HRM Report: Strategies for Effective Human Resource Management

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Human Resource Management (HRM), beginning with an exploration of the stages of human resource planning and the differences between personnel management and HRM. It outlines the roles and responsibilities of HR managers and analyzes a case study involving a company with traditional HR practices. The report explains a mind map of HRM functions, emphasizing operative, managerial, and advisory roles. It highlights the importance of human resource planning in addressing issues like high attrition rates and low employee morale. Furthermore, it suggests a new performance and reward system to boost motivation and job satisfaction. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and provides a bibliography of cited sources.

Report on Human Resource
Management
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Table of Contents
Stages of Human Resource Planning.............................................................................................5
..........................................................................................................................................................5
b. Differences between Personnel Management & Human Resource Management .......................6
c. Roles & Responsibilities of Human Resource Managers ...............................................................8
Task 2..................................................................................................................................................10
Analysis............................................................................................................................................11
a. Explanation of Mind Map .......................................................................................................11
b. Importance of Human Resource Planning ..............................................................................13
c. Importance of HRP and legal considerations in recruitment & selections ..............................15
d. New Performance & Reward System and Impact on Motivation............................................16
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................17
Bibliography........................................................................................................................................18
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Task 1
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a. Mind Map of Human Resource Management Functions
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Stages of Human Resource Planning
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b. Differences between Personnel Management & Human Resource
Management
The key difference lies in the approach of the two disciplines. Personnel management
(PM) is a traditional approach of people management in organizations and human resource
management (HRM) is a much modern approach of people management and identification of
their core strengths (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2011). Personnel management was very
relevant in traditional manufacturing industry, where the focus was on labour relations,
employee welfare and personnel administration. HRM on the other hand, focuses on
acquisition of manpower, development and training of such, ascertaining motivation and
overall maintenance of the human resources. The approach of PM lies in people acting as the
mere inputs and is to be used for creation of the desired outputs. HRM on the other hand,
assumes individuals as the most valuable resource of the company for achieving the desired
outcomes (Ulrich, 2013).
Personnel Management is a discipline which was overly concerned with the
workforce and HRM is the discipline which focuses on the comprehensive development of
manpower in an organization setting and focuses on individual aspects of such manpower
growth to attain organization goals (Delahaye, 2011). PM as mentioned is traditional and
treats manpower as tools. The role of the management in this approach is transactional, and
the communication is indirect. Labour management occurs through bargaining contracts, and
the decision making is slow here. The job designs are division of labour and focus is
presented on the mundane activities of basic recruitment, remuneration, training of skills and
harmony maintenance (Varma & Budhwar, 2012).
HRM is a more modern and holistic approach of manpower development and nurture
where manpower is considered as the most valuable asset (Bach, 2009). It is a part of overall
organizational strategic function where initiatives are integrated, communication is direct,
and decision making is fast. The basis of pay remains performance evaluation and job
designs are conducted based on teams (Buller & McEvoy, 2012). Overall, HRM treat
manpower as valued assets and resources and considers it as an aspect which must be valued,
cherished, used and retained effectively.
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c. Roles & Responsibilities of Human Resource Managers
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The individual bulleted sub- points under each major role of a Human Resource Manager are
also presented in a transitioned flowcharted fashion.
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Task 2
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Introduction
The human resource management is the process of managing the very development
and performance of employees belonging to an organization. Today, HRM is the central
aspect of every organization, as with time it has become clear that employees and human
resources are the most valuable aspect of any company, and the former’s performance
defines the success or failure of such company (Bratton & Gold, 2012). In such backdrop, the
importance of HRM has magnified manifold. It is now the imperative of every organization
to keep their human resources motivated and empowered, and having and retaining a talented
workforce often becomes the deciding factor between success and failure (Chen & Huang,
2009).
For the purpose of this task, a case situation was presented where the human resource
function was very traditional, narrow minded and not adequate enough. Evidence of such is
present in the numerous issues plaguing the fictitious WeSellAnything Ltd. Problems were
found in – high attrition rates, low employee morale and motivation, lack of career
progression of employees, absence of learning and development, no adequate and accurate
job descriptions done, lack of human resource planning, improper gender distribution and a
large number of unresolved employee issues. As a response to a new HR Manager, a mind
map was developed which highlighted all the aspects of HR functions to be incorporated and
flowcharts were prepared on the human resource planning and the jobs and responsibilities of
human resource managers.
In this report, firstly the mind map would be explained in detail; secondly an account
would be presented on the importance of human resource planning (HRP) with its importance
on grievance redressal and other aspects and thirdly a new performance management system
would be suggested. Lastly, the key findings would be summarized in the Conclusion
segment of this report.
Analysis
a. Explanation of Mind Map
Human Resource Management is an approach of people management and work
culture management and enables an organization’s workforce to effective contribute towards
the overall achievement of strategic organizational goals (Boxall & Purcell, 2011). The
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traditional method of HRM was only concerned with the planned use of employees. But with
time, much has altered in the field of HRM and now HRM metrics and measurements use
strategic direction in order to display the value. Talent management is a subsequently new
term used in human resource management, which depicts all the functions and
comprehensive management of talent in an organization setting, where this talent is
considered to be the most valuable resource an organization can possess (Ulrich, 2013).
In the present day management, HRM is not only a mere organizational procedure
and associated to only one aspect of organization functioning, but is an integrated method
(Buller & McEvoy, 2012). The total functions of HRM can be hence divided into three
domains – the operative functions, the managerial functions and lastly the advisory functions.
In the mind map, red colour is used to designate the HRM function as whole, and the
associated main domains of HRM are marked in “Purple”.
Each of these domain functions has a list of sub-functions which in total form the
overall HRM. Namely, operative functions are that, which had been and still are the
procedural aspects of HRM and consists of those responsibilities which are the sole
responsibilities of HRM. Recruitment is the first operative function and is one of the key
challenging tasks for every HR manager. Attention and resources are given to conduct this,
and to attract, retain and sustain the prospective talent. Development of job descriptions,
publication of job postings, sourcing the right talent, interviewing, negotiations of salary,
making the final offer are all job responsibilities of the Recruitment Function. Next comes,
the training and development function which also is a key operative aspect of HRM. Training
& development (T&D) consist of orientation, smooth transitioning, skill measurements, and
skill gap analysis, holding specialized training options and repeated monitoring to bring
about new skill sets in the future. Compensation and benefits serve as the next operative
function of HRM which considers taking care of smooth salary dispersal, providing work
hour flexibilities, insurance and other benefits provided to the employees, tax calculations,
reimbursements provided etc. Career progression and career planning of an employee in an
organization is of fundamental value, and this is not only a mere operative function of HRM
but a holistic comprehensive plan of every employee development. This function provides
employees with growth options, management trainings, and education opportunities and also
enables employees to attend seminars, corporate shows etc. This function helps an employee
understand how valued she/he is in an organization and helps in enhancement of motivation
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and job satisfaction aspects. Other operative functions of HRM are performance appraisal
and legal compliance aspects.
Apart from conducting the operative functions as mentioned, it is the role of today’s
HR managers to provide input and valuable support in the overall management of the
company and to ascertain that the human resources of the company are in alignment with that
of the strategic objectives of the organization (Schuler & Jackson, 2008). This requires that
HR function works in close tandem with the other managerial aspects of the organization.
Hence, the second major role of the HRM is managerial functions. The primary function of
this is conducting human resource planning. The importance of HRP will be explained in the
following segments of this report, hence it is not elaborated here. The second aspect is
employee organizing activities and undertaking means by which employee relations is
maintained at the most beneficial state and care is taken to improve the employee motivation,
job satisfaction, employee engagement and organizational commitment. Simple strategies
like, holding informal gatherings, intra organizational meets etc can help subsequently boost
the employee morale. Directing is another aspect of HR Managerial functions and helps in
ascertaining that the employees operate in alignment with that of the overall organizational
goals. This serves as a great challenge for every HR manager and this function requires
him/her to identify the needs of the employees and explore means to satisfy them (Chen &
Huang, 2009). Hence, this function requires the HR managers to carefully analyze the talent
under them and devise strategies to keep them motivated. Lastly, controlling is another
managerial function of HR which ends the cycle and restarts the HR planning stage.
The third aspect of HRM as per the Mind-Map is the advisory aspect and this is self
explanatory – as it helps in providing support to the top management and is associated with
seeing that their vision is being followed in every aspect of the HR function and lastly
providing support to all the Departmental Heads and to ascertain smooth transition and
operation of manpower in every department of the organization.
b. Importance of Human Resource Planning
Human resource planning (HRP) is the very first stage of the employment cycle and
is associated with development of strategies to meet with the organization’s future needs of
manpower. HR planning is associated with business strategy and it is in this stage, that actual
forecasting of demand / supply of manpower in the future is determined (Guest, 2011).
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Today’s pace of technology and global economy has resulted in organizations becoming
more flexible and adaptable to the sudden changes in the external business environment. For
an organization that does not plan its future HR needs in tandem with the business strategy,
it’s highly unlikely that such will succeed. The significance of HRP lies in the fact that apart
from helping it determining organization’s future manpower needs, it also helps a company
in coping up with sudden changes, assists such in the recruitment and retention of the right
talent, development of the talented human resources and proper utilization of such and
overall reduces the uncertainty which an organization goes through in terms of manpower
(Lengnick-Hall, Lengnick-Hall, Andrade, & Drake, 2009). Human resource planning also
subsequently plans for the future management needs of the organization and thereby design
strategies by which the right personnel or employees be identified and trained prior to the
need arise. It also helps organizations in conducting effective succession planning and also
ascertains that a right diversity be maintained in an organization setting to promote a global
workforce. Promoting a diverse workforce helps in bringing about more elements of
creativity, innovation and knowledge and HRP ascertains that it creates a talent pool in the
organization who are precisely such (Delahaye, 2011).
Issues faced by HR Managers & their causes
The issues faced by HR Managers as a result of inadequate and poor human resource
planning are varied. From the situation given for this report, the primary issue is high attrition
rate. This is such because, employees are not satisfied with the remuneration and they don’t
feel valued or feel as if they are learning in the organization. Thereby, developing employee
development plans or career progression charts for each and every employee of the
organization is crucial and forms a part of effective HRP (Daley, 2012). Secondly, devising
an adequate and competitive remuneration system in the industry is critical, as such ensures
that the right and premium talent is attracted to your organization and is retained by your
organization. Attracting, sustaining and developing the right talent is also a subsequent aspect
of HRP. Another key reason which plagues HR managers is dissatisfied employees and the
reasons for such dissatisfactions can be varied – not feeling valuable, not meeting with the
job responsibilities, not feeling appreciated, not challenged enough in the job that is, under
utilization of their talent etc. These issues arise when there is no clear and transparent job
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descriptions and role division done, when attention is not given to whether to the right
individual is selected for the right role, when proper employee development policies do not
exist. All these issues point to an inadequate HRM and need for urgent HRP (Harzing &
Pinnington, 2010). Another problem which was faced by the company was that, gender
distribution in the management lacked majorly, and workforce was not diverse enough.
Having no representation of all the genders in the management makes the management one
sided and not pro-employee (Afzal, Mahmood, Samreen, Asim, & Sajid, 2013). Also it gives
a wrong image that organization does not value women employees to be on their
management panel. Grossly wrong HR policies and lack of specific policies like maternity
policies, grievance redressal ones make the work environment colluded.
c. Importance of HRP and legal considerations in recruitment & selections
As per the flowchart, the stages of HRP are given as – analyzing the organizational
strategies and vision; understanding the present status of HR, demand supply forecasting to
anticipate the future needs; quantifying the potential gap and formulating and action plan
based on that and finally control, evaluation and feedback. Hence, effective manpower
planning based on present and future needs is a core function of human resource planning.
When starting with the recruitment process, however, HR managers need to take care of
certain legal compliances in order to minimize risks. Posting of jobs, interview questions, the
reference and background checks, and final job offers need to be done in a manner it fits all
legal requirements. The Human Rights code of one’s nation has to be followed when such
recruitment process is on. Generally, job posts or recruitments should not give importance or
any specific preference to – race, gender, colour, sexual orientation, religion, status of family
or marriage, political beliefs etc (Pollitt, 2005). Discriminations and injustice should not be
encouraged when making final job offers; eg, salary discrepancies based on gender, or
shortened career progression based on any other aspect (Alcazar, Fernandez, & Gardey,
2013). Care must be taken in developing employee contracts, for contractual jobs, and
initiatives should be from the HR Department’s end to understand that the employee in
question has understood the terms of such contract, clauses of conditions which might negate
such.
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d. New Performance & Reward System and Impact on Motivation
The second flowchart highlights the different job roles and responsibilities of a HR
manager. It broadly divides all the roles and responsibilities into three groups – primarily,
establishment of employees followed by maintenance of employees and lastly, the
termination of employees. Establishment phase consists of all the activities which ensure a
smooth on-boarding and transition of an employee in the organizational setting. Maintenance
phase consists of the employees stay with the organization and consists of all strategies and
initiatives taken by the HR team to make such association motivated, empowering and value
adding for both the sides. This is followed by the termination stage, where the employee
leaves the organization – as a result of natural resignation on reaching the age of super
annuation or otherwise. Care must be taken so that the last stage also is conducted smoothly
and should not create any harassment for the employee in question.
In the situation given it was found that the company in question did not have a
competent performance and remuneration system as a result of which the attrition rate was
high. Seeing all the problems it is a natural conclusion that a new performance management
and reward system be placed. It is the job role of the HR manager to incorporate an adequate
and effective performance and reward system. The following are the factors which need to be
incorporated in such a P&RS
- Job descriptions and job roles are clearly defined based on which performance
metrics can be determined
- Employees post joining need to be made clear about the job roles and basis on which
their performance will be measured
- Bonus / reward based on performance if introduced, needs to be clearly quantified in
the Employee Guidebook as well as the HR System and clearly translated to the
employee
- Apart from extrinsic awards and rewards, intrinsic ones which calls for weekly goal
celebration, monthly employee achievement should be introduced to motivate the
employees (Cadwallader, Jarvis, Bitner, & Ostrom, 2010)
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- 360 degree performance appraisal system should be followed which will help the HR
as well as the line managers to understand the employees’ perspective of work,
aspirations (Reeve, 2008)
- Ideally a buddy system can be placed which will let an experienced employee to help
a new joinee on-board to the system, which will encourage the culture of camaraderie
and friendship
- Both intrinsic and extrinsic aspects must be incorporated in the Reward Management
system of the company (Madan, 2012)
- Several out of office, outings can be arranged during holidays which will help the
employees to bond and feel committed to the organization
Performance appraisals plays a important in evaluation and measurements of employees
acheivements along with the behaviour at workplace. It is also considered as tool of human resource
department used for analysing the effectiveness and growth of employees in the organisation
(Madan, 2012). Main purpose of HR Department behing used of performance methods to
categorize the employees in to performers as well as non perfomers. It is also considered as right
time in order to develop new objectives and goals for the workers.There are various type of
performance appraisals like behavioural checklist, 360 degree apprisal methods , management by
objectives and psucological apprisals.
360 appraisal: It is the important methods that is being used by enterprise for evaluation of
employees working at different levels in the organisation (Jackson, Schuler & Werner, 2011). In
this, interviews of line manager of employees in different have been taken by HR as feedbcak for
evaluation of performance of employees.
Skills of carrying out appraisals: Various evulation as well as communication skills have been
required in the employees of HR department to make an evaluation of performance of employees
and provide them rating of star performance and non performers. Reasearh and effective team work
is required to get participation of employees in performance appraisals (Daley, 2012).
Their is an important link between appraisals and rewards management becuase appraisals have
been done to analyse the highest performing individuals in orgnization so that rewards must be
provided to those employees and analysing the needs of training for other employees. Effective
performance appraisals will provide support to enterprise in proper reward management.
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Conclusion
HRM is placed immense importance in today’s business world as it is one function
which nurtures and develops the most valuable resource of a company – the human resource.
It is the HRM’s role to keep its manpower updated, flexible and committed to the
organizational setting and this determines the success or the failure of any company,
irrespective of its size, nature or operations. The limitation of this report lies in the word
count and time; as such a dynamic subject cannot be clearly elaborated in a restricted setting.
The scope of this report lies in the fact that it presents the readers with a brief but
comprehensive understanding and importance of HRM in today’s organizational functioning.
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