MODULE I

Trends influencing nature of work and workforce:

Economic liberalization, privatization and globalization of economies adapted by various
countries led to the increased competition among the global companies, national companies
and local companies. The severe competition led to the manufacture of qualitative products,
product/service innovations, increased customer service reduction in cost and delivery time etc.
These shifts along with strides in information technology provide a wide range of products and
services. Most of the business activities, to-day, are centered around the customer. In fact, it
is the human resource which brings innovation, quality, customization, superior speed and the
like. As such increased importance to the customer and enhanced customization brought
paradigm shifts in human resource management.

1. Employer’s Brand: Employer brand is defined as an emotional bond among employer,

present and prospective employees. It is a critical input in HR marketing. Presently
talented employees are in short supply. Employer brand is a powerful competitive edge
not only among human resources, but also among customers, suppliers and market
intermediaries. It attracts talented employees and retains them with the organization by
creating a sense of loyalty to organization among employees.
2. Competency Mapping: Employees hard skills, knowledge and abilities are not
sufficient to achieve the desired performance. Soft skills like attitude, mind-set, values,
belief and commitment are also needed. Complete human resource is essential to
achieve desired performance as well as to have competency of employees. Thus,
competency is the sum of knowledge, skills, attitude and personality of an individual as
required performing current and future organizational roles. Competency also denotes
motives, self-concept, traits and desired behavior.
3. Business Process Outsourcing: The external provider provides the business on
agreed terms and conditions including product/service design and quality. The external
provider is an independent business organization, but works in collaboration with the
parent company. Some organizations started outsourcing some of the HR functions like
recruitment, pay and benefits administration, leave administration, training and
development programs and performance management.
4. Human Resource Matrix Management: Different departments in an organization
cannot function in isolation. They have to interact and integrate their activities with
other departments. They have to be aligned horizontally and vertically to serve the
current and future customers. HR matrix looks around the customers or clients rather
than following superior-subordinate relationship. HR matrix first considers the priorities
of the customers and expects all functions of all departments to align their functions
around customer needs.
5. Dual Career Groups: There has been a tremendous increase in the number of female
employees in all types of organizations. Initially women used to take up employment

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activity until their marriage. But at present they are continuing employment even after
their marriage and even after they become mothers. Women employees presently
limited their careers to selected jobs and organizations. But, they will be ready to take
up all types of jobs in different types of organizations.
6. Knowledge Management: Most of the software companies have been contributing to
knowledge management. Knowledge is the power/capacity for effective action. The
term knowledge management is coined by Kael Wiig in 1986. It is a systematic, explicit
and deliberate building, renewal and application of knowledge to maximize an enterprise
knowledge-related effectiveness and returns from its knowledge assets. Thus,
knowledge management is continuously creating and upgrading organizational
knowledge in order to maximize the returns from its knowledge assets.
7. Virtual Organizations: Virtual organization is a social network in which all the
horizontal and vertical boundaries are removed. It consists of individuals working out at
different places. Limited number of executives and employees coordinate the functions
and activities of various outsourced agencies, combine human skills, financial and
marketing resources with the help of communication and information technology.
8. Learning Organizations: Organizations are group of individual employees and other
human resources. Organizations learn and acquire the knowledge as the individual
employees do. In fact organizations learn through the learning of their employees.
Organizations learning output is the synergetic outcome of individual learning of all
employees working in an organization. It is as old as organizations. But it is signified
after the globalization.
9. Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to
access and generate emotions so as to assist thought. It is the capacity to recognize
our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves and managing emotions
well in our social interactions. When one works in a team environment, the skills of
emotional intelligence become even more important to the job. Emotional intelligence
can help an individual in the team work by helping to generate new and creative ideas
and solutions to problems.
10. Talent Management: Globalization emphasizes on customer care and paradigm shifts
in information technology. The talented employees are those who possess knowledge
and innovative skills, creative abilities and positive contributory behavior that are in
short in supply compared to that for demand. Organizations need to adopt different
human resource strategies for managing talented employees as they are in short supply.
Organizations use different strategies not only for people management, but also for
different process of recruitment, performance management and employee development.