HRM

1. Strategic Human Resource
Management
Dr. Jawad Abbas

2. What is Human Resource Management?
• Human resource management (HRM) involves the productive use of
people in achieving the organization’s strategic objectives and the
satisfaction of individual employees.
• Objectives: Measurable targets to be achieved within a certain time frame
• The HR function is recognized for contributing to the “Bottom Line”, which
refers to final result, such as net profit after taxes.
• Purpose of HR is to improve the productive contribution of people
1–2

3. Approaches to HRM
• Instrumental HRM
• Also known as Hard Approach: Focuses on rational and quantitative aspects
of managing human resources. Performance improvement, productivity and
improved competitive advantage are highlighted.
• Humanistic HRM
• Also known as Soft Approach: Recognises the need for the integration of HR
policies and practices with organization’s strategic business objective, BUT
places emphasis on employee development, collaboration, participation,
trust and informed choice.

4. The New Role of HR Manager
• Strategic Partner
• Refers to HR managers being an essential part of the management team running
an organization and contributing to the achievement of the organization’s
objectives by “Translating Business Strategy in Action”
• Administrative Expert
• Refers to the efficiency of HR managers and the effective management of HR
activities, such as selection, so that they create value.
• HR professionals must be able to re-engineer HR activities through the use of
technology.
• Employee Champion
• Requires the HR manager to be employees’ voice in management decision
• Should have the ability to relate and meet the needs of employees
• Change Agent
• HR managers should be able to act as a catalyst for change.
• Must know how to manage change

5. HRM Activities
• HRM includes
• Acquisition
• Development
• Reward and motivation
• Maintenance and departure of an organization’s human resource.
• Job Analysis:
• Job analysis defines a job in term of specific tasks and responsibilities and
identifies the abilities, skills, and qualifications needed to perform it successfully.
• The product of job analysis are job descriptions and job specifications. WHAT ARE
THE JD AND JS OF HR Manager?
• Job analysis answers questions:
• Which tasks should be grouped together and considered a job?
• How should a job be designed so that employee performance is enhanced?

6. HRM Activities (Cont.)
• Human Resource Planning or Employment Planning
• A process by which an organization attempts to ensure that it has the right number of qualified
people in the right jobs at the right time. E.g. PIA, Pak Railway, Pak Steel Mill etc.
• HR planning compares the present supply of people with its projected demand for human
resources. Eg. 2020 Expo in Dubai, FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
• HR planning is used to achieve :
• More effective use of human resource
• More satisfied and developed employees
• More effective equal opportunity planning
• Employee Recruitment
• The process of seeking and attracting a pool of applicants from which qualified candidates for job
vacancies within an organization can be selected. General recruitment channels: recruiting
internally, advertising externally, such as social and print media. E.g. jobs.ac.uk, rozee.pk, jobs.
• Employee Selection
• The process of choosing from the available candidates the individual predicted to be most likely to
perform successfully in the job.
• Selection steps generally involves reviewing application forms, psychological testing, interviewing,
reference checking etc.

7. HRM Activities (Cont.)
• Performance Appraisal
• Performance appraisal is concerned with determining how well employees are doing
their job, communicating that information to the employees and establishing a “Plan” for
performance improvement. E.g. Key performance indicators? Timely completion of task,
quality of work, behavior with colleagues etc.
• Plan represents the set of actions that identify how an objective or goal is to be achieved.
• Human Resource Development
• Activities with focus on the acquisition of attitude, skills, abilities and knowledge required
for employees to learn how to perform their jobs, improve their performance, prepare
themselves for more senior positions and achieve their career goals
• Compensation and Benefits
• Compensation refers to the cash rewards, such as base salary, bonus, incentive payments
and allowances, which an employee receive for working in an organization.
• Benefits are some times referred to as indirect or non-cash compensation. They include
life insurance, annual leave.

8. Strategy: What is strategy?
• Strategy defines the direction in which an organization intends to move
and establishes the framework for action by which it intends to get
there.
• Objectives of strategy are:
• Acquire and maintain competitive advantage
• Capitalize on strengths
• Minimize weaknesses
To do this, an organization must identify and analyze the opportunities and
threats prevailing in its external environment.
WHY SOME ORGANIZATIONS ARE MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN OTHERS?

9. Strategic Management
• The process whereby managers establish an organization’s long term
direction, set specific performance objectives, develop strategies to
achieve those objectives by considering internal as well as external
circumstances, and execute the action plans.
• Strategic management aims to achieve:
• Competitive advantage
• Long-term organizational success

10. Components of Strategic Management
• Strategic management includes
• Strategy formulation:
• Selecting an organization's mission, or purpose, and key objectives (What is our business?
What should it be?)
• Analyzing the organization's internal and external environments (Where are we heading? Is
our market share growing or declining? Do we need to diversify? What major competitive
advantages do we enjoy?)
• Selecting appropriate business strategies (Can we realistically expect to achieve? Resources
and limitations? Which of the available alternatives is the best?)
• Strategy Implementation:
• It involves designing an organization's structure and control systems and evaluating
the selected strategy in achieving the organization's key objectives. (What remedial action
is needed to make the strategy work? What changes need to be made to the original
strategy?)

11. Strategic Management Steps
• Organizational mission and objectives
• The first steps in strategic management are to define the mission (or purpose)
and the prime objectives of the organization. This provides the context and
direction for the formulation and evaluation of HRM objectives, strategies and
action plans.
• The mission statement identifies why the organization exists and what its focus
is:
• Environmental analysis
• To identify any strategic opportunities and threats that may be present.
Similarly, analysis of the internal environment aims to identify the organization's
strengths and weaknesses.

12. Strategic Management Steps
• Strategy selection
• Generating a series of strategic options based on the organization's objectives.
• Comparison of its internal strengths and weaknesses and its external
opportunities and threats.
• Select long-term strategies to cope with environmental pressures.
• Strategy implementation
• It is critical for successful strategy implementation that employees accept the
changes demanded by the new or revised strategies.
• An organization's structure must be designed to enhance the implementation
of a strategy.
• Arranging the organization's physical and human resources to carry out the
strategy. (Structure be flat or tall? division of labor? degree of delegation).

13. Strategic Management Steps
• Performance evaluation
• How to monitor and measure performance so the effectiveness of a strategy
can be evaluated.
• One approach may involve setting performance objectives, measuring
performance, comparing actual performance with targeted performance and
taking any corrective action required.
• Feedback
• Strategic management is an ongoing process. In short, managers must ask
whether the strategy is being implemented as planned, and whether it is
achieving the desired results.