It can easily be said that in the recent past, no other area of an organization has changed so much as human resource management. Till recently, companies and organizations had a department or division for personnel or labor relations or industrial relations. Its functions normally centered around ensuring smooth production and operations, discouraging strikes and labor activism, appraisal and compensation issues and complying with the government’s mandates and rules.
The improvements and changes in the industry and economy besides increased awareness of employees as a valuable resource has changed the focus from controlling to managing this resource. An organization’s most valuable asset now is its people and not capital, machinery or technology. People are emotional, ever changing and susceptible to ups and downs and as such managing this dynamic resource needs a set of both hard and soft analytical skills.
In human resource management various activities find a place, such as recruiting the right kind of employees, training them to enhance themselves and enrich the organization at the same time, keep them motivated and enthusiastic and encourage high performance. More fields include hrm and psychology, benefits and compensation, compliance with regulations, equal opportunity to minorities, women and physically challenged.
An organization’s success depends increasingly on the human resources manager. His job is not only to recruit people who have the right qualifications, but also the right approach and attitude. Nobody can envy him these tasks. The human resources manager has to balance, through hrm and psychology, the need to have staff working together in the direction set by the organization with individuality and creativity of the employees.
Some of the basic features that an effective human resource management possesses are a system to invite suggestions and complaints and to implement/address them quickly and effectively. A responsive appraisal system that includes provision of counseling to each employee in his or her career and personality development and a genuine feedback mechanism are other features of a good human resource management.
All organizations, be it is a large corporation, a non-profit or a small business unit, has to take care of its people if it has to grow and prosper. It must identify and nurture those who are high performers and groom them for leadership roles. At the same time, it has to identify and help average performers to improve themselves and their productivity. It can’t hope to achieve these objectives, without a well-developed human resource management. Basicly, it has to keep its people happy, since a happy person is even a productive one.
No other aspect of organizations has changed as much in recent times as human resource management. Companies in the past had departments for personnel and labor relations, as employees have come to be regarded as a valuable resource, attention has turned from controlling them to managing them. A human resource manager will undertake various activities, from recruiting the right people, to making sure they have the right qualifications and attitude. The manager also has to apply hrm and psychology, to ensure everyone’s working towards the same goals, without stifling individuality and creativity. Organizations of every size need to look after their staff in order to be successful.
- George Purdy