Human resource management

Approaches to human resource management.There are considerable variations in the way the function of Human Resource Management (HRM) is seen in the different parts of the world. There are two distinct descriptions of HRM, soft and hard. Soft HRM is related to the human relations movement, the growth of individual talent and the McGregor’s Theory Y.

Hard HRM on the other hand, is based on planning resource in the same way as any other, fitting it in with the needs of the environment incorporated in the business plan or in the feasibility study and McGregor’s Theory X. The researches adhering to the soft approach have found that many managers expressed the dual aims of the soft model, which are business development together with personal growth. The positive outcomes of soft HRM are the following *in the short term – commitment, competence, congruence and the cost effectiveness * in the long term – individual well-being, organizational effectiveness and social well-being

In contrast the hard approach sees HRM as process that link business strategy to human behaviour at work. The aim is to carry out business policies in an optimal way from the organisation’s point of view. It means managing - personal flows – recruitment, developing and leaving - work systems – job design as part of process design - reward systems – formalizing notions of fairness and motivation - employee relations – links between the organization and groups of staff. As with many management models, the hard and soft approaches can be seen as the ends of a scale. Much practice displays a mix. Human resource management is the creation, development and maintenance of an effective workforce, matching the requirements of the organization and responding to the environment.

Appropriate Human Resource Planning.Human resource planning systematically forecasts an organisation’s future supply of and demand for employees. It allows personnel specialists to provide the proper work force needed by the employer. Ideally organizations should identify their short-term (relating to the coming year) and long-term employee needs through planning.

The term Appropriate Human Resources refers to those individuals within the organization who make a valuable contribution to organizational goal attainment. This contribution is a result of their productivity. On the other hand, the term Inappropriate Human Resources is the individuals are ineffective in their jobs. The task of providing appropriate human resources is very important to the manager. Such factors as backgrounds, age, job-related experience, and level of formal education all have some role in determining the degree of appropriateness of the individual to the organization.

Appropriate human resources must be provided for the organization as various positions become open. The process of staffing involves four main steps – recruitment, selection, training, performance.

Four steps of staffing. Recruitment Recruitment is the first step in providing appropriate human resources for the organization once a position becomes open. Recruitment means finding staff whose attributes match available jobs, it is the initial screening of the total supply of prospective human resources available to fill the position. The purpose of recruitment is to encourage suitable applications to apply but not to maximize their number, and after that to narrow a large field of prospective employees down to a relatively small number of individuals from which one person can be hired.

Sources of potential human resources Internal recruiting is thus finding employees within the company who are willing or able to be promoted or transferred to another job. Internal recruiting is usually less expensive than outside recruiting. In addition, first-hand data about skills and past performance are available and, finally, promotion can be a motivational factor. Sometimes a position cannot be filled from within the organization and in such case employers address the external recruiting. There are numerous sources of prospective human resources outside the organization. ***Competitors. Luring human resources away from competitors has the following advantages- 1) the competitor will have paid for the training up of an individual 2)the competing organization will probably be weakened somewhat by the loss of the individual 3) the individual once hired becomes a valuable source of information regarding how to best compete with the former organization. Recruitment, especially through an agency, of executives from one country to another, often rival company is known as headhunting. *** Employment agencies. It is an organization, that specializes in matching individuals seeking a position with organizations in need of them. *** Mass media. ***Educational institutions. (students close to graduation)

Knowing the law Modern legislation has a major impact on organizational recruitment practices. Recruiting procedures must be fair and discrimination must be avoided.

Direct discrimination occurs when an organization unlawfully selects on the grounds of gender, race and disability.

Indirect discrimination (glass ceiling) is more subtle and occurs when an organisation’s behaviour has unintended consequences that restrict the rights of groups of people. For example, through choice of language or advertising media.

Knowing the Job In order to be effective, recruiters must also understand the job they are trying to fill. Job analysis is the process of determining the tasks that make up a job and the skills, abilities and responsibilities and employee needs to accomplish that job. Job description is a statement that provides information about the job title, duties, machines used, supervision, working conditions, and organizational position of a job. Job specification is a statement of the human qualifications needed to perform the job- education, working experience, judgement, vision, physical skills, communicational skills and responsibility.

Selection Selection is the stage of creation of the workforce. It involves choosing an individual to hire from among all those recruited. Selection includes different screening techniques, such as preliminary screening, applications, resumes, checks on qualifications, skills and experience, physical, psychological tests, interviews, reference checks, examinations, final interviews…

Training Training is the process of developing qualities in employees that will ultimately enable them to be more productive and contribute more to organizational goal attainment. The purpose of training is to increase the productivity of individuals in their jobs by influencing the behaviour under which they perform.The process of training individuals consists of: 1)Determining training needsThe training needs analysis identifies specific gaps in the training plan is designed to fill them. 2)Designing the training programme. It entails assembling various types of facts and activities needed to meet the established training needs.1) Administering the training programme.( on-the-job and off-the-job training) 2) Evaluating the training programme

Performance appraisal Performance appraisal means evaluating people in their jobs to make relevant decisions. These cover pay, promotion, training and development, counselling and human recourse planning. The appraisals are usually carried out once a year. The manager makes an evaluation of the performance of the subordinate.Appraisal serves 3 general purposes

Forms of appraisal A traditional method is to give a “rating”. The subordinates are judged on such things as knowledge of the job, reliability, initiative and sense of responsibility. The type of rating sometimes includes performance factors such as quality of work, productivity and attendance. The most popular form of appraisal is Management by Objectives. This appraisal is based on a person’s performance and how well he or she is achieving his or her goals. Another appraisal method is the Critical Incident Method. With this system the manager keeps a record of good and unsatisfactory examples (incidents) of a person’s work. These are kept in a file and reviewed with the manager when the interview takes place. The appraisal can be a valuable process. At the interview, the manager should act as a guide to the subordinate, not a judge. The purpose of the interview should be to discuss how the individual can “grow” in the organization and make an effective contribution. The situation allows both parties to review the work of the individual, fix realistic targets and plan that person’s career development.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 973