this world is changing in a fast pace

7/27/2019 This World is Changing in a Fast Pace

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

17th December 201

The Evolving Trends in

Human Resource

ManagementBy: Muzna Faisal.

BBA 5C

H U M A N R E S O U R C E M A N A G E M E N T



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The Evolving trends of Human Resource Management…

This world is changing at a fast pace. Whatever strategy we develop today, we cannot be 100% sure that

same strategy will work after a few days. Therefore, we need to upgrade our techniques constantly and

accurately in order to cope up with the changing environment.

Human resources are one of the organization's greatest assets because without the human resource,everyday business functions cannot be completed. They are the input drivers in an organization’s

success. Thus, organizational change influences not only the business but also its managers and

employees, i.e. the whole of the human resource.

In order to maximize organizational effectiveness, human potential, individual competence, talent and

time of the human resource must be managed and developed. Hence, the practice of human resource

management (HRM) works to make sure that employees are able to meet the organization's goals in the

required time in the most effective manner.

The simplest definition for HRM that easily summarizes the whole phenomena is,

“The process of managing human talents to achieve organization’s objective”

Unfortunately, the term for HRM has been understood as the only word to represent and explain the

management and development of human resources from the point of recruitment to compensation and

rewards through to career management and development till the point of retirement. But with the

changing environment, HRM is much more than just recruitment to compensation, etc… It’s a whole

new concept.

The process of managing human talents includes the main processes of Staffing, Compensation, Training

and development, Employee and labor relations and Health and Safety. These processes have sub-

processes which are constantly upgrading with the passage of time,

HRM is more than simply matching human resources in numerical and quality terms to organizationalneeds. In a modem HRM-focused organization, the objective of delivering the highest quality standards

has been recognized as requiring a devolved decision making system based on a flexible, motivated

customer-focused staff that exhibits the appropriate skills, knowledge and behavior. Thus HRM has

moved over the years to a much greater emphasis on cultural issues aiming to encourage autonomy and

devolved decision making, personal/organizational development and learning to be responsive to

changing customer needs.

The HR department must be designed in accordance with all the dimensions of the business. If the

organization has multiple product lines, customers, geographies or service lines, it’s the responsibility of

the HR department to facilitate them all. Many companies are still working on the changes, and they are

not sure if these changes will be beneficial for the organization they support. Only time will tell.Meanwhile, considerable attention has been given to the development of the HR departments.

However, most of the HR departments have been through one or more major restructuring in the past

decade, less importance has been given to how best these HR configurations are. (A. Kate 2008)

While all economic dislocation took place, technology advanced at one of the most rapid rates in

decades. , be it communication, transportation new equipment etc, it is everywhere! The global

workplace suddenly became smaller, as mobile phones, iPads, Skype and high-bandwidth Internet



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communications came into use enabled us all to communicate all the time. According to Morgan

Stanley, there will be 10 billion mobile phones by the year 2015, more than 10 times the number of

personal computers. Thanks to tools like Facebook (800 million users), LinkedIn (130 million users) and

Twitter (150 million users) we can all stay in touch with each other in real-time, all the time. This rapid

new communications network has had a tremendous impact on Employee communications,

Employment branding, social learning, Expertise networks & Leadership dynamics. This technology trend

was not lost on HR. In 2011, more than $3 billion of talent management software was purchased and it

is expected to increase to almost $3.5 billion in 2012. This software is now being used to automate and

integrate nearly every HR process, from sourcing to performance management. Yet, large companies

still have an average of seven HR systems in place, making it difficult to create a single integrated

environment for analytics, reporting and decision-making. Companies are expected to focus heavily on

integrating these systems during 2012. (J. Bersin 2011)

Some of the recent trends in HRM that are being observed are as follows:

The recent quality management standard ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 of 2000 focuses more on

people centric organizations. Organizations prepare themselves in order to address people

centered issues with commitment from the top management, with renewed thrust on HR issues,

more particularly on training. To stay ahead of competition in this world of uncertainty, organizations have introduced six-

sigma practices. Six- sigma uses rigorous analytical tools with leadership from the top and

develops a method for sustainable improvement. These practices improve organizational values

and helps in creating defect free product or services at minimum cost.

Human resource outsourcing is a new accession that makes a traditional HR department

unnecessary in an organization.

With the increase of global job mobility, recruiting proficient people is also increasingly

becoming difficult, therefore by creating an enabling culture, organizations are also required to

work out a retention strategy for the existing skilled manpower.

Some of the emerging trends in the role of HR managers are as follows:- HR managers stress upon overall development of human resources in all respects.

The scope of human resource management is extended to cover career planning and

development, organization development, social justice etc.

Enlightened trade unions have become an active participant in the organization and

management of industry.

The HR manager is required to act as a change agent through greater involvement in

‘environment and scanning and development planning. They have to devote more time to

promote changes than to maintain the status quo.

The HR function has become more cost-conscious and profit oriented. Instead of merely

administering HR activities, the HR departments search out opportunities for profit

improvement and growth. Greater authority and responsibilities are delegated to HR managers particularly in the field of

employee welfare services.

HR managers continuously retrain themselves to avoid obsolescence of their knowledge and

skills.

Thus, the job of HR managers has become more difficult and challenging. They have to be experts in

behavioral sciences. They play a creative and development role. Thus they have to acquire new skills,

values, attitudes to discharge their new responsibilities successfully.



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A common theme has also emerged towards decreasing the size of the HR function while moving

transactional activities “out” and, therefore, setting up fewer human assets to perform these activities

by outsourcing, leveraging technology and creating common approaches, processes and practices. This

role of HR shared service, therefore affords more time to organizations that can be utilized for strategic

issues.

The basic HRM functions, staffing, compensation, training and development, employee and labor

relations, Health and Safety are not just as simple as they were before, and they have developed sub-

sub functions as well which play a very significant role in managing human resource..

Staffing, (the function of HRM) generally encompasses the business processes and activities which

produce records created in the course of identifying human resource needs in an organization. Accounts

of candidates are developed and maintained based on the organization’s anticipated human resources

requirements, candidates are selected and appointed as these requirements become visible and,

therefore, the staffing sub-function includes more specifically Recruitment and Promotion, Probation,

Deployments, Assignments and Secondments ,Recourse of public service employees; Employment

equity (as it relates to staffing) & staffing of bilingual positions.

Recruitment and Promotion includes records relating to all aspects of initial hiring and subsequent

promotion, including delegated staffing, establishing qualifications, priorities, appointments within the

public service, recruitment from outside the public service, area of selection, assessment, selection, and

appointment. Probation includes material on all appointments from outside the public service relating

to an employee’s probationary period. Deployments, Assignments and Secondments include records on

all aspects of deployments, assignments, and secondments, such as letters stating new job,

departmental policies and procedures on deployment, the Record of Staffing Transaction, complaints

about deployment and reviews of complaints, and documentation notifying employees of their right to

refer complaints to the Public Service Commission

Training and Development has transformed into a collection of material on all aspects of training anddevelopment, including plans based on human resource requirements, and all documentation related to

employment equity, courses, schedules, cost, granted leave, and, communications training, language

training, health and safety training, employee orientation, professional development training for

trainers, and operational or in house training; and all documentation such as audits, annual

management reports, and departmental reports on training produced according to Training Information

System (TIS) requirements. Individuals to be placed on the Personnel (Employee) file.

Also the tools and techniques used for training are also updated with respect to latest technology. usage

of social media has increased tremendously over time.

Today’s compensation plans have become really Complex. Due to the recession in 2008, companies are

trying to minimize costs, as much as possible. The main concerns are renovating and rebuilding

compensation strategies, increasing merit and bonus pay, and the need to get in better sync with

employees. (M. Sottong, 2012)

Nowadays Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) include records relating to all aspects of the EAP,

including policies and directives, Code of Ethics, assessments of the programme, contracts for outside

services, advice, medical diagnosis, referrals, training, monitoring (including statistics and summaries,

and audits) Employee and labor relations are monitored more closely in this era, due to recession and



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economy crises employee turnover rate has increased, in order retain the employees, better relations

have to be maintained.

Health and safety measures have also been upgraded, as employees are an organization’s most valuable

assets, they are given excellent benefit programs, which enhance employee loyalty with the firm. In the

past, hygiene was not measured properly as it is measured now.

From Personnel management to HRM, the transition reflects this emerging organization-wide

commitment to human capital development. The change, however, has triggered considerable

discussion within the academic literature about the successful strategic positioning and responsibility for

HRM (C. Sheehan, 2005) it is now focusing on the whole of human resource in an organization.

In the past, human resource function was typically considered a cost center and an administrative

overhead. The human resource departments mainly focused on short-term gains and savings. They

focused on administrative efficiency and compliance activities. They tended to expense investments in

talent intangibles rather than capitalize and tended to raise short-term earnings by cutting discretionary

expenditure on people development. Such propensity achieved short-term successes but encountered

long-term problems when the objectives were achieved at the expense of employee productivity. Thenew human resource role is to focus on organizations’ long-term objectives. Instead of focusing

exclusively on internal human resource issues, modern human resource department takes a balanced

and broader approach. They place emphasis on future-oriented plans and objectives and value adding

initiatives which define the roles of human resource based on the following four functions – strategic

business partner, change agent, employee champion, and administration expert. They are also

champion of globalization and technology savvy. (B. Kapoor, J. Sherif 2012)

Whereas the traditional role of the HR department is basically functional in nature and revolves

around the following tasks: Human Resource Planning, Recruiting of Staff, Job Analysis, Performance

Review, Wage/Salary and Benefits Administration, Employee Training, Personnel Administration,

Legislative Compliance and Labor Relations. Personnel managers were mainly paper-pushers, whohandled administrative tasks associated with pay, benefits, hiring and so forth. The personnel

department was often physically and psychologically separated from the actual work of the

organization.

Within the strategic view of HRM the functional tasks described above remain important, as they are

essential to any organization. However, many organizations are developing new structural and cultural

models to meet the increasing competitive demands of the international market place. Firms at this

stage of development focus on decentralizing, entrusting authority to line managers, moving from

controlling systems to enabling systems, and breaking down the organizational bureaucracy. Integrated

growth firms foster a more entrepreneurial climate with positive encouragement, risk taking less

emphasis on formal relationships, and more direct contact between managers and employees. These

organizations also spend much time getting back in touch with the customer. To use a traditional HR

model in such firms and focus HRM exclusively on bureaucratic tasks would be inconsistent with these

organizational strategies. As a result a new Strategic HRM view has emerged, thus the new role of HR

can be described most simply as one of helping managers maximize the contribution of employees in

achieving competitive advantage. (J.Bhatnagar, A. Sharma, 2003)



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The HRM departments of the organizations have changed for the betterment of the organization, and

they will keep changing with the evolution in the world, new techniques, methods and ways shall be

used in the future. With global competition increasing, decision-making in organizations has become

increasingly complicated and difficult. This creates new challenges for global organization’s departments

to manage workforce which is diverse in cultures, time zones, expertise, benefits and compensations.

The global supply of talent is short of its long-term demand, and the gap is a challenge for employers

everywhere. The shortage between the demand and supply of talents is likely to continue to increase,

notably for highly skilled workers and for the next generation of middle and senior leaders.

As this time is passing survival is becoming more and more difficult, it’s the responsibility of the HR

department to keep the organization together, and make it as productive as possible by utilizing and

managing the human resource effectively.

In the overall evolving scenario described above, the subjects linked to human resource management

and development are of central importance to the organizations, as a critical factor for the success of

new strategies and initiatives for change and innovation in the structures and procedures of

organizational development. Only those multinational enterprises, which are willing to adapt their HR

practices to the changing global labor market conditions will be able to attract and retain high

performing employees.

In the end, the operational and transactional aspects of HR need to be handled well and completely. No

matter what other strategic and transformational work is being done, the trains still need to run on

time.



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References:

J.Bhatnagar, A. Sharma (2003), Indian Journal of Industrial Relations.

R. M. Vosburgh (2007), The Evolution of HR: Developing HR as an Internal ConsultingOrganization

Kate (2010), (Re) Designing the HR Organization

J. Bersin (2011), Strategic Human Resources and Talent Management: Predictions for2012

M. Sottong (2012), HR Compensation Trends and Strategies 2012

C. Sheehan (2005 ) A model for HRM strategic integration.

B. Kapoor, J. Sherif (2012) Human resources in an enriched environment of businessintelligence

Bibliography:



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