Strategic Human Resource Assessment - Essay Example

It has to be mentioned in this context that the first and the foremost strengths which companies often intend to obtain in order to compete in the market is efficient workforce through the enforcement of effective HRM strategies. In the contemporary era, Strategic HRM (SHRM) has been introduced in order to link the strategic objectives of the business with its HRM functions with the sole intention to reinforce crucial changes into its workforce which can in turn enhance its strategic positioning and competitive advantages within the industry structure over its rivals by a large extent (Deb, 2006).

Based on this understanding, this paper would intend to illustrate the role of strategic HRM in improving the performance of the company (i.e. Rio Tinto) by a large extent. The paper would further evaluate the importance of strategic HRM in Rio Tinto Group within the Australian context proceeding through a critical literature review based on the significance and role of SHRM in the contemporary managerial practices. Company Overview Rio Tinto is one of global largest companies in locating, mining as well as processing of the mineral resources.

The vision of the company emphasizes on developing its products in a way which satisfies the need of the customers and also improves the standard of living of people all over the world. The company has its operations in around 40 countries including Australia with a total number of more than 77,000 people as employees in its worldwide dimensions. The company’s mission has been to build as well as maintain good relationship with the stakeholders associated with it. It has also been noticed that the company always seeks to contribute positively towards the society to secure a healthy relation with the community members.

It has further been noticed in this context that the SHRM policies of the company changes in accordance to the requirement of its determined organizational objectives. The company runs a graduate level program through which it recruits educated and skilled workforces as per the requirement of its strategic planning. It is in this context that Rio Tinto is known to provide a competitive as well as a coordinative working condition to its employees in return for assurance of an improved performance (Rio Tinto, 2011).

Role of Strategic HRM (SHRM) in Improving Organizational Performance SHRM mainly aims to enhance the performance of the business or the organization on a whole by encouraging different people associated with the company to work for the welfare of the organization to obtain the determined organizational objectives through shared values. It has often been argued in this context that SHRM typically helps to determine the strategic goals of the organizations in accordance with its internal strengths related to the workforce and therefore, assists managers to bind the HRM practices with its competitive objectives (Armstrong, 2008).

It has been further learnt that SHRM is a planned pattern that is use for developing the human resource operations as well as activities to enable organizations to meet the determined goals (Darwish, 2009). It is worth mentioning in this context that SHRM practices, as applied in the modern era, functions on the basis of few key principles. Its foremost principle states that the objective or the goals of the company would have to be achieved through the