Description/Focus: Essay Value: 50 % Due date: Midnight Sunday (week 12) Length: 2500 words Task: Human services practitioners work across many domains of practice including direct work with...

Running Head: DISCUSSION
Social Policy in context to HR
Introduction
Social policy is understood as the combination of qualitative and quantitative tools and techniques used for improving overall understanding and guiding societies on utilising resources for meeting individual and social needs. The scope of social policy is quite wide as it seeks to measure and ascertain whether individual and social needs are satisfied, and, how progress is measured in this area. The subject of social policy in context of human resource practitioners gives them an idea of learning about social and economic challenges currently faces by HR practitioners, and, addressing these in a broader perspective. The disciplines of human behaviour, sociology, law, psychology and politics are drawn in the process of social policy formulation, and, its implementation. HRM also covers several policy areas such as training, developing, conflict management, recruitment and selection of people. All these policy areas are addressed in context of improving workers’ health, housing, education and social security, along with identifying different social issues and problems hindering or obstructing workers’ health, safety and well-being (Lawler and Boudreau, 2015).
Social policy and its implications on clients, professional bodies
The concept of human development is found as deeply rooted in Australia’s social policy since 1990s. The origins and formulation of social policy at Australia is greatly depends on the works of some of the world’s greatest social thinkers, named as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Rawls. People or human resources are found as the centre of social policy paradigm, and, human development is mainly aimed at enlarging and improving people’s choices and freedoms. The most critical element of social policy is to lead people living a long and healthy life, being educated and living a decent standard of living. The main notion of the human development paradigm in social policy is based on building and developing human capabilities, which is based on doing or accomplishing set of ‘doings’ and ‘beings’ that help and enable humans to lead the life with high value and respect (Uzonna, 2013).
As a part of social policy, Human Development Report is regularly published with the main emphasis on enlarging people’s choices. It is worth mentioning that people’s choices are infinite and consistently change over the time. But, at all level of development and changes, social policy should consider and address three essential factors-1) allowing people living and leading a long and healthy life, 2) acquiring knowledge and accessing resources required for living a decent standard of living, and, 3) accessing several growth opportunities (Carson, and Kerr, 2018).
Social policy also emphasis on capability approach as opposed to resource-based, which asks for valuing and considering human resources as precious and valuable assets. Human resource practitioners are entrusted with the duty of converting resources into functioning and valuable aspects. This approach focuses on utilising human resource capabilities, and, considering them as a means not an ends to development. In an organisation different people require different kinds of goods for achieving the same level of well-being, in this context; HR practitioners need to take into account the fact that people should not adjust the status quo or maintaining consistency. They are highly adaptive and responsive to changing preferences, which is of utmost importance and value (Kuranchie-Mensah and Amponsah-Tawiah, 2015).
HR practitioners are expected to give people full freedom of choice, in this pace, there is four approaches and areas to be considered upon. First approach is concerned with focusing on living and freedom where HR practitioners are expected to take into account wide variations in people preferences and interests. This is said that HR practitioners giving high value and importance to people freedoms are successful in deriving smooth functioning from them. In simple words, HR managers giving importance to people freedoms succeed in aligning their interests and preferences with the organisation, and, accruing smooth functioning from them (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2017).
Second approach is concerned with linking responsibility for establishing balance and equity in the organisation. This conception is based on the notion that equitable distribution of responsibility among personnel makes them feeling proportionally powerful. There is no biased approach in making one group or category of personnel feeling powerful than others, rather, all group and category of personnel are equally powerful and influential. This approach also links responsibility with effective power, and, can be interpreted as the responsibility of policy makers in developing and formulating policies contributing to human development (Bjorkman and Welch, 2015).
Third approach throws light on using a comparative approach that compares and evaluate different countries of the world with respect to policies conducive to human development. Using a comparative approach that compares and measures different world’s countries, it helps in analysing and understanding that stage of development that the country is currently in, which is published by the Human Development Report and statistical index include every country’s rankings. Finally, the fourth approach is concerned with the fact that human capabilities are universal and enhancement in capabilities is crucial for all business leaders as well as employee in all parts of the world at all times (Edwards, Colling and Ferner, 2017).
Social Policy making process in current scenario and opportunities offered
In present scenario, HR practitioners are expected to address health and well-being of employees and their concerns, apart from recruiting, hiring and compensating them. Employees, in every business, require employers to pay attention to societal issues, in addition to...