Importance of HRM to Companies in the Modern Era

October 26, 2019

HRM as a practice significantly offers support and advice to the line management within an organization. Management of human resources must ensure an attraction, preservation, loyalty and development of highly profiled caliber of people/workforce in order to provide a competitive advantage necessary for the survival and success of the organization. According to the statement of (McCoy, 1999), he states that “The image of an organization, which develops the goodwill, is largely dependent on how well its human resources are managed”.

Human Resource policies and practices help organizations achieve their business goals and objectives" by developing the knowledge and skills of the employees, or the 'human capital pool'. The quality of its human resource affects an organization’s ability to adapt to changes, which determines its competitiveness

The Soft approach to HRM sometime known as development, stresses human side, skill development, collaboration and place for union in this model. Also employee being "resourceful" and a most important source of competitive advantage by use of human relations, which involves too attractive performance by using communication, motivation and leadership to boost commitment and loyalty. The soft model regards as improved satisfaction in the management.

The practice, in its efforts, effectively attempts to maintain a ‘fit' between the employees and the organization's overall strategic direction. Unlike technology and processes, people have a soul, aspirations, feelings and emotions. As such, the concept of people as an asset, do not indicate perceiving them as commodities. In managing people, the manager must practice disciplines based on psychology, sociology, industrial relations as well as industrial engineering and economics. In achieving an organization's objectives, it is possible to adjust the technology employed by increasing production speed as well as reducing the machines' downtime. For a person, who has a soul, ability to reason and act in response, it is hard to alter the person's working speed as well as the duration. Proper management of human resources leads to a motivated workforce, a development to loyalty and an assurance of survival and success of an organization.

It is important to implement an effective recruitment strategy to attract highly- skilled candidates. According to (Boxall P , Purcell J, 2003)recruiting candidates with inappropriate skills may prevent or stall organizational growth. Recruitment strategy differs from selection practices in the way that selection practices involve looking at a candidate's strengths and weaknesses, whilst recruitment strategy attempts to attract highly-skilled candidates by promoting the organization as a great place to work. It seems that Henry Davis York takes this strategy into consideration and makes an effort to be known in university campuses. The rationale of their' growing its own' strategy is to recruit young professionals who will grow with the company and understand its directions, rather than to recruit experienced executives from other law firm. Given that this strategy has won Henry Davis York an award in the category of Best Attraction and Retention Strategy at the 2003 Australian Human Resource Awards, it can be suggested that the recruitment strategy may have contributed to their 90 percent retention rate (Donaldson C, 2003).

Dyer and Shafer point out that employee development program should "build the firm's agility over the long run" (cited in Boxallet at. 2003:144). It seems that the 'Dynamic Resourcing Strategy' of Main Roads W.A. attempts to make sure that changes to the organization are performed efficiently (Donaldson, 2004). The focus appears to be in "rejuvenating the organization" after its 70-year existence. Its approach includes a training and development program to ensure that employees, including management~ have the required skills in the new directions for the organization. The organization indicates that they place special importance on training new employees to ensure that they are ready to take over when the older staff members leave the organization. Their training program includes both formal and informal approach such as regional e-learning program, mentoring and further studies. It appears that the program has been successful, resulting in better skilled and more productive workforce. However, one can suggest that the most important outcome is "the mindset change" that has given the older staff members more confidence in the younger peers, therefore giving them the opportunity to contribute and perform (Donaldson, 2004).

Finally, in modern Era the HRM is responsible in managing implementation of change. Change may be in terms of process, organizational structure, systems and culture among others. Changes are the inevitable twists that affect the normal and known paths through which an organization operates.