OVERVIEW AND IMPORTANCE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Objectives:

After this session, we should be able to:

a) determine Personnel Management and its types;

b) enumerate the importance of Personnel Management; and

c) share our prior experiences and ideas in personnel management to the class.

Overview

Personnel Management tackles many topics but we can summarize it all using these
letter representations.

H-uman: Personnel management should be done through people-centered policies. It is

comprised of a set of people who make up of the organization, business sector, industry or
economy.

U-nity: Effective personnel management makes people to come and work together in
harmonious, creating a collaborative and effective team.

M-anagement: This is one of the most reasons why employees stay or leave. Staffs work
with satisfaction in their job if high value is given to the proper management. Expectations will
be met by employees if regulations are being practiced from the people who are in high rank
positions.

A-dministration: In here, we are looking for motivational and effective leaders, which still
comprises people. These leaders should be expert and rational. Good admin means great
work management.

N-eed: This is to emphasize that personnel management in any organization is needed, it is

important. If there is no personnel management, everything will be in chaos, no order and no
direction.

What is Personnel Management?

Personnel management is defined as an administrative specialization that focuses on

hiring and developing employees to become more valuable to the company. It is sometimes
considered to be a sub-category of human resources that only focuses on administration.

It includes job analyses, strategic personnel planning, performance appraisals and

benefit coordination. Lastly, it involves wages, dispute resolution and other record keeping
duties.
 Personnel management is the part of HR management that focuses on recruiting,
selecting, and training staff in a way that helps you take your organization to a higher level.
It also addresses how best to retain top talent within your organization.

Three Types of Personnel Management

1. Strategic personnel management

Strategic personnel management primarily focuses on current and future

staffing needs. Are your current personnel policies working?

Key factors to examine include recruitment policy, current staff turnover, and
employee satisfaction levels. Based on this information, you can predict your short-
and long-term staffing requirements.

 2. Tactical personnel management

Tactical personnel management focuses primarily on developing and

planning all your organization’s staffing resources:

 planning staffing levels & schedules – based on quantitative and qualitative

demand for human resources and available competences
 updating long-term staffing plans – creating frameworks for staff recruitment,
selection, and training
 structuring staff resources – organic, functional (job assessment, employment
conditions, remuneration system, etc.), and technical (tools and other HR
instruments)

 3. Operational personnel management

Operational personnel management focuses primarily on support functions or

the processes relating to staff influx, for example recruitment, selection, onboarding,
continued professional development, etc.

Examples include:

 setting up recruitment & selection process workflows

 creating and maintaining staff records
 managing medical examinations (if applicable)
 issuing IDs, tools, vehicles, etc.

What’s more, all staffing investments and continued professional development (CPD)
activities also form part of operational personnel management.

Examples include:

 education & training

 performance reviews & assessment interviews
 career advice
 sickness & leave schemes
 timekeeping & timesheets
 salary processing
 termination processes
The Importance of Personnel Management
Personnel management’s main goal is to create a working environment in which staff
can perform to the best of their abilities.

1. Acquiring and putting knowledge and skills into use

Personnel management is a tool you can use to help you put the right people
in the right place at the right time and transform your company into a learning
organization that has a competitive edge and is ready for the future.

2. Creating engagement

You can use personnel management to help you create greater engagement
in several ways, for example with fair remuneration schemes, good fringe benefits,
and opportunities for training and professional/personal development.

3. Working more efficiently

Operational processes are often far from optimal in many organizations

because you have the wrong people working in the wrong place at the wrong time, or
because you’re wasting time, money, and valuable resources. Personnel
management can help you rectify these issues.

  4. Reducing staff turnover

High staff turnover is detrimental to your company’s operational continuity.

When staff leave, you lose valuable expertise and experience, and spend a lot of time
recruiting and training replacements.

Sound personnel management helps you give your staff the tools and
resources they need to perform to the best of their abilities and to continue to grow
both personally and professionally. Not only are happy, satisfied employees more
productive, but they’re also more loyal because they feel more appreciated.

5. Staff have the freedom and flexibility to excel

By focusing on continued professional development, your staff have the

freedom and flexibility they need to excel. A rigid, inflexible organization will then
become more value-oriented, specifically in terms of the added value its staff provide.

 6. It encourages continued professional development

Personnel management entails setting goals and defining frameworks in

which staff are fully involved in achieving. It challenges staff to use their creativity and
professionalism to the full, to experience satisfaction in their work, and to share in the
success. Once one goal or objective has been achieved, the next is ready and
waiting as a stimulus for continued professional development and growth. Personnel
management also encourages lifelong learning and on-the-job training.

  7. It safeguards long-term continuity

Staff leave your organization for many reasons: labor market shortages,
retirement, competition. Sound personnel management practices make it much easier
for you to respond in a timely fashion to staff leaving, either expectedly or
unexpectedly. This helps you prevent a ‘brain drain’ and safeguard long-term
operational continuity.
Reflective Quotes:

HOTS Questions:

1. What is the main difference of personnel management to human resource

management?
2. In your own opinion, is Personnel Management a profession?
3. Among the list of the importance of Personnel Management, what do you think should
be the top-most priority? Why?

References:

Masters in Human Resources Degrees. © 2012. http://www.masters-in-human-

resources.org/faq/what-is-personnel-management/

Echtelt, Rick Van. CEO at AG5. © 2020. https://www.ag5.com/personnel-management/

Perimenis, Vaso. Keeping the Human in Human Resources. © 2020.

https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/hr-talent-management/articles/keeping-the-human-in-
human-resources

Attwood, Margaret, et.al. Personnel Management Third Edition. Macmillan Press LTD. ©1996

Seyfarth, John T. Personnel Management for Effective Schools Second Edition. Allyn and
Bacon Publishing ©1996