Introduction to HR

Prof Vidhya Srinivas

On October 3, 2003, Anant Dalvi and Akhtar Khan, who worked as contract
workers in Tata Electric Company until they were laid off in 1996, doused
themselves with kerosene and set themselves ablaze even as their co-workers
protested before the companys offices. While Dalvi died on the spot, Khan
died a few days later. The Tata Electric Company said they were no longer on
their payroll and were not permanent workers. Employees union had taken up
their case and filled petition in the Labour Court before their contracts were
terminated. The court directed the company not to terminate their services
without following the due process of law. Despite this their services were
terminated on June 30, 1996. The company union promised the workers that
they would renegotiate. Yet on the night before they killed themselves when
Khan and Dalvi spoke to the union leader Shinde, they were told that nothing
more could be done for them. It is this that led them to take their lives. Dalvi
has been in service as a peon for17 years and Khan had been employed for 19
years. But their services were not regularized. Such workers draw salary much
less than the permanent employees. This is an example of the problem that
comes under the purview of Human Resource Management- the main concept
elaborated in this chapter

Definition
Human Resource Management is a process, which
consists of four main activities, namely, acquisition,
development, motivation, as well as maintenance of
human resources.
Scott, Clothier and Spriegel have defined Human
Resource Management as that branch of management
which is responsible on a staff basis for concentrating
on those aspects of operations which are primarily
concerned with the relationship of management to
employees and employees to employees and with the
development of the individual and the group.

Definition
Northcott considers human resource management as an
extension of general management, that of prompting and
2 stimulating every employee to make his fullest
contribution to the purpose of a business. Human
resource management is not something that could be
separated from the basic managerial function. It is a
major component of the broader managerial function.
French Wendell, defines Human resource management
as the recruitment, selection, development, utilisation,
compensation and motivation of human resources by the
organisation.

Definition
According to Edwin B. Flippo, Human resource
management is the planning, organising, directing and
controlling of the procurement, development, resources
to the end that individual and societal objectives are
accomplished. This definition reveals that human
resource (HR) management is that aspect of
management, which deals with the planning,
organising, directing and controlling the personnel
functions of the enterprise.

Nature of HRM
The nature of the human resource management has been highlighted in its following features :
1. Inherent Part of Management : Human resource management is inherent in the process
of management. This function is performed by all the managers throughout the organisation
rather that by the personnel department only. If a manager is to get the best of his people, he
must undertake the basic responsibility of selecting people who will work under him.
2. Pervasive Function : Human Resource Management is a pervasive function of
management. It is performed by all managers at various levels in the organisation. It is not a
responsibility that a manager can leave completely to someone else.
However, he may
secure advice and help in managing people from experts who have special competence in
personnel management and industrial relations.
3. Basic to all Functional Areas : Human Resource Management permeates all the
functional area of management such as production management, financial management, and
marketing management. That is every manager from top to bottom, working in any
department has to perform the personnel functions.

Nature of HRM
4. People Centred : Human Resource Management is people centred and is relevant
in all types of organisations. It is concerned with all categories of personnel from
top to the bottom of the organisation. The broad classification of personnel in an
industrial enterprise may be as follows : (i) Blue-collar workers (i.e. those working
on machines and engaged in loading, unloading etc.) and white-collar workers (i.e.
clerical employees), (ii) Managerial and non-managerial personnel, (iii)
Professionals (such as Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary, Lawyer, etc.)
and nonprofessional personnel.
5. Personnel Activities or Functions : Human Resource Management involves
several functions concerned with the management of people at work. It includes
manpower planning, employment, placement, training, appraisal and
compensation of employees. For the performance of these activities efficiently, a
separate department known as Personnel Department is created in most of the
organisations.

Nature of HRM
6. Continuous Process : Human Resource Management is not a one
shot function. It must be performed continuously if the
organisational objectives are to be achieved smoothly.
7. Based on Human Relations : Human Resource Management is
concerned with the motivation of human resources in the
organisation. The human beings cant be dealt with like physical
factors of production. Every person has different needs, perceptions
and expectations. The managers should give due attention to these
factors. They require human relations skills to deal with the people at
work. Human relations skills are also required in training
performance appraisal, transfer and promotion of subordinates.

Evolution of HR

Difference between Personnel & HR

Scope of HR

Functions of HR

Objectives of HR

Roles
According to Dave Ulrich HR plays four key roles.
1. Strategic Partner Role - turning strategy into results by
building organizations that create value;
2. Change Agent Role- making change happen, and in
particular, help it happen fast
3. Operational and Employees Champion Rolemanaging
the talent or the intellectual capital within a firm
4. Administrative Roletrying to get things to happen
better, faster and cheaper.

Responsibilities
The primary responsibilities of Human Resource managers are:
To develop a thorough knowledge of corporate culture, plans and policies.
To act as an internal change agent and consultant
To initiate change and act as an expert and facilitator
To actively involve in companys strategy formulation
To keep communication line open between the HRD function and individuals and groups both
within and outside the organization
To identify and evolve HRD strategies in consonance with overall business strategy.
To facilitate the development of various organizational teams and their working relationship with
other teams and individuals.
To try and relate people and work so that the organization objectives are achieved efficiently and
effectively.
To diagnose problems and determine appropriate solution particularly in the human resource
areas.
To provide co-ordination and support services for the delivery of HRD programmes and services
To evaluate the impact of an HRD intervention or to conduct research so as to identify, develop or
test how HRD In general has improved individual and organizational performance.

McKinsey 7S framework

VUCA & HR
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World
Economic Forum, recently concluded in a report, In the future,
human capital will be the most important kind of capital.
Chaotic New Normal
Virtual Human Resource
Demographics are leading to a major shift in the demand and supply
of talent around the world.
Scarcity of Manpower US, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea
Excess Capacity India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa etc
Variable 1 -Talent Mobility
Variable 2 Economic Volatility

The Signal & the Noise Nate Silver

Extreme segmentation
Extreme Segmentation:If the economy is in turmoil
and talent mobility is low, HR would need to flex its
approach to managing the workforce retaining criticalskills talent while tapping into cost-efficient, on-demand
talent sources like contractors, outsourcing, crowdsourcing etc. To retain the best talent, companies would
segment their workforces and invest in roles that are
pivotal to the strategic success of the business. Given
the reliance on external parties like contractors, offshore workers etc., there would also be a need to
enable better ways of working through task parsing,

Talent Supermarket
Talent Super Market:If the economy is stable and
talent mobility is high, the power starts shifting to the
employers. In this scenario, the high demand for talent
is matched by ready availability of talent. At the same
time, talent investments will be lower as more talent
from lower-cost economies come onboard. The onus of
differentiation now falls on the employee and employees
need to stand out in the crowded labour markets.
However, such an ideal state is somewhat hard to
envisage given current debates on immigration.

Talent Hedging
Talent Hedging:The last scenario is one of high
economic volatility and high talent mobility. The outlook
for talent becomes uncertain, even though talent can
move more fluidly. Employers would become more
cautious and access talent from lower cost economies
to manage costs. The nature of employer-employee
relationship would change to short-term contractor-type
arrangements, rather than permanent employment. The
scenario can see an over-supply of talent, especially in
routine jobs and HR departments would invest resources
in identifying the right talent from a global pool.

Thanks!