HRM

HRM

HRM

Human resource management (HRM) refers to the design of formal programs to enhance the effective and efficient use of employees to achieve organizational goals. In essence, it is the people practices and ranges from hiring new employees to developing them into successful organizational members to managing their separation from the company. Human resource (HR) professionals administer these programs and can be generalists or specialists. Generalists have some knowledge about each HR function (i.e., jack-of-all trades), while specialists are experts in one particular function such as recruitment, labor relations, or training (Weinberg, 2005).

Purposes of HRM

Traditionally, the primary purpose of HRM has been administrative, which includes designing and administering programs, such as recruiting, training, performance evaluations, payroll, and benefits. A second purpose of HRM is being an employee advocate. Human resource professionals need to voice employee concerns and protect their rights by acting as liaisons (Mondy, 2005). Third, HRM must serve as a change agent by helping organizations adapt to the constantly changing business environment. For example, HR professionals can enact family-friendly policies in response to the increased number of women in the workforce. Finally and most important, HRM should be strategic by aligning all HR functions with organizational goals. For example, if a company's mission includes providing excellent customer service, HR professionals must hire and train workers with good customer service skills, provide feedback on customer interactions, and reward those displaying superior service (McKenzie, 2002).

HRM Functions

The field of HRM covers many functions, which are briefly described in the following text:

Equal employment opportunity laws prohibit discrimination against applicants and current employees based on their demographic characteristics—such as race, gender, religion, national origin, age, and disability—in all terms and conditions of employment. Human resource professionals must ensure that all employment decisions are based on merit or other nondiscriminatory reasons (Cascio, 2005).

Job analysis is the process of describing the essential tasks, duties, knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform a job. The outcome of this process is a job description that can be used to determine what skills applicants need, what type of training should be conducted, what to evaluate employees on, and so forth.

Human resource planning entails forecasting the number of employees who will be needed (demand) and the availability of workers (supply) as well as creating programs to remedy any mismatch between demand and supply. To resolve an employee shortage, HR professionals can recruit new employees, hire temporary workers, outsource, require ...