Human Resource Management: Core Functions and Strategy

Overview of Human Resource Management

Human resource management, whether specifically titled or not, has been a part of any organization's management since groups first banded together for specific tasks. Ancient armies, projects, and even educational and religious institutions all had concerns about their ability to bring in the appropriate person for the positions at hand. Formally, Human Resource Management in the contemporary world is both the tactical and strategic manner in which an organization manages the human portion of its resources — both collectively and individually — and how management of those individual resources contributes to the overall positive objectives of the business.

Over the past few decades, and with the advent of increasingly sophisticated technology, Human Resource Management has changed from using people to employ, develop, and track other people, to a newer system that leverages computers, database management, and data mining to provide more optimal approaches. The HR department can now move toward a more strategic Personnel function, playing a major role in staffing, training, and helping to manage people within the organization in order to recruit, develop, and retain the best individuals who will work toward the company's strategic goals. This shift, in combination with methodologies from various schools of strategic thinking, changes the paradigm of how Human Resources are perceived within an organization and how the HR function fits within the organization's overall goals (Swanson & Holton, 2001). This change has been a necessary evolution for the process of HR to morph from an administrative to a strategic function.

Essentially, Human Resource Management works within a multi-tiered platform that takes into account a number of strategic and tactical functions: Affirmative Action and EEO; planning, recruitment, and training; Human Resource Development; Compensation and Benefits; Safety and Health; and Employee and Labor Relations.

Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity

Affirmative Action and equal rights to employment refer to Human Resource policies that take factors including race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity into consideration in order to benefit a group that has been marginalized or underrepresented — typically because of a history of discriminatory behavior, or to balance the composition of the workplace (United States Department of Labor, 2010). The term "affirmative action" was first used in the United States during the Kennedy Administration and was employed to develop programs that would achieve a non-discriminatory atmosphere. The purpose was to provide equal opportunities during a time when it was common for individuals to be hired and promoted based on race, or not hired and demoted based on race.

The policy of non-discriminatory practices in business is now global in character, with different countries taking differing stances and interpretations on what constitutes bias and discrimination. In the 21st century, it is less race or ethnicity that has become the central hot-button issue, and more sexual orientation (Sowell, 2004). For the human resources professional, the function of legally managing EEO and Affirmative Action is central to the overall role of the organization, as well as to upholding the law.

Recruitment, Training, and Strategic HRM

Recruitment and training have been important parts of HRM for decades. The company determines it needs a certain number of people in specific jobs; HR advertises, screens candidates, sets up interviews, and manages the process of hiring and initial training. This is an important role because it is part of both the strategic and tactical plans to hire the right people for specific jobs and to train them effectively. It has also become part of the HRM purview to help retain employees longer-term, since the trend in certain age groups has been to switch jobs approximately every three to five years — using job mobility as a form of career advancement.

A newer way of approaching HRM is through Strategic Human Resource Management. However, Strategic HRM is not simply using computers to recruit and assist in hiring, or integrating higher-level functional managers. It is the planning, implementation, and application of appropriate information technology for both networking and supporting a specific group of people in their shared performance of Human Resource activities. In effect, it takes a technological premise and decentralizes the Human Resource function to individual managers and employees. These capabilities are typically accessible through the Internet or a company's own servers and are not the same as simply using electronic tools to manage HR systems. By granting greater empowerment to managers and employees to perform functions that are more appropriate to their own department or area, HR staff can focus less on operational tasks and more on the strategic functions of their role (Armstrong, 2008).

Conclusion

Human Resource Management is essential to facilitating the achievement of organizational goals within the modern workplace. Effective HRM also includes risk management, compliance, and the anticipation of strategic needs. The discipline operates under the assumption that individuals have different goals and motivations, and that there is a way to both define and address these needs in a manner that benefits both the employee and the organization. When HRM is properly employed, members of the workforce feel safe to express their goals and opinions about operating practices; and the organization benefits from open dialogue between management and employees, the sharing of both strategic and tactical goals, and the development of job satisfaction — all while achieving fiscal goals and objectives (Effron & Goldsmith, 2008).