UNIT 1

HRM( Human Resource Management)

Q1. Define Nature of HRM, Scope, functions and importance of HRM?

Human resources may be defined as the total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and
aptitudes of an organization’s workforce, as well as the values, attitudes, approaches and beliefs of
the individuals involved in the affairs of the organization. It is the sum total or aggregate of inherent
abilities, acquired knowledge and skills represented by the talents and aptitudes of the persons
employed in the organization.

human resources are multi dimensional in nature. From the national point of view, human
resources may be defined as the knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes obtained
in the population; whereas from the view point of the individual enterprise, they represent the total
of the inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and skills as exemplified in the talents and aptitudes of
its employees.

Human Resource Management: Nature

Human ResourceManagement is a process of bringing people and organizations together so that the
goals of each are met. The various features of HRM include:

It is pervasive in nature as it is present in all enterprises.

Its focus is on results rather than on rules.

It tries to help employees develop their potential fully.

It encourages employees to give their best to the organization.

It is all about people at work, both as individuals and groups.

It tries to put people on assigned jobs in order to produce good results.

It helps an organization meet its goals in the future by providing for competent and well-motivated
employees.

It tries to build and maintain cordial relations between people working at various levels in the
organization.

It is a multi-disciplinary activity, utilizing knowledge and inputs drawn from psychology, economics,
etc.

Human Resource Management: Scope

The scope of HRM is very wide:

Personnel aspect-This is concerned with manpower planning, recruitment, selection, placement,
transfer, promotion, training and development, layoff and retrenchment, remuneration, incentives,
productivity etc.

Welfare aspect-It deals with working conditions and amenities such as canteens, cr?ches, rest and
lunch rooms, housing, transport, medical assistance, education, health and safety, recreation
facilities, etc.

Industrial relations aspect-This covers union-management relations, joint consultation, collective

bargaining, grievance and disciplinary procedures, settlement of disputes, etc.

In general, human resource management is concerned with hiring, motivating and maintaining
workforce within businesses.

Functions of Human Resource Management Includes:

Managerial Functions

· Operative Functions

Managerial Function Includes:

1. Planning
One of the primary function where number & type of employees needed to accomplish organizational
goals are determined. Research forms core HRM planning which also helps management to collect,
analyze and identify current plus future needs within the organization.

2. Organizing
Organization of the task is another important step. Task is allocated to every member as per their
skills and activities are integrated towards a common goal.

3. Directing
This includes activating employees at different levels and making them contribute maximum towards
organizational goal. Tapping maximum potentialities of an employee via constant motivation and
command is a prime focus.

4. Controlling
Post planning, organizing and directing, performance of an employee is checked, verified and
compared with goals. If actual performance is found deviated from the plan, control measures are
taken.

Operative Function Includes:

1. Recruitment/Hiring
Hiring is a process which brings pool of prospective candidates who can help organization achieve
their goals and allows managements to select right candidates from the given pool.

2. Job Analysis & Design

Describing nature of the job like qualification, skill, work experience required for specific job position
is another important operative task. Whereas, job design includes outlining tasks, duties and
responsibilities into a single work unit to achieve certain goal.

3. Performance Appraisal
Checking and analyzing employee performance is another important function that human resource
management has to perform.

4. Training & Development

This function allows employees to acquire new skills and knowledge to perform their job effectively.
Training and development also prepares employees for higher level responsibilities.

5. Salary Administration
Human Resource Department also determines pays for different job types and incudes
compensations, incentives, bonus, benefits etc. related with a job function.

6. Employee Welfare
This function takes care of numerous services, benefits and facilities provided to an employee for
their well-being.

7. Maintenance
Minimizing employee turnover and sustaining best performing employees within the organization is
the key. Minimizing ROI within HR department is also a key goal for Human resource management
team.

8. Labor Relations
Labor relation is regards to the workforce who work within a trade union. Employees in such domain
form a union/group to voice their decisions affectively to the higher management.

9. Personal Research
Research is a vital part of human resource management. It is performed to keep a check on employee
opinion about wages, promotions, work condition, welfare activities, leadership, employee
satisfaction and other key issues.

10. Personal Record

This function involves recording, maintaining and retrieving employee related information including
employment history, work hours, earning history etc.

Q2. Difference between HRM vs.HRD?

Answer:-

1.HRD is a sub section of HRM, i.e. HRD is a section with the department of HRM.
2.HRM deals with all aspects of the human resources function while HRD only deals with the
development part.
3.HRM is concerned with recruitment, rewards among others while HRD is concerned with employee
skills development.
4.HRM functions are mostly formal while HRD functions can be informal like mentorships.

Q3. Define SHRM, Characteristics and scope of SHRM?

Answer:-

Strategic human resource management is the process of linking the human resource function with
the strategic objectives of the organization to improve performance.

Attracting and keeping talented and skilled employees is one of the most important challenges
organizations face in today’s dynamic business world.

No strategy, no matter how well designed, will work unless the organization has the right people,
with the right skills and behaviors, in the right roles, motivated in the right way and supported by the
right leaders.

Characteristics of Strategic Human Resource Management(SHRM)

Recognition of the outside Environment: Outside environment presents some opportunities and
threats to the organization in the form of-

Laws

Economic conditions

Social and demographic change

Domestic and international political forces

Technology and so on.

Strategic human resource strategy explicitly recognizes the threats and opportunities in each area
and attempts to capitalize on the opportunities while minimizing or deflecting the effect of threats.
The impact of Competition: The forces of competition in attracting, rewarding, and using
employees have a major effect on corporate human resource strategy. Forces play out in local,
regional and national labor markets. Labor market dynamics of wage rates, unemployment rates,
working conditions, benefits levels minimum wages legislation and competition reputation all have
an impact on and are affected by strategic human resource decisions.

Long-Range Focus: A strategic human resource management should be long-range focus cause this
is not easy to change the strategic human resource policy.

Choice and Decision-making focus: In other words, the strategy has a problem solving or
problem preventing focus. Strategy concentrates on the question, “what should the organization do
and why?” this action orientation requires that decisions be made and carried out.

Consideration of all Personnel: A strategic approach to human resources is concerned

with all of the firm’s employees, not just its hourly or operational personnel. Traditionally, human
resource management focuses on hourly employees, with most clerical exempt employees also
included.

Integration with the Corporate Strategy: Human resource strategy adopted by a firm
should be integrated with the firm’s corporate strategy.

The key idea behind overall strategic mgt is to coordinate all of the company’s resources, including
human resources; in such a way that everything a company does contribute to carrying out its
strategy.

Synergy means the extra benefit or value realized when resources have been combined and
coordinated effectively. This concept often referred to as economies of scope, makes the combined
whole of the company make valuable than the sum of its parts. It is a true benefit of good strategic
management of resources.

Q4. Explain Barriers to strategic HRM?

Answer:-

Barriers to SHRM
The main barriers to SHRM are the lack of growth strategy and the failure to implement it.

Sometimes there is high resistance to changes and lack of cooperation too from existing
people and processes.

A commitment of the management team is essential.

Status quo approach is the greatest hindrance. People who love status quo would not be best
suited for such a change or transformation to take place.
Many times diverse workforce is considered as a barrier – which is not actually the case –
regardless of the workforce SHRM can be implemented.

The leaders should have the vision for the future and include strategic human resource
management into the core of the organization.

Well, there are a number of ways to implement such a system. In the simplest terms, it is
necessary to include automated software for human resource management. Strategic planning
and plotting of accurate data can ensure that you have enough information at hand before you
make any strategic decisions for your organization.

Q5. Linking HR strategy with business strategy?

Answer:-

4 Steps to Align Your HR Strategy with the Business Strategy

So, what does “alignment” look like and how does HR go about it? HR leaders should:

Understand the business strategy and current state challenges. Consider the
goals and expected outcomes for the organization. Is the organization pursuing a growth strategy?
Or, is it trying to turnaround underperforming business lines?

Identify how people must contribute to organizational growth and

success. Seek to understand what you are asking your workforce to do in service of the goals.
What new or different skills, competencies, and behaviors are needed? What are the best functions
and positions needed to deliver on these expectations?

Design and implement your HR talent strategy. Once you know where the
organization is headed and what it requires of its people to get there, HR must determine the gaps
between its current workforce and what is required to accomplish the organization’s business goals.
Define strategies needed to acquire, train, develop, performance manage, and reward the very high-
performing talent that will carry your organization into the future.

Measure your HR strategy. Whether you use an HR scorecard or other metrics, these
measures indicate if your HR talent strategy is successful or when a course correction is necessary.

Empowering – and expecting – your HR function to make a strategic contribution ensures HR aligns
its resources and activities in ways that enable the organization to meet its goals through its greatest
competitive advantage: its people.

Q6. HRM linkage with TQM & productivity?

Answer:-

HRM Linkage with TQM

Link is very much clear when Human resources of the company are satisfy they work with their full
extent through this the productivity of the company rises and reaches to a higher point and if
Human resources are dissatisfy, the productivity decreases.

Making quality improvements was once thought to be the sole responsibility of specialists (quality
engineers, product designers, and process engineers). Today, developing quality across the entire
firm can be an important function of the human resource management (HRM) department. A failure
on HRM’s part to recognize this opportunity and act on it may result in the loss of TQM
implementation responsibilities to other departments with less expertise in training and
development. The ultimate consequence of this loss is an ineffective piecemealing of the TQM
strategy. Thus, HRM act as the pivotal change agent necessary for the successful implementation of
TQM.

HRM linkage with Productivity

As the business world continues on a ruthless drive to pick up the pace on a consistent level, the
notion of productivity becomes a greater cause for debate and concern.

With reports that most workforces run at about 9% capacity, there’s a real spotlight on how we can
stimulate greater productivity in order to keep in step with today’s faster and more dynamic world.

It’s almost an irony that despite the plethora of new world technology making it increasingly easy to
keep in touch and connect with our co-workers, that in actual fact, the majority of people consider
themselves disconnected from the organization they’re a part of. With this in mind, reinstating
people as active contributors to a company has to be the key in a demand for increased productivity.

Human resources teams are in a unique position to reach out to the workforce and design measures
to increase a sense of inclusion. Working towards bigger goals that relate back to their own jobs
along with appropriate reward, can effectively combat the problem of poor productivity.

Numerous studies have focused on these points in recent years, and most come to the same
conclusion; that a combination of methods and incentives are required to really tackle this issue.
Having a great rewards scheme in place as an example, may be effective to a point and may appeal
to a percentage of people, but on its own the cut-through will be limited.

Recruitment and training is undoubtedly another significant part of the puzzle, appropriately,
sourcing the right people for the roles and for the culture of the company in question, but also
placing serious emphasis on continual development.