Firms now must sell themselves to the available workers in order to bring on the best and the brightest. Once quality workers have been attracted, HRM takes on two other critical roles. The first is training, which not only includes fundamental job skills but also ethics and corporate culture. Employees must be made to work within the system, and instilling the corporate culture in the workers allows for this. The second critical role for HRM is retention. The competition for employees does not only take place prior to the hire, but it takes place constantly, a function of the at-will employment system. Firms must constantly work to keep their best employees, and to motivate them through a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.

Perhaps nowhere is the strategic nature of the human resources function more evident than in the throughput function. Motivation is one key throughput factor, but perhaps even more important is the role that creativity and innovation play. Sustainable competitive advantage is achieved when an organization is able to do something better than any of its competitors, and can sustain this advantage over time. If an organization can foster an innovative workforce, it can continue to stay ahead of its competitors. 3M is a company that has become successful through constant innovation and new product development. In a knowledge-based industry, a firm can drive success by creating an environment...

Human resources can achieve this through culture, motivation, organizational structure and chains of command, and by attracting and retaining key personnel.
Today, it seems almost silly that human resources management was treated as an afterthought for much of the industrialized age. However, the industries of the past were manufacturing oriented, and were thus focused on different inputs. The rise of HRM therefore corresponds with the rise in the prominence of industries based around innovation and information. Indeed, in many organizations today, the value of the enterprise is derived from either its human resources or from the brand equity that has been built by those human resources.

Sanz-Valle el al (1999) made their prediction based on the trends at the time in both management and in the literature on HRM practice. What we have seen in the past ten years is that prediction come true. HRM has only become more important in that span, a consequence of the increasing awareness of the value of the HRM role and of the shift away from manufacturing industries and towards information industries.

Works Cited:

Sanz-Valle, R.; Sabater-Sanchez, R. & Aragon-Sanchez, A. (1999). Human resources management and business strategy links: An empirical study. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. Vol. 10, 4, 655-671.