Unit – 1 Introduction to Human Resource Management
MODULE - 1
INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Introduction to HRM
Human Resource Management (HRM) is an operation in companies designed to maximize employee
performance in order to meet the employer's strategic goals and objectives. More precisely, HRM focuses
on management of people within companies, emphasizing on policies and systems. In short, HRM is the
process of recruiting, selecting employees, providing proper orientation and induction, imparting proper
training and developing skills.
HRM also includes employee assessment like performance appraisal, facilitating proper compensation
and benefits, encouragement, maintaining proper relations with labor and with trade unions, and taking
care of employee safety, welfare and health by complying with labor laws of the state or country
concerned.
Meaning of HRM
HRM Means the method of recruiting, hiring, deploying, and managing an organization's personnel is
known as human resource management (HRM). The HR department of an organization is normally in
charge of developing, implementing, and managing HR policies that regulate workers and ensure to
following policies and procedures and the organization's interaction with its employees.
Definition of HRM “Human resource management (HRM or HR) is the strategic and coherent approach
to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their
business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an
employer's strategic objectives”
Features of HRM
Human Resource Management as a discipline includes the following features –
1. It is pervasive in nature, as it is present in all industries.
2. It focuses on outcomes and not on rules.
3. It helps employees develop and groom their potential completely.
4. It motivates employees to give their best to the company.
5. It is all about people at work, as individuals as well as in groups.
6. It tries to put people on assigned tasks in order to have good production or results.
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Unit – 1 Introduction to Human Resource Management
7. It helps a company achieve its goals in the future by facilitating work for competent and well-
motivated employees.
Scope of HRM
The scope of HRM is very wide. It consists of all the functions that come under the banner of human
resource management. The different functions are as follows –
1. Human Resources Planning
It is the process by which a company identifies how many positions are vacant and whether the
company has excess staff or shortage of staff and subsequently deals with this need of excess or
shortage.
2. Job Analysis Design
Job analysis can be defined as the process of noticing and regulating in detail the particular job
duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job.
3. Recruitment and Selection
With respect to the information collected from job analysis, the company prepares advertisements
and publishes them on various social media platforms. This is known as recruitment.
4. Orientation and Induction
After the employees are selected, an induction or orientation program is organized. The
employees are updated about the background of the company as well as culture, values, and work
ethics of the company and they are also introduced to the other employees.
5. Training and Development
Employees have to undergo a training program, which assists them to put up a better performance
on the job. Sometimes, training is also conducted for currently working experienced staff so as to
help them improve their skills further. This is known as refresher training.
6. Performance Appraisal
After the employees have put in around 1 year of service, performance appraisal is organized in
order to check their performance. On the basis of these appraisals, future promotions, incentives,
and increments in salary are decided.
7. Compensation Planning and Remuneration
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Unit – 1 Introduction to Human Resource Management
Under compensation planning and remuneration, various rules and regulations regarding
compensation and related aspects are taken care of. It is the duty of the HR department to look
into remuneration and compensation planning.
Objectives of HRM
➢ Achieve Organizational Goals - HRM function starts here. One major HRM objective
is to fulfill organizational goals. Utilizing human resources to achieve business
requirements and goals is very important for an effective HRM.
➢ Work Culture - When it comes to handling HRM effectively and following objectives,
employee and work environment are the prior factors. Work culture plays an important
role in defining HRM and business performance.
➢ Team Integration - One of the prime roles and objectives of HRM is to make sure the
team coordinates efficiently. Easy communication is the need for teams at an enterprise.
An HR here must ensure a tool to assist in making the integration easier and smooth.
➢ Training and Development -Workforce being effective and performing are two
important and basic elements to work upon for achieving your basic objectives at an
organization. With proper training and providing future opportunities, employees feel
safe and organized. Effective employment is highly dependent upon the training
practices.
➢ Employee Motivation - The prime objective of HR folk is to keep things on the right
path. Keep distractions and negative vibes away. For this, the employees need to be
attended to and kept motivated throughout.
➢ Workforce Empowerment - Talking about employee motivation, nothing can work
better than empowering them. Empowering them with tools like ESS portal can help save
HR efforts too. With the portal, employees can themselves apply for approvals and track
them through their mobile phones. Be it leave request, generating payslip, checking PF
account, remaining leaves, upcoming holidays, manager details, or anything, HR
intervention is least required.
➢ Retention - Providing leadership qualities and opportunities, a healthy working area, and
employee retention are some prime objectives and deliverables of the HR managers.
Keeping employees retained and motivated needs to be a top priority for HRM.
➢ Data and Compliance - Functional and organizational objectives also include managing
company/ employee data and managing compliances. Managing payroll compliances and
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Unit – 1 Introduction to Human Resource Management
keeping the company out of any penalties or fines is a huge challenge for HR people and
managers.
Difference between Human Resource management and personnel management:
BASIS FOR PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT HUMAN RESOURCE
COMPARISON MANAGEMENT
Meaning The aspect of management that is The branch of management that focuses
concerned with the work force and their on the most effective use of the manpower
relationship with the entity is known as of an entity, to achieve the organizational
Personnel Management. goals is known as Human Resource
Management.
Approach Traditional Modern
Treatment of Machines or Tools Asset
manpower
Type of function Routine function Strategic function
Basis of Pay Job Evaluation Performance Evaluation
Management Role Transactional Transformational
Communication Indirect Direct
Labor Management Collective Bargaining Contracts Individual Contracts
Initiatives Piecemeal Integrated
Management Procedure Business needs
Actions
Decision Making Slow Fast
Focus Primarily on mundane activities like Treat manpower of the organization as
employee hiring, remunerating, training, valued assets, to be valued, used and
and harmony. preserved.
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Unit – 1 Introduction to Human Resource Management
Importance of Human Resource Management
➢ To maintain quality of work life
Quality of work life is the perception of employees regarding the relationship between working
condition with management. Simply, it is the relationship between employees and total work
environment. Quality of work life is concerned with the employee’s perception of physical as
well as psychological wellbeing at workplace and it can be obtained by maintaining work
autonomy, work freedom, job recognition, belongingness, rewards, etc.
➢ To increase productivity and profit
Human resource management ensures right quality and quantity of personnel in workplace, apart
from which, it creates opportunities to facilitate and motivate individual and group of employees
to grow and advance their career. Motivated employees work hard to meet their personal career
goal which directly influences productivity of organization.
➢ To produce employees who are easily adaptable to change
Human resource management performs various functions, among which training and
development of employees is one of the vital ones. Training and development programs keep
employees updated with skills necessary to adjust with alteration of organization’s environment,
structure and technology.
➢ To match demand and supply of human resource
Human resource management probes existing human resource in certain interval of time to
identify if the company has adequate number of workers or not. In case when company has
inadequate human resource, human resource management performs activities like recruitment and
selection to balance the need. In the same way, it layoff inefficient employee in case when the
company has excessive employees.
➢ To recognize merit and contribution of employee
Human resource management performs timely appraisal of employee’s performance in order to
recognize excellent and poor workers. The excellent workers are then rewarded as a return for
their contribution.
➢ To sustain business in the market
Human resource management makes sure that the company has the best employee because
promising employees are capable of taking their company ahead in the race by delivering
excellent results. This guarantees organization’s success and stability in future.
➢ To resolve conflicts
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Unit – 1 Introduction to Human Resource Management
In any company, either big or small, conflicts may arise between any parties/group. Conflicts are
inevitable and they should not be ignored. Human resource management acts as a consultant to
sort out such conflicts timely and conduct other organizational activities smoothly.
Roles and Responsibilities of an HR Manager
An HR manager’s job description should include the following obligations. However, while an HR
manager’s daily duties will vary from company to company, the following are the roles and
responsibilities of an HR manager:
• Create and put into action HR initiatives and strategies that are in line with the overall business plan.
• Improve ties between management and employees by responding to requests, grievances, or other
issues.
• Control the hiring and hiring process.
• Support present and future company demands through growing, involving, inspiring, and preserving
human capital.
• Create and keep track of the organization’s overall HR strategies, methods, tactics, and procedures.
• Cultivate a supportive workplace.
• Managing and maintaining a setup that promotes optimum performance.
• Maintain the benefits and pay schedule.
• Analyze the training requirements for a programme and keep an eye on it.
• Report to management and use HR indicators to assist in decision-making
• Always maintain legal compliance while managing human resources.
Trends influencing HR practices
1. A hybrid structure
The personnel groups relocated when work-from-home became a routine, leaving all the teams and
companies to disband from one particular geographical location to anywhere in the nation. Where
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Unit – 1 Introduction to Human Resource Management
some organizations are encouraging their employees to start in-office jobs again, many are content
with a hybrid culture and are continuing to play by that. Hybrid work culture is also a natural first
step today for a business to expand in foreign markets too. The hybrid culture automatically opens
the door for new opportunities for growth and earnings. Over the past few years, expanding through
foreign markets has become easier and more affordable due to the rise in hybrid culture.
2. Global expansion on the rise
Shifting your work into the global market – remote working is an initial step. With changing times
and technology the trends in HRM have taken a turn too, and the inauguration of a business in
foreign lands is becoming a cakewalk. Furthermore, governments uplifting strict policies in this post-
pandemic era – support the businesses too.
3. Employee experience takes precedence:
Employees today don’t just want a good paycheck but a quality culture and healthy work
environment as well. As a part of trends in HRM, a good remuneration retains an employee, and a
qualified environment and experience assist in the choice too. HR leaders should bring about
methods to encourage positive workforce health, making the employees more flexible to changes and
disruptions.
4. Analytics gaining the front seats
With no physical human contact, tracking and measuring the work and employees became strenuous,
especially when the workforce is spread throughout the globe. Analytics is said to play an impacting
role in offering information for decision making.
5. A surge in monitoring the employees
With the growing number of hybrid workers, managers are often unable to scrutinize every single
employee and their work. The lack of personal interaction led to a surge in employee monitoring
techniques that gave birth to yet another set of trends in HRM.
6. Automation of everyday tasks
To give precedence to high-value and productive workings, HR leaders can leverage AI-powered
solutions to automate their daily tasks that were carried out manually. Practices such as screening,
sourcing talents, onboarding, keeping check of attendance, etc., and a lot more now can be carried out
by the systems in this tech-driven world.
7. Augmenting the hiring processes
Yet another perk that can be considered as a part of trends in HRM are chatbots. With their
assistance, employers can now manage to select quality candidates for relevant positions out of the
ample talent pools available.
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