Taslim Ahammad :
People are the most valued assets of any organisation because they individually and collectively contribute to achieving objectives. In this time of rapid change, how do you plan and make strategic and human resources choices that will impel the business organisation toward its goals.
HRM – Human Resource Management (HRM) is the term used to describe formal systems devised for the management of people within an organization. It is the process of recruiting, selecting, inducting employees, providing orientation, imparting training and development, appraising the performance of employees, deciding compensation and providing benefits, motivating employees, maintaining proper relations with employees and their trade unions, ensuring employees safety, welfare and health measures in compliance with labour laws of the land.
Strategies – Strategy is a multi-dimensional concept going well beyond traditional competitive strategy concepts. Strategies are broad statements that set a direction. Strategies are a specific, measurable, obtainable set of plans carefully developed with involvement by an institution’s stakeholders. These action statements are linked to an individual or individuals who are accountable and empowered to achieve the stated result in a specific desired timeframe. They are patterns of action, decisions, and policies that guide a group toward a vision or goals.
SHRM – Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the practice of attracting, developing, rewarding, and retaining employees for the benefit of both the employees as individuals and the organization as a whole. It is also involves a future-oriented process of developing and implementing HR programs that address and solve business problems and directly contribute to major long-term business objectives.
How SHRM differs from HRM – In the last two decades there has been an increasing awareness that HR functions were like an island unto itself with softer people-centred values far away from the hard world of real business. In order to justify its own existence HR functions had to be seen as more intimately connected with the strategy and day to day running of the business side of the enterprise. Many writers in the late 1980s started clamouring for a more strategic approach to the management of people than the standard practices of traditional management of people or industrial relations models. Strategic human resource management focuses on human resource programs with long-term objectives.
Instead of focusing on internal human resource issues, the focus is on addressing and solving problems that affect people management programs in the long run and often globally. Therefore the primary goal of strategic human resources is to increase employee productivity by focusing on business obstacles that occur outside of human resources. The primary actions of a strategic Human Resource Manager are to identify key HR areas where strategies can be implemented in the long run to improve the overall employee motivation and productivity. Communication between HR and top management of the company is vital as without active participation no cooperation is possible.
The best way to understand, strategic human resources management is by comparing it to Human Resource Management. HRM focuses on recruiting and hiring the best employees and providing them with the compensation, benefits, training, and development they need to be successful within an organisation. However, strategic human resource management takes these responsibilities one step further by aligning them with the goals of other departments and overall organisational goals. HR departments that practice strategic management also ensure that all of their objectives are aligned with the mission, vision, values, and goals of the organisation of which they are a part.
(Taslim Ahammad, Assistant Professor, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, Bangladesh)
