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INTRODUCTION TO HR

Human Resource
The term human resources refers to
“ The total knowledge, skills , creative
abilities, talents and aptitudes of an
organisation’s work force, as well as
values, attitudes and beliefs of the
individuals involved”
According to Leon C. Megginson
Human Resource
Management
Human resource management deals with
the “people” dimension in the
management.
Ivancevich and Glueck observed
“personnel/human resource
management is the function performed
in organisations that facilitates the
most effective use of the employees to
achieve organisational and individual
Human Resource
Management
 Each organisation comprises of
people. The organisation is utilising
the services of people. Each
organisation is trying to enhance
their skills, motivate them to
perform at better levels and
ensure that they remain
committed to the organisation.
 This is true for all organisations.
Four functions of HRM

 Acquiring

 Developing

 Motivating

 Retaining
Acquiring
 The acquisition function starts with
planning and ends with staffing.
 Planning: It determines, the number and
type of people required.
 Staffing: it means
selection
recruitment
induction and orientation
transfer
career progress
separation
Developing
 This function involves
 Training
 management development
 career development
Motivating
 This function includes identifying
needs of people and finding ways
to satisfy them
Retaining
 The retention function is
concerned with providing a
conducive work environment and
maintaining their commitment to
the organisation.
History of HRM

 Scientific Management Approach

 Human Relations Approach

 Human Resource Approach


Scientific Management
Approach
 In the begenning of the 20th century,
managers accepted the concept of
“economic man”. It means a worker
is motivated by economic gain.
 Fredrick Taylor, who is considered to
be the father of scientific
management focused on the study
of motions that were required for
each job, the tools used and the
time needed to accomplish each
task. Taylor developed fair
Scientific Management
Approach
 Taylor proposed differential piece rate
system. The worker would get higher
rate of pay for every unit of output that
exceeds the daily output standard. It
was believed that the worker would
would maximise production in order to
satisfy their monetary needs
 Personnel people were involved in job
analysis, designing wage incentive
Human Relations
Approach
 Two important developments took
place.
 Hawthorne studies pointed out that the
sentiments of employees were
influenced by group relationships and
management support.
 Secondly, the unions became stronger.
 These development led to the greater
acceptance of human relations
Shortcomings of Human
Relations Approach
 The approach is based on the concept “a happy
worker is a productive worker” is an
oversimplified concept and is valid only for a
part of the workforce.
 This approach did not recognise individual
differences. Each employee is unique. His needs
are different.
 It did not give adequate importance to
standards and work rules.
 This approach failed to recognise the need of
performance management, career
development, job environment etc.
Human Resource
Approach
 This approach treats organisational
goals and employee needs as being
mutual and compatible. It is based on
the following principles:
 Employees are asset to an

organisation. The resources used in


their development are an
investment. The organisation gets a
better return in the future
Human Resource
Approach
(principles contd …)
 Policies, programs and practices must
cater to the needs of their employes.
These should help them in their
personnel development.
 It is necessary to create and maintain a
conducive work environment to
encourage the employees to develop
and use their knowledge and skills for
the benefit of the organisation
HRM Functions
 HRM functions can be divided into
two categories

 Managerial Functions

 Operative Functions
Managerial Functions
 Planning
 Organising
 Staffing
 Directing
 Controlling
Planning

 Planning includes identifying human


resource requirement and
forecasting personnel needs. It also
involves foreseeing the changes in
employee attitudes and finding
ways of handling them.
Organising

It involves developing roles and


establishing relationships among
employees to enable them to
contribute collectively towards
the attainment of the
organisational goal.
Staffing
It aims at obtaining and maintaining
competent personnel in various
positions at all levels
It includes manpower planning,
recruitment, selection, placement,
induction, transfer, career
progression, and separation
Directing

This activity involves co-ordination


between different departments to
ensure maximum utilisation of
human resources.
Controlling

 This function measures


performance against goals and
plans, identifies deviations and
places the process back on track
Operative Functions
 Employment
 Human Resource Development
 Compensation
 Employee Relations
Employment
 Job analysis: it is the process of
obtaining information regarding the
requirements of a job. The
preparation of job description and job
specification. It provides guides for job
design and re-design
 It involves human resource planning,
recruitment, selection, placement,
induction.
Human Resource
Development
 This involves performance,
appraisal, training, managerial
development and career
development.
Compensation
 This is concerned with job
evaluation, determining wages and
salary rate. wage incentive
programs bonus and fringe
benefits
Employee Relations
 This mainly deals with developing
teams, counselling and grievance
handling
Role of HR Executive
 The service provider: An HR executive can help
by providing information on market statistics of
personnel availability, pay rates etc and
interpret labour law.
 The executive: carry out activities like
recruitment, compensation etc.
 The facilitator: HR acts as facilitator when
training and appraisal activities are planned.
 The consultant: line managers seek the advice of
HR specialist to resolve grievances smoothly.
 The auditor HR specialist ensure that all
members of the management perform their
respective roles.
Line and Staff Functions
 The department or employees of firm that
perform the core activities and contribute to its
business directly are called the line functions.
Like manufacturing or marketing. On the other
hand, departments or employees that perform
a support function and contribute indirectly to
business of a firm are termed the staff function.
 However, in the changing economic scenario,
where more and more business are becoming
service oriented, it is difficult to classify
functions as line and staff. In a BPO operation
even HR function becomes a line function
Expectations and
complaints of the line
managers
 HR staff take up line authority – in case of
union management relations/negotiations.
 Line managers feel that HR managers do not
offer balanced advice. As staff are not
accountable for the end results, they tend to
innovate and experiment.
 HR take the credit for all the success and
dissociate themselves from any failure.
 HR staff do not see the whole picture. They
look at the picture from their perspective
only. This might be because of inadequate
knowledge of other functions of business.
How the HR Function
Responds
 Line function is prejudiced and biased
against the HR function.
 Line function does not understand the
value of staff.
 Line function does not know how to
make effective use of the HR function.
 Line function is not in favour of
experimentation.
 The HR function is handicapped as it is
not given enough power.
How to Resolve the
Conflict
 Understanding the markets and the
business better.
 Having a complete understanding of
organisational process.
 Being empathetic to the limitations of the
line functions.
 Build an atmosphere of trust and
transparency.
 Work towards win- win situation
 Taking an active role in designing the
strategy of the organisation
HR STRATEGIES
Communication
 Continuous communication
regarding change. The standing of
a particular organisation in the
global scene.
Commitment
 Committed employees enhance
productivity. Performance
management rewards, career
planning, work culture etc. are
used
Quality Strategies
 TQM should be a way of life. HRD
system should aim at this.
Customer Orientation
Throughout The Co.
 HR strategies to link customer
satisfaction
Challenging Role of HR
 HR & Boosting Productivity
At merck & co. HR helps employees adapt
to the increased pressure in their
downsized departments.
 HR and Service

Employees need to develop temperament,


Maturity, social skills and tolerance for
frequent contacts that customer service
jobs require. Selection training, career
planning help employees to do such jobs
Challenging Role of HR
 Quality Improvement
TQM, Six Sigma, Kaizen, ISO certification need to
be done. These require organisation wide
commitment at all levels and across all
functions. Training, team work, allocation of
resources, long-term perspective are important.
 Changing Attitudes of Workforce

Knowledge professional would prefer


organisations that have strong values,
performance ethics etc. HR system are
developed for these lots of benefits to extend
Myths About HRD
 HRD MEANS TRANING: It is far more
than training.
 HRD MEANS PROMOTION: No one gets
promotion because of HRD. It depends
on performance.
 HRD MEANS FAT SALARIES: Employees
believe than salary revisions were
not under taken as they did not have a
competent HRD manager
Myths About HRD
 HRD means reward: Appraisal
depends on line manager too.
 HRD means having a good time :
HRD sponsors for training program.
 HRD depends on the top
management
 HRD is the job of HRD alone: line
managers have very important role
to play

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