Cafeteria-style benefits and other current issues and trends in HRM
What are the current work practices of employees? How do employers reward and retain the best people for the job? Why consider corporate social responsibility?
These are some of the trends and issues shared by Amor Santiago, senior human resources practitioner for more than 20 years, on human resource management (HRM) at the John Gokongwei School of Management's Entrepreneurial Academy on May 18, 2006 at the Loyola Heights campus. Her talk, titled "Personal touch: Effective human resource management for SMEs," detailed ways on how to improve a business owner's ability to effectively manage human resource and feel its effect on the bottom line.
Among the issues and trends in the HR arena are the following:
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Virtual offices. More people are working in virtual offices - offices that are essentially run wherever you are. Nowadays, people work almost anywhere, be it in their homes, in the car, in the park, or while traveling. Mobile electronic devices such as laptops and cellphones are often used. This is a cost-effective trend, especially for one who is starting a business, because it would do away with renting office space.
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Flat organizations. A flat organization is an organization wherein there are few or no intervening levels of management between the top executive and employees. Santiago recommends keeping the number of levels to between three and five, the rationale of which is that the fewer managers, the faster the decision making. Moreover, it encourages maximum productivity and direct interaction.
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Flexi-time in work hours. The assertion is that being rigid about time - that is, the normal 8 to 5 - does not work anymore. Why should everyone be in at the same time when the workload does not demand it? Employers will be surprised at how employees react to flexi-time. More often than not, instead of coming in late, most would like to come in earlier to do their work. But flexi-time, Santiago reminds, does not work for all types of SMEs. If the business is service-oriented, someone will always be needed to man the office at work. She also stresses the need for a sense of order to be implemented even in a flexi-time type of work arrangement.
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Gender sensitivity. This is an issue that employers and employees must always be conscious about. With the existence of the anti-sexual harassment law, there is no excuse for not knowing, understanding, and living it out. Thus, people in the company must be sensitive to the needs of the opposite gender. An example given during the talk was of an office that used to have an all-male employee line-up. When a female employee was eventually hired, that employee did not know which comfort room to use, for there was no comfort room designated for women. This example is a reminder to be sensitive even to the minor details of work life.
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Cafeteria-style benefits. Just like the way one picks a particular food to eat when in the cafeteria, cafeteria-style benefits, in HR-speak, means that it is the employee who decides what compensation package suits him. This is a new approach in compensation packaging in the US. With a set budget per person per year, the possibilities for different combinations of benefits are endless. One employee can choose to blow his or her benefits in a car plan and forego life insurance and retirement. Another, meanwhile, can do the opposite and choose life and health insurance.
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Intellectual property rights. This is an issue that concerns the protection of company information. With the proliferation of laptops, flash drives, and other electronic devices, exchange of information is easy. Thus, companies must increasingly make efforts to safeguard private company information that may be exchanged between employees within the company or between an employee and an outside party.
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Broadband compensation structure. Internet access and emailing personal messages during office hours is an issue of concern to HR practitioners. Since employees are primarily recruited to provide service to the company, HR practitioners are making sure that employees use company time wisely. Thus, an increasing number of them monitor email messages of employees while some bar internet access to internet games and internet surfing, especially pornographic sites. While employees counter these moves by declaring their emails private, companies still have the right to screen those messages since the email is company-provided, thus, company-owned. It is the duty of HR, then, to define the proper use of the internet and email.
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Cross-cultural interaction. As the economy goes global, companies must learn to adapt to the different people from different cultures they interact with. Thus, companies must be sensitive to the cultures of their foreign clients. For example, handing out a business card to a Japanese businessman is different from handing out the same business card to an American. Receiving a card with both hands and keeping it on top of the table until the meeting is over instead of keeping it in your pocket or case right away is the gracious thing to do with the former. The latter, meanwhile, would not mind if you keep the card in your case when you receive it.
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Business process outsourcing. An increasing number of businesses, especially foreign companies, are outsourcing workers from another country. This is a cost-effective trend.
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Corporate social responsibility. This is a current buzzword in the business world. It aims to give back to the community that keeps the business alive through social work or donations to needy institutions. Examples are Gawad Kalinga and Children's Hour. Some companies even encourage their employees to serve their respective communities as a way of giving back. An organization that came to mind is the Philippine Business for Social Progress, a group of privately-owned companies that do socially-responsible work.
Want to know more about how to make your business grow? Join the Entrepreneurial Academy and learn from the pros. Seminars on various aspects of business will run up to June 2, 2006.