigned roles (CIPD, 2024a). Through the outcome of the performance appraisal which is regularly facilitated by the Head of People Function, it is possible to recommend the best rewards with zero discrimination. This is while at the same time making sure that the decision on rewards are as a consequence of in-depth evaluation and agreement amongst all the stakeholders. These actions are translated to the organisation ability to be competitive to achieve their set objectives.
In Riyad Bank case, salary reviews are done annually by the Head of People Practice. It is their responsibility to set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for different employees in order to be qualified to receive the pay increase/appraisal. Recently, in 2023, a strategic objective for Riyad Bank was to reduce backlog of tasks with approximately 70%. The Head of People Function introduced recognition program to be rewarded to the employees on top of their basic pay. The outcome of this was the employees working hard to clear the entire backlog.
Additionally, for the Head of People Function, they are engaged in ensuring that they fairly and transparently issue the different rewards issued to their employees. According to Laundon (2018) the rationale of this is ensuring that the organisation is in a position of engaging all their resources towards pursuing their set strategic objectives. This is while eliminating any form of biasness which would directly or indirectly contribute to reduced performance by the employees.
To a significant extent, it is also appropriate disagreeing on the view that Head of People Function play critical role in support of organisation strategic objectives. The rationale of disagreement are;
Existence of safety gap– In a recent research work published in Laundon (2018), the Head of HR function role is characterised by a sense of ambiguity to a large extent. As evidenced in the research, they sometimes maintain safety gap in order to create respect for optimum execution of their functions in their organisation. This can be a hindrance towards attainment of organisation strategic objectives.
For example, taking into account of Riyad Bank operations, Head of People Function transit to different subsidiaries in Saudi Arabia. The outcome of this is lack of a direct relationship with all employees to guarantee an increased performance and execution of organisation strategy successfully.
To conclude, from the two-sided analysis, it is worth noting that Head of People Function play an instrumental responsibility of guaranteeing organisation success in achieving their set strategic objectives. In regard to Riyad Bank case organisation, they work in active teamwork with the rest of the organisation in order to achieve their strategic objectives. There are however instances where their role is hindered with safety gap existing limiting their inclusion and effectiveness of decision making.
Question 5
High road is identified in Osterman (2018) as a process where part of performance management is creating great job roles. To achieve this, the priority is on improving overall skills, guarantee fair-based practice in pay while at the same time enhancing supportive, detailed working environment.
The Low road on the other hand include development of good jobs by optimising efficiency and profitability contrary to having priority on employees capacity development, motivation and job satisfaction.
A summary of merits of both high and low road in performance management and employees productivity in an entity are;
High Road
Employees Development– Through high road, an increased employees development is achieved. This is identified in CIPD (2018) noting that 70% of people professionals identify ineffectiveness of employees development in achieving core organisation goals. Hence, the high road performance management strategies elicit direct impact in employees nurturing, skills development and readiness to advance their career. These findings are supported by Cooke (2020) which identify high road as facilitating high-level employees development hence achieving an improved job-based satisfaction and commitment.
Fair remuneration and benefits– The impact of High Road is identified to elicit positive impact on fairness in rewards provision and other benefits/recognition. This is achieved as employees are in a position of leveraging on competitive pay and staff benefits with acknowledgement of their importance to an entity. According to Manzoor et al. (2021), the high road ensure that the employees appreciate the pay and benefits offered. The outcome of this is leveraging on an increased commitment level, actively engaged in organisation operations, loyal to management, performance and reduced turnover. From a general context, identified merits contribute to organisations increase in performance.
Low Road
Easier to implement– As identified in introduction, low road focus on reduction of incurred costs but optimally leveraging on people professionals. Hence, implementation is not cost intensive. As evidenced in Grinerud et al. (2021), the priority is to outsource people practice professionals to third parties and as such resource sabing through reduction of demand for in-house working staff.
In Riyad Bank for example, automation approaches are popularly linked with low road approach. By doing this, the cashier and receptionists functions are reduced hence saving on costs. The limitation of this is evidenced by occurrence of rigidity and inflexibility in an event the employees feels unappreciated.
Effectiveness and efficiencies in operations– By implementing the low road strategy in performance management, the costs are appropriately managed compared to demand by adjusting labour sourced quantity. According to Farndale et al. (2020) this means positive gain for the organisation while at the same time utilising reduced costs of operations. For Riyad Bank, this approach being popular is practiced by their adoption of lean six sigma and investing on different Industry 4.0 technologies in their operations. The identified operations in overall contribute to increasing operational efficiencies. This is the case albeit the negative impact on staff management and commitment leading to performance issues and interreference with organisation operations.
Reasons High Road is Preference
With my current organisation operating low-road strategy, I disagree on the view that high road is always preferred by most organisation. My reason of departure from the common view this is that these strategies vary based on an entity objectives, existing resources and culture-based approach defining an entity practice. This is supported by Nuh (2024) prioritising on COVID-19 and identified growth of employees in terms of their skills would significantly affect performance management. Hence, the most appropriate approach entail investing in high road in the active entity practices identified to be aligned with organisation prioritising staff as best resources. Hence, they invest immense resources in enhancing their development process. These findings are similarly noted in Nasifoglu Elidemir et al. (2020) as enhancing leverage on competitive advantage in their quality management and innovativeness. The outcome of this include ability to utilise discretionary behaviour to deliver innovative and high quality services.
On the other hand, considering low road strategy, this is the preference for most entities as priority is to lower costs of operation which is translates to profitability and efficient operations. Therefore, by embracing the low road as a preference in the organisation, there is a high possibility of increased profits and dominate the market where they operate. Similarly, in Riyad Bank practice, they embrace the low-road approach.
Considering organisations with their preference on low road approach, with the employees working conditions always evaluated for improvement, this translates to their commitment and efficient in executing their functions as part of the organisation strategic goals. However, there are potential disadvantages which would be encountered including reduced employees retention and low job satisfaction and commitment in their functions (Ramlawati et al., 2021). Hence, being the best practice, low road would be used as it increase efficiency and cut on overall incurred costs in an organisation successfully. With the competition being stiff in modern business environments, the only solution is ensuring an inclusion of all stakeholders to recognise their expectations. It is from their expectations that a decision of either to pursue High Road or Low Road is made in an organisation. Any challenge potentially encountered is mitigated successfully.
In conclusion, it is important to hypothesise and note that the low road and high road approaches are relevant in performance management and are not mutually adopted in similar manner. In this case, most of the entities have their preference on embracing an integration of both the low and high roads as a best practice. By focusing on Riyad Bank for example, by having their preferences and priority to be automating their people practice professionals functions, costs cutting would be achieved. This is not attained in isolation as the organisation similarly automate their entire practices with holistic investments on staff development initiatives. These guarantee the employees motivation and commitment in execution their functions in the organisation. Hence, it is appropriate to hypothesise that both strategies have equal share of advantages and disadvantages. The best practice would hence entail an organisation reviewing what works best for them. From this, they would provide an opportunity for employees development, market dominance and leveraging on competitive advantage.
Question 12
In a people practice setting….
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