Concept And Characteristics Of HRM Essay.

Abstract

Define the concept of HRM and elaborate on the main characteristics of a HRM approach. Also, explain why organisations should adopt an HRM philosophy?

The study is done to understand the various aspects of Human Resource Management in an organization. It throws light on the importance that Human resource management in an organization. All the functions performed by the human resource management team are analysed.

The human resources management is the process of recruiting, selecting and giving appropriate orientation, induction, training, development, compensation, appraising, and maintaining relations with labour and trade unions of an organization.  The scope of Human Resource management is vast. It expands its scope in personnel management, employee welfare, and industrial relations. In fact, a process connects employees with organization and helps both to achieve their respective goals. Human resource management develops many policies and strategies, which serves the organization to achieve its objectives through the human resource. The actual concept of Human Resource Management lies in the development of the organization as a whole. Human resource management comprises of five functional areas. These are staffing, compensation, Human resource development, safety and health, employee and labour relations (Martin, 2009). The elaboration of each function can be given as:

1. Staffing:  Staffing is an important function of human resource management. It ensures the right number of people at the right time and at the right place.

2. Compensation: Compensation is the rewards that individuals receive because of their employment and good performance at work. It includes other financial benefits other than the basic pay. It includes medical insurance, holidays etc.

3. Human resource development: human resource development includes six other aspects, which includes training, development, career planning, career development, organizational development, performance appraisals. These processes surround the development of every individual in an organization. These helps an individual achieve his/her personal goal and gives them job satisfaction. Focusing on the future goals of an organisation the career planning and organizational development programmes are set.

4. Safety and health: employees working in safe and healthy work environment are more productive and satisfied. So ensuring all the safety and health needs is the prime focus of human resource management. Certifying safety needs at the work place ensures physical and mental well being of every individual in an organization.

5. Employee and labour relations: All business firms should take care of its relations with its employees and labours. The relations can be maintained by listening to their grievances, problems, issues, and resolve them at the most sooner approach. Organizations with good employee and labour relations are bound to achieve success in all the endeavours because employees are the best resources of an organization (Shivarudrappa, Ramachandra and Gopalakrishna, 2010).  

The prime characteristics of Human resource approach is to reveal, polish improve the power and talents of the employees by improvising their efficiency, productivity and job satisfaction. Human resource management also aims to solve the conflicts that arise in organizations between employees-employees, management-employees etc. The main characteristics of Human Resource Management are as follows:

Human Resource Management

1. HRM is a fusion of art and science: Human resource management is an art because it needs a lot of creativity to manage different situations and employees in an organization. It is also a science because it implements many theories meticulously (Mondy and Mondy, 2012).

2. It is a continuous process: The process of human resource management is continuous since the work force has a nature of moving all the time. So recruitment, selection, training, transfers and promotions are continuous process and hence human resource management is a continuous process.

3. It is persistent in nature: Human resource management is such an aspect that covers all the aspects of an organization. It aims to serve all the levels of an organization, management as well as operational. All organizations have to follow human resource management process.

4. HRM is a regulatory body: The legal compliance of an organization is taken care of by the human resource management department. The human resource department directs all its employees the code of behaviour as mandated by the law. Human resource manager equalises the right of every employee.

5. The serving nature of HRM: It serves all the other departments; the work of human resource department is to help all other departments to function properly. It looks after all the needs of other departments.

6. Result oriented:  The focus of human resource management is to motivate employees by giving them training and bringing out the best in them. It encourages other employees and helps them to achieve their goals as well as the goals of the organization.

7. People oriented:  Human resource management is people oriented and performs all the functions that are related to the employees of an organization.

8. An integrated process: Human resource management looks after the welfare facet, industrial relation and the human resource aspect. It integrates all other departments and makes the organization work in a particular direction (Torrington, 2011).

Example of Human resource strategy at The big lottery fund:

The big lottery fund company wanted to implement an organisational structure aiming at development of management potential and reshuffle the business structure and lead to BIG to attain its organizational objectives. An HR strategy was brought in to check and develop the competency structure to examine the whole organization and come up with 360-degree appraisal and a successive development with the senior management team. During the three-year HR plan, an important amount of positive changes was seen and the work was significantly developing (Ivancevich and Konopaske, 2013).

The human resource management of an organization aims at careful handling of employees and estimating the human needs which would be necessary to run an organization. Human resource management brings out the best of an organization and it is unimaginable that an organization can operate without a human resource department. This department performs the vital functions of an organization. Human resource management acts as a support to all the business organizations. The accomplishment of all the organization depends on the value of employees is has. The environment of business is dynamic in nature, technological advancements have revolutionized the process of production (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2013). All the offices are automated. For the better performance of all machines, man and procedures, it is very necessary that there is human resource management in every organization. Globalization has changed the functioning of the organizations and these changes have to be well understood by the organizations to develop more and find new opportunities. Human resource management brings right number of people at the right time and at the right place. The adoption of Human resource management can be supported by many justifications.

Characteristics of Human Resource Management approach

The human resource department does the main job recruitment and selection. An organization should have the best possible human resource and a human resource manager acquires this. The HR manager comes up with the strategies to select the best human resource at the right time and right place. The human resource management encourages the employees by doing appraisals. It is very important to confirm the employees about their performance in the organization. Appraisals help the organisation to assess the gaps between anticipated performance and the actual performances of employees. Human resource management then brings out the reason for less motivation of employees and helps them to work well with new methods of motivation. The employees who perform well in the organisation are rewarded with attractive incentives. HRM works towards maintaining an atmosphere to work. A good working atmosphere is very necessary for effective working in an organization. It benefits the employees in becoming more productive (Werner, Schuler and Jackson, 2012).

Legal compliance is another aspect apart from performing other human resource tasks like recruitment, selection; training etc Human resource management looks after the legal aspects of an organization. The human resource department looks after all the statutory compliances that have to be followed by an organization. It directs the employees the code of conduct. Many legal aspects that an organization needs to follow, human resource management looks after those needs. For ex. Child labour is illegal by law, and if any organization practices child labour, then the organization will be penalised by law. HRM looks after such laws and helps the organization to follow them. It serves the employees and organization. Human resource management serves all needs of the employees and the organization. It integrates all the departments and helps them to achieve their respective goals. It is like a thread that connects all the departments and lets the workflow like stream in a sequence. The human resource management tackles all the disputes of within as well as outside an organization. It resolves the quarrels and follows all the compliances under Industrial law. It tries to develop and maintain public relations largely. To organise meetings and seminars to enhance the business relations is the duty of a good HRM system. Any organization without proper human resource management system is bound to suffer a lot.

Conclusion: The importance of Human resource management is enormous. The proper functioning of an organization is not possible without a good functional human resource management team. This team is the backbone of an organization. They make an organization lively and help the employees achieve their personal goals with that of the organizational goals.

References

Dowling, P., Festing, M. and Engle, A. (2013). International human resource management. Andover: Cengage Learning.

Ivancevich, J. and Konopaske, R. (2013). Human resource management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Martin, J. (2009). Human resource management. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Mondy, R. and Mondy, J. (2012). Human resource management. Boston: Prentice Hall.

Mondy, R. and Mondy, J. (2014). Human resource management. Boston: Pearson.

Shivarudrappa, D., Ramachandra, K. and Gopalakrishna, K. (2010). Human resource management. Mumbai [India]: Himalaya Pub. House.

Torrington, D. (2011). Human resource management. Harlow, England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Werner, S., Schuler, R. and Jackson, S. (2012). Human resource management. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning.