1.

Introduction
Human resource management (HRM) is the practice of recruiting, hiring, deploying and managing
an organization's employees. HRM is often referred to simply as human resources (HR). A
company or organization's HR department is usually responsible for creating, putting into effect
and overseeing policies governing workers and the relationship of the organization with its
employees. The term human resources was first used in the early 1900s, and then more widely in
the 1960s, to describe the people who work for the organization, in aggregate.
HRM is employee management with an emphasis on those employees as assets of the business. In
this context, employees are sometimes referred to as human capital. As with other business assets,
the goal is to make effective use of employees, reducing risk and maximizing return on investment

Human Resource Management is the process of recruiting, selecting, inducting

employees, providing orientation, imparting training and development, appraising the
performance of employees, deciding compensation and providing benefits, motivating
employees, maintaining proper relations with employees and their trade unions, ensuring
employees safety, welfare and healthy measures in compliance with labour laws of the land and
finally following the Orders / Judgements of the concern High Court and Supreme Court, if any.

Human Resource Management deals with the management functions like planning,
organizing, directing and controlling

• It deals with procurement of human resource, training & development and maintenance of
human resource.
• It helps to achieve individual, organizational and social objectives

Why do we call it as Human Resource Management?

• Human: refers to the skilled workforce in an organization.
• Resource: refers to limited availability or scarce.
• Management: refers how to optimize and make best use of such limited or scarce resource
so as to meet the organization goals and objectives.

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Human Resource Management Definitions

Many great scholars had defined human resource management in different ways and with different
words, but the core meaning of the human resource management deals with how to manage people
or employees in the organisation.

• Edwin Flippo
Human Resource Management as “planning, organizing, directing, controlling of procurement,
development, compensation, integration , maintenance and separation of human resources to the
end that individual, organizational and social objectives are achieved.”

• The National Institute of Personal Management

(NIPM) of India has defined human resources – personal management as “that part of management
which is concerned with people at work and with their relationship within an enterprise. Its aim is
to bring together and develop into an effective organization of the men and women who make up
enterprise and having regard for the well – being of the individuals and of working groups, to
enable them to make their best contribution to its success”.

• According to Decenzo and Robbins

Human Resource Management is concerned with the people dimension” in management. Since
every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills,
motivating them to higher levels of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their
commitment to the organization is essential to achieve organsational objectives. This is true,
regardless of the type of organization – government, business, education, health or social action”.

2. Nature of human resource management are:

• Pervasive Force
Human Resource Management is an inherent part of an organization. It is pervasive in nature and
present in all enterprises at all levels of management. It is the responsibility of each manager to
select the right candidate under him and pay attention to the development and satisfaction of each
sub-ordinate.

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• People Oriented
Human Resource Management focuses on and values people at work both as individuals and
groups. It encourages people to develop their full potential and in return give the best to the
organization.

• Action-Oriented
Human Resource Management does follow rules, records, and policies but it stresses the action.
The focus is on providing an effective and timely solution to employees for any problems, tensions,
or controversies faced by them.

• Future-Oriented
To sustain and grow in this competitive environment organizations follow long term strategic
planning. Effective Human Resource Management prepares people for current as well as future
challenges, especially working in an environment characterized by dramatic changes.

• Development Oriented
HRM continuously works towards the development of employees. There are various tools used to
make the employees reach their maximum potential. Training programs are held to help employees
enhance their skills and knowledge. Monetary and non-monetary reward structures are tuned to
motivate the employees.

• Enhance Employee Relations

HRM helps to build a healthy relationship between the employees at various levels. It encourages
mentoring and counseling to help employees in times of need. It aims at creating a culture in the
organization that is conducive to learning and growth.

• Interdisciplinary Function
The knowledge that has influenced Human Resource Management is interdisciplinary in nature. It
drives knowledge from five major bodies: education, system theory, economics, psychology, and
organizational behaviour.

• HRM involves management functions like planning, organizing, directing and controlling.
• It involves procurement, development, maintenance and management of human resource.
• It helps to achieve individual, organizational and social objectives.
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• HRM is a mighty disciplinary subject. It includes the study of management psychology
communication, economics and sociology.
• It involves team spirit and team work.

3. Scope of HRM
Human Resource management has a very wide scope, every department and activity in an
organization needs human resources, even if it is about running machinery.
The scope of HRM refers to all the activities that come under the banner of HRM.

• Human resources planning: – Human resource planning is a process by which the company to
identify the number of jobs vacant, whether the company has excess staff or shortage of staff
and to deal with this excess or shortage.

• Job analysis design: – Another important area of HRM is job analysis. Job analysis gives a
detailed explanation about each and every job in the company. Based on this job analysis the
company prepares advertisements.

• Recruitment and selection: – Based on information collected from job analysis the company
prepares advertisements and publishes them in the news papers. A number of applications are
received after the advertisement is published, interviews are conducted and the right employee
is selected thus recruitment and selection are yet another important areas of HRM.

• Orientation and induction: – Once the employees have been selected an induction or
orientation program is conducted. The employees are informed about the background of the
company. They are told about the organizational culture and values and work ethics and
introduce to the other employees.

• Training and development: – Every employee goes under training program which helps him to
put up a better performance on the job. Training program is also conducted for existing staff
that have a lot of experience. This is called refresher training. Training and development is one
area were the company spends a huge amount.

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• Performance appraisal: – Once the employee has put in around 1 year of service, performance
appraisal is conducted i.e. the HR department checks the performance of the employee. Based
on these appraisal future promotions, incentives, increments in salary are decided.

• Compensation planning and remuneration: – There are various rules regarding compensation
and other benefits. It is the job of the HR department to look into remuneration and
compensation planning.

• Motivation, welfare, health and safety: – Motivation becomes important to sustain the number
of employees in the company. It is the job of the HR department to look into the different
methods of motivation. Apart from this certain health and safety regulations have to be
followed for the benefits of the employees.

• Industrial relations: – Another important area of HRM is maintaining co-ordinal relations with
the union members. This will help the organization to prevent strikes lockouts and ensure
smooth working in the company.

4. Objectives of HRM
The primary objective of HRM is to place a competent and willing workforce in the right position
and at the right time.

Further, it aims to obtain maximum individual development, desirable working conditions and at
the same time, it focuses on contributing to the realization of the organizational goals.

The main objectives of HRM are:

• To help the organization achieve its goals:

HRM is the means to assist the organization to achieve its goals. It ensures effective utilization of
Human Resources which in turn results in the efficient utilization of all the other organizational
resources.

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• To employ a skilled workforce and focus on their training and development:
HRM aims at employing the skills and abilities of the workforce efficiently. It generates maximum
development of Human Resources within the organization by offering opportunities for growth to
employees through training and development.

• To ensure employee job satisfaction and maintain a quality of work-life:

HRM focuses on fulfilling the personal objectives of the employees which helps in enhancing their
contribution to the organization. Their objective is to ensure respect for human beings by providing
various services and welfare facilities to the personnel.

• Societal Objective:
HRM must ensure that there is compliance with the legal and ethical standards of the society at
each level and function of the organization. It implies that organizations manage human resources
in an ethical and socially responsible manner.

5. Functions of HRM

Functions of HRM are:

HR Planning
Job Analysis and Design
Recruitment and Selection
Orientation and Placement
Training and Development

• HR Planning
Human Resource Planning is a process that identifies current and future human resource needs for
an organization to achieve its goals.

• Job Analysis and Design

Job Analysis is the determination of the precise characteristics of a job through an in-depth and
detailed examination of the activities to be performed.

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Job design allows job analysis. It involves designing the content of a job, it combines the tasks
into a job to be assigned to an individual and further fixes the duties and responsibilities to do the
job.

• Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment is the process of searching the best-qualified candidate from within or outside the
organization in a cost-effective manner.

• Orientation and Placement

Orientation is the process in which the new employees are introduced and made familiar to their
jobs, complex processes, coworkers, and organizations. Placement includes assigning tasks to new
employees and the promotion or transfer of present employees.

• Training and Development

Training is the process of enhancing the knowledge and skill of an employee required for a
particular job.
Development is an ongoing and continuous process that aims at improving the personality and
attitude of employees.

6. HRM Policies
Human resource policies are formal rules and guidelines that businesses put in place to manage
their employees. HR procedures, on the other hand, are step-by-step instructions that specify what
actions should be taken to comply with these policies. Defining these policies and procedures is
one of the core functions of human resource management.

Human resource (HR) policies are guidelines that outline employee expectations, organizational
obligations, disciplinary procedures and behavior standards. These are often written guidelines
that HR includes in an employee handbook for employees to reference as needed. Each policy
helps companies with a structure in which teams can work in a positive and productive way.

Why HR policies are important

There are several reasons why HR policies are important for a company:

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• Showing respect for the needs of employees
• Providing guidance for conflict resolution and how to solve problems
• Providing guidance for training and development opportunities
• Creating clear guidance for fair compensation
• Outlining benefits and additional compensation requirements.

Essential HR policies
Here's a look at some of the most important human resource policies:

• Employee punctuality and attendance policy

Attendance policies clearly state the expectation that employees should be on time and ready to
work for their scheduled shifts. It also outlines the procedures for informing management of late
arrival or unexpected absence. Companies often detail how many violations of this policy an
employee can have until they can expect discipline.

• Health and safety policy

The Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers with certain workplace hazards to
have specific safety regulations in place. Aside from these legal requirements, it's a good idea to
include emergency and safety procedures in your employee handbook. You might also detail the
steps that employees must take if a workplace injury occurs and mention the expectation that all
work-related accidents be reported.

• Pay and timekeeping policy

A timekeeping policy goes over the importance of accurately tracking work hours and the proper
procedures for recording them. You can also include a payday policy that informs employees about
important details regarding their compensation, such as the:
Proper protocol for when a payday occurs on a holiday
Pay methods
Frequency of paydays

• Meal and break policy

According to local, state and federal laws, organizations must provide employees with breaks for
meals, rest and lactation. Establishing a policy for these needs allows you to state the restrictions

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and rules regarding these break periods, including the duration and frequency. For example,
companies may require employees to take an hour lunch break daily.

• Leave and time off work policy

Local and state laws have specific requirements for leave that you must include in your
organization's employee handbook, such as voting leave. You might also review the organization's
policies regarding employee time off benefits. There are many different types of leave policies,
including:
Leave of absence
Bereavement leave
Parental leave
Family leave
Sick leave
Vacation
Statutory holidays

• Employment classifications policy

There are several classifications for employees that can influence their eligibility for employee
benefits. For example, part-time employees are often ineligible for healthcare benefits through
their employer. You can clearly define these classifications in your employee handbook for every
employee type.

• Non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy

You can ensure that your workplace remains safe for all employees by establishing policies that
clearly prohibit discrimination and harassment. Consider checking the local, state and federal
regulations so that you can appropriately and comprehensively address this policy. This helps
protect employees from any issues that may arise from other employees.

• At-will employment policy

An at-will employment policy reiterates that the employee or organization can dissolve their
working relationship for any lawful reason and at any time. Most states recognize at-will
employment, and organizations typically consider it an essential policy. Because of this, you can
place this statement at the beginning of the employee handbook and again on the handbook's
acknowledgment form.
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• Social media policy
Many organizations have begun including a social media policy in employee handbooks so that
they can protect the company's online reputation. You can detail the topics or information that
employees are unable to post about on social media, and describe the disciplinary action taken if
they violate one of these rules. This ensures employees represent the company in a way that
matches the company's mission.

• Telecommuting policy
The development of technology has enabled many employees to work remotely instead of in a
main office. Explain your organization's stance on remote work, then list the policies for
telecommuting. These can include things like:
Positions that are eligible for working remotely
Any limitations for remote roles
How you monitor remote employees
Pay and time policies
The organization's right to terminate telecommuting at any time

• Weapons in the workplace policy

Employers are responsible for the health and safety of their employees. You can either address
violence and weapons policies in a more generalized safety policy or address them on their own.
Either way, consider explaining the kinds of weapons you consider weapons, prohibited behavior
and any disciplinary measures.

• Alcohol and drug policy

While keeping in mind the state laws regarding certain substances, draft a policy that outlines the
organization's stance on the use of drugs and alcohol. Mention which substances you prohibit, any
testing procedures you use and the disciplinary action for violations of this policy. This can be
especially important in industries like construction where drug and alcohol use can create safety
issues.

• Confidentiality policy
Confidentiality policies communicate the specific topics that employees must keep private.
Consider providing examples of confidential information, the obligations of employees and the

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consequences for violating the organization's confidentiality policy. You can also share how
employees might discuss unethical practices with HR teams to protect them from backlash.

• Personal device policy

Many employees prefer using their own devices, like tablets, laptops and phones, for company
business. Because of this, you might take security measures. Consider addressing things like what
personal devices employees can use for work, how you will monitor them and any limitations or
security requirements.

7. Strategic Human Resource Management

It is an approach to the practice of human resources that addresses business growth and challenges
and makes a direct contribution to long-term objectives. The main goal of strategic human resource
management is to boost organizational effectiveness, sustain an innovative culture, and relentlessly
pursue competitive advantage. It has a greater impact throughout the entire business and is a step
up from standard human resources.

Scope of Strategic Human Resource Management

The following are the scopes of Strategic Human Resource Management:

• HRM in Manpower Planning: This is generally direct personnel management, which includes
planning for the use of employees, recruiting, literacy and advancement inauguration and
alignment, relocation, elevation, remuneration, layoffs and reductions, and job performance.

• Workforce Welfare and HRM: This particular HRM area focuses on workplace amenities and
operational circumstances. It includes a variety of responsibilities and services, such as
insurance, healthcare, the economy, welfare benefits, and hospital support.

• Work Relations and HRM: Since it is such a sensitive subject, it necessitates adequate
communication with labor or staff groups, settling their grievances, as well as effectively
resolving disagreements.

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Objectives of Strategic Human Resource Management

The following are the objectives of Strategic HR Management:

• Resource-based Strategy: Resource-based theory can be delicate to understand because the

word” assets” is employed throughout common English in colorful ways. This is very critical
to separate strategic resources from all other types of resources. For illustration, cash is a
precious asset for the utmost people.

• Achieving Strategic Fit: Employee retention and motivation are aided by a strategic alignment
of corporate strategy and human resource management plan.

• High Involvement Management: It includes Selective hiring, Decision Power, Extensive

Training, Information Sharing and Incentive Compensation.

• High-Performance Management: By developing mechanisms to monitor and enhance

performance, SHRM can assist firms in increasing employee productivity.

• Manpower planning: Manpower planning, frequently known as human resource planning,

entails placing the correct amount and type of labor force in the applicable locales at the
appropriate times to carry out tasks for which they are good.

• Train the employees on technology: Employee usage is required for any new employee-facing
technology to enable participation and industry learning and it is important to train employees
with an eLearning system or another.

• Employee motivation: The HR team’s main goal is to keep things going in the correct direction.
Keep negative energy and distractions at a distance.

Importance of Strategic Human Resource Management:

• Increased job satisfaction: When executing your job or being in the office, an unmeasurable
statistic called as employee satisfaction is defined as a pleasurable visceral outpouring.

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• Better work culture: SHRM can help businesses create a positive work culture by managing
employee relations.

• Forecasting Future Human Needs: Organizations should set some future strategies to survive
in the competition.

• Improved customer satisfaction rates: Employees may evaluate the vast array of services the
organization offers with HR consultants that work in recruiting and training.

• Efficient resource management: A top-performing HR division could help the business achieve
that goal. Efficiency is streamlining everyday tasks while still producing the best outcomes
possible, even when you would want to concentrate more on challenging issues.

• A proactive approach to managing employees: Proactive HR investigates the business and its
goals to identify potential problems and creates procedures to stop and resolve issues before
they become major ones.

• Productivity boost: Businesses may increase productivity by enhancing employee performance

and fostering a good work environment with the aid of SHRM.

• Selecting and Utilizing Motivational Tools: Promotion in the workplace, which is an example
of the incentive system, is one of the most often used methods for increasing motivation.

• Setting efficient people to achieve specific goals: Every process for increasing productivity
begins with defining goals and aspirations, which set the foundation for effective
implementation.

Functions of SHRM

The SHRM offers the following functions:

• Employee Engagement: For every business, increasing employee engagement is essential to

success. This benefits the corporation and aids in the retention of talent because engaged people
are often content with their employment, take pride in the organization, and think their
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 employer recognizes their particular contributions. Highly engaged employees are far less
likely to leave their jobs and are much more likely to be secure and efficient.

• Introduce Best Practices: The SHRM advises company owners to choose impartial
interviewers who have been educated to follow a systematic interview process that guarantees
confidentiality. Exit interviews provide valuable information that may be used to improve the
business. According to a study by SHRM, providing telecommuting options, sabbaticals,
exercise centers, and transportation subsidies significantly reduces turnover.

• Teach Tools and Techniques: These tools are used to interact with employees and associated
processes across the hiring process.

• Improve HR Effectiveness: You will be able to comprehend the staff you have and how they
assist in achieving your aims and objectives by evaluating your present HR skills. You have to
additionally do a skills inventory for each employee. You can identify which workers are
specialists in various fields using skills inventories.

• Publish Research: Research on human resource management evaluates the efficiency of HR

procedures. The systematic, academic research method includes several phases, including
mass surveillance, analysis, and conclusion-making.

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