Strategic human resource management - Essay Example

XXXXXXX Number: XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XX – XX – University of XXXXXX Strategic Human Resource Management Introduction: Human resources of a company are the most valuable and important assets. The terms Human resource management deals with a wide range and dimension of people. Human resources form the heart of every company and play a crucial role in the overall success of the company. The various skills as well as the motivation of the individuals help each individual enhance their performance and together they work towards achieving the goals of the organization. Human resource management is a very crucial part of any business and the human resource managers play a crucial role in the overall success of the business as well (Armstrong). This paper aims at discussing the role of HR in strategic planning of an organization as well as how the human capital planning has an impact on the overall business planning. The next section will briefly deal with the strategic role of HR. Strategic Role of HR: Human Resources Management is one of complex nature and the skills of the people in the organizations are very different and varied. Hence due to complex nature of the skills and the people HR is more a strategic function than anything else (Carlie). The strategic planning of an organization depends on the Human Resources Management to a great extent, as HRM plays an important role throughout the life span of an employee in the organization, including recruitment, training, development and retention. It has been noted in the current times that the role of the HR is more strategic in nature than the traditional approach. There are mainly two areas that the HR tends to follow, i.e. the overall performance of the company and the role of the HR in terms of solving and resolving the business problems. Hr focuses more so on the overall issues and performance of the company than the performance of individuals and the individual roles (Noe, Hollenbeck and Gerhart). With the intense levels of competition, strategic human resource management involves management of available resources both for short as well as long term goals of the organisation. Business strategy has been defined as game plan of the management and business strategies have been recognised to be the main source that allows better usage of all resources within the business. In the current time where competition is at its peak, it is clear that every business wishes to use all of its resources to the maximum and to benefit the most of all the resources (Carlie). Strategically using the resources to gain optimum utilisation of the resources is referred to as strategic human resource management. It is crucial that these strategies are in sync with the overall business strategy to create a well balanced business including all aspects like finance and marketing. Importance of HR: Effective human resources management is an important element of business in the current time. The success or failure of a business can clearly be based on the competencies and the attitudes of the human resources of a company and it is now becoming imperative for businesses to attract, retain and also nurture good talent (Noe, Hollenbeck and Gerhart). Currently the boundaries of human resources are clearly being defined by innovativeness and proactive. It is now evident that the success of a business is more so based on the human resources rather than simply wealthy physical resources. The quality of the human resources has become a major element for the overall success of the businesses and also the nation as well. With the intensive growth of technology and the high levels of globalization, it is clear that the businesses are now more knowledge and information based, service oriented, customer centric and competitive. Success of any business is clearly dependent on the level of dynamics of the business and it is here that the human resources play a major role (York). Competitive advantage in the present day is clearly based on effective skills, attributes and knowledge. Hence for a successful business, the human resources play a major role as they contribute to these three factors and in return contribute to the overall knowledge of the company as well (York). An excellent real life example of this is that of Wal Mart. The company recognizes the importance of strategic human resource management and hence has established an ‘Employment Practice Advisory Panel’ which allows employees to contribute to the senior management decisions and allows the company to clearly be an equal employment opportunities employer with complete focus on its human resources. According to the research study of David Worland and Karen Manning, effectiveness of human resource management and performance of organization is directly proportional to each other (Dessler). It has been noted by numerous experts that the overall success of a business is directly proportional to the performance of the employees which is clearly related to the strategic management of the people as well. An excellent example here would be that of Starbucks which has developed a number of compensation policies for the employees to gain the best of the skills and knowledge of the human resources (Beer, Lawrence and Mills). Human Capital Planning and Business Planning: Human capital planning has a strong relation to the overall flow of income in a company. Investing in human capital and in the personal development and growth of the employees not only helps improve the employees and their performance but also impacts the performance of the organization as well (Carlie). Bobinski identifies that in most cases; almost eighty percent of the workforces do not have the skills and knowledge required for the job, while only twenty percent of the people tend to have the skills and knowledge (Harzing and Ruysseveldt). Human capital planning is mainly focused on the development of skills and knowledge of the workers and also on the training and development programs that are available for polishing the overall employee ability. A company’s competitive advantage is clearly based on the human capital and a strong human capital can lead to sustained competitive advantage and vice versa. Hence this makes it very important for companies to motivate the employees and to also focus on the training and development of the employees to a great extent as this impact the overall business as well. HR and OD: Organization development and human resource management have similar objectives. There is a clear relation among the two, however there are number of different employees in the organization which belong to different environments (Noe, Hollenbeck and Gerhart). The two concepts together permit higher adaptation to technology and also permit easier social changes for companies. With the various changes the employees are able to deal and cope with the international environment and also allow the organization to be recognized at an international level which thereby permits the overall goodwill of the company to increase to a great extent (Carlie). Hence this forms a major part of the human resources and contributes to the human resources and company growth to a great extent. Conclusions: In conclusion it is evident that good human resources management proves to be very beneficial for companies as it helps not only in achieving better and higher performance of the employees but also higher cost saving as well. It is evident from the above discussion that the strategic performance of a company and the strategic human resources are interlinked (Noe, Hollenbeck and Gerhart). Good strategic planning of human resources allows the company to perform better and also permits a chance for the overall human capital of the company to grow as well (Human Capital Theory). Hence it is clear that Strategic Human Resource Management plays a major role in the overall success of any business. Works Cited Armstrong, Michael. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Kogan Page, 2006. Beer, M, et al. Human Resource Management: A General Manager’s Perspective. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1985. Carlie, P R. "Working Knowledge: How Organizations manage What they Know." Human resource Planning (1998): 21 (4), 58 -59. Dessler, Gary. Human Resource Management. Prentice Hall, 2007. Harzing, Anne-Wil K and Joris Van Ruysseveldt. International Human Resource Management. Sage Publications Ltd, 2003. Human Capital Theory. Human Capital Theory. 2010. 2 May 2010 . Noe, Raymond, et al. Human Resource Management . McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2009. York, Kenneth M. Applied Human Resource Management: Strategic Issues and Experiential Exercises. Sage Publications, Inc, 2009. Read More