Introduction To HRM

HRM
PPT1
 Meaning, Objectives, Scope and
Functions of HRM
• Meaning: Without people, organizations can
never exist. Organizations are managed by people
and through people. Hence, the emphasis is on
the effective utilization of the workforce for
accomplishing the organizational and individual
goals and objectives.
• HRM is concerned with policies and practices that
ensure the best use of the human resources for
fulfilling the organizational and individual goals.
• Objectives: The primary objective of HRM is to take care of
the employees from the time they join the organization to the
time they leave it, while ensuring their best possible
cooperation in achieving the organizational goals and
objectives.
• The specific objectives as an outcome of the primary
objective is as under:
• To act as a liaison between top management and employees.
• To arrange and maintain adequate manpower inventory.
• To offer training as a way of developing skills, enhancing
productivity, and increasing individual and organizational
performance.
• To devise employee benefit schemes for improving employee
motivation, group morale, and enhancing
employer-employee cooperation.
• To ensure and enhance the quality of work-life for physical
and psychological well-being at work.
• To help keep up ethical values and behavior amongst
employees both within and outside the organization.
• Scope: The scope of HRM is very wide.
• Personnel aspect-This is concerned with manpower
planning, recruitment, selection, placement,
transfer, promotion, training and development,
layoff and retrenchment, remuneration, incentives,
productivity etc.
• Welfare aspect-It deals with working conditions and
amenities such as canteens, crèches, rest and
lunchrooms, housing, transport, medical assistance
education, health and safety, recreation facilities,
etc.
• Industrial relations aspect-This covers
union-management relations, joint consultation,
collective bargaining, grievance and disciplinary
procedures, settlement of disputes, etc.
• Functions: Also called processes are carried
out by the HR managers to fulfill the goals and
objectives of the organization. They perform
two sets of functions, namely managerial and
operative functions.
• Managerial Functions include: Planning,
Organizing, Staffing, Directing, and
Controlling.
• Operative Functions include: Procurement,
Development, Compensation, Maintenance &
motivation, Integration and Industrial
Relations.
 Managerial Functions
• Planning: It is an effective tool to deal with the future.
The steps involved in planning are –
Establishing goals and objectives to be achieved;
Developing rules and procedures;
Determining plans and forecasting techniques.
• Organizing: The next step is to organize men and
material to accomplish those plans. Thus, organizing
involves –
Giving each one a specific task;
Establishing departments and divisions;
Delegating authority to members;
Establishing channels of authority & communication;
Creating a system to coordinate works of the members.
• Staffing: Deals with creation and maintenance of human resources
through employment, compensation, benefits, T&D, and industrial
relations. The steps involved are –
Determining the type of people to be hired;
Recruitment and selection of the best;
Compensating;
T&D the employees;
Setting performance standards and evaluation;
Counseling.
• Directing: It is the sum of activities like communication, leadership,
and motivation. Includes the following activities –
Getting work done through subordinates;
Ensuring two-way communication;
Motivating subordinates for better performance;
Maintaining the group morale.
• Controlling: The process of checking the efficiency of individuals
and groups in fulfilling plans & goals through follow-up measures.
The processes involve are –
Establishment of standard performance;
Measurement of actual performance;
Analysis of deviation;
Initiation of corrective actions, if there is any deviations.
 Operative Functions
• Staffing is one of the managerial functions.
But this function is normally performed by the
HR managers for all the departments of the
firm.
• In most organizations, the HR department
establishes personnel policies and coordinates
the HR functions of all the departments.
• This function is called operative function or
HRM function.
• Procurement: Refers to series of activities done by the HR
manager to fill the present and future vacancies of the
organization. The activities include – Job analysis; HR planning;
Recruitment; Selection; Placement; Orientation.
• Development: HR managers are responsible for conducting the
T&D programmes for employees.
• Compensation: Refers to determination of pay scale and other
benefits for employees in a fair and equitable way. For e.g.,
monitoring performance and its evaluation.
• Maintenance: This function aims at retaining efficient and
experienced employees in the organization. HR managers are
responsible for offering a wide range of HR programmes covering
occupational safety, health promotion & physical fitness, canteen
facilities, recreation activities, transportation facilities, career
counseling, and growth for creating a positive work environment.
• Integration: Consists mainly of industrial relations and aims at
ensuring good relationships between the management and
employees. HR managers have to implement IRs programmes to
ensure ethical treatment in disciplinary action, grievance redressal,
and career management processes.
 Role and Quality of HR Executives
• HR managers have to perform several roles to
discharge their duties and responsibilities.
• HR practitioners have to play the role of business
partners, strategists, interventionists, innovators,
internal consultants, monitors, and even proactive
volunteers.
• They are required have personal and job-related
qualities, besides skills to become effective
performers.
• Following are qualities required of HR managers.
• Knowledge: Must be an expert in his own field besides
exposure to real-life situations to gain respect of the
subordinates.
• Intelligence: Should be able to understand the situation quickly
and act decisively before it becomes unmanageable.
• Communication Skills: Must have good communication skills to
achieve better cooperation and unity.
• Objectivity and Fairness: Must observe strict impartiality and
honesty in all his transactions.
• Leadership and Motivational qualities: Should possess the
ability to influence towards achievement of goals and targets.
Motivating them to better performance.
• Emotional Maturity: Essential to have emotional maturity and
tolerance in dealing with employees who usually behave
differently in different situations. Should be rational in
approach.
• Empathy: Should learn to view issues affecting the employees
from their perspective too. Should honour others’ opinions,
sentiments, rights, beliefs, and values.
Changing environment of HRM in India
• One of the noteworthy features of the Indian
workplace is demographic uniqueness. Indeed, it is
likely India will have 986 million people of working age
in 2030. And by 2050, it is expected India will have 230
million more workers than China and about 500
million more than U.S.
• It may be noted that half of India's current population
of 1.1 billion people are under of 25 years of age
(Chatterjee 2006).
• While this fact is a demographic dividend for the
economy, it is also a steep challenge for the country's
ability to create new jobs at an unprecedented rate.
• When India embraced liberalization and economic reform in
the early 1990s, dramatic changes were set in motion in terms
of corporate mindsets and HRM practices as a result of global
imperatives and accompanying changes in societal priorities.
• Indeed, the onset of the growing rapidly competitive service
sector compelled a demographic shift in worker educational
status and heightened the demand for job relevant skills as
well as regional diversity.
• Expectedly, there has been a marked shift towards valuing
human resources (HR) in Indian organizations as they become
increasingly strategy driven as opposed to the culture of the
status quo.
• Accordingly, competitive advantage in industries like software
services, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology (where India is
seeking to assert global dominance), the significance of HRs is
being emphasized.
• These relativities were demonstrated in a recent study of
three global Indian companies with (235 managers) when
evidence was presented that positively linked the HRM
practices with organizational performance (Khandekar &
Sharma 2005).
Traditional Vs. Strategic HR
 Creating an HR based Competitive
Advantage
• Employers are beginning to recognize that the
HR team is not only an invaluable resource but
it can also actually help to create a
competitive advantage, allowing the company
to outperform the competition.
• HR teams have a lot of responsibilities that
can directly impact how well a company can
compete against other. Let’s take a look at
some examples.
• Some of the many ways the HR team can help create and maintain a competitive
advantage for the organization:

• HR can use data to analyze turnover rates and determine where problems may lie,
thus allowing the company to more quickly find issues and get them resolved. For
example, if the data show that most turnover is from new hires, the team can focus
on what problems may be the cause of that. Or if the data show that one group has a
higher turnover rate than the rest of the business, focus can be turned there.
• HR can help managers source the right talent to get the skills the company needs
to grow and be competitive. HR expertise can allow the organization to know where
to look for specialized talent when needed. (If your organization doesn’t already
assess which talent streams are best utilized for different types of candidates, you
can start now!)
• HR can provide insight into the going market rates for talent and what it might take
to get high-quality hires on board. HR can review the competitive talent landscape
and determine what compensation strategy will be best aligned with company goals.
• HR can give insights into how other organizations within your industry are
structured—there may be information that can be useful in determining which
positions the company still needs to create or fill to become or remain competitive.
• HR can use data to show how the skill sets of the employees are evolving over
time, and to show business leaders where skills gaps may exist so those gaps can be
addressed proactively.
• HR can also design employee development pathways that take into
account the strategic and long-term needs of the organization, ensuring
that key employees get the right training before it must be utilized. This
impacts retention and improves the skill sets for the organization as a
whole, all while ensuring the organization is addressing big-picture
competitive issues proactively.
• HR can use data to find potential employee issues before they become
problematic. By tracking employee engagement scores over time, for
example, HR can discover when engagement levels are waning—hopefully
before they have a significant impact on morale and turnover—so the
organization can take action sooner rather than later.
• HR can put together succession plans that take into account the
organization’s strategic goals. This can allow the organization to remain
competitive even when there is turnover in key roles. (This is a critical
time when a less organized company may falter.)
• HR can analyze which employees are high performers and alert the
management about who should be fast-tracked for promotions and new
projects.
• HR guidance on legal issues can keep the organization out of costly legal
problems. This not only saves the company money but it can also save the
company from major setbacks.
Role of Line Manager for HR based Competitive
Advantage
• Line managers oversee other employees and the
operations of a business while reporting to a
higher-ranking manager.
• They play an important role in the operation of
many businesses, supervising and managing
workers on a daily basis and acting as a liaison
between employees and upper management.
• A line manager is responsible for managing
employees and resources to achieve specific
functional or organizational goals.
• Some of these include:
• Recruiting and hiring talent to fill team positions
• Providing training and support to new hires
• Cross-training employees to ensure job rotation and minimize
assignment coverage gaps
• Providing coaching and performance feedback to all team
members
• Communicating and ensuring understanding of functional or
departmental goals
• Measuring individual and team metrics and performance against
targets and monitoring progress
• Identifying the need for corrective actions when necessary
• Ensuring quality standards for all processes on their team
• Evaluating overall team and individual performance and delivering
performance reviews
• Engaging and coordinating with other line managers across the
organization
• Providing reports on productivity and other performance
indicators to senior management