Commitment Based Hr Practices

Human Resources Best Practices

La-Kesha Small

Georgia Gwinnett College

Human resource management develops employee abilities, motivation and opportunities to perform, which can in tern be translated into financial performance. This is especially true in the non-profit sector. For non-profit companies, the employees are their biggest assets. Kunle Akingbola (2006) states in his study on non-profit HR practices that “employees are the services and are the single most important asset of non-profits”. Working for the majority of my adult life, I used to think of human resources as simply the power that controls our benefits, employee relation issues, and terminations. After taking this internship, I see how much more HR does, and how intricate it really is in the survival of a company.

Human resource programs can increase productivity by allowing levels of autonomy and having employees choose how to complete tasks (Allen, Ericksen, and Collins, 2013). When associates can choose how they reach goals, creativity can flourish. Working with Ms. Graham on the volunteer side of her work did allow for creativity. Coming up with new ideas on how to gain support and entice volunteers to come in was engaging. I remember calling it creative collaboration because many different ideas were considered and put together for the biggest benefit for the company. Creativity and knowing the employer values your input will in turn enhance innovation, and supply motivation for hard work. This type of HR structure is called commitment-based practices.

High commitment human resource practices include higher pay structures, enhanced training and development, and selective staffing processes. This is sometimes difficult for non-profit organizations because they lack the resources to conduct human resource strategies (Akingbola, 2006). Firms that implement a set of commitment-based HR practices create positive exchange relationships that encourage between companies and...