Strategic Human Resource Management: Role in Business and Use of Balance Scorecard

This essay discusses the role of strategic human resource management in business and how balance scorecard is used in HRM activities. It also explores the link between wider management strategies and HR strategies and their impact on organisational capabilities and performance.

Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Essay................................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Strategic human resource management is a procedure of developing and implementing
human resource programs that helps in solving and addressing problems within business. It is
considered as foundations of strong business as it ensures that employee must work together in
order to achieve the goals and objectives of company. The main aim of strategic human resource
management is to build connection between human resource and company’s objectives,
strategies and goals (Ayedee, Kumar and Shaikh, 2021). It is a process of managing staff in
organisation that includes various components such as developing, attracting, retaining,
rewarding and many others. Strategic human resource management creates advance flexibility,
competitive advantage and innovation, improve business performance and develop fit for
purpose organisational culture (Jalloh and Jalloh, 2016). The benefits which company can gain
through strategic human resource management are that it helps in increasing job satisfaction,
improve rates of customer satisfaction, boost productivity, provide better work culture and
manage the human resource effectively. Strategic human resource management focuses on
conducting scientific selection and appointment of employees by hiring them for right job and
right purpose. The essay is based on strategic human resource management and its role in
business including the use of balance scoreboard. It also helps to analyse how HRM strategies
are related to wider management strategies and capabilities and performance of organisation.
Essay
Strategic human resource management generally means to adopt specific plan related to
human resources and revamp HR policies and practices so that they can cope with challenging
and special situation. They plan for manpower requirements for its organisation and also provide
training opportunity to staff in order to develop their skills and knowledge. There are different
role of strategic human resource management by including the use of balance scorecard as a part
of strategic framework. Strategic human resource management ensures workplace safety and risk
management (Beaven, 2019). They focus on creating positive working environment by reducing
unnecessary hazards from workplace. In a strategic plan, human resource management offers
workers compensation insurance so that company face lower expense for insurance coverage.
Strategic human resource management also provide training and development opportunity to
their employees in order to reduce the accidents while using complex machines and equipments.

They implement balance scorecard while framing the strategy as it helps business to identify and
enhance their internal operations for gaining better outputs. When balance scorecard is applied in
HRM activities it helps managers to align human resource activities with strategic goals of
business (Hu and Zhao, 2020). Through balance scorecard, managers can track the progress on
goals and also identify whether they are working on strategic goals and objectives.
Balance scorecard in strategic human resource management helps in measuring, managing
and improving the strategic role of human resource department. It is generally used to link
clearly defined departmental performance and objectives to strategic business goals of
organisation. By implementing balance scorecard in strategic human resource management,
company gains various advantages as it helps in providing better strategic plans to organisation
due to which they can gain competitive advantage and make their business successful in market.
It also helps in improving strategic communication and execution due to which HR can easily
communicate their strategies with employees and encourage them to participate in fulfilling the
strategy. Strategic human resource management also create structure of compensation and
benefits as it determines the reputation and image of company. They take decision regarding the
pay scale and employee benefits in order to satisfied the staff and recruit top talents (Ding and
Cai, 2018). HR manager has to consider various factors in strategic plan for pay scale and
benefits such as job evaluation, workforce shortages, labor market conditions and budget
constraints. The strategy of HR must include choices between pleasing the organisation
stakeholder and satisfying its workforce. Strategic human resource management also conduct
recruitment and selection activities so that they can identify right talent and hire them for making
business successful. The strategic role of human resource manager is to combine employee
relation with recruitment and selection. Through balance scorecard, strategic human resource
management also focuses on building strong relation between employee and employer. The
relationship between employees plays an important role in discipline including benefits, training,
safety, salary and employee development.
The role of strategic human resource management is to determine and solve the issues
related to workplace so that a healthy and positive working environment created in Organisation
(Martin, Gollan and Grigg, 2016). For example, In Marks and Spencer, strategic human resource
management mainly focus on attracting highly expertise employees who can contribute their
productive efforts in making business successful and also focus on developing positive

workplace by reducing the conflicts between employees. Strategic human resource management
also faces various challenges they are environmental, individual and organisational issues. These
problems can be overcome by implementing balance scorecard. The environmental issues which
are faced by strategic human resource management are rapid change, workforce diversity,
legislation, skills shortage and many others. Strategic human resource management faces
organisational issues, it also affects the profitability and performance of company. The internal
issues which are faced by human resource manager are controlling cost, improving quality,
restructuring and creating distinctive capabilities. They also face issues regarding the individual
level such as measuring performance, ethics and social responsibility, job security, etc. Strategic
human resource management is mainly concerned with relationship between strategic
management and human resource management (Al-Bahiri, 2015). They address the
organisational problem related to business performance and effectiveness. The main motive of
strategic human resource management is to identify and analyse external opportunities and
threats that influence the success of company.
Strategic human resource management provide clear vision and business strategy for future.
The other role which is played by strategic human resource management is to recruit, retain and
motivate employees so that they can accomplish the goals in effective and efficient manner.
They also focus on meeting the expectation of customers and ensures business surplus. By
implementing balance scorecard, human resource manager monitor and measure the performance
of employees in accordance with set target and goals. Human resource manager mainly rely on
balance scorecard in order to gain information from all perspective. Balance scorecard
determines four elements which help business to boost its overall performance such as internal
business perspective, financial perspective, customer perspective and innovation and learning
(Rossidis, Belias and Vasiliadis, 2021). It helps in changing the perspective of customer towards
the brand as it focuses on internal perspective. The human resource manager identifies where the
organisation is lagging and the opportunities which they can grab. Strategic human resource
management can also manage diverse company units by maintaining balance scorecard. It allows
manager to ensure that all departments must understand and sees the clear linkages between its
organisational strategy and individual strategy.
Wider management strategy is created for gaining success and profitability in market.
Through management strategies, company can run the business in smooth and effective manner.

The strategy of organisation is a plan for evolving business over time. In order to fulfil the plans,
firm requires staff to carry out those plans and also the guidance of human resource manager to
prepare staff for task. There is a link between wider management strategies and HR strategies.
Management strategies is a way through which organisation can control and direct the business
to achieve particular goals. For attaining business goals and objectives, company requires HR
strategies so that they can attract talented employees and resolve the workplace issues within
organisation. Company generally adopt HR strategies as they focus on integrating organisational
culture, system and its employees by coordinating the set of actions to achieve business goals
and objectives (Al Adresi and Darun, 2016). The link between management strategy and HR
strategy is that it creates a culture of trust and clear communication within firm. The role of
human resource manager is to encourage the employees so that they get evolved in various
aspects of business strategy. They also focus on developing higher level of respectability and
trust among employees and management team.
Human resource department generally links business strategy with HR strategy. For aligning
the strategies of company with human resource strategy they require understanding of business
strategy, assess current condition of organisation, plan and implement HR strategy and measure
the result. There are various functions of HR that affects the performance and efficiency of
business such as talent acquisition, performance management, training and development,
employment law compliance, safety and security, compensation and benefits and employee
retention. Organisation must focus on linking HR strategy and business strategy as it can
improve the profitability of business. The main purpose of human resource strategies is to
improve the performance and productivity of business. They frame the strategies to manage
human resources efficiently and effectively so that they can accomplish the goals and improve
the performance of business. Human resource management helps in enhancing the performance
and profitability of company, they also create and maintain edge over competitive advantage. HR
can improve the performance of employees by engaging them in work and encourage diversity in
hiring and promotion. It is one of the strategy of human resource manager to engage their staff in
work so that they can give productive outcomes in achieving the business goals and objectives.
The engagement level of employees shows the contribution and dedication level in company's
success. HR department also provide training and development opportunities to their staff in
order to improve their skills and knowledge. They provide learning opportunities to staff and

encourage them by aligning their development goals with company goals. It is the responsibility
of manager to encourage diversity in hiring and promotion practices. Human resource
department develop plan in order to accomplish and promote the culture, behaviours and
competencies.
The organisational capabilities and performance of business can be improve by encouraging
staff to give their productive outcomes. Employee productivity is improved by conducting
employee survey, embrace flexible work options, update technology and tools, offer career
development and skilling resources and support creativity and innovation. In order to create an
effective HR strategy, it is important to align business needs, identify what success looks like,
focus on collaboration, drive engagement through communication and measure result in real-
time (Pius, Alharahsheh and Sanyang, 2020). There are few tools that is provided to HR
department while developing their strategic plan such as competitive salaries, promotion
opportunities, transparent and regular communication, enviable benefits packages, open door
policy and freedom to be creative. For example, Organisation like Nissan have developed HR
concept which is known as Kaizen, it mainly focus on improving the way through which job is
done. While developing HR strategy, human resource manager focus on few elements they are
legal requirements, employee engagement, career development programs, corporate image and
performance management system. The HR strategy framework mainly includes three phase such
as defining human capital value, aligning HR products and services with strategy and HR
practices need to be deliver. The first phase in HR strategy includes understanding the business
strategy and defining HR strategy. The second phase of human resource strategy includes
segment of HR customers, prioritise HR investments and design HR services. The third phase of
HR strategy mainly includes establishing right HR capabilities, improving HR operational
excellence continuously, ensuring right HR service delivery model and building HR brand.
CONCLUSION
It is being concluded from the above information that human resource management plays
an important role in improving the business performance and efficiency of organisation. The
strategic human resource management mainly focus on developing, reinforcing and changing the
culture of company. There are various functions which is played by human resource management
such as performance management, recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits, training
and development and various others. HR strategic planing is important for organisation as it

helps in recruiting talented employees and enhancing the performance of business. Through
strategic planning, human resource manager get prepared for future, reduce hiring costs,
streamline recruitment process, inform development programs, identify talent gaps and aid
retention strategy.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al Adresi, A. S. and Darun, R., 2016. Enhancing Employee’s Trust and Commitment through
Strategic Human Resource Management: A Literature Review. International Journal of
Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences. 6(5). pp.413-426.
Al-Bahiri, A., 2015. Strategic human resource management: A literature review. Journal of
Competitiveness Studies. 23(3). p.84.
Ayedee, N., Kumar, M. and Shaikh, A. A., 2021. Role of Emotional Intelligence and Strategic
Human Resource Management during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academy of Strategic
Management Journal.
Beaven, K., 2019. Strategic Human Resource Management: An HR Professional's Toolkit.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Ding, J. and Cai, X., 2018. Study on the Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management on
Enterprise Performance. International Journal of Human Resource Studies. 8(3).
pp.6068-6068.
Hu, W. and Zhao, S., 2020. Strategic human management evaluation for marine
enterprises. Journal of Coastal Research. 107(SI). pp.57-60.
Jalloh, A. and Jalloh, A., 2016. The Effects of Motivation on Employee Performance: A
Strategic Human Resource Management Approach. International Journal of
Management Sciences and Business Research. 5(12).
Martin, G., Gollan, P. and Grigg, K., 2016. Managing corporate reputations, strategic human
resource management and negative capabilities. In Corporate Reputation (pp. 163-176).
Routledge.
Pius, A., Alharahsheh, H. H. and Sanyang, S., 2020. Trends and issues in strategic human
resources management. In Trends and issues in international planning for
businesses (pp. 17-41). IGI Global.
Rossidis, I., Belias, D. and Vasiliadis, L., 2021. Strategic Human Resource Management in the
International Hospitality Industry. An Extensive Literature Review. Culture and
Tourism in a Smart, Globalized, and Sustainable World, pp.337-346.