There are various definitions of HRM, but most of them are similar in the following: human resource management is a unique combination of philosophy and activities aimed at organizing people within an organization (Sharma 2). To better understand the purpose and scope of HRM, it is advisable to review its functions, such as procurement (selection, recruitment, and appointment of an individual), training (helping the newly employed people to achieve the needed level of skills and integrate into the working process), maintenance (organizing work of employees), separating from company’s business in case of illegal activities, creating the environment of friendliness and equality in the workplace, promotion, and motivation of employees (Hashim 2-3). There are several approaches to HRM: ‘best fit’ (fitting HRM practices to meet organizational objectives), ‘best practice’ (the belief in the existence of universal effective HRM practices applicable to any company), soft (focusing on the human-centered organization of work), and hard (stress on achieving qualitative standards) models (Armstrong 5, 22; Wilton 7).
More than that, HRM is a set of integrated managerial activities. Among them, there are workforce planning – determining the needed number of employees and skills and knowledge for achieving organizational objectives – analyzing factors influencing turnover, stability, and retention to identify acceptable levels of turnover and find out how to guarantee the stability of employment as well as selecting HRM practices, which would comply with the labor market (Armstrong 210; Wilton 10). As for the labor markets, there are two types: external and internal. External labor markets are the conditions outside the organization and factors, which affect the choice of HRM practices and selection of a company’s strategies – legislation, average wage rate, unemployment rate, etc. (Festing 138). As for the internal labor market, it refers to the organization itself – distribution of job duties, approach to promotion and motivation, the relation between wages and requirements to employees, etc. (Wilton 10).
It is essential to note that the internal labor market is directly affected by the trends in the external one, and this impact can be estimated using the approach known as PESTLE covering political, economical, social, technological, legal, and environmental aspects of the market. It is a qualitative model, which helps to identify the company’s position in the market, thus making it more attractive to potential employees and guaranteeing that it corresponds with regulatory frameworks and adequately implements the newest technologies (Armstrong 213). Moreover, they are connected to altering HRM practices. For instance, the newest technologies have shifted HRM to the digital dimension, making management easier and more effective by the faster distribution of news and changes in the existing practices as well as opportunities for e-training (Sharma 213).
As mentioned before, HR managers are engaged in recruitment and selection. There are two sources of recruitment: internal (rotation of an individual within the company) and external (hiring new people) (Tiwari 194). In any case, the choice is based on the personal characteristics of an individual, competency, and potential ability to comply with job descriptions and improve the company’s outcomes. The decision to recruit someone is made after thorough job analysis. As for selection, several methods differ in reliability and validity: application of CVs and biodata (moderate), testing cognitive abilities (high), personal and semi-structured interviews (moderate and high, respectively), and sample tests (high). In this way, it is critical to note that most companies choose to test because it is more effective and reliable than personal interviews and reviewing CVs (Nikolaou 55). Finally, human resource managers are responsible for the successful socialization and onboarding of employees. That said, they should not only create a favorable environment in the workplace, but also make effort to avoid factors, which affect socialization and onboarding: interpersonal conflicts, unclear description of job duties and working process, and corporate culture.
Works Cited
Armstrong, Michael. Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Kogen Page, 2012.
Festing, Marion. Strategic Issues in International Human Resource Management. Springer, 2013.
Nikolaou, Ioannis. Employee Recruitment, Selection, and Assessment. Psychology Press, 2015.
Sharma, FC. Human Resource Management. BBA, 2016.
Tiwari, Iti. Strategic Human resource at Tertiary Level. River Publishers, 2013.
Wilton, Nick. An Introduction to Human Resource Management. SAGE, 2016.