HUMAN RESOURCES

Human Resource Objectives (HRM)

Managing people.

Function of the business that is concerned with ensuring that the organisation has workforce who are able to do their job effectively in order to meet the needs of the business and its customers.

The importance of human resource management:

·       Control costs of production (through controlling labour costs)

·       Add value through expertise and customer service

·       Ensure employees are driven and motivated

·       Identify and develop leaders

·       Adapt to the internal and external pressures on the business

·       Help to manage people effectively

Human resource objectives

·       Employee engagement and involvement – ensuring employees feel involved, valued and part of the organisation, and maximising intellectual input and effort from the workforce.

·       Alignment of values – ensuring the values of the organisation are embraced by all employees

·       Talent development – ensuring talent in the organisation is developed and promoted

·       Diversity – such as ethnicity, gender, disability, religion or sexuality

·       Number, skills and location of employees – ensuring the business has the right number of employees with the correct skills, in the right places

·       Training – ensuring the workforce has the right training to do their jobs properly considering the changing nature of business

·       Labour productivity – maximising output from its workers

Influences – Internal and external:

·       Legal/political factors – subject to EU and UK laws.

·       Social factors – employee values must match that of the consumer

·       Technological factors – employees might require training or less employed

·       Make-up of the current workforce – an ageing workforce may necessitate the need for training of new employees and dissemination of expert knowledge.

·       Economic factors – may be difficult to employ the right people when there is a lack of skills in the labour market.

·       Attitudes and beliefs of managers – adopts a ‘soft’ or a ‘hard’ approach to HRM.

·       Competitive environment – offer competitive wage packages to beat others

·       Current ethical and environmental issues – condemning zero-hour contracts.

HARD HRM – refers to managers who see employees as just another resource in the business that needs to be utilised efficiently and effectively.

SOFT HRM – refers to mangers who see people as the most valuable asset a business has, therefore they need to be nurtured and developed to achieve their potential.

Managers with the soft HRM perspective are more likely to invest in people and increase staff morale.

Managers with hard HRM keep control of workforce, less mistakes.

Interpreting Human Resource Data

Managers can use a number of calculations to interpret and analyse the performance of human resources within their business.

Human resource data is analysed before making decisions about job design, employee numbers, rewards and salary and human resource policies.

HR decisions are affected by different performance statistics

Labour productivity:

Key measure…