BUHRM1501: INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT

Page 0 of 11
 Table of Contents
Section 1: Short answer responses..............................................................................2

Q1. SHRM and its challenges...................................................................................2

Q2. Motivation Theory...............................................................................................3

Q3. Effectiveness of recruitment and selection programs........................................4

Q4. Human Resource Planning................................................................................5

Q6. Industrial Relations approaches.........................................................................6

Section 2: Essay...........................................................................................................8

Introduction...............................................................................................................8

Impact of covid-19 on the HR functions in organizations and wider community......8

Covid-19 and HR functions.......................................................................................8

Impact of covid-19.....................................................................................................9

Ongoing trends influenced by covid-19 in business world.......................................9

Conclusion................................................................................................................9

Page 1 of 11
Section 1: Short answer responses

Q1. SHRM and its challenges   

SHRM refers to the process of linking and bridging a connection between the human
resource function and the objectives of the organizations. The objective is to improve
the overall performance of the organizations. SHRM has an aim of maintaining the
culture, structure and the qualities to be used in the organization and to motivate its
employees to have an effective functioning of the organization. The concept has four
components:

a. The primary source of the organization's competitive advantage is to focus on

the human resource.
b. The main highlights of using SHRM activities are to focus on HR policies,
programmes and practices which help the employees to gain a competitive
advantage for its firm and organization.
c. It helps in pattern and planning the strategies.
d. The policies, programmes, practices and patterns all are beneficial and are
purposeful and lead towards achievement.

Figure 1: Components of SHRM

The major challenges are:

a) Lack of support from the top management

Page 2 of 11
If a new organization comes to the market it has an expectation of gaining
experience and competitiveness and support from its top management firms. But if it
has a lack in getting the required support from the firms and organizations of the
topmost management team then the new organization has to undergo various
challenges.

b) Quality and feedback and care of customer and consumers

As the definition suggests, the quality and structure plays an essential role in the
SHRM. If the organization uses a premium and good quality of resources and
manages it well then the firm and organization benefits. Moreover the usage of such
goods helps the company gain a competitive market and place in the market and this
competition arises from the feedback and care provided to the consumers and
customers. If these requirements are not provided then it's a huge challenge for the
firm and organization.

Q2. Motivation Theory

Motivation Theory is the analysis of what motivates an employee to perform towards
a specific objective or purpose. It impacts everyone in general and it is extremely
significant in companies. One of the most well known and effective workplace
motivation theories is The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Figure: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Page 3 of 11
Psychological Needs: This is the lowest level in the hierarchy. These are
individuals' primary necessities that must be fulfilled in order for them to survive. The
physiological needs of food, water, air, and health should all be supplied in favour to
progress forward up the hierarchy. If all these requirements aren't fulfilled, a person
would be strongly driven to meet them initially, while the remaining levels of needs
will offer him with only a small amount of inspiration.

Safety Needs: These requirements are essential once the physiological or basic
requirements are fulfilled. Then there's the issue of safety and wellbeing. Individuals
begin to sense the need for a safer environment to live in, such as a home, a safe
area, consistent income, and so on.

Social Needs: Individuals chose to go on and strive to fulfil their social wants since
the lower demands of the hierarchy are satisfied. Because a person is a social
creature that exists in community, humans has a strong need to contribute to and be
recognized by everyone. At this point, a desire, compassion, and connection arise.
As a result, at this level, relations are built.

Esteem needs: These include the need of appreciation, status and acceptance from
the community. When individual’s social needs have been met they turn their
attention to their esteem needs. This gives them a sense of authority and are self-
assured

Self-Actualization Needs: This is the last need on the Maslow’s hierarchy. It alludes
to the necessity to reach one's maximum capabilities. These requirements are linked
to the enhancement of one's personal skills that could be applied in a variety of
alternative circumstances.

Q3. Effectiveness of recruitment and selection programs

HR activities include recruitment and selection programs. The Human resource
manager must understand how to properly execute the recruitment and selection
programs in order to retain top personnel and establish a stable, balanced team.
Companies can evaluate their recruitment and selection programs using a variety of
indicators. Some of them are:

Cost: It indicates how much a business invests on acquiring each employee. It

assists businesses in determining what they're actually paying & whether they are

Page 4 of 11
utilising sufficient resources. After determining the overall cost of recruitment, the
business could prepare and spending plan accordingly for the long term.

Quality: It means setting quality standards and evaluates financial return by

comparing recruitment effectiveness to that of existing employees in similar roles.
Employees' training and development needs are recognized during employee
evaluations.

Time to fill: One of the most popular employment indicators that firms use to
measure the success of their hiring process is time to fill. This indicator can be
measured in a variety of manner, like the time required from the beginning of the
search to the acceptance of an offer, or the time spent on each application.

The key objective of a recruiting and selection program is to create an open and
consistent recruitment strategy that enables Human resource professionals to
choose the best people for the position purely on qualifications and fit. Recruiting the
proper individuals is essential to a strategic and long survival of the firm.

Q4. Human Resource Planning

Human Resource Planning is the method of predicting a firm’s later HR needs and
identifying how the firm’s existing HR ability that might be used to meet those
standards. As a corollary, it refers to the fundamental business notion of producers
and consumers in relation to the firm's HR ability.

The human resource planning is divided into four phases that are:

HR supply: The initial stage of HRP is to determine the existing HR supply of the
firm. For instance, the HRM analyses the organization's capability depending on the
number of people, their capabilities, credentials, roles, benefits, and work quality.

HR demand: In the next stage, the firm must identify its employee’s prospects.
Bonuses, retrenchments, redundancies, and transfers that influence a firm's future
demand all be handled by the Hrm.

Predicting employee need: The next stage is to build a demand forecast by

aligning existing supply with future HR need. It's also important to recognize the
protracted strategic plan and goals so that the personnel demand prediction is in
accordance with the firm’s objectives.

Page 5 of 11
Implementing changes: The HRM of the firm produces strategies to address those
shortcomings depending on the demand projection developed after assessing the
shortfalls in HR supply and demand. Implementing effective interaction initiatives,
transfer, employee training, hiring, succession planning, guidance and development,
and proposed changes are all instances of this. These strategies are then enacted,
with the management' involvement, to ensure a seamless and successful
implementation. It is essential to ensure that the analysts adhere to all regulatory
requirements in order to avoid potential failures arising from the personnel.

Q6. Industrial Relations approaches

An employer-employee relation is alluded to as industrial relations. The three main
approaches to industrial relations are:

Unitary Approach: The Unitary approach to industrial relations is built on the notion
that when the focus is on the common purpose, everybody gains, employers, and
the authorities. Conversely, under a unitary approach, industrial relations is
characterised by interpersonal interaction, partnership, as well as a common
purpose, among other things. Whether there is any disagreement at workplace, it is
regarded as a one-time occurrence caused by faulty personnel administration.
Workers, on the other hand, generally receive and agree with administration. Eitcher
Tractors' Alwar facility is an example of unitary approach

Pluralistic Approach: It implies that the firm is made up of separate individuals that

establish diverse groups, each with its personal goals, purposes, management style,
and service offerings.

The firm is multi-structured, and disputes among as well as between numerous

regional divisions will inevitably cause disagreements. The pluralistic approach, in
opposition to the unitary approach, views disagreement between staff and managers
both natural yet unavoidable.

Marxist Approach: Marxists, like pluralists, believe that confrontation involving

workers and administration is unavoidable. However, contrary pluralists, Marxists
consider confrontation as a consequence of industrial capitalism class-based
system. As per Marxists, confrontation emerges as a result of class inequality among
the capitalists and labourers. The major goal of corporations was to boost efficiency

Page 6 of 11
by giving employees minimal salaries. This, however according Labourers, is a case
of wage slavery.

Section 2: Essay

Introduction
The covid-19 pandemic has a global impact on humans and has formulated many
challenges for the upcoming and current business holders. Thus it's a human crisis
and several changes have been made in the work context such as from working at
sites and offices have been shifted to work from home which has created a tension
and challenge to the HR of the companies and organizations. This has created a
global impact on the working pattern and the experience of work too has been
impacted. The relationship between the employees and Hr has been shifted to digital
conversation which affects and makes the failure of the functioning of Hr.

Impact of covid-19 on the HR functions in organizations and wider community

During this Covid-19 pandemic where around 200 countries across the globe are
facing issues of economic and difficulty of running the business. HR has to play a
dual role in this time of managing the business and its staff. Due to change in the
workforce and pattern many HR are facing the issue of balancing this. Due to the
pandemic many staff and employees are affected and many of them are not so
digitized which is affecting the profit share of the company. Due to the outburst of
pandemic and the restrictions the business and the organizations are facing the
issue of uplifting their current crisis. The major challenges in front of HR is the staff
cost because the outcome and ROI of some employees and staff are not upto the
expectations. Thus it makes the process unproductive and due to their unproductive
response the organization and firms are unable to keep them as an employee. In
order to uplift the business the HR has to take into account several concerns:
Managing and increasing the productivity of the business and thereby on the other
hand also reducing the cost incurred and taking necessary actions. For example it's
the responsibility of every employee to effectively contribute and work for the
betterment but if the company notices any unproductive employee it has to remove
the staff because it cannot bear the cost. 

Page 7 of 11
Covid-19 and HR functions
Remote working has become a permanent work plan and force for many companies.
The Hr in those cases has to monitor the employee and have a track of the work by
maintaining a record and sending and evaluating the work progress of the business
as a whole. In the meantime the Hr shall also keep a track of each employee and
allocate and communicate whenever necessary. 

Besides monitoring the progress, another major challenge for the HR is maintaining
the culture and decision to be made. Since the work pattern has shifted the HR must
communicate with the employee and make decisions which are helpful because the
economy is impacting the business and its outcome. By engaging the employee and
demonstrating commitment will help the HR in maintaining the culture and ethics of
the business and organization.

Most crucial is the retention and talent obtained. It means that most companies have
taken up decisions of closing the hiring of new employees due to the pandemic and
economic crisis. In doing so the company is unable to get talented and professional
workers. This is hampering almost all the businesses and organizations. But the HR
must maintain the reputation of the organization and business by treating the
employees and taking care of the health and business at the same time.

Impact of covid-19
The current situation educates the business holders about the VUCA concept. VUCA
stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Under this concept the
business holders are able to take decisions and solve the upcoming problem in the
future which will help the business gain the economy and overcome the challenges
faced.

Ongoing trends influenced by covid-19 in business world

With the onset of the covid-19 pandemic there is a trend of purchasing goods and
services from the e-commerce platforms. By purchasing through the e-commerce
mode the customers are asked to pay digitally making the use of cashless delivery.
By adopting these means the individuals are able to maintain and undertake the
required precautions of having no contact with others and also maintaining social
distance. But with more purchases of goods through e-commerce platforms, other
organizations and firms are booming. 

Page 8 of 11
Conclusion 
The role of HR is playing a vital role in the operational and strategic functioning of
the firms and organizations in this current pandemic crisis. In the first place the
pandemic has changed the working pattern of the employee and there is a change in
the mode of working. Secondly the impact of pandemic on the role of HR and
business has been analyzed. Lastly, the over dependence on e-commerce has a
negative impact on the ongoing business trends.

Page 9 of 11