THE NEW " AVATAR " OF HRM

THE NEW "AVATAR " OF HRM

PROF.SATYA SIDHARTHA PANDA (Ph.D.)
BANGALORE-INDIA
In all activities men and resources are involved. For a long time men or workers were taken for granted. Greater accent was given to resources, production machinery and top managers. But at present in the modern large scale production of innumerable products with a wide market, (where sky is the limit) in the last few decades the importance of human resources and their development has come to the fore. The importance of human resources to any organization need not be over-emphasised. Human resource is the wealth of a nation and an organisation. The development process is wide and varied. In this lesson, let us understand the importance and concept of Human Resources Management(HRM).

An effective productivity management process is simply not possible without the commitment and involvement of employees at all levels. Commitment is the binding of the individual to behavioural acts. In prospective view, commitment is conceived as an individuals psychological bond to the organisation or social system as reflected in his involvement with loyalty for and belief in the values of the organisation. Success in the employee involvement arena requires, first and foremost, a recognition by top management that participative management means cultural change which, requires management commitment and a long-term perspective.

Regardless of their industry, size or location, companies today face five critical business challenges. Collectively, these challenges require organizations to build new capabilities. Who is currently responsible for developing those capabilities? Everyone and no one. That vacuum is HR’s opportunity to play a leadership role in enabling organizations to meet the following competitive challenges.

Globalization: Gone are the days when companies created products at home and shipped them abroad “as is”. With the rapid expansion of global markets, managers are struggling to balance the paradoxical demand to think globally and act locally. The imperative requires them to move people, ideas, products and information around the world to meet local needs. They must add new and important ingredients to the mix when making strategy: volatile political situations, contentious global trade issues, fluctuating exchange rates, and unfamiliar cultures. They must be more literate in the ways of international customers, commerce, and competition than ever before. In short, globalization requires that rganizations increase their ability to learn and collaborate and to manage diversity, complexity and ambiguity.

Profitability through Growth: During the past decade, most Western companies have been clearing debris, using downsizing, reengineering, delivering and consolidation to increase efficiency and cut costs. The gains of such yard work, however, have largely been realized, and executives will now have to pay attention to the other part of the profitability equation: revenue growth.

Technology: From videoconferencing to the Internet, technology has made out world smaller and faster. Ideas and massive amounts of information are in constant movement. The challenge for managers is to make sense and good use of what technology offers. Not all technology adds value. But technology can and will affect done. In the coming years, managers will need to figure out how to make technology a viable, productive part of the work setting. They will need to stay ahead of the information for business results. Otherwise, they risk being swallowed by a tidal wave of data – not ideas.

Intellectual Capital: Knowledge has become a direct competitive advantage for companies selling ideas and relationships (think of professional service, software and technology-driven companies) and an indirect competitive advantage for all companies attempting to differentiate themselves by how they service customers. Form now on, successful companies will be the ones that are the most adept at attracting, developing, and retaining individuals who can drive a global organization that is responsive to
both its customers and the burgeoning opportunities of technology. Thus the challenge for organizations is making sure they have the capability to find, assimilate, develop, compensate, and retain such talented individuals.
Change, Change and More Change: Perhaps the greatest competitive challenge companies face is adjusting to – indeed, embracing – nonstop change. They must be able to learn rapidly and continuously, innovate ceaselessly, and take on new strategic imperatives faster and more comfortably. Constant change means organizations must create a healthy discomfort with the status quo, an ability to detect emerging trends quicker than the competition, an ability to make rapid decisions, and the agility to seek new ways of doing business. To thrive, in other words, companies will need to be in a never-ending state of transformation, perpetually creating fundamental, enduring change. The five challenges described above have one overarching implication for business: the only competitive weapon left is organization. Sooner or later, traditional forms of competitiveness-cost, technology, distribution, manufacturing, and product features – can be copied. They have become table stakes. You must have them to be a player,
but they do not guarantee you will be a winner


The Challenge of Human Resource Management
The most significant resource of any organization is often said to be its people. Such claims appear in organizations’ annual reports and mission statements. Of course, an organization is nothing but a group of people whose activities have been planned and coordinated to meet organizational objectives. An organization that exists to produce goods and services has a good chance to survive and prosper if it consists of the Right People. This is true for all organizations. In a similar fashion, people need organizations. The vast majority of people must work to support themselves and their families. But people work for many reasons other than economic security. For example, many also work to keep busy and feel useful, to create and achieve something. They want to gain recognition and achieve status or to test and stretch their capabilities. To meet these multifarious needs, people and organizations join forces. Unfortunately, this union seldom approaches perfection. Organizations encounter several obstacles in meeting their goals and in a similar way all employees report some problems in their attempts to be productive and efficient in their jobs and to feel satisfied in their work lives. The challenge of human resource management is to minimize these obstacles and problems. The central challenge facing society is the continued improvement of our organizations, both private and public. Another important purpose of human resource management is to improve the contribution made by people to organizations, (Davis) through effective and efficient use of resources. Efficient means that it must use the minimum amount of resources needed to produce results. Effective means producing right things through right ways. The resultant productivity (ratio of output to input) gains obtained through HR efforts enable managers to reduce costs, save scarce resources, enhance profits and offer better pay, benefits and working conditions to
employees.

Pervasive force : HRM is pervasive in nature. It is present in all enterprises. It permeates all levels of management in an organization.

Action oriented : HRM focuses attention an action, rather than on record keeping, written procedures or rules. The problems of employees at work are solved through rational policies.

Individually oriented : It tries to help employees develop their potential fully.It encourages them to give out their best to the organization. It motivates employees through systematic process of recruitment, selection, training and development coupled with fair wage policies.

People oriented : HRM is all about people at work, both as individuals and groups. It tries to put people on assigned jobs in order to produce good results. The resultant gains are used to reward people and motivate them toward further improvements in productivity.

Development oriented : HRM intends to develop the full potential of employees. The reward structure is tuned to the needs of employees. Training is offered to sharpen and improve their skills. Employees are rotated on various jobs so that they gain experience and exposure. Every attempt is made to use their talents fully in the service of organizational goals.

Integrating mechanism : HRM tries to build and maintain cordial relations between people working at various levels in the organization. In short, it tries to integrate human assets in the best possible manner in the service of an organization.

Comprehensive function : HRM is, to some extent, concerned with any organizational decision which has an impact on the, workforce or the potential workforce (Bernardin). The term ‘workforce’ signifies people working at various levels, including workers, supervisors, middle and top managers. It is concerned with managing people at work. It covers all types of personnel.
Personnel work may take different shapes and forms at each level in the organizational hierarchy but the basic objective of achieving organizational effectiveness through effective and efficient utilization of human resources, remains the same. “It is basically a method of developing potentialities of employees so that they get maximum satisfaction out of their work and give their
best efforts to the organization” (Pigors and Myers).

Auxiliary service : HR departments exist to assist and advise the line or operating managers to do their personnel work more effectively. HR manager is a specialist advisor. It is a staff function.

Inter-disciplinary function : HRM is a multi-disciplinary activity, utilizing knowledge and inputs drawn from psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, etc. To unravel the mystery surrounding the human brain, managers, need to understand the appreciate the contributions of all such ‘soft ‘disciplines.

Continuous function : According to Terry, HRM is not a one short deal. It cannot be practiced only one hour each day or one day a week. It requires a constant alertness and awareness of human relations and their importance inevery day operations.

The 21st century would see the following inter-related phenomena emerging, posing challenges to the corporate world and culminating in Olympian competition:
ü Borderless world
ü Diversity
ü Knowledge Power
The cross-cultural, cross-border mingling has resulted in the creation of a new class of people—global citizens with global attitudes, tastes and networks. Since it unleashes multiple variables, the borderless world precludes immense complexity—complexity in the environment, in inter-organizational relationships, in modes of conducting business and in socio-cultural diversity.
One of the important duties of the modern HR manager is to get things done through people. He has to bring employees into contact with the organization in such a way that the objectives of both groups are achieved. He must be interested in the people, the work and the achievement of assigned objectives. To be effective, he must balance his concerns for people and work. In other words, he must know how to utilize human as well as non-human resources while translating goals into action. It is in managing human assets that the manager’s capabilities are tested fully, because of the following reasons:

Human resources are heterogeneous. They consist of many different individuals, each of whom has a unique personality, a combination of different emotional responses to different stimuli and different values, attitudes, motives and modes of thought. Human beings behave in widely different and complicated ways. Their reactions to promises, praise or criticism, for example, can be quite different. It is very difficult to predict their behaviour especially in an organization where they work in-groups. Their behaviour is neither consistent nor readily predictable. Modern employees are better educated, possess greater skills, have more sophisticated technology available for their use and enjoy higher standards of living than previous generations.
A human being himself determines what he contributes. If he is motivated, he will work for an organization more efficiently and effectively. So, it must be recognized by the manager that individuals, not organizations, create excellence. Recognizing the importance of the human element in the production process, PF Drucker had remarked that “man, of all the resources available to man, can grow and develop”. The problem of establishing the right climate to maximize employee motivation and commitment is still with us.

Changes in 21st century impacting HRM: Some of the current trends that would have a significant impact on the way HR practices would get transformed in future may be listed thus:

i. HR as a spacing board for success: Executives with people management skills would be able to steal the show, since they help integrate corporate goals with employee expectations in a successful way. enior HR executives would be able to smoothly move into top management positions, using their soft skills to good advantage.

ii. Talent hunting, developing and retaining: Clear focus areas: The 21st century corporation would be looking for people with cross-functional expertise strong academic background and team management skills. The new recruits are is expected to utilise the scarce resources judiciously and produce excellent results- in line with the expectations of internal as well as external groups. As companies realise the importance of human element in gaining a sustainable competitive advantage, there would be a mad scramble for 'talent'. This would in turn, compel corporate houses to pay close attention to talent acquisition development and retention through novel developmental efforts compensation packages and incentive schemes apart from flexible working schedules. More and more workers would be able to process information by working at homes, forcing companies to evaluate each employee’s contribution carefully and pay accordingly.

iii. Lean and mean organisations: Organisations will be forced to eliminate low-end job, say good-bye to older employees with limited skill-sets, out source work to specialised institutions in an attempt to save costs and remain highly competitive. As a result lay offs would occur and unemployment rates will go up; large outlays of cash may be required while buying out older employees and obtaining employee loyalty and commitment would be quite challenging in such a scenario.

iv. Labour relations: Deregulation, privatisation, global competition and the like would in a way, mean the end of the road for trade unions. They will lose their count slowly but steadily. The political support enjoyed by them hitherto would also come down drastically. Economic compulsions would make both the employers and employees realise the folly of pulling down shutters or going on strike, however genuine the cause might be. Governmental influence in labour-management relations would have only historical significance as employment-related issues begin to be dictated by market forces.

v. Health care benefits: To attract talented workforce healthier work environments would be an absolute necessity. Employees would be obliged to give their employees safe, healthy and secure work environments. Wellness programmes also need to be designed to help employees identify potential
health risks and deal with them before they become problems. More importantly, organisations need to pay more attention to issues such as office decor, furniture design, space utilisation with a view to improve the comfort levels of employees.
Top 10
HR Best Practices
1.Safe, Healthy and Happy Workplace
Creating a safe, healthy and happy workplace will ensure that your employees
Feel homely and stay with your organization for a very long time. Capture their pulse through employee surveys.
2. Open Book Management Style
Sharing information ensures that the employees are as enthusiastic about the
business as the management. Through this you can create a culture of participative management and ignite the creativity of the work force. It involves making people an interested party to your strategic decisions, thus
aligning them to your business objectives. More importantly, it helps in building trust & motivates employees.

3. Performance linked Bonuses
Paying out bonuses or having any kind of variable compensation plan can be both an incentive and disillusionment, based on how it is administered and communicated. Never pay out bonus without measuring performance, unless it is a statutory obligation.

4.360°PerformanceManagement Feedback System

This system, which solicits feedback from seniors, peers and subordinates, has been increasingly embraced as the best of all available methods for collecting performance feedback. Every person in the team is responsible for giving relevant, positive and constructive feedback.

5. Fair Evaluation System for Employees

Each employee should have well defined reporting relationships. Evaluation becomes fairer if it is based on the records of periodic counseling & achievements of the employee, tracked over the year. Cross – functional feedback, if obtained by the immediate boss from another manager (for whom this employee's work is also important), will add to the fairness of the system.



6. Knowledge Sharing
Store knowledge in databases to provide greater access to information posted
Either by the company or the employees on the knowledge portals of the company. When an employee returns after attending any competencies or Skills development program, sharing essential knowledge with others could be made mandatory.

7. Highlight performers
Create profiles of top performers and make these visible though company intranet, display boards etc. It will encourage others to put in their best, thereby creating a competitive environment within the company.

8. Open house discussions and feedback mechanism
Ideas rule the world and employees are the biggest source of ideas. Open house discussions, employee-management meets, suggestion boxes and idea capture tools such as Critical Incidents diaries are the building blocks that can help the Managers to identify & develop talent.

9. Reward Ceremonies
Merely recognizing talent does not work, you need to couple it with ceremonies where recognition is broadcast. Looking at the pay check is often less significant than listening to the thunderous applause by colleagues in a public forum.

10. Delight Employees with the Unexpected
Occasionally delight your employees with unexpected things that may come in
The form of a reward, a gift or a well-done certificate. Reward not only the top
Performers but also a few others who are in need of motivation to exhibit their potential.

It covers all aspects of managing employees in its widest sense and emphasizes the role of line managers in overseeing their own staff. From this perspective, HRM is a new generic label for all the techniques and tactics available to manage people. It concentrates on translating organizational objectives into operational achievement by winning employee commitment and gaining high-quality performance.


HR should lead by Examples:

Jack Welch was appointed CEO of GE in 1981. At that time the firm had a market capitalization of $13 billion. In 2000 when he stepped down the firm’s turnover had increased multifold to $500 billion. What was the secret of Welch’s success? He has laid down the following pointers for managers to be successfully motivated and inspire the Human Talents for our organization **

Create a vision and then ignite your organization to make this vision a reality.
Get people so passionate about what they are doing that they cannot wait to execute this plan. Have great energy, competitive spirit and the ability to spark excitement and achieve results. Search for leaders who have the same qualities.

Focus on strategic issues. Your job is to understand the vital issues within each of your businesses. Recognize the talent needed to win in those markets.

Focus on the main issue . Your job is to see the big picture. Don’t manage every detail. Don’t get caught up in the minute details, but instead inspire others to execute some of your vision. Surround yourself with great people and trust them to do their job and contribute their best to the organisation.

Involve everyone and welcome great ideas from everywhere. Anyone can be a leader, just so long as they contribute, and the most meaningful way for anyone to contribute is to come up with a good idea. Business is all about getting the best ideas from everyone. New ideas are the lifeblood of the Organisation, the fuel that makes it run. “The hero is the person with a new idea.” There is simply nothing more important to an organisation than expressing ideas and creating a vision.

Lead by example. To spark others to perform, you must lead by example. Jack Welch’s mastery of the four E’s of leadership – Energy, Energise, Edge, and Execution – was always in evidence. “He had great energy, sparked others, had incredible competitive spirit, and had a record of execution that was second to none. This is a key of the Welch phenomenon. Had he been lacking in any of the traits he espoused, he would not have commanded such acclaim.”



Toyota follows certain well-defined business principles guiding its functioning. These are:

1. Honour the language and spirit of law of every nation and undertake open and fair corporate activities to be a good corporate citizen around the world.

2. Respect the culture and customs of every nation and contribute to economic and social development through corporate activities in local communities.

3. To provide clean and safe products and to enhance the quality of life everywhere.

4. Create and develop advanced technologies and provide outstanding products and services that fulfil the needs of customers worldwide.

5. Foster a corporate culture that enhances individual creativity and teamwork value, while honouring mutual trust and respect between management and labour.

6. Pursue growth and harmony with global community through innovative management.

7. Work with business partners in research and creativity to achieve stable, long-term growth and mutual benefits and be open to new partnerships. These principles, will guide the company in its global vision 2010. This global vision envisages continuous innovations in future, use of environment friendly technologies, respecting and working with different sections of society and establishing an interactive relationship with society.

At Last I can say that ; “Every leading organization is looking at developing their employees into balanced human beings in order to make them use their real potential, and that offer a new set of opportunities to HR in those organizations”.



Greater level of involvement of HR people in the day-to-day life of employees is becoming the norm of the day for companies, which are looking for greater commitment from employees. An increasing trend is visible among the young professionals in recent years, by way of giving more and more emphasis on family and life’s interests, and at several occasions it acts as a critical factor for employment decisions as well.


Note: Dear Readers, Your feedback and suggestions are always welcome

Thank you!
Happy Learning **
JAI HIND

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