HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (ID 0033DODO0612)

MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

REPORT SUBMITTED BY:

NAME: NISHTHA PARIHAR STUDENT ID: 0033DODO0612 LECTURER: Dr. GEORGE KOSHY

On critically discuss the proposal that organisations have effective HRM policies which can support business strategies and contribute to improve performance of the organisation.

TABLE OF CONTENT
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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (ID 0033DODO0612)

1. Introduction 2. History 3. Importance of HRM 4. Four Functions of HRM 4.1 Manpower Planning 4.2 Recruitment & Selection 4.3 Training & Development 4.4 Appraisal 5. HRM in HCL(INDIA) 6. HRM in APPLE 7. HRM in MARKS & SPENCER 8. HRM in INFOSYS CONCLUSION REFERENCES 13-14 10-11 11-12 5-8 5 6-7 8

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1. INTRODUCTION
We have often heard the term human resources management and the first picture that comes to our mind is a manager sitting in his glitzy office busy solving the employee related concerns but the real picture is quite different from what we actually think of HRM.

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Management can be described as a phenomenon of distributing a pie amongst different individuals making each of them feel that they have received the largest share. Human Resources Management can be defined as managing people in the form of a collective relationship between the management of the organisation and its employees enabling and focussing on employment relationships and fulfilling both the management and employee needs (Anon., n.d.). HRM is all about employees in an organisation. No wonders that some people call HR managers as people managers. HRM specialises in all the tasks related to staffing and maintaining an effective workforce leading to the growth of the company. The main function of HRM is not only restricted to solving employee concerns but also includes designing the framework, job analysis, recruitment and selection, training and development, retention, performance evaluation and appraisals through the tools provided to the HRM department used by the line managers (Rao, 2011). Most authors argue on the facts that organisations that have enforced Human Resource Management do better than those organisation that do not. Human resource management has greatly become so important in this aspect and has attracted the most research from both academic and business community. Further, we will discuss about why there is a need of an effective HRM strategy in an organisation for overall development of the firm and how some companies are getting benefits through their HRM strategies.

2. HISTORY
In the early 1920s job profiles like Labour Manager or Employer Manager were introduced in engineering industry and by the end of 1930s other industrial sectors also started realising the increasing need of having a specialised staff for recruiting, and training of employees in order to improve the productivity. In the 1960s HR systems was adopted by some Japanese corporations with the aim of attaining commercial power. HRM started gaining popularity in the late 1980s. Universities and colleges started including HRM as a part of a student curriculum. Cornell Universitys school of Industrial and Labour Relations became the first business school in the world for college-level study in HRM (Anon., 2009).

IMPORTANCE OF HRM
HRM plays an important role in assuring employee satisfaction, improving individual performance and productivity, thereby giving an organisation a competitive advantage. Whenever an organisation plan their future, the very first step in the process is to hire competent and skilled individuals and this can only be possible with the help of an effective HRM department (RAO, 2010). The primary objectives of HRM can be mentioned as: To help the organisation in achieving success. Hiring of skilled and competent workforce. To provide high standard of training and motivation to employees. To maintain the quality of work with increasing productivity.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (ID 0033DODO0612)

To provide job satisfaction to employees for the purpose of retainment.

Importance of HRM is not only restricted to commercial sectors but its importance can also be felt in the manufacturing and the traditional sectors. In order to have a competitive edge in the market every firm needs to apply effective HRM strategies to make the effective use of their resources for better Return of Investment (ROI). The scope of HRM is extensive and far-reaching. Therefore it becomes very difficult to describe it in a summarized way. HRM in Personal Management: This can also be said as direct manpower management which involves the basic functions like workforce planning, hiring of new employees, training and development, induction process and appraisals. The main idea is to focus on individual performance and development leading to organisational development (Anon., 2008). HRM in Employee Welfare: It deals with the managing of working environment and facilities that are being provided at the workplace. This includes a wide range of services like safety services, health services, social security and medical services. In addition to this, it also takes care of the canteen services, housing, transport etc. HRM in Industrial Relations: It is the art of establishing good relations with employees through resolving problems with mutual understandings, maintaining work relations and by settling of disputes. The main aim is to secure the highest level of understanding amongst employees in order to avoid any negative impact on the reputation of the organisation. The main purpose is to promote industrial democracy to safe guard the interest of both employees and management (Pomoni, 2009).

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Source: (holman, 2012)

3. THE FOUR FUNCTIONS OF HRM

3.1 Manpower planning

Manpower planning is also known as human resource planning. It is a process of determining the number and type of people required to achieve the overall goals of the company. In other words we can describe it as putting the required number of people with right skills at a right position at the time of vacancy in the company in order to accomplish organisational goals. A companys development is determined by its effective planning. Making preparations for what is expected to happen is the primary role of management. Manpower planning is done with a systematic approach. Before starting with the hiring procedure it is very important to determine the number of vacancies in the organisation, skills required and which department requires how many new employees and also needs to make future manpower forecasts (guide, 2009). Major steps involved in this function include: Analysing the current workforce inventory Making future manpower forecasts Developing employment programmes- After analysing the current manpower status and making future forecasts systematic programmes can be frames which includes recruitment and selection process and placement on new employees. Design training programmes- This step depends on development of employment programmes. Training programmes are organised in to order to improve the current skills of the employee, knowledge about a new technology and capabilities.

IMPORTANCE
Manpower planning is a two phased process. It not analyses the current human resource needs but also makes future forecasts and accordingly makes employment programmes. This function of HRM identifies the shortages and surpluses and gives a framework to recruitment and selection process. It helps in the growth of the business since it makes the resources to be readily available and how these resources can be utilised in best manner. The process of manpower planning produces results that help in improving the productivity of the firm and thereby making its employees more efficient in their tasks leading to overall organisational development (guide, 2009).

3.2

Recruitment and selection

Recruitment and selection process can be defined as the sequence of activities which are done to hire new employees. This process is done in two cases: First, when there are some vacancies in the company or second, Business growth (khan, 2010). Every organisation has its own employment and recruitment policies.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (ID 0033DODO0612)

SOURCE: Google

In this process selection of the candidate should not be biased and the person with best skills and learning capabilities should be hired. Steps involved in Recruitment and Selection process are as follows:
Step 1: Advertising

Advertising plays an important role in this process as it spreads awareness amongst all job seekers. The advertisement designed should clearly highlight the specifications of the job like skills required, job profile etc.
Step 2: Short listing

Once all the candidates submit their resumes, some resumes needs to be screened in order to eliminate the candidates who definitely don't fit the job profile. This can be a very tedious job to do as you have to read every resume very carefully ensuring that we dont lose any potential candidate.
Step 3: Interviews

Phone interviews can be used to check the communication skills of the candidate and it should not take more than 10 minutes. Face-to-face interview: This is the main section of the interview process as this is the best to determine the actual capabilities of the candidate. In face to face interview a candidate can be judged on his interpersonal skills, his knowledge and his skills can be checked properly. This should last about an hour and the same questions should be asked from each applicant, by doing so it becomes easy to compare different candidates. Questions should focus on the capabilities required for the job.

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Step 4: Assessment.

Now the assessment can be done through an aptitude test or predictive assessment tool can also be used.
Step 5: Secondary face-to-face interview.

The goal is to clear up any discrepancies and broadly explain the compensation package.
Step 6: Job Offer:

If we have chosen the right candidate, its the right to make the job offer and we need to make sure that the offer is clear and unequivocal. Step 7: Induction: Help the new recruit to understand the culture of the company and get quickly accustomed to the environment of the company.

3.3

Training and development

In order to enhance the skills of an employee training and development programme is organised. The new hired employees are given skill training, safety training etc. This programme is conducted not only for new employees but also for old employees aiming at increasing the productivity of every individual.

3.4

APPRAISALS
This involves goals assessments to see whether employees as well as management have successfully achieved their goals and based on their performances they are rewarded with incentives.

4. HRM IN HCL (India)

EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND, this is the ideology followed by Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies. HCL is a leading global outsourcing service provider. The whole concept of keeping employees first and customers second is to make an employee oriented organisation, ensuring transparency and encouraging a value-driven culture. The main idea of following such a concept is part of HCLs HRM strategy, giving all the power in the hands of the employees and making managers accountable to them rather vice versa. Adapting such a radical concept is original and a little risky. HCL follows the principal that its not the customers that makes the organisation but the employees who decides the future of the firm and in order to make them deliver value and best results so it becomes very important for the organisation to make their employees realise that HCL is a great place to work. The other factor that HCL always takes care of is Transparency, as it reduces the gap between the employee and the manager. With the presence of transparency in the system, employees act more responsibly and creatively.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (ID 0033DODO0612)

HCL believes in bringing dramatic changes in the HRM policies. There were three major changes that HCL brought in its system : HCL takes an annual survey within the organisation to rate the performance of all managers and the rating is done by the employees. The aggregated result of this survey is then published on companys intranet for every employee to look at justifying HCLs transparency policy. Everybody can see the individual score of the managers which gives them a spirit of motivation to attain a better score next time. Most managers take the result if this annual survey very seriously. Most importantly, this result does not have any effect on appraisals this is just a way to show that the managers are accountable to you not the vice versa. Service tickets. Every HCL employee has a right to open a ticket with the relevant department when facing any kind of problem. Whenever a ticket is opened, the concerned department starts working on it and tries to resolve it. Until and unless that particular problem has not been resolved that ticket cant be closed. Most importantly, the person who can close the ticket is the same employee who created it in the first place. The services desk aims at resolving the ticket within two days. When this system was started there were 30,000 tickets per months which have now reduced to 200 tickets per month. Now the main risk that arises here is what if employees start creating tickets unnecessarily on trivial issues which can be resolved by talking to the line managers. This can only be resolved by properly educating the employees when a ticket is required to be raised. HCL Training and Development programme. HCL is committed to help its staff in gaining the level of qualifications that will them throughout their career. Current statistics of the company shows that 60 percent of the employees have graduate qualifications and 20 percent have post-graduate degrees. HCL arranges a special training programme for its employees by using its international infrastructure. For example, HCL has a business exchange programme where employees from other countries come to India for a year and vice versa.

5. HRM IN APPLE
The goals of Apple involve equipping the company and given them expertise human capital in order to enhance quality performance. Employees must always strive for the greatest quality in all their endeavours. This would enhance however a proactive internal career progression (Lliev et al. 2004). Apple recruits people whose attitude and qualities meet the needs and wants of the company. Subordinates capabilities with their ability to deliver in order to achieve the Apples sources of innovations are their human capital that have knowledge management which is the most important key in this organisation, Apple however ensures that the managers are also highly trained because they have realised the importance of their employees that impacts additional skills rather than what they require to perform in their day to day activities. This spelt out the companys strategy of aligning subordinates aims with that of the organization. All these makes employees feel more attached to work as they receive such trainings. Apples appraisal system is continuous. This allows for feedbacks to both appraiser and appraised which serve as a formal opportunity for individual counselling, motivation/salary reviews and

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allocation of merit payments. Tasks are achieved based on pre-analyses of the scheduled goals and agreed on by both the subordinates and their line managers (Khurana, 2011). Apple rewards subordinates greatly for high performance, they have a partnership program which try to steer the affairs of the company; employees that makes great contribution this are also rewarded. Apple ensures that it acknowledge those people that adds to the growth of the company which in turn raises their morale (Lliev et al., 2004).

6. HRM IN MARKS & SPENCERS

Marks & Spencers is one of the leading UK retailer offering stylish, high quality clothing and home products to more than 21million customers. One of the major obstacles faced by the managers while introducing any change is to determine a strategy that gives out the best results. When a company like M&S is at the peak of the market then it not only has to adapt according to the market conditions but it should also develop internally by practising effective HRM methods giving the company an extra edge amongst its competitors. Change can be costly not only in financial terms but also in terms of management time. The question that arises here is whether M&S is capable enough of bringing such change and is ready to manage that change (burnes, 2004). Managers of M&S are willing to bring new strategies so that the performance of the company can be transformed by improving the employees capabilities, making it better than the competitors. The main aim of M&S is to create a strong relationship between human resource management and the core business in order to yield maximum benefits from the changes made (H., 2002). Primary concern of HRM in M&S is to how resources should be deployed and controlled to motivate the staff and make them more competent in those activities and business processes which are needed to run the business successfully. M&S focuses on the strategies of acquiring of staff, retaining them and developing them. To keep a check on every HRM process such as goal setting, recruitment, training and development, performance audits are conducted by a team of managers and based on the assessment of individuals, rewards and bonuses are rewarded (H. Doorewaard, 2003). This system of rewarding is a part of M&S human resource strategy to improve the capability of the employees. M&S has always been known for its effective strategies to link core business and human resources strategies together which gives a clear view of the business planning process. When operations are being done in a highly competitive environment, with a constant force from internal and external forces affects the decisions of the management committee. A strategic approach followed in HRM includes designing and implementing internal policies and effective practices to ensure a firms human capital to contribute to the achievement of its business objectives. A companys performance highly depends on the HRM policies that it implements internally. M&S line managers aims at enhancing the productivity by building a strong human resource management system with specific human resource policies which in turn necessitates the development of a new approach which investigates the relation between productivity of the company and strategic HRM factors. Based on such understandings, managers adopt appropriate strategies to improve total productivity of the business. According to Strategic HRM, the human resource strategy should developed keeping in

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mind the general strategy of the firm to maintain a balance within and outside environment (L. Farquharson, 2002).

7. HRM IN INFOSYS
Narayana Murthy, CEO Infosys: Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure that they come back the next morning. (Pinto, 2007). Infosys technology is the leading software company of India and has received the best employer in India in recent HR surveys. Infosys is not only famous for its brand value but also for its effective HR strategies. Infosys has been a trailblazer in modern workforce strategies and human resource practices-be it generating bonuses for its employees or in creating a pleasurable environment with all amenities. Infosys recruit candidates from across the world by conducting one of the toughest selection process and all the selected candidates has to undergo an intensive 14 week training program. Infosys aims at recruiting the right talent for the right jobs and focuses on hiring those individuals who they think has the ability to learn. The qualities that are being looked while recruiting are analytical ability, teamwork and leadership, communication skills, creativity and aptitude of the individual. Infosys was the first company to offer ESPOs to its employees and along with it followed various other benefits and incentives based on the performance of an individual employee and his team. Employee development and training is a continuous process in Infosys. After all the hiring formalities the employee is being sent through the induction and training programme which orients these new recruits to companys culture and about the new technologies and processes that are practised in the organisation. As they reach higher efficiency and performance levels, employees undergo project management training sessions so that they can develop project handling skills and capabilities. After every training, assessment tests are conducted in order to evaluate the new employees based on which their incentives are decided and rewarded through variable pay. Infosys pays a lot of attention on training and development process and competency building process.

CONCLUSION
After comparing different companies human resource practices it can be realised that human resource practices varies from one company to another due to different ideologies in companys political view, social and legal environment. Human resource management must have different dimensions and must bring satisfaction to all by taking all the various factors mentioned above into account. Human resource management must be practiced by keeping an international perspective thus ensuring equal employment opportunities. It must always be noted that employees are the heart and soul of the organisation as the productivity, performance and reputation of an organisation is judged by its own employees and therefore must be treated very well irrespective of where the person is coming from, race, culture, colour, skin, values, attributes etc. Thus human resource management must be dynamic and not static.

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