Human Resource Management gives HR information for employees and

employers so whether you want to be the perfect boss or an ideal employee, there's
info here to help you.

Introduction
This Topic Applies to Any Size of Organization

All organizations have people -- they have human resources. Regardless of the size of an
organization or the extent of its resources, the organization survives -- and thrives --
because of the capabilities and performance of its people. The activities to maximize
those capabilities and that performance are necessary regardless of whether the
organization refers to them as Human Resource Management, Human Resource
Development or Human Resources -- or has no formal name for those activities at all.

Those activities are the responsibility of all people in the organization. Thus, members of
organizations, regardless of size or resources, will benefit from using the resources
referenced from this topic.

These Human Resource Guidelines Apply to For-Profits and Nonprofits

The vast majority of resources in this topic apply to nonprofits as well as for-profits.
There's a misconception that there is a big difference in managing human resources in
for-profit versus nonprofit organizations. Actually, they should managed similarly.
Nonprofits often have unpaid human resources (volunteers), but we're learning that
volunteers should be managed much like employees -- it's just that they're not
compensated with money; they're compensated in other ways. Managing volunteers is
very similar to paid staff -- their roles should be carefully specified, they should be
recruited carefully, they should be oriented and trained, they should be organized into
appropriate teams or with suitable supervisors, they should be delegated to, their
performance should be monitored, performance issues should be addressed, and they
should be rewarded for their performance. Also, organizations should consider the risks
and liabilities that can occur with volunteers, much like with employees. So nonprofit
organizations should consider the resources in this topic as well.

Clarifying Some Terms

The Human Resource Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities,

and key among them is responsibility for human resources -- for deciding what staffing
needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these
needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers,
dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices
conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to
employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually
small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves
because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure
that employees have -- and are aware of -- personnel policies which conform to current
regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all
employees have.

Some people distinguish a difference between HRM and Human Resource

Development (HRD), a profession. Those people might include HRM in HRD,
explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside
of organizations, e.g., career development, training, organization development, etc.

The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone tremendous change over the
past 20-30 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel
Department," mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More
recently, organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing a major role in staffing,
training and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing
at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner. There is a long-standing argument
about where HR-related functions should be organized into large organizations, eg,
"should HR be in the Organization Development department or the other way around?"

Recently, the phrase "talent management" is being used to refer the activities to attract,
develop and retain employees. Some people and organizations use the phrase to refer
especially to talented and/or high-potential employees. The phrase often is used
interchangeably with HR -- although as the field of talent management matures, it's very
likely there will be an increasing number of people who will strongly disagree about the
interchange of these fields.

Many people use the phrase "Human Resource Management," "Human Resource
Development" and "Human Resources" interchangeably, and abbreviate Human
Resources as HR -- HR has become a conventional term to refer to all of these phrases.

Thus, this Library uses the phrase "Human Resources" and the term "HR," not just for
simplicity, but to help the reader to see the important, broader perspective on human
resources in organizations -- what's required to maximize the capabilities and
performance of people in organizations, regardless of the correct phrase or term to be
applied when doing that.

Sections of This Topic Include the Following

Field and Roles of Human Resources and Talent Management

Another Look at Definitions

Role of Human Resources Function in Organizations
Challenges Facing Human Resources Function
Future of Human Resources Function
Talent Management -- New Movement in Human Resources
Major Functions of Human Resources and Talent Management

Getting the Best Employees

Paying Employees (and Providing Benefits)
Training Employees
Ensuring Compliance to Regulations
Ensuring Fair, Safe and Equitable Work Environments
Sustaining High-Performing Employees
Nonprofit Human Resources

General Resources About Human Resources

General Resources About Human Resources

Some Blogs About Human Resources

Also see
Related Library Topics

Also See the Library's Blogs Related to this Topic

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have
posts related to this topic. Scan down the blog's page to see various posts. Also see the
section "Recent Blog Posts" in the sidebar of the blog or click on "next" near the bottom
of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

Library's Career Management Blog

Library's Human Resources Blog

FIELD AND ROLES OF HUMAN RESOURCES AND

TALENT MANAGEMENT
Another Look at Definitions
The introduction, at the top of this page, offers definitions of common terms and phrases
to help the reader to first understand the topics and their organization in this overall topic
in the Library. It will round out the reader's knowledge and understanding to review a
variety of definitions. Remember that, more important than getting the definitions "right,"
is recognizing the purposes and activities that the following resources refer to.

Human Resource Management

What is Human Resource Management?
Human Resources
What's What
What is Human Resource Development?/
What is the Human Resource Department?
Human Resource Management (description of it)
Human Resource Management Basics
Lexicon for the HR Novice (tongue in cheek)

Role of Human Resources Function in Organizations

The reader's organization might be too small or its resources too limited to have a formal
function or department called "Human Resources." However, as with understanding the
definitions above, it's important to recognize the purposes and activities that the
following resources refer to.

When an HR Department is Necessary

When is the Right Time for an HR Expert?
Management Competencies for Successful Learning: The Integrated Role of Learning
and HR
Overcoming Top Myths In HR
The Role of HR in a Company, According to CEOs
What is it like to work in HR
HR Professional as Performance Consultant
Human Resources Careers
You want to work in HR?
Ask HR What It's Like to Work in HR
The New Year is Approaching -- Plan It Well
Paths to Careers in Human Resources
Survey Says HR Certification Is an Advantage in Hiring, Promotion, Job Security?
Is It Time to Outsource Your HR?
Sometimes HR Sucks -- That's Why We Love It!

Management Quiz - Part 1

Employee Relations Quiz - Part 2
Employee Relations Quiz - Part 3
Employee Relations Quiz - Part 4

Also see
Professionalism

Challenges Facing Human Resources Function

Many practitioners in the field of Human Resources express frustration that the field has
not achieved the credibility and influence that it deserves -- or that it requires in order to
be more effective. The following resources are in regard to that frustration.
By Giving Up the Quest for ROI, Can HR Make Itself Indispensable?
Reinventing HR
The ROI of HR
HR Critical to Align Performance With Organizational Goals
HR on the Offense
Simplicity At the Other Side of Complexity -- Paradox of 'Business Orientation of HR'
HR Appearance vs. Reality
Make HR Happy
HR and Legal: Working Together
Evolving Role of HR:Partnering with Leadership
Is HR Too Important to Be Left to HR?
Top 5 HR Process Integrations That Drive Business Value
Dramatically Increase Your Influence
Avoiding Employee Relations Pitfalls In Smaller Businesses
Seven Ways to Build Credibility
Human Resources: Ten Things to Ask Yourself
Overcoming the Myth of the Paper Trail #1
Overcoming the Myth of the Paper Trail #2
Are You Listening to the Water Cooler Discussions?
Sally's First Day
Strategies for Effective Human Resource Management
Six High Performance Gears, a Shifter, and a Driver with Vision
Is HR Inert? Should We Design HR Systems With This Belief in Mind?
HR Appearance vs. Reality
Are HR Staff - Professionals

Future of Human Resources Function

The Future of Human Resources and Social Media
Emerging Trends in Managing Human Resources
HR and OD -- What Does Future Hold?
Predictors and Promises for the Future of Human Resources
What's Your Focus for 2011?

"Talent Management" - New Movement in Human

Resources?
Many people are beginning to use the phrase "Talent Management" to refer to the
activities of attracting, developing and retaining employees -- three activities also
addressed in the sections below. For general overviews of talent management, see:
Talent Management
MAJOR FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCES
AND TALENT MANAGEMENT
Getting the Best Employees
Regardless of the nature of the organization, it must identify the most important roles in
the organization and then recruit, orient, train and organize people to effectively perform
those roles.

Staffing -- Workforce planning

Staffing -- Specifying Jobs and Roles
Staffing -- Recruiting
Staffing -- Outsourcing (having services and functions performed by non-employees)
Staffing -- Screening Applicants
Staffing -- Selecting (Hiring) New Employees
Is the War for Talent Over?

Paying Employees (and Providing Benefits)

The following link is to a resource that will help you establish suitable policies and
procedures for compensating employees and for providing benefits in the most equitable
and fair manner.

Benefits and Compensation

Developing Employees
Development is more than conveying information to employees -- it's guiding and
supporting them to evolve that information into knowledge that can be applied as skills in
order to achieve the goals of the organization and its people -- and it's guiding and
supporting those people to learn at the same time.

Career Development
Employee Orientation
Leadership Development
Management Development
Personal Development
Supervisoral Development
Training and Development

Ensuring Compliance to Regulations

Fortunately, compliance is no longer is seen by many as the primary role of Human
Resources -- it's just one of the roles. However, compliance is as important today as ever,
especially considering the diversity of people in the workplace, including their diverse
values, opinions and perspectives.

Personnel Polices and Records

Employee Laws, Topics and Issues
Ethics - Practical Toolkit

Ensuring Fair, Safe and Equitable Work Environments

The care and cultivation of human resources should consider at least the following topics
-- the topics often are addressed as official programs in the workplace.

Diversity Management
Dealing with Drugs in the Workplace
Employee Assistance Programs
Ergonomics: Safe Facilities in the Workplace
Dealing with HIV/AIDS in the Workplace
Personal Wellness
Preventing Violence in the Workplace
Ensuring Safety in the Workplace
Supporting Spirituality in the Workplace
Diversity Management

Sustaining High-Performing Employees

Employee Performance Management
Group Performance Management
Interpersonal Skills
Personal Productivity
Retaining Employees

Nonprofit Human Resources

As noted in the introduction to this topic, guidelines to managed human resources in
nonprofits are very similar to those to manage in for-profit. See the above paragraph
These Human Resource Guidelines Apply to For-Profits and Nonprofits. After reviewing
the above resources, nonprofits could review the resources from the following link -- the
resources mention they are nonprofit-specific.
Nonprofit Human Resources
GENERAL RESOURCES ABOUT HUMAN
RESOURCES
General Resources About Human Resources
Additional Information for Nonprofits
Capterra's listing of HR software
Internet Resources for Human Resources
Human Resources and the Internet
HRIM Mall
Human Resources Management and Employer Resources Online Information
Dr. John Sullivan's List of Articles
Checklist to Review Nonprofit Human Resource Practices
hrvillage.com
Management and HR articles
Human Resources IQ
Human Resources Professional Associations

Business Forms Used by HR Professionals

Hr Village
Legal Guides and Links
Policies and Procedures

Some Blogs About Human Resources

About.com Human Resources
Dr. John Sullivan"
Evil HR Lady"
George's Employment Blawg
hr bartender
HR Daily Advisor
HRM Business Practices and Notes
The Top 10 HBR Blog Posts of 2010
Human Resources
KnowHR Blog
Mister HR's Blog"
Workplace Prof Blog
Human Resources

For the Category of Human Resources:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related
topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online
resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their
relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books
For-Profit

Nonprofit

For-Profit

Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business

by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Includes step-by-step guidelines, tips and tools to effectively lead:
1. Yourself
2. Other individuals in the business
3. Groups and teams in the business
4. Business organizations
5. As well as all functions within the business organization.

Many of the Library's materials about business, leadership and management are
adapted from this book. Just click on the title of the book above to see the Index
and Table of Contents.
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often
because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more
information about each book, just click on the image of the book.

Nonprofit

Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision With Nonprofit

Staff
by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Includes step-by-step guidelines, tips and tools customized for personnel in
nonprofits to effectively lead:
1. Yourself
2. Other individuals in the nonprofit
3. Groups and teams in the nonprofit
4. Nonprofit organizations
5. As well as all functions within the nonprofit organization.

Many of the Library's materials about nonprofit leadership and management are
adapted from this book. Just click on the title of the book above to see the Index
and Table of Contents.

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often
because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more
information about each book, just click on the image of the book. Also, a "bubble" of
information might be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to
get more information, too.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the term used to describe formal systems
devised for the management of people within an organization. These human resources
responsibilities are generally divided into three major areas of management: staffing,
employee compensation, and defining/designing work. Essentially, the purpose of HRM
is to maximize the productivity of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its
employees. This mandate is unlikely to change in any fundamental way, despite the ever-
increasing pace of change in the business world. As Edward L. Gubman observed in the
Journal of Business Strategy, "the basic mission of human resources will always be to
acquire, develop, and retain talent; align the workforce with the business; and be an
excellent contributor to the business. Those three challenges will never change."

Until fairly recently, an organization's human resources department was often consigned
to lower rungs of the corporate hierarchy, despite the fact that its mandate is to replenish
and nourish the company's work force, which is often cited—legitimately—as an
organization's greatest resource. But in recent years recognition of the importance of
human resources management to a company's overall health has grown dramatically. This
recognition of the importance of HRM extends to small businesses, for while they do not
generally have the same volume of human resources requirements as do larger
organizations, they too face personnel management issues that can have a decisive impact
on business health. As Irving Burstiner commented in The Small Business Handbook,
"Hiring the right people—and training them well—can often mean the difference
between scratching out the barest of livelihoods and steady business growth…. Personnel
problems do not discriminate between small and big business. You find them in all
businesses, regardless of size."

Principles of Human Resource Management

Business consultants note that modern human resource management is guided by several
overriding principles. Perhaps the paramount principle is a simple recognition that human
resources are the most important assets of an organization; a business cannot be
successful without effectively managing this resource. Another important principle,
articulated by Michael Armstrong in his book A Handbook of Human Resource
Management, is that business success "is most likely to be achieved if the personnel
policies and procedures of the enterprise are closely linked with, and make a major
contribution to, the achievement of corporate objectives and strategic plans." A third
guiding principle, similar in scope, holds that it is HR's responsibility to find, secure,
guide, and develop employees whose talents and desires are compatible with the
operating needs and future goals of the company. Other HRM factors that shape
corporate culture—whether by encouraging integration and cooperation across the
company, instituting quantitative performance measurements, or taking some other action
—are also commonly cited as key components in business success. HRM, summarized
Armstrong, "is a strategic approach to the acquisition, motivation, development and
management of the organization's human resources. It is devoted to shaping an
appropriate corporate culture, and introducing programs which reflect and support the
core values of the enterprise and ensure its success."
Position and Structure of Human Resource Management

Human resource management department responsibilities can be broadly classified by

individual, organizational, and career areas. Individual management entails helping
employees identify their strengths and weaknesses; correct their shortcomings; and make
their best contribution to the enterprise. These duties are carried out through a variety of
activities such as performance reviews, training, and testing. Organizational
development, meanwhile, focuses on fostering a successful system that maximizes human
(and other) resources as part of larger business strategies. This important duty also
includes the creation and maintenance of a change program, which allows the
organization to respond to evolving outside and internal influences. The third
responsibility, career development, entails matching individuals with the most suitable
jobs and career paths within the organization.

Human resource management functions are ideally positioned near the theoretic center of
the organization, with access to all areas of the business. Since the HRM department or
manager is charged with managing the productivity and development of workers at all
levels, human resource personnel should have access to—and the support of—key
decision makers. In addition, the HRM department should be situated in such a way that
it is able to effectively communicate with all areas of the company.

HRM structures vary widely from business to business, shaped by the type, size, and
governing philosophies of the organization that they serve. But most organizations
organize HRM functions around the clusters of people to be helped—they conduct
recruiting, administrative, and other duties in a central location. Different employee
development groups for each department are necessary to train and develop employees in
specialized areas, such as sales, engineering, marketing, or executive education. In
contrast, some HRM departments are completely independent and are organized purely
by function. The same training department, for example, serves all divisions of the
organization.

In recent years, however, observers have cited a decided trend toward fundamental
reassessments of human resources structures and positions. "A cascade of changing
business conditions, changing organizational structures, and changing leadership has
been forcing human resource departments to alter their perspectives on their role and
function almost over-night," wrote John Johnston in Business Quarterly. "Previously,
companies structured themselves on a centralized and compartmentalized basis—head
office, marketing, manufacturing, shipping, etc. They now seek to decentralize and to
integrate their operations, developing cross-functional teams…. Today, senior
management expects HR to move beyond its traditional, compartmentalized 'bunker'
approach to a more integrated, decentralized support function." Given this change in
expectations, Johnston noted that "an increasingly common trend in human resources is
to decentralize the HR function and make it accountable to specific line management.
This increases the likelihood that HR is viewed and included as an integral part of the
business process, similar to its marketing, finance, and operations counterparts. However,
HR will retain a centralized functional relationship in areas where specialized expertise is
truly required," such as compensation and recruitment responsibilities.

Human Resource Management—key Responsibilities

Human resource management is concerned with the development of both individuals and
the organization in which they operate. HRM, then, is engaged not only in securing and
developing the talents of individual workers, but also in implementing programs that
enhance communication and cooperation between those individual workers in order to
nurture organizational development.

The primary responsibilities associated with human resource management include: job
analysis and staffing, organization and utilization of work force, measurement and
appraisal of work force performance, implementation of reward systems for employees,
professional development of workers, and maintenance of work force.

Job analysis consists of determining—often with the help of other company areas—the
nature and responsibilities of various employment positions. This can encompass
determination of the skills and experiences necessary to adequately perform in a position,
identification of job and industry trends, and anticipation of future employment levels
and skill requirements. "Job analysis is the cornerstone of HRM practice because it
provides valid information about jobs that is used to hire and promote people, establish
wages, determine training needs, and make other important HRM decisions," stated
Thomas S. Bateman and Carl P. Zeithaml in Management: Function and Strategy.
Staffing, meanwhile, is the actual process of managing the flow of personnel into, within
(through transfers and promotions), and out of an organization. Once the recruiting part
of the staffing process has been completed, selection is accomplished through job
postings, interviews, reference checks, testing, and other tools.

Organization, utilization, and maintenance of a company's work force is another key

function of HRM. This involves designing an organizational framework that makes
maximum use of an enterprise's human resources and establishing systems of
communication that help the organization operate in a unified manner. Other
responsibilities in this area include safety and health and worker-management relations.
Human resource maintenance activities related to safety and health usually entail
compliance with federal laws that protect employees from hazards in the workplace.
These regulations are handed down from several federal agencies, including the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), and various state agencies, which implement laws in the
realms of worker's compensation, employee protection, and other areas. Maintenance
tasks related to worker-management relations primarily entail: working with labor
unions; handling grievances related to misconduct, such as theft or sexual harassment;
and devising communication systems to foster cooperation and a shared sense of mission
among employees.
Performance appraisal is the practice of assessing employee job performance and
providing feedback to those employees about both positive and negative aspects of their
performance. Performance measurements are very important both for the organization
and the individual, for they are the primary data used in determining salary increases,
promotions, and, in the case of workers who perform unsatisfactorily, dismissal.

Reward systems are typically managed by HR areas as well. This aspect of human
resource management is very important, for it is the mechanism by which organizations
provide their workers with rewards for past achievements and incentives for high
performance in the future. It is also the mechanism by which organizations address
problems within their work force, through institution of disciplinary measures. Aligning
the work force with company goals, stated Gubman, "requires offering workers an
employment relationship that motivates them to take ownership of the business plan."

Employee development and training is another vital responsibility of HR personnel. HR

is responsible for researching an organization's training needs, and for initiating and
evaluating employee development programs designed to address those needs. These
training programs can range from orientation programs, which are designed to acclimate
new hires to the company, to ambitious education programs intended to familiarize
workers with a new software system.

"After getting the right talent into the organization," wrote Gubman, "the second
traditional challenge to human resources is to align the workforce with the business—to
constantly build the capacity of the workforce to execute the business plan." This is done
through performance appraisals, training, and other activities. In the realm of
performance appraisal, HRM professionals must devise uniform appraisal standards,
develop review techniques, train managers to administer the appraisals, and then evaluate
and follow up on the effectiveness of performance reviews. They must also tie the
appraisal process into compensation and incentive strategies, and work to ensure that
federal regulations are observed.

Responsibilities associated with training and development activities, meanwhile, include

the determination, design, execution, and analysis of educational programs. The HRM
professional should be aware of the fundamentals of learning and motivation, and must
carefully design and monitor training and development programs that benefit the overall
organization as well as the individual. The importance of this aspect of a business's
operation can hardly be over-stated. As Roberts, Seldon, and Roberts indicated in Human
Resources Management, "the quality of employees and their development through
training and education are major factors in determining long-term profitability of a small
business…. Research hasshown specific benefits that a small business receives from
training and developing its workers, including: increased productivity; reduced employee
turnover; increased efficiency resulting in financial gains; [and] decreased need for
supervision."

Meaningful contributions to business processes are increasingly recognized as within the

purview of active human resource management practices. Of course, human resource
managers have always contributed to overall business processes in certain respects—by
disseminating guidelines for and monitoring employee behavior, for instance, or ensuring
that the organization is obeying worker-related regulatory guidelines—but increasing
numbers of businesses are incorporating human resource managers into other business
processes as well. In the past, human resource managers were cast in a support role in
which their thoughts on cost/benefit justifications and other operational aspects of the
business were rarely solicited. But as Johnston noted, the changing character of business
structures and the marketplace are making it increasingly necessary for business owners
and executives to pay greater attention to the human resource aspects of operation:
"Tasks that were once neatly slotted into well-defined and narrow job descriptions have
given way to broad job descriptions or role definitions. In some cases, completely new
work relationships have developed; telecommuting, permanent part-time roles and
outsourcing major non-strategic functions are becoming more frequent." All of these
changes, which human resource managers are heavily involved in, are important factors
in shaping business performance.

The Changing Field of Human Resource Management

In recent years, several business trends have had a significant impact on the broad field of
HRM. Chief among them were new technologies. These new technologies, particularly in
the areas of electronic communication and information dissemination and retrieval, have
dramatically altered the business landscape. Satellite communications, computers and
networking systems, fax machines, and other devices have all facilitated change in the
ways in which businesses interact with each other and their workers. Telecommuting, for
instance, has become a very popular option for many workers, and HRM professionals
have had to develop new guidelines for this emerging subset of employees.

Changes in organizational structure have also influenced the changing face of human
resource management. Continued erosion in manufacturing industries in the United States
and other nations, coupled with the rise in service industries in those countries, have
changed the workplace, as has the decline in union representation in many industries
(these two trends, in fact, are commonly viewed as interrelated). In addition,
organizational philosophies have undergone change. Many companies have scrapped or
adjusted their traditional, hierarchical organizations structures in favor of flatter
management structures. HRM experts note that this shift in responsibility brought with it
a need to reassess job descriptions, appraisal systems, and other elements of personnel
management.

A third change factor has been accelerating market globalization. This phenomenon has
served to increase competition for both customers and jobs. The latter development
enabled some businesses to demand higher performances from their employees while
holding the line on compensation. Other factors that have changed the nature of HRM in
recent years include new management and operational theories like Total Quality
Management (TQM); rapidly changing demographics; and changes in health insurance
and federal and state employment legislation.
Small Business and Human Resource Management

A small business's human resource management needs are not of the same size or
complexity of those of a large firm. Nonetheless, even a business that carries only two or
three employees faces important personnel management issues. Indeed, the stakes are
very high in the world of small business when it comes to employee recruitment and
management. No business wants an employee who is lazy or incompetent or dishonest.
But a small business with a work force of half a dozen people will be hurt far more badly
by such an employee than will a company with a work force that numbers in the hundreds
(or thousands). Nonetheless, "most small business employers have no formal training in
how to make hiring decisions," noted Jill A. Rossiter in Human Resources: Mastering
Your Small Business. "Most have no real sense of the time it takes nor the costs involved.
All they know is that they need help in the form of a 'good' sales manager, a 'good'
secretary, a 'good' welder, or whatever. And they know they need some-one they can
work with, who's willing to put in the time to learn the business and do the job. It sounds
simple, but it isn't."

Before hiring a new employee, the small business owner should weigh several
considerations. The first step the small business owner should take when pondering an
expansion of employee payroll is to honestly assess the status of the organization itself.
Are current employees being utilized appropriately? Are current production methods
effective? Can the needs of the business be met through an arrangement with an outside
contractor or some other means? Are you, as the owner, spending your time
appropriately? As Rossiter noted, "any personnel change should be considered an
opportunity for rethinking your organizational structure."

Small businesses also need to match the talents of prospective employees with the
company's needs. Efforts to manage this can be accomplished in a much more effective
fashion if the small business owner devotes energy to defining the job and actively taking
part in the recruitment process. But the human resource management task does not end
with the creation of a detailed job description and the selection of a suitable employee.
Indeed, the hiring process marks the beginning of HRM for the small business owner.

Small business consultants strongly urge even the most modest of business enterprises to
implement and document policies regarding human resource issues. "Few small
enterprises can afford even a fledgling personnel department during the first few years of
business operation," acknowledged Burstiner. "Nevertheless, a large mass of personnel
forms and data generally accumulates rather rapidly from the very beginning. To hold
problems to a minimum, specific personnel policies should be established as early as
possible. These become useful guides in all areas: recruitment and selection,
compensation plan and employee benefits, training, promotions and terminations, and the
like." Depending on the nature of the business enterprise (and the owner's own comfort
zone), the owner can even involve his employees in this endeavor. In any case, a
carefully considered employee handbook or personnel manual can be an invaluable tool
in ensuring that the small business owner and his or her employees are on the same page.
Moreover, a written record can lend a small business some protection in the event that its
management or operating procedures are questioned in the legal arena.

Some small business owners also need to consider training and other development needs
in managing their enterprise's employees. The need for such educational supplements can
range dramatically. A bakery owner, for instance, may not need to devote much of his
resources to employee training, but a firm that provides electrical wiring services to
commercial clients may need to implement a system of continuing education for its
workers in order to remain viable.

Finally, the small business owner needs to establish and maintain a productive working
atmosphere for his or her work force. Employees are far more likely to be productive
assets to your company if they feel that they are treated fairly. The small business owner
who clearly communicates personal expectations and company goals, provides adequate
compensation, offers meaningful opportunities for career advancement, anticipates work
force training and developmental needs, and provides meaningful feedback to his or her
employees is far more likely to be successful than the owner who is neglectful in any of
these areas.

Further Reading:

Armstrong, Michael. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Kogan

Page Limited, 1999.

Burstiner, Irving. The Small Business Handbook. Prentice Hall, 1988.

Green, Paul C. Building Robust Competencies: Linking Human Resource Systems to

Organizational Strategies. Jossey-Bass, 1999.

Gubman, Edward L. "The Gauntlet is Down." Journal of Business Strategy. November-

December 1996.

Johnston, John. "Time to Rebuild Human Resources." Business Quarterly. Winter 1996.

Reece, Barry L., and Rhonda Brandt. Effective Human Relations in Organizations.
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Ulrich, Dave. Delivering Results: A New Mandate for HR Professionals. Harvard
Business School Press, 1998.

Human resource management

Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the
management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who
individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the
business.[1] The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have
largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes
involved in managing people in organizations.[1] In simple words, HRM means
employing people, developing their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and compensating
their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.

Contents [hide]

• 1 Features
• 2 Academic theory
• 3 Business practice
o 3.1 HRM strategy
• 4 Careers and education
• 5 Professional organizations
• 6 Functions
• 7 See also

• 8 References

Features
Its features include:

• Organizational management
• Personnel administration
• Manpower management
• Industrial management[2][3]

But these traditional expressions are becoming less common for the theoretical discipline.
Sometimes even employee and industrial relations are confusingly listed as synonyms,[4]
although these normally refer to the relationship between management and workers and
the behavior of workers in companies.

The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that employees are
individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic
business resources, such as trucks and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of
workers, assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and
that the main obstacles to their endeavors are lack of knowledge, insufficient training,
and failures of process.

Human Resource Management (HRM) is seen by practitioners in the field as a more

innovative view of workplace management than the traditional approach. Its techniques
force the managers of an enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can
be understood and undertaken by the workforce and to provide the resources needed for
them to successfully accomplish their assignments. As such, HRM techniques, when
properly practiced, are expressive of the goals and operating practices of the enterprise
overall. HRM is also seen by many to have a key role in risk reduction within
organizations.

Synonyms such as personnel management are often used in a more restricted sense to
describe activities that are necessary in the recruiting of a workforce, providing its
members with payroll and benefits, and administrating their work-life needs. So if we
move to actual definitions, Torrington and Hall (1987) define personnel management as
being:

“a series of activities which: first enable working people and their employing
organizations to agree about the objectives and nature of their working relationship and,
secondly, ensures that the agreement is fulfilled" (p. 49).

While Miller (1987) suggests that HRM relates to:

".......those decisions and actions which concern the management of employees at all
levels in the business and which are related to the implementation of strategies directed
towards creating and sustaining competitive advantage" (p. 352).

Academic theory
Research in the area of HRM has much to contribute to the organizational practice of
HRM. For the last 20 years, empirical work has paid particular attention to the link
between the practice of HRM and organizational performance, evident in improved
employee commitment, lower levels of absenteeism and turnover, higher levels of skills
and therefore higher productivity, enhanced quality and efficiency [6]. This area of work is
sometimes referred to as 'Strategic HRM' or SHRM ([7].

Within SHRM three strands of work can be observed [8]: Best practice, Best Fit and the
Resource Based View (RBV).

The notion of best practice - sometimes called 'high commitment' HRM - proposes that
the adoption of certain best practices in HRM will result in better organizational
performance. Perhaps the most popular work in this area is that of Pfeffer [9] who argued
that there were seven best practices for achieving competitive advantage through people
and 'building profits by putting people first'. These practices included: providing
employment security, selective hiring, extensive training, sharing information, self-
managed teams, and high pay based on company performance and the reduction of status
differentials. However, there is a huge number of studies which provide evidence of best
practices, usually implemented in coherent bundles, and therefore it is difficult to draw
generalized conclusions about which is the 'best' way (For a comparison of different sets
of best practices see Becker and Gerhart, 1996 [10]

Best fit, or the contingency approach to HRM, argues that HRM improves performance
where there is a close vertical fit between the HRM practices and the company's strategy.
This link ensures close coherence between the HR people processes and policies and the
external market or business strategy. There are a range of theories about the nature of this
vertical integration. For example, a set of 'lifecycle' models argue that HR policies and
practices can be mapped onto the stage of an organisation's development or lifecycle[11].
Competitive advantage models take Porter's (1985) ideas about strategic choice and map
a range of HR practices onto the organisation's choice of competitive strategy. Finally
'configurational models' [12] provide a more sophisticated approach which advocates a
close examination of the organisation's strategy in order to determine the appropriate HR
policies and practices. However, this approach assumes that the strategy of the
organisation can be identified - many organisations exist in a state of flux and
development.

The Resource Based View (RBV), argued by some to be at the foundation of modern
HRM [13], focusses on the internal resources of the organisation and how they contribute
to competitive advantage. The uniqueness of these resources is preferred to homogeneity
and HRM has a central role in developing human resources that are valuable, rare,
difficult to copy or substitute and that are effectively organised.

Overall, the theory of HRM argues that the goal of human resource management is to
help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees and
also to manage them effectively. The key word here perhaps is "fit", i.e. a HRM approach
seeks to ensure a fit between the management of an organisation's employees, and the
overall strategic direction of the company (Miller, 1989).

The basic premise of the academic theory of HRM is that humans are not machines,
therefore we need to have an interdisciplinary examination of people in the workplace.
Fields such as psychology, industrial relations, industrial engineering, sociology,
economics, and critical theories: postmodernism, post-structuralism play a major role.
Many colleges and universities offer bachelor and master degrees in Human Resources
Management or in Human Resources and Industrial Relations.

One widely used scheme to describe the role of HRM, developed by Dave Ulrich, defines
4 fields for the HRM function:[14]

• Strategic business partner

• Change Agent
• Employee champion
• Administration Expert
Business practice
Human resources management involves several processes. Together they are supposed to
achieve the above mentioned goal. These processes can be performed in an HR
department, but some tasks can also be outsourced or performed by line-managers or
other departments. When effectively integrated they provide significant economic benefit
to the company.[15]

• Workforce planning
• Recruitment (sometimes separated into attraction and selection)
• Induction, Orientation and Onboarding
• Skills management
• Training and development
• Personnel administration
• Compensation in wage or salary
• Time management
• Travel management (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM)
• Payroll (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM)
• Employee benefits administration
• Personnel cost planning
• Performance appraisal
• Labor relations

HRM strategy

An HRM strategy pertains to the means as to how to implement the specific functions of
Human Resourse Management. An organization's HR function may possess recruitment
and selection policies, disciplinary procedures, reward/recognition policies, an HR plan,
or learning and development policies, however all of these functional areas of HRM need
to be aligned and correlated, in order to correspond with the overall business strategy. An
HRM strategy thus is an overall plan, concerning the implementation of specific HRM
functional areas.

An HRM strategy typically consists of the following factors:-

• "Best fit" and "best practice" - meaning that there is correlation between the HRM
strategy and the overall corporate strategy. As HRM as a field seeks to manage
human resources in order to achieve properly organizational goals, an
organization's HRM strategy seeks to accomplish such management by applying a
firm's personnel needs with the goals/objectives of the organisation. As an
example, a firm selling cars could have a corporate strategy of increasing car sales
by 10% over a five year period. Accordingly, the HRM strategy would seek to
facilitate how exactly to manage personnel in order to achieve the 10% figure.
Specific HRM functions, such as recruitment and selection, reward/recognition,
an HR plan, or learning and development policies, would be tailored to achieve
the corporate objectives.
 • Close co-operation (at least in theory) between HR and the top/senior
management, in the development of the corporate strategy. Theoretically, a senior
HR representative should be present when an organization's corporate objectives
are devised. This is so, since it is a firm's personnel who actually construct a
good, or provide a service. The personnel's proper management is vital in the firm
being successful, or even existing as a going concern. Thus, HR can be seen as
one of the critical departments within the functional area of an organization.

• Continual monitoring of the strategy, via employee feedback, surveys, etc.

The implementation of an HR strategy is not always required, and may depend on a

number of factors, namely the size of the firm, the organizational culture within the firm
or the industry that the firm operates in and also the people in the firm.

An HRM strategy can be divided, in general, into two facets - the people strategy and the
HR functional strategy. The people strategy pertains to the point listed in the first
paragraph, namely the careful correlation of HRM policies/actions to attain the goals laid
down in the corporate strategy. The HR functional strategy relates to the policies
employed within the HR functional area itself, regarding the management of persons
internal to it, to ensure its own departmental goals are met.

Professional organizations
Professional organizations in HRM include the Society for Human Resource
Management, the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), the Chartered Institute
of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the International Public Management Association
for HR (IPMA-HR), Management Association of Nepal (MAN) and the International
Personnel Management Association of Canada (IPMA-Canada), Human Capital Institute.
National Human Resource Development Network in India.

Functions
The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and
key among them is deciding what staffing needs to have and whether to use independent
contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best
employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and
ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations.
Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation,
employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or
nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part-
or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have—and are
aware of—personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are
often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have.
Note that some people distinguish a difference between HRM (a major management
activity) and HRD (Human Resource Development, a profession). Those people might
include HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to
develop personnel inside of organizations, including, e.g., career development, training,
organization development, etc.

There is a long-standing argument about where HR-related functions should be organized

into large organizations, e.g., "should HR be in the Organization Development
department or the other way around?"

The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone major changes over the past 20–
30 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel Department,"
mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently,
organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing an important role in staffing,
training and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing
at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner.

What is the role of human resource planning in human

resource management?

For any function planning is one of the important tools. This is the 1st step. People are
the most important resource which is required to run any business or organization. Now
this also very important to under stand the need of human resources on time so that
neither my organization falls short of resources nor faces surplus. If organization falls
short of resources then will not be able to deliver on time to client on the other hand if it
has surplus resource then company has to bear that cost which will effect organization’s
profitability. There is another aspect also in this company also need to plan resources
based on the skill required to run the business. Otherwise they will have surplus in one
area shortfall in other area which Will result to poor management. Hence until & unless
you do correct resource planning you will be able to manage human resources properly.