INTRODUCTION TO HRM

First you will be able to understand the following:

􀂃 Describe HRM?

􀂃 Explain why are we concerned about HRM?

􀂃 Discuss Road-map of HRM

LESSON OVERVIEW

This chapter introduces with the basic concepts of the human resource management (HRM).

the introduction to HRM, the importance of HRM.

A basic concept of management states that manager works in organizations. Organization has three basic components, People, Purpose, and Structure. HRM is the study of activates regarding people working in an organization. It is a managerial function that tries to match an organization’s needs to the skills and abilities of its employees. Let’s see what is meant by the three key terms… human, resource, and management.

• Human (Homo-sapiens – Social Animal)

• Resources (Human, Physical, Financial, Technical, Informational etc)

• Management (Function of Planning, Organizing, Leading & Controlling of organizational resources to accomplish goals efficiently and effectively)

Functions of HRM

Basic functions that all managers perform: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. HR management involves the policies and practices needed to carry out the staffing (or people) function of management.

HRM department regardless of the organization’s size must perform following human resource

management functions…

• Staffing (HR planning, recruitment and selection)

• Human resource development

• Compensation and benefits

• Safety and health

• Employee and labor relations

• Records maintaining, etc.

• HR research (providing a HR information base, designing and implementing employee communication system).

• Interrelationship of HR functions.

A. What is human resource management?

HRM is the management of people working in an organization, it is a subject related to human. For simplicity, we can say that it is the management of humans or people. HRM is a managerial

function that tries to match an organization’s needs to the skills and abilities of its employees. Human Resource Management is responsible for how people are managed in the organizations. It is responsible for bringing people in organization helping them perform their work, compensating them for their work and solving problems that arise.

Growing Importance of HRM

The success of organizations increasingly depends on people-embodied know-how- the knowledge, skill,and abilities imbedded in an organization's members. This knowledge base is the foundation of an organization' core competencies (integrated knowledge sets within an organization that distinguish it from its competitors and deliver value to customers).

HRM plays important role in creating organizations and helping them survive. Our world is an

organizational world. We are surrounded by organizations and we participate in them as members, employees, customers, and clients. Most of our life is spent in organization, and they supply the goods and services on which we depend to live. Organizations on the other hand depend on people, and without people, they would disappear.

Factors Contributing to the Growing Importance of HRM

a. Accommodation to workers' needs

Workers are demanding that organizations accommodate their personal needs by instituting such programs as flexible work schedules, parental leave, child-care and elder-care assistance, and job sharing. The human resource department plays a central role in establishing and implementing policies designed to reduce the friction between organizational demands and family responsibilities.

b. Increased complexity of the Manager’s job

Management has become an increasingly complex and demanding job for many reasons, including foreign competition, new technology, expanding scientific information, and rapid change. Therefore, organizations frequently ask human resource managers for assistance in making strategic business decisions and in matching the distinctive competencies of the firm's human resources to the mission of the organization.

Executives need assistance from the human resource department in matters of recruitment, performance evaluation, compensation, and discipline.

c. Legislation and litigation

The enactment of state laws has contributed enormously to the proliferation and importance of human resource functions. The record keeping and reporting requirements of the laws are so extensive that to comply with them, many human resource departments must work countless hours and often must hire additional staff.

Four areas that have been influenced most by legislation include equal employment, Compensation, safety, and labor relations. An organization's failure to comply with laws regulating these areas can result in extremely costly back-pay awards, class action suits, and penalties.

d. Consistency

Human resource policies help to maintain consistency and equity within an organization. Consistency is particularly important in compensation and promotion decisions. When managers make compensation decisions without consulting the human resource department the salary structure tends to become very uneven and unfair promotion decisions also may be handled unfairly when the HR department does not coordinate the decision of individual manger.

e. Expertise

Now a days there exist sophisticated personnel activities that require special expertise. For example, researchers have developed complex procedures for making employee-selection decisions; statistical formulas that combine interviews, test scores, and application-blank information have replaced the subjective interviews traditionally used in making selection decisions. Similarly, many organizations have developed compensation systems with elaborate benefits packages to replace simple hourly pay or piece rate incentive systems

f. Cost of Human Resource

Human resource activities have become increasingly important because of the high cost of personal problem. The largest single expense in most organizations is labor cost, which is often considerably higher than the necessary because of such problems as absenteeism tardiness and discrimination.