Primary Function of Human Resource Management

This article discusses the primary function of human resource management, including aspects such as EEO and affirmative action, human resource planning, recruitment and selection, human resource development, compensations and benefits, safety and health, and employee retention policies.

Running head: PRIMARY FUNCTION OF HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
Primary Function of Human Resource Management
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Introduction
HRM deals with the employees under a certain organisation. It is essential to manage
the human resource of a company because of the dynamic nature of human beings. None of
them is similar to each other whether according to sentiments and behaviour or as per their
abilities to execute the assigned job. The concerned area of HRM is not only to focus on the
benefits of the company but also they need to provide a work atmosphere where employees
can find their growth and job satisfaction (Bratton & Gold, 2017). The primary function of
human resource management is to motivate the employees to perform better so that the
organisation can attain its goals and objectives. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the
role of HRM for shaping both the organizational and employee behaviour. This essay will
shed light on all the aspects of HRM, which work at the same time together to perform the
primary function and along with that my personal perspective will be included to justify the
answer precisely.
The role of HRM within a company is to plan and develop the policies of an
enterprise, which are designed to make maximum use of human resource to increase the
production. The goal is to motivate the employees to deliver better performance so that the
organisation can achieve an uplift in market position (Opatha & Arulrajah, 2014). All the
areas of HRM have been discussed here to attain a clear concept of the primary function of
human resource management and how it works to increase the effectiveness of both the
employee and the organisation to fulfil the planned objectives.
Necessary aspects to perform primary function
 EEO and affirmative action – These terms are much familiar to the people
who deals with HRM policies. Yet, people generally get confused while

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dealing with these two concepts. Both the theories promote fairness in
workplace. Implementations of these theories can make the organisation free
from all the discriminations. EEO stands for equal employment opportunity,
which means this theory prohibits every kind of discrimination in workplace
on the respect of disability, non-English speaking background and gender. It
ensures equal training and facilities to all the employees irrespective of their
origin and gender. Affirmative action defines the policy of protecting the
people from minority groups who have a prior experience of facing
discrimination. Due to past practices of discrimination, there are reservation
policies for the minorities. The policy does not encourage hiring unqualified
candidates in order to provide solution. Yet the purpose of implementing this
theory while recruitment is to uplift the lifestyle of minority society and not to
enhance the further practice of discrimination. An occurrence of quota
situation is normal in many countries whereas across United States it is not a
regular phenomenon. EEO protects the human rights while Affirmative Action
prevents minor communities to experience discrimination and arranges
opportunities.
 Human resource planning, recruitment and selection- The objectives of
HRM planning is to deliver efficient employees according to the
organisation’s need (Gamage, 2014). Considering the present and future needs
of the organisation, they prepare their target and strategies. Both the long term
and short-term strategies are framed to meet the employee requirement of an
organisation. This managerial function ensures three major things.
i. Proper planning leads to adequate supply of man- power.
ii. It ensures the good quality of the work force of a company.

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iii. The planning also includes the utilization of the human resource in a
way, which will be effective for the development of an organisation.
Organizational goals can be achieved if human resource planning correctly
incorporate the demand of resource. In order to discuss HRM planning we
need to know why this kind of planning is necessary for an organisation. A
number of employees leave the organisation annually because of
retirement, accidental death or personal reasons. HR department appoints
employees to take over those vacant positions. Again, turnover of
employees is a major issue, and if the organisation have to fight against it,
they have to go by effective HRM planning in order to balance the work
and the workforce. Whenever the company is assigned for a new project or
thinking of expanding their business, management hires a large number of
workforce. As planning is the root of every successful venture, the
assumption needs to be done correctly in order to distribute responsibility
among the employees. In the addition, an organisation works under
dynamic technological atmosphere. The human resource plan should
incorporate necessary technical training for their workforce to make them
comfortable with the changing scenario. Most importantly, if the number
of employees are higher than the workload, it will be difficult for the
company to accommodate them under their authorization, on the other
hand, the opposite scenario is not acceptable either, as every organisation
has some target to meet and that cannot be possible without an adequate
number of employees. HRM planning ensures that the selection process
must help the staff to synchronise their expectations with the job
specifications.

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 Human resource development- Resource development
concentrate on developing the skills of the existing employees or
new joiners by providing them necessary training. Better
performance comes with better skills. Their knowledge needs to be
brushed up by arranging development programs to avoid obstacles
during execution of any sort of job (Kim & Sung-Choon, 2013).
The benefit of the company directly depends on the personal and
professional skills of the workforce. Apart from organizational
growth, some companies focus on individual growth of an
employee as well by arranging opportunities of higher studies.
 Compensations and benefits- This part of primary function of the
HRM is known as one of the major motivation of the employees.
Wages and benefits are the main factors for which employees come
to work for an organisation. The administration of a company
scientifically distribute the salary among the workforce without
being biased.
 Safety and health- An organisation’s high rate of production
depends on how efficiently and consistently the employees are
doing their job. Physical and mental fitness of the work strength
largely influence the production of a company. Therefore, the
company tries to ensure the fact that it lowers the cost of medical
and insurance of the company. Job seekers find the organisation,
which offers health and safety policies, more convenient to work
for than other existing organisations. Management tend to
distribute the workload equally, according to the expertise and

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provide an employee friendly work environment to promote better
mental health among the workers.
 Employee retention policies of HRM- Employee retention refers
to the policies applying which a company retain its workforce (Das
& Baruah, 2013). However, it is considered as one of the HRM
strategies too by many. As we can understand that employee
turnover defines serious internal issues of an organisation, hence
retention of skilled and experienced employees is helpful to
achieve the goals and objectives. In order to resolve turnover issues
the management incorporate various programs such as, they guide
the employees towards finding a better career within the company,
arrange rewards and recognition for good work and build up better
relationship with workers to avoid conflict in future (Terera &
Ngirande, 2014). HRM ensures a healthy work environment where
every employee feels comfortable while working and delivers his
or her best (Arulrajah, 2015). By applying such methods, HRM
strengthens the workforce and as a result, company experiences
both the benefit and growth.
All these aspects are equally important as far as primary function of HRM is
concerned. Recent developments in this field of management incorporate treating the
employees as social and psychological beings who contribute greatly to make the company’s
economic condition brighter than before. HR management has shifted their concentration
from old policies to the new inventions. Based on new findings and research, EQ is taken as
important as IQ and knowledge workers are preferable over skilled workers (Gonzalez &
Martins, 2014). As hierarchical structure does not allow the workers to be open in front of

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their superiors, HRM has started to provide a flexible and virtual structure of designation in
order to continue flawless communication between the employees and the management.
Since 2014, talent management and flexible HR policies have become the priority. After
examining all the aspects of primary function of the HRM and considering some of the recent
developments, we can understand that HRM offers a set of programmes, activities and
functions, within an organisation, which are framed and executed to increase both employee
and organization’s effectiveness in the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. A
recent application of HRM strategy in our workplace is an instance from where the primary
agendas of the management can be understood thoroughly. An IT company, like ours, needs
an amount of employees every year for their new project openings and most of those projects
are international. In order to balance workload with the resource HRM annually plans to
recruit skilled and knowledgeable candidates and simultaneously manage comparatively
weak resources by policies of turnover. International projects provide bright career
opportunity to the employees, which is a strategy of workforce retention and in the era of
globalization, international exposure is equally necessary for the organisation’s benefit.
In conclusion, it can be said that all the six aspects work at the same time to perform
the primary function of HRM, the reason why one aspect is more essential than others, has
been identified. In the addition, the importance of HRM’s role within an organisation to
shape the employee behaviour in order to achieve goals has been recognised. I believe that
employee retention and development of the company is the most crucial factor while
implementing HRM strategies and plans. This implementation of plans is related to the
evaluation of what can be done in future in order to be successful and what should be done to
build a more productive and satisfied workforce. However, the needs of an organisation is
dynamic and to cope up with this changing scenario HRM should develop multiple layers of
perspective to act appropriately according to the situational needs. In my opinion, HRM

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should be concerned of employee needs, as they are the pillar of any successful organisation.
Therefore, if the policies are action-oriented, future-oriented and globally acceptable then
only HRM can guide the enterprise towards success and improve both the employee and
organizational behaviour.

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References
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