norbu: Humane resource management study is growing very fast and playing very important role for this

fast growing world. Following are some factors contributing growing of importance of humane resource management. 1. Accommodation to workers needs Workers are demanding that organizations accommodate their personal needs by instituting such programs as flexible work schedules, parental leave, child-care and elder-care assistance, and job sharing. The human resource department plays a central role in establishing and implementing policies designed to reduce the friction between organizational demands and family responsibilities. 2. Increased complexity of the Managers job Management has become an increasingly complex and demanding job for many reasons, including foreign competition, new technology, expanding scientific information, and rapid change. Therefore, organizations frequently ask human resource managers for assistance in making strategic business decisions and in matching the distinctive competencies of the firms human resources to the mission of the organization. Executives need assistance from the human resource department in matters of recruitment, performance evaluation, compensation, and discipline. 3. Legislation and litigation The enactment of state laws has contributed enormously to the proliferation and importance of human resource functions. The record keeping and reporting requirements of the laws are so extensive that to comply with them, many human resource departments must work countless hours and often must hire additional staff. Four areas that have been influenced most by legislation include equal employment, Compensation, safety, and labor relations. An organizations failure to comply with laws regulating these areas can result in extremely costly back-pay awards, class action suits, and penalties. 4. Consistency Human resource policies help to maintain consistency and equity within an organization. Consistency is particularly important in compensation and promotion decisions. When managers make compensation decisions without consulting the human resource department the salary structure tends to become very uneven and unfair promotion decisions also may be handled unfairly when the HR department does not coordinate the decision of individual manger. 5. Expertise Now a days there exist sophisticated personnel activities that require special expertise. For example, researchers have developed complex procedures for making employee-selection decisions; statistical formulas that combine interviews, test scores, and application-blank information have replaced the subjective interviews traditionally used in making selection decisions. Similarly, many organizations have developed compensation systems with elaborate benefits packages to replace simple hourly pay or piece rate incentive systems 6. Cost of Human Resource Human resource activities have become increasingly important because of the high cost of personal problem. The largest single expense in most organizations is labor cost, which is often considerably higher than the necessary because of such problems as absenteeism tardiness and

Human Resource Management and Organizational Effectiveness

By Jacques Groenewald
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1. Introduction "Organizational effectiveness depends on having the right people in the right jobs at the right time to meet rapidly changing organizational requirements. Right people can be obtained by performing the role of Human Resource (HR) function. Below is an outline and explanation of how to assess the HR functions of an organization by using HR activities in an architectural firm as an example. Human resource management (HRM), as defined by Bratton, J. & Gold, J. (2003), is "A strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging people's capabilities is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, this being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and practices." According to this definition, we can see that human resource management should not merely handle recruitment, pay, and discharging, but also should maximize the use of an organization's human resources in a more strategic level. To describe what the HRM does in the organization, Ulrich, D. & Brocklebank, W. (2005) have outlined some of the HRM roles such as employee advocate, human capital developer, functional expert, strategic partner and HR leader etc. An important aspect of an organization's business focus and direction towards achieving high levels of competency and competitiveness would depend very much upon their human resource management practices to contribute effectively towards profitability, quality, and other goals in line with the mission and vision of the company. Staffing, training, compensation and performance management are basically important tools in the human resources practices that shape the organization's role in satisfying the needs of its stakeholders. Stakeholders of an organization comprise mainly of stockholders who will want to reap on their investments, customers whose wants and desires for high quality products or services are met, employees who want their jobs in the organization to be interesting with reasonable compensation and reward system and lastly, the community who would want the company to contribute and participate in activities and projects relating to the environmental issues. Common rules and procedures of human resource management must be adhered to by the organization which forms basic guidelines on its practices. Teamwork among lower levels of staff and the management should be created and maintained to assist in various angles that would deem necessary in eliminating communication breakdowns and foster better relationship among workers. The management should emphasize on good corporate culture in order to develop employees and create a positive and conducive work environment

Performance appraisal (PA) is one of the important components in the rational and systemic process of human resource management. The information obtained through performance appraisal provides foundations for recruiting and selecting new hires, training and development of existing staff, and motivating and maintaining a quality work force by adequately and properly rewarding their performance. Without a reliable performance appraisal system, a human resource management system falls apart, resulting in the total waste of the valuable human assets a company has. There are two primary purposes of performance appraisal: evaluative and developmental. The evaluative purpose is intended to inform people of their performance standing. The collected performance data are frequently used to reward high performance and to punish poor performance. The developmental purpose is intended to identify problems in employees performing the assigned task. The collected performance data are used to provide necessary skill training or professional development. 2. Affirmative action has assisted many members of minority groups in creating equal opportunities in education and employment. Who could object to assisting these minorities, who suffered years of discrimination, in getting the equal opportunity they deserve? The problem is, affirmative action promotes racial preferences and quotas which cause mixed emotions. One time supporters of affirmative action are now calling out "reverse discrimination". If we want a stronger support for affirmative action we need to get rid of the preferential treatments. The back bone of affirmative action began with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. The amendment abolished slavery and any involuntary labor, is showed there was a calling for equal opportunity for all South Africans. A comprehensive Human Resource Strategy plays a vital role in the achievement of an organisation's overall strategic objectives and visibly illustrates that the human resources function fully understands and supports the direction in which the organisation is moving. A comprehensive HR Strategy will also support other specific strategic objectives undertaken by the marketing, financial, operational and technology departments. In essence, an HR strategy should aim to capture "the people element" of what an organisation is hoping to achieve in the medium to long term, ensuring that:o it has the right people in place o it has the right mix of skills o employees display the right attitudes and behaviours, and o employees are developed in the right way. If, as is sometimes the case, organisation strategies and plans have been developed without any human resource input, the justification for the HR strategy may be more about teasing out the implicit people factors which are inherent in the plans, rather than simply summarising their explicit "people" content. An HR strategy will add value to the organisation if it: o articulates more clearly some of the common themes which lie behind the achievement of other plans and strategies, which have not been fully identified before; and o identifies fundamental underlying issues which must be addressed by any organisation or business if its people are to be motivated, committed and operate effectively. The first of these areas will entail a careful consideration of existing or developing plans and strategies to identify and draw attention to common themes and implications, which have not been made explicit previously.

The second area should be about identifying which of these plans and strategies are so fundamental that there must be clear plans to address them before the organisation can achieve on any of its goals. These are likely to include: o workforce planning issues o succession planning o workforce skills plans o employment equity plans o black economic empowerment initiatives o motivation and fair treatment issues o pay levels designed to recruit, retain and motivate people o the co-ordination of approaches to pay and grading across the organisation to create alignment and potential unequal pay claims o a grading and remuneration system which is seen as fair and giving proper reward for contributions made o wider employment issues which impact on staff recruitment, retention, motivation etc. o a consistent performance management framework which is designed to meet the needs of all sectors of the organisation including its people o career development frameworks which look at development within the organisation at equipping employees with "employability" so that they can cope with increasingly frequent changes in employer and employment patterns o policies and frameworks to ensure that people development issues are addressed systematically : competence frameworks, self-managed learning etc. The HR strategy will need to show that careful planning of the people issues will make it substantially easier for the organisation to achieve its wider strategic and operational goals. In addition, the HR strategy can add value is by ensuring that, in all its other plans, the organisation takes account of and plans for changes in the wider environment, which are likely to have a major impact on the organisation, such as: o changes in the overall employment market - demographic or remuneration levels o cultural changes which will impact on future employment patterns o changes in the employee relations climate o changes in the legal framework surrounding employment o HR and employment practice being developed in other organisations, such as new flexible work practices. Finding the right opportunity to present a case for developing an HR Strategy is critical to ensuring that there will be support for the initiative, and that its initial value will be recognised by the organisation. Giving a strong practical slant to the proposed strategy may help gain acceptance for the idea, such as focusing on good management practice. It is also important to build "early or quick wins" into any new strategy. Other opportunities may present the ideal moment to encourage the development of an HR Strategy:-

o a major new internal initiative could present the right opportunity to push for an accompanying HR strategy, such as a restructuring exercise, a corporate acquisition, joint venture or merger exercise. o a new externally generated initiative could similarly generate the right climate for a new HR strategy - e.g. Black economic empowerment initiatives. o In some instances, even negative news may provide the "right moment", for example, recent industrial action or employee dissatisfaction expressed through a climate survey. Visit Monkeyprofit.com for the best online marketing strategies and business resources. CLICK HERE Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jacques_Groenewald

How Does Hrm Contribute To The Profits Of An Organisation

CHAPTER ONE REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. How can HRM contribute to successful strategic management of an organisation? * HRM contributes to an organisation because it contributes strategy development and analysis, policy making, implementation and enforcement, systems process and procedures all which are important to the organisation and these HRM activities are needed to monitor innovate, plan and evaluate people. * In what ways does hrm contribute e.g talent management, attraction and retention, performance management aimed at achieving the organisations objectivew 2. Compare and contrast the various HRM styles and philosophies. * Taylorism emphasis was on production, efficiency which made this theory seem impersonal and dehumanising. * Hawthorn Studies had an emphasis on both production and the people, which emphasis being place on communication and treating people with dignity and respect. * Organisantional behavior looks at how people deal with being part of an organisation and why they work in a certain way. Finding new ways to motivate employees to perform better. * What about Harvard and Michigan models?, read up on these and when you think these are appropriate it what situations, what do you think of both models 3. What does the term organisational culture mean? How does it relation to SHRM? * Definition: Beliefs, values, norms, the way we do things around here, assumptions made. * SHRM ensures that an organisation has a healthy emotional culture with features that include trust, justice, safety, diversity, openness, positive leadership, growth opportunities, more positive less negative experiences. * How can hr influence organizational culture and in what ways is this necessary * 4. How does HRM and SHRM differ? Use examples to illustrate the differences. * HRM implements activities required to support organisational decisions. HRM activities must somehow align with the strategic...

Growth and HRM

Vincent Giuca and Professor Rowena Barrett Growth firms are important contributors to economic prosperity. Much of this contribution comes from new enterprises or start-ups with an emphasis on employment growth. These are the ones David Birch has called gazelles or David Storey has called fliers. Tags like these mean they attract the attention: Consultants focus on how to increase value of growing firms; the media like to construct lists of top growth firms; and academics want to understand, amongst other things, what drives growth and how firms can grow in a sustainable way. But despite this interest, as Per Davidsson and Johan Wiklund (two leading entrepreneurship researchers), argue knowledge about what facilitates and hinders growth is still scattered and limited. This is mainly a result of business growth being affected by a variety of internal and external factors and therefore any theory would have to deal with the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the firm and the corporate strategy. Our interest in business growth is in the role played by human resources and the performance effects which can accumulate through effective human resource management (HRM). There are two approaches to understanding growth which highlight the importance of human resources and effective HRM. The first approach is based on modelling the organisational lifecycle and managing the challenges that occur in the transitions between different stages of the firms lifecycle. Essentially the thinking here is that at different stages of the firms development, different HRM issues will be paramount and need to be overcome if the transition is to be successful. For example, studies suggest that at the firms start-up stage the key HRM problem revolves around recruitment getting the right people in while growth puts an emphasis on implementing systems, departmentalisation and building functional specialisations. The emphasis therefore shifts to ensuring that the right people are retained and HRM focuses on employee development, compensation and reward. The second approach that highlights the role of HRM in contributing to growth draws on the work conducted under the rubric of the Resource Based View (RBV) of the firm. At the heart of the RBV is the view that the physical, organizational or human resources of a firm may be a source of competitive advantage if they meet certain conditions. In the case of human resources, the firms stock of employees skills and knowledge, must be valuable to the organization, rare that is not found in competitor organizations, difficult for competitors to imitate and organized to exploit the particular resource to achieve the organizations objectives. Many writers use the RBV to understand the role of HRM in achieving superior organizational performance by adding value through the attraction, retention and deployment of human resources. However it must be noted that sustained competitive advantage is derived, not from HRM practices themselves but the way they are developed and integrated to achieve strategic objectives: it is managements ability to configure HRM to fit with business strategy in ways which are firm-specific and therefore rare and inimitable that leads to competitive advantage. Despite this there is still much to understand about how growth oriented firms can benefit from investing in human resources and what kind of HRM practices and programs are most likely to be critical for their success. So what are the HRM issues for growth firms? Growth often entails increasing numbers of people who bring increasing complexity to organisation and management. Fast-growth firms can have considerable recruitment and training needs but they are under significant cost pressures. As a result of these financial pressures managers may use opportunistic hiring practices that rely on social and business

networks and which emphasize person-organisation fit and trust, rather than skills, when hiring. Such practices, while easy to use and convenient, can significantly restrict the pool of potential employees as well as the array, depth and scope of skills and abilities to be brought into the firm, and this may ultimately hold the organisation back. While it is important to get recruitment and selection right at the firms early stage of organisational development, Matt Rutherford, Paul Buller and Patrick McMullens study of 2,903 small to medium sized firms, identified that fast-growth firms were more likely than low-growth firms to experience problems with training. This, they argue can be because the owner-manager/entrepreneur is unable to oversee the training of all staff. As a result they need to consider formalising processes and developing operational and managerial systems as well as other types of organisational infrastructure which may reduce dependence on the owner-manager/entrepreneur, freeing them up from doing and enabling them time for strategic thinking. While dependence may not be entirely eliminated as varying degrees of tacit knowledge, skills and abilities are not easily documented or transferred, formalisation and the development of systems can nonetheless provide a platform from which sustainable growth can occur. As Tony Davila has argued, an informal approach to the coordination and control of organizational activities becomes harder (and costlier) as the organization grows and formalizing these management activities becomes vital for future growth (2005: 243). This is not an argument for formality over informality as both can (and do) co-exist within organisations. Instead it is an acknowledgment that as the workforce grows and more specialist roles are required there is pressure on management to provide more structure and define areas of responsibility increases. But too much formality, say in how jobs are described and structures implemented, could stifle employee innovation by placing boundaries around work activities and responsibilities. This may serve to constrain initiatives for new and complementary behaviours in a fast changing work setting mean employees are unable to use their initiative to support the business overall. In growth firms there may well be a tension between too much and too little formalisation of HRM policies and practices. But the point is that fast-growth can strain internal organisational resources and systems which, in turn, can put pressure on managers and employees to react to the fast changing landscape. As such managing fast-growth firms requires the management of change. Formalising HRM policies and practices can help to ensure that personnel issues are thought through more thoroughly than would otherwise be the case and that there is greater consistency in the application of HRM processes and outcomes that could otherwise be sources of demotivation and disputation. Carefully thought through HRM processes and practices can be beneficial to organisations experiencing growth: how well the changing landscape is navigated will determine whether jobs remain, the opportunities people have in those jobs and the magnitude of returns that will be generated for all those engaged in the enterprise. ppreciating HRs strategic role in organisational growth By Chinyere Fred-Adegbulugbe Wednesday, 23 Jun 2010 AppreciatingView All (0) Comment(s) Post HRs strategic Comment role in organisational Twitter Send to friend Share

growth Experts say that many Nigerian organisations are yet to appreciate the significance of having competent human resource units. CHINYERE FRED-ADEGBULUGBE writes. THIS is the 21st Century, with all its innovative management strategies. After securing employment with a certain organisation, you wish to interact with the HR unit. Something that should be taken for granted, after all, as part of those who interviewed you for the job must be members of that unit, you can rightly reason. Certainly, you will be surprised to hear that there are actually no HR professionals within that organisation. That those you had thought were professionals are, at best, members of the organisations administration department, who have over the years mastered the art of executing orders relating to HR issues. These orders, of course, emanate from somewhere up the ladder. Sometimes, the rung goes as high up as the chairmans table. Call these people executioners and you will not be wrong. Their tasks start and end with implementing orders; they never actually get to initiate processes. Nevertheless, they will argue to death that they are actually managing the organisations HR. But experts insist that a HR unit of an organisation goes beyond the periodical handling of employees files, especially at the end of the year, when appraisals and promotions are done. Rather, staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labour relations are part of those key areas a HR unit of any organisation must constantly focus on. David Cherrington, in his book, The Management of Human Resources, writes, Human resource management is responsible for how people are treated in organisations. It is responsible for bringing people into the organisation, helping them perform their work, compensating them for their labours, and solving problems that arise. Many organisations are quick to point out people as their greatest assets. However, when it comes to managing this most critical of all resources available, anything seems to suffice. They do not seem to see the need to engage experts who are equipped to deal with people related issues. This, according to the President of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, Mr. Abiola Popoola, is wrong and can be counter-productive. He says, Every organisation has many resources available to it. There are financial resources; there are material resources and there are also human resources. You can argue that the most physical human resource is the human resource. The HR professionals are the experts on HRM and the more we are able to empower, enable and give them the skills they require, the better they are able to meet the needs of the people in their organisations. Many organisations do not appreciate the role of HR sufficiently. I believe that many organisations are shooting themselves in the foot by not laying emphasis on it because it is the people that make an organisation to win or lose in the market place. Right now in Nigeria, the contribution of HR is limited; there is a lot of scope for us to improve upon. Speaking in the same vein, the Chief Executive Officer of Excel Professional Services, Dr. Oladimeji Alo, describes the practice of not employing professionals to man the HR units as the bane of enterprise management in Nigeria. According to him, even the supposedly big companies are yet to fully appreciate the role of HR, and therefore, also indulge in this

practice. He states, There are quite a good number of companies in Nigeria, that have nonprofessionals handling HR functions. That is one of the banes of enterprise management in Nigeria. It is like shooting oneself in the leg, because an organisation that does not have professionals handling its HR functions is short-changing itself. In the short run, it would appear as though it is doing quite well. But when it has a crisis, and performance is sliding in comparison with its competitors, that is when it will realise the importance of HR in acquiring the right skills, developing the talents and helping to create the right organisational climate for the company in annexing its resources to achieve its objectives. These are better done when a company has a professional in charge of its HR unit. An organisation that employs non-HR professionals to perform HR functions may be saving money in the short run. However, in the long run, it may be harming itself and its future survival. For the Chief Executive Officer of Harvard Associates, Dr. Abiodun Osiyemi, organisations that desire sustainable growth must, as a survival strategy, begin to take those managing its people seriously. He says, Our people are our strength, yet the respect and the perception of the HR unit is like that of an appendage. To that extent, you do not always get a good output. Companies where you have very good HR units always have very human capital. In other countries, where you have strong labour and people-oriented laws, you need to have an HR department that will specifically cater for hiring, firing and motivation of workers. Culturally, we have weak people laws and this promotes the practice of people not taking HR seriously. Oladimeji, however, traces this practice to earlier decades, when HR functions were submerged in administrative units of establishments. He explains, If you trace the history of HR, it used to be just for administration functions, which merely existed just to carry out the instructions of the chief executives and line managers. But today, the HR manager has moved from just being an administrative person to becoming a strategic person. He is now involved in formulating policies that will ensure that the goals and objectives of the company are met. He is no longer waiting to be told what to do; he is involved in the planning, thinking and execution. He is moved from just being an administrator to becoming a strategic part of the business, he explains. Osiyemi insists that organisations must go beyond seeing HR units as mere fillers. They have not been elevated to the same level as the directorate of finance, operations and marketing. The HR directorate is usually like an appendix to the CEO, where a nanny is taking charge of the children, he notes.

HRM becomes significant for business organization due to the following reasons. Objective :-

HRM helps a company to achieve its objective from time to time by creating a positive attitude among workers. Reducing wastage and making maximum use of resources etc. Facilitates professional growth :Due to proper HR policies employees are trained well and this makes them ready for future promotions. Their talent can be utilized not only in the company in which they are currently working but also in other companies which the employees may join in the future. Better relations between union and management :Healthy HRM practices can help the organization to maintain co-ordinal relationship with the unions. Union members start realizing that the company is also interested in the workers and will not go against them therefore chances of going on strike are greatly reduced. Helps an individual to work in a team/group :Effective HR practices teach individuals team work and adjustment. The individuals are now very comfortable while working in team thus team work improves. Identifies person for the future :Since employees are constantly trained, they are ready to meet the job requirements. The company is also able to identify potential employees who can be promoted in the future for the top level jobs. Thus one of the advantages of HRM is preparing people for the future. Allocating the jobs to the right person :If proper recruitment and selection methods are followed, the company will be able to select the right people for the right job. When this happens the number of people leaving the job will reduce as the will be satisfied with their job leading to decrease in labour turnover. Improves the economy :Effective HR practices lead to higher profits and better performance by companies due to this the company achieves a chance to enter into new business and start new ventured thus industrial development increases and the economy improves. Recruiting Problems You Might Face During Tough Economic Times

During volatile economic times, some things that used to be easy in recruiting and Talent Management become much more difficult. As a result, its important to identify and then focus on these new problem areas: 1. Hiring freezes. One of the first knee-jerk reactions during tough times are company-wide freezes. Although salary, promotion, and budget freezes negatively impact retention, hiring freezes can decimate a recruiting function. Some tips on fighting hiring freezes can be found in my recent article. 2. Stock options are no longer a major motivator. With the stock market constantly going up and down, stock options become less valuable as a motivator both for current employees and for candidates. As a result, you need to shift your sales approach to candidates to emphasize exciting work, flexible work, better benefits, more security, or to focus on cash performance bonuses. 3. Job security is king. Economic volatility makes both employees and candidates nervous about their

future. This fear among potential candidates causes them to increase their emphasis on security, which will definitely make drawing away the currently employed top performer from their current firm much harder. Recruiting needs to re-examine the information that it provides on job security on its website, in position descriptions and in its offers in order to make it more compelling. 4. An increased volume of traffic. Normally, all great recruiters focus on the employed candidate (the so-called passive candidates). However, layoffs and high unemployment may mean that some highquality people are now available among the ranks of the unemployed. Unfortunately, if you actively recruit during tough times, the volume of mediocre but enthusiastic unemployed people who will apply for your jobs will also increase dramatically. This high-volume, low-quality flow means that your screeners will be strained and that your selection process has to be more precise to ensure that you dont mistakenly hire highly enthusiastic people who turn out to be low performers. 5. Relocation issues. Moving people between regions becomes nearly impossible when individuals cant get new mortgages or sell their existing homes. This problem affects both internal transfers and new hires. Alternatives to consider include focusing on recent college grads who generally rent or consider narrowing your recruiting area to a reasonable commuting distance. 6. A loss of trust and confidence. Although your firm might not have been involved, the general mistrust of business that has resulted from the economic turmoil means that both your employees and your candidates will likely now have less trust and confidence in anything that you say. In recruiting, this means that your website must be more objective and believable, your interviews need to be more credible and your offers will need to be stronger, if you expect to convince the cynical. 7. Managers will focus less on recruiting. Few managers have ever really enjoyed recruiting. But their interest in it will likely even decrease further during tough times as the stress from their business workload increases, while their available staff decreases. Their interest in recruiting will decrease because they certainly wont be doing it as often but also because of the increased frustration that invariably occurs when many of their active searches are never be completed because of frequent surprise hiring or budget freezes. Their lack of interest in reading resumes and interviews will invariably mean a dramatically slower average time to fill at your firm. 8. Layoffs. Although you probably cant stop layoffs from happening, you should certainly fight to minimize their impact on your employment brand image. Work with PR to ensure that layoffs by your firm dont become front-page news for potential applicants to see and worry over. 9. Technology budgets. Almost invariably during tight economic times, any budget resources available for buying new technology (ATS systems or new software) are likely to disappear. So either make your purchases immediately or be prepared to live with what you have for a while. 10. Recruiting budget cuts. Almost everyone gets their budget cut during business downturns but theres no reason for recruitings budget to be cut any deeper than others. The key to maintaining your budget is to build a strong business case demonstrating that cutting recruiting has more negative business impacts than the limited cost savings that these cuts generate. Also utilize split samples to demonstrate your impact. When possible, work with powerful executives in growth businesses to get them to champion your cause or to directly fund recruiting initiatives that impact their business unit. Also, work with the CFOs office to quantify the dollar impact of low quality and bad hires, as well as the revenues lost as a result of position vacancies in revenue-generating and revenue impact positions. In finally, focus on winning external recruiting and Best Place To Work awards to increase your

visibility and credibility among executives. Ref: http://www.ere.net/2008/10/20/managing-recruiting-during-an-economic-downturn-the-top-10action-steps-to-take/#more-4436