Human Resource Management - HRM Definitions Objectives

Human Resource Management is the process of recruiting, selecting, inducting employees, providing
orientation, imparting training and development, appraising the performance of employees,
deciding compensation and providing benefits, motivating employees, maintaining proper relations with
employees and their trade unions, ensuring employees safety, welfare and health measures in compliance with
labor laws of the land and finally following the Orders / Judgements of the concern High Court and Supreme
Court, if any.
Human Resource Management deals with the management functions like planning, organizing, directing and
controlling
✓ It deals with procurement of human resource, training & development and maintenance of human

resource.
✓ It helps to achieve individual, organizational and social objectives

Human Resource Management is a multidisciplinary subject.

✓ It includes the study of management, psychology, communication, economics and sociology.
✓ It also deals with building team spirit and team work.
✓ It is a continuous process.

What is the importance of Human resource?

Behind production of every product or service there is an human mind, effort and man hours (working hours).
No product or service can be produced without help of human being. Human being is fundamental resource for
making or construction of anything. Every organization desire is to have skilled and competent people to make
their organization competent and best.

Among the five Ms of Management, i.e., men, money, machines, materials, and methods, HRM deals about the
first M, which is men. It is believed that in the five Ms, "men" is not so easy to manage. "every man is different
from other" and they are totally different from the other Ms in the sense that men possess the power to
manipulate the other Ms. Whereas, the other Ms are either lifeless or abstract and as such, do not have the power
to think and decide what is good for them.
Why do we call it as Human Resource Management?

Human: refers to the skilled workforce in an organization.

Resource: refers to limited availability or scarce.

Management: refers how to optimize and make best use of such limited or scarce resource so as to meet the
organization goals and objectives.

Therefore, human resource management is meant for proper utilization of available skilled workforce and also
to make efficient use of existing human resource in the organization. The best example in present situation is,
construction industry has been facing serious shortage of skilled workforce. It is expected to triple in the next
decade from the present 30 per cent, will negatively impact the overall productivity of the sector, warn industry
experts.

Today many experts claim that machines and technology are replacing human resource and minimizing their
role or effort. However, machines and technology are built by the humans only and they need to be operated or
at least monitored by humans and this is the reason why companies are always in hunt for talented, skilled and
qualified professionals for continuous development of the organization.
Therefore, humans are crucial assets for any organization, although today many tasks have been handing over
to the artificial intelligence but they lack judgement skills which cannot be matched with human mind.

Objectives of Human Resource Management

Societal objective.

To be socially responsible to the needs and challenges of society while minimizing the negative impact of such demands
upon the organization. The failure of organizations to use their resources for society's benefit may result in restrictions. For
example, societies may pass laws that limit human resource decisions.

Organizational objective.

To recognize that Human resource management exists to contribute to organizational effectiveness. HRM is not an end in
itself; it is only a means to assist the organization with its primary objectives. Simply stated, the department exists to serve
the rest of the organization.

Functional objective.

To maintain the department's contribution at a level appropriate to the organization’s needs. Resources are wasted when
Human Resource Management is more or less sophisticated than the organization demands. A department's level of service
must be appropriate for the organization it serves.
Personal objective.

To assist employees in achieving their personal goals, at least insofar as these goals enhance the individual's contribution to
the organization. Personal objectives of employees must be met if workers are to be maintained, retained and motivated.
Otherwise, employee performance and satisfaction may decline, and employees may leave the organization

The purpose of Human resource management

The purpose of the Human resource management is to make the job and deal with the job holder (employee). So
as to perform a job in an organization, one needs to be identified. In order to identify right person for a particular
job, notification should be issued which contains job description (duties and responsibilities) and specifications
(academic qualifications and physical qualifications). So as to verify the correctness of the candidates invited,
they should be tested by the suitable selection methods for picking-up right person. Subsequently selected
candidates should be provided with the proper training for performing his duties & responsibilities mentioned in
the notification. Later, assessment of employees' performance should be done to know whether employees are
performing to the desired standards set by the management.

The ten "Cs" of human resources management are: cost effectiveness, competitive, coherence, credibility,
communication, creativity, competitive advantage, competence, change, and commitment. The ten "Cs"
framework was developed by Alan Price in his book "Human Resource Management in a Business Context".

Who is responsible for human resource management?

Human resource officer or Manager is responsible for human resource management in the organization. The
HR Director is a top-level manager responsible for the administration of all human resource activities and
policies. The director oversees compensation, benefits, staffing, affirmative action, employee relations, health
and safety, and training/development functions. They also supervise professional human resources staff.

Primary responsibilities of the Human resource manager:

▪

➢ To develop a thorough knowledge of corporate culture, plans and policies.

➢ To act as an internal change agent and consultant.
➢ To initiate change and act as an expert and facilitator.
 ➢ To actively involve himself in company’s strategy formulation.
➢ To keep communication lines open between the HRD function and individuals and groups both within

and outside the organization.

➢ To identify and evolve HRD strategies in consonance with overall business strategy.
➢ To facilitate the development of various organizational teams and their working relationship with other

teams and individuals.

➢ To try and relate people and work so that the organization objectives are achieved effectively and

efficiently.
➢ To diagnose problems and to determine appropriate solution particularly in the human resources areas.
➢ To provide co-ordination and support services for the delivery of HRD programmers and services.
➢ To evaluate the impact of an HRD intervention or to conduct research so as to identify, develop or test

how HRD in general has improved individual or organizational performance.

❖ Core responsibilities of Human resource management

1. Planning for staffing needs

2. Employee Recruitment and Selection
3. Employee Compensation and Benefits
4. Employee Training and performance evaluation

The role of a Human Resource Officer

He/she is responsible for formulating and designing of Human Resource policies in compliance with labor laws
and sees all Hr. related activities staring from hiring to firing of an employee in an organization. The Human
Resource Manager is responsible for overseeing human resources activities and policies according to executive
level direction. They supervise human resources staff as well as see staffing, compensation, assessing and
providing employee benefits, providing training & development, safety & welfare of staff, maintaining healthy
labor relations, providing employee handbook and maintaining employment records as required by the
employment laws.

What is an employee handbook?

➢ An employee
▪ handbook defines your company culture. Great employee handbooks motivate and
engage employees.
➢ Conveys useful information about company policies and procedures.
➢ The US Supreme Court has made it clear that to protect the company, legal protections should be

clearly spelled out to employees.

 ➢ Employee handbooks are often an essential document in agency investigations and employee claims.
➢ Tells the story of your company - Employee Handbooks are an excellent opportunity to educate

employees about the organization, its history, and its origin.

➢ An employee handbook helps with employee orientation and getting new employees up to speed.
➢ Many companies offer multiple employee handbooks based on location, job classification, union

membership, etc.
➢ Employee handbooks are required as a risk management essential by Employment Practices Liability

insurance carriers.
➢ More than 1/2 of companies now distribute their employee handbooks online.

Rights of an employee
➢ Right against discrimination at workplace
It is a right of every citizen of Ethiopia to be treated without any discrimination. no citizen can be discriminated against, or
be ineligible for any employment or office under the state, on the grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place
of birth or residence or any of them.

➢ Equal pay for equal work

It is an employee right though equal pay for equal work. fundamental right that in view of the directive
principles of state policy as contained in.

Function of Human Resource Management

✓ 5 basic (Managerial) function of Human Resource Management
1. Planning - HR
Planning is the first and basic function of the management and everything depends upon planning as it is a
process of thinking about things before, they happen and to make preparations in-advance to deal with them.
Poor planning results in failure and effects overall system. Therefore, HR Mangers should be aware of when is
right time to do things, when things should be done and when things should not be done in order to achieve
goals and objectives of the organization.

✓ Establishing goals and objectives to be achieved: the employees so as to achieve the organizational
mission set by the top-level management.
✓ Developing rules and procedures:
 To avoid any sort of discrimination among the employees in any of their functions, to enable fair and
transparent treatment among employees, to avoid conflict starting from recruitment to the separation of
employees, inculcate discipline among the employees, to drive performance of employees and ultimately
to avoid conflict and contravenes with statutes and employment laws of the land, ultimately for smooth
running of the organization.
✓ Determining plans and forecasting techniques:
As a part of Human resource planning to avoid any shortfall of workforce so as to avoid impact on the
output of the organization, to draw the estimation of workforce exactly needed for the organization and to
plan for attracting talented candidates.

2. Organizing- HR

HR managers should be well aware of organizing everything related to human resource and organization as
organizing is the process of making and arranging everything in the proper manner in order to avoid any confusion
and conflicts.

✓ Giving each member a specific task

To finish overall objectives of the job given to an employee is the duty of the Human Resource Manager, besides
it also to the duty of Human resource manager to define task clearly before entrusting job to an employee. HR
managers should keep in mind that task entrusted to employees should be matched with their skill set and abilities
and It is also lookout of HR managers to give training to employees in the area or subject which is going to be
entrusted to employees, otherwise the task entrusted to employees gets failed and defeated.

✓ Establishing departments and divisions

According to the nature of jobs and works in order to improve the efficiency, expertise and speedup the work.
Establishment of separate divisions and departments would give easy and effective control over employees by
the management which would give better results and improve overall performance of the organization.

✓ Delegating authority to the members

For a good cause and to make employees more responsible towards their job and organization is a part of employee
development. Delegating authority to employees makes them to be more responsible towards organization as
there is a principle called authority equals to responsibility, vice versa when you load an employee with
responsibilities, he should be given authority so as to fulfil the responsibilities casted upon employee. Authority
without responsibility and responsibility without authority defeats its purpose. Therefore, when employees feel
responsible and accepts responsibilities, it is a good sign as it makes employees to be engaged in the job.

✓ Establishing channels of authority and communication

Is the primary responsibility of any human resource manager which would enable managers to effectively
communicate desired goals and objectives of the organization. Having effective communication will avoid
conflicts, make staff to understand what exactly they are expected to and also enable the manager to get the things
done in time.

✓ Creating a system to coordinate the works of the members

So as to make the employees to work properly and not to cause any conflict in the allocation of the work to the
employees. Improper and discriminating allotment of the work we will make one or the other employee feel
overburden, burnout and can create conflicts among employees among members which is not good for the
organizational health and building teams will create teamwork which creates synergy among team that will bring
out the best out of them.

3. Staffing - HR

Staffing is one of the key functions of human resource management as staffing is the process of employing right
people, providing suitable training and placing them in the right job by paying them accordingly and satisfactorily.

4. Directing - HR

Directing is a knowledge, discipline and formal way of communicating to others that what you are expecting from
them to do for you or to an organization. Unless a HR manager has capability of directing, he / she can't be said
as full-fledged HR manager. when a HR manager has right directed capabilities, it is gives clarity for employees
what they are expected to perform, removes confusion in employees and gives clarity of what results are expected
by the management from employees.

5. Controlling - HR
HR managers should have the knowledge of controlling all HR related matters, as they should be able to think
and decide what should be done and what should not be done and which should be done and which should not be
done while dealing with employees.

Operative function of Human Resource Management

1. Procurement - HR
Job analysis is a systematic process of gathering all the data & information pertaining to the job for preparing of
job specification which determine the skills, qualifications & traits for job and preparation of job description
which describes the duties and responsibilities so as to recruitment and selection of employee, give satisfaction
on the job, and feel motivation while doing the job, etc.

Job design is the process of deciding on the content of a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities; on the
methods to be used in carrying out the job, in terms of techniques, systems and procedures and on the
relationships that should exist between the job holder and the superiors, subordinates and colleagues. Job
enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, and job simplification are the various techniques used in a job design
exercise. Job design goal is to minimize physical strain on the worker by structuring physical work environment
around the way the human body works.

Recruitment & selection - Recruitment and selection of the human resources for an organization is the major
and basic function of human resource management. Human resources planning and recruiting precede the actual
selection of people for positions in an organization. Recruiting is the process of inviting qualified job seekers by
using different platforms like issuing notification in regular newspapers or employment newspapers which are
exclusively meant for employment news and notifications, television media, online and on social networking
websites which have become mostly used resources for recruitment and hiring people. There are two major
sources of recruitment of employees, one is recruitment through internal sources and the other is recruitment
through external sources. Internal recruitment is the process of inviting or giving chance to the people relating to
concern organization or to the people relating to the existing employees or directly giving opportunity to the
existing employees. External recruitment is the process of inviting job seekers who do not belong to or anyway
related with an organization, which simply means inviting outside candidates.

Human resource planning (HRP) may be defined as strategy for acquisition, utilization, improvement and
preservation of the human resources of an enterprise. The objective is to place right personnel for the right work
and optimum utilization of the existing human resources. HRP exists as a part of the planning process of business.

The major activities of Human resource planning include:

✓ Placement of employee in the job where he exactly fit
✓ forecasting (future requirements),
✓ inventorying (present strength),
✓ anticipating (comparison of present and future requirements) and
✓ planning (necessary programme to meet future requirements).

Induction & Orientation: Induction of Employee is the first step towards gaining an employees' commitment,
Induction is aimed at introducing the job and organization to the recruit and him or her to the organization. In a
nutshell, it covers the organization’s history, philosophy, mission and vision, and the managerial style of the
organization. Inform the financial benefits and different taxation policies offered. Addresses trainings offered,
performance expectations, and the work schedules of the organization. Educate new employees on the laws,
regulations and company policies that applies to their role. Highlight the different safety and security aspects
related to the work environment.

Orientation is the planned introduction of new employees to their jobs, co-workers, and the organization so as
to alien an employee with their job role. Explain the role employees have to play to achieve organization's goals.

Portray the organization structure demonstrating the various departments, the people involved and their respective
designation. It covers all the information starting from customer profile, to the competitors’ product and services.

Socialization is a process of making employees to mingle up with everyone for team-spirit

2. Development- HR
Career planning and Career development; process of establishing personal career objectives by employees
and acting in a manner intended to bring them about. HR managers should help their employees in knowing their
strengths for placing them in suitable job, guide employees what skills and knowledge should be acquired for
attaining higher positions, planning for suitable training for polishing existing skill set and providing good work-
life-balance to make balance between career and personal life, after all, every one work for their personal life.

Career development according to Schuler, "It is an activity to identify the individual needs, abilities and goals
and the organization’s job demands and job rewards and then through well designed programmers’ of career
development matching abilities with demands and rewards". Career development does not guarantee success but
without it employees would not be ready for a job when the opportunity arises. HR managers should encourage
their employees by providing them suitable opportunities to grow for promoting them to higher jobs according to
their skills and knowledge, identify and provide opportunities to employees to learn new skills in the job and
compensate accordingly and guiding employees in right career path to develop in their career.

Top preferences for employees

* Career development
* Learning and training opportunities
* Good work-life balance
* Good relationship with superiors
Executive development; developing the skills and competencies of those that (will) have executive positions in
organizations.
Employee training and development is the subsystem of an organization and core function of human resource
management. It ensures continuous skill development of employees working in organization and habituates
process of learning for developing knowledge to work. Imparting Training and Development to employees
through various methods is the foundation for obtaining quality output from employees. Employee training
methods or categorized into on-the-job training methods and off the job training methods.

✓ On-the-job training methods: job rotation, coaching, job instruction, committee assignments,
apprenticeship and internship
✓ Of the job training methods: classroom lecture method, audio-visual training method, simulation,
case studies, role playing and the programmed instruction method.

Overall development of organization: Though human resource department is one of the departments in
organization, but it is linked to overall development of organization as employees are center for final output and
organization’s performance. Whatever type of job or department in any organization is made up-of employees
alone.

4. Compensation - HR
Job evaluation; analyzing and assessing various jobs systematically to ascertain their relative worth in an
organization.
Performance evaluation is also called as performance appraisal of employees. Human Resource Managers
can adopt various methods for assessing the performance of the employees So as to take decisions with regard to
compensating and rewarding employees, training of employees if performance is poor and it would take corrective
actions on employees whose performance is poor. In order to evaluate the performance of employees, HR
managers first have to set up performance standards for comparing with actual performance of employees to find
out gaps of employee performance. Performance evaluation or appraising performance of employees is the core
and major task when compared with other human resource management functions.

✓ Establishment of standard performance so as to measure the actual performance of the employees by

conducting performance evaluation for appraisals
✓ Measurement of actual performance with the established performance standards of employees for finding
out gaps in employee performance.
✓ Comparison of actual performance with the standard one to find the deviation for initiation of corrective
actions, if there are any deviations. Corrective actions include giving proper and suitable training to such
employees or withholding of increments in payments until performance gaps are none. Demotion of
employee, suspension and discharge from job is initiated when serious deviations are identified
1. Traditional methods of Performance Appraisal
 2. Modern Methods of Performance Appraisal
3. 360 Degrees Performance Appraisal

Effective Employee Evaluation

Define Expectations

✓ Define what is expected of the employee

✓ Make sure goals are measurable and observable

Create Goals

✓ Discuss the goals with the employee

✓ Obtain the employee’s agreement and signature

Provide Written Evaluations

✓ Every six months, discuss performance

✓ For struggling employees, consider once-a-month evaluations
✓ Ensure written performance reviews reflect the entire evaluation period

Maintain a Performance Record

✓ Make written notes throughout the year

✓ Do both praising and correcting—in real time

Ensure Integrity of Evaluation

✓ Written comments should be factual, detailed, and constructive

✓ Performance criteria shouldn’t be changed after the review

Wages or salary administration as prescribed by the labor laws, Wages for workers or salary for employees is
the basic and primary thing for which employee's work for an organization. It's administration of salaries by HR
managers is very crucial function as financial implications and legal compliance is involved. Any deviations in
payment of salaries will lead to immediate dissatisfaction of employees and effects their moral and any failure in
payment of salaries, statutory contributions by employee and statutory deductions from salary of an employee in
accordance with the employment laws will invite unnecessary complications and will be liable for penal action
by the court of law. Hence it is lookout of the Human resource management department to avoid such costly
mistake which also effects the organization's reputation (Employer branding). wages are classified as
▪ Minimum wage - It is also called as irreducible wage, which should be sufficient for worker

to get food clothing and shelter.

 ▪ Fair wage - Wage which is paid according to the work of the work
▪ Living wage - It is just above minimum wage, which is sufficient to meet minimum health

expenses, children education with food, clothing and shelter.

Salary nomenclature is used in the context of employees. Generally, salary of employees is paid monthly and it
consist of various components like basic pay, dearness allowance and house rent allowance especially in the case
of government employees. Whereas private employees' salary normally doesn't consist of said components as it
is paid under single head that is salary and benefits of employees doesn't come under salary head, therefore
employee benefits could be monitory or nonmonetary cannot be counted with salaries of employees, they are
specifically provided for providing social security and motivating employees. Especially government employee
salary format will be Salary = Basic pay+ Dearness allowances+ House rent allowance.
Top employee benefits
✓ Additional fixed pay
✓ flexible work arrangements
✓ retirement benefits
✓ professional development support
✓ training opportunities
✓ hire incentives
✓ insurance benefit
✓ health care assistance

5. Maintenance and Motivation - HR

Employee well-being; Providing good working conditions at workplace is the fundamental duty of Human Resource
Management department. It is also the duty of Human Resource Management to provide welfare measures like Pure water
drinking facilities, restrooms, lunchroom in an organization having more than 150 employees, minimum medical aid facility
for 150 employees, maintenance of an ambulance in an organization having more than 500 employees.

Social security for employees: Providing and contributing Employee Provident fund, Payment of Bonus,
compensation, payment of gratuity, maternity benefit, paternity benefit and employee insurance. In India there
are few social security legislations which are to be followed and complied by any organization and it is the duty
of the Human Resource Manager to look after it.

Worker's participation encouragement either individually or collectively, become involved in one or more
aspects of organizational decision making within the enterprises in which they work Would make employees feel
motivated, satisfaction and stay loyal to the management. Therefore, it would avoid unnecessary conflicts in
between employees and management while implementing management decisions.

Motivating employees stimulate the desire and energy in employees to be continuously interested in a job and
committed it, role, or subject, and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal. The most important motivating
factors for employees are to have a healthy and good working environment, to have good monitory benefits,
compensation and rewards, to have encouragement and support from management and to have a chance of
professional growth and raise.

Top 10 global employees’ preferences

✓ Job security & stability
✓ Financial compensation
✓ Work appreciation by employer
✓ Interesting work
✓ Good & healthy relationship with colleagues
✓ Good work-life balance
✓ Good relationship with superiors
✓ Learning & training opportunities
✓ Career development
✓ Financial stability of employer

Job rotation is the human resource management technique in which employee is moved between two or more
jobs in a systematic and planned manner. The objective is to expose an employee to different experiences and
wider variety of skills to enhance job satisfaction and to cross-train them.

Advantages of job rotation of an employee are eliminated boredom of an employee, encourage development,
give employees a break from strenuous job duties, helps HR manager identify where employee work best and
gives HR manager a backup plan if an employee leaves.

Maintaining HR records in accordance with employment laws and organizational needs is the basic function of
Human Resource Management, conducting research for identification of HR issues and find suitable solutions,
doing Human Resource audit by systematic verification strategies, policies, procedures, documentation, structure,
systems and practices with respect to the organization’s human resource management.

Human Resource information system implementation lets you keep track of all your employees and all
information about them. It is usually done in a database or, more often, in a series of inter-related databases.
6. Integration - HR
Industrial relations is the process of management dealing with one or more unions with a view to negotiate and
subsequently administer collective bargaining agreement or labor contract. Maintaining proper industrial
relationships is the core activity of Human Resource Management so as to avoid industrial disputes.

Employee Discipline is a systematic procedure the set-rights and corrects or punishes a subordinate by superior
because a rule of procedure has been disobeyed or violated. Discipline is the force that prompts employees to
observe rules, regulations, standards and procedures deemed necessary for an organization.

Grievance redressed; Grievance procedure is a formal communication between an employee and the
management designed for the settlement of a grievance of employees. Grievance procedures differ from
organization to organization as grievances can be very damaging if not handled properly.