Functions of Human Resource Management

Functions of Human Resource Management: Human Resource Management involves the development of a perfect blend between traditional administrative functions and the well-being of all employees within an organization. Employee retention ratio is directly proportionate to the manner in which the employees are treated, in return for their imparted skills and experience. A Human Resource Manager ideally empowers inter-departmental employee relationships and nurtures scope for down-the-rung employee communication at various levels. The field is a derivative of System Theory and Organizational Psychology.

Human resources has earned a number of related interpretations in time, but continues to defend the need to ensure employee well-being. Every organization now has an exclusive Human Resource Management Department to interact with representatives of all factors of production. The department is responsible for the development and application of ongoing research on strategic advances while hiring, terminating and training staff. The Human Resource Management Department is responsible for: * Understanding and relating to employees as individuals, thus identifying individual needs and career goals. Developing positive interactions between workers, to ensure collated and constructive enterprise productivity and development of a uniform organizational culture. * Identify areas that suffer lack of knowledge and insufficient training, and accordingly provide remedial measures in the form of workshops and seminars. * Generate a rostrum for all employees to express their goals and provide the necessary resources to accomplish professional and personal agendas, essentially in that order. * Innovate new operating practices to minimize risk and generate an overall sense of belonging and accountability. Recruiting the required workforce and making provisions for expressed and promised payroll and benefits. * Implementing resource strategies to subsequently create and sustain competitive advantage. * Empowerment of the organization, to successfully meet strategic goals by managing staff effectively. Ideally, a Human Resource Management Department is responsible for an interdisciplinary examination of all staff members in the workplace. This strategy calls for applications from diverse fields such as psychology, paralegal studies, industrial engineering, sociology, and a critical understanding of theories ertaining to post-modernism and industrial structuralism. The department bears the onus of converting the available task-force or hired individuals into strategic business partners. This is achieved via dedicated Change Management and focused Employee Administration. The HR functions with the sole goal of motivating and encouraging the employees to prove their mettle and add value to the company. This is achieved via various management processes like workforce planning and recruitment, induction and orientation of hired task-force and employee training, administration and appraisals .

Definition of SHRM Strategic human resource management can be defined as the linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation, flexibility and competitive advantage. In an organisation SHRM means accepting and involving the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation and implementation of the company's strategies through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel. How SHRM differs from HRM

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In the last two decades there has been an increasing awareness that HR functions were like an island unto itself with softer people-centred values far away from the hard world of real business. In order to justify its own existence HR functions had to be seen as more intimately connected with the strategy and day to day running of the business side of the enterprise. Many writers in the late 1980s, started clamoring for a more strategic approach to the management of people than the standard practices of traditional management of people or industrial relations models.

Strategic human resource management focuses on human resource programs with long-term objectives. Instead of focusing on internal human resource issues, the focus is on addressing and solving problems that effect people management programs in the long run and often globally. Therefore the primary goal of strategic human resources is to increase employee productivity by focusing on business obstacles that occur outside of human resources. The primary actions of a strategic human resource manager are to identify key HR areas where strategies can be implemented in the long run to improve the overall mployee motivation and productivity. Communication between HR and top management of the company is vital as without active participation no cooperation is possible. Key Features of Strategic Human Resource Management The key features of SHRM are * There is an explicit linkage between HR policy and practices and overall organizational strategic aims and the organizational environment * There is some organizing schema linking individual HR interventions so that they are mutually supportive * Much of the responsibility for the management of human resources is devolved down the line Frederick Herzberg Factor Hygiene and Motivation Theory Frederick Herzberg, contributed to human relations and motivation two theories of motivation as follows: * Hygiene Theory * Motivation Herzbergs' first component in his approach to motivation theory involves what are known as the hygiene factors and includes the work and organizational environment. These hygiene factors include: * The organization * Its policies and its administration * The kind of supervision (leadership and management, including perceptions) which people receive while on the job * Working conditions (including ergonomics) * Interpersonal relations Salary * Status * Job security These factors do not lead to higher levels of motivation but without them there is dissatisfaction. The second component in Herzbergs' motivation theory involves what people actually do on the job and should be engineered into the jobs employees do in order to develop intrinsic motivation with the workforce. The motivators are * Achievement * Recognition * Growth / advancement * Interest in the job These factors result from internal instincts in employees, yielding motivation rather than movement. Both these approaches (hygiene and motivation) must be done simultaneously.

Treat people as best you can so they have a minimum of dissatisfaction. Use people so they get achievement, recognition for achievement, interest, and responsibility and they can grow and advance in their work. Therefore, the hygiene and motivation factors can be listed as follows: Hygiene * Company policies and administration * Supervision * Working conditions and interpersonal relations * Salary, status and security Motivators * Achievement * Recognition for achievement * Interest in the task * Responsibility for enlarged task * Growth and advancement to higher level tasks

Effects on Individuals of Working Environment The working environment has an effect on individuals as follows: * It will provide at least sufficient for his basic needs and often much more. For example, 50 years ago in the United Kingdom, food and shelter were a person's basic needs. Today, most families will consider that the basic needs also include a car, television, overseas holiday, etc. * It may or may not provide adequate security. Again, most individuals seek a secure job, there are others including some men on oil rigs, who seek high pay for a limited period but with limited security. It provides an individual with an identity. As a member of an organization, he carries out a specific function. * It also gives the worker comradeship, freedom from boredom, and an interest during his working life. * It also provides self-fulfillment for individual where consideration has been given to ensure that the job is creative and gives job satisfaction. * It provides the individual with status. There is a status in all jobs providing the job content is investigated to make the work more interesting. Effects on Work Groups of Working Environment

Rensis Likert has already described how the various management styles in an organization can effect the groups in an organization. Whilst the working environment will affect individuals, it will undoubtedly have a greater effect on working groups, since whilst an individual may have certain needs, he will not obtain those needs if the working environment does not provide the needs of the working group. The working group is the instrument of society through which in large measure the individual acquires his attitudes, opinions, goals and ideals, it is also one of the fundamental sources of discipline and social controls.

Therefore, the working environment has an effect on groups as follows: * It will affect the morale of the group. * It will determine whether the group achieves the objectives set by the organization. * It will determine whether the degree of cooperation provided by the group * It will motivate the group to give of their best. * It will determine whether the human relations within an organization are good or bad. * It will also affect the relations between management and trade unions. SWOT Analysis A scan of the internal and external environment is an important part of the strategic planning process.

Environmental factors internal to the firm usually can be classified as strengths (S) or weaknesses (W), and those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities (O) or threats (T). Such an analysis of the strategic environment is referred to as a SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis provides information that is helpful in matching the firm's resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates. As such, it is instrumental in strategy formulation and selection. The following diagram shows how a SWOT analysis fits into an environmental scan: SWOT Analysis Framework Environmental Scan| |            | Internal Analysis   |    External Analysis| /       |            / | Strengths   Weaknesses   |    Opportunities   Threats| || SWOT Matrix| | Strengths A firm's strengths are its resources and capabilities that can be used as a basis for developing a competitive advantage. Examples of such strengths include: * patents * strong brand names * good reputation among customers * cost advantages from proprietary know-how * exclusive access to high grade natural resources * favorable access to distribution networks Weaknesses The absence of certain strengths may be viewed as a weakness.

For example, each of the following may be considered weaknesses: * lack of patent protection * a weak brand name * poor reputation among customers * high cost structure * lack of access to the best natural resources * lack of access to key distribution channels In some cases, a weakness may be the flip side of a strength. Take the case in which a firm has a large amount of manufacturing capacity. While this capacity may be considered a strength that competitors do not share, it also may be a considered a weakness if the large investment in manufacturing capacity prevents the firm from reacting quickly to changes in the strategic nvironment. Opportunities The external environmental analysis may reveal certain new opportunities for profit and growth. Some examples of such opportunities include: * an unfulfilled customer need * arrival of new technologies * loosening of regulations * removal of international trade barriers Threats Changes in the external environmental also may present threats to the firm. Some examples of such threats include: * shifts in consumer tastes away from the firm's products * emergence of substitute products * new regulations * increased trade barriers The SWOT Matrix

A firm should not necessarily pursue the more lucrative opportunities. Rather, it may have a better chance at developing a competitive advantage by identifying a fit between the firm's strengths and upcoming opportunities. In some cases, the firm can overcome a weakness in order to prepare itself to pursue a compelling opportunity. To develop strategies that take into account the SWOT profile, a matrix of these factors can be constructed. The SWOT matrix (also known as a TOWS Matrix) is shown below: SWOT / TOWS Matrix | Strengths| Weaknesses| Opportunities| S-O strategies| W-O strategies|

Threats| S-T strategies| W-T strategies| * S-O strategies pursue opportunities that are a good fit to the company's strengths. * W-O strategies overcome weaknesses to pursue opportunities. * S-T strategies identify ways that the firm can use its strengths to reduce its vulnerability to external threats. * W-T strategies establish a defensive plan to prevent the firm's weaknesses from making it highly susceptible to external threats. Target Market The focus of marketing effort is people. The goal is to reach a subset of the population who may be interested in your particular product. That group of people is your target market.

The term target market is used because that market is the target at which you aim all your marketing efforts. The market you are trying to reach are people with common characteristics that set them apart as a group. The more you know about a target market, the more precisely you can develop your marketing strategy. The table below shows some examples of market segments (or groups): Type of Market Segment| Shared Group Characteristics| Demographic Segment| Measurable statistics such as age, income, or occupation. | Psychographic Segment| Lifestyle preferences such as music lovers or urban dwellers. Use-based Segment| Frequency of usage such as recreational drinking or traveling. | Benefit Segment| Desire to obtain the same product benefits such as luxury, thriftiness, or comfort from food. | Geographic Segment| Location such as home address or business address. | Here are examples of target segments that can be created using the above table: * Women business owners between the ages of 25 and 60 earning more than $25,000 annually form a demographic segment. * People who drive compact cars due to their fuel efficiency form a benefit segment. Design Marketing Strategies With Your Target Market In Mind

The reason you need to identify a target market is because it makes strategies for designing, pricing, distributing, promoting, positioning and improving your product, service or idea easier, more effective, and more cost-effective. For example, if research shows that a sturdy recyclable package with blue lettering appeals to your target market and if you are focused on that target market, you would choose that type of packaging. If, however, you are product- or profit-oriented, rather than people oriented, you might choose to make the package out of plain styrofoam because it rotects the product (product-oriented) or because it's cheap (profit-oriented). Or, if you know your target market is 24- to 49-year-old men who like rhythm ; blues, are frequent CD buyers, and live in urban neighborhoods, you can create an advertising message to appeal to those types of buyers. Additionally, you could buy spots on a specific radio station or TV show that appeals to this type of buyer, rather than buying general media time. In summary, when you're making marketing decisions and you say "kinda," it's costing you money. Know whom you are aiming for (your target market) and create a strategy for a direct hit.

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