Human Resource Management

Keywords: hrm, resource, workers, human

Introduction:

Workers are important and the main resource of an organisation; allocating them into the right positions with the most productivity outcome is the job of human resource management (HRM) department. Therefore, one of the significant requirements for an organisation to function well is to have an efficient HRM department. Thus, to create a required HRM, understanding its structure and its function is necessary; as the result, the purpose of this essay is to identify the contribution of HRM activity to organisation in the current economic climate.

Section 1: What is HRM ?

The term human resource has many different definitions for it such as “the personnel department of an organization, dealing with the recruitment, administration, management and training of employees; abbreviated as HR. The personnel employed in an organization” (CBS Interactive Inc 2010) or “The division of a company that is focused on activities relating to employees. These activities normally including recruiting and hiring of new employees, orientation and training of current employees, employee benefits, and retention” (BusinessDictionary.com 2010).

Likewise, HRM also has quite a number of definition like: “Administrative activities associated with human resources planning, recruitment, selection, orientation, training, appraisal, motivation, remuneration, etc. HRM aims at developing people through work” (BusinessDictionary.com 2010). However, the most suitable and complete one in this essay is “Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment, management, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. HRM can also be performed by line managers. Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training” (About.com Guide 2010).

In accordance with those points of view, human resource management works in order to put right people into the right tasks, and make sure the employees can meet the organisation’s goals. Humans are the greatest resource of an organisation; without them, all business functions like communicating through all kinds of media, manage cash transaction or dealing with customers could not be accomplished, or it can be said that humans and their potential are necessary to drive an organisation. Organisation changes continuously affect not only the business but also the employees. In an organisation, human resource management is responsible for how employees are treated. It is in charge of taking on people into the organisation, helping them with their work, resolving all the problems arising, and compensating them. In order to maximise the organisational productivity, it is important to manage individual’s abilities, time, and talents. In general, there might not be an HRM department in small organisations, with fewer than a hundred workers, and line managers will be responsible. On the other hand, the human resource managers in larger organisation will organise the HRM tasks and report directly to the chief executive officer (CEO).

Section 2: The role of HRM.

According to Mullins (2006), the role of human resources management is to ensure that management deals effectively with everything concerning the people resource of the organisation, people development, and managing the relationships between the management and the employees. Its role is to play an active role in the process – a facilitator- to advocate all the members and ensure that every employee’s voice and concerns are heard. In addition, HRM makes sure that all plans for changing in conduct will have a sufficient time and resources to take effect; especially, to align between the people processes and the goals of the business to create a shared sense of meaning.

In strategic management of human resources, develop Human Resource plans and strategies align to the organization’s strategic direction, and business strategy. HRM also need to provide tools to conduct these strategies and control the processes and systems. The need of the human resources professional in the frequently change is the result of the required effectiveness of the organisation. Both the capability and knowledge of the HR professional to perform successful change strategies make them exceptionally valued. In order to minimize employee’s dissatisfaction and resistance to change, the knowledge of how to connect the change to the strategic needs of the organisation is significant.

In human resource planning, the long-term/ short-term human resource needs are needed to be determined, and also the area that HR people need and the requirements of jobs. The design of job descriptions and job specifications is based on the outcomes of the job analysis data. For people succeed and contribute in the design of work process systems, the human resource representative people must have a well knowledge about the design. Furthermore, HR is also responsible for tying incentives and rewards to certain positions and roles in order to maximize performance levels.

A number of firms believe they are in an environment where workforces with the type of competencies that they need are in short supply. At the same time, it is critical to the success of any people-based strategy to attract and retain the very best people. It is important to structure an environment characterized by the following goals: achieving long-term business success, ensuring that the organisation’s employees feel valued, ensuring a sense of pride of association with the company, ensuring that each employees has the opportunity to reach his/her highest potential personally and professionally, and generating a sense of excitement and fun. All of those goals are important to the HR manager that they have to achieve in an organisation.

In article “The strategic role of HR”, Rene T. Domingo has demonstrated that an effective strategic human resource has equally decision as the company’s marketing strategy, hence the HR development should have more strategic roles (Domingo 2003). The strategic human resources main task is to take part in strategic corporation rather than support administration; it is more likely taking the initiative than reactive in its rapport with other functional areas. It is more concerned about what the customers need in the future to compete globally. The managers do not wait for direction or complaint; they research for the future improvement, and offers proactive solutions and strategic counsel.

Conclusion:

In summary, Human Resource is no longer a backroom or supporting function. It is in the vanguard of corporation strategy, much like sales and marketing. Its competitiveness is determined and provided to an increasing degree. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go for human resource management to become strategic partners; it needs to train itself on agency and program permission to understand what is important to the organisation, and be able to give creative, efficient alternative or solution to organisation issues.

Reference:

About.com Guide (2010) What Is Human Resource Management [online] available from http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm [1 March 2010]

BusinessDictionary.com (2010) human resource management [online] available from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/human- resource-management-HRM.html [1 March 2010]

BusinessDictionary.com (2010) human resource [online] available from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/human-resources.html [1 March 2010]

Domingo,R. (2003) ‘The strategic role of HR.’ [online] available from http://www.rtdonline.com/BMA/GM/1.html [1 March 2010]