CHANGING FOCUS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
Human Resources Management is a management function involving procurement of
suitable human resources, train and develops their competencies, motivate them, reward them
effectively and create in them an urge to be part of the management team whose aim should be
rendered, dedicated, committed service for the success and growth of the organization.

The personnel Manager plays a crucial role in understanding the changing needs of the
organization and society. His task is to attain objective in relation to the employee, organization
and society with the resources available within the organization. For this he needs to have a
good knowledge of such disciplines as Economics, Commerce, Management, Sociology,
Psychology, Engineering, Technology and Law. These disciplines and Human Resources
Management interact mutually.

The emergence of Human Resource Management from the traditional personnel

Management and Industrial Relation Philosophy has changed the nature and employment
relationship. The role of HR manager is shifting from that of a protector and screener to the role
of a planner and change agent. Personnel directors are the new corporate heroes. Managing
Human Resources is one of the key elements in the management of work organizations. Indian
organizations are also witnessing a change in systems, management cultures and philosophy due
to the global alignment of Indian organizations. There is a need for multi skill development.
Role of HRM is becoming all the more important.

Human resource management is a process of bringing people and organizations together

so that the goals of each are met. It is that part of the management process which is concerned
with the management of human resources in an organization. In tries to secure the best from
people by winning their whole hearted cooperation. In short, it may be defined as the art of
procuring, developing and maintaining competent workforce to achieve the goals of an
organization in an effective and efficient manner.
 The HR departments responsibilities have gradually become broader and more strategic
since the days when business people began including personnel departments in their
organization charts. In the earliest firms, personnel first tool over hiring and firing from
supervisors, ran the payroll department, and administered benefit plans. As technology in areas
like testing and interviewing began to emerge, the personnel department began to play an
expanded role in employee selection, training, and promotion. To survive in the market the
HRM is forced to build worthy and competitive strategies and to implement it in an effective
way

The role of HR manager is shifting form a protector and screener to the planner and
change agent. In present day competitive world, highly trained and committed employees are
often a firms best belt. HR professionals play a key role in planning and implementing
downsizing, restructing and other cost-cutting activities. They enable a firm to be more
responsive to product innovations and technologies changes. Today, the globalization of the
world economy and several other trends are again triggering changes in how companies
organize, manage and use their personnel/HR departments. Well look at these trends and
changes next.

RECRUITMENT

Recruitment forms the first stage in the process which continues with selection and
ceases with the placement of the candidate. Recruitment has been regarded as the most
important function of personnel administration, because unless the right type of people are
hired, even the best plans, organization charts and control systems would not do much good.

In this the new scenario is campus recruitment. Sending an employers representatives

to college campuses to prescreen applicants and create an applicant pool from the graduating
class in an important source of management trainees, promotable candidates, and professional
and technical employees.

Online Recruitment has become very feasible method. More and more people are
going online to look for jobs. One survey found that on a typical day, more than 4 million
people turn to the web sites to hunt for jobs. Some Managers use the internet to search for
applicants in reverse. Rather than place their own internet ads, they do keyword searches on
sites such as hot jobs resume database. Employers can also use internet support tools such as
recruitment toolbox to create online ads that include prescreening tests, thus further automating
the recruitment process. They can also supplement their own web site ads with a variety of job
search sites.

Recruiting through consultancies is another changing perspective of recruitment. To

reduce cost and time the recruiting activity is now outsourced. Mainly for the temporary jobs
the HR depends upon consultancies to find the right person for the right job. It has several
limitations like subjectivity of the consultancy, in placing apt person, etc. the success of this
recruitment is depended upon the consultancies loyalty.

To avoid the risk of Trade Union problems and issues the organizations are encouraging
temporary Man power and contract labour more than casual labour

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Globalizations, competition, emphasise on customer care and paradigm shifts in

information technology and information technology enabled services necessitated the
organizations to focus on management of knowledge workers, skilled employees and talented
employees.

The talented employees are those who possess knowledge and innovative skills, creative
abilities, and positive contributory behavior that is in short in supply compared to that for
demand. Organizations need to adapt different human resource strategies for managing talented
employees as the later is in short supply. Organizations use different strategies not only for
people management, but also for different process of recruitment, performance management and
employee development.

Talented employees are high flyers with potential to develop to assume senior
operational and managerial positions. Organizations should adapt different strategies for
managing talented employees. Normal employees possess skills, knowledge and abilities that
are excess in supply over demand. The competitive environment resulted in the development of
talent management.
OUTSOURCING HR FUNCTIONS

Some of the organizations started outsourcing some of the HR functions like

recruitment, pay and benefits administration, leave administration, training and development
programmes and performance management. It is widely debated that entire human resources
management activities may be outsourced and the HR division can be eliminated. It is equally
debated that certain HR functions like motivation and leadership cannot be outsourced.
However, it would be difficult to decide categorically, which of the HR functions can be
outsourced.

COMPETENCY MAPPING

Competency mapping is the process of identification, evaluation of employees

competencies and organizational requirements and establishing perfect collaboration among
them. It is matching employee competency and organizational requirements. Competency
mapping also includes development and sustainability of competencies based on the changing
organizational requirements.

Competency mapping has been in use since 1960s. It has been in use in education in the
USA where specifications of competencies were to be learned including the modularization of
instruction, personalization and field experience. Competencies are also identified as
characteristics of individual. Competency mapping was first used in the UK for managing the
development of occupational standards of performance. Now this concept is been emerged and
widely used by the organizations in India.

RETENTION MANAGEMENT

Organizations have been introducing change to cope up with the challenges of the
environment and competition. This, in turn, led to change in job demands and employees skills.
Thus, human skills and talents are in great demand than that of other resources. So, the retaining
the employee in an organization became complex issue. The organizations have introduced lot
of retention strategies in order to keep the valued employees.

HR managers are facing a critical position to analyze the factors that bring job
commitment, analyze the specific needs of the employees, providing satisfied working
condition etc., to retain the employees. The management is in the position to forecast the
vulnerable areas of external mobility and apply appropriate measures. The organizations prefer
to retain existing employees rather than recruiting a new employee due to the following reasons:

The experienced employee is well aware about the management

As it is hard and lot of money is spend to train new employees
The existing employee is in the performance stage
The existing employees talents, potentials, skills etc., is known better based on
performance
There wont be further cost of recruitment, relocation and training, in case of existing
employees etc

Strategies adopted by the management are

Career development
Right job for the right person
Encouraging innovative skills
Providing necessary training
Encouraging through monetary means
Recreational activities
Concentrating more on extra mural welfare aspects etc

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

A career development system is a formal, organized, planned effort to achieve a balance

between individual career needs and organizational workforce requirements. Career
development practices are designed to enhance the career satisfaction of employees and to
improve organizational effectiveness. It may be difficult, however, to completely integrate
individual and organizational career efforts because the rate at which an individual grows and
develops may not parallel an organizations needs. Organizations formulate organizational
strategies and plans as well as HR strategies and plans. Organizations have to integrate career
development with HR plans and activities in order to derive synergies as presented:-

1. Matching individual needs and organizational needs

Market economies led to the state that individuals are responsible for planning,
developing and managing their careers. Individual employees should identify their own skills,
knowledge, aptitude, attitude and values, career opportunities and develop their skills and
knowledge in order to grab the career opportunities. Managers have to offer career counseling
and guidance to help the employees in developing their careers.
2. Identifying career opportunities and requirements
Individual employees, have to identify career opportunities and requirements in the same
as well as other organizations. Employees should analyze the competencies required for jobs,
talents needed, supply, etc. competency analysis helps to study the jobs carefully, identify and
assign weights to the knowledge and skills that each one requires. Job analysis and evaluation
helps to analyze the competencies and skill demands.
3. Ganging employees potential
Employees to assess to their potentials in order to establish a clear talent base they have
to their disposal. Performance appraisal techniques like trait methods, behavioral methods and
results methods, inventorying management talent and assessment centre techniques like in-
basket, leadership group discussions, and role play help the employees and organizations to
gauge employee potential.

JOB ROTATION
Job rotation refers to the movement of an employee from one job another. Jobs
themselves are not actually changed, only the employees are rotated among various jobs. An
employee who works on a routine/respective job moves to and works on another job for some
hours/days/months and backs up to the first job. This measure relieves the employee form
boredom and monotony, improves employees skills regarding various jobs and prepares the
competent employees to meet the contingencies.
It is a method of providing training to the employee and which also enhance the
employee and improve the knowledge. This is a chance given to the employee to prove the
capabilities. Many U.S companies are showing greater interest in having their workforce is
more flexible and interchangeable. The idea is to impart an overall knowledge and familiarity
with the different sectional jobs before they are posted as Managers in the department. This
secures a compromise between over-specialization even from the lowest most routine level, and
a minimum of special skills and expertise necessary for middle level mangers.

POTENTIAL APPRAISAL
In most Indian organizations, people earn promotions on the basis of their past
performance. The past performance is considered a good indicator of future job success. This
could be true, if the job to be played by the promote are similar. However, in actual practice, the
roles that a role holder played in the past may not be the same he is expected to play if he
assumes a different job after his transfer or promotion to a new position. Past performance,
therefore, may not be a good indicator of the suitability of an indicator for a higher role.
To overcome this inadequacy, organizations are adopting new system called potential
appraisal. The objective of potential appraisal is to identify the potential of a given employee to
occupy higher positions in the organizational hierarchy and undertake higher responsibilities

Potential appraisals are required to:

Inform employees about their future prospects
Help the organization chalk out of a suitable succession plan
Update training efforts from time to time
Advise employees about what they must do to improve their career prospects.

BALANCED SCORE CARD

Balanced score card is a performance management tool that helps in measuring strategy
implementation. It measures the effectiveness of strategy implementation.

Balanced scorecard proposed four general perspectives:-

Financial perspective
Customer perspective
 Internal process perspective
Learning and growth perspective

The balanced scorecard represents the four areas that are responsible for our overall success:-

A) Work culture
The measure in work culture perspective of the HR scorecard serves as the
enablers of the other three perspectives in order to achieve ambitious results for internal
business processes, customers, and financial stakeholders
B) Internal business
The internal business perspective of the HR scorecard is the key process at which
the organization must excel in order to continue adding value for customers. The main
task in this perspective is to identify those processes and develop the best possible
measures with which to track the organizations progress.
C) Customer service
How can organization exceed the needs and expectations of their internal and
external customers is a vital question that organizations need to consider for the success
of a business. Thus, customer choice and preference is an area that needs to be
considered because they are the external assets that an innovative organizations has.
D) Financial success
Organizations are set up for sufficient profit maximization. In a competitive
business environment, financial success basically generates sufficient resources to
reinvest in people, technology, buildings, research and education. Accurate HR
scorecard helps organizations financial success and it builds value to the organizations.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate
emotions so as to assist thought. In simple terms, emotional intelligence is the ability to
reason with, and about emotions; it combines feelings with thinking and vice versa.
Emotional intelligence can be defined as the capacity to recognize our own feelings and
those of others, for motivating ourselves and managing emotions well in our social
interactions.
 Methods to identify and use emotional intelligence:-
1. Identifying emotions
2. Understanding emotions
3. Managing emotions
4. Using emotional intelligence on the job

Use of emotional intelligence for career development

1. Management development
2. Team effectiveness
3. Selection

RIGHT SIZING OF WORKFORCE

Right size of the work force refers to employing and maintaining exact number of
employees with required skills, abilities and knowledge to perform the existing number of jobs
in an organization. Clear and systematic job analysis, job specification and job description
provide the basis for arriving at an exact number of employees required. In addition, the level of
technology, phase of information technology, general levels of ability, skills, intelligence and
knowledge of the people and financial ability of the company in employing multiskilled people
determine the number of people required to perform existing jobs.

Result of right sizing

Organizational efficiency
Effective allocation and utilization of HR
Human resources development
Loss of employment
Loss of income
Shattering of employees families
HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

Management requires complete information relating to a problem or issue in right time

in order to make effective decisions. The proper collection, handling and providing the right
information to the right manager in right time not only reduce the risk of wrong decisions but
also work as an effective controlling technique. Complexities involved in business and
economic activities and voluminous government regulations create the need for supply of right
information to the right manager in the right time.

Generally an organization MIS consist of a series of information systems:-

Transaction processing and inquiry response

Management information for operational planning, decision making and control
Management information for tactical planning and decision making and
Management information system for strategic planning and policy planning and decision
making

At present the organizations are using SAP, people soft, wage calculation through software etc

HUMAN RESOURCE AUDIT

An audit is a review and verification of completed transactions to see whether they

represent a true state of affairs of the business or not. Thus, an audit is an examination and
verification of accounts and records. Human Resource audit refers to an examination and
evaluation of policies, procedures and practices to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of
HRM. In essence, HR audit refers to:-

The measurement of the effectiveness of the human resource management mission,

objectives, strategies, policies, procedures, programmes and activities and
The determination of what should or should not be done in the future as a result of such
measurement
Areas of HR audit:-

Mission statement relating to human resource management

Objectives, goals and strategies of human resource management
Accomplishments of human resource management
Programmes of human resource management including the detailed practices and
procedures
Human resource management policies
Human resource management philosophy, its practices and values
Responses of employees, trade unions and government to the practices and
achievements
Role of human resource in total quality management
Role of human resources management in achieving organizations mission, objectives,
goals and strategies

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

All organizations have an impact on society and the environment through their
operations, products or services, and through their interactions with key stakeholder groups
including employees, customers/clients, suppliers, investors, and the local community. There is
no single, commonly accepted definition of the notion of corporate social responsibility and the
concept is often used interchangeably with other terms including corporate responsibility and
sustainability.

From the 1950s till date, the concept CSR has gained considerable acceptance and the
meaning has been broadened to include additional components. Corporate social responsibility
in a globalized industrial world is about making the business investment and the community
promise sustainable for the company and for the communities we operate in, its people and
environment. It demands responsible governance based on principles of leadership, integrity,
respect, commitment and relationships.

CSR in developing countries plays an important role regardless of regulatory structures

and moral values of the society. The focal point of all such activities in those countries are
confined towards promoting development through training, supporting affirmative action
programmes and supporting government efforts to increase efficiency and efficacy of public
services and programmes in existence. Education, water, environment, health and sanitation are
some of the preferred domains for almost all the companies who practice it. CSR is a valuable
concept which is now getting more recognisation in Indian organizations.

SIX SIGMA PRACTICE

Six Sigma is a systematical process of quality improvement through the disciplined

data-analyzing approach, and by improving the organizational process by eliminating the
defects or the obstacles which prevents the organizations to reach the perfection.

Six sigma points out the total number of the defects that has come across in an organizational
performance. Any type of defects, apart from the customer specification, is considered as the
defect, according to Six Sigma. With the help of the statistical representation of the Six Sigma,
it is easy to find out how a process is performing on quantitatively aspects. A Defect according
to Six Sigma is nonconformity of the product or the service of an organization.

Since the fundamental aim of the Six Sigma is the application of the improvement on the
specified process, through a measurement-based strategy, Six Sigma is considered as a
registered service mark or the trade mark. Six Sigma has its own rules and methodologies to be
applied. In order to achieve this service mark, the process should not produce defects more than
3.4. These numbers of defects are considered as the rate of the defects in a process should
not exceed beyond the rate 3.4 per million opportunities. Through the Six Sigma
calculation the number of defects can be calculated. For this there is a sigma calculator, which
helps in the calculation.

In order to attain the fundamental objectives of Six Sigma, there are Six Sigma methodologies
to be implemented. This is done through the application of Six Sigma improvement projects,
which is accomplished through the two Six Sigma sub-methodologies. Under the improvement
projects came the identification, selection and ranking things according to the importance. The
major two sub-divisions of the improvement projects are the Six Sigma DMAIC and the Six
Sigma DMADV. These sub-divisions are considered as the processes and the execution of these
processes are done through three certifications. The three types of certifications used for the
execution of the Six Sigma DMAIC and Six sigma DMADV are:

Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts, which is overseen by Six Sigma Master
Black Belts.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, change is the necessary to survive. Those who changes with the change
can survive and those who do not will vanish. What is today may be obsolete tomorrow. It is
necessary to upgrade and restructure every time to withstand and face the situations. HR
policies of the organization should also be changed with the time and new strategies, policies
should come up to retain the talents in the organization.

HR Managers should do the following things to ensure success-

Use workforce skills and abilities in order to exploit environmental opportunities and
neutralize threats.
Employ innovative reward plans that recognize employee contributions and grant
enhancements.
Indulge in continuous quality improvement through TQM and HR contributions like
training, development, counseling, etc
Utilize people with distinctive capabilities to create unsurpassed competence in an area,
e.g. Xerox in photocopiers, 3M in adhesives, Telco in trucks etc.
Decentralize operations and rely on self-managed teams to deliver goods in difficult
times e.g. Motorola is famous for short product development cycles. It has quickly
commercialized ideas from its research labs.
Lay off workers in a smooth way explaining facts to unions, workers and other affected
groups e.g. IBM , Kodak, Xerox, etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:

nd
1. Bhattacharyya, D.K. (2006), Human Resource Management, 2 Edition, Excel Books,
New Delhi.
th
2. French, W.L. (1990), Human Resource Management, 4 edition, Houghton Miffin,
Boston.
3. VSP Roa, Human Resource Management : Text and cases, First edition, Excel Books
4. Subba Rao, P (2005), Essentials of Human Resource Management and Industrial
Relations, Himalaya Publishing, Bangalore
5. Subba Rao P and VSP Rao (1993), Personnel/Human Resource Management," Konkan
Publishers, Delhi.
6. Subba Rao P(2014, Personnel Management and Human Resource
ManagementHimalaya Publishing House, Bangalaore.