human resource management

Definition and Meaning of Human Resource Management (HRM)

People make up organisations, and people make organisations operate. Organizations cannot survive without individuals and thus human resources is believed to be the most significant aspect among the many factors of production in an organisation, such as money, material, personnel, and machinery.

This is because how the human component is utilised in various processes affects the efficient utilisation of other physical resources such as land and capital.

“Human resource management is a series of integrated decisions that form the employment relationship; their quality contributes to the ability of organisations and employees to achieve their objectives.”

Milkovich and Boudreau.

All other resources, except men, degrade with time. Man is the most precious resource, which appreciates over time if provided with the correct atmosphere and is hence referred to as “human resource.”

Resource that appreciates and depreciates with time

Human resources are groupings of people who are willing to provide their services for the benefit of the company.

Human resources will always be important to businesses since only dynamic and competent people can build dynamic businesses.

“Human resources constitute a whole consisting of inter-related, inter-dependent, and interacting physiological, psychological, social, and ethical components.”

Michael J. Jucius

Only effective employees are capable of turning aspirations into reality and have the inspiration to do so. Organizational goals can only be met with the help of competent individuals.

As a result, to remain competitive in today’s dynamic economy, organisations must always strive to energise, support, and teach their employees to retain maximum productivity.

Human resources are both exclusive and crucial. It is self-evident that a company would want to obtain and maximise this resource.

“HRM is concerned with the most effective use of people to achieve organisational and individual goals.”

Invancevich and Glueck

Human resource management, or managing the organization’s human resources, is the most important and difficult work. Personnel management was the prior term for it.

Personnel management is equal to human resource management

It may be characterised as finding the appropriate people, training and developing them, inspiring them to stay in the workforce and helping the company achieve its goals.

One of the goals of this procedure is to close the gap between the company and its employees. The goal is to motivate an individual to give his or her all while also providing support to the organisation.

“The planning, organising, directing, and regulating of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance, and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organisational, and social objectives.”

Edwin B. Flippo

Nature/ Characteristics of Human Resource Management (HRM)

NATURE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

1) HRM Practices Are Universal: HRM practises are found in practically every organisation, whether public or private, government or non-government, educational or corporate, and so on.

Its presence is not restricted to people functions; rather, it pervades all functional areas, including finance, production, and so on.

2) Action-Oriented: Rather than preserving records or following formal processes, HRM focuses on doing action.

Employee concerns at work are handled with the aid of sensible policies.

3) People-Centered HRM: HRM is primarily concerned with the development of people at work, both individually and in groups.

It aims to match employees’ strengths to the job’s requirements.

It is always trying to get others to do better and be more productive.

4) Growth-Oriented: HRM’s major aim is to enhance workers’ capacities and maintain a compensation system that meets their expectations.

Employees should be consistently motivated to reach standard performance via the incentive system.

Employees are also given training to find and enhance their potential.

Job rotation is often used to evaluate an employee’s overall performance.

5) Cordial Integration: HRM is responsible for building and re-structuring harmonious relationships among the organization’s people resources.

It also organises and supervises the organization’s human resources to achieve maximum outcomes.

6) Challenging Function: People are inherently complicated and dynamic. As a result, human resource management in the workplace necessitates careful supervision of personnel.

Because of the human component, controlling and coordinating staff is a key duty. While controlling and dealing with them, the HR manager must use extreme caution to avoid hurting their feelings.

7) Supplementary Service: HR also provides assistance to operational and functional managers by aiding and advising them.

They monitor and help other managers in doing their personnel activities more effectively as professional advisors.

8) Multi-Disciplinary Function: HRM, as well as the formation of an organization’s idea, are critical. It borrows ideas, concepts, methods, and principles from a wide range of soft sciences, including sociology.

Anthropology, economics, and psychology are all fields of study etc. Understanding these disciplines is critical since HRM, like these disciplines, works with and connects to people.

9) Ongoing Process: HRM’s role cannot be confined to a certain moment and period. It may be found in all departments.

As a result, it is continuous in nature and is practised in the organisation every second, hour, day, and year.

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Scope of Human Resource Management 

Importance of human resource management

1) Procurement: This entails recruiting potential personnel and then picking the best candidates for the needed positions inside the company. Following that, they are inducted and settled into their new jobs.

2) Employee Training and Development: Employees must be able to perform successfully in actual settings.

Employees are encouraged to engage in committees and board meetings in order to further their professional growth.

3) Job Analysis and Job Description: These are documents that are created in order to hire qualified individuals by evaluating the organization’s job needs and allocating specific duties to occupations.

4) Rewarding/Compensation: Employees are compensated for their efforts. Job analysis and job assessment are used to determine the amount of pay to be paid to workers.

It entails determining salary rates, wage payment mechanisms, and performance evaluation.

5) Employee Records: Employee records are kept to collect information about all employees’ work, such as training job performance, aptitude payment records, and accomplishments.

6) Welfare: The welfare part of HRM is concerned with providing decent working conditions for employees.

It comprises programmes for health and safety, cleanliness, entertainment, lodging, education, and security, among other things.

7) Industrial Relations: HRM aids in the maintenance of good working relationships in the workplace.

It includes things like collective bargaining, worker engagement in management, conflict resolution and grievance management, among other things.

Evolution of Human Resource Management

In today’s world, human resource management has become a broad discipline. It all started in India in the year 1800 B.C. HRM’s historical evolution may be divided into the following stages:

1) Industrial Revolution: Mechanisation and technical innovation advanced quickly throughout this period. Jobs were separated at the time, and workers had to accomplish only a little amount of their labour rather than the full job.

As a result of specialisation, workers’ speed and efficiency grew, but tasks got more monotonous. The treatment of the labourers was akin to that of glorified machine tools.”

Employers were primarily concerned with meeting production objectives, not with meeting worker requests. The government was not at all interested in working for the workers’ well-being.

2) Scientific Management: F.W. Taylor promoted the idea of scientific management as a way to improve worker productivity.

Scientific management is a scientific examination that entails breaking down a work into numerous little sections and reorganising them to achieve the best possible result.

Taylor also remarked that a person’s physical and mental abilities must be compatible with the duties that must be completed in the workplace.

As a result, highly talented personnel should be fired, and managers should give training to low-performing employees so that they can become highly skilled. Taylor went on to say that utilising incentives to inspire people is a good idea.

3) Trade Unionism: A trade union is a group or organisation of employees who have come together to work toward a shared objective.

Workers grew aware of their rights and began to fight jointly against employer exploitation. They also began opposing unfair labour practices with the assistance of trade unions.

Collective bargaining, dealing with worker disputes about working conditions, salaries and benefits and disciplinary processes are some of the ways that trade unions support employees.

Evolution of human resource management

4) Human Relations Movement: Elton Mayo and his Harvard colleagues conducted the Hawthorne Experiment in the 1930s and 1940s.

The experiment revealed that work design and compensation were not the only variables influencing employee productivity; sociological and psychological factors might also influence employee productivity.

The human relations movement was responsible for the widespread use of behavioural science approaches.

It include employing supervisory training techniques, offering help to workers, and developing counselling programmes and tactics to improve management-labor relations.

These programmes allowed workers to talk to counselling specialists about work-related issues as well as personal issues. In the late 1930s and 1940s, the growing influence of trade unions had an impact on the human relations movement.

The Wagner Act paved the way for the formation of labour unions during this period. The Act allowed employees the legal right to bargain collectively with their employers on issues such as pay, job security, benefits, and other working conditions.

5) Human Resource Approach: Human religionists “pet milk idea” had largely been abandoned by the early 1960s.

Happy workers are productive workers, or happy cows provide more milk.

Pet Milk theory

Because each employee is unique and has varied personal requirements, the variables that inspire one individual may not motivate another.

Happiness and positive feelings may have little impact on the productivity of some employees. The practice of viewing employees as assets grew in popularity over time.

The Human Resource Approach holds that an employee’s work or activity is the primary source of happiness and motivation. Individual participation in organisational decision-making is the centre of this method.

Human resource approach

Furthermore, the following are the main focuses of this strategy:

i) People like their jobs more if they are involved in developing the goals they must meet.

ii) Many people have more self-control, self-direction and creativity than is required in their current occupations (Theory Y)

Theory X and Theory Y differnce

iii) The manager’s principal responsibility is to maximise human potential to benefit the organisation.

iv) Managers should establish a healthy, safe, comfortable and convenient workplace environment, utilising their talents, so that employees may fully utilise their abilities.

V) The manager must urge employees to take charge of their destiny and participate in all of the organization’s major decisions.

vi) Increasing the influence, self-direction, and sale control of subordinates would improve working efficiency.

vii) Employee work happiness may improve if they can maximise their value potential.

Instead of providing enhanced tools, behavioural science contributed to management by bringing new aspects. It has established a useful method of thinking about the manager’s function, the nature of organisations, and the behaviour of individuals inside them.

Importance of Human Factor

Organizations may be seen as social systems with many roles, connections, and interactions among persons in various positions within the organisation. Organizations are formed to accomplish their primary aims and objectives.

With growing globalisation and information flow, the workforce’s responsibility for accomplishing organisational goals has grown more than ever before.

Regardless matter how advanced the organization’s technology, equipment, and machinery are, the organization’s performance is ultimately determined by people’s efforts and contributions.

Only the Human Factor (also known as human resource) is a live and active factor within the organisation among numerous production factors such as land, money, etc. It energises other production components and makes them worthy of use.

By adopting superior technology, products or strategy, businesses might gain a brief competitive edge over their competitors. This is because all of these elements can be duplicated by competitors in the future. Employee motivation, competency, and organisational culture, on the other hand, are difficult to replicate.

Human resource Creative

Humans, unlike other variables of production, cannot be affected because they have free will and react to their surroundings based on their behaviour, intentions, feelings and desires.

Organizational policies and practices undoubtedly have a bigger influence on these elements; yet, these factors are not entirely under the control of these rules and procedures. This emphasises the significance of human resources as a key aspect of business success.

Human resources, unlike other resources, increase in value over time as skills, knowledge, and competence improve as a result of training and experience. As a result, an organization’s capacity to optimise its operations relies heavily on its ability to align human resources with its goals and rules.

Human factor is the field that strives to optimise the link between technology and the human.

Kantowitz and Sorkin.

Importance of Human Factor

1) Activates Non-Human Resources: Human resources handle all of an organization’s physical and financial resources. All other resources become dormant and worthless in the absence of human resources.

2) Creates Competitive Advantages: Human resources may be employed to create competitive advantages in various ways.

Lower production costs, innovative product development, unique marketing approaches, new finance techniques, and so on may all provide competitive advantages. Human resources can be motivated to attain these goals because they are all the result of human labour.

Creative thinking

3) Provides a Source of Creative Energy: In today’s fast-paced world, every organisation needs to be creative. Creative thinking may be defined as the process of clearly defining an issue using imagination, imagining, ruminating, assuming, meditating, and so on, and then coming up with an entirely new idea, concept, or vision.

Only the organization’s people resources are sources of such innovation since they may develop a wide range of ideas. When individuals are sufficiently driven to produce innovative ideas and thoughts, there is no limit to what they may do.

There is no other resource within the organisation capable of achieving such incredible results. As a result, human resources are one of the company’s most valuable assets. They are the ones who make other resources work.

They carry out a variety of tasks in many functional areas such as marketing, production, and finance, among others.

Objectives of Human Resource Management 

Objectives of human resource management

1) Assisting Employees in Accomplishing Organizational Goals: HRM’s major mission is to support employees in achieving the intended organisational goals. Its existence will come to an end if it fails to do so.

2) To Assist Employees in Achieving Personal Goals for Individual Growth: HRM not only focuses on organisational goals, but also seeks to investigate and develop the capabilities of employees via training and development for employees to accomplish both personal and organisational goals.

This not only improves staff efficiency, but also boosts employee loyalty to the company.

3) Maximize Employee Potential: The essence of HRM is its basic role of efficiently matching workers’ skills to job assignments in the organisation.

This enables the organisation and its stakeholders to fully explore the talents of its people.

4) To Find Efficient Employees Within the Organization: HRM focuses on maintaining an effective compensation system to incentivize employees to work more efficiently.

5) To Improve Job Satisfaction: The HRM has devised and executed a number of human resource welfare programmes in order to improve people’s quality of life. Employee work satisfaction is improved as a result of this.

6) To Improve Workplace Quality of Life: HRM’s responsibility is to make the workplace a pleasant environment for workers.

This is critical since enhancing the quality of work life cannot improve organisational performance.

7) To Keep Employees Up to Date on Managerial Policies: One of HRM’s most significant responsibilities is to keep employees informed about internal policies, consumer feedback, management viewpoints, and to develop new ideas from the workforce.

8) To Fulfill Social Duty: The HRM function also guarantees that the organization’s social responsibility to various groups in society is met while keeping to moral and legal standards.

 9) To Maintain Employee Discipline: HRM also focuses on maintaining employee discipline by providing incentives depending on their performance.

It aims to establish an employee-friendly environment emphasizing on a healthy work style.

10) To Improve Organizational Productivity: HRM aims to improve an organization’s overall productivity by maximising the use of available resources.

11) To Focus on Quality Performance: In any organisation, HRM’s most important role is to match the appropriate position to the right applicant at the right time.

This improves the organization’s working system’s efficiency and quality performance.

12) Creating a Workplace Culture of Harmony: HRM works tirelessly to bridge the gap between individual and organisational objectives.

As a consequence, friendly relationships are formed between the organisation and its personnel, resulting in the attainment of the organization’s overall goals.

13) To Create a Respectful Environment: HRM is responsible for ensuring that everyone in the organisation is treated with decency, trust, and pleasure. If such an atmosphere does not exist, the organisation may experience a crisis.

Functions of Human Resource Management (HRM)

Managerial Functions

Human Resource Management

The first and most important task of a manager is to manage people. All of the department heads carry out managerial functions regardless of their department.

The following are the managerial functions of human resource management:

1) Planning: It is involved with the pre-planning of future actions. It’s the act of taking action after giving it some thought.

HR planning (HRP),recruiting, selection, and T&D (Training and Development) are some HR strategies for achieving organisational goals.

2)Organising:This is the process of bringing people and other resources together in order to achieve a common objective.

Firms must typically build relationships among workers in order for them to jointly contribute to the achievement of organisational goals.

3) Directing: Directing entails directing employees to do a certain task and ensuring that the work is completed according to the instructions.

Through proper leadership, employees may work together to achieve organisational goals voluntarily and successfully.

Human resource management is responsible for motivating employees, developing communication networks, integrating individuals, maintaining discipline, and resolving employee problems in a timely and efficient manner.

4) Coordination: At all levels of management, individuals need to work together. The only way to achieve organisational objectives is by groups and their actions to be coordinated.

The human resource department is responsible of developing, interpreting, and reviewing employee policies and programmes.

Line managers may make the final choices, but the people department can provide ideas for improvements.

5) Controlling: Controlling is the process of inspecting and verifying that everything is in order according to the plan’s specifications.

Auditing training programmes, analysing labour turnover records, coordinating morale surveys, and conducting separate interviews are some of the ways human resource management tasks may be regulated and made more successful.

Operational Functions

Operational Functions of HRM

Operational duties are the unique tasks that human resource professionals must complete for every department inside the organisation. It focuses on the entire organisational workforce’s operations, from HR planning to their exit.

The human resource department’s normal functions are as follows:

1) Employment: It is concerned with identifying and employing qualified individuals to achieve the organization’s goals.

The employment function includes job analysis, personnel planning, recruiting, selection, induction, and placement.

2) Human Resource Development: (HRD) is the process of acquiring and converting information, skills, creativity, attitude, and other attributes in accordance with current and future work and organisational requirements.

Performance review, training and development, career planning and development, and so on are all part of it.

3) Compensation: Compensation is about inspiring people to work more successfully by giving them with adequate and sufficient compensation.

Compensation packages include employee perks, bonuses, incentives, and social security benefits. Compensation management includes activities such as job assessment and pay and salary administration.

4) Human Relations: This is integrating individuals at work through contact. It enables people to collaborate in a team to achieve high production levels and happiness in terms of money, mind, and society.

It entails quick resolution of employee concerns through a well-developed grievance handling mechanism, disciplinary action, and employee counselling to relieve tension, frustration, and other negative emotions.

Roles of HR Manager

Roles of Human Resource Manager

HR serves as a manager in a variety of capacities. The nature and scope of these responsibilities are determined by what upper management and employees expect from the HR manager.

An HR manager’s function is often divided into three categories:

1) Administrative Functions:

The HR manager is responsible for the following administrative functions:

i) Policy-Maker: In an organisation, the HR manager is the policy-maker. He aids senior management in developing policies for hiring and keeping talent, employee welfare, personnel records, pay and salary administration, and working conditions, among other things.

He assists an organisation in implementing human resource policy in the most effective way possible.

ii) Administrative Professional: HR managers are responsible for a variety of administrative tasks, including maintaining personnel records, HR-related databases, processing employee benefit claims, responding to queries about leaves, medical and transportation facilities, and submitting relevant reports to government authorities.

All of these duties must be performed by an HR manager in such a way that the organisation can successfully satisfy the changing demands of its stakeholders.

iii) Advisor: An HR manager acts as an advisor to line managers, advising, suggesting, counselling, and assisting them in the performance of their duties.

Settling grievances, resolving disputes, and employing and training personnel are examples of these responsibilities.

As an adviser, the HR manager gives personnel counsel to the organisation about report development, announcement of guidelines to workers, and communication of needed information relevant to labour laws, among other things.

iv) Housekeeper: As a housekeeper, an HR manager assists the organisation in the management of various activities such as recruitment, pre-employment testing, background checks, wage and salary administration, employee benefits and pension administration, employee well-being programmes, record keeping, and so on.

v) Counsellor: An HR manager’s role as a counsellor is to listen to an employee’s concerns about their job, superiors, peers, family well-being, economic and social standing, and so on, and to offer advice on how to address these concerns.

vi) Welfare Officer: It is the HR manager’s role to oversee all welfare operations in an organisation.

As a Welfare Officer, the HR manager provides a variety of services, including a cafeteria, health care facility, creches, academic institutions, clubs, libraries, consumer outlets, and so on.

vii) Legal Advisor: An HR manager’s role as a legal advisor for the company includes resolving grievances, handling disciplinary issues, facilitating collective bargaining, facilitating a platform for joint consultation, interpreting and implementing labour laws, contracting with lawyers for lawsuits, filing and handling cases in various courts, and so on.

2) Tactical Operational Roles: These roles are tactical in nature and include the following:

i) Recruiter: In today’s world, there is a worldwide fight for talent. Given the heightened degree of competition for employees with the appropriate set of qualifications, abilities, and work experience, it is critical for an HR manager to hunt for talent.

When it comes to developing new employee awards, HR managers must utilise all of their skills for a good cause while keeping the organization’s financial burden minimal.

ii) Trainer and Motivator: The HR manager’s job is to identify workers who need training and development on a regular basis, set up appropriate training and development programmes for them, and provide them with meaningful intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. 

(iii) Liaison Officer: In an organisation, an HR manager serves as a liaison officer, acting as a link between various departments both inside and outside the organisation.

This function entails cultivating and maintaining positive relationships with department leaders in order to maximise the use of resources from one department by another.

iv) Mediator: When there is a quarrel or a grievance, the organisation always needs a mediator to successfully address the issue.

By settling problems between two workers, supervisors and subordinates, and management and employees, the HR manager helps to preserve industrial peace.

v) Employee Champion: HR managers are sometimes tasked with acting as employee advocates or business morale officers.

Firms’ working environments have altered dramatically in the competitive era of internationalisation. As a result, an HR manager must dig into the hearts of employees to uncover their areas of interest.

3) Strategic Duties: As the world around us changes, so are the roles of HR managers. HR managers are now stepping outside of their comfort zones, taking on more difficult jobs and acting as a “change advocate.”

The following are some of the strategic roles:

i) Strategic Partner: As a strategic partner, the HR manager guarantees that personnel are reliable and capable of contributing to the organization’s goals.

This position allows the manager to contribute to the development and achievement of the company’s goals and objectives.

Only when HR employees are involved with the company, the human resource portion of an organisation is meant to be a strategic contribution to business success.

ii) Change Champion: A change champion persuades the organisation through a structured change process to include and sustain separate and independent organisational initiatives. Only the HR manager can enable an organisation to keep up with or even outpace the external rate of change.

Employees are counselled by HR managers for personal growth and adaptation to change on both an individual and organisational level. Personal transformation is improved at the individual level, while HR managers aid in acquiring and adopting emerging trends at the organisational level.

Computer Applications in Human Resource Management

The advent of the “computer era” has drastically altered the accessibility of information, as well as how it is recognised and accessed.

Information technology is concerned with how information is accessible, gathered, assessed, and conveyed.

Information technology has been used in the field of human resources for more than four decades. In the early 1960s, HR information systems and payroll computerization were implemented.

In the 1970s, more powerful databases were available. Various HR applications, including as time and attendance connected to payroll systems, were combined in the 1980s.

In addition, throughout the 1990s, with the advent of computers and the resulting drop in their prices, a lot of organisations used information technology in the field of human resources.

With the advent of the internet era and the web, a flood of HR-related tools and apps erupted.

human ressource management

The increased use of IT in the field of HR is motivated not only by the need to automate HR procedures, but also by the fact that successful HR systems may basically be a source of competitive advantage for the company.

IT is now a fully integrated aspect of HR systems. It is employed at practically every stage of HR activity. Here are a few examples of IT applications in HR:

1) E-Recruitment/Applicant Tracking: E-recruitment, also known as applicant tracking, is a web-based tool that manages an organization’s employment needs online.

E-recruitment allows the company to post job openings on the internet in order to stimulate and attract applicants.

Following job applications, the application tracking system chooses qualified candidates for the position and schedules interviews and hiring procedures.

E-recruitment aids in the maintenance of applicant profiles, allows for the search for necessary talent, and allows for the referral of positions to others.

It makes use of an event-driven applicant tracking system to manage adverts across a variety of websites.

It is worth noting that e-recruitment aids in the reduction of management chores as well as the saving of time and money spent on the recruiting procedure.

2) E-Training: E-Training provides a comprehensive, open, and accessible platform for managing, offering, and monitoring staff training programmes, whether online or in a classroom setting.

Trainees interact with the instructors and proceed through the curriculum at their own pace.

The management controls the flow of business at the company, from order processing to delivery, and from performance management to training.

E-learning allows relevant information to be delivered to learners in any area of the world.

It uses a variety of media and websites to manage training programmes, outline skills acquired by learners, and keep track of trainee competence requirements.

It guarantees that HRM can supply what the organisation requires, namely, trained and experienced trainers.

It coordinates training efforts based on a cost-effective and efficient criterion. It also assesses the efficiency of training programmes.

E-training not only aids the learning of company personnel, but also provides valuable material to consumers and other stakeholders.

This is accomplished through efforts such as a one-stop shop, electronic catalogue distribution, and collaboration sites with other key partners.

EPSS (Electronic Performance Support Systems) is a company that provides online training and coaching. Managers and staff may access any information about the company using EPSS.

Furthermore, online performance management systems may be used as a communication tool. Managers may use it to establish essential personnel objectives, competences, and performance areas.

4) E-Payroll: An electronic payroll system collects information about an employee’s attendance and work history, which may be used to analyse the employee’s performance.

Payroll systems may set up a variety of criteria for automatically transferring and changing employee salaries using simple equations.

In reality, they may use rapid formulas to manage processing rules and other sorts of computations, as well as apply logic in more complex scenarios.

E-payroll allows for simultaneous data processing and result preparation. With the aid of online payslips, administrative expenses and time for the entire process are greatly reduced.

Employees may examine confidential data about themselves and receive special reports using e-payroll.

5) E-Benefits: E-benefits systems allow management to track and administer a variety of employee benefit schemes, which are typically complex.

Medical and healthcare plans, insurance plans, pension plans, stock option plans, and so on are examples of these types of plans.

Through web-based technology, such systems may considerably enhance benefit administration and tracking while also reducing administration time and expenses.

This also improves decision-making consistency at all levels of the organisation when it comes to compliance concerns.

6) Human Resource for E-Self Service: E-Sell Service HR systems collect, manage, and analyse all other sorts of HR-related data.

Employee profiles and addresses, for example, recruiting and selection, training and development, promotions and demotions, skill mapping and competencies, and pay design are all examples of data.

Employees may utilise and update personal information more easily with such a system. Information on an employee’s role, experience, language and talents may be generated using this data. Managers and staff are able to update information in this fashion, which allows for the rationalisation of corporate procedures, cost reductions, and increased speed in operations.

From employee profiles, talents resumes, and contact information to self-appraisal reports, learning, benefits, and payroll, the system makes it easy to manage practically anything. It assists management with transfers, training, performance reviews, competence mapping, and career planning and development, among other things.

7) E-Time and Labor: E-time and labour automates the whole time and attendance process. With the aid of an electronically formed virtual time card, it oversees operations and regulates the process.

It features a user-friendly internet interface. The time and labour management system uses it to collect and analyse all information regarding time and money.

This technology allows for the necessary flexibility in data collecting techniques. Capabilities for human resource allocation and data analysis It also aids in the development of cost accounting competencies.

This method allows users to enter time using web browsers, mobile phones, and time cards. It creates rotation plans based on staff shifts, work schedules, and mobility.

It also backs up the company’s policies on vacations and overtime. With the use of a single database including employee time-linked information, it improves reporting, extraction, and processing capabilities.

It’s worth noting that this system integrates seamlessly with other HRM systems including as benefits and payroll.

8) Teleworking / Telecommuting: Telecommuting, often known as teleworking, is the use of information technology to replace traditional work-related travel.

To put it another way, it entails bringing the work to the employees rather than the people to the work.

It allows employees to work in a community centre equipped with current computers, fax machines, routers, and other cutting-edge technology.

This technology eliminates the need for individuals to commute to work every day. They can send their work to their work headquarters via “electronic highways.” Teleworking therefore bridges the gap between the office and the home. In other words, it provides needed jobs close to people’s homes.

9) E-Enterprise Human Resources: E-enterprise human resource services provide a comprehensive solution for managing applicant and employee information

.It maintains track of payment modules and salary information, and it’s simple to set up and use. Other uses of e-enterprise human resource services include:

i) Matching open jobs with qualified candidates,

ii) Keeping track of crucial information as applicants go through the interview process, and

iii) providing necessary information for selection decisions.

With the aid of e-enterprise, information is made available throughout the system. Because the various sections of the HR Series share a database, any duplicate of data or data mistakes are immediately eliminated.

Furthermore, the most significant benefit of utilising integrated human resources is the speed with which information can be received, which is extremely beneficial in making rapid judgments.

By allowing authorised workers immediate access to the employee database and relevant information, e-enterprise enables the organisation to function quicker, more efficiently, and more intelligently.

Importance of Human Resource Management

The following is a list of the importance of HRM at various levels:

1) Corporate Level: Businesses want their job to be done properly and efficiently, hence they must be structured as follows:

i) Human resource management focuses on employing talented workers who can help the company expand and keep them over time through manpower planning, effective recruitment, selection, and fair promotion.

ii) Enriching personnel via the development and improvement of vital skills, as well as the correction of their attitudes through performance reviews and other means.

iii) Making the most of available human resources

iv) Assuring the organisation of a talented team of loyal and dedicated employees in the future;

V) Obtaining voluntary co-operation from employees through motivation, participation, grievance handling, and other means.

2) Professional Level: On a professional level, HRM guarantees that employees have a decent quality of life at work. It aids professional development in the following ways:

i) Fostering esprit de corps among employees by providing a pleasant working environment.

ii) Providing chances for employees to advance their qualifications.

iii) Ensuring that healthy relationships among team members are maintained and that work is correctly allotted to both personnel and teams.

3) Social Level: On a social level, HRM has a significant impact on society in the following ways:

i) Enabling employees to live with dignity by providing them with jobs that satisfy their mental and social needs.

ii) Maintaining a balance in terms of numbers, qualifications, and candidates between job opportunities and applicants.

iii) Making the most of human resources by preserving their physical and mental health.

4) National Level: HRM plays a critical role in a country’s growth in the following ways:

i) A skilled and devoted human resource leads to efficient use of the country’s physical, environmental, and economic resources.

ii) The skills, attitudes, and values of a country’s workforce determine its progress. People who are less skilled and competent are indicative of a developing country. HRM guarantees that the country’s people resources are skilled and developed.

iii) HRM boosts the country’s economic growth. This, in turn, leads to a rise in living standards and employment opportunities.

Difference between Human Resource Management and Personnel Management

“Personnel management involves the process of dealing with an organization’s human concerns and is committed to obtaining, developing, using, and sustaining an efficient work-force,” says Richard Calhoon.

Personnel management may be described as a collection of programmes and actions aimed at achieving organisational and personal objectives. It is concerned with the people in the organisation and their interpersonal ties.

“Personnel management is that component of the management process that is principally concerned with the human constituents of an organisation,” writes E.F.L. Breach.

“Personnel management is the specialised intelligent handling of the human component by a distinct department that might dedicate its whole time to study along the route of development in industrial relations,” according to R.G. Gokhle.

Basis of DifferenceHRM Personnel Management
1) ScopeIt has a larger reach and includes people management as well. It is considered a component of HRM and has a restricted reach.
2) Respect for EmployeesIt sees employees as a valuable resource for the company’s growth.Employees are viewed as a source of labour, and they are exploited for the company’s advantage.
3) Nature of DutiesIt is more strategic in nature and is in charge of managing the workforce as one of the major resources that contributes to an organization’s success.
Administrative responsibilities such as dealing with payroll, complying with employment rules, and managing associated chores are all part of personnel management.
4) Organisation FunctionIt is regarded as an essential component of the company’s overall operation.It is a distinct organisational function.
5) ResponsibilityAll managers in the organisation are responsible, and the goal is to produce managers from all areas who are trained to handle personnel-related activities.The personnel department of the organisation has exclusive accountability.
6) Key MotivatorsIt sees greater performance as a means of increasing employee happiness. As a result, it places a strong emphasis on ways to increase performance through work groups, effective challenge-solving tactics, and workplace innovation.Employee happiness is considered, and it serves as a motivation to increase job performance. Compensation, incentives, prizes, and streamlining job tasks are all utilised to inspire employees.
7) Management RoleThe management style is transformational, and it entails defining goals and incentives to propel the company and its workers to new heights of performance and success.The transactional management style focuses on preserving the usual flow of activities inside an organisation. Employees are motivated by the exchange of rewards for good work.
8) RulesHas a no-nonsense approach and isn’t bound by rules and processes.The creation of norms and processes is given a lot of weight.
9) Guide to Management ActionThe management makes choices based on the demands of the company.The management makes judgments based on the need of following processes.
(10) Job DesignThe importance of teamwork and collaboration among employees is emphasised while developing employment.The division of labour is emphasised in job design, which leads to the specialisation of duties that each worker must do.
11) Training and DevelopmentEmployees are continually encouraged to gain information and innovate through training and development programmes. This enables businesses to thrive in a rapidly changing business environment while also fostering a learning culture.All workers may not be able to access training and development programmes. Because of the lack of access to courses, the organisation is not learning-oriented and may struggle to adapt to dynamic changes.
12) Speed of DecisionHRM allows for quick judgments.Under people management, decision-making is delayed.
13) EvolutionHRM is a relatively new notion in the evolution of the field. Prior to the development of HRM, there was personnel management.
14) Behaviour ReferentHRM behaviour is concerned with the organization’s values and mission.The conventions and practises are addressed in people management behaviour.
15) Managerial Task vis a vis Labour It has a nurturing approach towards labour.Its goal is to keep track of labor’s day-to-day actions.
16) Key RelationsOrganizes and manages consumer relationships.Manages the employee-employer relationship.
17) Communication Maintains direct communication.Maintains indirect communication
18) Management SkillsFacilitation is the most crucial managerial skill in HRM.Negotiation is the most crucial management skill in personnel management.
19) PayThey are compensated based on their performance.They are paid according to a set of grades.
20) Labour ManagementTo manage labour, management goes into individual contracts. To manage labour, management goes into collective bargaining agreements.
21) Job Categories and Grades There are fewer job categories and grades available.There are numerous job categories and grades to choose from.
22) Conflict HandlingLong-term changes in the internal environment and culture are used to control internal conflicts.Internal conflicts are resolved by forming short-term agreements to restore peace.
23) Focus of Attention for InterventionsManagement interventions are linked to overarching cultural, structural, and people initiatives.Management interventions are concerned with people practises.
(24) Shared InterestsIt concentrates on the Organization’s and workers’ common interests.It concentrates on the organization’s goals.

Difference between Human Resource Management (HRM) and Human Resource Department (HRD)

Human resource management and people management, according to some experts, are the same thing, and the two phrases can be used interchangeably. If a person is hired for a position in human resources, he or she may be expected to fulfil tasks comparable to those of a personnel manager. There is a distinction made in certain organisations, although it is a very minor one.

Basis of DifferenceHRMHRD
1) AimTo effectively manage human resources in order to gain a competitive advantage.Human resources should be trained to fit the organization’s culture, and data should be provided to aid in the efficient performance of numerous HRM activities.
2) StatusIt is seen as a collection of autonomous functions.It is seen as a component of a larger system, namely the organisation. It is thought to be made up of interconnected components.
3) OrientationIts domain is the reactive service function, which responds to organisational demands as they arise.It is a proactive job that is carried out on a regular basis. It not only responds to organisational demands as they emerge, but it also predicts them and, as a result, plans answers and takes action.
4) IncentivesThe key driving reasons are salary, compensation, job simplification, and material rewards.


Its motivating role is geared toward job happiness, job enrichment, and the development of problem-solving skills. It promotes an informal organisational structure, employee motivation through innovation, and the establishment of independent work groups.
5) ResponsibilityHRM is regarded as the human resource department’s main responsibility.HRD is the responsibility of all managers in the organisation. It encourages all line managers to be proficient enough to handle different HRM duties on their own.
6) Relationship Morale-PerformanceJob happiness and morale are viewed as causal variables in improving performance in HRM.The emphasis here is on enhanced performance, which enhances work satisfaction and staff morale.

Challenges and Issues in Human Resource Management

The following are some of the significant difficulties and issues in HRM:

1) Globalisation: Globalisation has an impact on the number and kind of employment that are available.

Organizations are expected to manage complicated difficulties like as people management in various geographical cultures, legal environments, and commercial situations as a result of globalisation.

Different HRM tasks, including as recruiting, development, and pay, must be altered to account for worldwide management variances.

2) Technology Improvements: Recent technological advancements have resulted in a decrease in the number of occupations that need low-skilled workers and an increase in the number of positions that require higher-skilled workers.

As a result, the idea of ‘knowledge work’ has emerged from the concept of ‘labour.’ However, replacing and retraining a few people is sometimes necessary.

3) Market Challenges: Organizations must implement overall quality management and business process re-engineering programmes to meet consumer expectations in a faster, more desired, and cost-effective manner.

HRM must be concerned with adjusting work practises, training, remuneration, job design, and other aspects of these programmes.

4) Skill Shortage: Hiring and retaining competent personnel is a challenging undertaking for any organisation. Every company makes every attempt to recruit the most qualified individuals from its competitors.

HRM should develop and implement policies and methods to address this issue, including as performance-based compensation, benefits, and successful recruiting strategies.

5) Knowledge Management: As the use of knowledge grows, knowledge management is becoming more important. The issue for HRM is to create a robust knowledge management system that can promote successful knowledge production and utilisation.

6) Changing Power Structures: Traditional hierarchical structures have been transformed into modern decentralised organisations as the levels of authority have been reduced.

This has resulted in employees having more freedom to get important information, especially in knowledge-based organisations, lowering power centralization.

7) Training Challenges: For the company, developing training programmes that are best appropriate for the organization’s learning needs is a huge issue.

The primary question here, however, is whether training and development programmes should be developed centrally or in response to individual requirements.

8) Dynamic Workplace Culture: Because of the increased attention on human resource competencies, developing, altering, and maintaining a dynamic work culture is a tough undertaking. Managers also believe that current HRM practises are a deterrent to maximising human resource utilisation.

9) Changing Workforce Demographics: Today’s workforce is getting more varied, and businesses are taking into account various employee difficulties and attempting to maximise employee benefits.

The values of the workforce are changing, and they are not the same as they were in the past. As a result, HRM necessitates recognising potential employee concerns and facilitating healthy interactions between individuals and organisations.

10) Shifting Employee Expectations: Changes in the HR profile have resulted in shifting employee demands and needs.Job security, compensation, and housing are no longer sufficient to attract, retain, and inspire people.

People nowadays desire to be powerful and have a high social standing. This problem may be solved by addressing employee privacy concerns, eliminating sexual exploitation, supporting ethical procedures, and so on.

The professionalisation of Human Resources Management

All human resource functions are the responsibility of the HR manager or HR professional. An HR professional, like any other professional, adheres to specific ethical norms.

In this way, an HR professional might be considered to be less committed to his company than he is to his career.

Human resource management has advanced thanks to the development of professional HR managers.

Professionals are supposed to have strong comprehension and decision-making abilities, which they apply to organisational decisions.

The employer does not have complete control over and monitoring of a professional. He is capable of making decisions on his own.

As a result, professionalisation improves the organization’s efficiency, dynamism, and accountability. In India, the advancement of management education in the subject of human resources has made a significant contribution to the professionalisation of HRM.

Professionalization is a lengthy process. Furthermore, determining the degree of professionalisation is a difficult task. It must first be established if HR management or just “management” is a profession.

“A career necessitates knowledge, skillful application, social duty, self-control, and societal sanction,” Andrew says. Three institutions create a multitude of interacting factors that impact all of these variables. These are the institutions:

1) educational institutions,

2) educational institutions, and

3) educational institutions.

It is necessary to critically evaluate the importance and operation of these organisations in order to have a comprehensive grasp of their role.

In India, there has been a great increase in knowledge of the function of human resource management during the previous few decades.

There has also been a spectacular increase in the number of business schools and educational institutions. These colleges and institutes provide a variety of human resource management courses.

There are now over 550 educational institutes in India that specialise in areas such as human resource management, with around 50,000 annual admissions.

Some professional organisations, such as the National Institute of Personnel Management, have over 7000 members and have worked to establish a thorough code of ethics for its members.

The All India Management Association, which was founded in 1953, has played a significant role in the professionalisation of human resource management.

The Institute of Chartered Management Association, on the other hand, has been working hard to promote professional values and grade professionals.

According to Akhilesh and Sekar’s research, HR practitioners devote a significant portion of their time to managing industrial relations, discipline, and grievance resolution. As a result, HR practitioners are unconcerned with personnel research.

Other Related Topics:

  1. Human Resource Management
  2. Human Resource Policies
  3. Human Resource Audit
  4. Human Resource Accounting
  5. Socialization
  6. Induction
  7. Interview in Recruitment Process
  8. Selection of Human Resource
  9. Recruitment /Hiring of Human Resource
  10. Human Resource Planning
  11. Training of Human Resource in HRM
  12. Training Needs Analysis (TNA)

What is the basic Importance of Human Resource Management?

To efficiently use all other physical resources like land, capital, and machinery with the help of human resources & is the only resource which appreciates with time.

What is done to Manage Human Resource Properly?

By Training & Development, Evaluation & Performance.

What are the Other Names of Human Resource Management?

Personnel Management is the old name of Human Resource Management.

What Resource Appreciates With Time?

Human Resource Appreciates with Time, while Resources like vehicles, Building, Machinery & Computers depreciate with time.