Those who aspire to become HR professionals one day will surely know

something about the field. If you plan to join the profession, you must have
studied what human resource managers do and how they achieve success. But if
you want to know about the job and what the future holds for you, it is
necessary to understand the evolution of human resource management.
Knowing the past will show how the job will develop and what steps one must
take to prepare for the future. 

Let us first see what human resource management is to benefit those who have
not yet decided on what field they want to specialise in. A better understanding
of the profession can help to know if you are suitable for it. 

Understanding Human Resource Management

In a nutshell, this department deals with everything related to people working in

a company. HR professionals ensure optimum staff strength in every business
unit. This means that they handle the hiring process. These officials are
responsible for searching for the right candidates, interviewing them, and taking
the most suitable ones on the company’s rolls. A look at the evolution of human
resource management shows that there were individuals employed to hire and
manage enslaved people in ancient times. 

A human resources manager’s job doesn’t end with employing people. The
person must ensure that employees are given the benefits due to them. It is also
the job of the HR department to reward those who do their jobs well and
contribute to the company’s progress. Human resource managers are
responsible for providing a healthy working environment. They must make sure
that there is no discrimination of any sort among the employees. Studying
the evolution of human resource management clearly shows that due
consideration to employee wellbeing was not given in earlier times. 

Providing regular training to employees and arming them with skills needed for
the future is also part of the HR department’s duties. Another important function
is conflict redressal. Disputes among employees and between them and the
management are common. The manpower managers have to ensure that such
conflicts are resolved quickly, and work progresses smoothly. They must also
become the spokespersons of both employees and management at different
times. Drawing up employment policies and conveying them to the staff
members is also part of their job. 

Those who are interested in people and their welfare will find the job of human
resource personnel very exciting. But it is crucial to equip oneself with enough
knowledge and skills needed to perform the job well. Check out our post-
graduate certificate course in human resource management. That could be your
gateway to an exciting career.  

Evolution Of Human Resource Management

It is not difficult to understand that there was no proper “human resource

management” during the times when masters employed slaves to accumulate
wealth. But over time, this changed. With mechanisation happening and big
factories coming into existence, there was a need for large numbers of workers
to be available in one place. The workers had a chance to interact among
themselves. The governments also understood that they must take steps to
ensure worker safety and prevent exploitation. It could be the beginning of
the evolution of human resource management. 

Also Read: What is Strategic Human Resource Management? Definition and

Examples

During The Industrial Revolution 

The industrial revolution started during the middle of the nineteenth century.
Large factories were coming up in selected areas in the US and Europe. The use
of machines started increasing. A large number of employees were required.
People started migrating to cities with good job opportunities and more pay.
Many company owners started implementing a basic method of human
resource management. This included hiring workers, training them for a job, and
managing them. In this stage of the evolution of human resources management,
the relationship was still that of master and slave. 

Formation Of Trade Unions

The formation of trade unions was a big step in taking care of employee
interests. Workers in similar jobs started to form associations to discuss their
problems. These later became trade unions that bargained with the
management for better working conditions. In the initial stages, the discussions
were mainly on child labour, working hours, and conditions. Later the talk
between unions and management included other aspects like wages and
benefits. The trade unions used various methods like strikes, walkouts, and
boycotts to get their demands met. This forced company owners to implement
grievance-handling systems. 

Feeling Of Social Responsibility

During the initial few years of the twentieth century, many companies started
adopting a more human approach to workers. This was called a paternalistic
approach, where owners considered workers as children and themselves as
their fathers. They opined that fathers should naturally take care of their kids
and start providing improved facilities at the workplace. Critics say that this
stage in the evolution of human resource management was more due to the
pressure of trade unions and owners wanting to avoid the stoppage of work. It
was considered more a compulsion than a philosophy aimed at improving
worker conditions. 

Start Of Scientific Management

Around the same time, Frederick Winslow Taylor conducted various experiments
to improve worker productivity. He wrote many papers and is known as the
father of scientific management. According to him, it was the responsibility of
the management to find ways to get maximum productivity out of a worker. He
advocated harmony and suggested that the management must avoid conflicts as
much as possible. He strongly recommended the differential piece wage system.
He was instrumental in bringing about standardisation and simplification of
work. 

Importance Of Human Relationships 

During the 1920s, experts and researchers in management started taking notice
of the human factor in the workplace. Research done in industries between 1924
and 1932 shows the elements that can affect worker productivity. Studies show
that social factors had a great influence on the factories. It was observed that
group formation and group influence also affected employee productivity.
Communication and the qualities of the leader or manager were also found to
be important aspects. It was in this period of the evolution of human resource
management that human relationships came to have greater importance. 

Contribution Of Behavioural Scientists

Behavioural scientists have also contributed greatly to HR management. They

proposed a concept of human resources, which is different from the human
relations model. Their studies prompted companies to look into the role of
managers, the nature of organisations, and the behaviour of employees inside a
company. It is at this stage of the evolution of human resource
management that discussions about using the full potential of a worker started
happening. Studies showed that many employees had a lot of untapped
potentials. These researchers insisted that it was the manager’s job to use such
unutilised capabilities. 

Human Resource Management

As the management of employees in large factories became more complex,

industrial relations departments sprang up in many companies. This division
was mainly dealing with the workers. When the responsibilities were extended
to the supervisory staff, the name was changed to the personnel department.
This set of professionals also managed the affairs of the managerial staff. As the
competition for hiring competent workers heated up, companies started looking
at employees as talent pools. Staff members were considered the source of
organisational efficiency. In the late twentieth century, companies started
naming the department a human resource department.

Future Trends In HR Management

We have seen the evolution of human resource management and how things

have become more scientific over the years. We must now look at what future
trends can be expected in this field. It is predicted that in the near future, HR
officials will guide companies through expected disruptions. They will also
become more agile and faster in decision-making. Employee performance will be
assessed in a more personalised manner. The yearly review system will be
replaced by a real-time performance report generation. This will help provide
coaching to employees to improve productivity.

There will be more importance on digital expertise among the HR staff. Experts
see a shift from looking at revenue per employee to calculating value per
employee. There will be increased use of AI in human resource management. It
is possible for companies to use this technology to create a more diverse remote
workforce. Analytics can be used to determine the age, gender, and ethnicity of
the employees to make up a workforce of mixed backgrounds. Everyone knows
the benefit of having such a diverse staff makeup. Such decisions can be easily
made using modern technology. 

As part of the evolution of human resource management, it is likely that most

tasks in the department will be broken down into discrete components. In this
manner, the company can become agile and lean. Even large companies will
become small, like startups. The move has already started with companies
looking at agile HR coaches for onboarding employees at multiple locations.
There is increasing importance for micro-innovation. This results in product-
centric teams, and the HR team will have to gear up to employ such people. 
Post Graduate Certificate in Human Resource Management
Watch The Course Preview

How To Prepare For The Future

As the evolution of human resource management continues, professionals in

this field must gear up for future challenges. Let us see how the HR personnel
must change to fit into the new setup. Online courses like the post-graduate
certificate course in human resource management offered by Edureka
continuously upgrade their curriculum to equip participants with the latest skills.
Visit our website to know more about this course. 

Automate HR Processes
HR teams will have more jobs in their hands as they become a critical element in
the growth and development of the firm. They will be required to spend more
time coming up with innovative solutions to improve employee productivity and
satisfaction. This means that there will be less time for regular work. In such a
situation, it is essential for the human resource department to shift from manual
work to automation. They must look at modern software that will help speed up
regular processes and give them more time to innovate. 

Apps Can Improve Efficiency

Manpower managers are expected to collect a lot more details today than
before. This will only increase as decisions will depend on data analytics. It is
impossible to collect information from everyone in the traditional manner. Using
apps for this purpose will greatly reduce the burden on HR personnel. There are
various apps that will help improve employee engagement. Applications for
salary and leave calculations are also available. Many of these can be integrated
with existing software in the company. Adapting apps will help you keep pace
with the future evolution of human resource management. 

Adopt AWE Principle

HR managers can become more efficient by adopting the AWE principle. 

A stands for agile. Making the HR process agile will result in less waste. You must
also empower the department staff to focus on value-added work. 

W is wonderful. Make work wonderful by being fair in treating the employees. It
will turn jobs into more enjoyable activities for all employees. Productivity and
employee retention will greatly improve.

E stands for engagement. More employee engagement is needed to motivate

employees. As the market becomes more competitive, business houses need
every worker to perform to their best abilities. There are software programs that
help improve interaction with employees. 

,
Human Resource Management (HRM), being the department responsible for
maintaining discipline, has come a long way. The term HRM is relatively a very new
term for handling employees in every organization. It is still evolving and will keep on
evolving to keep up with the changing world.
 
The evolution of human resource management (HRM) terms is of very recent origin.
It began revolving around the 1980s. During the ancient period, for a long time goods
were produced mainly by skilled craftsmen and artisans. They were responsible for
handling all the processes, generating it, producing it, and finally selling it. Let us
have a look at how the evolution of the concept of hrm came into existence.

Evolution of HRM – The Industrial Revolution

Managing workers at companies began at the time of the Industrial Revolution
during the late eighteenth century. Before this era, many large organizations existed,
but without the advanced technology, it was hard to maintain them. During this time,
the work atmosphere was very unfavorable and the employees used to put in
endless hours in the company for very little pay.

FW Taylor introduced scientific management in the twentieth century. He gathered

that there was ‘one best way’ to handle every role in every company to make it run
more efficiently and smoothly. Taylor examined the job and narrowed it down into
essential elements, i.e. job specialization.
 
He believed that employees could be trained at one job role to become an expert, but
he completely ignored the fact that doing the same job every day will get boring and
mundane for the employees. During this Revolution, science and technology started
being applied to all elements of work in modern industries. This affected
every Human Capital Management in many ways such as;
 The area of the job for all the employees changed from their home to a common area, where
everyone performed tasks under the same roof. The production techniques evolved from
manual to machines.
 The introduction of mechanization made the work so easy that even women and kids started
to get employed.
 With the help of computer technology, controlling industrial activities became very
productive and efficient. Inventory control, production control, method control, manpower
control, and financial control had all become very efficient with the introduction of
computerized procedures.
 The expanded use of machines resulted in a vast change in employment. Working the
machinery required skilled knowledge, which many employees did not have. This ended up
making them unemployed and helpless.
 
In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution brought about discipline, monotony,
materialism, job displacement, work interdependence, and impersonality. In
economic terms, the revolution increased the accumulation of capital and goods to a
large extent.
 
Consequently, commerce and business were highly accelerated, entrepreneurs and
owners performed well, but the average citizen poorly failed.
 
Also Read: 8 Primary Objectives of Human Resource Management (HRM)
 
Evolution of HRM (Human Resource Management) –
Period of Trade Unionism
Soon after the factory system surfaced, many employees began to get together to
discuss their common dilemmas. Every employee was forced to work for long hours
under dangerous conditions, for practically no wage. This encouraged the employees
to join together and protest to prove their worth and importance to an organization.
 
They used different kinds of techniques like strike, walkouts, slowdowns, boycotts,
picketing, and sabotage. Even physical force was used at times. This, however,
proved to be a success, as without the employees the companies would come
crashing down. The employers were forced to listen to every demand of all the
employees.
 
New organizational units were created especially to deal with the method
improvements, the study of wages, and more attention was paid to the needs of
every employee.
 
Evolution and Development of HRM – Social
Responsibility
As seen above, the earlier employers were not sympathetic towards their workers
and their needs. With time, they started to realize the importance of every employee
and started giving them the importance that they deserve. The companies
started creating a positive work environment where the employees were satisfied and
hence started showing more productivity.
 
Labour laws were renewed according to which child labor was abolished. The
workers were given proper training on how to use the machinery. High wages and
good working conditions helped the workers in being more productive, which in turn
contributed to the growth of a company.
 
Evolution and Growth of HRM – Scientific Management
The scientific management era began in 1900 and reached its peak by 1930. It was a
major revolution and thus has managed to stay somewhat alive to date. Handling
everything manually was getting exhausting for the employees and was hampering
their productivity and efficiency.
 
There was a need to introduce new advanced technology which would eliminate the
burden on the employees. Employees used to perform slowly as they used to think
that if they performed at a fast pace, it would result in a grave error, which could cost
them their jobs. This resulted in plenty of time wastage and loss of productivity.
Employees were forced to take up jobs outside of their comfort zone and skills.
 
Not having knowledge about that field, hampered the credibility of an employee as
well as the company. Thus, Taylor introduced the best way to solve this, by picking
the right man for the right job. By putting the suited employee for the right job with
the correct tools, companies were able to make significant improvements in
productivity. This was done by offering the employees great economic incentives
and higher daily wages.
 
To boost up the morale of every employee, the reward and performance management
system was introduced. This created a healthy competitive environment by
encouraging employees to perform harder to achieve rewards. Scientific
management included a lot of essential elements such as;
 
 Task Planning
Scientific task planning entails the total number of hours an employee can perform
every day, which is called a fair day’s work. The management decides in advance
what task needs to be done by which employee and within what amount of time. The
final goal is to make maximum utilization of resources available in a timely sequence
to promote maximum productivity and efficiency.
 
 Time Study
Time and motion studies were introduced to avoid wastage of time and resources.
The same task was given to different employees, and the hours are taken by
everyone to complete it was noted. This helped in taking out the average time
required to complete a particular task. Fatigue studies were also conducted, where
the boredom and monotony caused due to a particular task were noted.
 
 Standardization
Various standards were set up in advance to ensure that the employees are clear
about the objective and target. It was also used to avoid wastage of resources and
improving the work quality.
 
 Wages Bottomed on Productivity
To ensure that the employees are giving their best and not taking advantage of the
resources, wages were given out based on work done in the lowest amount of time.
According to this, an employee who finishes the entire work on time gets paid a
higher wage than the worker who doesn’t complete the task at a given time. This
creates a sense of healthy competition, ensuring that the employees give their best
to earn a maximum wage.
 
Evolution of Human Resource Management –
Introduction to HRM
As time changes, the techniques need to change too. With the coming of
advanced hr technology, a need for a better system emerged to handle the employees
in every organization successfully. Over the years the HRM evolution concept has
increased and is continuing to do so.
 
The integration of HRMS software in businesses is a tried and tested method to
improve productivity and increase efficiency. With the numerous benefits of human
resource management, many companies are taking advantage of it, and needless to
say, are very happy with the outcome. With the increase in the number of companies
and their employees, a single person could not handle the administrative tasks of
everyone in the organization.
 
HCM software was created to develop and handle all the tasks systematically and
efficiently. Right from attracting candidates, to their recruitment, onboarding, and
retention. Everything is now handled by a human resource department. The three key
responsibilities of HR are;
 
1. Recruitment
In today’s competitive business world, recruitment has become a wearying
task. Recruitment management system companies are competing with each other neck-
to-neck, to find the best potential candidate for their firms. For any job role, there are
numerous applicants. It is the responsibility of human resources to find the perfect
candidate for the company.
 
2. Onboarding
When new hires join the organization, they have expectations and aspirations for
their job. The human resource department ensures that the onboarding of every new
hire is easy and seamless. They introduce an employee to the rules and regulations
of the company and make sure that the goals and targets of the new hires are
aligned with that of the organization.
 
3. Retention
The most important role of the human resource department is to make sure that
their best employees are happy and satisfied with their jobs. They don’t want the
company to lose a crucial asset. Human resource organizes various activities and
gives appraisals and rewards to deserving employees. This helps the employees in
being satisfied with their job, thus helping the company to retain them for the long haul.
 
Thus, the evolution and growth of HRM (human resource management) have come a
long way. With the advanced technology and software, managing the employees in
every organization has become smooth sailing for human resources.
 
Pocket HRMS is a new-age HR software with integrated modules supporting functions
of human resource management. To learn more, contact us here – sales@pockethrms.com