This report is mainly to discuss the problems of human resources management existing in the Sunshine steel company after the new plants built in China. Firstly, it will analyze the basic situation of the two branches in China and Melbourne according to the relevant materials of the company to find out the problems in the recruitment and selection links. Then, it will offer some specific methods to deal with these difficulties according to the situation. Of course the report will also use some theories to strengthen the recommendations convincing.
With the rapid development of knowledge and technology, enterprises are facing the huge market pressure from competition, and just a bit inadvertent mistake may cause a huge lost. Human resources management in enterprise is of vital importance. The competition between enterprises is actually the competition between talents, so human resources management has risen to strategic level. And many problems in the daily work all have close relations with human resource management more or less. So these problems can be also solved through the platform of human resource management.
The Sunshine steel company is an excellent steel production enterprise with more than 80 years development and successful performance in the market. Currently it has entered the fast development times and the company finds the potential opportunities of China. With the changes of consumption trend from timber to steel fencing, which means the huge demands from market will be explored in the nearly future, the company has completed an acquisition in China with new plants established to producing the ancillary product with lower costs including manpower cost. However, the human resource department and the manager are facing the great problems in the recruitment and selection of suitable people and technical experts for the company and new plants. Besides, the cross-culture communication is also making the HR activities more complicated and sensitive. The secrecy of the information of acquisition and the job descriptions all block the effective management of human resource. The work in Melbourne is also unsatisfactory.
3.0 The Relevant Concepts
Human resources management involves the effective development, reasonable distribution of human resources by taking full advantage of scientific management system, laws, procedures and methods. It runs through the entire movement of human resources, including forecasting and planning, job analysis and design of human resources, cost accounting, personnel recruitment selection and rational allocation and use of human resources. It also contains the intellectual development of personnel, education training, and arousing people's enthusiasm for the job, improving people's scientific and cultural qualities and moral consciousness and so on. For a new company or new plant, the job analysis and design of human resources, and personnel recruitment selection could be the key factors to make sure the following activities process smoothly. (Frohman, Mark A. 1984, p320)
Recruitment and selection are the two important links in the human resource management. They are the beginning of the management. Recruitment and selection is based on post needs, using the relevant methods and techniques, attracting and selecting the most appropriate candidate. The mission is to ensure an enterprise can get plenty of candidates, and selecting at reasonable cost. In the four elements employees, brand, benefit, profit, which constitutes an effective company, employee take the first position. And in a truly people-oriented enterprise, employees have a direct impact on the high quality of the profit, the efficiency of enterprises and challenge of the enterprise to survive and develop. So making effective recruitment and selection is the important functions of the human resource department. Of course, there should be many aspects that need to be paid attention in the practice.
4.0 The Current Situation and Problems
Because of the acquisition in China, the human resource department of the company is faced with several problems in the two branches in China and Melbourne in Australia.
4.1 The Problems in China Branch
The main problem in branch of China should be the psychological states of staffs and management layer. For the staff, because of the secrecy of acquisition, they have no preparation for the redundancy and this event directly lead to the distrust in the management. Unlike the other countries, China' companies do not set up thorough re-employment service system, so the unemployed people will suffer the awkward situation of no economic sources. The remaining people therefore will lose hope and feel dispirited. However, the personnel changes have to proceed in order to appoint and employ the suitable persons for the company.
Besides, for the management people, the challenge is also great. Due to the matrix-type structure which Chinese plant is under, the managers must have the skills and abilities to deal with the conflict of reporting two or more bosses at the same time and coordinate in the Chinese plant and Melbourne headquarters. This means the cross-culture communication and understandings. However, the practice in China is to keep secret for the job descriptions and this may block the recruitment and selection of people.
The third one should be the lack of technology specialists in Chinese plant. For the company of producing iron and steel products, the timely technological innovation and technology leadership is a fatal link to determine the destiny of the company. However, the Chinese plants are badly in need of the specialists and line managers to keep the dominant position of Sunshine steel company all the time.
4.2 The Problems in Melbourne Branch
The first difficulty existing in the branch of Melbourne is the job descriptions are out of date, which will cause the company hire the improper persons for the positions. The requirements of cross-cultural communication and consistency with the corporate culture are not included in the current recruitments. And many people feel unsuitable in the company and leave.
Besides, the manager in charge of the HR in Melbourne does not take the full responsibility of the work. Many people apply for a position, but he just checks some of the applications. And he leaves some of the important responsibilities to the line managers which leads to the inefficient operation.
5.0 The Ways to Deal with the Problems
5.1 Handling Well the Information Disclosure of Acquisition
How to enhance employee motivation is an important activity in the HR management.
Whether an acquisition is successful or not depends not only on assets, but effective integration human resources of both sides. Information asymmetry is the main factor causing psychological problems in employee. The advocacy and training is essential in the beginning of acquisition. (Empson, Laura. 1994, p780)In the case of asymmetric information, employee will concern about 'the payment may decrease, the position may be changed' and so on, which would impede personnel stability of the new company. In order to avoid the brain drain phenomenon, the HR department should strengthen the efforts to publicize the necessary information in a timely manner, so that employees can understand the general situation throughout the event and the human resources policies and human settlement planning after acquisition. Of course, the advocacy should be within a reasonably extent, after all, too much information will bring a bad influence on the share price of the company, which may harm the benefits of both employee and the company. The information that is exact and discussion can be notified to the staff.
5.2 Deal with Job Descriptions in China Branch
The job descriptions documents are the most important materials in recruitment and selection of people, especially for the technical expert. The recruiting supervisor should offer the job descriptions in a proper time to the candidate instead of keeping in secret until starting work. (Manzini, Andrew O and Gridley, John D. 1986, p56)After the main judgment of the applicants in the first several links, the job descriptions should be offered to them to make sure they can have a clear understanding of the job content. Job descriptions should not be considered to be the super-secret documents like patent technology and trade secret. And they are the important judgment standard of selection, which means the managers should use them frequently and thorough. Job descriptions are the important communication ways to interact with the applicants. Knowing each other is a necessary part in the recruitment. Otherwise, people will feel lack of attention and trust which will reduce the interest in the company. So the managers in recruitment and selection should use these job descriptions fully to make sufficient communication with the people. (Kiessling, Timothy and Harvey, Michael. 2006, p1310)
5.3 How to Make Effective Recruitment in the Two Branches
5.3.1 The Chinese Branch
In Chinese branch, the localization of the management of staff, no matter technical experts or middle managers, should be paid enough attention. Like the problems above, many people cannot acclimatize themselves to the branch and the solutions could be the localization. Enterprise should use the person with close culture to manage department. And this point should be included in the job descriptions. The HR also should adopt an effective Human resources management strategy mode. This mode stressed the dynamic integration of parent company culture and local culture and making culture innovation in integration. The parent company culture is not the main culture, but the manager will select positive factors of both sides to tightly integrate. The Chinese branch will emerge a new corporate culture and management mode, which give full play to cross-cultural advantage. (Page MJ etc. 2011, p35)
Besides, in the recruitment process, the concerns of the current employees are focused on the development of space, pay levels, corporate vision and future direction. Enterprises can use these questions as a starting point, using certain material incentives and spiritual incentive measures to reinforce the positive expectation of staffs. If conditions allow, some pre-commitment, for example, all the benefits remaining the same in a period of the time can be made current employees. And some necessary information disclose is also needed. For the core personnel, they should be allowed as soon as possible to have a clear understanding of the career development of new channels. (Hunt, John W and Downing, Stephen. 1990, p200)
5.3.2 The Melbourne Branch
Firstly, the cross-culture should be paid enough attention in the preparation of recruitment. In the process of enterprise acquisition, the manager should break the conventional thinking, and change the thoughts. Habitual thinking cannot solve the cross-cultural management problems. Especially, he should overcome the cultural arrogance socialist, and should respect the takeover enterprise's culture, as well as the special value orientation and management methods. Besides, for the new men in the company, the cross-culture ability should also be an important determinate factor. And this should be embodied in the job descriptions and the following links of recruitment.
Of course, the job descriptions should be updated as time goes. With the trend of talent diversification and economic globalization, every contents of a position in the company may change and this will require adding new information and deleting old information according to the specific situation. (Aguilera, Ruth V. and Dencker, John C. 2004, p1360)
Besides, the screen of resumes should be institutionalized and normalized. This is not the work of human resources director but the whole department. No matter how many people apply for the position, the company should attach importance to every potential candidate. And the screen should get through several links which will judge different abilities of the people not just reading optionally.
For some posts like middle managers, the internal promotion can be a useful way to enhance the effectiveness. Internal promotion can increase the internal employee self-confidence, letting them fully realize the talent, and this in itself is the best way to recognizing people with much less cost of collecting information. Internal employees understand well the requirements and goals of the organization, and in fact this is also a good chance to understand talent in the enterprise. So when appearing the vacancy, another way of taking in people should be the internal promotion.
6.0 Conclusion
This report is mainly to analyze the problems the Sunshine steel company is facing after the acquisition in China. The cross-culture, information announcement, the application of job description can be the important factors that block the effectiveness of the company. So there must be some changes in the management style and ways to meet with the new requirements of new stage and keep the business strength of Sunshine steel company all the time. The smooth transition of the personnel management and coordination of the new company with the parent company is a key point for the future development.
