Human Resources Management :

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Human Resources Management :

Strategic planning means long term and short term planning of various

activities

begining from goal setting to achieve the goal and the resetting new goals.While

adopting strategies, managers give maximum emphasis on optimum

utilization of

resources like finance, capital, raw material, but quite often they neglect or

give

less importance to human resource. The clear fact is that HR is the most

significant

asset of the enterprise because optimum utilization of other resources

depends

entirely on efficiency of the Human Resource.As said by a famous management consultant For many yearsit has been

saidthat capital is the bottleneck for a developing industry. It is no longer holds

true

because it is the workforce and the companys inability to recruit andmaintain a

good workforce tht does constitute the bottomneck for production. I dont

know

any major project in any field backed by good ideas, vigor and enthusiasticteam

has been stopped by the shortage of cash but there are innumerable projectswhich

failed drastically inspite of having of having huge cash just because of

absence ofefficient and enthusiastic workforce.

IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Though very frequently neglected, all managers are in a sense, HR managers

because they all deal with human resource to do their tasks, All managers

get


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involved in activities like recruiting, interviewing, selecting, training,

promoting

etc. at any level.

REASONS TO GIVE EMPHASIS ON HRM

In strategy formation, proper emphasis must be given to HRM because in

todays information age all the companies have similar technologies,

methods and

exposures to the market so the only distinguishing factor is work force (HR)

of the

company. Due to globalization, every company has to compete with the bestof the

world and in such situation inefficient, demotivated and inactive work force

can

lead only to close down, low profit, zero goodwill situation.

Even if HR is so important most of the managers neglect it because of the

following reasons :

Responsibility of HRD :

Top level manager think that HRD is solely responsible for development of

Why do managers fail to include HRM as part of their overallcorporate strategic plan ? How would you convince them to doso ?2

human resource but actually all the heads of the functional managers must

participate to get maximum output from their workforce.

Many managers have the notion that every employee will give their best toget increment and promotion but this is not reality. It is well proved that all

employees need motivation to give their best to the company.

Many managers consider HRM as a time consuming, expensive and

unnecessary burden on top level management but the fact is that HRD is

very

necessary for optimum utilization of other resources and smooth functioning


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of

the company.

In the changing environment, Globalization has opened wide market for all

the companies. It has caused more competition and more pressure to perform

better than the rest of the world. It has also created lots of new opportunities

to

expand business in new territories. Only a well equipped, trained and

efficient

workforce can lead the company to success and prosperity in such an

environment.

Due to globalization the demand of talented people has increased as all

companies want to hire best people of the field. So not only recruiting but

also

retianing the talented employees is a big challenge for HR department.

Ron Pilenzo in his article A new Paradigm for HR has reasoned out thatin changing environment HRM cannot survive only by doing Hire and

Fire

Function but it will have to retain its position in top level management by

addingvalue in the strategic development process.Many CEOs and top level management question need of HRD management

and upto some extent their question need appropriate answer too. If with

changing

environment the HRM cannot survive without upgradation.

HR is necessary to achieve following advantages :

Achieving competitive advantage :

According to Bernardin, competitive advantage means the ability to

formulate

strategies that place a favourable position relative to other companies in the

industry.


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Gaining this advantage also means to create uniquenesses in four sources

namely3

(1) Financial or Economic capability

(2) Strategic product capability

(3) Technological or Opertional Capability

(4) Organizational capability

The fundamental difference between the company and its competitor is

efficient and productive workforce which root cause of success and survival

inhighly competitive market.

Moreover in democratic world as said by Parter in The Competitive

advantage of Nation Understanding the difference in national economic

structures,

values, cultures, institutions and historical contribute profoundly to

competitive

success of the organisation in the industry.

However many times HR promote their own face value by adding irrelevant

expensive and useless programmes. These purely tactical programmes prove

not

only costly but also proves irresponsible and risky to HR itself. The solution

of

the problem in tht HR msut know & understand the business of their

organisation

and then translate its values into strategies to maximise the potential of

human

capital. In the landmark bookIn Search of Excellenceby Peters andWaterman,

Peters has given notion Management by wandering around means to get a

clearerperspective, making regular field trips, talking to customers, holding

informal

meetings with employees, vendors, suppliers, union leaders.


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According to Dun & Bradstreet, 88.7% of business failures are due to

management mistakes. And management mistakes are due to poor or lack of

HR

mangement hence success or failure mainly depend on HR management.

Moreover HRM functions are not only limited to HRD but are also

associated

with other managements. For example if managers of various fields are

trained to

become better interviewers, trainers, coacher, motivators and communicators

thenit will result in better selection, improved performance, increase in

effectivity and

reduction in labour problems. Susan Meisinger the President & CEO of

Sorceity

of HRM in her commentary Did they really Hate HR? agreed that HRM

is the

most important and key driver of business performance but they are

underdelivers.

The biggest challenge to HR managers is to deliver what they have

promised.4

According to Ron Ribenzo HRM is oversold and there is urgent need to

change DNA of HRM and leverage the value of HR. The current vision ofHR is

flowed and defined by other professionals so HR must expand its horizonand

take more responsibilities to survive.

According to Delery From a conceptual perspective, HR practices within


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a system may supplement, substitute or interact in positive or negative ways

with

each other.HRM formulates various policies at various levels of management.

According to Wright and Boswell HR policies refer to the firm or

businessunits stated intention about the kinds of HR programme, processes,

compensation

policy, techniques that should be carried out in the organisation.From the above discussion, it is clear that HR Management is core member

of Management team, hence proper focus on function of HRM is equally

important.

As perGary Dessler the main functions of HRM are as follows :

- Conduting job analysis to determine the nature of each employees job

- Planning labour needs and recruiting job candidates.

- Selecting job candidates

- Orienting and training new employees

- Compensating employees

- Appraising performance

- Communicating for interview, counselling, desciplining and motivating

- Building employee commitment.

Human Resource Managers must have knowledge about.- Equal opportunity and afirmative (positive) action

- Employee health and safety

- Handling grievances and labour relations.


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- Motivating and retaining workforce.

However as perGary Dessler, following mistakes must not be made by

HRM

- Making mistake of recruiting wrong person for the job

- forming policies which cause high labour turnover

- Forming policies which do not get best from the employees5

- Mistake of wasting time in useless interviews, training or unproductive

analysis.

- Making mistake of taking grievance to court inspite of setting the matter

mutually.

- Mistake of neglecting training.

- Mistake of adopting any unfair labour practices.

All these mistakes will cause irrepairable damage to the functioning,

efficiency,

goodwill and last but not least profitability of the company so all HR

managers

must avoid these msitakes.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT : ESSENTIAL FOR

EMPLOYEES

However the HRM must also play the role ofemployee advocacy. Means

they should not only help management to get maximum from the employees

butthey must also take responsibility for clearly defining how management

should

treat employees and check any unfair practice to prevent employees

exploitation.

Then they have dual role by representating the interest of employees within

the


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framework of its primary obligation to higher level managment. The

efficiency

level of HRD will decrease if HRM is inclined to any of the group.

In the changing environment because of Globalization, strict labour laws and

everchanging techniques and mathods, the importance of HRM Department

has

increased bacause it has become extremely difficult to maintain loyal,

efficient

and motivated workforce where talent hunt is increasing day by day.

HRM has to ensure that all the needs of the employees monetory, skill

development, appraisal are satisfied and at the same time the company gets

the job

done in the most efficient manner.

Carnegie, the king of Iron & steel industry of America once said, take

away all my property and resource but let me keep my team and Illreestablish the

whole empire in less than four years.

The functions of HRM does not start with selection of proper candidate but

it

starts from accurate and precise job description because if job descriptions

are

outdated, insufficient and vague then the selection would be inappropriate

and its

following are the main advantages of an efficient HRM :

- Accurate and precise job description to facilitate selection of ideal

candidates

- Proper selection of efficient, skilled and capable employees to increase

productivity of workforce

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- To train, promote, motivate and encourage employees to get out their best

performance for the company and for themselves.

- To retain core talent team by reducing turnover rate because huge amount

of


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money is spent on training and developing skills of the employee and their

turnover causes new problems to the company.

- Moreover one of the most important function of the HRM is to function as

employee advocacy means to safeguard the interest of the employees to gain

their loyalties

- It also reduces labour turnover rate, labour grievance and legal actions for

compensation.

- HRM also undertakes function of training for developing skills and

enabling

the employees to adopt latest technology and mathods in the industry.

- Due to globalization, the management has to deal with problem of culturaldifferences, operation method difference and business environment

differences

so the responsibilities of HRD increases more in this changing environment.

- In the throat cut competition age of globalization, retaining efficient

employees

is more difficult than recruiting them so there is huge pressure on HRD to

maintain

talented employees by providing them adequate salaries, productive and

positive

work atmosphere, growth and job satisfaction by proper rewards, appraisal

and

recognition.

HRM : ESSENTIAL FOR FUTURE GOALS OF THE ORGANISATION

- HRM is also very helpful to sync the goal of the company with the goals of

the

employees to achieve better results and better performance.Many experts consider the HR as an expensive and unnecessary financial

burden

which can be avoided to increase overall profitability but the following

points

emphasise importance of HRM in increasing profitablility and efficiency of

the


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company.

1) Unskilled, untrained and errorprone employees make more mistakes

which

result into wastage of raw materials, low quality products, dissatisfaction,

reduction of goodwill due to inferior product and higher labour turnoever

rate.

But all these adverse situations can be avoided by spending some money on

training and developing skills of employees.

'TALENT MANAGEMENT : A NEW CONCEPT IN HRM:

2) If talented employees are not retained then competitors will grab them

andcause great trouble to the company. According to Wilf Altam the latest

buzzword in HRD is Talent Management In his article on talent was Wilf

Altam has narrated that as the skill shortange bites, keeping hold of your

best

people is becoming war. Across the Globe all the companies are hunting

talent

to enhance their own performance.

As noted by Fortune Magazine recently all companies like countries are

realising that their future prosperity depends not only on natural resources oreven on capital resources but also human capital.

Wilf Altam has given following six steps for successful talent management :

1) Talent management is everyones job in the organization

2) Talent is the single most important force creating strategic value for the

organisation

3) The top level management should ask that why successful and ambitiousindividual would want to come and work for their organisation.

4) A human capital strategy is essential for supporting organisations

strategic

goals.


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5) Talent is the engine which drives the whole organisation to the path of

success

6) A talent powered organisation is an organisation which achieve

distinctive

capabilities and produce extraordinaty results

According Kay Thorne and Andy Pellant, the authors ofThe essential

guideto managing talent, talent management should be called talent

development

because it is difficult to control or manage talent.Moreover it is very difficult for HRD to excess talent or evaluate talent

because

many talented people may not or cannot demonstrate their talent and many

less

talented employees can create larger than life picture of their abilities.

Therefore

HRD must scrutinise and evaluate the real talent and develop it.

If any company gets award for Best Company to Work for, then many

enthusiastic, talented and efficient candidates will willingly join the

organisation

and increase the efficiency of the work force. It will also reduce the labour

turnover

rate.

Moreover money spent on training and development is not an expenditure

but

it is a valuable investment. Hence top level management must spend

efficiently

8and productively on training and talent development programmes. As proved

by

the famous case of the Royal Bank of Scotland, their significant growth

from a

low performing organisation to 1,35,000 employees and 35 millions

customers is


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due to the efficient role human resource management.

According to Greig Aitken, head of human capital strategy The eight driveof efficient employee engagement are - employee recognition, performance

and

development opportunities, relationship with management, total reward, thework

itself, product brands and reputation, leadership and work life balance.

As a organisation grows the complexities of HRD functions also increase.

In a nutshell, it can be concluded that Human Resource is the most importantpart of overall management because it increases overall productivity of the

organization and brings social welfare by increasing efficiency of the

workforce

and their income. Optimum utilization of resources also increase prosperity

of the

country. Therefore while strategy formation utmost importance must be

given to

excellent Human Resource Management by including a range of employee

involvement methods and individualistic led to success approach. It will

definitely

achieve a great success on several fronts.

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Human Resources Management :