Human Resource Management

PROJECT REPORT Submitted By

KARANAM RAGHAVENDRA RAO

REG NO: S1AA6A31083A

PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED TO

GREAT EASTERN MANAGEMENT SCHOOL

2011-2013

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the Project work Human resources is submitted to the college by the candidate Mr. KARANAM RAGHAVENDRA RAO. bearing Reg. No (S1AA6A31083A) is the product of bonafide research carried out by the candidate under my supervision in HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT Project .

(GUIDE) BANGALORE NOV 2011 MRS. JAYASHREE LECTURER, HRM

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Project work was carried out under the remarkable guidance of Mrs Jayashree Lecturer, Great Eastern Management School. I am grateful for his guidance, valuable. Suggestions and for the constant encouragement and cooperation. I also express my sincere gratitude and thanks to all the subjects participated in the Study.

Human resource management

. Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.[1] The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations.[1] In simple words, HRM means employing people, developing their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.

Contents:

1. Features 2. Academic theory 3. Business practice

3.1HRM strategy

4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Careers and education Professional organizations Functions See also Conclusion

1.Features
Its features include:

Organizational management Personnel administration Manpower management Industrial management[2][3]

But these traditional expressions are becoming less common for the theoretical discipline. Sometimes even employee and industrial relations are confusingly listed as synonyms,[4] although these normally refer to the relationship between management and workers and the behavior of workers in companies. The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that employees are individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic business resources, such as trucks and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of workers, assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and that the main obstacles to their endeavors are lack of knowledge, insufficient training, and failures of process. Human Resource Management(HRM) is seen by practitioners in the field as a more innovative view of workplace management than the traditional approach. Its techniques force the managers of an enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be understood and undertaken by the workforce, and to provide the resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their assignments. As such, HRM techniques, when properly practiced, are expressive of the goals and operating practices of the enterprise overall. HRM is also seen by many to have a key role in risk reduction within organisations.[5] Synonyms such as personnel management are often used in a more restricted sense to describe activities that are necessary in the recruiting of a workforce, providing its members with payroll and benefits, and administrating their work-life needs. So if we move to actual definitions, Torrington and Hall (1987) define personnel management as being: a series of activities which: first enable working people and their employing organisations to agree about the objectives and nature of their working relationship and, secondly, ensures that the agreement is fulfilled" (p. 49). While Miller (1987) suggests that HRM relates to: ".......those decisions and actions which concern the management of employees at all levels in the business and which are related to the implementation of strategies directed towards creating and sustaining competitive advantage" (p. 352).

2. Academic theory
Research in the area of HRM has much to contribute to the organisational practice of HRM. For the last 20 years, empirical work has paid particular attention to the link between the practice of HRM and organisational performance, evident in improved employee commitment, lower levels of absenteeism and turnover, higher levels of skills and therefore higher productivity, enhanced quality and efficiency [6]. This area of work is sometimes referred to as 'Strategic HRM' or SHRM ([7]. Within SHRM three strands of work can be observed[8]: Best practice, Best Fit and the Resource Based View (RBV). The notion of best practice - sometimes called 'high commitment' HRM - proposes that the adoption of certain best practices in HRM will result in better organisational performance. Perhaps the most popular work in this area is that of Pfeffer [9] who argued that there were seven best practices for achieving competitive advantage through people and 'building profits by putting people first'. These practices included: providing employment security, selective hiring, extensive training, sharing information, self-managed teams, high pay based on company performance and the reduction of status differentials. However, there is a huge number of studies which provide evidence of best practices, usually implemented in coherent bundles, and therefore it is difficult to draw generalised conclusions about which is the 'best' way (For a comparison of different sets of best practices see Becker and Gerhart, 1996 [10] Best fit, or the contingency approach to HRM, argues that HRM improves performance where there is a close vertical fit between the HRM practices and the company's strategy. This link ensures close coherence between the HR people processes and policies and the external market or business strategy. There are a range of theories about the nature of this vertical integration. For example, a set of 'lifecycle' models argue that HR policies and practices can be mapped onto the stage of an organisation's development or lifecycle[11]. Competitive advantage models take Porter's (1985) ideas about strategic choice and map a range of HR practices onto the organisation's choice of competitive strategy. Finally 'configurational models' [12] provide a more sophisticated approach which advocates a close examination of the organisation's strategy in order to determine the appropriate HR policies and practices. However, this approach assumes that the strategy of the organisation can be identified - many organisations exist in a state of flux and development. The Resource Based View (RBV), argued by some to be at the foundation of modern HRM [13], focusses on the internal resources of the organisation and how they contribute to competitive advantage. The uniqueness of these resources is preferred to homogeneity and HRM has a central role in developing human resources that are valuable, rare, difficult to copy or substitute and that are effectively organised. Overall, the theory of HRM argues that the goal of human resource management is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees and also to manage
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them effectively. The key word here perhaps is "fit", i.e. a HRM approach seeks to ensure a fit between the management of an organisation's employees, and the overall strategic direction of the company (Miller, 1989).

The basic premise of the academic theory of HRM is that humans are not machines, therefore we need to have an interdisciplinary examination of people in the workplace. Fields such as psychology, industrial relations, industrial engineering, sociology, economics, and critical theories: postmodernism, poststructuralism play a major role. Many colleges and universities offer bachelor and master degrees in Human Resources Management or in Human Resources and Industrial Relations.

One widely used scheme to describe the role of HRM, developed by Dave Ulrich, defines 4 fields for the HRM function:[14]

Strategic business partner Change Agent Employee champion Administration Expert

3. Business practice
Human resources management involves several processes. Together they are supposed to achieve the above mentioned goal. These processes can be performed in an HR department, but some tasks can also be outsourced or performed by line-managers or other departments. When effectively integrated they provide significant economic benefit to the company.[15]
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Workforce planning Recruitment (sometimes separated into attraction and selection) Induction, Orientation and Onboarding Skills management Training and development Personnel administration Compensation in wage or salary Time management Travel management (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM) Payroll (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM) Employee benefits administration Personnel cost planning Performance appraisal Labor relations

3.1 HRM strategy

An HRM strategy pertains to the means as to how to implement the specific functions of Human Resourse Management. An organization's HR function may possess recruitment and selection policies, disciplinary procedures, reward/recognition policies, an HR plan, or learning and development policies, however all of these functional areas of HRM need to be aligned and correlated, in order to correspond with the overall business strategy. An HRM strategy thus is an overall plan, concerning the implementation of specific HRM functional areas. An HRM strategy typically consists of the following factors:

"Best fit" and "best practice" - meaning that there is correlation between the HRM strategy and the overall corporate strategy. As HRM as a field seeks to manage human resources in order to achieve properly organizational goals, an organization's HRM strategy seeks to accomplish such management by applying a firm's personnel needs with the goals/objectives of the organisation. As an example, a firm selling cars could have a corporate strategy of increasing car sales by 10% over a five year period. Accordingly, the HRM strategy would seek to facilitate how exactly to manage personnel in order to achieve the 10% figure. Specific HRM functions, such as recruitment and selection, reward/recognition, an HR plan, or learning and development policies, would be tailored to achieve the corporate objectives. Close co-operation (at least in theory) between HR and the top/senior management, in the development of the corporate strategy. Theoretically, a senior HR representative should be present when an organization's corporate objectives are devised. This is so, since it is a firm's personnel who actually construct a good, or provide a service. The personnel's proper management is vital in the firm being successful, or even existing as a going

concern. Thus, HR can be seen as one of the critical departments within the functional area of an organization.

Continual monitoring of the strategy, via employee feedback, surveys, etc.

The implementation of an HR strategy is not always required, and may depend on a number of factors, namely the size of the firm, the organizational culture within the firm or the industry that the firm operates in and also the people in the firm.

An HRM strategy can be divided, in general, into two facets - the people strategy and the HR functional strategy. The people strategy pertains to the point listed in the first paragraph, namely the careful correlation of HRM policies/actions to attain the goals laid down in the corporate strategy. The HR functional strategy relates to the policies employed within the HR functional area itself, regarding the management of persons internal to it, to ensure its own departmental goals are met.

There are both generalist and specialist HRM jobs. There are careers involved with employment, recruitment and placement and these are usually conducted by interviewers, EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) specialists or college recruiters. Training and development specialism is often conducted by trainers and orientation specialists. Compensation and benefits tasks are handled by compensation analysts, salary administrators, and benefits administrators.

4. Carrers and Education

Education :has always been the basic tool to shape a career, but things have changed in the past few decades as the developed world has undergone a thorough revolution based upon information and knowledge. Our grandparents and even our parents lived in a much more static career environment where the very concept find career advice was almost unthought of. A specialist telling them what they should and shouldnt do about their jobs, and urging them to acquire newer knowledge and skills after youth would have been taken as a sort of charlatan. Our parents and their parents would study at youth and seldom acquire any further knowledge (other than by working).
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Career training: was not an option after ordinary education. Only medical doctors and a few other professions would be keen on recycling. Companies rarely provided any internal education other than the mere training to use a certain machine or tool. People didnt feel they actually needed to learn anything more than they already know, or at least they didnt think it mattered in terms of keeping their jobs or making progress in their careers. In this website we help you find the perfect degree program for you and we provide with FREE information on colleges near you! Nowadays, continuous career training and career education is no longer a plus but a need if you wish to progress in your career. Many executives who have failed to take care of their career education realize too late that they have failed as career builders: they havent updated themselves, for example, many executives and employees understimate the need to keep themselves up-to-date on IT training. IT is necessary nowdays and a path to success. In the best scenario it becomes hard for them to reach any further in their careers. In the worst cases, unless they get proper career advice they may go backwards because other people, including current subordinates, will manage their careers better through the permanent acquisition of knowledge and skills by means of career training, presential or online masters degrees and other ways of career education. As you will find out in these pages, Career Education is a broad concept, and one that is subject to permanent evolution and rethinking as the information society develops and reshapes our whole way of life. From joining Career Training to Career Counseling, or evening university studies or even an online degree program to improving your skills via short courses or selflearning, there are many ways in which career builders can attain their career education goals. Career coaching will also help you along the way as you will find the necessary advice to start your career as an employee or a freelance career. From this career education homepage we would like to introduce some of the main issues we are going to tackle: Career Builder. Our age has seen the development of skilled professionals into career builders. This section will specifically address this matter and provide related information and resources: at about career education we offer you a variety of career guidebooks and MBA career guides.

Career-driven Education. On this section we shall be providing post-university studies and other further studies, as well as a resource directory to find most of the top providers of such studies. This well help you to make a preliminary decision on a shortlist of universities and other educational careers institutions to contact for further information. The Pro-active Career Approach.
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This chapter will allow us to provide you with a new focus on your career. A career-aware attitude and decision-making will help you to target any short term project and to consider every small step in the light of your global career goals. This section includes information on sabbatical and other career breaks for further study or other ways to achieve further knowledge and skills. Test your career. How many of us actually take some time to test our careers? And yet, this is a most necessary part of any career builders long-term planning. You need to know what kind of individual you are regarding your career, and then you need to see where you have reached and which steering may be necessary. You may need to fully reconsider your career and take a radical turn, or you may be on the right path. Testing is therefore essential.

Career Education Counseling. These are the people who can assist you to test your career and to take important decisions about it. Career counseling and coaching has become an important help to any career builder. Jobs and Career Options. Every particular kind of work requires a specific type of individual (in terms of his or her career orientation). The options you have will be determined in part by the work type you target. Career Education: Foreign Languages. Even if your native language is English, foreign languages have become extraordinarily important in this globalized economy. See how they can help your career. Career Resources. Whenever you make a big career decision, these resources need to be at hand. It is important for you to manage them properly. Find information on career tests, career advice, career fairs, and career jobs.

Career Education: improve your skills. On this part of our website we shall be presenting a complete set of personal skills that are necessary to any career builder. Two persons with the same studies and employment story may reach completely different career levels depending on many of theses skills, so we consider them extremely important. Career Education Glossary.
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This definitions are offered in order to ease your comprehension, especially when specifically educational terms appear. This short dictionary is also a way for us to establish what we actually mean when we make use of certain expressions along the site. Career Education Bibliography and Online Resources. On this section we are presenting a selection of books, audiovisual materials and resources you can download from the Internet to further explore the career education universe.

5. Professional organizations
Professional organizations in HRM include the Society for Human Resource Management, the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the International Public Management Association for HR (IPMA-HR), Management Association of Nepal (MAN) and the International Personnel Management Association of Canada (IPMA-Canada), Human Capital Institute. National Human Resource Development Network in India.

6. Functions
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The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding the staffing needs of an organization and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees haveand are aware ofpersonnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have. Note that some people distinguish a difference between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD (Human Resource Development, a profession). Those people might include HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside of organizations, including, e.g., career development, training, organization development, etc. There is a long-standing argument about where HR-related functions should be organized into large organizations, e.g., "should HR be in the Organization Development department or the other way around?"

The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone major changes over the past 2030 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel Department," mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing an important role in staffing, training and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner.

Building a Competitive Human Resource through Training and Development Initiatives

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No doubt that a competitive human resource can boost customer satisfaction, increase productivity, reduce waste and errors in production, and most of all, increase the companys profitability. However, how do you build a competitive human resource in your organization? The answer is through periodic and relevant training and development programs.
Provide Periodic Training and Development Programs

When I say periodic, it means that training and development programs for employees must become a part of the companys business cycle. As technology advances in the speed of light, and the business games continually changing, employees knowledge and skills therefore must be able to adapt to these changes. Training programs must not be put aside and scheduled on a seasonal basis where when there is only a need or a problem arising from lack of skills and/or knowledge on the part of the employees concerned. In addition, sometimes, retraining employees is needed, especially for those performing routine jobs; for there is a tendency for employees productivity to wane when the same jobs is performed for a longer time.
Provide Relevant and Timely Training and Development Programs

Relevant training and development programs means having these programs addressed what the employees and the jobs they performed currently require. This also means taking into account current or latest technologies and business processes being used or that would be adopted in the immediate future.
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It is recommended that an annual TNA (Training Needs Analysis) be conducted company-wide to appraise where employees need to improve. Although, a summary of the yearly performance appraisal results of all employees may indicate possible areas for training, and independent TNA for specific jobs and responsibilities is deemed more effective. The results of this analysis will provide accuracy and relevance to the intents and purposes of the training and development program. More so, the HRM (Human Resource Management) professional or department can prioritize which areas need immediate intervention through training. If I may note here, not all performance problems can be solved through training, there are other much more effective ways. Hence, the need to prioritize. Irrelevant and untimely training is costly.
Conclusion

An organizations competitiveness hinges on how competitive its human resource is. Therefore, invest in the development or enhancement of your employees knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes. This kind of investment has a better ROI (Return on Investment) than investing on the latest machinery and technologies, and the effects of which is both immediate and long term.

What Responsibilities and Roles do HRM Departments Perform?

I have a few clients who, like me, were used to be corporate bums and decided to venture into small business. They have little misgivings and some (maybe valid) bad impressions about the role of HRM (Human Resource Management) departments in their previous organizations. They think that the HRM department is merely a recruitment office, none else. One thinks, it is a guidance counselors office the designated psycho-therapy clinic of the organization. I cannot really

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blame them. Perhaps, their HR Departments failed to meet certain business expectations and hence were labeled as such. There are many different roles and responsibilities that can be performed by the HRM department depending on the size of the organization, the demographic profile of the employees' roster, the industry where the business belongs, values and corporate culture prevalent within, and the priorities of top management, and in the case of a small business, the priorities of its owner . The HRM department or the HRM professional (for easy reference, I will refer to these two as HRM) in small organizations may take full responsibility for all human resource activities in some. Whereas in others it may share the roles and responsibilities of other departments such as the finance or administartion. Still, in some organizations, the HRM acts as an adviser top management, while in others the HRM makes all the human resource related decisions in support of top managements critical business decisions. In the last 10 years (or more), it is noticeable that more and more organizations are looking into HRM as their strategic partners in quality management, corporate planning, business operations, and most of all, in business profitability. HRM now takes the forefront in lending support to business operations and expansions in
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ways that enhances the image and value of the organization both to/for its shareholders and customers. For the sake of brevity and in direct answer to my post title here, allow me to use the table * below to highlight the specific KRA (Key Result Areas) that any HRM should deliver results to. And hopefully enlighten some of you there regarding HRMs roles and responsibilities:
Employment and Recruiting:

Interviewing, recruiting, testing, temporary labor coordination.

Training and Development

Orientation, performance management, skills training, productivity enhancement.

Compensation

Wage and salary administration, job descriptions, executive compensation, incentive pay, job evaluation.

Benefits

Insurance, vacation leave administration, retirement plans, profit sharing, stock plans.

Employee Services

Employee assistance programs, relocation services, outplacement services.

Employee and Community Relations

Attitude surveys, labor relations, publications, labor law compliance, discipline

Personnel Records

Information system records.

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Health and Safety

Safety inspection, drug testing, health , wellness.

Strategic Planning

International human resources, forecasting, planning, mergers and acquisitions.

Changing Trends in Training and Development: The HRM Challenge

In a previous post I delve on the importance of training and development programs for organizational competitiveness, and highlighting the role of HRM (Human Resource Management Department or Professional) as its facilitator. To amplify more on the issue, it should be noted that the HRM is confronted with dynamic changes in approaches and methodologies in training and development. Susan Heathfield of About.com posted an interesting article regarding this topic, and Id like to expound a bit of what she wrote adding some of my personal notes. She observed that there are at least six critical trends in training that should be taken into serious account by HRM professionals and organizations, to wit: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Adopt a Performance Consulting Strategy Measure Results to See Impact Training Delivery Is Changing Training Delivery Systems Are in Transformation Your Customer Is the Individual Employee Training is Delivered Just-in-time, as Needed

Items 1 and 2 are not new, IMO. Training and development programs are supposed to be designed and implemented to correct and/or improve employees or organizations performance. And results there from should be measured against projected or set training
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goals and objectives. The assessment at the end of the program will not suffice. (Some organizations tend to use this to measure the effectiveness of the training. This is very superficial, ineffective, and is based only on the impression of the training activity not its results.) Metrics should have been defined even before the training plan is approved. Otherwise, it would be a waste of resources to train people when there are no metrics in place to evaluate learning and improvements results. Sarah is correct to observe that most training programs are out of the shelf, catalogs, and have lost their effectiveness. They are no longer performance related. In my book, these are what you call university or academic approaches to human resource training and development. Training and development programs, first and foremost , should address a discrepancy between the current performance of the employee and to what is expected (based on his detailed job description or KRA (Key Result Area) sheet. In cases of advancement, the discrepancy is the difference between the current performance (that is, the employee is meeting desired performance criteria and goals) compared against the desired level of performance when new responsibilities are added or where promotion to the next job level is expected. Again, here is why performance evaluation and metrics are very important. Items 3 to 6 are more accurate observations. With the introduction of internet, intranet, and multi-media devices, training delivery and systems are indeed changing. The HRM should be able to harness these new systems to achieve better results from training. Plus, the emphasis on training employees who are expert on certain topics to train others is indeed occurring. The trainers and HRM roles on this should focus on developing good trainers out of this employees. In the first place, they are more credible trainers when it comes to their areas of expertise. Training skills are thus required to make them effective trainers. It is good news that more and more trainers and HRM professionals are adopting the JIT* (just in time) system in training. As I have mentioned earlier, if training should have been initiated to address performance problems, then it follows that training are perfect JIT intervention. Although, let me be clear here that not all performance problems or discrepancies can be addressed through training. Sometimes, the underlying causes for
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this are entirely insignificant to training such as improvement on the work process, machine problems, psychological issues like the lack of motivation, etc. However, issues that needs to be addressed should be acted upon immediately. If I may add:
Training programs should focused more on behavioral modifications rather than skill building, and should be geared towards adding value to the organizations competitiveness.

Skill building is easier than behavioral modification. It takes time to have employees who are highly motivated and are attuned to the positive corporate culture that company is trying to foster. I am seeing more organizations who are placing more importance on this in their agenda and are reaping positive results. Even in hiring, attitude and values are given more premium over skills and knowledge on the premise that the latter can easily be acquired.
Training is becoming participative.

Meaning, trainees are now involve in the planning and development stages of the entire human resource program. This way, their training needs are accurately addressed. Moreover, it lessens the burden on the part of the training facilitator in terms of getting interests on the training program. Lastly, employees involvement in the preparation of the program shares the burden of making it meaningful and effective. The role of the HRM now in this trend is more of a coach and a guide, rather than the provider of training itself. Training and development programs, however the methods and trends are, will continue to remain the most effective means of producing and maintaining a highly competitive workforce. The HRM must endeavor to put more efforts towards effective implementations.
*Just in Time (JIT) production is a manufacturing philosophy which eliminates waste associated with time, labor, and storage space. Basics of the concept are that the company produces only what is needed, when it is needed and in the quantity that is needed. The company produces only what the customer requests, to actual orders, not to forecast. JIT can also be defined as producing the necessary units, with 21

the required quality, in the necessary quantities, at the last safe moment. It means that company can manage with their own resources and allocate them very easily. SOURCE: Mladen Radisic

The Rise of the Virtual Workforce and the New Roles of HR Professionals
I made several career changes in my career life in the last 18 years: from HR to Sales and Marketing, then back to HR; from HR to Freelance Consultancy, then back to HR again; then now to Online Freelancing aptly called, Virtual Freelancing.

Although the latter was more of a decision brought about by other pressing issues, it was nevertheless a calculated decision. Here are a few mixed-notions that occupy my waking hours why I chose to leave my corporate life for good: Phenomenal Growth of Hybrid Organizations

The last 10 years were characterized by outsourcing. Roughly 90% of businesses have outsourced one or more of their business operations elsewhere. According to IAOP (The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals) in their 2010 State of the Industry Survey Report, while the global economic crisis is not waning, yet more than 50% of their respondent organizations have increased their outsourced work volume and scope. This means that more and more organizations are transforming into a hybrid type. By
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the way, when I refer to hybrid organization, this is not the traditional definition of an organization operating both in the private and public sectors. Hybrid organizations today are those who have outsourced certain aspects of their operation whether onsite or online. These organizations are filling the global business landscape and beginning to set an entirely different way of doing business. Emergence of the Virtual Workforce

Another significant byproduct of the outsourcing phenomena is the rise of a huge Virtual Workforce. You are by now familiar with the VA or Virtual Assistant which used to occupy a large chunk of this new breed of employee groups. Today is entirely different. Many have joined the ranks of VAs, but using their current professions and competencies. These are no mere VAs. These are programmers, web developers, designers, architects, writers, accountants, and on. And with these, many agencies have also risen to the occasion to tap this market. So the result: the proliferation of online freelance and recruitment websites. New Roles for the HR Professional

These trends created new realities and opportunities for the HR Professionals. And I would like to be on the forefront. It is logical that with the emergence of a virtual workforce, there is also a need for other auxiliary services such as the HR. However, this requires for new sets of HR competencies essential in managing these virtual workforces. It is imperative then that an HR Practitioner starts looking beyond her/his facebook, twitter, or linked social engagements and start immersing, assimilating in the world of virtual management.

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Human Resource and Business Process Management Basics

Several new and emerging technologies can help improve the effectiveness of Human Resource Management (HRM). New technology usually involves automation that is, replacing human labor with equipment, information technology (IT), or some combination of the two. HRM is no longer confined with administrative matters. This traditional stereotyping has long gone. HRM now plays a more strategic role in businesses. Machines nor software do not run or make a business thrive, people do. This is one of the most important reasons why more and more organizations are investing on the best talents they can find in the market to suit their needs and goals, develop and implement Business Process Management (BPM) systems, stay competitive, get a huge share of the market, increase its profits while lowering operational costs, and more.

However, Strategic HRM is not easy. Reengineering business processes that involve people and dynamic change is difficult. One barrier to this initiative has been the lack of visibility and ownership for processes that span functional departments or business units. In addition, the business often changes faster than how people can adopt to these new processes, thus stifling efficiencies, productivity and business growth. The practical solution is an integrated and holistic approach to business management through BPM.
What is Business Process Management or BPM?

Some would think that defining it would be simpler, in part because BPM solutions are now commonplace among business applications catering different needs. However, in
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laymans terms, BPM is a systematic management approach where organizational goals and processes are being aligned to customers needs, wants or requirements. It is not software engineering as some may assume, although it has its entire semblance in procedure. Because like software engineering, it starts with requirements, information gathering, establishing the relationships of these data, and in the end develop a solution that can be implemented over a computer or network of computers. No wonder that BPM functionality is sometimes found in packaged enterprise applications such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relations Management) and various financial software. But BPM in its entirety incorporates all of these. BPM manages business processes that include work steps and procedures, communications, and interactions of several systems. In addition, BPM solutions include integrated features such as enhanced process modeling and simulation, code generation, process execution and monitoring, customizable industry-specific templates and UI components, and out-of-box integration capabilities along with support for Web-servicesbased integration using Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) like what Active Endpoint offers, and more. Moreover, like Total Quality Management (TQM), BPM is a holistic management approach that promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility and integration with technology. Likewise, it hinges on the principle of continuous improvement or the Japanese management principle of KAIZEN. BPM is primarily aimed at improving business processes on continuous basis.
How do Human Resource Management and Business Process Management Complement?

Suffice to say that HRM is inherent in BPM, and vice versa. Other than these structural arrangements or integrations, BPM enables the HRM function to implement HRM programs and deliver HRM services in a more efficient and effective manner. On the one hand, BPM reviews and redesigns critical work processes to make them more efficient and effective at delivering higher quality outputs. BPM ensures that the benefits of new technology or systems can be realized. Needless to say that applying new
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technology to an inefficient business process will not improve efficiency or effectiveness. Instead, it will increase operational costs and eventually business losses. Implementing BPM can be used to review HRM practices, functions, and processes, such as human resource planning, recruitment, job designs, performance management systems, salary and benefits administration, and other critical functions. On the other hand, HRM provides the impetus and human resource structure for the effective rollout of BPM solutions. This can easily be seen when business processes are reviewed, redesigned, and realigned to meet business criteria and goals. While BPM automates, integrates, and improves business processes, HRM ensures that these are being implemented and monitored by competent personnel. In addition, as CIO.com puts it, BPM is often used to integrate multiple enterprise applications and various internal and external users into a new process. Enterprise application integration products help you move data between applications; BPM adds interaction with people and the ability to support long-lived processes. People are involved in two ways: 1. From a worker point of view. BPM represents units of work from the business process as tasks; each task contains work instructions, status, priority, due date and other attributes. Workers use BPM to monitor and execute the tasks that are assigned to them or to the workgroup to which they belong.

2. From a manager or executive point of view. Managers and executives use BPM to monitor process performance by viewing graphical reports that summarize task status and alert them to process bottlenecks. They also frequently get involved with tasks by participating in approval or escalation process steps.
Conclusion

Where

do

these

bring

us?

Let me say that, managing a business through fast, efficient, effective, and improved
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business processes is of paramount importance for businesses who want to provide value to their customers, enhance their corporate image, improve deliveries and services,outlive their competitions and survive any economic recession. HRM is essential in any BPM initiatives and solutions. Vis a vis, BPM can largely improve HRM strategic role of building the business competitiveness.

The Emerging Role of HRM in Organizations

The Human Resource Management (HRM) profession and practices have undergone substantial change and redefinition over the years. It is interesting to note that many articles on HRM issues have been critical of the traditional HRM Function. Well, the observations were quite true, as many HRM practitioners have not yet adapted to the more strategic functions of HRM in an organization.

They failed to ride in the new emerging role of HRM. Unfortunately, in many organizations HRM services are not providing value but instead are simply going into the motion of attending trivial administrative tasks. Unfazed, HRM Departments can be replaced with new technology or outsourced to a vendor who can provide higher-quality services at a lower cost, which is by the way the emerging trend right now in doing business. Although this seem to be a pessimistic view on this trend, it simply demonstrate that HRM departments need to ensure that their functions are creating value for the company. I agree that, technology should be used where appropriate to automate routine activities, and managers should concentrate on HRM activities that can add substantial value to the company. Consider employee benefits: technology is now available to automate the
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process by which employees can enroll in benefits programs and a keep detailed record of benefits is easily monitored via network or internet. The use of technology allows the HRM manager to focus on his role as an strategic partner of other managers and attend to activities that can create value for the firm. Although the importance of some HRM department is being debated, everyone agrees on the the need to successfully manage human resources for a company to maximise its competitiveness. Three obvious developments seem to emerge in the HRM landscape: 1. Today's flatter and streamlined organizations, managers are now becoming involved and responsible for HRM in their own departments; 2. Some perceived the HRM Department as incompetent, lacks business sense and knowledge of the business operations; 3. And many believed that if the HRM department has to become effective, it should align itself to to strategic directions of the organization. With this, it is imperative that the HRM department begin to saddle up and ride with the corporate directions of the organizations and become more involve in the firm's planning, control and operations -that is the emerging role and competence of HRM.

HRM Increases Your Company's Competitiveness

In todays intensely competitive and global marketplace, maintaining a competitive advantage by becoming a low cost leader or a differentiator puts a heavy premium on

having a highly committed or competent workforce. Competitive advantage lies not just in differentiating a product or service or in becoming
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the low cost leader but in also being able to tap the companys special skills or core competencies and rapidly respond to customers needs and competitors moves. In other words competitive advantage lies in managements ability to consolidate corporate-wide technologies and production skills into competencies that empower individual businesses to adapt quickly to changing opportunities. In a growing number of organizations human resources are now viewed as a source of competitive advantage. There is greater recognition that distinctive competencies are obtained through highly developed employee skills, distinctive organizational cultures, management processes and systems. This is in contrast to the traditional emphasis on transferable resources such as equipment. Increasingly it is being recognized that competitive advantage can be obtained with a high quality workforce that enables organizations to compete on the basis of market responsiveness, product and service quality, differentiated products and technological innovation. Strategic human resource management has been defined as the linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation and flexibility . Strategic HR means accepting the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation of the companys strategies as well as in the implementation of those strategies through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel. Whereas strategic HR recognizes HRs partnership role in the strategizing process, the term HR Strategies refers to specific HR courses of action the company plans to pursue to achieve its aims. HR management can play a role in environmental scanning i.e. identifying and analyzing external opportunities and threats that may be crucial to the companys success. Similarly HR management is in a unique position to supply competitive intelligence that may be useful in the strategic planning process. HR also participates in the strategy formulation process by supplying information regarding the companys internal strengths and weaknesses. The strengths and weaknesses of a companys human resources can have a determining effect on the viability of the firms strategic options.

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By design the perspective demands that HR managers become strategic partners in business operations playing prospective roles rather than being passive administrators reacting to the requirements of other business functions. Strategic HR managers need a change in their mindset from seeing themselves as relationship managers to resource managers knowing how to utilize the full potential of their human resources. The new breed of HR managers need to understand and know how to measure the monetary impact of their actions, so as to be able to demonstrate the value added contributions of their functions. HR professionals become strategic partners when they participate in the process of defining business strategy, when they ask questions that move strategy to action and when they design HR practices that align with the business strategy. By fulfilling this role, HR professionals increase the capacity of a business to execute its strategies. The primary actions of the strategic human resource manager translate business strategies into HR priorities. In any business setting, whether corporate, functional, business unit or product line a strategy exists either explicitly in the formal process or document or implicitly through a shared agenda on priorities. As strategic partners, HR professionals should be to identify the HR practices that make the strategy happen. The process of identifying these HR priorities is called organizational diagnosis, a process through which an organization is audited to determine its strengths and weaknesses. Translating business strategies into HR practices helps a business in three ways. First, the business can adapt to change because the time from the conception to the execution of a strategy is shortened. Second, the business can better meet customer demands because its customer service strategies have been translated into specific policies and practices. Third, the business can achieve financial performance through its more effective execution of strategy. In brief, a strategic perspective of HRM that requires simultaneous consideration of both external (business strategy) and internal (consistency) requirement leads to superior performance of the firm. This performance advantage is achieved by:

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Marshalling resources that support the business strategy and implementing the chosen strategy, efficiently and effectively. Utilizing the full potential of the human resources to the firms advantage. Leveraging other resources such as physical assets and capital to complement and augment the human resources based advantage.

HRM Basics: Human Resource Management for Performance

Organizations, however the size, who seek and strive to be competitive must do so by motivating and empowering their human resource for greater job performance. Easier said than done. Measuring human performance at work is not easy as it seems. Let alone, motivating and empowering employees for exemplary performance is difficult. As employers or small business owners, we tend to think that employees are easily motivated by good salary and benefits packages. That is partly true. When employees basic needs are met, they are likely motivated to work harder. However, this could only go at certain point. Material rewards is only effective at a level where employees are given the reasons to work. But performing beyond what they are doing, satisfactorily, takes more than the carrots or carrots and sticks for some. Human resource must be managed for performance at all times.

By the way, what is performance management? For the sake of this brief post, let me use Carter Mac Naras definition: Simply put, performance management includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management here entails looking beyond what your people are currently doing but aligning these things to your organizational goals and objectives. Unfortunately, sometimes we tend to assume that when employees are busy, they are actually producing results. No! You are actually putting those efforts into waste when they are not checked. Results must be paramount for all those activities. Your employees
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should

be

exerting

efforts

towards

meeting

your

business

goals.

Employees

must

learn

to

work

for

higher

performance.

Business competitions in a globalized economy is stiffer than before. I will not wary stressing that fact. Hence the challenge for organizations, especially small business owners, is greater. Not only employees, but everyone in the organization must strive to put their best in their individual roles to ensure that business plans and strategies are implemented and goals are met. Getting things done right at the first time and always, is no longer a TQM (Total Quality Management) fad. It is now a driving force behind performance.

Using Balanced Scorecard in HR Management

Business Reactions from the Recession

Each time I read my morning paper or turn on the evening news, the headlines contain stories on how the economic pandemic has been wreaking financial havoc on the lives of businesses and employees alike. And lately, I often hear my clients talk of cost-cutting measures, retrenchment, downsizing or streamlining, imminent bankruptcy, deferment of
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suppliers payment, and avoid foreclosure. These are but natural reactions. A financial crisis with a magnitude like this, any business owner would worry. When a business is threatened by circumstances beyond its control, the most practical thing to do is preserve its viability or profitability at all costs.

However, if we take these knee-jerk reactions, are we not simply allowing this crisis to hasten the demise of our businesses, and let our employees take the brunt of it all? It is lamentable to think that each time the business suffer losses, employees find themselves jobless. This could be prevented. Employees' compensation and benefits does not account for the majority of the operational expenses (as most finance managers would present in corporate meetings). Competent and loyal employees are assets that needed to be protected and nurtured because they help the bottom line. Have you even considered looking at your recession scorecard? There is a better remedy to this crisis without necessarily laying-off employees. Use better and accurate performance management systems that will monitor and manage your business KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) by using Balanced Scorecard or BSC. This way, you can better formulate corporate strategies that will shelter you from the effects of the economic downturn.
Balanced Scorecard: A Performance Management Alternative

The Balanced Scorecard gives CEOs, business owners, and managers an indication of the performance of a business organization based on the degree to which various stakeholder needs are satisfied; it presents the organization from the perspective of internal and external customers, employees, and shareholders. Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, among the proponents of these strategic concepts, give a better definition:
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"Balanced scorecard provides managers with the instrumentation they need to navigate to future competitive success. Today, organizations are competing in complex environments so that an accurate understanding of their goals and the methods for attaining those goals is vital. Balance scorecard translates an organization's mission and strategy into a comprehensive set of performance measures that provides the framework for a strategic measurement and management system. It retains an emphasis on achieving financial objective but also includes the performance drivers of these financial objectives. The scorecard measures organizational performance across four balanced perspectives: financial, customers, internal business processes, and learning and growth. It enables companies to track financial results while simultaneously monitoring progress in building the capabilities and acquiring the intangible assets they need for future growth." (The Balanced Score Card: Translating Strategy into Action, pp. 1-3)

Why is Balanced Scorecard Important for Businesses, especially during a financial crisis?

The Balanced Scorecard is important because it brings together most of the features that a company needs to focus on to be competitive. These include being customer-focused, improving quality, emphasizing teamwork, reducing new product and service development times, and managing for the long term. The Balanced Scorecard differs from the traditional measures of company performance by emphasizing that the critical indicators chosen are based on the organization's business strategy and competitive demands. Organizations need to customize their balanced scorecards based on different market situations, products, competitive environments, including the current state of the global economy. In this respect, recession KPI should have been formulated and established with the aid of downturn metrics provided by AKS-Labs (Developer of Balanced Scorecard Designer). Balanced Scorecard is also an excellent crisis management tool for organizations who have EMS (Environmental Management Systems) and OSHAS (Occupational Health and Safety Administration Standards) certifications. BSC is an excellent tool for monitoring and auditing compliance to those standards.
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Balanced Scorecard in HR Management

Effective roll out and implementation of Balanced Scorecard can only be made if the organization is able to cascade its mechanics, importance, and objectives to the employees. Therefore, doing, this will give them a concrete framework that helps them see the goals and strategies of the organizations, how these goals and strategies are measured, and how they influenced the critical KPIs. The HRM department should be in the forefront in this respect, and in providing the necessary training or orientation. Moreover, the Balanced Scorecard should be used to link HRM activities with the organizations strategy and evaluate the extent to which its functions add value to business strategies and goals. Measure of HRM practices primarily relate to productivity, people, and process. Productivity measures involve determining output per employee (such as revenue per employee). Measuring people includes assessing employees' behavior, attitudes, skills, and/or knowledge. While process measures focus on assessing employees' satisfaction with how the organization compensate, reward, and develop them so that they continue to add value to organizational competitiveness as a whole.
8. Conclusion: Benefits of Balanced Scorecard in HRM

1. Using BSC or Balanced Scorecard in performance management is actually a holistic approach; because it does not leave any key functional area in the organization unturned. Also, because it focuses on the most essential things needed to produce the maximum results. It actually follows closely the Pareto Principle, where 80% of productive organizational performance comes from focusing on the 20% most important KPIs. 2. BSC links organizational units into a more cohesive entity towards a common goal while they continue to strive to meet their own personal and departmental goals. More so, with BSC, individual performance is tied-up with departmental performance. Each members goals and performance is integrated with that of the unit or department. This is where the principle of the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. In short, BSC impels employees to synergize.
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3. Lastly, the best part of implementing BSC is you get the results of what you measure; because Balanced Scorecard enables the organization to link its performance measures with its business strategies and goals.

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