Introduction to Human Resource Management

• Human Resource


  The set of individuals that comprises the workforce of an enterprise
• Human resource is considered to be the most important component of an organization, considering the fact that all other resources—machinery and equipment, financial capital, information—are all handled by the company's workforce, and the operations of most businesses will unlikely proceed without any personnel activity
• Human beings, by nature, are subject to psychological factors that vary depending on their own internal personality and their interaction with the society
• Studies that fall under 'soft' complexity

  • Psychology, the study of individuals and human behavior
  • Sociology, the study of human interaction within the social system
  • Anthropology, the study of mankind as a whole
• Industrial Engineers are concerned with the optimization of an organization's process through proper consideration and allocation of all resources, including the human resource
• To fully understand this field, one must have a clear understanding of psychology and human behavior, how to approach individuals and how to motivate the people to perform work
• There have been numerous innovations in the field of science and engineering: biological, chemical, molecular, and mathematical developments; however, it was not until the modern era that progress in the studies about people was expounded
• Industrial Engineers work at the heart of the company, in line with the other 'more technical' jobs. IEs are concerned not only with the production in a plant, but also largely with the welfare of the employees
• It is vital for a company to consider HRM seriously
• Human Resource Management (HRM)


  All about managing the human workforce, the single most important resource of any organization
• Challenges arise in HRM because human beings are the most complex and the least predictable of all organizational processes
• Human Resource Management governs all the personal and work-related concerns of the employees
• Phases of HRM

  • Craft system
  • Scientific management
  • Human relations movement
  • Organizational management
• Craft system


  Workers were highly skilled and more like craftsmen than factory workers
• The quality of work depended on the skill of the worker leading to inconsistent quality of the products
• Soldiering


  Workers were given the same amount of pay, and perform the same capacity as the slowest worker they have regardless of their level of skill, which was very detrimental to productivity
• Scientific Management


  Based on the principle that out of the myriad of ways that a certain job can be done, there is always one that does the job faster and for the least cost
• Scientific Management led to increased productivity that was crucial for supplying the war machine during the two world wars, but it decreased the importance of the employee because tasks were now broken down into simpler ones that can be accomplished by semi-skilled workers in a much shorter time and for a more consistent quality than what was previously achieved
• Human Relations Movement


  Response to worker exploitation; sought to determine the effects that levels of illumination had on the productivity of workers and found that whenever workers were put into situations that they felt they were significant to management, they performed better
• Organizations nowadays seek to understand their employees to boost productivity and job satisfaction among them
• Organization Science


  The last and current phase of human resource management that combines the lessons learned from the previous periods and focuses more on the organization as a whole instead of on individuals
• HR professionals are consultants, not workers in an isolated business function; they advise managers on many issues related to employees and how they help the organization achieve its goals
• At all levels of the organization, managers and HR professionals work together to develop employees' skills and suggest strategies for increasing employee commitment to the organization
• An HRM team helps a business develop a competitive advantage, which involves building the capacity of the company so it can offer a unique set of goods or services to its customers
• Human Resource Planning


  Concerned with forecasting future human resource needs, determining what kinds of jobs that a company needs and the requirements that those jobs demand
• Human Resource Forecasting

  The process of estimating the future human resource requirement of right quality and right number
• Factors that affect a company's need for labor


  • Death
  • Resignation
  • Retirement termination
  • Productivity of employees
  • Growth and expansion of organization
  • Absenteeism
• Job Description


  A list of all the tasks and responsibilities of a job
• Job Specification


  A list of qualifications that a person must have to be able to fulfill the job
• Job Design


  Specifies the content of a job, the materials and equipment needed to do the job, and its relation to other jobs in the company
• Work schedules are usually dictated by the nature of a company's business
• Scheduling schemes

  • Altered workweeks
  • Compressed workweek
  • Flextime
• Employee Recruitment


  A process wherein the company looks for people to fill a position that it has created or has become vacant, from the internal and external labor market
• The process of attracting qualified applicants differs according to the level of the applicant
• Employee Selection


  A process used to determine if the applicant is fit for the job or not, including filling-out forms, employment tests, and selection interview
• Employee Training and Development


  When an employee is accepted for a certain job, he is first trained to enhance his skills and ensure that he will do his job properly on actual scenarios
• Types of employee training

  • On-the-job training
  • Off-the-job training
• Performance Evaluation


  Employees have to be given feedback so that they would know whether or not they are doing their job well, using methods like ranking, grading, and 360-degree approach
• Career Development


  Companies help employees plan and develop their careers, providing counseling and assessing managerial potential through assessment centers
• Employee Compensation is closely linked with performance evaluation