Strategic Human Resource Management Small Business

Question: Can employee recruitment, training and promotion strategies provide a sustainable competitive advantage? Answer: Wal-Mart serves more than 245 million customers through their 11,000 offline stores in 27 countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 2015). The giant supermarket employs around 2.2 million associates worldwide and considers them as the most precious assets of the company. Wal-Mart has well-define recruitment and selection processes in place and make huge investment in the training and development of their employees(Armstrong, 2011). They have effective promotion strategies and succession planning processes in place that help them in advancing internal employees to leadership roles. In todays dynamic business environment where needs and wants of customers change rapidly and in a very unpredictable manner, apart from financial resources and technological resources that once served as main sources of competitive advantage human capital today is also serve as an important source in the development of a sustainable competitive advantage (Armstrong Taylor, 2014). The overall performance of an organisation greatly depends on the attitudes, skills and competencies of its employees; their ability to generate trust and commitment, work in presence of complex relationships and communicate aspirations. A firm is said to have a competitive advantage when it is able to implement a value creating strategy which cannot be imitated and implemented by current or potential customers (Cooper Burke, 2011). Recruitment and selection process help ensuring talent needs of the organisation are met (Bhatia, 2007). It helps ensuring that right people, with right skills and expertise are available to perform the right task at right time. Recruitment is defined as process of generating a pool of capable people for applying to various employment positions in an organisation (Bhatia, 2007). Selection is the process that follows recruitment and helps managers in choosing the most suitable person from the pool of applicants using specific instruments (Bhatia, 2007). A well-defined recruitment process in place help ensuring that human capital needs of the organisation is be recognised immediately and is fulfilled with best options. This process involves creating awareness for the need of skilled employees in market and presenting the organisation and related roles and responsibilities in a way that help attracting talented professional (Crawley, et al., 2013). It involves the process of head huntin g through various search engines and professional networking sites in order to identify the most suitable person who best fits in the role and strategy of the organisation. In this process employees are screened to evaluate their skills and capabilities and job is offered to the most suited applicant. In today competitive marketplace owing to the rapid advancement in technology and management techniques it is very important to ensure that the skills and competencies of the employees are upgraded from time to time in order to meet the demand of the market (Bhatia, 2007). It is very important to ensure that the learning needs of employees are met through effective training and development programs in place. Training not only helps in enhancing the knowledge base of employees and upgrading their skills but also in increasing their creativity which serves as a base for innovation(Ehnert, 2009). Innovation is the key to survival in todays dynamic marketplace and it can only be achieved with the help of creative employees. Training programs should be designed in a ways that not only educate employees with concepts but also provide them opportunity to transfer their learning to real life workplace scenarios. Effective training and development programs help minimising the gap between exis ting employee competencies and desired employee competencies. Every individual work to achieve their goals and objectives, employees tend to deliver high performance when they feel their needs are being satisfied. According to Maslows Hierarchy of Needs theory every individual has complex set of needs which can be arranged in a hierarchy such that it resembles a pyramid (Armstrong Taylor, 2014). The second highest need in the pyramid is the need for esteem and affiliation. This need expresses an individuals desire for promotion, recognition and career advancement. This need when satisfied helps increasing employee motivation which in turn inspires them to display high performance. Thus, effective promotion strategies help organisations in increasing employee motivation and commitment. Through promotion strategies and succession planning process organisations can ensure their employee that they do not need to look for other career options in order to satisfy their higher level needs for affiliation and advancement (Ehnert, 2009). Highly skilled and experienced employees help smoothening the path of innovation and sever as a source for competitive advantage for organisations. Thus, well-defined recruitment, training and promotion strategies help organisations like Wal-Mart in attracting and retaining highly skilled employee how serve as a source of sustainable competitive advantage for the company. References: Armstrong, M., (2011) Armstrong's Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Armstrong, M. Taylor, S., (2014) Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Bhatia, S., (2007) Strategic Human Resource Management : Winning Through People. New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications. Cooper, C. L. Burke, R. J., (2011) Human Resource Management in Small Business: Achieving Peak Performance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Crawley, E., Swailes, S. Walsh, D., (2013) Introduction to International Human Resource Managemen. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ehnert, I., (2009) Sustainable Human Resource Management: A conceptual and exploratory analysis from a paradox perspective. Hamburg: Springer Science Business Media. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., (2015) Walmart. [Online] Available at: https://corporate.walmart.com/ [Accessed 2015].