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Human resource management is the process of acquiring, training, appraising, and compensating employees, and attending to their labor relations, health and safety, and fairness concerns. HR should therefore provide us with the concepts and techniques that we need to carry out the “people” or the personnel aspects of our management job. It deals with various roles; primarily three of them are detailed below

• JOB ANALYSIS

Job Analysis is the procedure for determining the duties and skill requirements of a job and the kind of person who should be hired for it. Hence the key role of Job analysis is analyzing, describing and providing specifications in terms of

•          Determining duties and skills

•          Listing job duties, responsibilities, reporting, conditions, supervision

•          “Human requirements”

Firstly, an HR manager must collect information about the job’s actual work activities, such as cleaning, selling, teaching, or painting. This list may also include how, why, and when the worker performs each activity. Next, the Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids should be considered. This category includes information regarding products made, materials processed, knowledge dealt with or applied (such as finance or law), and services rendered (such as counseling or repairing). Then there should be an analysis of the Performance standards. The employer may also want information about the job’s performance standards (in terms of quantity or quality levels for each job duty, for instance). Management will use these standards to appraise employees. Next phase would be the Job context. Included here would be the information about such matters as physical working conditions, work schedule, and the organizational and social context—for instance, the number of people with whom the employee would normally interact. Information regarding incentives might also be included here. Human requirements would be the next step. This include information regarding the job’s human requirements, such as job-related knowledge or skills (education, training, work experience) and required personal attributes (aptitudes, physical characteristics, personality, interests).

Uses of Job Analysis Information:

•          Recruitment and selection

•          Compensation

•          Performance Appraisal

•          Training

•          Discovering unassigned duties

•          EEO compliance

• TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

The next HR role would be in the functional area of Training and Development. The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one’s capability, capacity, and performance, while Development is an act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining. It is often viewed as a broad, ongoing multi-faceted set of activities to bring someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance. It is also viewed as a life-long goal and experience.

Training in an Organization is essential due to:

•          Creating a pool of readily available and adequate replacements for personnel who may leave or move up in the organization.

•          Enhancing the company’s ability to adopt and use advances in technology because of a sufficiently knowledgeable staff.

•          Building a more efficient, effective and highly motivated team, which enhances the company’s competitive position and improves employee morale.

•          Ensuring adequate human resources for expansion into new programs.

•          When a performance appraisal indicates performance improvement is needed

•          To “benchmark” the status of improvement so far in a performance improvement effort

•          As part of an overall professional development program

•          As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible for a planned change in role in the organization

•          To “pilot”, or test, the operation of a new performance management system

The generic steps for Training are:

•          Organizational Objectives

•          Training Needs Assessment

•          Set Training Objectives

•          Select the Trainees

•          Select the Training Methods and Mode

•          Choose a Means of Evaluation

•          Evaluate the Training Program

Various methods of Training and Development are:

§ On the job training

– Induction Training

– Job Instruction Training

– Coaching and Mentoring

–          Job Rotation ( Eg. Jump seating)

Off the job training

•          Role Playing

•          Lecture Sessions

•          Case Studies and Incidents

•          Conferences and Seminars

•          Committee Assignments

Certain areas of Employee training include the following:

•          Communications: The increasing diversity of today’s workforce brings a wide variety of languages and customs.

•          Computer skills: Computer skills are becoming a necessity for conducting administrative and office tasks.

•          Customer service: Increased competition in today’s global marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers.

•          Diversity: Diversity training usually includes explanation about how people have different perspectives and views, and includes techniques to value diversity

•          Ethics: Today’s society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility. Also, today’s diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to the workplace.

•          Human relations: The increased stresses of today’s workplace can include misunderstandings and conflict. Training can help people to get along in the workplace.

•          Quality initiatives: Initiatives such as Total Quality Management, Quality Circles, benchmarking, etc., require basic training about quality concepts, guidelines and standards for quality, etc.

•          Safety: Safety training is critical where industrial safety is concerned like working with heavy equipment, hazardous chemicals, repetitive activities, etc.

Training and Development therefore reaps the following general benefits:

•          Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees

•          Increased employee motivation

•          Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain

•          Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods

•          Increased innovation in strategies and products

•          Reduced employee turnover

•          Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training

•          Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity training, product launch etc.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

The next important role of HR is Employee’s Performance Management. It is a process for establishing a shared workforce by aligning the organizational objectives and upon emphasizing on improvement, learning and development. It is essential because of the following reasons:

§ To Align individual and organizational objectives

§ To improve organizational performance

§ To improve individual performance

§ To provide the basis for personal development

§ To develop a performance culture

§ Recognize and reward performance

§ Talent management measure

§ To inform contribution and performance pay decision

Various Performance Management tools include Performance Appraisals Performance Related Pay, Performance Matrix, 360 degree feedback, Balance Scorecard and Six Sigma. It is a joint process through dialogues with continuous process of one or more formal reviews. The use of ratings however is less common in the entire process of management. It is a flexible process that focuses on values and behaviors apart from objectives. Here, the documentation kept at the minimum. It is usually owned and driven by the line managers. Various parameters that go into its measurement are Cost-effectiveness, adherence to policy, absenteeism, creativity, gossip and other personal habits and personal appearance/Grooming. The Impact of Performance management are as under:

•       Employee:

Ø Knows what’s expected of him/her-clear communication

Ø Job satisfaction-sense of fairness, equality and fulfilment

Ø Loyalty to the company

Ø Training gaps- can be detected and addressed

•       Company:

Ø Improved morale

Ø Reduced turnover

Ø Improved productivity

Ø Successful company performance-profitability

The features of a good Performance Management system would be as under:

•       New staff can know what is expected of them from the outset.

•       Everyone is clear about corporate goals and works towards them.

•       Objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time related).

•       A system exists to accommodate day-to-day performance feedback.

•       The personal development plan (PDP) is used formally to help self developmental activities and/or improve performance.

•       The line manager provides and the jobholder undertakes the training needed to support the individual and the organization.

•       Appropriate support is in place to eliminate poor performance.

However certain concerns with the system include that it is difficult to measure and hence unreliable hence it is subject to human behaviors. Performance management measures may also become obsolete while these measurements are often regarded as impersonal.