setting HR objectives

• Employee engagement

  When employees are physically, mentally and emotionally connected to the organisation they work for they perform better
• Areas of employee engagement identified by CIPD

  • Intellectual engagement - employee is interested and wants to be an 'expert' in what they do
  • Social engagement - enjoying working with others
• Talent management

  How employees are identified for development and supported with training
• Talent management techniques

  • In-house training and development schemes
  • Coaching
  • Mentoring
  • Buddying
• Recruitment

  Another aspect of talent management
• Measuring talent management

  % of vacancies filled by internal candidates
• Training

  Essential part of staff development, ensures staff skills are kept up to date to maximise productivity and efficiency levels
• Lack of training

  Can have an effect on productivity
• Diverse workforce

  Includes a variety of people in terms of age, gender and cultural background
• Many businesses will publish data to demonstrate their commitment to diversity
• Benefits of a diverse workforce

  • Potential to engage with new markets
  • Access to a broader range of experience
  • Business reputation
  • Greater creativity
• HR will set objectives that align employees to the shared purpose of the business
• Benefits of fulfilling employee engagement objectives


  • Lower labour turnover
  • Higher retention
  • Higher productivity
• External influences on HR


  • Economy
  • Political - legislation such as minimum wage and equality rights
  • Technological changes
  • Social changes - e.g. growing number of single person households increasing demand for flexible working
• Internal influences on HR

  • Corporate objectives
  • Type of product or service
• Strategies that can be adopted

  • Ensuring good communication
  • Staff training
  • Including reference to values as part of recruitment process
  • Modelling good practice by senior managers
• Hard model of HRM


  Employees are only considered as a resource for the business
• Key features of hard model


  • Minimum pay
  • Little empowerment and delegation
  • Minimal communication
  • Motivation through the use of financial methods
  • Little interest in development of employees
• Soft model of HRM


  Employees are viewed as the most valuable resource available and a source of competitive advantage
• Key features of soft model

  • Employees are encouraged to take decisions
  • Regular two way communication
  • Long term relationship formed through internal recruitment
  • Commitment to developing workforce through training
  • Focus on staff retention so employees can develop and progress in the long term
• Some examples of situations where both hard and soft approaches may be needed: redundancy, training, employee relations
• a business that is able to fulfil these objectives will benefit from

  lower labour turnover