CHAPTER -2

Introduction of HRM
Introduction to Human Resource Management (HRM)
Human Resource Management (HRM) is a critical function in any organization
that focuses on managing people to enhance their performance and contribute to
organizational success. HRM involves practices related to recruiting, training,
development, motivation, and overall management of employees.

1. Nature of HRM
Strategic Management of People: HRM is viewed as a strategic partner in
aligning human resources with the business goals of the organization. It ensures
the right people are in the right roles to achieve organizational objectives.
People-Centric: HRM focuses on improving the effectiveness of individuals,
teams, and the entire organization by managing people efficiently.
Continuous Process: It’s not a one-time task but an ongoing activity that needs to
adapt as per changing business environments and employee needs.
Interdisciplinary: HRM integrates knowledge from various fields such as
psychology, sociology, law, economics, and management.
2. Scope of HRM
Recruitment and Selection: Identifying, attracting, and selecting the right
candidates for the organization.
Training and Development: Ensuring employees develop the skills and
knowledge required for their roles and for future roles within the organization.
Performance Management: Evaluating and enhancing employee performance
through feedback, training, and development.
Compensation and Benefits: Managing pay, rewards, and benefits in a way that
attracts, retains, and motivates employees.
Employee Relations: Managing relationships between employees and
management, addressing grievances, ensuring a positive work culture.
Health, Safety, and Welfare: Ensuring the health and safety of employees,
promoting work-life balance, and providing welfare programs.
Legal Compliance: Ensuring that all HR practices comply with employment laws
and regulations.
3. Objectives of HRM
Maximizing Employee Potential: To improve individual performance to
contribute to the overall organizational success.
Building Organizational Capacity: By aligning HR policies with organizational
goals, HRM ensures the availability of the right skills at the right time.
Ensuring Job Satisfaction: Providing employees with a satisfying and motivating
work environment, thereby improving retention rates.
Developing Leadership: HRM fosters leadership by identifying and developing
potential leaders within the organization.

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Enhancing Organizational Effectiveness: HRM ensures that the organization
operates efficiently by ensuring proper utilization of human capital.
Promoting Employee Welfare: Ensuring that employees are well taken care of
through benefits, training, and a safe work environment.
4. Functions of HRM
Staffing: The recruitment, selection, placement, and induction of employees. It
ensures that the organization has the necessary human resources to achieve its
goals.
Training and Development: HRM provides employees with learning
opportunities to improve their performance and develop professionally. This
includes induction training, skill development, and leadership training.
Performance Management: This includes setting performance expectations,
conducting appraisals, providing feedback, and offering developmental plans to
improve performance.
Compensation and Benefits: Establishing pay structures, providing rewards, and
benefits like insurance, retirement plans, bonuses, etc.
Employee Relations: Ensuring positive relationships between employees and
management, managing conflicts, and fostering a culture of open communication
and mutual respect.
Health, Safety, and Welfare: Addressing employees' physical and mental well-
being through workplace safety policies, health programs, and wellness
initiatives.
Legal Compliance: Ensuring the organization follows all labor laws, regulations,
and industry standards to avoid legal issues and maintain fairness.
5. Role of HR Manager
Strategic Role: The HR manager acts as a strategic partner to align HR practices
with the overall business strategy. This includes managing talent, employee
engagement, and driving organizational change.
Operational Role: HR managers oversee the implementation of HR practices such
as recruitment, training, performance management, and compliance with legal
regulations.
Advisory Role: HR managers provide counsel to line managers on human
resource issues, such as dealing with employee concerns, managing team
dynamics, and improving performance.
Employee Champion: HR managers advocate for employees' needs, ensuring that
their concerns are addressed, their rights are protected, and their motivation is
enhanced.
6. Process and Need for Human Resource Planning (HRP)
Human Resource Planning Process:
Forecasting HR Needs: Estimating the demand for labor and the skills needed to
achieve organizational goals in the future.
Inventorying Current Workforce: Analyzing the existing workforce in terms of
skills, qualifications, and experience to identify gaps.
Developing HR Strategies: Creating strategies to address future HR requirements,
such as recruitment, training, or internal promotions.
Implementing Plans: Executing HR strategies, such as recruiting, training, or
upskilling employees.
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Evaluating and Reviewing: Continuously assessing the effectiveness of HR plans
and making adjustments as needed.
Need for Human Resource Planning:
Ensures Availability of Talent: HRP ensures that the organization has a sufficient
number of qualified employees at the right time.
Reduces Labor Shortages/Surpluses: It helps the organization anticipate and
prevent both manpower shortages and surpluses.
Aligns HR with Organizational Goals: HRP ensures that the human resource
requirements are in line with the strategic goals of the organization.
Helps in Succession Planning: By anticipating future needs, HRP ensures a
pipeline of talented individuals for critical roles within the organization.
Cost Management: By forecasting and planning HR requirements, organizations
can reduce the costs of hiring, training, and managing excess employees.
7. Human Resource Policies
Definition: HR policies are a set of principles and guidelines that influence and
control how an organization's human resources are managed.
Types of HR Policies:
Recruitment and Selection Policies: Guidelines for attracting and selecting
candidates.
Training and Development Policies: Guidelines for employee development and
skill enhancement.
Compensation and Benefits Policies: Guidelines on salary structure, incentives,
and benefits.
Performance Management Policies: Guidelines for setting performance goals,
appraisals, and promotions.
Employee Welfare Policies: Policies related to health, safety, work-life balance,
and employee support programs.
Purpose:
Ensures fairness and consistency.
Reduces the chances of disputes and litigation.
Aligns HR practices with the organization's goals and values.
8. Changing Role of HR in India
From Administrative to Strategic: Traditionally, HR in India was viewed as an
administrative function. However, it has evolved to become a strategic function,
helping drive business goals and improve performance.
Talent Management: As competition for skilled labor increases, HR's role is
shifting towards talent management and retention.
Focus on Employee Engagement: HR is increasingly focused on creating a work
environment where employees feel valued and motivated, which leads to higher
productivity and loyalty.
Learning and Development: With the pace of technological change, HR in India
is emphasizing continuous learning and development to keep employees’ skills
up to date.
Digital Transformation: The growing use of technology in HR processes such as
recruitment, performance management, and training is changing the HR
landscape in India.
9. Globalization and its Impact on Human Resource
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Global Talent Pool: Globalization allows organizations to access a wider pool of
talent across geographical boundaries, leading to more diverse teams.
Cultural Sensitivity: HR managers must manage a culturally diverse workforce
and ensure inclusivity and respect for different cultural norms and values.
Expatriate Management: Companies with global operations must manage
expatriates (employees working abroad) in terms of recruitment, relocation,
training, and compensation.
Talent Mobility: Globalization has led to increased talent mobility, with
employees frequently moving across borders for job opportunities.
Standardization vs. Localization: Global companies must decide whether to
standardize HR practices across regions or localize them based on cultural and
legal differences in different countries.
Legal and Ethical Compliance: HR departments need to ensure compliance with
local labor laws and international standards, including labor rights, compensation,
and benefits.
These notes provide an overview of the key concepts of Human Resource
Management (HRM), highlighting its nature, scope, objectives, functions,
policies, and how it adapts to the changing landscape, both within India and
globally.

1.1 Concept and Definitions of HRM

Concept of HRM
HRM is concerned with the human beings in an organization. “The management of man”
is a very important and challenging job because of the dynamic nature of the people. No
two people are similar in mental abilities, tacticians, sentiments, and behaviors; they
differ widely also as a group and are subject to many varied influences. People are
responsive, they feel, think and act therefore they can not be operated like a machine or
shifted and altered like template in a room layout. They therefore need a tactful handing
by management personnel.” m

HRM is the process of managing people of an organization with a human approach.

Human resources approach to manpower enables the manager to view the people as an
important resource. It is the approach through which organization can utilize the
manpower not only for the benefits of the organization but for the growth, development
and self satisfaction of the concerned people. Thus, HRM is a system that focuses on
human resources development on one hand and effective management of people on the
other hand so that people will enjoy human dignity in their employment.

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involved in providing human dignity to the employees taking into account their capacity,
potentiallat their personalities are recognized as valuable human beings. If an organization
can trust,pend and draw from their bank account on the strength of their capital assets, they
can trust, depend and draw more on their committed, talented, dedicated and capable people.
This is what the HRM is involved in every business, managerial activity or introduction.

The principal component of an organization is its human resource or ‘people at work’.

According to Leon C. Megginson from the national point of view Human Resources as,
“the knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes obtained in the population;
whereas from the . view point of the individual enterprise, they represent the total of
inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and skills as exemplified in the talents and
aptitudes of its employees.”(2)

Human resource has a paramount importance in the success of any organization because
most of the problems in organizational setting are human and social rather than physical,
technical or economical failure. In the words of Oliver Shelden, “No industry can be
rendered efficient so long as the basic fact remains unrecognized that it is principally
human.”(3)

Human Resources Management is concerned with the “people” dimension in

management. Since every organization is made up of people acquiring their services,
developing their skills, motivating them to high level of performance and ensuring that
they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization are essential to achieve
organizational objectives. This is true regardless of the type of organization, government,
business, education, health, recreation or social action. Getting and keeping good people
is critical to the success of every organization, whether profit or non-profit, public or
private.

Definitions of HRM

There are two different definitions. The first definition of HRM is that “It is the process
of managing people in organizations in a structured and thorough manner.”(4) 5This
covers
the fields of staffing (hiring people), retention of people, pay and perks setting and
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management, performance management, change management and taking care of exits
from the company to round off the activities. This is the traditional definition of HRM
which leads some experts to define it as a modem version of the Personnel Management
function that was used earlier.

The second definition of HRM encompasses “The management of people in

organizations from a macro perspective, i.e. managing people in the form of a collective
relationship between management and employees.”*^ This approach focuses on the
objectives and outcomes of the HRM functions. It means that the HR function in
contemporary organizations is concerned with the notions of people enabling, people
development and a focus on making the “employment relationship” fulfilling for both the
management and employees.

In simple words, Human resource management is management function that helps

manager to recruit, select, train and develop organization members. Or HRM is a process
of making the efficient and effective use of human resources so that the set goals are
achieved.

In general terms, Human Resource Management is “concerned with the people

dimension in management. Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring
their services, developing their skills, motivating them to high levels of performance and
ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization are essential
for achieving organizational objectives. This is true regardless of the type of organization
government business, Education, Health, regression or social action.”(6)

In the words of Dunn and Stephens, “The HRM is the process of attracting, holding and
motivating all manager line and staff.”(7)

The National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) of India has defined human
resource as “that part of management which is concerned with people at work and with
their relationship within an enterprise. Its aim is to bring together and develop into an
effective organization of the men and women who make up an enterprise and having

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regard for the well-being of the individuals and of working groups, to enable them to
make their best contribution to its success.”(8)

1.2 volution and developments of HRM

The history of development of HR management in India is comparatively of recent
origin. But Kautilya had dealt with some of the important aspects of human resources
management in his “Arthasastra,” written in 400 B.C. Government in those days adapted
the techniques of HRM as suggested by Kautilya. In its modem sense, it has developed
only since independence. Though the importance of labour officers was recognised as
early as 1929, the appointment of officers to solve labour and welfare problems gained
momentum only after the enactment of the Factories Act of 1948. Section 49 of the Act
required the appointment of Welfare Officers in companies employing more than 500
workers. At the beginning, Government was concerned only with limited aspects of
labour welfare. The earliest labour legislation in India dealt with certain aspects of Indian
labourers (Regulation of Recruitment, Forwarding and Employment) sent to various
British colonies in 1830. Important phases of evolution of HRM are presented in Exhibit:

Table 1.1 Evolution and Developments of HRM in India

Development
Period Status Outlook Emphasis Status
1920s- Pragmatism Statutory, welfare
1930s Beginning of capitalists paternalism Clerical
1940s Struggling for Technical, Introduction of
- recognition legalistic Techniques Administrative
1960s
Regulatory,
conforming,
1970s Achieving Professional imposition Managerial
Legalistic, Standards on other
1980s Sophistication impersonal functions
Human values,
productivity through
1990s Promising Philosophical people Executive
(Source: C.S. Venkataratnam and B.K. Srivastava, Personnel Management and Human
Resources, TATA Mc-Graw Hill, New Delhi, 1991, p.5.)

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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:

Recent developments in the area of human resources management include treating the
employees as economic, social, psychological and spiritual men and women. The
important aspects of development of human resources management year wise is shown
below:
• In the year 1995, emphasis has been shifted to human resources development
(HRD).
• In the year 1998, emphasis on HRD, cultural diversity, teamwork and
participative management has been continuing. Further, the emerging areas are
total quality in management in HRM, empowering the employees and developing
empowered teams and integrating HRM with strategic management as the top
management, realised that HRM is the core of competencies of the 21st century
corporations.
• In the year 1999, second National Commission on Labour was setup to study the
labour conditions.
• In the year 2001, emphasis has been on 'smart sizing of the organisations'.
• In the year 2002, emphasis has been shifted to positive attitude of the
candidate/employee rather than skill and knowledge.
• In the year 2003, shift from intelligence quotient (IQ) to emotional quotient (EQ).
• In the year 2004, shift from skilled workers to knowledge workers.
• In the year 2005, shift from hierarchical structure to flexible and virtual structures.
• In the year 2006, HRM has become the core of strategic management level.
• In the year 2007, the concept of HRM has been relegated to human capital
management.
• In the year 2008, emphasis has been on retention management and development
of own human resources by companies through alliances with
universities/colleges. In the same year, there was decline in business operations
due to global economic recession and crisis.
• In the year 2009, continuation ofjob cuts, pay costs and lay-offs due to prolonged
global recession and crisis.
• In the year 2014, emphasis is shifted to talent management and flexible human
resource policies and practices.
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1.3 Nature of HRM

HRM is a management function that helps managers to recmit, select, train and develop
members for an organization. HRM is concerned with people’s dimension in
organizations. The following aspects constitute the core of HRM:

1. HRM Involves the Application of Management Functions and Principles. The

functions and principles are applied for acquiring, developing, maintaining and providing
remuneration to employees in organization.
2. Decision Relating to Employees must be integrated. Decisions on different aspects of
employees must be consistent with other human resource (HR) decisions.
3. Decisions Made Influence the Effectiveness of an Organization. Effectiveness of an
organization will result in betterment of services to customers in the form of high quality
products supplied at reasonable costs.
4. HRM Functions are not confined to Business Establishments Only but applicable to
non-business organizations such as education, health care, recreation and like.

HRM refers to a set of programmes, functions and activities designed and carried out in
order to maximize both employee as well as organizational effectiveness.

1.4 Objectives of HRM

The primary objective of HRM is to ensure the availability of competent and willing
workforce for an organization. Beyond this, there are other objectives too. Specifically,
HRM objectives are four fold: Societal, Organization, Functional and personal.

Figure 1.1 Objectives of HRM

• Personal Objectives:

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To assist Employees in achieving their personal goals, at least in so far as these goals
enhance the individual’s contribution to the organization. Personal objectives of
employees must be maintained, retained and motivated.

Functional Objectives:

To maintain the contribution of department at an appropriate level organization should

fulfill the needs. Resources are wasted when HRM is either more or less sophisticated to
suit the organizations demands.

• Organizational Objectives:

To recognize the role of HRM in bringing about organizational effectiveness, HRM is not
an end in itself but it is only a mean to assist the organization with its primary objectives
organization.

• Societal Objectives:

To be ethically & socially responsible for the needs and challenges of society while
\

minimizing the negative impact of such demands upon the organization to use their
resources for society’s benefits in ethical ways may lead to restriction.

• Other objectives:

^ Accomplish the basic organizational goals by creating and utilizing an able and

motivated workforce.
v'' To establish and maintain organizational structure and desirable working
relationships among all the members of the organization.
S Develop co-ordination among individual and group within organization to

secure the integration of organization.

S To create facilities and opportunities for individual or group development so as

to match it with the growth of the organization.

S To attain an effective utilization of human resources in the achievement of

organizational goals.
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 S To identify and satisfy individual and group needs by providing adequate and
equitable wages, incentives, employee benefits and social security and measures
for challenging work, prestige, recognition, security, status.
S To maintain high employees morale and human relations by sustaining and
improving the various conditions and facilities.
S To strengthen and appreciate the human assets continuously by providing
training and development programs.
•S To consider and contribute to the minimization of socio-economic evils such as
unemployment, under employment, inequalities in the distribution of income
and wealth and to improve the welfare of the society by providing employment
opportunities to women and disadvantaged sections of the society.
■/ To provide an opportunity for expression and voice management.
■S To provide fair, acceptable and efficient leadership.
S To provide facilities and conditions of work and creation of favorable
atmosphere for maintaining stability of employment.
To create & utilize an able & motivated work force Establish & maintain sound
organizational structure Create facilities attain an effective utilization Identify &
satisfy individual & group needs.
v'' Maintain high employee morale Training & development Opportunity for
expression Provide fair, acceptable and efficient leadership Facilities and
conditions.

1.5 Scope of HRM

The scope of HRM is indeed vast. All major activities in the working life of a worker
- from the time of his or her entry into an organization until he or she leaves the
organization comes under the preview of HRM.

The major HRM activities include HR planning, job analysis, job design, employee
hiring, employee and executive remuneration, employee motivation, employee
maintenance, industrial relations and prospects of HRM.

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The scope of Human Resources Management extends to:

> All the decisions, strategies, factors, principles, operations, practices, functions,
activities and methods related to the management of people as employees in any
type of organization.

> All the dimensions related to people in their employment relationships and all the
dynamics that flow from it.

American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) conducted fairly an exhaustive

study in this field and identified nine broad areas of activities of HRM.

Figure 1.2 Scope of HRM

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e given below:
❖ Human Resource Planning
❖ Design of the Organization and Job
❖ Selection and Staffing
❖ Training and Development
❖ Organizational Development
❖ Compensation and Benefits
❖ Employee Assistance
❖ Union/Labour Relations
❖ Personnel Research and Information System

a) Human Resource Planning: The objective of HR Planning is to ensure that the

organization has the right types of persons at the right time at the right place. It prepares
human resources inventory with a view to assess present and future needs, availability
and possible shortages in human resource. Moreover, HR Planning forecast demand and
supplies and identify sources of selection. HR Planning develops strategies both long
term and short-term, to meet the man-power requirement.

b) Design of Organization and Job: This is the task of laying down organization structure,
authority, relationship and responsibilities. This will also mean definition of work
contents for each position in the organization. This is done by :‘job description”. Another
important step is “Job specification”. Job specification identifies the attributes of persons
who will be most suitable for each job which is defined by job description.

c) Selection and Staffing: This is the process of recruitment and selection of staff. This
involves matching people and their expectations with which the job specifications and
career path available within the organization.

d) Training and Development: This involves an organized attempt to find out training
needs of individuals to meet the knowledge and skill which is needed not only to
perform current job but also to fulfill the future needs of the organization.

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e) Organizational Development: This is an important aspect whereby “Synergetic effect”
is generated in an organization i.e. healthy interpersonal and inter-group relationship
within the organization.

f) Compensation and Benefits: This is the area of wages and salaries administration
where wages and compensations are fixed scientifically to meet fairness and equity
criteria. In addition labour welfare measures are involved which include benefits and
services.

g) Employee Assistance: Each employee is unique in character, personality, expectation

and temperament. By and large each one of them faces problems everyday. Some are
personal some are official. In their case he or she remains worried. Such worries must be
removed to make him or her more productive and happy.

h) Union-Labour Relations: Healthy Industrial and Labour relations are very important
for enhancing peace and productivity in an organization. This is one of the areas of
HRM.

i) Personnel Research and Information System: Knowledge on behavioral science and

industrial psychology throws better insight into the workers expectations, aspirations and
behavior. Advancement of technology of product and production methods have created
working environment which are much different from the past.

Globalization of economy has increased competition many fold. Science of ergonomics

gives better ideas of doing a work more conveniently by an employee. Thus, continuous
research in HR areas is an unavoidable requirement. It must also take special care for
improving exchange of information through effective communication systems on a
continuous basis especially on moral and motivation. HRM is a broad concept; personnel
management (PM) and Human resource development (HRD) are the parts of HRM.

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1.6 Role ofHRM
The role of HRM is to plan, develop and administer policies and programs designed to
make optimum use of an organizations human resources. It is that part of management
which is concerned with the people at work and with their relationship within enterprises.

Current Classification of HR roles:

According to R.L Mathis and J. H. Jackson (2010) several roles can be fulfilled by HR
management. The nature and extent of these roles depend on both what upper
management wants HR management to do and what competencies the HR staff have
demonstrated. Three roles are typically identified for HR.

• Administrative
• Operational Actions
. • Strategic HR

1. Administrative Role of HR:

The administrative role of HR management has been heavily oriented to administration

and recordkeeping including essential legal paperwork and policy implementation. Major
changes have happened in the administrative role of HR during the recent years. Two
major shifts driving the transformation of the administrative role are: Greater use of
technology and Outsourcing.

Technology has been widely used to improve the administrative efficiency of HR and the
responsiveness of HR to employees and managers. Moreover; HR functions are
becoming available electronically or are being done on the Internet using Web-based
technology. Technology is being used in most HR activities, from employment
applications and employee benefits enrollments to e-leaming using Internet-based
resources.

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 Figure 1.3 Classification of HR Roles

Administrative
Personnel practices
Legal compliance
forms and paperwork

i
Operational Actions
Managing employee
relationship issues
Employee advocate

I
Strategic HR
OrganizationaLbusiness
strategies
HR strategic or planning
Evaluation of HR
effectiveness
(Source: Mathis R. L. & Jackson J. H. {2010}: Human Resource
Management Thompson / South Western.)

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Increasingly, many HR administrative functions are being outsourced to vendors. This
outsourcing of HR administrative activities has grown dramatically in HR areas such as
employee assistance (counseling), retirement planning, benefits administration, payroll
services and outplacement services.

2. Operational and Employee Advocate Role for HR:

HR managers manage most HR activities in line with the strategies and operations that
have been identified by management and serves as employee “champion” for employee
issues and concerns.

HR often has been viewed as the “employee advocate” in organizations. They act as the
voice for employee concerns, and spend considerable time on HR “crisis management,”
dealing with employee problems that are both work-related and non work-related.
Employee advocacy helps to ensure fair and equitable treatment for employees regardless
of personal background or circumstances.

Sometimes the HR’s advocate role may create conflict with operating managers.
However, without the HR advocate role, employers could face even more lawsuits and
regulatory complaints than they do now.

The operational role requires HR professionals to co-operate with various departmental

and operating managers and supervisors in order to identify and implement needed
programs and policies in the organization. Operational activities are tactical in nature.
Compliance with equal employment opportunity and other laws are ensured, employment
applications are processed, current openings are filled through interviews, supervisors are
trained, safety problems are resolved and wage and benefit questions are answered. For
carrying out these activities HR manager matches HR activities with the strategies of the
organization.

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3. Strategic Role for HR:

The administrative role traditionally has been the dominant role for HR. A broader
transformation in HR is needed so that significantly less HR time and fewer HR staffs are
used just for clerical work.

Differences between the operational and strategic roles exist in a number of HR areas.
The strategic HR role means that HR professionals are proactive in addressing business
realities and focusing on fiiture business needs, such as strategic planning, compensation
strategies, the performance of HR and measuring its results. However, in some
organizations, HR often does not play a key role in formulating the strategies for the
organization as a whole; instead it merely carries them out through HR activities.

Many executives, managers, and HR professionals are increasingly seeing the need for
HR management to become a greater strategic contributor to the business success of
organizations. HR should be responsible for knowing what the true cost of human capital
is for an employer.

For example, it may cost two times key employees’ annual salaries to replace them if
they leave. Turnover can be controlled though HR activities, and if it is successful in
saving the company money with good retention and talent management strategies, those
may be important contributions to the bottom line of organizational performance.

The role of HR as a strategic business partner is often described as “having a seat at the
table,” and contributing to the strategic directions and success of the organization. That
means HR is involved in devising strategy in addition of implementing strategy. Part of
HR’s contribution is to have financial expertise and to produce financial results, not just
to boost employee morale or administrative efficiencies. Therefore, a significant concern
for chief financial officers (CFOs) is whether HR executives are equipped to help them to
plan and meet financial requirements.

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The role of HR shifted from a facilitator to a functional peer with competencies in other
functions and is acknowledged as an equal partner by others. The HR is motivated to
contribute to organizational objectives of profitability and customer satisfaction and is
seen as a vehicle for realization of quality development. The department has a
responsibility for monitoring employee satisfaction, since it is seen as substitute to
customer satisfaction.

According to McKinsey’s 7-S framework model HR plays the role of a catalyst for the
organization. According to this framework, effective organizational change is a complex
relationship between seven S’s.

HRM is a total matching process between the three Hard S (Strategy, Structure and
Systems) and the four Soft S (Style, Staff, Skills and Super-ordinate Goals). Clearly, all
the S’s have to complement each other and have to be aligned towards a single corporate
vision for the organization to be effective. It has to be realized that most of the S’s are
determined directly or indirectly by the way Human Resources are managed and
therefore, HRM must be a part of the total business strategy.

1.7 Importance of HRM

The importance of human resource management can be discussed by Yodder, Heneman

and others, from three standpoints, viz., social, professional and individual enterprise.

1. Social Significance: Proper management of personnel enhances their dignity by

satisfying their social needs. This is done by: (i) maintaining a balance between
the jobs available and the jobseekers, according to the qualifications and needs;
(ii) Providing suitable and most productive employment, which might bring them
psychological satisfaction; (iii) making maximum utilization of the resources in
an effective manner and paying the employee a reasonable compensation in
proportion to the contribution made by him; (iv) eliminating waste or improper

24
 use of human resource, through conservation of their normal energy and health;
and (v) by helping people make their own decisions, that are in their interests.

2. Professional Significance-. By providing healthy working environment it

promotes team work in the employees. This is done by: (i) maintaining the dignity
of the employee as a ‘human-being’; (ii) providing maximum opportunity for
personal development; (Hi) providing healthy relationship between different work
groups so that work is effectively performed; (iv) improving the employees’
working skill and capacity; (v) correcting the errors of wrong postings and proper
reallocation of work.

3. Significance for Individual Enterprise: It can help the organization in

accomplishing its goals by: (i) creating right attitude among the employees
through effective motivation; (ii) utilizing effectively the available goals of the
enterprise and fulfilling their own social and other psychological needs of
recognition, love, affection, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization.

Dynamic and growth - oriented organization do require effective management of people

in a fast - changing environment. Organizations flourish only through the efforts and
competencies of their human resources. Employee capabilities must continuously be
acquired, sharpened, and used.

Any organization will have proper human resource management (i) to improve the
capabilities of an individual; (ii) to develop team spirit of an individual and the
department; and (Hi) to obtain necessaiy co - operation from the employees to promote
organizational effectiveness.

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1.8 Functions of HRM

Human Resources management has an important role to play in equipping organizations

to meet the challenges of an expanding and increasingly competitive sector. Increase in
staff numbers, contractual diversification and changes in demographic profile which
compel the HR managers to reconfigure the role and significance of human resources
management.

The functions are responsive to current staffing needs, but can be proactive in reshaping
organizational objectives. All the functions of HRM are correlated with the core
objectives of HRM . For example personal objectives are sought to be realized through
functions like remuneration, assessment etc.

HR management can be thought of as seven interlinked functions taking place within

organizations, as depicted in Figure below.

Additionally, external forces—legal, economic, technological, global, environmental,

cultural/geographic, political, and social—significantly affect how HR functions are
designed, managed, and changed.

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 Figure 1.4 Functions of HRM

Strategic HRManagemerd
• HR effectiveness
M • HR metrics
♦ H
R ledmotofy HR
planning
Equal Fmplmment
m Opportiriri
Emptowf and
labor Relations
ta HR retention J i Compliance
•Emptoyee nghts and V 1 * Diversity
privacy % #4 •Affirmative action
‘HR policies 11 if
•Lntonmanagemenl 1 \ m
relations

Ink Management HR
and Worker
FI NOKAS
Prelection
Staffing
• Health and wetness
• |ob analysis
• Safety
• Recruiting
• Security
• Selection
•Disaster and
leceven planning^

Talent Management
Total Rewards •Orientation
•Compensation •Training
»Incentives • HR development
• Benefits »Careerplannmg
• FV?rfarmance
marugcmenl

Soul
~] [eternal environment

Functions of
HRM
(Source: Human Resource Management: Essential Perspectives by Mathis Robert L.,
Jackson John, 2011, Sixth Edition, Thompson / South Western,
ISBN-13:978-0-538-48170-0, P.2)
22
1. Strategic HR Management: As a part of maintaining organizational competitiveness,
strategic planning for HR effectiveness can be increased through the use of HR metrics
and HR technology. Human resource planning (HRP) function determine the number and
type of employees needed to accomplish organizational goals.

HRP includes creating venture teams with a balanced skill-mix, recruiting the right
people, and voluntary team assignment. This function analyzes and determines personnel
needs in order to create effective innovation teams. The basic HRP strategies are staffing
and employee development.

2. Equal Employment Opportunity. Compliance with equal employment opportunity

(EEO) laws and regulations affect all other HR activities.

3. Staffing: The aim of staffing is to provide a sufficient supply of qualified individuals

to fill jobs in an organization. Job analysis, recruitment and selection are the main
functions under staffing.

Workers job design and job analysis laid the foundation for staffing by identifying what
diverse people do in their jobs and how they are affected by them. Job analysis is the
process of describing the nature of a job and specifying the human requirements such as
knowledge, skills and experience needed to perform the job. The end result of job
analysis is job description. Job description spells out work duties and activities of
employees.

Through HR planning, managers anticipate the future supply of and demand for
employees and the nature of workforce issues, including the retention of employees. So
HRP precedes the actual selection of people for organization. These factors are used
when recruiting applicants for job openings. The selection process is concerned with
choosing qualified individuals to fill those jobs. In the selection function, the most
qualified applicants are selected for hiring from among the applicants based on the extent
to which their abilities and skills are matching with the job.

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4. Talent Management and Development: Beginning with the orientation of new
employees, talent management and development includes different types of training.
Orientation is the first step towards helping a new employee to adjust himself with the
new job and the employer. It is a method to acquaint new employees with particular
aspects of their new job, including pay and benefit programmes, working hours and
company rules and expectations.

Training and Development programs provide useful means of assuring that the
employees are capable of performing their jobs at acceptable levels and also more than
that.

All the organizations provide training for new and inexperienced employee. In addition,
organization often provide both on the job and off the job training programmes for those
employees whose jobs are undergoing change.

Likewise, HR development and succession planning of employees and managers both are
necessary to prepare for future challenges. Career planning has developed as result of the
desire of many employees to grow in their jobs and to advance in their career. Career
planning activities include assessing an individual employee’s potential for growth and
advancement in the organization.

Performance appraisal includes encouraging risk taking, demanding innovation,

generating or adopting new tasks, peer evaluation, frequent evaluations and auditing
innovation processes.

This function monitors employee performance to ensure that it is at acceptable levels or

not. This strategy appraises individual and team performance so that there is a- link
between individual innovativeness and company profitability. Which tasks should be
appraised and who should assess employees’ performance are also taken into account.

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5. Total Rewards: Compensation in the form of pay, incentives and benefits are the
rewards given to the employees for performing organizational work. Compensation
management is the method for determining how much employees should be paid for
performing certain jobs. Compensation affects staffing and in the matter of staffing;
people are generally attracted to organizations offering a higher level of pay in exchange
ofthe work performed.

To be competitive, employers develop and refine their basic compensation systems and
may use variable pay programs such as incentive rewards, promotion from within the
team, recognition rewards, balancing team and individual rewards etc. This function uses
rewards to motivate personnel to achieve an organization's goals of productivity,
innovation and profitability.

Compensation is also related to employee development in the matter of compensation; it

provides an important incentive for motivating employees to higher levels of job
performance in the organization.

Benefits are another form of compensation to employees other than direct pay for the
work performed. Benefits include both legally required items and those offered at
employer’s discretion. Benefits are primarily related to the area of employee
maintenance as they provide for many basic employee needs.

6. Risk Management and Worker Protection-. HRM addresses various workplace risks
to ensure protection of workers by meeting legal requirements and being more
responsive to concern for workplace health and safety along with disaster and recovery
planning.

7. Employee and Labor Relations: The relationship between managers and their
employees must be handled legally and effectively. Employer and employee rights must
be addressed. It is important to develop, communicate and update HR policies and
procedures so that managers and employees alike know what is expected. In some
organizations, union/management relations must be addressed as well.

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The term labour relation refers to the interaction with employees who are represented by
a trade union. Unions are organization of employees who join together to obtain more
voice in decisions affecting wages, benefits, working conditions and other aspects of
employment. With regard to labour relations the major function of HR personnel includes
negotiating with the unions regarding wages, service conditions and resolving disputes
and grievances.

1.9 Role of HR Manager

Human Resources Manager plays a vital role in the modem organization. He plays
various strategic roles at different levels in the organization. The roles of the HR
Manager include roles of conscience, of a counsellor, a mediator, a company spokesman,
a problem solver and a change agent.

• The Conscience Role: The conscience role is that of a humanitarian who reminds
the management of its morals and obligations to its employees.

• The Counsellor. Employees who are dissatisfied with the present job approach
the HR manager for counselling. In addition, employees facing various problems
like marital, health, children education/marriage, mental, physical and career also
approach the HR managers. The HR Manager counsels and consults the
employees and offers suggestions to solve/overcome the problems.

• The Mediator. As a mediator, the HR manager plays the role of a peace-maker.

He settles the disputes between employees and the management. He acts as a
liaison and communication link between both of them.

• The Spokesman: He is a frequent spokesman for or representative of the

company.

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 • The Problem-solver: He acts as a problem solver with respect to the issues that
involve human resources management and overall long range organizational
planning.

• The Change Agent: He acts as a change agent and introduces changes in various
existing programmes.

He also performs various other roles like welfare role, clerical role and fire-fighting role
as indicated in figure above.

1. As a Specialist: The HR department has staff relationship with other

departments/managers in the total organization. The personnel department is responsible
for advising management from the Managing Director to the lowest line supervisor in all
areas relating to HR management and industrial relations. HR department also performs
various functions of employment, training and development. It represents the
management in many of the relationships that affect the organization as a whole. It is also
responsible for representing various workers’ problems to the management.

HR department generally acts in an advisory capacity; it provides information, offers

suggestions and is not responsible for the end results. The HR managers must exercise
control each and every aspect very tactfully in order to win the confidence and co
operation of all line managers. They have to persuade line managers to work with staff
specialists and not against them. The authority of the HR manager should derive from
concrete HR policies and programmes and from the advantages and result of accepted
specialised knowledge.

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 Figure 1.5 The Role of the HR Manager

(Source: Mamoria C.B. & Gankar S.V., PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (TEXT &
CASES), HPH, 21st Revised Edition, P. 16)

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2. As a Source of Help: In certain situations (when line managers lack skill or
knowledge in dealing with employee problems), experienced HR managers assume line
responsibility for HR matters. But it may be resented by the managers who ought to seek
staff assistance in meeting their HR responsibilities. They should earn the reputation and
confidence of line managers of being a source of help rather than a source of threat to line
managers. Staff assistance is likely to be effective when it is wanted rather than imposed.

3. As a Change Agent: HR Manager should work as an enabler and change agent

regarding HR areas and he should be familiar with different disciplines like management,
technology, sociology, psychology and organizational behaviour as organizational
adaptability, viability and development are dependent on human resources development.
So, the HR manager should work as a consultant of an organizational development by
providing necessary information and infrastructure to the line managers. Thus, the role of
HR managers is more concerned with providing information and offering advice to the
decision-makers rather than making decisions.

4. As a Controller: Nevertheless, it is still true that effective HR executives advise on

policies, help managers in implementing their programmes and provide services, exercise
monitoring and control functions sparingly.

1.10 Challenges of HRM in Indian Economy

1. Globalization: - Growing internationalization of business has its impact on HRM in

terms of problems of unfamiliar laws, languages, practices, competitions, attitudes,
management styles, work ethics and more. HR managers have a challenge to deal with
more functions, more heterogeneous functions and more involvement in employee’s
personal life.

2. Corporate Re-ormnizations: - Reorganization relates to mergers and acquisitions, joint

ventures, take over, internal restructuring of organizations. In these situations, it is
difficult to imagine circumstances that pose a greater challenge for HRM than

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reorganizations itself. It is a challenge to manage employees’ anxiety, uncertainties,
insecurities and fears during these dynamic trends.

3. New Organizational forms: - The basic challenge to HRM comes from the changing
character of competitions. The competition is not between individual firms but between
constellations of firm. Major companies are operating through a complex web of strategic
alliances, forgings with local suppliers etc. These relationships give birth to completely
new forms of organizational structure, which highly depend upon a regular exchange of
people and information. The challenge for HRM is to cope with the implications of these
newly networked relations more and more, in place of more comfortable hierarchical
relationships that existed within the organizations for ages in the past.

4. Changing Demographics of Workforce: - Changes in workforce are largely reflected

by dual career couples, large chunk of young blood between age old superannuating
employees, working mothers, more educated and aware workers etc. These dynamic
workforces have their own implications for HR managers and from HRM point of view is
a true challenge to handle.

5. Changed employee expectations: - With the changes in workforce demographics,

employee expectations and attitudes have also transformed. Traditional allurements like
job security, house, and remunerations are not much attractive today, rather employees
are demanding empowerment and equality with management. Hence' it is a challenge for
HRM to redesign the profile of workers, and discover new methods of hiring, training,
remunerating and motivating employees.

6. New Industrial Relations Approach: - In today’s dynamic world, even unions have
understood that strikes and militancy have lost their relevance and unions are greatly
affected by it. The trade union membership has fallen drastically worldwide and the
future of labor movement is in danger. The challenge before HRM is to adopt a proactive
industrial relations approach which should enable HR specialist to look into challenges
unfolding in the future and to be prepared no convert them into opportunities.

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7. Renewed People Focus: - The need of today’s world and business is the people’s
approach. The structure, strategy, systems approach which worked in post war era is no
more relevant in today’s economic environment which is characterized by over capacities
and intense competition. The challenge of HR manager is to focus on people and make
them justifiable and sustainable.

8. Managing the Managers'. - Managers are unique tribe in any society, they believe they
are class apart. They demand decision-making, bossism and operational freedom.
However in the post liberalization era, freedom given to managers is grossly misused to
get rid of talented and hard working juniors. The challenge of HRM is how to manage
this tribe? How to make them realize that the freedom given to them is to enable them
make quick decisions in the interest of the organization and not to resort to witch-
hunting.

9. Weaker Society interests: - Another challenge for HRM is to protect the interest of
weaker sections of society. The dramatic increase of women workers, minorities and
other backward communities in the workforce has resulted in the need for organizations
to reexamine their policies, practices and values. In the name of global competition,
productivity and quality the interests of the society around should not be sacrificed. It is a
challenge of today’s HR managers to see that these weaker sections are neither denied
their rightful jobs nor are discriminated against while in sendee.

10. Contribution to the success of organizations: - The biggest challenge to an HR

manager is to make all employees contribute to the success of the organization in an
ethical and socially responsible way. Because society’s well being to a large extent
dependss on its organizations.

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