Introduction
Specialist human resource management skill is an important attribute that managers must possess in the present age of globalisation. It provides a playing field for an effective management of staff and enhances retention and turnover processes of an organisation.
HRM also enables management to maximize effective utilization of employees through investment in identified human capital. Through HRM, an organisation can have increased performance, employee satisfaction and more shareholder value.
Human resource management is defined as “a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued asset – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives” (Armstrong, 2006, p. 3).
We can understand from the definition that HRM emphasizes people because they are a source of strength and competitive advantage for an organisation. The new trend in business is to strengthen human resource for it can lead to success and competitive advantage for the organisation.
This paper aims to analyse HRM skills that a manager and employees should possess in order to enhance the organisation’s performance in the competitive world of business. HRM covers areas of recruitment, selection, staffing, performance evaluation processes, and philosophies and policies of an organisation.
Critical Analysis
A manager’s knowledge of HRM is significant to the attainment of the organisation’s goals and objectives. The manager has to maintain a good and effective rapport with his employees. The employees too have to establish a good communication with the customers. Meeting the needs and wants of customers is the job of both the manager and employees.
The manager has to focus his knowledge and capabilities with identifying and selecting employees capable of implementing the organisation’s plans. Motivation is a part of a manager’s job and this is a very significant part of HRM. Without motivation employees do not function well. (Harris et al., 2003, p. 56)
Effective management focuses on people. The manager and the workforce must work as a team and as a cohesive force, and should be flexible in satisfying the customers’ needs and wants. (Gulati and Oldroyd, 2005, p. 92)
With flexibility, the focus is shifted to human resource. Effective management looks at managing people in many angles by answering questions like: How do employees work effectively? How can they be motivated? How can they work as a team?
This first objective is on managers so that they can deliver the necessary management techniques to the employees. The next line of concentration is on the people or employees. Both managers and employees have to be prepared, and their preparation stems from the basic knowledge of their job and the organisation’s objectives.
HRM Planning
Another function of HRM is human resource planning which is concerned with identifying resources to the business needs of the organisation (Gold, 1999, p. 165). It meets human resource requirements by answering the questions: how many are needed in the organisation, and what particular skills and capabilities should the people possess? (Armstrong, 2006, p. 363)
The manager also determines the number and type of employees needed in the team and where the labor supply should come from. Recruitment, training and development, and assignment of people are all in accordance with the organisation’s objectives.
Existing employees can be trained, developed, redeployed, transferred or promoted for future skill needs. New recruits should be carefully selected to ensure suitability for future positions. (Cray and Mallory, 1998, p. 7)
The organisation’s objectives play a critical role in the staffing process. The manager should see to it that applicants meet the qualification standards of the organisation. Specification of the qualifications, identification of persons possessing those skills, and moving people into the job should be emphasized in the organisation’s staffing strategy (Miller, 1984, p. 58).
HRM emphasises the integration of traditional personnel functions including recruitment and selection and their management towards the strategic goals and objectives of the organisation. (Nankervis et al., 2009, p. 2)
Human resource also needs to be integrated with organisational goals and corporate strategy. (Bratton, 1999, p. 11)
Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment includes planning, environmental scanning and analysis of organisational objectives, strategies and policies in order to ascertain the right quantity and quality of employees when and where necessary. This means forecasting human resources needs to ensure that the organisation has qualified people in the job.
Recruitment and selection are an integral part of an organisation’s overall HRM strategy. HRM emphasises the integration of traditional personnel functions including recruitment and selection and their management towards the strategic goals and objectives of the organisation. (Compton et al., 2009, p. 2)
Human resource planning is important to the organisation’s achieving its strategic goals. It is defined as “the process for ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements” (Armstrong, 2006, p. 363). HRM functions and organisational objectives are linked through planning (Nankerviset al., 2009, p. 9).
Training and Development
Training and development are applied in a systematic way. The organisation is viewed as a system, and training as a subsystem. Training and development therefore should be an integral part of the system. (Kubr et al., 1989, p. 68)
The objective of training and development focuses on the design and implementation of training systems to successfully impact organisational performance. (Smith & Mazin, 2004, p. 65)
A successful training programme takes the trainee through the difficult barrier to the final stage when he or she can perform all of the skills at once and can have the ability to think a stage in advance so that the trainee has control of the selling situation.
Motivation
In the workplace, workers can be very productive when they feel they are a part of a team, or part-owner of business. They feel this sense of belongingness and so they strive for the company’s success. This is one of the many kinds of motivation that affect individual behaviour in the workplace.
People always connect work with life’s fulfillment, and connect their satisfaction at work with their feelings and satisfaction of life and happiness with their family. Work and life balance suggests a balance for life and what people do.
Management should introduce worklife balance. This is because stress can cause ill-health and dysfunctionality. There is enough pressure in the workplace, added with all sorts of pollution. (Firth, 2002, p. 46)
Abraham Maslow (1943), who is the originator of the human-need theory, formulated the pyramid theory of need. He arranged it like a pyramid or ladder. Basic needs are at the bottom of the pyramid. As one set is met, the need moves up the ladder to the next.
Performance Management
Performance is something that an employee contributes to the organisation according to his/her own capabilities and talents. (Mead, 2005)
Performance management is an HRM function that focuses on improving the performance of employees. It aims to emphasise their capabilities and individual talents that must contribute to the entire performance of the organisation. Performance management also aims to provide the means through which the staff can provide better results in such a way that the customers will be benefitted in the end (Armstrong, 2000, p. 1).
Performance Appraisal
Appraising individual employees is one aspect of needs assessment. Beaumont (1993, p. 74) argued that “the grounds (i.e. criteria) on which an employee is appraised should reflect the larger competitive strategy of the organization”.
Indeed, it would certainly reflect on the organisation’s strategic development. Beaumont (1993) further states that some of the leading advocates of Total Quality Management are highly critical of performance appraisals based on individual employees. Line managers appraise their employees and in turn, they are being appraised by their own superiors.
Conclusion
The functions discussed in this paper are specialist HRM skills that are significant in the survival and success of an organisation. Managers and employees should have these capabilities and skills in running an organisation.
Human resource management is a major function that strengthens an organisation. It is created to promote and pursue the aims and objectives of an organisation. An organisation cannot function well without an effective human resource.
References
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