INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (HRM)

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an

organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and
providing direction for the people who work in the organization.
Human Resource Management can also be performed by line
managers.Human Resource Management is the organizational
function that deals with issues related to people such as
compensation, hiring, performance management, organization
development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation,
communication, administration, and training.

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a

variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing
needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire
employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best
employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with
performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management
practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include
managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation,
employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses
(for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves
because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they
should always ensure that employees have -- and are aware of --
personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These
policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all
employees have. Note that some people distinguish a difference
between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD (Human
Resource Development, a profession). Those people might include
HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of
activities to develop personnel inside of organizations, e.g., career
development, training, organization development, etc.There is a
long-standing argument about where HR-related functions should be
organized into large organizations, eg, "should HR be in the
Organization Development department or the other way around?"

The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone tremendous change over the
past 20-30 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel
Department," mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More
recently, organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing a major role in
staffing, training and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are
performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner.Recently, the phrase
"talent management" is being used to refer the activities to attract, develop and retain
employees. Some people and organizations use the phrase to refer
especially to talented and/or high-potential employees. The phrase often is used
interchangeably with the field of Human Resource Management -- although as the
field of talent management matures, it's very likely there will be an increasing number
of people who will strongly disagree about the interchange of these fields.

Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to

the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there
who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of
the business.[1] The terms "human resource management" and "human resources"
(HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description
of the processes involved in managing people in organizations.[1] In simple words,
HRM means employing people, developing their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and
compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.

Features Its features include:

• Organizational management
• Personnel administration
• Manpower management
• Industrial management[2][3]

The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that

employees are individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such
should not be thought of as basic business resources, such as trucks
and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of workers,
assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise
productively, and that the main obstacles to their endeavors are lack
of knowledge, insufficient training, and failures of process.

Human Resource Management(HRM) is seen by practitioners in the

field as a more innovative view of workplace management than the
traditional approach. Its techniques force the managers of an
enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be
understood and undertaken by the workforce, and to provide the
resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their
assignments. As such, HRM techniques, when properly practiced, are
expressive of the goals and operating practices of the enterprise
overall. HRM is also seen by many to have a key role in risk
reduction within organisations.[5]

Synonyms such as personnel management are often used in a more

restricted sense to describe activities that are necessary in the
recruiting of a workforce, providing its members with payroll and
benefits, and administrating their work-life needs. So if we move to
actual definitions, Torrington and Hall (1987) define personnel
management as being:

“a series of activities which: first enable working people and their

employing organisations to agree about the objectives and nature of
their working relationship and, secondly, ensures that the
agreement is fulfilled" (p. 49).

While Miller (1987) suggests that HRM relates to:

".......those decisions and actions which concern the management of

employees at all levels in the business and which are related to the
implementation of strategies directed towards creating and
sustaining competitive advantage" (p. 352).

[edit] Academic theory

The goal of human resource management is to help an organisation
to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees
and also to manage them effectively. The key word here perhaps is
"fit", i.e. a HRM approach seeks to ensure a fit between the
management of an organisation's employees, and the overall
strategic direction of the company (Miller, 1989).

The basic premise of the academic theory of HRM is that humans are
not machines, therefore we need to have an interdisciplinary
examination of people in the workplace. Fields such as psychology,
industrial relations, industrial engineering, sociology, economics, and
critical theories: postmodernism, post-structuralism play a major
role. Many colleges and universities offer bachelor and master
degrees in Human Resources Management or in Human Resources
and Industrial Relations.

One widely used scheme to describe the role of HRM, developed by

Dave Ulrich, defines 4 fields for the HRM function:[6]

• Strategic business partner

• Change management
• Employee champion
• Administration

However, many HR functions these days struggle to get beyond the

roles of administration and employee champion, and are seen as
reactive rather than strategically proactive partners for the top
management. In addition, HR organisations also have difficulty in
proving how their activities and processes add value to the
company. Only in recent years have HR scholars and professionals
focused on developing models that can measure the value added by
HR.[7]

[edit] Business practice

Human resources management involves several processes. Together
they are supposed to achieve the above mentioned goal. These
processes can be performed in an HR department, but some tasks
can also be outsourced or performed by line-managers or other
departments. When effectively integrated they provide significant
economic benefit to the company.[8]

• Workforce planning
• Recruitment (sometimes separated into attraction and selection)
• Induction, Orientation and Onboarding
• Skills management
• Training and development
• Personnel administration
• Compensation in wage or salary
• Time management
• Travel management (sometimes assigned to accounting rather
than HRM)
• Payroll (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM)
• Employee benefits administration
• Personnel cost planning
• Performance appraisal
• Labor relations

[edit] HRM strategy

An HRM strategy pertains to the means as to how to implement the

specific functions of HRM. An organisation's HR function may possess
recruitment and selection policies, disciplinary procedures,
reward/recognition policies, an HR plan, or learning and
development policies, however all of these functional areas of HRM
need to be aligned and correlated, in order to correspond with the
overall business strategy. An HRM strategy thus is an overall plan,
concerning the implementation of specific HRM functional areas.

An 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 organisational goals, an organisation'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 organisation'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
organisation.

• Continual monitoring of the strategy, via employee feedback,

surveys, etc.

The implementation of an HR strategy is not always required, and

may depend on a number of factors, namely the size of the firm, the
organisational culture within the firm or the industry that the firm
operates in and also the people in the firm.
An HRM strategy can be divided, in general, into two facets - the
people strategy and the HR functional strategy. The people strategy
pertains to the point listed in the first paragraph, namely the careful
correlation of HRM policies/actions to attain the goals laid down in
the corporate strategy. The HR functional strategy relates to the
policies employed within the HR functional area itself, regarding the
management of persons internal to it, to ensure its own
departmental goals are met.

[edit] Careers and education

Further information: Graduate degree programs in human resources

management

Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations was the

world's first school for college-level study in HRM

Several universities offer programs of study pertaining to HRM and

broader fields. Cornell University created the world's first school for
college-level study in HRM (ILR School).[9] University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign also now has a school dedicated to the study of
HRM, while several business schools also house a center or
department dedicated to such studies; e.g., University of Minnesota,
Michigan State University, Ohio State University, and Purdue
University.

There are both generalist and specialist HRM jobs. There are careers
involved with employment, recruitment and placement and these
are usually conducted by interviewers, EEO (Equal Employment
Opportunity) specialists or college recruiters. Training and
development specialism is often conducted by trainers and
orientation specialists. Compensation and benefits tasks are handled
by compensation analysts, salary administrators, and benefits
administrators.
[edit] Professional organizations

Professional organizations in HRM include the Society for Human

Resource Management, the Australian Human Resources Institute
(AHRI), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD),
the International Public Management Association for HR (IPMA-HR),
Management Association of Nepal (MAN) and the International
Personnel Management Association of Canada (IPMA-Canada),
Human Capital Institute. National Human Resource Development
Network in India.

[edit] Functions

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a

variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing
needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire
employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best
employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with
performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management
practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include
managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation,
employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses
(for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves
because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they
should always ensure that employees have—and are aware of—
personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These
policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all
employees have.

Note that some people distinguish a difference between HRM (a

major management activity) and HRD (Human Resource
Development, a profession). Those people might include HRM in
HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to
develop personnel inside of organizations, including, e.g., career
development, training, organization development, etc.
There is a long-standing argument about where HR-related functions
should be organized into large organizations, e.g., "should HR be in
the Organization Development department or the other way
around?"

The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone major

changes over the past 20–30 years. Many years ago, large
organizations looked to the "Personnel Department," mostly to
manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More
recently, organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing an
important role in staffing, training and helping to manage people so
that people and the organization are performing at maximum
capability in a highly fulfilling manner.

Human resources

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

"HR" redirects here. For other uses, see HR (disambiguation).
This article is about Human resources. For other uses, see Human
resource (disambiguation).

Human resources is a relatively modern management term, coined

in the 1960s.[citation needed] The origins of the function arose in
organizations that introduced 'welfare management' practices and
also in those that adopted the principles of 'scientific management'.
From these terms emerged a largely administrative management
activity, co-ordinating a range of worker related processes and
becoming known, in time as the 'personnel function'. Human
resources progressively became the more usual name for this
function, in the first instance in the United States as well as
multinational corporations, reflecting the adoption of a more
quantitative as well as strategic approach to workforce
management, demanded by corporate management and the greater
competitiveness for limited and highly skilled workers.

Background

The use of the term 'human resources' by organizations to describe

the workforce capacity available to devote to the achievement of its
strategies has drawn upon concepts developed in
Industrial/Organizational Psychology and System Theory. Human
resources has at least two related interpretations depending on
context. The original usage derives from political economy and
economics, where it was traditionally called labor, one of four factors
of production – although this perspective has shifted as a
consequence of further ongoing research into more strategic
approaches.[1] This first usage is used more in terms of 'human
resources development' of the individuals within an organization,
although the approach can also be applied beyond the level of the
organization to that of industry sectors and nations [2]

Human resources purpose and role

In simple terms, an organization's human resource management

strategy should maximize return on investment in the organization's
human capital and minimize financial risk. Human Resources seeks
to achieve this by aligning the supply of skilled and qualified
individuals and the capabilities of the current workforce, with the
organization's ongoing and future business plans and requirements
to maximise return on investment and secure future survival and
success. In ensuring such objectives are achieved, the human
resource function purpose in this context is to implement the
organisation's human resource requirements effectively but also
pragmatically, taking account of legal, ethical and as far as is
practical in a manner that retains the support and respect of the
workforce.[citation needed]
[edit] Key functions

Human Resources may set strategies and develop policies,

standards, systems, and processes that implement these strategies
in a whole range of areas. The following are typical of a wide range
of organizations:

• Recruitment, selection, and onboarding (resourcing)

• Organizational design and development
• Business transformation and change management
• Performance, conduct and behavior management
• Industrial and employee relations
• Human resources (workforce) analysis and workforce personnel
data management
• Compensation, rewards, and benefits management
• Training and development (learning management)

Implementation of such policies, processes or standards may be

directly managed by the HR function itself, or the function may
indirectly supervise the implementation of such activities by
managers, other business functions or via third-party external
partner organizations.

[edit] Human resources management trends and influences

In organizations, it is important to determine both current and future

organizational requirements for both core employees and the
contingent workforce in terms of their skills/technical abilities,
competencies, flexibility etc. The analysis requires consideration of
the internal and external factors that can have an effect on the
resourcing, development, motivation and retention of employees
and other workers.

External factors are those largely out-with the control of the

organization. These include issues such as economic climate and
current and future labor market trends (e.g., skills, education level,
government investment into industries etc.). On the other hand,
internal influences are broadly controlled by the organization to
predict, determine, and monitor—for example—the organizational
culture, underpinned by management style, environmental climate,
and the approach to ethical and corporate social responsibilities.

[edit] Major trends

To know the business environment an organization operates in,

three major trends must be considered:

1. Demographics: the characteristics of a population/workforce, for

example, age, gender or social class. This type of trend may
have an effect in relation to pension offerings, insurance
packages etc.
2. Diversity: the variation within the population/workplace.
Changes in society now mean that a larger proportion of
organizations are made up of "baby-boomers" or older
employees in comparison to thirty years ago. Advocates of
"workplace diversity" simply advocate an employee base that is
a mirror reflection of the make-up of society insofar as race,
gender, sexual orientation, etc.
3. Skills and qualifications: as industries move from manual to
more managerial professions so does the need for more highly
skilled graduates. If the market is "tight" (i.e., not enough staff
for the jobs), employers must compete for employees by
offering financial rewards, community investment, etc..

[edit] Individual responses

In regard to how individuals respond to the changes in a labour

market, the following must be understood:

• Geographical spread: how far is the job from the individual? The
distance to travel to work should be in line with the pay offered,
 and the transportation and infrastructure of the area also
influence who applies for a post.
• Occupational structure: the norms and values of the different
careers within an organization. Mahoney 1989 developed 3
different types of occupational structure namely craft (loyalty to
the profession), organization career (promotion through the
firm) and unstructured (lower/unskilled workers who work when
needed).
• Generational difference: different age categories of employees
have certain characteristics, for example their behaviour and
their expectations of the organization.

[edit] Framework

Human Resources Development is a framework for the expansion of

human capital within an organization or (in new approaches) a
municipality, region, or nation. Human Resources Development is a
combination of training and education, in a broad context of
adequate health and employment policies, that ensures the
continual improvement and growth of both the individual, the
organization, and the national human resourcefulness. Adam Smith
states, “The capacities of individuals depended on their access to
education”.[3] Human Resources Development is the medium that
drives the process between training and learning in a broadly
fostering environment. Human Resources Development is not a
defined object, but a series of organised processes, “with a specific
learning objective” (Nadler,1984)[4] Within a national context, it
becomes a strategic approach to intersectoral linkages between
health, education and employment.[5]

[edit] Structure

Human Resources Development is the structure that allows for

individual development, potentially satisfying the organization’s, or
the nation's goals. Development of the individual benefits the
individual, the organization—and the nation and its citizens. In the
corporate vision, the Human Resources Development framework
views employees as an asset to the enterprise, whose value is
enhanced by development, “Its primary focus is on growth and
employee development…it emphasises developing individual
potential and skills”(Elwood, Olton and Trott 1996)[6] Human
Resources Development in this treatment can be in-room group
training, tertiary or vocational courses or mentoring and coaching by
senior employees with the aim for a desired outcome that develops
the individual’s performance. At the level of a national strategy, it
can be a broad intersectoral approach to fostering creative
contributions to national productivity [7]

[edit] Training

At the organizational level, a successful Human Resources

Development program prepares the individual to undertake a higher
level of work, “organized learning over a given period of time, to
provide the possibility of performance change” (Nadler 1984). In
these settings, Human Resources Development is the framework
that focuses on the organizations competencies at the first stage,
training, and then developing the employee, through education, to
satisfy the organizations long-term needs and the individuals’ career
goals and employee value to their present and future employers.
Human Resources Development can be defined simply as developing
the most important section of any business, its human resource, by
attaining or upgrading employee skills and attitudes at all levels to
maximize enterprise effectiveness [3]. The people within an
organization are its human resource. Human Resources
Development from a business perspective is not entirely focused on
the individual’s growth and development, “development occurs to
enhance the organization's value, not solely for individual
improvement. Individual education and development is a tool and a
means to an end, not the end goal itself”.(Elwood F. Holton II, James
W. Trott Jr)[6]. The broader concept of national and more strategic
attention to the development of human resources is beginning to
emerge as newly independent countries face strong competition for
their skilled professionals and the accompanying brain-drain they
experience.

[edit] Recruitment

Employee recruitment forms a major part of an organization's overall

resourcing strategies, which identify and secure people needed for
the organization to survive and succeed in the short to medium-
term. Recruitment activities need to be responsive to the ever-
increasingly competitive market to secure suitably qualified and
capable recruits at all levels. To be effective these initiatives need to
include how and when to source the best recruits internally or
externally. Common to the success of either are; well-defined
organizational structures with sound job design, robust task and
person specification and versatile selection processes, reward,
employment relations and human resource policies, underpinned by
a commitment for strong employer branding and employee
engagement and onboarding strategies.

Internal recruitment can provide the most cost-effective source for

recruits if the potential of the existing pool of employees has been
enhanced through training, development and other performance-
enhancing activities such as performance appraisal, succession
planning and development centres to review performance and
assess employee development needs and promotional potential.

Increasingly, securing the best quality candidates for almost all

organizations relies, at least occasionally if not substantially, on
external recruitment methods. Rapidly changing business models
demand skill and experience that cannot be sourced or rapidly
enough developed from the existing employee base. It would be
unusual for an organization to undertake all aspects of the
recruitment process without support from third-party dedicated
recruitment firms. This may involve a range of support services, such
as; provision of CVs or resumes, identifying recruitment media,
advertisement design and media placement for job vacancies,
candidate response handling, shortlisting, conducting aptitude
testing, preliminary interviews or reference and qualification
verification. Typically, small organizations may not have in-house
resources or, in common with larger organizations, may not possess
the particular skill-set required to undertake a specific recruitment
assignment. Where requirements arise, these are referred on an ad
hoc basis to government job centres or commercially run
employment agencies.

Except in sectors where high-volume recruitment is the norm, an

organization faced with sudden, unexpected requirements for an
unusually large number of new recruits often delegates the task to a
specialist external recruiter. Sourcing executive-level and senior
management as well as the acquisition of scarce or ‘high-potential’
recruits has been a long-established market serviced by a wide
range of ‘search and selection’ or ‘headhunting’ consultancies, which
typically form long-standing relationships with their client
organizations. Finally, certain organizations with sophisticated HR
practices have identified there is a strategic advantage in
outsourcing complete responsibility for all workforce procurement to
one or more third-party recruitment agencies or consultancies. In the
most sophisticated of these arrangements the external recruitment
services provider may not only physically locate, or ‘embed’, their
resourcing team(s) in the client organization's offices, but work in
tandem with the senior human resource management team in
developing the longer-term HR resourcing strategy and plan.

[edit] Other considerations

Despite its more everyday use terms such as "human resources" and
similarly "human capital" continue to be perceived negatively and
maybe considered an insulting of people. They create the impression
that people are merely commodities, like office machines or
vehicles, despite assurances to the contrary

Modern analysis emphasizes that human beings are not

"commodities" or "resources", but are creative and social beings in a
productive enterprise. The 2000 revision of ISO 9001 in contrast
requires identifying the processes, their sequence and interaction,
and to define and communicate responsibilities and authorities. In
general, heavily unionised nations such as France and Germany
have adopted and encouraged such approaches. The International
Labour Organization also in 2001 decided to revisit, and revise its
1975 Recommendation 150 on Human Resources Development [8].
One view of these trends is that a strong social consensus on
political economy and a good social welfare system facilitates labor
mobility and tends to make the entire economy more productive, as
labor can develop skills and experience in various ways, and move
from one enterprise to another with little controversy or difficulty in
adapting. Another view is that governments should become more
aware of their national role in facilitating human resources
development across all sectors.[citation needed]

[edit] Trans-national labor mobility

An important controversy regarding labor mobility illustrates the

broader philosophical issue with usage of the phrase "human
resources": governments of developing nations often regard
developed nations that encourage immigration or "guest workers" as
appropriating human capital that is more rightfully part of the
developing nation and required to further its economic growth.

Over time the United Nations have come to more generally support
the developing nations' point of view, and have requested significant
offsetting "foreign aid" contributions so that a developing nation
losing human capital does not lose the capacity to continue to train
new people in trades, professions, and the arts.[9].
[edit] Ethical management

In the very narrow context of corporate "human resources"

management, there is a contrasting pull to reflect and require
workplace diversity that echoes the diversity of a global customer
base. Such programs require foreign language and culture skills,
ingenuity, humour, and careful listening. These indicate a general
shift through the human capital point of view to an acknowledgment
that human beings contribute more to a productive enterprise than
just "work": they bring their character, ethics, creativity, social
connections, and in some cases pets and children, and alter the
character of a workplace. The term corporate culture is used to
characterize such processes at the organizational level. Managing
employees is a major job, so those in Human Resources must be
equal to the task. Ten or twenty years ago, Human Resources
personnel were rarely seen. Instead they worked behind the scenes
to ensure personnel records were in order and employee benefits
were being properly administered, but the job stopped there.
Today's Human Resources personnel don't only handle small
administrative tasks. They are responsible for staffing major
corporations. This is no minor feat.

It's not enough to be able to screen potential employees, however.

Those who work in Human Resources also have to be able to handle
a crisis in a smooth, discreet manner. Whether the issue is health
care related or regarding sexual harassment or employee disputes, a
person working in Human Resources must be trusted to keep an
employee's personal details to him or herself. The Human Resource
team must also be a good judge of morale and realize when morale
boosting incentives are needed. It's up to them to make sure all
employees are comfortable with their surroundings and working
under acceptable, if not above average, conditions.

For those looking to enter a career in Human Resources, a college

education is necessary. One doesn't necessarily have to have a
degree in Human Resources, however. Majoring in Business
Administration, Psychology, Labor Relations and Personnel
Administration, as well as degrees in Social and Behavioral Sciences,
can also be beneficial.

Human Resources may have gotten a bum rap, but it's clearly
among the most important departments in any corporation. The next
time you have to meet with someone from Human Resources,
remember that without him or her, your company might not be
running so efficiently.

Understanding Key Factors that play a vital role in personnel

management and planning in an organization

Management plays a key role in the development of the Business

enterprise. It means getting any work done by other people.
Management system has some core functionalities such as planning
organizing, staffing and controlling the efforts of human beings who
are working in the concerned in the enterprise. Management
basically deals with all the persons working in the concern who are
responsible for managing an organization. Everyone in the
organization will have certain responsibilities and duties in the
enterprise. Personnel management includes planning and directing
the applications, development and utilization of human resource in
the enterprise. Employees, unions, public relationship also plays a
key role in personnel management. So there is a need for personnel
Management and planning of the members play a vital role in the
Enterprise. Personnel Management is an important branch in
Management of any business enterprise. It holds a key to all actions
and successful management. It is also concerned with human and
social implications of change in internal organization and methods of
working and of economic and social changes in the community. The
main aim is to establish a better coordination between all the
members from top level management to down below the
subordinates to have better cooperation, better focus to bring out
innovative ideas, their objectives, understanding in the enterprise.
Co-operative relationship is achieved within the enterprise by
creating harmonious relations, genuine consultation and
participation and system of effective communication.

Personnel management should designed in such a way it will have

the capability to respond to the changes. Maintain a good
relationship within the organization; meet the enterprise social and
legal responsibilities. Human relations have to be nurtured
constantly in the enterprise. Only the enterprise, which is conscious
of this need, can achieve their targets by efficiently handling their
available resources for a particular process.

The objectives of personnel management in any working

organization are, to bring development of individuals, maintain a
safe and effective environmental conditions, utilize the available
resources, to ensure job satisfaction among workers. What are all
the objective to be focused?

Ø Social.
Ø Personnel.
Ø Enterprise.
Ø Union.

Social objective is concerned about how the enterprise creates new

employment opportunities, how the productivity of the enterprise
can be maximized, bring satisfaction to the work force, avoidance of
wastage of resources and promote a healthy relationship between
the human and the social welfare.

Personnel objectives specifies the needs of the members by

providing job security, maximizing the development of the members,
provide proper working environmental conditions to workers.
Enterprise objective is to bring a balance between demand and
supply of the personnel and maintain competent workers in the
enterprise. Union objective deals with formulation of personnel
policies in consultation with unions and self-discipline within the
enterprise.

Financial and physical resources required for a particular process to

be done, and the members of the organization. Personnel
Management is responsible for both the enterprise operating system
and the workers. Other areas in which personnel management is
expected to help the workers are include maintenance of personnel
records, determination of wage policy, methods and rates of
remuneration.

Characteristics of good personnel management are:

Ø Stability, to appoint or replace key personnel executives with

minimal loss
Ø Flexibility, capability to handle problems encountered within the
enterprise.
Ø Simplicity, balancing the perfect line of relationship among the
workers.
Ø Objectivity, feature of having definite objectives for all the levels
or units in the enterprise.

Functional responsibilities concerned with the personnel

management are

Ø Managerial functions
Ø Operative functions.

Managerial functions includes planning, it involves formulating

policies for future development of the enterprise, program to choose
adequate number of persons who can work efficiently and
accomplish the business objectives, provide training to the workers
in the enterprise, integration and maintenance of work force.
Organizing, it has to provide a clear layout about the inter-
relationship between persons, jobs and physical factor and every
worker should have proper understanding of their job. Direction
involves motivation, which can be either positive or negative for the
enterprise. It is necessary to motivate the workers about the nature
of their job. Instructions should be clear, neatly explained and easy
to understand.

Control, it helps in bringing out performance analysis of all the

workers, which would be useful in, evaluate and to discover their
deviations. Operative functions include procurement, which deals
with recruitment of right kind of persons for the available job in the
enterprise i.e. right person for right job. Development, subordinates
of the enterprise should be able to know what are the qualities
needed to get into higher levels in the organization. Integeration, it
provides so-operation among the workers, efficient channel for
communication, satisfactory solution for problems and grievances.

Planning is a process of deciding the business targets and charting

out the path of attaining those targets. It is also described as process
of thinking before doing. Every enterprise that recruits people to
carry out its work, whether it is educational institutions, enterprise or
business needs a personnel plan in various phases of personnel.

Planning in personnel management system is concerned about

present manpower positions, what number and kind of employees
are required for the enterprise. And this can be done only when the
enterprise knows its objectives and how the plans are accomplished
with right kind of resources. Future demand and supply of personnel.
Assessment of all the workers should be carried out.

1. What each worker does?

2. How his performance during his career?
3. About his educational qualification skills and training in the
concerned field.
4. How his job is related to others. ?
5. In what kind of environment his performance can be increased.

These evaluations can be carried out by conducting interviews to

selected number of workers in the enterprise or by having a detailed
performance report. By assessing the enterprise we can also
determine the plan for the future. This can be carried out by
analyzing the objectives and plan of the enterprise for long term and
short term required number of workers, resources needed for the
future purpose, forecasting the number of personnel requirements
estimate not only of the number of personnel required but their
qualities and their types also should be specified. So assessment for
future holds a key in the development of the enterprise so it should
be carefully analyzed.

Sources of personnel may be from Internal or External. Internal

supply deals with new recruitments to the concern this is determined
by the enterprise itself it is not difficult to know what type and
number personnel they need would be to accomplish the objectives
of the enterprise, transfers within the enterprises this is not
determined by the enterprise while transferring within a department
or organization it is difficult to fulfill all the workers satisfactions,
personnel reporting after a period of leave.

Retirements, dismissals, voluntary resignations, retrenchments,

deaths of an employee may decrease the internal supply of the
personnel of all these retirements are the easiest to forecast, deaths
and voluntary resignations are difficult to handle, dismissals and
retrenchment can be broadly determined. External supply focuses on
schools and colleges from which students pass out. House wives
looking for a part time job for income and those who search for a
better job with good salary.
Human Resource Management

Function 1: Manpower planning

The penalties for not being correctly staffed are costly.

• Understaffing loses the business economies of scale and

specialization, orders, customers and profits.
• Overstaffing is wasteful and expensive, if sustained, and it is
costly to eliminate because of modern legislation in respect of
redundancy payments, consultation, minimum periods of notice,
etc. Very importantly, overstaffing reduces the competitive
efficiency of the business.

Planning staff levels requires that an assessment of present and

future needs of the organization be compared with present
resources and future predicted resources. Appropriate steps then be
planned to bring demand and supply into balance.

Thus the first step is to take a 'satellite picture' of the existing

workforce profile (numbers, skills, ages, flexibility, gender,
experience, forecast capabilities, character, potential, etc. of existing
employees) and then to adjust this for 1, 3 and 10 years ahead by
amendments for normal turnover, planned staff movements,
retirements, etc, in line with the business plan for the corresponding
time frames.

The result should be a series of crude supply situations as would be

the outcome of present planning if left unmodified. (This, clearly,
requires a great deal of information accretion, classification and
statistical analysis as a subsidiary aspect of personnel
management.)

What future demands will be is only influenced in part by the

forecast of the personnel manager, whose main task may well be to
scrutinize and modify the crude predictions of other managers.
Future staffing needs will derive from:

• Sales and production forecasts

• The effects of technological change on task needs
• Variations in the efficiency, productivity, flexibility of labor as a
result of training, work study, organizational change, new
motivations, etc.
• Changes in employment practices (e.g. use of subcontractors or
agency staffs, hiving-off tasks, buying in, substitution, etc.)
• Variations, which respond to new legislation, e.g. payroll taxes
or their abolition, new health and safety requirements
• Changes in Government policies (investment incentives,
regional or trade grants, etc.)

What should emerge from this 'blue sky gazing' is a 'thought out'
and logical staffing demand schedule for varying dates in the future
which can then be compared with the crude supply schedules. The
comparisons will then indicate what steps must be taken to achieve
a balance.

That, in turn, will involve the further planning of such recruitment,

training, retraining, labor reductions (early retirement/redundancy)
or changes in workforce utilization as will bring supply and demand
into equilibrium, not just as a one–off but as a continuing workforce
planning exercise the inputs to which will need constant varying to
reflect 'actual' as against predicted experience on the supply side
and changes in production actually achieved as against forecast on
the demand side.

Function 2: Recruitment and selection of employees

Recruitment of staff should be preceded by:

An analysis of the job to be done (i.e. an analytical study of the tasks

to be performed to determine their essential factors) written into a
job description so that the selectors know what physical and mental
characteristics applicants must possess, what qualities and attitudes
are desirable and what characteristics are a decided disadvantage;

• In the case of replacement staff a critical questioning of the

need to recruit at all (replacement should rarely be an
automatic process).
• Effectively, selection is 'buying' an employee (the price being
the wage or salary multiplied by probable years of service)
hence bad buys can be very expensive. For that reason some
firms (and some firms for particular jobs) use external expert
consultants for recruitment and selection.
• Equally some small organizations exist to 'head hunt', i.e. to
attract staff with high reputations from existing employers to
the recruiting employer. However, the 'cost' of poor selection is
such that, even for the mundane day-to-day jobs, those who
recruit and select should be well trained to judge the suitability
of applicants.

The main sources of recruitment are:

• Internal promotion and internal introductions (at times desirable

for morale purposes)
• Careers officers (and careers masters at schools)
• University appointment boards
• Agencies for the unemployed
• Advertising (often via agents for specialist posts) or the use of
other local media (e.g. commercial radio)

Where the organization does its own printed advertising it is useful if

it has some identifying logo as its trade mark for rapid attraction and
it must take care not to offend the sex, race, etc. antidiscrimination
legislation either directly or indirectly. The form on which the
applicant is to apply (personal appearance, letter of application,
completion of a form) will vary according to the posts vacant and
numbers to be recruited.

It is very desirable in many jobs that claim about experience and

statements about qualifications are thoroughly checked and that
applicants unfailingly complete a health questionnaire (the latter is
not necessarily injurious to the applicants chance of being appointed
as firms are required to employ a percentage of disabled people).

Before letters of appointment are sent any doubts about medical

fitness or capacity (in employments where hygiene considerations
are dominant) should be resolved by requiring applicants to attend a
medical examination. This is especially so where, as for example in
the case of apprentices, the recruitment is for a contractual period or
involves the firm in training costs.

Interviewing can be carried out by individuals (e.g. supervisor or

departmental manager), by panels of interviewers or in the form of
sequential interviews by different experts and can vary from a five
minute 'chat' to a process of several days. Ultimately personal skills
in judgment are probably the most important, but techniques to aid
judgment include selection testing for:

• Aptitudes (particularly useful for school leavers)

• Attainments
• General intelligence

(All of these need skilled testing and assessment.) In more senior

posts other techniques are:

• Leaderless groups
• Command exercises
• Group problem solving

(These are some common techniques - professional selection

organizations often use other techniques to aid in selection.)
Training in interviewing and in appraising candidates is clearly
essential to good recruitment. Largely the former consists of
teaching interviewers how to draw out the interviewee and the latter
how to xratex the candidates. For consistency (and as an aid to
checking that) rating often consists of scoring candidates for
experience, knowledge, physical/mental capabilities, intellectual
levels, motivation, prospective potential, leadership abilities etc.
(according to the needs of the post). Application of the normal curve
of distribution to scoring eliminates freak judgments.

Function 3: Employee motivation

To retain good staff and to encourage them to give of their best

while at work requires attention to the financial and psychological
and even physiological rewards offered by the organization as a
continuous exercise.

Basic financial rewards and conditions of service (e.g. working hours

per week) are determined externally (by national bargaining or
government minimum wage legislation) in many occupations but as
much as 50 per cent of the gross pay of manual workers is often the
result of local negotiations and details (e.g. which particular hours
shall be worked) of conditions of service are often more important
than the basics. Hence there is scope for financial and other
motivations to be used at local levels.

As staffing needs will vary with the productivity of the workforce

(and the industrial peace achieved) so good personnel policies are
desirable. The latter can depend upon other factors (like
environment, welfare, employee benefits, etc.) but unless the wage
packet is accepted as 'fair and just' there will be no motivation.

Hence while the technicalities of payment and other systems may be

the concern of others, the outcome of them is a matter of great
concern to human resource management.
Increasingly the influence of behavioral science discoveries are
becoming important not merely because of the widely-acknowledged
limitations of money as a motivator, but because of the changing
mix and nature of tasks (e.g. more service and professional jobs and
far fewer unskilled and repetitive production jobs).

The former demand better-educated, mobile and multi-skilled

employees much more likely to be influenced by things like job
satisfaction, involvement, participation, etc. than the economically
dependent employees of yesteryear.

Hence human resource management must act as a source of

information about and a source of inspiration for the application of
the findings of behavioral science. It may be a matter of drawing the
attention of senior managers to what is being achieved elsewhere
and the gradual education of middle managers to new points of view
on job design, work organization and worker autonomy.

Function 4: Employee evaluation

An organization needs constantly to take stock of its workforce and

to assess its performance in existing jobs for three reasons:

• To improve organizational performance via improving the

performance of individual contributors (should be an automatic
process in the case of good managers, but (about annually) two
key questions should be posed:
o what has been done to improve the performance of a
person last year?
o and what can be done to improve his or her performance in
the year to come?).
• To identify potential, i.e. to recognize existing talent and to use
that to fill vacancies higher in the organization or to transfer
individuals into jobs where better use can be made of their
abilities or developing skills.
 • To provide an equitable method of linking payment to
performance where there are no numerical criteria (often this
salary performance review takes place about three months later
and is kept quite separate from 1. and 2. but is based on the
same assessment).

On-the-spot managers and supervisors, not HR staffs, carry out

evaluations. The personnel role is usually that of:

• Advising top management of the principles and objectives of an

evaluation system and designing it for particular organizations
and environments.
• Developing systems appropriately in consultation with
managers, supervisors and staff representatives. Securing the
involvement and cooperation of appraisers and those to be
appraised.
• Assistance in the setting of objective standards of evaluation /
assessment, for example:
o Defining targets for achievement;
o Explaining how to quantify and agree objectives;
o Introducing self-assessment;
o Eliminating complexity and duplication.
• Publicizing the purposes of the exercise and explaining to staff
how the system will be used.
• Organizing and establishing the necessary training of managers
and supervisors who will carry out the actual evaluations/
appraisals. Not only training in principles and procedures but
also in the human relations skills necessary. (Lack of confidence
in their own ability to handle situations of poor performance is
the main weakness of assessors.)
• Monitoring the scheme - ensuring it does not fall into disuse,
following up on training/job exchange etc. recommendations,
reminding managers of their responsibilities.
Full-scale periodic reviews should be a standard feature of schemes
since resistance to evaluation / appraisal schemes is common and
the temptation to water down or render schemes ineffectual is ever
present (managers resent the time taken if nothing else).

Basically an evaluation / appraisal scheme is a formalization of what

is done in a more casual manner anyway (e.g. if there is a vacancy,
discussion about internal moves and internal attempts to put square
pegs into 'squarer holes' are both the results of casual evaluation).
Most managers approve merit payment and that too calls for
evaluation. Made a standard routine task, it aids the development of
talent, warns the inefficient or uncaring and can be an effective form
of motivation.

Function 5: Industrial relations

Good industrial relations, while a recognizable and legitimate

objective for an organization, are difficult to define since a good
system of industrial relations involves complex relationships
between:

(a) Workers (and their informal and formal groups, i. e. trade union,
organizations and their representatives);

(b) Employers (and their managers and formal organizations like

trade and professional associations);

(c) The government and legislation and government agencies l and

'independent' agencies like the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration
Service.

Oversimplified, work is a matter of managers giving instructions and

workers following them - but (and even under slavery we recognize
that different 'managing' produces very different results) the variety
of 'forms' which have evolved to regulate the conduct of parties (i.e.
laws, custom and practice, observances, agreements) makes the
giving and receipt of instructions far from simple. Two types of 'rule'
have evolved:

• 'Substantive', determining basic pay and conditions of service

(what rewards workers should receive);
• 'Procedural,' determining how workers should be treated and
methods and procedures.

Determining these rules are many common sense matters like:

• Financial, policy and market constraints on the parties (e.g.

some unions do not have the finance to support industrial
action, some have policies not to strike, some employers are
more vulnerable than others to industrial action, some will not
make changes unless worker agreement is made first, and
rewards always ultimately reflect what the market will bear);
• The technology of production (the effect of a strike in
newspaper production is immediate -it may be months before
becoming effective in shipbuilding);
• The distribution of power within the community - that tends to
vary over time and with economic conditions workers (or unions)
dominating in times of full employment and employers in times
of recession.

Broadly in the Western style economies the parties (workers and

employers) are free to make their own agreements and rules. This is
called 'voluntarism'. But it does not mean there is total
noninterference by the government. That is necessary to:

• Protect the weak (hence minimum wage);

• Outlaw discrimination (race or sex);
• Determine minimum standards of safety, health, hygiene and
even important conditions of service;
• To try to prevent the abuse of power by either party.

HR managers responsibilities
The personnel manager's involvement in the system of industrial
relations varies from organization to organization, but normally he or
she is required to provide seven identifiable functions, thus:

1. To keep abreast of industrial law (legislation and precedents)

and to advise managers about their responsibilities e.g. to
observe requirements in respect of employing disabled persons,
not to discriminate, not to disclose 'spent' convictions of
employees, to observe codes of practice etc. in relation to
discipline and redundancy, and similarly to determine
organizational policies (in conjunction with other managers)
relevant to legal and moral requirements (see also 4.).
2. To conduct (or assist in the conduct) of either local negotiations
(within the plant) or similarly to act as the employer's
representative in national negotiations. This could be as a critic
or advisor in respect of trade etc. association policies or as a
member of a trade association negotiating team. Agreements
could be in respect of substantive or procedural matters. Even if
not directly involved the personnel manager will advise other
managers and administrators of the outcome of negotiations.
3. To ensure that agreements reached are interpreted so as to
make sense to those who must operate them at the appropriate
level within the organization (this can involve a lot of new
learning at supervisory level and new pay procedures and new
recording requirements in administration and even the teaching
of new employment concepts – like stagger systems of work - at
management level).
4. To monitor the observance of agreements and to produce
policies that ensure that agreements are followed within the
organization. An example would be the policy to be followed on
the appointment of a new but experienced recruit in relation to
the offered salary where there is a choice of increments to be
given for experience, ability or qualification.
5. To correct the situations which go wrong. 'Face' is of some
importance in most organizations and operating at a 'remote'
staff level personnel managers can correct industrial relations
errors made at local level without occasioning any loss of dignity
(face) at the working level. 'Human resource management' and
the obscurity of its reasoning can be blamed for matters which
go wrong at plant level and for unwelcome changes, variations
of comfortable 'arrangements' and practices and unpopular
interpretation of agreements.
6. To provide the impetus (and often devise the machinery) for the
introduction of joint consultation and worker participation in
decision-making in the organization. Formal agreement in
respect of working conditions and behavior could never cover
every situation likely to arise. Moreover the more demanding
the task (in terms of the mental contribution by the worker to its
completion) the more highly–educated the workers need to be
and the more they will want to be consulted about and involved
in the details of work life. Matters like the rules for a flexitime
system or for determining the correction of absenteeism and the
contents of jobs are three examples of the sort of matters that
may be solely decided by management in some organizations
but a matter for joint consultation (not negotiation) in others
with a more twenty-first-century outlook and philosophy. Human
resource management is very involved in promoting and
originating ideas in this field.
7. To provide statistics and information about workforce numbers,
costs, skills etc. as relevant to negotiations (i.e. the cost of pay
rises or compromise proposals, effect on differentials and
possible recruitment/retention consequences of this or whether
agreement needs to be known instantly); to maintain personnel
records of training, experience, achievements, qualifications,
awards and possibly pension and other records; to produce data
of interest to management in respect of personnel matters like
absentee figures and costs, statistics of sickness absence, costs
 of welfare and other employee services, statements about
development in policies by other organizations, ideas for
innovations; to advise upon or operate directly, grievance,
redundancy, disciplinary and other procedures.

Function 6: Provision of employee services

Attention to the mental and physical well-being of employees is

normal in many organizations as a means of keeping good staff and
attracting others.

The forms this welfare can take are many and varied, from loans to
the needy to counseling in respect of personal problems.

Among the activities regarded as normal are:

• Schemes for occupational sick pay, extended sick leave and

access to the firm's medical adviser;
• Schemes for bereavement or other special leave;
• The rehabilitation of injured/unfit/ disabled employees and
temporary or permanent move to lighter work;
• The maintenance of disablement statistics and registers (there
are complicated legal requirements in respect of quotas of
disabled workers and a need for 'certificates' where quota are
not fulfilled and recruitment must take place);
• Provision of financial and other support for sports, social,
hobbies, activities of many kinds which are work related;
• Provision of canteens and other catering facilities;
• Possibly assistance with financial and other aid to employees in
difficulty (supervision, maybe, of an employee managed
benevolent fund or scheme);
• Provision of information handbooks,
• Running of pre-retirement courses and similar fringe activities;
• Care for the welfare aspects of health and safety legislation and
provision of first-aid training.
The location of the health and safety function within the organization
varies. Commonly a split of responsibilities exists under which
'production' or 'engineering' management cares for the provision of
safe systems of work and safe places and machines etc., but HRM is
responsible for administration, training and education in awareness
and understanding of the law, and for the alerting of all levels to new
requirements.

Function 7: Employee education, training and development

In general, education is 'mind preparation' and is carried out remote

from the actual work area, training is the systematic development of
the attitude, knowledge, skill pattern required by a person to
perform a given task or job adequately and development is 'the
growth of the individual in terms of ability, understanding and
awareness'.

Within an organization all three are necessary in order to:

• Develop workers to undertake higher-grade tasks;

• Provide the conventional training of new and young workers
(e.g. as apprentices, clerks, etc.);
• Raise efficiency and standards of performance;
• Meet legislative requirements (e.g. health and safety);
• Inform people (induction training, pre-retirement courses, etc.);

From time to time meet special needs arising from technical,

legislative, and knowledge need changes. Meeting these needs is
achieved via the 'training loop'. (Schematic available in PDF version.)

The diagnosis of other than conventional needs is complex and often

depends upon the intuition or personal experience of managers and
needs revealed by deficiencies. Sources of inspiration include:
 • Common sense - it is often obvious that new machines, work
systems, task requirements and changes in job content will
require workers to be prepared;
• Shortcomings revealed by statistics of output per head,
performance indices, unit costs, etc. and behavioral failures
revealed by absentee figures, lateness, sickness etc. records;
• Recommendations of government and industry training
organizations;
• Inspiration and innovations of individual managers and
supervisors;
• Forecasts and predictions about staffing needs;
• Inspirations prompted by the technical press, training journals,
reports of the experience of others;
• The suggestions made by specialist (e.g. education and training
officers, safety engineers, work-study staff and management
services personnel).

Designing training is far more than devising courses; it can include

activities such as:

• Learning from observation of trained workers;

• Receiving coaching from seniors;
• Discovery as the result of working party, project team
membership or attendance at meetings;
• Job swaps within and without the organization;
• Undertaking planned reading, or follow from the use of self–
teaching texts and video tapes;
• Learning via involvement in research, report writing and visiting
other works or organizations.

So far as group training is concerned in addition to formal courses

there are:

• Lectures and talks by senior or specialist managers;

• Discussion group (conference and meeting) activities;
 • Briefing by senior staffs;
• Role-playing exercises and simulation of actual conditions;
• Video and computer teaching activities;
• Case studies (and discussion) tests, quizzes, panel 'games',
group forums, observation exercises and inspection and
reporting techniques.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of training is done to ensure that it is

cost effective, to identify needs to modify or extend what is being
provided, to reveal new needs and redefine priorities and most of all
to ensure that the objectives of the training are being met.

The latter may not be easy to ascertain where results cannot be

measured mathematically. In the case of attitude and behavioral
changes sought, leadership abilities, drive and ambition fostered,
etc., achievement is a matter of the judgment of senior staffs. Exact
validation might be impossible but unless on the whole the
judgments are favorable the cooperation of managers in identifying
needs, releasing personnel and assisting in training ventures will
cease.

In making their judgments senior managers will question whether

the efforts expended have produced:

• More effective, efficient, flexible employees;

• Faster results in making newcomers knowledgeable and
effective than would follow from experience;
• More effective or efficient use of machinery, equipment and
work procedures;
• Fewer requirements to implement redundancy (by retraining);
• Fewer accidents both personal and to property;
• Improvements in the qualifications of staff and their ability to
take on tougher roles;
• Better employee loyalty to the organization with more
willingness to innovate and accept change.
Developing a HRM strategy

Faced with rapid change organizations need to develop a more

focused and coherent approach to managing people. In just the
same way a business requires a marketing or information technology
strategy it also requires a human resource or people strategy.

In developing such a strategy two critical questions must be

addressed.

• What kinds of people do you need to manage and run your

business to meet your strategic business objectives?
• What people programs and initiatives must be designed and
implemented to attract, develop and retain staff to compete
effectively?

In order to answer these questions four key dimensions of an

organization must be addressed. These are:

• Culture: the beliefs, values, norms and management style of the

organization
• Organization: the structure, job roles and reporting lines of the
organization
• People: the skill levels, staff potential and management
capability
• Human resources systems: the people focused mechanisms
which deliver the strategy - employee selection,
communications, training, rewards, career development, etc.

Frequently in managing the people element of their business senior

managers will only focus on one or two dimensions and neglect to
deal with the others. Typically, companies reorganize their
structures to free managers from bureaucracy and drive for more
entrepreneurial flair but then fail to adjust their training or reward
systems.
When the desired entrepreneurial behavior does not emerge
managers frequently look confused at the apparent failure of the
changes to deliver results. The fact is that seldom can you focus on
only one area. What is required is a strategic perspective aimed at
identifying the relationship between all four dimensions.

If you require an organization which really values quality and service

you not only have to retrain staff, you must also review the
organization, reward, appraisal and communications systems.

The pay and reward system is a classic problem in this area.

Frequently organizations have payment systems which are designed
around the volume of output produced. If you then seek to develop a
company which emphasizes the product's quality you must change
the pay systems. Otherwise you have a contradiction between what
the chief executive is saying about quality and what your payment
system is encouraging staff to do.

There are seven steps to developing a human resource strategy and

the active involvement of senior line managers should be sought
throughout the approach.

Steps in developing HRM strategy

Step 1: Get the 'big picture'

Understand your business strategy.

• Highlight the key driving forces of your business. What are they?
e.g. technology, distribution, competition, the markets.
• What are the implications of the driving forces for the people
side of your business?
• What is the fundamental people contribution to bottom line
business performance?
Step 2: Develop a Mission Statement or Statement of Intent

That relates to the people side of the business.

Do not be put off by negative reactions to the words or references to

idealistic statements - it is the actual process of thinking through the
issues in a formal and explicit manner that is important.

• What do your people contribute?

Step 3: Conduct a SWOT analysis of the organization

Focus on the internal strengths and weaknesses of the people side of

the business.

• Consider the current skill and capability issues.

Vigorously research the external business and market environment.

High light the opportunities and threats relating to the people side of
the business.

• What impact will/ might they have on business performance?

• Consider skill shortages?
• The impact of new technology on staffing levels?

From this analysis you then need to review the capability of your
personnel department. Complete a SWOT analysis of the department
- consider in detail the department's current areas of operation, the
service levels and competences of your personnel staff.

Step 4: Conduct a detailed human resources analysis

Concentrate on the organization's COPS (culture, organization,

people, HR systems)

• Consider: Where you are now? Where do you want to be?

 • What gaps exists between the reality of where you are now and
where you want to be?

Exhaust your analysis of the four dimensions.

Step 5: Determine critical people issues

Go back to the business strategy and examine it against your SWOT

and COPS Analysis

• Identify the critical people issues namely those people issues

that you must address. Those which have a key impact on the
delivery of your business strategy.
• Prioritize the critical people issues. What will happen if you fail
to address them?

Remember you are trying to identify where you should be focusing

your efforts and resources.

Step 6: Develop consequences and solutions

For each critical issue highlight the options for managerial action
generate, elaborate and create - don't go for the obvious. This is an
important step as frequently people jump for the known rather than
challenge existing assumptions about the way things have been
done in the past. Think about the consequences of taking various
courses of action.

Consider the mix of HR systems needed to address the issues. Do

you need to improve communications, training or pay?

What are the implications for the business and the personnel
function?

Once you have worked through the process it should then be

possible to translate the action plan into broad objectives. These will
need to be broken down into the specialist HR Systems areas of:
 • employee training and development
• management development
• organization development
• performance appraisal
• employee reward
• employee selection and recruitment
• manpower planning
• communication

Develop your action plan around the critical issues. Set targets and
dates for the accomplishment of the key objectives.

Step 7: Implementation and evaluation of the action plans

The ultimate purpose of developing a human resource strategy is to

ensure that the objectives set are mutually supportive so that the
reward and payment systems are integrated with employee training
and career development plans.

There is very little value or benefit in training people only to then frustrate them
through a failure to provide ample career and development opportunities.
Human Resource Management - Nature, Scope, Objectives And Function

Human resources may be defined as the total knowledge, skills,

creative abilities, talents and aptitudes of an organization's
workforce, as well as the values, attitudes, approaches and beliefs of
the individuals involved in the affairs of the organization. It is the
sum total or aggregate of inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and
skills represented by the talents and aptitudes of the persons
employed in the organization.

The human resources are multidimensional in nature. From the

national point of view, human resources may be defined as the
knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes obtained in
the population; whereas from the viewpoint of the individual
enterprise, they represent the total of the inherent abilities, acquired
knowledge and skills as exemplified in the talents and aptitudes of
its employees.

Human Resource Management: Defined

Human Resource Management has come to be recognized as an
inherent part of management, which is concerned with the human
resources of an organization. Its objective is the maintenance of
better human relations in the organization by the development,
application and evaluation of policies, procedures and programmes
relating to human resources to optimize their contribution towards
the realization of organizational objectives.

In other words, HRM is concerned with getting better results with

the collaboration of people. It is an integral but distinctive part of
management, concerned with people at work and their relationships
within the enterprise. HRM helps in attaining maximum individual
development, desirable working relationship between employees and
employers, employees and employees, and effective modeling of
human resources as contrasted with physical resources. It is the
recruitment, selection, development, utilization, compensation and
motivation of human resources by the organization.

Human Resource Management: Evolution

The early part of the century saw a concern for improved efficiency
through careful design of work. During the middle part of the
century emphasis shifted to the employee's productivity. Recent
decades have focused on increased concern for the quality of
working life, total quality management and worker's participation in
management. These three phases may be termed as welfare,
development and empowerment.

Human Resource Management: Nature

Human Resource Management is a process of bringing people and
organizations together so that the goals of each are met. The
various features of HRM include:
• It is pervasive in nature as it is present in all enterprises.
• Its focus is on results rather than on rules.
• It tries to help employees develop their potential fully.
• It encourages employees to give their best to the organization.
• It is all about people at work, both as individuals and groups.
• It tries to put people on assigned jobs in order to produce good
results.
• It helps an organization meet its goals in the future by providing
for competent and well-motivated employees.
• It tries to build and maintain cordial relations between people
working at various levels in the organization.
• It is a multidisciplinary activity, utilizing knowledge and inputs
drawn from psychology, economics, etc.

Human Resource Management: Scope

The scope of HRM is very wide:
1. Personnel aspect-This is concerned with manpower planning,
recruitment, selection, placement, transfer, promotion, training and
development, layoff and retrenchment, remuneration, incentives,
productivity etc.
2. Welfare aspect-It deals with working conditions and amenities
such as canteens, creches, rest and lunch rooms, housing,
transport, medical assistance, education, health and safety,
recreation facilities, etc.
3. Industrial relations aspect-This covers union-management
relations, joint consultation, collective bargaining, grievance and
disciplinary procedures, settlement of disputes, etc.

Human Resource Management: Beliefs

The Human Resource Management philosophy is based on the
following beliefs:
• Human resource is the most important asset in the organization
and can be developed and increased to an unlimited extent.
• A healthy climate with values of openness, enthusiasm, trust,
mutuality and collaboration is essential for developing human
resource.
• HRM can be planned and monitored in ways that are beneficial
both to the individuals and the organization.
• Employees feel committed to their work and the organization, if
the organization perpetuates a feeling of belongingness.
• Employees feel highly motivated if the organization provides for
satisfaction of their basic and higher level needs.
• Employee commitment is increased with the opportunity to
dis¬cover and use one's capabilities and potential in one's work.
• It is every manager's responsibility to ensure the development and
utilisation of the capabilities of subordinates.

Human Resource Management: Objectives

• To help the organization reach its goals.

• To ensure effective utilization and maximum development of
human resources.
• To ensure respect for human beings. To identify and satisfy the
needs of individuals.
• To ensure reconciliation of individual goals with those of the
organization.
• To achieve and maintain high morale among employees.
• To provide the organization with well-trained and well-motivated
employees.
• To increase to the fullest the employee's job satisfaction and self-
actualization.
• To develop and maintain a quality of work life.
• To be ethically and socially responsive to the needs of society.
• To develop overall personality of each employee in its
multidimensional aspect.
• To enhance employee's capabilities to perform the present job.
• To equip the employees with precision and clarity in trans¬action
of business.
• To inculcate the sense of team spirit, team work and inter-team
collaboration.

Human Resource Management: Functions

In order to achieve the above objectives, Human Resource
Management undertakes the following activities:
1. Human resource or manpower planning.
2. Recruitment, selection and placement of personnel.
3. Training and development of employees.
4. Appraisal of performance of employees.
5. Taking corrective steps such as transfer from one job to another.
6. Remuneration of employees.
7. Social security and welfare of employees.
8. Setting general and specific management policy for organizational
relationship.
9. Collective bargaining, contract negotiation and grievance
handling.
10. Staffing the organization.
11. Aiding in the self-development of employees at all levels.
12. Developing and maintaining motivation for workers by providing
incentives.
13. Reviewing and auditing man¬power management in the
organization
14. Potential Appraisal. Feedback Counseling.
15. Role Analysis for job occupants.
16. Job Rotation.
17. Quality Circle, Organization development and Quality of Working
Life.
Human Resource Management: Major Influencing Factors
In the 21st century HRM will be influenced by following factors,
which will work as various issues affecting its strategy:
• Size of the workforce.
• Rising employees' expectations
• Drastic changes in the technology as well as Life-style changes.
• Composition of workforce. New skills required.
• Environmental challenges.
• Lean and mean organizations.
• Impact of new economic policy. Political ideology of the
Govern¬ment.
• Downsizing and rightsizing of the organizations.
• Culture prevailing in the organization etc.

Human Resource Management: Futuristic Vision

On the basis of the various issues and challenges the following
suggestions will be of much help to the philosophy of HRM with
regard to its futuristic vision:
1. There should be a properly defined recruitment policy in the
organization that should give its focus on professional aspect and
merit based selection.
2. In every decision-making process there should be given proper
weightage to the aspect that employees are involved wherever
possible. It will ultimately lead to sense of team spirit, team-work
and inter-team collaboration.
3. Opportunity and comprehensive framework should be provided
for full expression of employees' talents and manifest potentialities.
4. Networking skills of the organizations should be developed
internally and externally as well as horizontally and vertically.
5. For performance appraisal of the employee’s emphasis should be
given to 360 degree feedback which is based on the review by
superiors, peers, subordinates as well as self-review.
6. 360 degree feedback will further lead to increased focus on
customer services, creating of highly involved workforce, decreased
hierarchies, avoiding discrimination and biases and identifying
performance threshold.
7. More emphasis should be given to Total Quality Management.
TQM will cover all employees at all levels; it will conform to
customer's needs and expectations; it will ensure effective utilization
of resources and will lead towards continuous improvement in all
spheres and activities of the organization.
8. There should be focus on job rotation so that vision and
knowledge of the employees are broadened as well as potentialities
of the employees are increased for future job prospects.
9. For proper utilization of manpower in the organization the concept
of six sigma of improving productivity should be intermingled in the
HRM strategy.
10. The capacities of the employees should be assessed through
potential appraisal for performing new roles and responsibilities. It
should not be confined to organizational aspects only but the
environmental changes of political, economic and social
considerations should also be taken into account.
11. The career of the employees should be planned in such a way
that individualizing process and socializing process come together
for fusion process and career planning should constitute the part of
human resource planning.

To conclude Human Resource Management should be linked with strategic goals and
objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational
cultures that foster innovation and flexibility. All the above futuristic visions coupled
with strategic goals and objectives should be based on 3 H's of Heart, Head and Hand
i.e., we should feel by Heart, think by Head and implement by Hand.

Set of 20 Key responsibilities of HR Manager.

HR Manager is one of the most important key to open a lock hanging on the door of
success in an organisation.If an HR Manager is efficient enough to handle and to take
out best from his team members any oragnisation and can achieve more from his target
goals. HR manager plays an very important role in hierarchy, and also in between the
higher management and low level employees. Stated below are major responsibilities
of HR Manager:-

Responsibilities:

1. To maintain and develop HR policies, ensuring compliance and to contribute the

development of corporate HR policies.

2. To develop the HR team, to ensure the provision of a professional HR service to the

organization.Manage a team of staff. Responsible for mentoring, guiding and
developing them as a
second line to the current position.

3. To ensure timely recruitment of required level / quality of Management staff, other

business lines staff, including non-billable staff with appropriate global approvals, in
order to
meet business needs, focusing on Employee Retention and key Employee
Identification initiatives.

4. Provide active support in the selection of Recruitment agencies which meet the
corporate standard. Ensure Corporate Branding in recruitment webs and
advertisements.

5. Develop, refine and fine-tune effective methods or tools for selection / or provide
external consultants to ensure the right people with the desired level of competence are
brought into the organization or are promoted.

6. Prepare information and input for the salary budgets. Ensure compliance to the
approved salary budget; give focus on pay for performance and salary benchmarks
where
available.Ensure adherence to corporate guideline on salary adjustments and
promotions. Coordinate
increments and promotions of all staff.

7. To develop the HR business plan.

8. Ensure appropriate communication at all staff levels.

9. To maintain and develop leading edge HR systems and processes to address the
effective management of people in relation to the following in order to maintain
competitive advantage
for:

Performance Management.

Staff Induction.

Reward and Recognition.

Staff Retention.

Management Development / Career Development.

Succession Planning.

Competency Building / Mapping.

Compensation / Benefit programs.

10. To facilitate / support the development of the Team members

11. To facilitate development of staff with special focus on Line Management

12. To recommend and ensure implementation of Strategic directions for people

development within the organization.

13. Ensure a motivational climate in the organization, including adequate

opportunities for career growth and development.

14. Administer all employee benefit programs with conjunction with the Finance and
Administration department.

15. Provide counsel and assistance to employees at all levels in accordance with the
company's policies and procedures as well as relevant legislation.
16. Oversee the central HR Administration -

employee offer letters

salary letters and employment contracts.

Approve updated organizational charts on a monthly basis and maintain

complete/accurate personnel records.

17. Co-ordinate the design, implementation and administration of human resource

policies and activities to ensure the availability and effective utilization of human
resources for meeting
the company's objectives.

18. Responsible for Corporate HR function.

19. Responsible for overall centralized HR admin function

20. Counseling and Guidance cell - provide support to Managers in case of

disciplinary issues.

Above 20 points are amongst the most important responsibilities which has to be taken
care by an HR
Manager. He cannot take any above stated responsibility for granted.

What is Human Resource Management?

The definition of human resource management emphasizes the sphere of

influence to encompass 'the strategic approach to manpower management in
an organization'. The process calls for a coherent objective to retain and
increase employee head-count, any organization's most valued asset. This
specialized study and application has come in the wake of realization that the
employees of an organization, individually and collectively, are the main
contributors to the achievement of business objectives. The management of
people hired by an organization involves employing people, designing and
developing related resources and most importantly, utilizing and compensating
their services to optimize business profitability via employee performance.
Today, Human Resource Management operates in tune with other essential
organizational requirements and co-exists with the topmost management
cadre. Managing human resources within a company calls for a liaison
between the organization's management personnel and the administration of
the executive rungs. It thrives on the strength of the relationship between the
management and workers of the company.

Functions of Human Resource Management:

Human Resource Management involves the development of a perfect blend

between traditional administrative functions and the well-being of all
employees within an organization. Employee retention ratio is directly
proportionate to the manner in which the employees are treated, in return for
their imparted skills and experience. A Human Resource Manager ideally
empowers inter-departmental employee relationships and nurtures scope for
down-the-rung employee communication at various levels. The field is a
derivative of System Theory and Organizational Psychology. Human
resources has earned a number of related interpretations in time, but
continues to defend the need to ensure employee well-being. Every
organization now has an exclusive Human Resource Management
Department to interact with representatives of all factors of production. The
department is responsible for the development and application of ongoing
research on strategic advances while hiring, terminating and training staff. The
Human Resource Management Department is responsible for:

• Understanding and relating to employees as individuals, thus identifying

individual needs and career goals.
• Developing positive interactions between workers, to ensure collated and
constructive enterprise productivity and development of a uniform
organizational culture.
• Identify areas that suffer lack of knowledge and insufficient training, and
accordingly provide remedial measures in the form of workshops and
seminars.
 • Generate a rostrum for all employees to express their goals and provide
the necessary resources to accomplish professional and personal
agendas, essentially in that order.
• Innovate new operating practices to minimize risk and generate an
overall sense of belonging and accountability.
• Recruiting the required workforce and making provisions for expressed
and promised payroll and benefits.
• Implementing resource strategies to subsequently create and sustain
competitive advantage.
• Empowerment of the organization, to successfully meet strategic goals by
managing staff effectively.

Ideally, a Human Resource Management Department is responsible for an

interdisciplinary examination of all staff members in the workplace. This
strategy calls for applications from diverse fields such as psychology,
paralegal studies, industrial engineering, sociology, and a critical
understanding of theories pertaining to post-modernism and industrial
structuralism. The department bears the onus of converting the available task-
force or hired individuals into strategic business partners. This is achieved via
dedicated Change Management and focused Employee Administration. The
HR functions with the sole goal of motivating and encouraging the employees
to prove their mettle and add value to the company. This is achieved via
various management processes like workforce planning and recruitment,
induction and orientation of hired task-force and employee training,
administration and appraisals .