Everything you need to learn about the functions of human resource management. HRM is based on what managers do. The functions performed by managers are common to all organizations.
In order to achieve the objectives of an organisation, the HRM section or department must carry out a number of functions.
These functions include all those functions which are relevant for managing human resources in an organization. In a business human resource management starts with recruiting and engaging of qualified people and continues till directing and encouraging them as and when they encounter problems in working toward established goals.
The functions of Human Resource Management may be categorized into management functions, operative functions and advisory functions.
The management functions of human resource management are:
1. Planning 2. Organising 3. Directing 4. Controlling 5. Staffing.
The operative functions of human resource management are:-
1. Procurement 2. Training and Development 3. Compensation 4. Motivation 5. Integration and Coordination 6. Maintenance of working conditions and welfare activities 7. Maintaining personal records 8. Separation 9. Ensuring industrial relations 10. Employment;
11. Performance Appraisal 12. Benefits 13. Working Environment 14. Welfare Activities 15. Career Planning 16. Labour Relation/Industrial Relation 17. Record Keeping 18. Personal Research 19. Separation.
Summing up, the functions of human resource management are:- 1. Human Resource Acquisition 2. Maintenance 3. Human Resource Development 4. Termination 5. Human Resource Acquisition 6. Performance and Compensation Management 7. Motivating and Maintaining Human Resources 8. Industrial Relations 9. Manpower Planning or Human Resource Planning (HRP) 10. Recruitment 11. Selection 12. Placement 13. Induction and Orientation.
Functions of Human Resource Management: Management Functions, Operative Functions and Advisory Functions
Functions of Human Resource Management – Acquisition, Maintenance, Development and Termination
The definition of HRM is based on what managers do. The functions performed by managers are common to all organizations. In order to achieve the objectives of an organisation, the HRM section or department must carry out a number of functions. The key functions of HRM can be summarized as the acquisition, maintenance, development and termination of employees.
Function # 1. Acquisition:
This is the ‘getting’ phase of HRM. It includes estimating both the future demand and supply for human resources and integrating these resources into a total human resource strategy. In other words, the objectives and future directions of the organisation must be known before any reliable forecasts of people needs can be made. The acquiring process includes recruiting, selection and the socialization or induction of new employees.
Function # 2. Maintenance:
This is the ‘keeping’ function and involves providing benefits, services and working conditions that are needed if individuals are to remain committed to the workplace.
Function # 3. Development:
This encompasses the whole domain of training and development, which has become a major area of concern and expense for organisations. Developing also includes the concepts of organisational change and development and how these processes impact upon employees.
Function # 4. Termination:
This is the ‘saying goodbye’ activity and is sometimes known as the separation phase of employment. It involves such issues as retirement, redundancy, resignation and dismissal. These issues have become of major importance in organisations in recent years. Moreover, there have been many legislative developments in Australia which had a major impact on the arrangements for terminating the employment contract.
The HRM functions are broad sweeping. Within each of these functions are a number of activities that human resource specialists must carry out if these functions are to be fulfilled. Human resource activities are actions taken to provide and maintain an appropriate workforce for the organisation.
The five most common activities of HRM personnel in organization are identified as:
i. Planning for human resource needs
ii. Staffing identified personnel needs
iii. Performance management and remuneration for employees
iv. Improving employees and the work environment
v. Establishing and maintaining effective working relationships.
Organizing Human Resource Management Functions:
For performing a major organizational function effectively, the organization should establish suitable organization structure for the organization as a whole as well as for major organizational functions and product groups. Organization structure is the pattern of relationships between people and work within which organizational activities are performed to achieve stated objectives.
Organization structure covers all organizational functions — production/operations, marketing, finance, and human resource. However, our focus is on organizing human resource management functions.
Organizing is the process of initiating plan implementation by clarifying jobs and working relationships among organizational members to achieve organizational objectives.
Relevance of Human Resource Department:
Before going for designing structure for performing human resource management functions, the relevance of human resource (HR) department should be found out. This issue arises because unlike production and marketing which are primarily line functions, human resource is basically a staff function.
It may be mentioned that a line function is one which directly contributes to the achievement of organizational objectives whereas a staff function provides services to line functions in achieving organizational objectives.
Because of this nature of organizational functions, many people question the relevance of HR department in an organization. To quote an example- “A personnel manager made a disparate plea in an electronic discussion forum for HR professionals seeking help to justify his position in the company. He wrote that his general manager believes that the HR function serves no business purpose and he was at loss to prove otherwise.”
This is not just the case of an isolated company but this prevails in many companies. However, things are changing at a fast pace.
Because of globalization of economy, increased competition with intense fight for market share, pressure on profit margin, etc., organizations throughout the world have recognized that the fundamental principles of competition have changed in which muscle power in the form of financial resources is not the ultimate source of competitive advantage, but human resource is, which is a key differentiating factor in the present age.
Today, in many companies, head of HR department sits in corporate strategy-making group. In many large companies of India, this status of HR holds good.
Thus, relevance of HR department in any organization, particularly not the small ones, can be seen in the following context:
1. Complex HR Functions:
With the increased complexity of business operations, HR functions have become more complex than what they used to be few years ago. Complexity in HR functions has been generated because of the following factors — multi-location business operations including multi-country operations, corporate restructuring including downsizing of workforce, newer organizational designs, changing job profile, changing workforce profile, higher-level aspiration of employees, increasing role of woman employees, plethora of laws governing HR practices, and increased competition for acquiring good-quality human resources.
Performing the HR functions in the changed situation requires specialized knowledge and training. Such specialized knowledge and training are possessed by HR professionals only. In order to make effective use of the specialized knowledge and training, it is necessary that HR professionals are given proper status in the organization and their functions are grouped in a separate department.
2. Inadequate HR Perspectives of Operating Managers:
Though operating managers (line managers in an organization are known as operating managers) are primarily responsible for achieving organizational objectives, they have specialty which is relevant for their own field only. On HR matters, they do not have adequate perspectives but they use the human resources most.
Therefore, there should be some organizational unit which must assist these operating managers on the issues related to HR matters in the area of their operations. If the HR functions are organized in a separate department, these operating managers become sure from where and from whom they can get relevant help and guidance on HR matters. In the absence of a separate HR department, there is likelihood of confusion and chaos.
3. Need for Uniformity in HR Practices:
There is a need for uniformity in HR practices in an organization whether the organization has its operations at different locations or at a single location having different departments. Uniformity in HR practices is based on the principle of justice and equity which is the natural process from human point of view.
In the absence of uniformity of HR practices in various organizational units and departments, people will feel that they are being discriminated against others. This feeling results in de-motivation and low morale which work against employee productivity.
Higher productivity is the core of long-term prosperity of any organization. Therefore, there is a need for an agency in the organization which ensures that there is uniformity in HR practices throughout the organization. HR department is in a better position to function as this agency because it coordinates total HR functions in the organization.
4. Encouraging Human Use of Human Beings:
There is a need for human use of human beings. Unlike physical and financial resources which do not have emotions and feelings, human resource has emotions and feelings. These emotions and feelings go a long way in determining human behaviour including work behaviour.
Because of these emotions and feelings, human beings derive satisfaction or dissatisfaction. One of the objectives of every market-oriented organization is to provide customer satisfaction. This satisfaction can be provided only through satisfied employees.
HR personnel are in a better position to provide this satisfaction as they are perceived to be more sensitive to human-related issues as compared to anyone else in the organization. Because of this sensitivity, they can create an organizational culture which encourages human use of human beings. They can do this in a better way if they are grouped in a department.
The above discussion shows that in the present-age, HR department has its relevance in any type of organization, business or otherwise, knowledge-based or industrial, service or manufacturing, and so on. Today, the question is not whether HR department should exist or not, the question is how best HR department is organized so that it discharges its responsibility most effectively.
Functions of Human Resource Management – Management and Operative Functions
Human resource department is established in most of the organisations to perform various functions for managing human resources effectively. Some of the important functions performed by human resource manager are divided into two major categories- management functions and operative functions.
Lots of sub functions are performed under these two major categories in order to utilise the human resource effectively.
1. Management Functions:
a. Planning
c. Directing
d. Controlling
a. Procurement
b. Training and development
c. Compensation
d. Motivation
e. Integration and coordination
f. Maintenance of working conditions and welfare activities
g. Maintaining personal records
h. Separation
i. Ensuring industrial relations
A brief elaboration of the various functions performed by the human resource managers follows:
1. Management Functions:
a. Planning:
Planning is the basic activity of all the human resource managers. A substantial portion of their time should be devoted to planning. For HR managers, planning means the determination in advance of human resource program that will contribute to the realisation of organisational goals.
At the planning stage it is expected of the HR managers to ensure an overall integration between the individual goals and the organisational goals and the plan of action should be executed in such a manner that all the employees while realising their individual goals should contribute towards the successful realisation of the organisational goals.
b. Organising:
After a course of action has been determined; an organisation must be established to carry it out. An organisation is a means to an end. Once it has been determined that certain personnel functions contribute towards the organisation’s objectives, the HR manager must form an organisation by designing the structure of relationships among jobs, people, and physical factors.
All the employees must be aware of the complex authority and responsibility relationship that exists within the organisation. The employees should have clarity about the fact that they will be receiving the instructions from whom, will be issuing the instructions to whom and will finally be accountable to whom. Establishing all these relationships is the basic task of organising.
c. Directing:
After planning and organising the work of employees it is expected of them to put everything into action and execute the work properly, but it has been noticed that there is always a need for a conscious effort on the part of the management in getting people to go to work willingly and effectively.
This is what is called as directing, leading, and guiding workforce. It has been noticed that the effectiveness with which an employee works in an organisation is directly related to the effort put in by the management in directing, motivating and guiding them in the right direction.
d. Controlling:
Control is the managerial function concerned with regulating activities in accordance with the human resource plan, which in turn was formulated on the basis of an analysis of fundamental organisational goals. It is a managerial activity where the focus of the management is to measure the actual performance of the employees on the job, compare it with the targets which were assigned to them and find out the deviations. Controlling activity also suggests corrective actions to take care of the deviations.
It is believed that the four above-mentioned functions are basic and common to all managers. The direction function is closely aligned with the operative function of compensation and motivation, integration and coordination.
Though all managers must unavoidably direct their subordinates, the human resource managers should possess exceptional expertise. There is a skill in managing that can be transferred to various operative areas, but no one will deny that an effective manager must know what it is that he or she is managing.
2. Operative Functions:
a. Procurement:
The first operative function of human resource manager is concerned with the act of obtaining the right kind and number of persons necessary to accomplish the organisational goals. It deals specifically with the determination of human resource requirements and their recruitment, selection and placement. The determination of required human resource is done on the basis of a thorough job analysis which clearly prescribes the job description and specification.
Inviting applications from the suitable candidates from various sources starts the procurement process. The actual hiring process involves a number of activities designed to screen personnel, such as reviewing application forms, psychological testing, checking references, and conducting interviews.
b. Training and Development:
After acquiring the best persons available, it is important to impart them a degree of training and development before finally placing them on the job. Development has to do with the increase of skills, through training, that is necessary for proper job performance.
This is an activity of great importance and will continue to grow because of the changes in technology, the nature of jobs, the re-alignment of jobs, and the increasing complexity of various tasks performed by employees. The various training and development methods help the employees in learning better skills and performing their job to their best capacity.
c. Compensation:
This function is defined as ensuring adequate and equitable remuneration of personnel for their contributions to organisational objectives. It is one of the most important functions of human resource management because monetary incentives play a very important role in keeping the employees on the job and motivating them to perform their best.
d. Motivation:
Besides compensating the employees, it is important for the management to constantly motivate them and increase their morale with the help of various financial as well as non-financial incentives. A motivated employee will always perform to the best of his capacity and would like to help the management in the realisation of the organisational goals.
e. Integration and Coordination:
Once the employees are procured, developed, and reasonably compensated, it is important for the management to assign them to their jobs and to ensure integration and coordination between their efforts. It requires an attempt to affect a reasonable reconciliation of individual, societal, and organisational interests.
It is generally believed that there is a significant overlapping of interest in a business so it is important to ensure coordination between the feelings and attitudes of individual persons with the principles and policies of organisations. This requires a careful handling of employee’s grievances, disciplinary action, and labour union reactions.
f. Maintenance of Working Conditions and Welfare Activities:
Working conditions certainly influence the motivation and morale of the employees. These include measures taken for health, safety, and comfort of the workforce. It is expected of the human resource department to provide for various welfare services which relate to the physical and social well-being of employees.
These may include provision of a cafeteria, restrooms, counselling rooms, group insurance policies, education for children of employees, recreational facilities, and facilities of day care centre for children etc.
g. Maintaining Personal Records:
The human resource or personnel department maintains the records of the employees working in the enterprise. It keeps full record of their training, achievements, transfer, promotion etc. It also preserves many other records relating to the behaviour of employees, such as, absenteeism, labour turnover and the personnel programs and policies of the organisation.
All these records are required at the time of deciding about the promotional policies, motivational programmes or working out the layoff programmes for the employees.
h. Separation:
The first function of human resource management is to secure the employees, so it is logical that the last should be the separation and return of that person to society. Most people do not die on the job. It becomes the responsibility of the organisation to meet certain requirements of due process in separation, as well as ensuring that the returned citizen is in as good shape as possible.
It is important for the management to ensure that the separated employee is able to sustain himself well after the job. So the separation of the employees should also be planned carefully in such a manner that the employee leaves the organisation in a happy, contented and satisfied mood.
i. Ensuring Industrial Relations:
These days, the responsibility of maintaining good industrial relations is mainly discharged by the human resource manager. The human resource manager can help in collective bargaining, joint consultation and settlement of disputes, if the need arises.
He can do a great deal in maintaining industrial peace in the organisation as he is deeply associated with various committees on discipline, labour welfare, safety, grievances etc. He helps in laying down the grievance procedure to redress the grievances of the employees. He also gives authentic information to the trade union leaders and conveys their views on various labour problems to the top management.
So, the purpose of all the activities outlined above, both managerial and operative, is to assist in the accomplishment of basic organisational objectives by managing the human resource effectively.
Functions of Human Resource Management – With Considerations
Human resource management is a process. Process of any object prescribes what functions and sub-functions should be undertaken to achieve the objectives of the object. This is true for human resource management also. Therefore, human resource management functions must be linked to its objectives which are in the form of societal objectives, organizational objectives, functional objectives, and personal objectives.
Human resource management functions include all those functions which are relevant for managing human resources in an organization. These are put in five broad categories- human resource acquisition, human resource development, employee performance and compensation, motivating and maintaining human resources, and industrial relations.
Besides these basic functions, human resource management involves supporting functions in the form of human resource information system, human resource accounting, and human resource audit either to support its own functions or to interact with other functions of the organization.
A brief description of the basic functions of human resource management is presented here:
Function # 1. Human Resource Acquisition:
It involves selecting and placing appropriate personnel, both in terms of number and their overall suitability for the organization.
This function involves human resource planning for determining the number and types of personnel required, recruitment through which personnel may be located and attracted to offer themselves for consideration for selection, selection process through which suitability of the personnel may be determined and suitable candidates are selected, placement concerned with placing a person on the job who has been selected for it, induction by which the new employee is provided relevant information about his job, organization, and growth opportunity in the organization besides introducing him to his superiors, peers, and subordinates.
Function # 2. Human Resource Development:
Human resource development function involves developing people for better performance for their current positions as well as for their future positions to match individuals and jobs.
This function comprises developing human resource development system, career planning and development, training to perform a specific job in a better way, management development concerned with overall development of managerial personnel for the present positions as well as for future positions.
Function # 3. Performance and Compensation Management:
Performance and compensation management involves performance management and compensation management. Performance management involves performance planning, performance appraisal, and performance counselling used for a variety of purposes. Compensation management involves determining base compensation, incentives, and benefits to match people’s efforts with suitable rewards.
Function # 4. Motivating and Maintaining Human Resources:
It involves creating motivational environment through benchmarking best-in-class human resource management practices, developing quality of work life, human resource communication, human resource counselling, empowerment, and participation. Other aspects that are included in it are safety and health management and human resource mobility in the form of promotion, demotion, transfer, and separation to maintain rightsizing.
Function # 5. Industrial Relations:
It is concerned with managing good relations between management group and other groups of employees, particularly operatives. This involves the designing of industrial relations system, managing discipline, redressing grievances, and managing disputes between management and operatives effectively.
While performing various human resource management functions, two considerations should be taken into account:
1. All the functions of human resource management must be linked to the human resource management objectives so that they contribute to the achievement of these objectives. Therefore, the objectives of human resource management should be clearly spelled out so that efforts related to managing human resources are geared to specific direction.
2. There should be proper emphasis on all functions and not that some functions are over-emphasized at the cost of others. The relative emphasis on a particular function should be oriented in terms of its contribution to the achievement of the objectives of human resource management as well as those of the organization.
Function of Human Resource Management – Why Managing People is one of the Biggest Challenges for any Manager
Human resource management functions are common to all organizations through every organization may have its own human resource management programme. Every manager must get things done through people. Individual goals and aspirations have to be alignment with organizational goals for the successful handling of a business.
An effective manager should be able to utilize human and non-human resources to bring about this alignment and eventually achieve these goals. A managers handling of the humans asset reflects his managerial capabilities.
Managing people is one of the biggest challenges for any manager, for the following reasons:
(i) Individual Differences:
Individuals differ from each other in terms of their values, attitudes, beliefs and culture. This leads to a very complex situation in an organizational context.
(ii) Different Stimulating and Motivational Factors:
He simulating and motivational factors might not be the same for all the employees. It is not important to understand the individual needs of these employees and cater to these needs.
(iii) High Expectations of Employees:
The expectations of employees of today are too much high when compared to the employees of yesterdays. They know that they are valuable assets and demand to be treated as such.
Human resource management functions can be broadly is classified into two categories, i.e.:
(A) Managerial Functions
(B) Operative Functions
(A) Managerial Functions:
Managing people is the essence of being a manager. Like the other managers, a human resource manager performs the functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.
(1) Planning:
A plan is a pre-determined course of action. Planning includes determination of specific objectives, determining programmers, setting policies, setting rules and procedures, and preparing budget. Planning involves forecasting and research, human resources, prediction of trends in labour market, wages, union demands and their impact on the organization.
Planning helps in facing the challenges which takes place in future. It bridges the gap between where we are and where we want to go. Basically, planning is the means to manage change. Planning involves formulating the future course of action. Planning includes determining in advance the personnel programmes and changes required that would contribute to the achievement of organizational goals.
It also includes identifying human resource requirements and forecasting personnel needs, foreseeing the changes in employee’s attitudes and evolving effective ways of handling these changes.
(2) Organizing:
It is the process of dividing work into convenient duties, grouping of such duties in the form of positions, assigning duties to individual and delegating authority to each so that work can be carried out in a planned mariner or way. The right organization structure is the foundation or formation of effective management strategy.
Therefore it can be said that an organization tries to direct, control and coordinate the effects of the people. Organizing involves establishing an intentional structure of roles for people in an organization. Structural considerations such as the chain of command, division of labour and assignment of responsibility are part of the organizing function.
Careful organizing ensures effective use of human resources. An organization is a structure and a process, by which a cooperative group of human beings allocates its task among its members, identifies relationships and integrates its activities towards a common objective. The organizing function establishes relationships among employees so that they can contribute collectively towards the attainment of organizations goals.
(3) Staffing:
This is the process of obtaining and maintaining capable and competent personnel in various positions at all levels. It broadly encompasses planning, recruitment, selection, placement, induction, orientation, transfer, career progression and separation.
(4) Directing:
Directing is the process of motivating, leading and supervising people. It includes all those activities by which a manager influences the actions of subordinates. Directing is the heart of management. By directing human resources manager influences the actions of his subordinates and secures the willing and effective cooperation of employees for attaining organization goals.
It also helps in building sound individual and human relations in the organization. It is the process of directing all the available resources towards the common organizational goals.
Thus, direction is a vital management function, which ensures maximum employee contribution and also helps in establishing sound industrial and human relations. It also involves coordination between different departments to ensure maximum utilization of all resources including human resources.
(5) Controlling:
Controlling involves identification of actual results, comparison of actual results with expected results as set by planning processes and taking corrective action so that actual results match with expected results.
Controlling the management of human resources involves auditing training programme, directing, morale surveys, and conducting separation and such other means.
The measurement and rectification of activities to ensure that events conform to plans is known as controlling. This function measures performances against goals and plans, identifies deviations and by placing the process back on track, helps in the accomplishment of plans. Previous experiences and knowledge sharing help in avoiding repetitive problems, reducing the need for controlling.
(B) Operative Function:
Operative functions are those which are relevant to specific departments and therefore, these vary in different departments of an organization. It is related to specific activities of human resource management, employment, development, compensation and employee relations.
Since the human resource function is unique to each organization, the activities of the human resource department differ from each other.
The various operative functions of human resource management are as follows:
(1) Employment:
Employment is the first operative function of human resource management. This involves procuring and employing individuals with suitable knowledge, skills, experience and aptitude necessary to perform various jobs. It includes functions such as job analysis, human resource planning, recruitment, selection, placement, and induction.
(2) Procurement Function:
It is concerned with securing and employing in the right kind and proper member of people required accomplishing the organization objectives.
It consists of the following activities:
(i) Organizational Planning:
It is the process of analyzing organizational structure and changes to be made. It includes analyzing key positions and formulating action programmes to bridge the gaps in manpower.
(ii) Human Resource Planning:
It is the process of estimating the present and future manpower requirements of the organization, preparing inventory of present manpower and formulating action programmes to bridge the gaps in manpower.
Human resource planning involves foresting the human resource requirements of an organization and the future supply of human resources, and making suitable adjustments between these two in correlation with organizational plans.
It also involves assessing the possibility of developing the human resources to match with requirements, by introducing appropriate changes in the functions of human resource management. Human resource planning assures an organization of suitable and adequate manpower to perform various jobs in accordance with the organizational goals.
(iii) Job Analysis:
It is the process of studying in detail operations and responsibilities involved in a job so as to identify the nature and level of human resource required to perform the job effectively.
To ensure the satisfactory performance of an employee, his skills, abilities and motives to perform a job must be the requirements of the job. A mismatch will result in poor performance, absenteeism, turnover and other problems.
Job analysis is the process by which the tasks which comprise the job are determined and the skills and abilities required to perform it successfully are identified. It is the process of studying and collecting information pertaining to the operation responsibilities of a specific job.
It involves:
(a) Preparing job description, job specification, ‘job requirements and employee specification so that the human resource manager can determined the nature, levels and quantum of human resources required.
(b) Providing the guides, plans, and basis for job design and redesign. It also forms the basis for all operative functions of human resource management.
(iv) Recruitment:
Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an organization. To a large extent, the effectiveness of an organization depends on the effectiveness of its employees.
Hence, recruitment of human resources becomes a significant human resource function. Recruitment is the process of seeking and attracting prospective candidates against a vacancy in an organization.
It involves:
(a) Tapping the existing sources of applicants and developing new resources;
(b) Identifying or creating new sources of applicants;
(c) Stimulating and attracting candidates to apply for jobs in the organization;
(d) Deciding the recruitment procedure.
(v) Selection:
It is the process of choosing the most suitable persons out of all the applicants. The purpose of employment selection is to choose the right candidate for a job. The process of identifying and establishing the credentials of a candidate for a job to ensure success is referred to as selection. This includes preceding the in-job performance of candidates.
This function deals with the following:
(a) Scanning the application forms/CVs.
(b) Identifying and developing suitable and reliable testing techniques.
(c) Involving the line managers or respective departments.
(d) Evaluating the candidates and fixing their salary and benefits.
(e) Formulating medical fitness policy and examination procedures.
(f) Intimating the candidates, even the ones who are not selected, about the results of the selection process.
(g) Employing the selected candidates.
(vi) Placement:
It is the process of assigning a specific job to each one of the selected candidates. After a selected candidate conveys his acceptance of the offer of employment made by an organization, his placement is needed in the organization. The individual’s needs also have to be given due to consideration where possible.
(a) Discussing the placement with the line/functional managers and identifying a mentor for the new entrant.
(b) Conducting follow-up study and evaluating employee performance so as to determine how well employee has adjusted to the job.
(c) Identifying mistakes in placements and correcting them.
(vii) Induction:
It is the process of receiving and welcoming of an employee by employer when he first joins a company and giving him the basic information he needs to settle down quickly and happily and start work.
Introducing a new employee to the organization, its business, the organization culture, its values and beliefs, and practices and procedures is termed as induction. It also includes helping the employee to get acquainted with his new job, his tasks and responsibilities.
(viii) Transfer:
A transfer refers to a horizontal or lateral movement of an employee from one job to another in the same organization without any significant change in status and pay.
(ix) Promotion:
It refers to advancement of an employee to a higher post carrying greater responsibilities, higher status and better salary. Promotion may be temporary or permanent depending upon the needs of the organization.
(x) Discharge:
It may be made because of a failure of the employees to meet job requirement.
(3) Development Function:
It involves developing people for better performance and changing their positions over a period of time so that proper coordination can be maintained between the individuals and jobs. It has to do with improving the knowledge, skills, aptitudes and values of employees so that they can perform their jobs effectively.
This function comprises of the following activities:
(i) Potential Appraisal:
It refers to the abilities present but not currently utilized. It is the latent capacity to discharge higher responsibilities in future roles. It is the process of assessing systematically the performance of a person on the present job and his potential for higher level jobs in future.
(ii) Training:
It is the procedure by which employees learn the job skills and can improve their work attitudes and knowledge to perform a particular job. Training is the systematic development of the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to perform a given task or job successfully, in an individual.
It includes the following:
(a) Identifying the training needs of the individuals, keeping in view the organizational needs.
(b) Designing suitable training programmes to eliminate the gaps in knowledge, skills or attitude.
(c) Conducting training programmes or providing support to other departments in conducting training.
(d) Evaluating the effectiveness of the training programmes and making necessary changes.
(iii) Executive Development:
In this, the development of people for better performance and changing their positions over the period of time to match between the individuals and the jobs. Executive development is the concept of developing the employees of an organization to meet future changes and challenges.
It includes forecasting the human resource demands of an organization and gearing up to meet these demands. Management development looks at enabling an employee to develop his overall personality and his capability for continuous improvement.
It is different from training, where the employee is taught a set of specific skills or imparted knowledge on a particular subject.
(iv) Career Planning and Development:
It involves planning the career of employees for their betterment and implementation of various plans so that career aspirations can be fulfilled. Career planning refers to identifying once career goals and formulating plans of reaching them through various means like education, works experience etc.
Career developments look at individuals goals from the point of view of the organization, whereas career planning looks at the same from individuals view point. Hence, it is important that career planning and career development reinforce each other.
(4) Compensation Functions:
Compensation includes all the extrinsic rewards that an employee receives during and after the course of his job, for his contributions to the organization. It focuses on providing adequate, suitable .and equitable remuneration to employees for the attainment of organizational objectives.
It has following functions:
(i) Job Evaluation:
It is the measurement of relative worth for purpose. It is the systematic determination of the value of each job in relation to other jobs in the organization, in the industry and in the market.
It involves the following:
(a) Identifying/designing suitable job evaluations techniques;
(b) Evaluating various jobs;
(c) Ascertaining the relative worth of jobs in various categories.
(ii) Wage and Salary Administration:
It implies developing and operating a suitable wage and salary programme and includes the following:
(a) Conducting wage and salary survey in the market and in the industry;
(b) Determining wage and salary rates on the basis of various factors like law, equity, fairness and performance;
(c) Implementing wage and salary administration programme;
(d) Evaluating the effectiveness of these programmes,
(iii) Bonus and Incentives:
Bonus may be regarded as an incentive for higher productivity. Incentive refers to performance linked compensation paid to improve motivation and productivity of employees.
Incentives are the rewards an employee earns in addition to regular wages or salary based on the performance of the individual, the team or the organization. Bonus is primarily a share in the surplus and is directly related to the organization’s performance.
(5) Integration Function:
It involves motivating employees through various financial and non-financial incentives, providing job satisfaction, handling employee grievances through formal grievances procedure, employee counseling, and improvement in quality of work.
It involves the following:
(i) Communication – It is the process of exchange of information in a proper manner so that organization objectives are achieved.
(ii) Job satisfaction – It is the amount of pleasure associated with a job. It is basically a mental feeling which an individual has about his job.
(iii) Collective Bargaining – It is a method by which problems of the people who are working are tried to be solved. In this the representations of the union meet the management and discuss various issues.
(iv) Conflict Management – It can arise due to difference in views and opinion between the workers and the management. The manager is the only one who can handle and solve this problem in a systematic and proper manner.
(v) Participation of employee – It is basically the mental and emotional involvement of people in group situations that encourages them to contribute to group goals and share responsibility.
(vi) Quality of work – The work quality is tried to be improved by following new technology and new methods. So that good opportunities for growth and satisfaction of work can be seen there.
(vii) Discipline – It is basically the code of conduct which is a part of that organization so that proper rules and regulations as well as disciplinary measures can be implemented in a proper manner.
(6) Maintenance:
It is basically concerned with protecting the mental and physical health of employees.
For this purpose following benefits are provided:
(i) Health and Safety – It gives emphasis on removing the risk and human cost on the job.
(ii) Social security – It includes various facilities like pension schemes, compensation plans etc. for the employees.
(iii) Security protection – It is the function of protecting the organizational property from various methods like theft, fire or other damages.
(iv) Personnel research – It is concerned with the evaluation and the effectiveness of personnel programmes and policies.
(v) Personnel audit – It implies critical examination and evaluation of policies, programmes and procedures in the area of human resource management.
(vi) Employee benefit and services – For maintaining a good and healthy environment human resource management provides various employee benefits and services like medical aid transportation facilities, educational services, housing services etc.
Functions of Human Resource Management – Managerial, Operative and Advisory Functions
HRM functions include many areas.
I. Managerial Functions:
1. Planning (Human Resource Planning):
In the human resource planning function, the number and type of employees needed to accomplish organisational goals are determined. Planning requires the collection and analysis of information in order to forecast Human resources supplies & to predict future Human resources needs. In short, human resources planning involve deciding human resource goals, formulating human resources policies and programmes, preparing the human resources budget etc.
2. Organising (Job Analysis):
Organising is the process of allocating tasks among the members of the organisation, creating various departments and structure of the organisation. In Human resource management Job analysis is the process of describing the nature of a job and specifying the human requirement such as skills, and experience needed to perform it. A Job description spells out work duties & activities of employees. In this way, a structure &coordination of relationships among jobs, personnel & physical factor is developed.
3. Directing (Orientation):
The direction function is meant to guide & motivate the people to accomplish the personnel programs. Orientation is the first step of Directing, towards helping a new employee adjusts himself to the new job and the employer. Directing involves careers planning, salary administration, ensuring employee morale, developing cordial relationships and provision of safety requirements & welfare of employees. Directing also helps in building sound individual and human relations in the organisation.
4. Controlling:
It involves observing, checking, verifying and comparing the results of executions with the standard ones and taking corrective actions if deviations may occur. Controlling helps the human resource manager to check & control the performance of the Human resource department in terms of various functions like performance appraisal, critical examination of personnel records, auditing training programmes, directing morale surveys, conducting separation interviews etc.
II. Operative Function:
The operative or service functions of human resources management all concerned with the employment, development, compensation, integration and maintenance of human resources of the organisaiton.
1. Staffing & Employment:
Staffing emphasises the recruitments & selection of human resources of an organization. Human resources planning & recruiting precede the actual selection of people for positions in an organisaiton. Recruiting is the personnel function that attracts qualified applicants to fill job vacancies.
In the selection function the most qualified applicants are selected from among those attracted to the organisaiton by the recruiting function. Recruitment & selection cover the sources of supply of human resources and the devices designed to select the right type of people for various jobs. Induction and placement of personnel for their better performance also come under the employment or procurement function.
2. Training & Development:
The training & development function gives employees the skills & knowledge to perform their jobs effectively. In addition to providing training for new or inexperienced employees, organisation often provides training programs for experienced employees whose jobs are undergoing change. Large organisations often have development programs which prepare employees for higher level responsibilities within the organization. Training & development programs provide useful means of assuring that employees are capable of performing their jobs at acceptable levels.
3. Performance Appraisal:
This function monitors employee performance to ensure that it is at an acceptable level. Human Resources professionals are usually responsible for developing & administering performance appraisal systems, although the actual appraisal of employee performance is the responsibility of supervisors and managers. Besides providing a basis for pay promotion and disciplinary action, performance appraisal information is essential for employee development since knowledge of results (feedback) is necessary to motivate and guide performance improvements.
4. Compensation:
Human Resources Management personnel provide a rational method for determining how much employees should be paid for performing certain jobs. Pay is directly related to the maintenance of human resources. Compensation affects staffing in that people are generally attracted to organisations offering a higher level of pay in exchange for the work performed.
5. Benefits:
Benefits are another form of compensation to employees other than direct pay for work performed. As such the Human Resource function of administering employee benefits shares many characteristics of compensation function. Benefits include pension plans, profit sharing plans, non-monetary benefits etc.
6. Working Environment:
It is the responsibility of Human resource department to provide good working conditions to its employees. These include drinking water facilities, bath room facilities, hygienic environment, good lighting, safety to employees, fresh air etc. Good working conditions certainly influence the motivation, morale and the efficiency of the organisation’s work force.
7. Welfare Activities:
These activities relate to the physical and social well-being of the employees and their families. They include provision of medical facilities and the first-aid fox, provision of rest-rooms, creche, recreational activities, canteen, education of children, transport facilities, housing, group insurance, employee’s counseling etc.
8. Motivation:
Employees work in the organisation for the satisfaction of their needs. Generally, it is found that employees don’t contribute towards the organisational goals as much as they can. This happens just because of employees are not properly motivated. The human resource manager helps the various department’s managers to design a system of financial and non-financial rewards to motivate the employees e.g., best employee of the month, present gift, tickets of movies for whole family, dinner in a good restaurant, giving performance incentives, meaningful involvements etc.
9. Career Planning:
Career planning has developed partly as a result of the desire of many employees to grow in their jobs and to advance in their career; Career planning activities include assessing an individual employee’s potential for growth and advancement in the organisation.
10. Labour Relation/Industrial Relation:
The term ‘Labour relations’ refers to interaction with the employees who are represented by a trade union. Unions are organisation of employees who come together to obtain a stronger voice in decisions affecting wages, benefits, working conditions and other aspects of employment. With regard to labour relations, the human resource manager responsibility primarily involves negotiating with the unions regarding wages, service conditions, and resolving disputes and grievances.
11. Record Keeping:
Records which must be maintained include application forms, health and medical records, employment history (jobs held, promotions, transfers, layoffs) seniority lists, earnings and hours of work, absences, turnover, tardiness and other employee data. Complete and up to date employee records are essential for most HRM functions.
12. Personal Research:
All HR managers engage in some form of research activities. In a good research approach, the object is to get facts and information about personnel specifies in order to develop and maintain a program that works. There is a wide scope for research in the area of recruitments, employee turnover, terminations, training and so on.
13. Separation:
As the first function of human resource management is to wangle the employees, so the last should be the separation and return of that person to society. The HR manager has to ensure the release of retirement benefits to the retiring personnel in time. On the other hand lay off, retrenchment, Discharge, Dismissal is another form of separation.
III. Advisory Functions:
HR manager offers his advice to:
1. Top Management:
HR manager advises the top management regarding formulation and evaluating of personnel program, policies & procedures. He also gives advice for achieving & maintaining good human relations and employee’s high morale etc.
2. Departmental Heads:
Personnel manager offers advice to the heads of various departments regarding manpower planning, job analysis, recruitment, selection, placement, training, performance appraisal etc.
Functions of Human Resource Management – HRP, Recruitment, Selection, Placement, Induction and Orientation
Function # 1. Manpower Planning or Human Resource Planning (HRP):
The ongoing process of systematic planning to achieve optimum use of an organization’s most valuable asset – its human resources. The objective of human resource (HR) planning is to ensure the best fit between employees and jobs, while avoiding manpower shortages or surpluses. The three key elements of the HR planning process are forecasting labor demand, analyzing present labor supply and balancing projected labor demand and supply.
Human resources planning is a process that identifies current and future human resources needs for an organization to achieve its goals.
E.W. Vetter has visualized resources planning as “a process by which an organization should move from its current manpower position to its desired manpower position. Through planning, management strive to have the right number and right kind of people at the right places, at the right time, doing things which result in both the organization and the individuals receiving maximum long-run benefit.”
Bulla and Scott- Human resource planning is ‘the process for ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements’.
Reilly- ‘Workforce planning as a process in which an organization attempts to estimate the demand for labour and evaluate the size, nature and sources of supply which will be required to meet the demand.’
Human resource planning includes creating an employer brand, retention strategy, absence management strategy, flexibility strategy, talent management strategy, and recruitment and selection strategy.
Leon C Megginson- “Human resources planning is an integrated approach to performing the planning aspects of the personnel function in order to have a sufficient supply of adequately developed and motivated people to perform the duties and tasks required to meet organizational objectives and satisfy the individual needs and goals of organizational members.”
Objectives of Human Resources Planning:
1. To recruit and retain the human resources of required quantity and quality.
2. To foresee the employee turnover and make the arrangements for minimizing turnover and filling up of consequent vacancies.
3. To meet the needs of the program of expansion, diversification etc.
4. To foresee the impact of technology on work, existing employees and future human resources requirements.
5. To improve the standards, skill ..knowledge,, ability, discipline etc.
6. To assess the surplus or shortage of human resources and take measures accordingly.
7. To maintain congenial industrial relations by maintaining optimum level and structure of human resources.
8. To minimize imbalances caused due to non-availability of human resources of right kind, right number in right time and right place.
9. To make the best use of its human resources and
10. To estimate the cost of human resources.
Characteristics of Human Resource Planning:
1. Human resources plan must incorporate the human resources needs in the light of organizational goals.
2. Human resource plan must be directed towards well-defined objectives.
3. Human resource plan must ensure that it has the right number of people and the right kind of people at the right time doing work for which they are economically most useful.
4. Human resource planning should pave the way for an effective motivational process.
5. A human resource plan should take into account the principle of periodical reconsideration of new developments and extending the plan to cover the changes during the given period.
6. Adequate flexibility must be maintained in human resources planning to suit the changing needs of organization.
Factors Affecting Human Resource Planning:
i. Government legislation
ii. Job mobility factors
iii. Population shifts
iv. Economic cycles and condition
v. Geographical concerns
vi. Educational levels of workers
vii. Technological changes
viii.Changes in social views
ix. Political changes
x. International events
i. Strategies of the company
ii. HR policies of the company
iii. Formal and informal groups
iv. Job Analysis
v. Time Horizons
vi. Type and quality of information
vii. Company’s Production Operations policy
viii.Trade Unions
Function # 2. Recruitment:
Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an organization. The process of finding and hiring the best-qualified candidate from within or outside of an organization for a job opening, in a timely and cost effective manner.
The recruitment process includes analyzing the requirements of a job, attracting employees to that job, screening and selecting applicants, hiring, and integrating the new employee to the organization. Edwin Flippo- “Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the Organization.”
1. Support the organization ability to acquire, retain and develop the best talent and skills.
2. Determine present and future manpower requirements of the organization in coordination with planning and job analysis activities.
3. Obtain the number and quality of employees that can be selected in order to help the organization to achieve its goals and objectives.
4. Create a pool of candidates so that the management can select the right candidate for the right job from this pool.
5. Attract and encourage more and more candidates to apply in the organization
6. Increase the pool of candidates at minimum cost.
7. Acts as a link between the employers and the job seekers
8. Infuse fresh blood at all levels of the organization
9. Meet the organization’s legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its workforce.
10. Increase the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques.
Function # 3. Selection:
Selection is next step after recruitment. It is the process of choosing the most suitable candidates (Properly qualified and competent) out of many interested candidates. It is a process of selecting the best and rejecting the rest. In this selection process, interested applicants are differentiated in order to identify those with a greater likelihood of success in a job. Such candidates are selected and appointed.
Selection is a negative function as it relates to elimination of unsuitable candidates. ‘Right man for the right job’ is the basic principle in selection.
Order of the Employee Selection Process:
1. Preliminary Interviews
2. Application blanks
3. Written Tests
4. Employment Interviews
5. Medical examination
6. Appointment Letter
Function # 4. Placement:
After selecting a candidate, they should be placed on a suitable job. It involves assigning a specific rank and responsibility to an employment. Placement of individuals in job matching their abilities. Personnel offices interview and test applicants for the purpose of achieving suitable job placements where there is a good match between management needs and employee qualifications.
Placement basically refers to the system of assessment and selection by which vacancies are filled by staff serving in an organization. Placement can also be defined as the internal filling of vacancies as distinguished from external recruitment.
Placement is a process of assigning a specific job to each of the selected candidates. It involves assigning a specific rank and responsibility to an individual. It implies matching the requirements of a job with the qualifications of the candidate.
Significance of Placement:
1. It improves employee morale.
2. It helps in reducing employee turnover.
3. It helps in reducing absenteeism.
4. It helps in reducing accident rates.
5. It avoids misfit between the candidate and the job.
6. It helps the candidate to work as per the predetermined objectives of the organization.
1. Collect details about the employee
2. Construct the employees profile
3. Match between sub-group profile and individual’s profile
4. Compare sub-group profile to job family profile
5. Match between job family profiles and sub-group profiles
6. Assign the individuals to the job family
7. Assign the individual to specific job after further counseling and assessment
1. Employee expectations from the job.
2. Expectation from the employers is more than the employee’s ability or skills.
3. Technological changes might result in mismatch between the job and the employee.
4. Changes in organizational structure.
5. Social and Psychological factors.
Factors Responsible for Effective Placement:
1. Job rotation
2. Team work
3. Training & Development
4. Job enrichment
5. Empowerment
Function # 5. Induction and Orientation:
Induction program is a technique by which a new employee is rehabilitated into the changed surroundings and introduced to the practices, policies and purposes of the organization.
“Induction is the process of receiving and welcoming an employee when the first joins a company and giving him the basic information he needs to settle down quickly and happily and start work”. Proper employee orientation/socialization helps to accommodate the new employee with existing employees.
Handbook, Lecture, Film, group seminar, etc. used to impart the information to new employees about the environment of the job and the organization includes:
i. About the company
ii. About the Department
iii. About the Superiors, Subordinates, etc.
a. General induction program
b. Specific orientation program
c. Follow-up induction program.
a. To help the new comer to overcome his shyness and overcome his shyness nervousness in meeting new people in a new environment.
b. To give new comer necessary information such as location of a cafe, rest period etc.
c. To build new employee confidence in the organization.
d. It helps in reducing labor turnover and absenteeism.
e. It reduces confusion and develops healthy relations in the organization.
f. To ensure that the new comer do not form false impression and negative attitude towards the organization.
g. To develop among the new comer a sense of belonging and loyalty to the organization.
Advantages of Formal Induction:
a. Induction helps to build up a two-way channel of communication between management and workers.
b. Proper induction facilitates informal relation and team work among employee.
c. Effective induction helps to integrate the new employee into the organization and to develop a sense of belonging.
d. Induction helps to develop good relation.
e. A formal induction programme proves that the company is taking interest in getting him off to good start.
f. Proper induction reduces employee grievances, absenteeism and labor turnover.
g. Induction is helpful in supplying information concerning the organization, the job and employee welfare facilities.
Contents of Induction Programme:
a. Brief history and operations of the company.
b. The company’s organization structure.
c. Policies and procedure of the company.
d. Products and services of the company.
e. Location of department and employee facilities.
f. Safety measures.
g. Grievances procedures.
h. Benefits and services of employee.
i. Standing orders and disciplinary procedures.
j. Opportunities for training, promotions transfer etc.
k. Suggestion schemes.
l. Rules and regulations.