HRM can’t be summarized in less than 900 words, but some first insights can be given in order to create interest in investigating the issue and some ideas on what it deals with!
HR is viewed as having 3 product lines (admin., business partner and strategic services) and to successfully manage it, individuals need personal credibility, business strategy understanding, technology and business knowledge and the ability to deliver HR services. HRM practices should be evidence-based, on data showing the relationship between practice and business outcomes related to key company stakeholders, contributing to a company's business strategy and helping companies deal with sustainability, globalization, and technology challenges.
HRM Strategic approach proactively gives competitive advantage via firm’s more important asset (its HR). So, HRM function needs to be integrally involved in strategy formulation to identify people-related business issues as HRM has profound impact on the implementation by developing and aligning HRM practices ensuring the company has motivated employees with necessary skills. Its Emerging strategic role requires HR professionals in the future develop business, professional-technical, change management and integration competencies: requires more than simply developing a valid selection procedure or Performance management system (PMS).
The analysis and design of work is an important component to develop/maintain competitive advantage as strategy implementation’s virtually impossible w/out attention to work-flow, job analysis and design. Understanding of the work-flow process and existing jobs, managers can redesign to ensure work unit is able to achieve its goals while individuals within it benefit on the various work outcome dimensions as motivation, satisfaction, safety, health and achievement; key to competitive advantage.
Immigration issues showed how changes in labor and product markets create struggle to find/retain the most talented/motivated workers at lowest cost. Early anticipation of labor surplus allows firm to use less disruptive labor reduction strategies and of labor shortages allows employers to use more creative and effective recruitment techniques. All personnel selection methods should conform to 5 critical standards (reliability, validity, utility, generalizability, and legality) but there’s no need to use only one type of test for any one job
Systematic approach to training includes needs assessment, design of the learning environment, and consideration of employee readiness for training and transfer-of-training issues. The key to successful training is choosing a method that would best accomplish the objectives of training.
PMS serve strategic, administrative, and developmental purposes, so should be evaluated against the criteria of strategic congruence, validity, reliability, acceptability, and specificity. Hence, comparative, attribute, behavioral, results, and quality approaches have different strengths and weaknesses. Managers should take action based on the causes for poor performance (ability, motivation or both) and ensure their PMS can meet legal scrutiny, especially if used to discipline or fire poor performers.
Development methods: formal education, assessment, job experiences, interpersonal relationships.
Relative to job experiences, a mentor can help employees better understand the company and gain exposure and visibility to key persons in the organization and part of a manager's job responsibility may be to coach employees. Regardless of development approaches, employees should have a development plan to identify the type of development needed, development goals, the best approach for development and whether goals have been reached. For development plans to be effective, the employee and the company have responsibilities that need to be completed.
Make labor costs more competitive while hedging off employee relations problems and inequity perceptions via open communication because management should realign pay structure and global workforce to support changes to strategy for competing in markets. Pay structure decisions influence strategy execution success by influencing costs, employee perceptions of equity and the way different structures provide flexibility and incentives for employees to learn and be productive. Equity theory states social comparisons are an important influence on how employees evaluate their pay, making external and internal comparisons. In the other hand, pay benchmarking surveys and job evaluation are two administrative tools widely used in managing the pay level and job structure components of the pay structure, influence employee social comparisons. The nature of pay structures is undergoing a fundamental change in many organizations: move to fewer pay levels to reduce labor costs and bureaucracy and some employers shifting from paying employees for narrow jobs to giving them broader responsibilities and paying them to learn the necessary skills.
Pay is an important influence on employee's standard of living and has two important implications as it can be a powerful motivator and its importance means employees care a great deal about the fairness of the pay process. However, as organizations differ in business and HR strategies, also effective pay strategy may differ from one to another.
The roles required of HRM function have changed as people start to recognize it as true source of competitive advantage, requiring a transformation of HRM function from focusing solely on transactional to an increasing focus in strategic activities. HRM today play roles as an administrative expert, employee advocate, change agent and strategic partner and the function must also deliver transactional, traditional and transformational services and activities to the firms, being efficient and effective.