What is Human Resource Management?
- Human Resource Management which is also known as HRM is a strategic, systematic and the most important function within an organisation which primarily focuses on the effective, efficient and strategic management of people to attain various business goals.
- The primary focus of Human Resource Management is to manage its workforce which includes recruiting, training, retaining the efficient and effective employees inorder to move towards the path of success.
- The term human resources was first used in the early 1900s, to refer to the people who are employed in the organisation, in aggregate.
- Human Resource Management (HRM) is the governance of an organization’s employees. HRM is sometimes referred to simply as Human Resources (HR).
- Human resource management is the systematic and strategic procedure, which needs to be performed effectively and efficiently, it comprises of a series of events like recruiting, selecting, inducting employees, providing orientation, imparting training and development, appraising the performance of employees, deciding compensation and providing benefits, motivating the employees, maintaining cordial relations with the employees as well as the trade unions, ensuring employees health and safety, running various welfare measures in compliance with labour laws of the land.
- Human resource management is an employee management which primarily puts emphasis on those employees as assets of the business. In simple terms, employees are sometimes referred to as the human capital.
According to Decenzo and Robbins, “HRM is concerned with the people dimension” in management.
Byars and Rue – “Human resource management encompasses those activities designed to provide for and coordinate the human resources of an organization. Human resource functions refer to those tasks and duties performed in organizations to provide for and coordinate human resources”.
Ivancevich and Glueck – “Human resource management is the function performed in organizations’ that facilitate the most effective use of people (employees) to achieve organizational and individual goals”.
Edwin Flippo defines HRM as- “planning, organizing, directing, controlling of procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social objectives are accomplished”
According to French Wendell- “Personnel management is a major component of the broader managerial function and has roots and branches extending throughout and beyond each organization. It is a major sub-system of all organizations.”
According to Gary Dessler – “Human Resource Management is the process of acquiring, training, appraising, and compensating employees, and attending to their labour relations, health, safety and fairness concerns.”
Bratton and Gold (2007), defined HRM as a strategic approach to manage employment relations, which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical to achieve competitive advantages, this is being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and practices.
According to Decenzo and Robbins, “HRM 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 higher levels of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization is essential to achieve organisational objectives. This is true, regardless of the type of organization – government, business, education, health or social action.
According to Pulapa Subba Rao, “human resources management (HRM) is managing (planning, organising, directing and controlling) the functions of employing, developing, compensating and utilising human resources, resulting in the creation and development of human and industrial relations which would shape the future policies and practices of human resource management, with a view to contribute proportionately (due to them) to the organisational, individual and social goals”.
According to Michael J. Jucious, Human resource management is that field of management which has to do with planning, organising and controlling the functions of procuring, developing, maintaining and utilising a labour force such that the-
(a) Objectives for which the company is established are effectively achieved.
(b) Objectives of all levels of personnel are served to the highest possible degree.
(c) Objectives of society are duly considered and served.
Human resource management is a crucial part of managerial process which involves recruitment and selection of right persons for right jobs, training, developing, motivating human resource and utilising the human resource in achieving the organisational goals.
Features of Human Resource Management:
- Human resource management is considered to be an art as well as a science.
- Human resource management is a service function.
- HRM is a continuous procedure which contains a series of events or activities in order to accomplish organisational goals.
- HRM must be regulation friendly.
- HRM is a service oriented function.
- HRM is the management of its human resources, it is an activity which is performed in order to achieve predefined organisational goals. Hence, it is focused on the results which are produced after employing various managerial principles.
- HRM is an interdisciplinary and fast changing.
- Human resource management is a people centric management.
- Human resource management turns out to be the most important and integral function for the efficient and effective running of an organisation.
- HRM helps create Goodwill as with the effective utilisation of a human resources the companies can aim to reach great heights and intern, build its Goodwill in the long run.
- HRM develops team spirit as the employees are well taken care of, valued and appreciated.
Functions of HRM (Human Resource Management):
Job Design And Job Analysis:
Job design involves the various processes relating to the description of duties, responsibilities and operations of the job. It includes hiring of the right candidates based on a good research, it is important to identify the traits of an ideal candidate who would be suitable for the job.
Employee Hiring and Selection:
Human resource management focuses to obtain and retain qualified and efficient employees in order to achieve the organisational objectives of the company. It starts with hiring the right employees out of the list of applicants. The applications received go through various filtration processes in order to find the most suitable candidate from the pool of applicants.
Employee Training And Development Programme:
Imparting proper training and ensuring the right development of the selected candidates plays a vital role for the organisation. The success of the organisation depends on how well the employees are trained for the job and what are their growth and development opportunities within the organisation. The primary goal of HR should be to ensure that the new employees have the company specific knowledge and know how.
Compensation and Benefits:
The role of human resource management is to formulate effective and efficient benefits and compensation packages to retain more employees into the workplace without causing disturbance in the financial health of the company. One of the integral functions of HR department is to lay down clear policies and guidelines about employee compensation and their available benefits.
Employee Performance Analysis:
Effective performance management insures that the output of the employees meets the goals and objectives of the organisation. Performance management doesn’t just focus on the performance of the employees but also focuses on the performance of a team in general, the department and the organisation as a whole.
Managerial Relations:
Relationships in employment are normally divided into two parts managerial and labour relations. Labour relations are mainly about the relationships between the workforce and the company while the managerial relations deal between the various processes within the organisation. Cordial labour relations are essential to maintain harmonious relationship between the employees at the workplace.
Proper Communication:
Employee engagement and proper communication is a crucial part of every organisation. The higher levels of employee guarantee better productivity and greater employees satisfaction.
Health And Safety Regulations:
Every employer should compulsory follow the various health and safety regulations as laid down by the authorities. The labour laws focus that every employer should provide with whatever training essential, information, safety and health measures for the employees.
Proper Succession Planning:
Succession planning is an important function of Human Resource Management. It aims at planning, monitoring and managing the growth path of the employees from within the organisation. It makes sure the person who is getting retired has a successor who is the next person who is just right to replace the outgoing individual.
Industrial Relations
Human resource management must have relations with the various trade unions in a friendly and positive manner to maintain cordial relations. Industrial relations may be in place to meet and tackle the various issues relating to wage standards, reduce instances that call for strikes and protests, improve working and safety conditions for the employees, reduce resource waste and proper utilisation of time. If these timely measures are taken into consideration from time to time it is extremely important and helpful in preventing various protests, violence, walkouts, lawsuits, loss of funds and production time
Objectives of HR Manager:
- Optimum utilization of the organisation’s human capital.
- To provide for good working conditions and attractive pays along with good promotional avenues.
- To perform the necessary managerial or line functions relating to human resources..
- To maintain cordial relations with the workforce.
