ASSIGNMENT

Q1. What is Human Resource Management (HRM)?

Human resource management is the practice of supporting and managing employees through every
aspect of their jobs, from recruitment and hiring to professional development and retirement benefits.
Human Resource Management is the understanding and application of the policy and procedures that
directly affect the people working within the project team and working group. These policies include
recruitment, retention, reward, personal development, training and career development.

While in the earlier ages, the emphasis used to be on extracting maximum work out of employees, now
human resource management has become an ethical and highly skilled professional. Though the primary
goal of the HR department is to hire the personnel needed to run the organization and manage them well,
they are also responsible for employee welfare, compliance with labour laws, remuneration and taxation
etc. in the modern era. There are specific professional courses for HR roles that impart the necessary
work-related, procedural, behavioural and technical knowledge to people entering the HR field.

It is necessary for human resource management to have a proper human resource planning. Recruiting
and selecting the right employee is not enough. There is a necessity to provide continuous training and
development to the employees to be more productive and efficient. With great training, it enables the
employees to be more innovative, creative, motivated and thus increase their working performance.
Training can be through various types such as on the job training, off the job training, job rotation and
scholarships.

Human capital management plays an important role in the recruitment process. It is essential for hiring,
managing, training high performing employees. Human capital management is important for hiring the
right talent, orienting him/her to the organization, making a new employee feel comfortable, training
employees in order to constantly upgrade their skills, retaining employees and making employees self-
sufficient and prepare them for adverse conditions.

Q2. Discuss the wide scope of HRM in various areas.

The scope of HRM is very vast. It covers all the activities in the working life of an employee.

1. Human Resource Planning (HRP): It is the first step of human resource management. HRP is a process
through which the company makes an assessment of the present manpower-the number of people
employed, number of post vacant, whether there is excess or shortage of staff and prepares plans and
policies to deal with them accordingly. It also estimates the future man power requirement. It matches
the supply and availability of manpower with the company’s purpose and makes the best person available
for the job.

2. Job Analysis: An important task of HRM is job analysis. It provides the basis for recruitment, training
and development of staff. Job analysis provides a detailed picture of the nature of job, the skill and
abilities required to perform the job, the duties and responsibilities of the worker required for the job.
This helps in the process of recruitment and selection, to appoint the appropriate person for the job and

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also facilitates arranging training and development programme for the employees to match their skill and
abilities with the job requirement.

3. Job Evaluation: It forms the basis of wage and salary determination. Different jobs are compared and
evaluated to determine the relative importance of different jobs within the organization. The jobs are
compared, graded and ranked. Job evaluation determines how much pay to be affixed to the particular
job on the basis of their importance in the organisation functioning. This helps to determine a fair wage
and salary and to determine a rational pay structure.

4. Recruitment and Selection: The company on the basis of human resource planning and job analysis
identifies the requirement of personnel and explores different internal and external sources from where
manpower can be acquired. This process is called recruitment. The right person is selected and put to
work. The selection process involves steps like receiving applications, tests, interviews, medical
examination and final selection. Right selection and placement provides employee satisfaction which
improves their productivity and efficiency and benefits the organization.

5. Performance Appraisal: It is a systematic method of evaluating the performance of employees. This

helps to assess the efficiency, strength and weakness of the employees. It is a controlling process whereby
the employees’ performance is matched with the standard level of performance and remedial measures
taken in case actual performance does not meet the standard. It helps the management in their decision-
making relating to promotion, pay hike that may be rewarded if the employee meets standard or
outperforms the standard. It also helps the management to decide about the training and development
needs for employees, who needs up gradation and development of skill.

6. Training and Development: Human resource management is concerned with arrangement of training
and development programme for the newly appointed staff as well as for existing employees. This helps
to enhance the qualitative and quantitative performance of the work force. Training helps the employees
to cope up with the changing technological and other internal and external work situations. Training and
development make employees excel in their present post as well as make them competent for future
higher job responsibilities.

7. Employee Compensation: Human resource management performs the function of determining the pay
structure for different employees on the basis of qualification, efficiency, experience, nature of the job. It
also determines rewards and incentives to be paid for their contribution towards the organisation.

8. Employee Motivation: Motivation of employees is essential for retention and sustenance of employees
within the organisation. Motivation plays an important role in management of personnel. It helps to
improve productivity of personnel. There are different ways by which employees may be encouraged.
Recognition and reward for performance, promotion, pay-hike, and other monetary and non-monetary
rewards motivate the employees.

9. Employee Welfare: Human resource management focuses on the welfare of employees by providing
canteen facilities, creches, rest and lunch rooms, housing, transport, medical assistance, education, health
and safety, medical care, sickness benefits, recreation facilities. It aims at improving the quality of work
life by providing a better environment worth working, job security, flexible working hours, eliminating
workplace hazards, which will have a positive impact on the productivity and quality of work. Along with

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monetary benefits provided to employees these non-monetary benefits improves the morale of the
employees and motivates them.

10. Industrial Relation: Labour unrest, conflicts between the work groups and between workers and
management over issues like low wage, bad work environment are common problems that must be
handled carefully by establishing a balance between the worker’s interest and interest of the organisation
and management. Human resource management considers establishment and maintenance of
harmonious and cordial relation between employer and employees.

Q3. Describe in detail the objectives of HRM.

The scope of HRM can be vast. This is why, every organisation, big or small will need to align with some
high-level objectives of HRM. The specific objectives of HRM majorly fall under one of these high-level
objectives:

Business Objectives: These centre around managing human resources to achieve business goals by
defining organisational structure, hiring right fit candidates and training them.

Personnel Objectives: These objectives enable efficient and engaging employee experience starting from
pre-hiring to post-exit and every step in between. Employee experience has multiple touch points – the
recruiter’s call, interview process, HR discussion, offer & acceptance, induction, performance
management, grievance redressal, training and more. Most of these touch points are with HR. Hence, it is
important to ensure a robust HR software is in place that performs to the letter and spirit of its objectives.

Regulatory Objectives: Another set of core Human resource management objectives is to ensure
compliance and enforcement of guidelines related to the workforce in accordance with local labour laws.

The specific objectives of HRM are as follows:

1. Organisation Structure: Defining and implementing organisation structure is key to achieving

organisational goals. The HRM is required to align the org structure with business functions and their
delivery targets. The inappropriate org structure could result in diminished staff morale impacting their
performance and thereby scuttling the organisational outcomes. On the other hand, a well-defined org
structure leads to an organisation that functions to its full potential.

2. Staffing: This important objective is directly related to the one above. Finding the right resource for a
role is imperative for successful business outcomes. Before publishing job postings, shortlisting candidates
and setting up interviews, the HRM needs to work closely with the hiring managers to understand the role
and get a robust job description written. Another key aspect of hiring is to present the organisation’s
culture mindfully, be it in terms of inclusivity, flexibility or even social causes. The young workforce is
seemingly choosing their employers based on these aspects.

3. Career Path: Defining and documenting career paths available within the organisation in consultation
with the business leadership team is another key objective of HRM. The defined career paths need to be
current and relevant. Well-defined career paths allow employees to align their aspirations with
opportunities available within the organisation.

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4. Learning and Development: The HRM also needs to facilitate the learning and development of
employees so that their chosen career goals are achieved. Succession planning within the organisation
becomes easy when the organisation has nurtured a pool of talent. This will also help with the
organisational objective of retaining talent. This involves keeping abreast of industry trends so that the
relevant training can be arranged before it becomes an urgent need.

5. Performance Management: Providing a performance appraisal framework to enable meritocracy within

the organisation also comes under the purview of the HRM. The HRM is responsible for all the four key
stages of performance management, from planning to monitoring to reviewing and rewarding. The entire
performance management process needs to be fair, accurate, efficient and above all, should form a basis
for improving performance.

6. Policy Governance: Ensuring that the organisation always operates within the boundaries of moral,
ethical and local applicable laws is a critical objective of the HRM. It needs to define, communicate (via
training, if required), update and make available the rules, policies and regulations of the company. The
HRM also needs to govern compliance with the policies and facilitate investigation and disciplinary actions
for any reported violations by the employees.

7. Benefits and Compensation: Effectively utilising available budgets to hire talent and retain high
performers is another important objective. Industry trends on pay scales for various skills and experiences
applicable and relevant to the organisation are communicated to the hiring managers by the HRM.

8. Rewards and Recognition: Timely recognition of the employee success and appropriately rewarding
them goes a long way in building a positive workplace atmosphere, another important function.

9. Health, Safety and Overall Well-being of Employees: Ensuring a healthy workforce results in less
downtime, quality outcomes and high satisfaction levels. Increasingly, due to the recent COVID pandemic,
employees have been working from home impacting their both physical and mental health. Organisations
are focusing on providing the required help and support to overcome these issues, with the help of the
HR department.

10. Exit Management: Ensuring a smooth exit process that creates a positive experience for the leaving
employees is important for future engagements and goodwill and is an important responsibility of the
HRM.

Q4. What role has a personnel manager to play in a modern industry to achieve corporate objectives
effectively?

Being a manager, he is primarily responsible for the overall management of the department and performs
basic managerial functions like planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. Additionally, some
operational functions like recruitment, training, etc. also form an important part of his role. A personnel
manager plays an integral role in effective personnel management and making human relations in the
organization better. Following are some of the roles that a personnel manager in a modern industry to
achieve corporate objectives effectively:

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Counsellor: Counseling is one of the main functions of personnel manager. As a counsellor, personnel
manager discusses the problems with employees related to career, health, family, finance, social life and
try to solve their problems and offer advice on how to overcome them.

Initiating Policies: Initiating policies is another main function of personnel manager. Initiating policies and
formulating them are two important tasks of a personnel manager. He assists the senior management in
creating policies pertaining to personnel management, salary administration, welfare activities, transfers,
working environment, records, and appraisals.

The Advisory Role: In any organization, on a daily basis, line managers face a wide range of problems
pertaining to personnel management. This is where a personnel manager steps in and offers advice on
such matters since he is familiar with the laws and practices that surround human resources.

The Link between the Employees and the Management: Apart from personnel management, the
personnel manager tries to maintain good industrial relation within the organization. So, he helps the
trade unions in understanding the different policies of the organization. He also communicates the views
and concerns of the union leaders to the senior management.

Representative Role: The personnel manager is also responsible to represent the company and
communicate management policies which affect the people in the organization. This role is best-suited to
him because he has a better overall picture of the company’s operations.

Decision-making Role: He plays an important part in decision-making on human resources-related issues.

He also formulates and designs policies and programs of personnel management.

Mediator Role: In case of a conflict between employees or groups of employees, a superior and a
subordinate, or even the management and employees, the personnel manager plays the role of a
mediator. His role is to ensure peace and harmony in the organization.

Leadership Role: He offers leadership and guidance to employees. Further, a personnel manager ensures
effective communication in the organization and motivates employees to work towards achieving the
organization’s objectives.

Welfare Role: In most organizations, the personnel manager also acts as the welfare officer. Therefore, he
ensures facilities and services like canteen, transport, hospitalization, and other employee welfare
services are available to the workers.

Research Role: He maintains a record of all employees in the organization. He also researches various
personnel areas like absenteeism, alcoholism, labour turnover, etc. Further, post-analysis, he
recommends apt measures to help eradicate them to the senior management.

Q5. “Managing people is the heart and essence of being a manager”. Explain this statement and
describe the characteristics of HRM.

Manpower management is a most crucial job because, managing people is the heart and essence of being
a manager. It is concerned with any activity relating to human elements or relations in organization. A
business or an industry can be thought of as an inter-weaving of human elements as the warp, while
inter-locking and inter-weaving with this element are the material elements- the woof of the fabric. The

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warp of the fabric is the human element appearing and reappearing, the strength giving element holding
the entire fabric together, and giving it life and a character of continuity. Therefore, a business cannot
succeed if this human element is neglected.

Human Resource management is concerned with the most effective use of people to achieve
organizational and individual goals. It is a way of managing people at work, so that they give their best to
the organization. It has the following features:

1. Action Oriented: Human Resource management focuses attention on action, rather than on record
keeping, written procedures or rules. The problems of employees at work are solved through rational
policies.

2. Individuality Oriented: It tries to help employees develop their potential fully. It encourages them to
give out their best to the organization. It motivates employees through a systematic process of
recruitment, selection, training and development coupled with fair wage and policies.

3. Integrating Mechanism: Human Resource Management tries to build and maintain cordial relations
between people working at various levels in the organization. In short, it tries to integrate human aspects
assets in the best possible manner in the service of an organization.

4. Pervasive Force: Personnel Management is pervasive in nature. It is present in all enterprises. It

permeates all levels of management in an organization.

5. Auxiliary Service: Personnel departments exist to assist and advise the line or operating managers to do
their personnel work most effectively. Human Resource manager is a special advisor.