As per Sumantra Ghoshal, renowned Author and Professor Human resources management is the management of human capital and can broadly be categorised into three-
- Intellectual capital- This involves professional knowledge, upskilling, cognitive abilities, and the capacity + willingness to learn.
- Social capital- This involves networking, relationships with colleagues + clients, trustworthiness, and overall behavior.
- Emotional capital- Self-confidence, ability to take risks, resilience, and ambition.
HRM= Human Capital = Intellectual Capital+Social Capital+Emotional Capital
The above explanation sums up briefly what Human Resource Management is but to understand these three words, we must dive deep.
So, ahead in the blog, we uncover the following-
- What is HRM?
- What are the main objectives of HRM?
- What are the 7 key functions of HRM?
- HRM Process
- The Future of HRM
What is HRM?
As per Investopedia, various strategies combined into a comprehensive approach to manage an organization’s culture, environment, and employees are what human resource management is all about. It focuses primarily on giving general direction to the people of a company in terms of their job role, behavior from hire to retirement.
Meaning Of HRM-
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the department in every organisation that is responsible for the hiring, managing, and exit-related functions in the organisation. It focuses on the functions of people in business, following the best work practices.
Definition Of HRM
In other words, Human resource management is the process of making optimum use of the human resources to achieve the set business goals while ensuring they are not exhausted, unhappy, or dissatisfied with the organisation.
This brings us to the all-time basic but big question, “What are the functions and objectives of HRM? ”. Let’s look at both of them in detail below.
What are the main objectives of HRM?
The principal function of HRM is to hire the best and harness the best of their skills and time for the accomplishment of the ultimate goal i.e growth of the organisation. And so, in order to perform the prime function optimally, there are a lot of things that are taken care of internally; they are- Payroll, Engagement, Performance, and Attendance.
Below we elucidate the 5 main objectives of human resource management that help in engaging, honing, and retaining the employees.
5 Main Human Resource Management Objectives
Determining structure and steering productivity
One of the primal objectives of HRM is to steer the productivity through efficacy in the work. In order to attain this motive, the HRM not just defines the aims but also outlines ways to achieve them.
To organise the structure, work policies and ethics must be defined clearly. Thereafter, to steer productivity, HRM helps in hiring the best fit for the vacant position and then works on polishing the resource with proper training, workshops, seminars.
Enabling seamless coordination and harmony
Every individual brings a set of interpersonal traits and values with them. Majority of them have different opinions and values which become a reason for conflict sometime or the other. Even a slight disagreement on political views can disrupt the harmony. Additionally, coordination among various departments and within each department must be taken care of.
Hence, HR’s objective of enabling seamless coordination and harmony isn’t a cakewalk and demands continuous vigilance.
Ensuring employee satisfaction
There is no denial to the fact that if your employees are not happy and satisfied with the working environment, compensation, perks, the same reflects in their performance. Hence, it is vital for the human resource professionals to keep the employees happy with the organisation. Disgruntled employees can never contribute optimally.
So, strategies should be made and executed to keep the employees satisfied. Work environment, rewards and recognition in the form of incentives, team excursions, movies, dinners etc must be planned to strengthen the bond and surge the happiness. All this is done to align the individual goals of the employees with that of the organisation.
Measuring performance of employees through KRAs is yet another important HRM objective. To keep the employees fueled and the productivity soaring, HRs should evaluate the employee’s performance.
Frequent feedback and rewards help employees in staying focused and improving their work even more. They also help a lot at the time of appraisals as you don’t have to rely on your memory but the data.
Facilitating inclusivity in every sense
Making workplaces inclusive is the need of the hour. The objective may seem to be relatively new, it has been there for ages. It wasn’t just paid much heed earlier. The HRM must work to end the disparity based on caste, creed, and gender in salaries. There should also be no bias at the time of recruiting. It’s the time when LGBTs should be treated as normally as the dominant genders are treated. If they deserve the position, they should get it.
Sessions for gender sensitization should be conducted and a check on behavior of employees towards each other should also be kept.
What are the 7 Key Functions Of HRM?
Contrary to the common connotation in the social media world of the term HRM- the people who make ‘Rangolis’, HRM encompasses a lot of other significant functions. Human resource management is all about the humans of the organisation.
Much like Democracy, it is for the people, of the people (of the organization), and by the people. Wondering how?
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Hear the concerns of the resources and take corrective actions | | Work towards maintaining harmony and mutual respect in the organisation |
| Help employees in unleashing true potential and achieving goals |
| Supports in acquiring the best resources, keeping morale boosted for employees and relevant resource allocation |
| Hiring, retiring and steps an HR does in between to manage the employee journey is what defines HRM |
There is a lot more that comes under HR functions. However, there are several functions of human resource management that deserve a special mention. Take a look.
The Recruitment and Hiring Function
The recruitment process involves sourcing, screening, and selecting candidates. The main goal of this function is to attract and hire the best candidate for the open job position within the set budget.
Staffing plans, budget and resource requirements are decided before beginning the recruitment process.
Bonus Tip: Use an HRMS software that can map candidates and consultants within the software ensuring everybody is on the same page. This will help in reducing the time to recruit and closing the open position.
The Orientation Function
Orientation function includes acquainting and making the new employees know the organisation and vice versa.In this way, new employees can better understand the work culture, ethics and senior authorities.
Bonus Tip: For better engagement of new joinees and acclimatise them with your organisation, define the policies for one-to-one informal interactions.
The work environment of the organisation should be such that employees feel motivated. For the same, the HRM works towards making the working conditions good by listening to the grievances of the employees, and acting as a mediator whenever employees get into verbal tensions. Moreover, HRM also keeps a tab on the performance of the employees so that promotions and appraisals of employees can be done appropriately.
Bonus Tip: The human brain isn’t designed to store so much information but the software is. So, you can use HRMS software for performance management.
The Good Employee Relations Function
HR personnel are profoundly known as happiness officers for a reason. One of the human resource management functions is to foster great employee-employer relations. Doing so is essential as it impacts the behavior and works output of every employee.
Bonus tip: Organise group activities and games to build team spirit and rapport a personal and professional front. What could be better than your employees being the best of friends? Just so you know, women who have a best friend at work are 63% more likely to be engaged. Employee and employer relations also improve that way.
The Top-Notch Training Function
Training and development are yet another function of human resource planning and management. It helps in enhancing the existing skills and adding new ones. This function isn’t just important for the rapid growth of the organisation but also for letting the employees know that you care for their career growth.
Bonus Tip: Apart from organising workshops, training sessions, you can organise sessions for knowledge sharing among employees. For instance, if one of the salespeople is really good at persuading, you can request him to train other employees.
The Employee Benefits Function
Even though the HR department is there for the welfare of the organisation, they keep in mind the company budget. The function includes both monetary and non-monetary employee benefits. For instance, salary, bonuses, wellness policy, flexible work scheduling, etc.
Bonus Tip: To strike a perfect balance between employee happiness and employer happiness (which lies in cost-saving), try to offer more non-monetary benefits.
The Compliance Function
Every country has its own set of laws to prevent harassment, discrimination and ensure workplace safety. The role also demands to stay compliant with the statutory laws while processing payroll.
Bonus tip: Use an HRMS software for automating, time-saving and minimising errors in performing HRM functions, especially like these. Why? Because a single compliance error can get you into a long legal battle.
HRM Process
HRM process involves sourcing, hiring, inducting employees, providing orientation, training & development, ensuring fair appraisals basis performance, deciding/ revising compensation and the benefits, keeping employees morale and spirit high, maintaining cordial relations of company/ management with employees, taking special care of employee safety, welfare, other such measures, and compliance.
The Future of HRM/ What is the future of HRM?
Change is the only constant, with the recent drastic shift(s) in the way people and businesses function, it is more than clear that the way human resource management not only undergone some serious change but yet to undergo some more.
In the near future with the purview of the recent changes, we can expect HRM and the people handling it to ascend to the role of coaches, and strategic business partners helping the companies navigate through turbulent times and situations.
The focus increasingly inclines towards better employee experience, maintaining DEI, and making the businesses more and more sturdy to withstand the future unprecedented shakes.
There is a continuous need to be agile, adaptive, and acceptive for technology and deploy a future-ready HRMS software.
