Strategic Human Resource Management– An

Overview
Abstract

This chapter examines major factors and processes that lead to the development of
strategic global human resource management [SHRM] capability in organizations doing business
in emerging markets. The dynamism of this capability is hypothesized to increase as specific
structural changes are initiated, such as an innovative practice of inpatriation. It is argued that the
inpatriation provides the strategic coherence and flexibility necessary for effective organizational
strategies in emerging markets. Through the examination of this innovation in strategic global
human resource systems from a knowledge based-view theoretical perspective, the emergence of
certain unique and valuable organizational outcomes (i.e. trust, commitment, social capital, and
legitimacy) are explained. The potential problems and challenges of implementing an
inpatriation program in global negotiations are also examined, with particular focus on gaining
acceptance of inpatriate managers in the headquarters organization. In conclusion, specific
directions for future research relative to the development of SHRM capability based on
inpatriation as core competency are outlined.
Strategic Human Resource Management – an Overview

Introduction

Strategic human resource management is designed to help companies best meet the needs
of their employees while promoting company goals. Human resource management deals with
any aspects of a business that affects employees, such as hiring and firing, pay, benefits, training,
and administration. Human resources may also provide work incentives, safety procedure
information, and sick or vacation days.

Strategic human resource management is the proactive management of people. It requires

thinking ahead, and planning ways for a company to better meet the needs of its employees, and
for the employees to better meet the needs of the company. This can affect the way things are
done at a business site, improving everything from hiring practices and employee training
programs to assessment techniques and discipline.

Major objective of this study:

1. To identify the recent trend in recruitment practices in strategic human resource

management.

2. To identify the major contribution of strategic human resource management in e-hrm.

Methodology to the study:

The present study “Strategic Human Resource Management “For this study Majority of the data
used is secondary data. The data are collected from various magazines and journals

About SHRM India

SHRM India is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM). Sharing the same mission as the world's largest HR association, SHRM India is
devoted to supporting the professional and advancing the profession of human resource
management in India. Whether it is offering professional development programs or conducting
joint research, SHRM India's mission is to leverage the strengths of the professional in the West
and in India to share information and advance the human resource profession in a global
community.

The chapters in Part 4 address a number of specific issues:

• What is strategy?
• What is the role of HRM in the strategic process?
• How are human resource strategies prepared and implemented?
• What is the relationship between strategic HRM and human resource planning?
• How does HRM impact on the process of organizational change?
• What is the role of HR practitioners in mergers and acquisitions?
• How can behavioural change be achieved?
• What strategies are available for recruitment and retention?
• How are resourcing strategies prepared?

Discover how the right people management or right strategic human resource management
can help your organization …

1. To incorporate Human Resource plans into the “mainstream of organizational strategy

and management"
2. To instill belief on the importance of people in achieving the overall corporate plan, that
people add value to the business operations of your organization
3. To ensure that HR people learn to think and act strategically when carrying out their
duties and responsibilities...and how these contribute to the achievement of
organizational business plans
4. To design performance incentive plans with the intention to continuously motivate
employees and thus improve customer service in a dynamic environment
 5. To arrange for the right training programs to enhance current skills of your people or to
provide them with new skills in line with your core business activities and at the same
time improve your organization's capability
6. To engage, motivate and retain your talented employees

HRM strategy typically consists of the following factors:

• "Best fit" and "best practice" - meaning that there is correlation between the HRM
strategy and the overall corporate strategy. As HRM as a field seeks to manage human
resources in order to achieve properly organizational goals, an organization's HRM
strategy seeks to accomplish such management by applying a firm's personnel needs with
the goals/objectives of the organisation. As an example, a firm selling cars could have a
corporate strategy of increasing car sales by 10% over a five year period. Accordingly,
the HRM strategy would seek to facilitate how exactly to manage personnel in order to
achieve the 10% figure. Specific HRM functions, such as recruitment and selection,
reward/recognition, an HR plan, or learning and development policies, would be tailored
to achieve the corporate objectives.

• Close co-operation (at least in theory) between HR and the top/senior management, in the
development of the corporate strategy. Theoretically, a senior HR representative should
be present when an organization's corporate objectives are devised. This is so, since it is a
firm's personnel who actually construct a good, or provide a service. The personnel's
proper management is vital in the firm being successful, or even existing as a going
concern. Thus, HR can be seen as one of the critical departments within the functional
area of an organization.

• Continual monitoring of the strategy, via employee feedback, surveys, etc.

Benefits of a Strategic Approach to HR:

1. Facilitates development of high-quality workforce through focus on types of people and

skills needed
 2. Facilitates cost-effective utilization of labor, particularly in service industries where labor
is generally greatest cost
3. Facilitates planning and assessment of environmental uncertainty, and adaptation of
organization to external forces
4. Successful SHRM efforts begin with identification of strategic needs
5. Employee participation is critical to linking strategy and HR practices
6. Strategic HR depends on systematic and analytical mindset
7. Corporate HR departments can have impact on organization's efforts to launch strategic
initiatives

E-HRM

Is the (planning, implementation and) application of information technology for both networking
and supporting at least two individual or collective actors in their shared performing of HR
activities.

E-HRM is not the same as HRIS (Human resource information system) which refers to ICT
systems used within HR departments.[2] Nor is it the same as V-HRM or Virtual HRM - which is
defined by Lepak and Snell as "...a network-based structure built on partnerships and typically
mediated by information technologies to help the organization acquire, develop, and deploy
intellectual capital."

E-HRM is in essence the devolution of HR functions to management and employees. They

access these functions typically via intranet or other web-technology channels. The
empowerment of managers and employees to perform certain chosen HR functions relieves the
HR department of these tasks, allowing HR staff to focus less on the operational and more on the
strategic elements of HR, and allowing organisations to lower HR department staffing levels as
the administrative burden is lightened. It is anticipated that, as E-HRM develops and becomes
more entrenched in business culture, these changes will become more apparent, but they have yet
to be manifested to a significant degree. A 2007 CIPD survey states that "The initial research
indicates that much-commented-on development such as shared services, outsourcing and e-HR
have had relatively little impact on costs or staff numbers".
Advantages of the e-HRM business solution:

• gradual implementation
• adaptability to any client
• collection of information as the basis for strategic decision-making
• integral support for the management of human resources and all other basic and support
processes within the company
• prompt insight into reporting and analysis
• a more dynamic workflow in the business process, productivity and employee satisfaction
• a decisive step towards a paperless office
• lower business costs

e-HRM Model:
Companies already implemented e-HR Strategy:

• Dow Chemicals
• ABN-AMRO
• Ford Motor Company
• IBM

EHRM Features:

• The solution can be accessed and used in a web browser

• Security of data, protected levels of access to individual modules, records, documents and
their component parts

• access to archived records and documents

• user-friendly interface
 • Connectivity with the client's existing information system (payroll accounting, ERP,
attendance registration, document systems…)

Multi-language support

E- Recruitment: The Recent Trend of Recruitment Practices

Recruitment before nineteenth century was based on the apprenticeship system. Apprentices
were not the employees of the Organization, but after completion of apprenticeship they were
absorbed in the company. Compared to apprentices the skilled and qualified candidates were
more desirable. Thus the lack of efficient apprenticeship gave birth to the trend of recruitment
process in the middle of nineteenth century.

FORMS OF RECRUITMENT

E-RECRUITMENT In the era of globalization anyone who is interested in corporate world is

aware of these sites.

Using internet prospective applicants could search for positions in which they were interested.
Contact with employers directly is viable. Feasibility of email overruled the use of telephone, fax
or mail and the companies started accepting application through email. Today Organizations
have their own sites or job postings are given in the placement sites. Again the candidates can
visit the sites, post resume, contact the company directly without any delay. All these are just one
‘click’ away. E-recruitment is a tool for many employers to search for job candidates and for
applicants to look for job. Recent trend of recruitment is e-recruitment or the internet recruitment
or on-line recruitment, where the process of recruitment is automated. The automation began in
1980 but was systematized in 1990 with the release of Restrac’s initial product. E-recruitment
simply means the recruitment process through internet. Various methods can be used for it.

E-RECRUITING METHODS

● Job boards: These are the places where the employers post jobs and search for candidates. Candidates
become aware of the vacancies. One of the disadvantages is, it is generic in nature.
● Employer web sites: These sites can be of the company owned sites, or a site developed by various
employers. For an example, Directemployers.com is the first cooperative, employer-owned e-recruiting
consortium formed by Direct Employers Association. It is a non profit organization formed by the
executives from leading U.S corporations. Press release by Recruiters Network (February 20, 2003)
showed the site has 98 members approximately 45 percent of which are Fortune 500 companies.

● Professional websites: These are for specific professions, skills and not general in nature. For an
example, for HR jobs Human Resource Management sites to be visited like www.shrm.org. The
professional associations will have their own site or society.

WHY E-RECRUITMENT

Cost efficient: Advertisements in internet when compared to newspaper, magazines, and

employment agencies is considerably cheap. As in the other sources continuously one has to
revise the advertisement, for example a company wanted their ad to appear on every Sunday for
a month thus was suppose to pay for four advertisements. But for internet it is not applicable.

● Time saving device: Time to deliver; to communicate is minimized by this. Response is direct
and immediate without any delay. Beforehand the postal services, fax was one way
communication and was time consuming. Phones provided two way communications but resume
management, communicating worldwide were not possible.

● Widens the search: In the era of globalization the reach cannot be restricted at one place. It
provides global reach that also within a fraction of second. Truly the process supports the
definition of recruitment by creating a vast pool of potential candidates.

● Provides clarity: Advertisements in employment news, other newspapers, magazines will

have word limit, thus sometimes is misinterpreted. For an example a company advertisement
announced vacancy for computer skilled person which was interpreted as MIS job which was
rather a job for computer skilled receptionist. The advertisement was not clear enough to explain
the full profile. In internet the word limitation is not there, the idea, opinion, profile can be
expressed as anyone like.
● Scope for better match: Information in detail is provided with clarity therefore suitable
candidate match is possible. The search is widened link with other websites are possible, these
attracts the candidates and after the job profile matches, the candidates apply.

● Standardization: The information of the candidates are collected in a standard format. Beside
collecting the data it also consolidates information received from various sources.

● Reservoir: It acts as the reservoir of information. From the job profile to candidate profile is
available along with past applicant data.

● Lessen paper work: As the data collection, filing, administrative work are done electronically
thus paper work or documentation has been lessened.

DRAWBACKS OF E-RECRUITMENT

● Require being computer savvy: The process is restricted within computer savvy candidates.
As the search is based on various websites, their screening, keywords application demands for a
computer savvy person and company.

● Legal consequences: Alike other recruitment sources this source also should be aware of the
words used in the advertisements otherwise it may lead to the charge of discrimination. For
example, Disney World was sued for screening the resumes preferring the key words used by
whites.

● Vast pool of applicants: This benefits the Organizations as well as it is disadvantage to them
also. Because the huge database cannot be scanned in depth. Either first few candidates are
called for interview or the resumes are screened based on some key words. On the other hand
applicants also face global competition.

● Non-serious applicants: Lot of applicants forward their resumes just to know their market
value. As personally the candidates are not checked thus whether they are serious is not known.
At the time of interview the recruiter might realize that the candidate is not serious in leaving the
current job. But by that time some serious candidates might have been rejected.

● Disclosure of information: Candidates profile and company details are available to public.
The applicants do not want their employer to know that they are looking for a change. Phone
number, address information has lead to many security problems. Again the companies do not
want their competitors always to know the current scenario.

MODERN TRENDS OF E-RECRUITMENT

● Speedy communication: Company and the prospective employee can communicate with each
other via the blogs. Thus blogs, podcasts, vodcasts are being considered a tool of e-recruitmant.
No more the process can be blamed for being one way communication like mails, faxes only
being speedy as done electronically. Podcasts are the services of digital media files. Vodcasts are
the video podcasts.

● Candidate’s preference: History states that employers had the privilege to be selective in
hiring process, especially in screening resumes but were not always fair. Because of the time
constraint it was not possible to go through all the applications. Today the candidates can choose
their employers as not only the financial state is known to them but also the culture is known.
Applying for the Organization will no more be influenced only by the image.

● Search engine advertisement: Print ad is phasing out due the popularity of search engine ads.
Pay-per-click is not only convenient but also more attractive.

● RSS feed: Job boards are embracing RSS feed. Hotjobs, Google deserves special mention.
Google offers one to upload the jobs on Google Base even when one doesn’t have their own site.
RSS can be read using software “RSS reader”. It is a family of web feed formats use to publish
frequently updated works. Such as blog entries, news headlines in a standard format.
E-performance

Often managers do not have an easy way to measure and monitor performance indicators – or an
effective method for communicating goals and objectives. As a result, too much focus can be
placed on financial indicators and lagging performance measures while not enough emphasis is
given to critical operation metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Companies risk wasting resources and efforts when they lack a commonly shared and understood
strategy. In the absence of a shared source of metrics, managers may measure performance in
areas not related to the corporate strategy or not aligned in the correct way.

The employees know they are responsible for driving corporate performance. However, not
every employee knows if or when they are responsible for resolving a performance-related
problem. Many problems persist or go unaddressed simply because no one person, team or
department has been specifically assigned to resolving them.

Corporate Performance Management [CPM] is a set of management and analytic process,

supported by technology, that enable businesses to define strategic goals and then measure and
manage performance against those goals. CPM includes metrics, methodologies, processes and
systems used to manage performance targeted at the corporate level.

Furthermore, Corporate Performance Management solutions must be comprehensive and span all
performance levels to manage the interplay among all types of indicators and provide a unified
vision of the organization. CPM also offers the following benefits:

• Improves decision making;

• Minimizes uncertainty and meets KPIs and Objectives;
• Focuses on the indicators that reflect strategy and are most critical;
• Synchronizes communication of goals, strategies and metrics across broad geographic
areas and allows users to view, update, share and work simultaneously on common
information;
• Minimizes problems associated with reporting detailed financial and operational data
from multiple applications, databases and legacy systems;
 • Empowers organizations to make faster, smarter decisions in real time by capturing and
transforming data from operational back-end legacy systems into a real-time data storage;
• Integrates key management processes such as planning, budgeting, forecasting,
consolidation, reporting and analysis within a single IT platform in a closed-loop
environment.

A comprehensive Corporate Performance Management solution supports all stages of the CPM
lifecycle, allowing you to plan your strategy, set goals, manage risks and initiatives, measure
and monitor indicators, take corrective and preventive actions and report and analyze your
performance with the enterprise organization.

E-Compensation

Your employees are less likely to be recruited away from your organization if they
understand the true impact of the package you're offering them. Oracle's PeopleSoft
Enterprise ECompensation empowers your employees with a collaborative employee
compensation application that shows their complete compensation package in an intuitive
format—and provides the tools they need to plan their financial futures.
E-learning Reinforces Staff Loyalty at Hilton

August 5 2006 - Global hotel group, Hilton, part of Hilton Hotels Corporation, has found a link
between employee development and reduced staff turnover for the second year running.

In a worldwide survey of 1500 'team members' conducted anonymously in May 2006, 40 per
cent said that the opportunity for development through Hilton University, the group's online
learning platform, was the main reason why they intended to continue their careers with Hilton.
A further 49 per cent said it was not the main factor but being given the chance to develop
professionally was very important to them.

Hilton employees around the world can access a wide range of learning activities through Hilton
University, including:

• 550 SkillSoft e-learning courses - covering business, professional and IT skills

• Books24x7 Referenceware - featuring best-selling management, business and technology
books and reference materials
• Online mentoring, and
• Virtual classrooms

The survey also highlighted how learning is being applied in the workplace with over 70 per cent
of respondents saying that what they learned yesterday during a learning activity can be used in
their work today.

Kevin Young, General Manager of SkillSoft EMEA commented:

"The fact that such a significant number of people are so quickly putting into practice what
they've learned is a good example of the value of just-in-time learning. Being able to use new
skills and knowledge immediately means that they are more likely to be retained and used
again."
Maarten Staps, International Learning and Development Manager at Hilton who had
responsibility for the study, said:

"After conducting this study for the second year, it is encouraging to see that an even greater
proportion of team members are remaining loyal to Hilton due to the development opportunities
offered through Hilton University. This will have an inevitable impact on the business, both in
terms of increased productivity as well as in reduced recruitment costs."

Conclusion:

Ideally HR & top management work together to formulate the company's overall business
strategy; that strategy then provides the framework within which HR activities such as recruiting
& appraising must be crafted. If it is done successfully, it should result out in the employee
competencies & behavior that in turn should help the business implement its strategies & realize
its goals.

According to an expert "the human resources management system must be tailored to the
demands of business strategy".

In order to be successful the employees should be developed in such a manner that they can be
the competitive advantage, & for this the human resource management must be an equal partner
in both the formulation & the implementation of the corporate & competitive strategies.

References:

• Greer Charles, Strategic Human Resource Management 3 rd. edition, Prentice Hall
Inc.Meffinson D, Banfield Paul, Mathews J J, Human Resource Management, Kogan
Page

• Dessler Gary, Human Resource Management 8 Th. Edition, Pearson education Asia
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October
• 1995, pp. 44-48.
• Anfuso, Dawn. “Kodak Employees Bring a Department into the Black.” Personnel
Journal,September 1994, pp. 104-112.
• Bechet, Thomas P., and James W. Walker. “Aligning Staffing with Business Strategy.”
Human Resources Planning, 1993, pp. 1-16.
• Condrey, Stephen E. Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998.
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