Human Resource Management and its Challenges in

Present Era
Organizational Psychology holds that successful organizations do not owe their
success solely to market realities and sustainable competitive advantages. Actually, there
is a lot more. Successful companies are those that consider their human capital as their
most important asset. Facts and figures are the quantitative elements of successful
management, yet the qualitative, i.e. the cognitive aspects, are those that actually make or
break an organization.

Human Resources Management (HRM) is the strategic management of the

employees, who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the
strategic objectives of the organization. Assuming that the employees of an organization
are individuals with own mental maps and perceptions, own goals and own personalities
and as such they cannot be perceived as a whole, HRM holds that the organization should
be able to employ both individual and group psychology in order to commit employees to
the achievement of organizational goals.

Aiming to enable the organization to achieve its strategic goals by attracting,

retaining and developing employees, HRM functions as the link between the organization
and the employees. A company should first become aware of the needs of its employees,
and at a later stage, understand and evaluate these needs in order to make its employees
perceive their job as a part of their personal life, and not as a routine obligation. To that
end, HRM is very crucial for the whole function of an organization because it assists the
organization to create loyal employees, who are ready to offer their best.

The HRM activities in modern organizations are typically performed in

communication with the General Management in an effort to provide a variety of views
when a decision must be taken. In that way, decision making is not subject to the
individual perceptions of the HR or the General Manager, but it becomes the outcome of
strategic consensus.

The main goals / responsibilities of HRM are:

• To retain low employee turnover rate by inspiring people to work for the company .
• To attract new employees.
• To contribute to employee development.

To achieve these goals, Human Resources Management trains and motivates the
employees by communicating ethical policies and socially responsible behaviour to them.
In doing so, it plays a significant role in clarifying the organization's problems and
providing solutions, while making employees working more efficiently.

On the other hand, challenges do not cease for the HRM. Modern organizations can
survive in the dynamic, competitive environment of today only if they capitalize on the
full potential of each employee. Unfortunately, many companies have not understood the
importance of the human capital in successful operations. The recruitment and selection
of the best employees is a very difficult obligation. Even companies that are voted in the
top-ten places to work at, often endure long periods of hard work to realize that human
element is all an organization should care about.

New challenges arise even now for the organization, and it is certain that new
challenges will never cease to emerge. Therefore, the use of proper Human Resources
techniques is a really powerful way for organizations to overcome these challenges, and
to improve not only their quantitative goals but also their organizational culture, and their
qualitative, cognitive aspects.

Importance and Process of Job Analysis

The main purpose of conducting job analysis is to prepare job description and job
specification which in turn helps to hire the right quality of workforce into the
organization. The general purpose of job analysis is to document the requirements of a
job and the work performed. Job and task analysis is performed as a basis for later
improvements, including: definition of a job domain; describing a job; developing
performance appraisals, selection systems, promotion criteria, training needs assessment,
and compensation plans.

In the fields of Human Resources (HR) and Industrial Psychology, job analysis is often
used to gather information for use in personnel selection, training, classification, and/or
compensation.

There are several ways to conduct a job analysis, including:

• Interviews with incumbents and supervisors,

• Questionnaires (structured, open-ended, or both)
• Observation
• Critical incident investigations
• Gathering background information such as duty statements or classification
specifications. In job analysis conducted by HR professionals, it is common to use
more than one of these methods.

For example, the job analysts may tour the job site and observe workers performing their
jobs. During the tour the analyst may collect materials that directly or indirectly indicate
required skills (duty statements, instructions, safety manuals, quality charts, etc).

The analyst may then meet with a group of workers or incumbents. And finally, a survey
may be administered. In these cases, job analysts typically are industrial/organizational
psychologists or Human Resource Officers who have been trained by, and are acting
under the supervision of an industrial psychologist.
 Concept of Competency Mapping
Competency mapping is a process through which one assesses and determines one’s
strengths as an individual worker and in some cases, as part of an organization. It
generally examines two areas: emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ), and
strengths of the individual in areas like team structure, leadership, and decision-making.
Large organizations frequently employ some form of competency mapping to understand
how to most effectively employ the competencies of strengths of workers. They may also
use competency mapping to analyze the combination of strengths in different workers to
produce the most effective teams and the highest quality work.

• Competency mapping can also be done for contract or freelance workers, or for
those seeking employment to emphasize the specific skills which would make
them valuable to a potential employer. These kinds of skills can be determined,
when one is ready to do the work, by using numerous books on the subject.

• Competency mapping through testing, having the person sift through past work
experiences, and by analyzing learning types. However, the disadvantage to using
a book alone is that most people may have a few blind spots when they analyze
their own competency. Their perception of how others react to them may not be
accurate.

• Competency mapping also requires some thought, time, and analysis, and some
people simply may not want to do the work involved to sufficiently map
competencies.

• Competency mapping alone may not produce accurate results unless one is able to
detach from the results in analyzing past successes and failures. Many studies find
that people often overestimate their abilities, making self-competency mapping
results dubious.

In short competency mapping technique and proper usage enables a person to make or
develop an environment which is the most beneficial and valuable.
 Concept of Human Resource Development
HRD its abbreviation Human Resource Development itself indicates its meaning. HRD is
to attract, attain, develop and retain competent people in such a way so that we can utilize
maximum of their efficiency for work. Its the Foundation on which any organization has
to lay its wall and as well HRD is the roof also on which we have to place personnel in
such a way that they should not be easily shaken Off from that roof.

We may understand the concept and utilization of HRD from the following Elaborative
Sentences.

• HRD is the development of company in terms of human which includes training

and development, career development and organization development.

• It means helping employees to develop there skills, knowledge and ability.

• HRD deals with staffing function of the business activity, it deals with the human
aspect of the business to improve the functioning of employees for achieving the
• Organizational objective.

• it means developing key competencies that enable individuals in an organization

to perform current and future jobs through planned learning activities

• Human Resource Development is the framework for helping employees develops

their personal and organizational skills, knowledge, and abilities. Human
Resource Development includes such opportunities as employee training,
employee
• career development, performance management and development, coaching,
succession planning, key employee identification, tuition assistance, and
organization development.

• The focus of all aspects of Human Resource Development is on developing the

most superior workforce so that the organization and individual employees can
accomplish their work goals in service to customers.
• Human Resource Development can be formal such as in classroom training, a
college course, or an organizational planned change effort. Or, Human Resource
Development can be informal as in employee coaching by a manager. Healthy
• organizations believe in Human Resource Development and
• cover all of these bases.

• HRD is a process of Development of Human being and organization to achieve

the objective through training and seminar. It will help to develop and change the
mind of the
 • People by providing them training. This process will create a space in the mind of
people to think differently. HRD is a way to make the people happy and
motivated.

• Human Resource Development is specifically focused towards the Human

Aspect" of the business that can not be compared with other resources of
business, machinery, money, material and has to be handled very sensitively.
• The aim is to attract, retain, nurture key skills required for the job and their
development is an ongoing process (which will make them think valued in the
org).This will
• Ensure perfect aligning of business needs with the employee needs. The result
will be profitable healthy competent workforce.

Principles of compensation policies and its

objectives

COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT

Let's begin our discussion of Compensation Management with a simple question: "What
is compensation?" While there may be as many answers to this question as there are
employees, we'll start with the following definition:

Compensation is the outcomes (rewards) employees receive in exchange for their work,
or

Pay is an exchange between the individual or group and the employer.

From a manager's perspective, the compensation package offered a firm's employees is

important not only because it costs money, but because it's likely to be the primary reason
the employees work for the firm. Compensation packages with good pay and benefits can
help attract and retain the best employees. A quick survey of employees about
compensation is likely to reveal an expectation that wages cover basic living expenses,
keep up with inflation, leave some money for savings (perhaps for retirement) and
leisure, increase over time, and are fair.

A firm's compensation scheme also communicates a great deal about the firm's values
and cultures. Employees are more likely to look at what a company pays rather than what
it says. In many respects, people behave as they are rewarded. Insofar as this is true, a
compensation scheme communicates to the employees what the firm's expectations are of
them. Therefore, for example, if quality is an important value, it should be reinforced
through some element of the total compensation system.

The objectives of a compensation policy are manifold:

• attract suitable staff

• retain qualified personnel
• develop reward structures that are equitable with consistent and fair pay
relationships between differently valued jobs
• adjust pay structures to reflect inflationary effects
• ensure that rewards and salary costs adjust to changes in market rates or
organizational change
• reward performance, responsibility, and loyalty, and provide for progression and
increases
• comply with legal requirements
• keep compensation levels and differentials under review and control salary/wage
costs

Clearly, managing a firm's compensation policy is a complex task as it involves

providing systematically administered and equitable salaries, reconciling employees'
career aspirations in terms of earnings, aligning employees' personal objectives with
those of the organization, and keeping the firm's costs under control.

CONSEQUENCES OF PAY DISSATISFACTION

There are also clear consequences to neglecting a firm's compensation policy. The desire
for more pay has the potential to lead to reduced productivity, increased levels of
grievances, strikes, and the search for higher paying job. Further, organizational
symptoms of pay dissatisfaction may include increased levels of absenteeism and job
accidents, and psychological withdrawal.