Human resource management

Introduction:
India is in the second place in manpower in the world. The humans are resources and they have to be
trained and developed. The factors of production are men, material, money and machinery etc. Here man is the
most important factor of production as all the other factors are meaningless if capable persons are not available
to work up on the other factors.

Q. Give the meaning of HRM.

Human resource management considers human as the important resource. HRM is a strategic approach
to the acquisition, management and motivation of people so that employees can improve their performance over
work. The term human resource management rescuers to the talk of handling people who belong to the different
division of the society, i.e., students, employees, employers, the self-employed, sportsmen, house wives etc.

Q. Define HRM.
According to Dale Yoder, Human resource or manpower management effectively describes the process
of planning and directing the application, development and utilization of human resources in employment.

Q. Discuss the objectives of Human Resource management.

The main objectives of HRM are as follows:
1. To make an optimum utilization of the human resource of the organization:
The main objective of HRM is to make every individual in the enterprise shall work to his potentials.
2. To establish and maintain a sound organizational structure:
It aims at dividing the organizational tasks into different functions, jobs and positions. The authority and
responsibility associated with each such position is clearly defined.
3. To ensure that the organization has the required number of staff:
The main objective is to maintain an effective balance between surplus and shortage of labour.
4. To provide, create, utilise and motivate employees to accomplish organizational goals.
5. To develop the personnel:
HRM helps the employees to enrich their job knowledge and skill by undergoing relevant training
programmers. Employees need to update themselves in tune with the requirements.
6. To ensure that the employees have higher job satisfaction:
HRM provides higher level of job satisfaction within employees by providing them the kind of work
environment that is comfortable.
7. To provide scope for participation in decision-making:
The employees are involved in decision making process. The management does not take unilateral
decisions.

Q. Discuss the importance of HRM.

The following are the importance of HRM
1. Correct identification of man power needs:
The manpower need for an organization should be correctly identified. As the amount spent on human
resource is deemed as an investment, it is necessary to determine the number of men required for doing the
various jobs in the enterprise accurately so that investment in human resource will be at the optimum level.
2. Balanced manpower resources:
It ensures that the organization does not suffer from either surplus or shortage of manpower. It is further
important that the number of persons employed in the organization at any given point of time should neither be
more or less than what is actually required. HRM reduces the problem of both surplus and shortage of labour.

3. Selection of right man for the right job:

HRM ensures the selection of the right man for the right job. It recognizes the fact that if a candidate is
overqualified for the job, he will not have a positive attitude towards work and on the other hand, if he is under
qualified, he cannot carry out the task assigned.
4. Development of individual skills:
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HRM focuses on the development of the skill of every individual in order to make him up-to-date. The
knowledge of every person should be updated. HRM takes note of the fact that a person who does not update
himself will become outdated.
5. Recognizes the need for the appraisal of the employees performance:
Performance appraisal is an integral part of human resource management. Unless the performance of the
employees is periodically reviewed, it will not be possible for the employer to know their level of efficiency.
6. Incentives for best performance:
Employees who provide better performance should be provided with incentives, these incentives many
be financial as well as non-financial. HRM recognize the fact that if good workers are not suitably rewarded,
they may lose interest in their work.
7. Gives importance for favorable employee attitude:
The attitude of the employees towards work is a crucial factor determining performance. HRM makes
an earnest attempt to secure a favorable employee attitude. This is done by providing the employees with proper
working environment. Counseling is provided to those employees who undergo stress.
8. Creates good human relations in every workplace:
HRM provides cordial human relations. Conflicts in a workplace are unavoidable. But such Conflicts
shall not be allowed to damage inter-personal relationships.
9. It provides scope for collective bargaining:
The employer shall encourage the employees to form a union in the workplace. This will give the
employees the benefit of collective bargaining. In the absence of such a union, if any individual has certain
grievances, he may find it difficult to represent the same to the management in his personal capacity.

Q. What are the characteristics / Nature / Features of Human resource management?

The following are the characteristics of HRM:
1. Goal-oriented:
The main aim of human resource management is to make the best utilization of the available manpower
resource of the organization. This helps in the achievement of the goal of the organization, i.e., the targeted
profit.
2. Universally relevant:
Human resource management is not only relevant for business organization but also for universal level.
Effective management of human resource has to be preformed right form the house hold level to the
Government level. The Government of India has created a separate ministry called the Ministry of Human
Resources Development which clearly proves this point.
3. Systematic approach in manpower handling:
The Human Resource management adopts a systematic approach in handling the manpower resource.
This is done by the performance of two sets of functions, i.e., Managerial functions and operative functions.
4. Pervasive in nature:
Management of human resource is performed at different levels. Each and every family and every
Government consider the effective management of its human resource important. In a business concern the need
for effective management of the manpower resource is felt in all its functional areas, i.e., Production, Marketing
Finance, research etc.
5. Ongoing activity:
Human resource management is required at all points of time. It is a continuous affair. As long as
manpower resource is needed in any place, the importance of its management will be felt.

6. Dynamic field of activity:

For every manager, the management of human resource is challenging task. This is because the human
have peculiar characteristics. People have feelings and therefore they cannot be handled in the way of nonliving things like machines are handled.
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7. Development of man power resource:

Human resource development is part of human resource management. Development of manpower
resource through training programs is as important as its procurement. Need less to say, in an organization, it is
only the human resource that can be trained to acquire greater skills.
8. It is a science as well as an art:
Human resource management is both a science and an art. As a social science it relies on experiments
and observations for the sake of making inferences. As an art, it calls for certain special skills on the part of the
manager for the effective handling of the manpower resource.
9. Interdisciplinary:
HRM makes use of the concepts of subjects such as sociology, Psychology, economics etc. As a subject,
it is, therefore, interdisciplinary in nature.
10. Relatively new:
When compared with subjects like psychology, economics, marketing, financial management, etc.,
human resource management is relatively a new subject. Initially it was popularly known as personnel
management. After it became HRM by widening its scope.

Q. What are the principles of human resource management?

The following are the wildly accepted principles of personnel management.
1. Individual development:
The HRM should assure the personality development of each individual. The HR manger should
recognize their individual ability and make use of such ability in an effective manner.
2. Proper selection:
The personnel manager has to design a scientific system of selecting the personnel so that he can ensure
the selection of the right type of persons for various jobs for this purpose. He has to adopt the techniques of
psychology. The workers should be selected after a careful weighing of the requirements of the jobs on the one
hand and assessment and evaluation of the abilities and aptitudes of men on the other. This will avoid the
wastage of resources and increase the productivity of employees.
3. Improvement of employee morale:
High moral is required for the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. Morale promotes
cooperative attitude among the workers. To increase the morale among the workers the HR manager has to
motivate through monetary and non-monetary incentives such as ideal wage system, bonus, gratuity, better
working conditions, Facilities for training, labour welfare, social security schemes etc.
4. Effective communication:
For the better management of the concern there should be an effective communication. Communication
must ensure a two way traffic i.e., it must provide freedom to both parties management and workers to convey
their ideas, orders, opinions, grievance etc. An effective communication will co-ordinate the efforts of various
employees and the management.
5. Dignity of labour:
The services of an employee should be duly recognized so that his ego may be satisfied. In this context,
some non-monetary incentives should be provided along with monetary incentives.
6. Team work:
A team spirit should be developed among the workers. The workers should believe that a team work can
alone help to attain the organizational goals.
7. Principle of fair compensation:
The workers should be provided with a fair compensation for the work done by them. This is very
important to maintain better industrial relations and to increase the workers efficiency. For this purpose,
performance appraisal should be the basis for wage determination.
8. Principle of participation:
The employees should be provided with the opportunity of participating in the management. They
should realize that they are partners in the prosperity of the organization.
9. Proper Utilization of Human resources:
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The management has to utilize the available human resources in the best manner possible so as to
achieve the organization objectives effectively. HRM is an art to get the work done by the people, to get the
desired result.
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