*Human resource management can be defined as a strategic, integrated

and coherent approach to the employment, development and well-being

of the people working in organizations.

The role of human resource management is to plan, develop, and administer policies

and programmes designed to make expeditious use of an organisation’s human

resources. It is that part of management which is concerned with the people at work

and with their relationship within an enterprise.

Its objectives are:

1. Effective utilisation of human resources;

2. Desirable working relationships among all members of the organisation; and

3. Maximum individual development.

management are:

1. Planning,

2. Staffing,

3. Employee development, and

4. Employee maintenance.

These four areas and their related functions share the common objective of an

adequate number of competent employees with the skills, abilities, knowledge, and

experience needed for further organisational goals. Although each human resource

function can be assigned to one of the four areas of personnel responsibility, some

functions serve a variety of purposes. For example, performance appraisal measures

serve to stimulate and guide employee development as well as salary administration

purposes. The compensation function facilitates retention of employees and also

serves to attract potential employees to the organisation. A brief description of

usual human resource functions are given below:

and type of employees needed to accomplish organisational goals are determined.

Research is an important part of this function because planning requires the

collection and analysis of information in order to forecast human resources supplies

and to predict future human resources needs. The basic human resource planning

strategy is staffing and employee development.

Job Analysis: Job analysis is the process of describing the nature of a job and

specifying the human requirements, such as skills, and experience needed to

perform it. The end product of the job analysis process is the job description. A job

description spells out work duties and activities of employees. Job descriptions are a

vital source of information to employees, managers, and personnel people because

job content has a great influence on personnel programmes and practices.

Staffing: Staffing emphasises the recruitment and selection of the human

resources for an organisation. Human resources planning and recruiting precede the

actual selection of people for positions in an organisation. Recruiting is the personnel

function that attracts qualified applicants to fill job vacancies. In the selection

function, the most qualified applicants are selected for hiring from among those

attracted to the organisation by the recruiting function. On selection, human resource

functionaries are involved in developing and administering methods that enable

managers to decide which applicants to select and which to reject for the given jobs.

Orientation: Orientation is the first step toward helping a new employee adjust
himself to the new job and the employer. It is a method to acquaint new employees

with particular aspects of their new job, including pay and benefit programmes,

working hours, and company rules and expectations.

Training and Development: The training and development function gives

employees the skills and knowledge to perform their jobs effectively. In addition to

providing training for new or inexperienced employees, organisations often provide

training programmes for experienced employees whose jobs are undergoing change.

Large organisations often have development programmes which prepare employees

for higher level responsibilities within the organisation. Training and development

programmes provide useful means of assuring that employees are capable of

performing their jobs at acceptable levels.

Performance Appraisal: Performance appraisal function monitors employee

performance to ensure that it is at acceptable levels. Human resource professionals

are usually responsible for developing and administering performance appraisal

systems, although the actual appraisal of employee performance is the responsibility

of supervisors and managers. Besides providing a basis for pay, promotion, and

disciplinary action, performance appraisal information is essential for employee

development since knowledge of results (feedback) is necessary to motivate and

guide performance improvements.

Career Planning: Career planning has developed partly as a result of the desire of many

employees to grow in their jobs and to advance in their career. Career planning activities

include assessing an individual employee’s potential for growth and advancement in the

organisation.
Compensation: Human resource personnel provide a rational method for determining how

much employees should be paid for performing certain jobs. Pay is obviously related to the

maintenance of human resources. Since compensation is a major cost to many

organisations, it is a major consideration in human resource planning. Compensation affects

staffing in that people are generally attracted to organisations offering a higher level of pay in

exchange for the work performed. It is related to employee development in that it provides

an important incentive in motivating employees to higher levels of job performance and to

higher paying jobs in the organisation.

Benefits: Benefits are another form of compensation to employees other than direct pay for

work performed. As such, the human resource function of administering employee benefits

shares many characteristics of the compensation function. Benefits include both the legally

required items and those offered at employer’s discretion. The cost of benefits has risen to

such a point that they have become a major consideration in human resources planning.

However, benefits are primarily related to the maintenance area, since they provide for many

basic employee needs.