Human Resource Management: Attraction, Motivation, and Retention Essay

Time has changed the way organisations operate. Contemporary organisations not only need to compete for reputation and tangible organisational resources, but also participate in the ‘war for talent’ (Bartlett & Ghoshal 2002). Bartlett and Ghoshal (2002) described the ‘war for talent’ as competing for talented and skilled workers by attracting them to work for the organisation as well as retaining their loyalty. Hence, this paper will focus upon three strategies of Human Resource Management (HRM), that is, attraction, motivation, and retention. It is important to address these because many of the Human Resource (HR) activities build upon these strategies to gain competitive advantage (Jensen 2005). Organisations can win the ‘war for talent’ and hence increase their competitive advantage by creating and maintaining loyalty within organisations, albeit sometimes requiring considerable investment, effort and commitment to overcome obstacles. This discussion will also form the basis of illustrating that HRM performs more than administrative duties and plays a vital role in determining an organisation’s success. Examples of organisations’ successes in attracting, motivating, and retaining employees will be illustrated throughout the discussion. This essay concludes with an analysis of the skills HR managers need to become a strategic partner in the organisation. Competitive advantage refers to an organisation maximising its strengths as a method to compete in the marketplace (Bartlett & Ghoshal 2002). This consists of cost leadership as well as differentiation in products and services (Global Reporting Initiative 2002). In addition, an organisation achieves competitive advantage by winning the ‘war for talent’, which is the ultimat... ...anagement in Australia: Strategy, people, performance 3rd., Sydney, Australia: McGraw-Hill. Dowling, P.J., Festing, M. & Allen D. Engle, S., 2008. International human resource management: Managing people in a multinational context 5th., Boston: Cengage Learning. Global Reporting Initiative, 2002. Sustainability reporting guidelines. Environment. Available at: www.globalreporting.org. Holland, P., Sheehan, C. & De Cieri, H., 2007. Attracting and retaining talent: Exploring human resources development trends in Australia. Human Resource Development International, 10(3) pp. 247-262. Jeffries, F.L. & Hunte, T.L., 2004. Generations and motivation: A connection worth making. Journal of Behavioural and Applied Management, 6(1) pp. 37-70. Jensen, E., 2005. HR’ s role in helping companies achieve high performance. Employment Relations Today, 32(2) pp. 39-52.