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Managing human resources is one of the important duties of modern manager. He has to get things done from the people. It is the people who make an organization a success or failure. So major task of manager is to see- How to attract people to organization? How to retain them? How to motivate them? Such questions require in depth study of Human Resource Management.

Definition: HRM HRM is a series of integrated decisions that form the employment relationship, their quality contributes to the ability of the organizations and the employees to achieve their objectives.

HRM is concerned with the people dimension in management. Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives.

HRM Functions & Objectives Societal objectives : Legal compliance, Benefits, Union-management relations Organizational objectives: HRP, Employee relations, Selection, T&D, Appraisal, placement and assessment Functional objectives : Appraisal, placement, assessment Personal objectives: T&D, appraisal, placement, compensation, assessment

HRM Functions:
1. Managerial Functions The basic managerial functions comprise planning, organizing, directing and controlling. Planning: This function deals with the determination of the future course of actions regarding recruitment, selection and training of the employees, to achieve the desired results. Organizing: It is nothing but creating proper framework with proper grouping of personnel activities, assignment of different groups of activities to different individuals and delegation of authority. Directing: This involves supervising and guiding the personnel of the enterprise to execute plans. It mainly involves leadership and motivation. Controlling: This function of personnel management comprises measuring the employees performance, correcting negative deviations and assuring the accomplishment of plans efficiently through review reports, records and personnel audit program.

2. Operative Functions: The operative functions of personnel management are related to specific activities of personnel management such as employment, development, compensation and relations.

Scope of HRM:
The scope of HRM has widened with the research in behavioral sciences, new trends in managing knowledge workers and advances in the field of training and development. The Indian Institute of Personnel management has specified the scope of HRM as Personnel Aspect: This includes manpower planning, recruitment, selection, placement, transfer, promotion, training and development, lay off and retrenchment, remuneration, incentives, productivity etc. Welfare Aspect: It deals with working conditions and amenities, housing, transport, medical assistance, education, health and safety, recreation facilities etc. Industrial relations Aspect: This covers union-management relations, joint consultation, collective bargaining, grievance and disciplinary procedure, settlement of disputes etc.

Evolution of HRM:
Commodity Concept: Labor was regarded as a commodity to be bought and sold. Wages were based on demand and supply. Government did very little to protect workers. Factor of production Concept: Labor is like other factor of production. Workers were treated like a machine tool. Goodwill Concept: Welfare measures like safety, first aid, lunch room will have positive impact on workers productivity. Paternalism/ Paternalistic Concept: Protective attitude towards employees. Satisfying various needs of employees. Humanitarian Concept: To improve productivity of employees physical, social and psychological needs of workers must be met. More emphasis was on group standards, group incentives and security. The organization is a social system, having both economic and social dimensions. Human Resource Concept: Employees are the most valuable assets of an organization. Efforts should be done to realize organizational goals by satisfying needs and aspirations of employees. Emerging Concept: Employees are treated as a partner of the business. Creating a feeling of belongingness is a important responsibility of manager. Managers must offer better quality of working life and offer opportunities to people to exploit their potential fully. The focus should be on HRD.

Difference between HRM and traditional Personnel Management: HRM differs from PM both in scope and orientation. HRM follows philosophy of mutuality mutual goals, mutual respect, mutual rewards and mutual responsibilities; where people are treated as an important source or asset to be used for the benefit of organizations, employees and society. This will lead to better economic performance and greater human resource development. So HRM is being integrated into the overall strategic management of business. In year 1990. American Society for Personnel Administration (ASPA) changed its name to Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Since then the expression is gradually replacing the hackneyed term Personnel management. PM has a limited scope and an inverted orientation. It viewed labor as a tool, . The behavior of which could be manipulated for the benefit of the organization and replaced when it was worn-out. The personnel department itself was not treated with respect. It was filled with not-veryproductive employees whose services could be spared with minimum damage to the organizations ongoing operations. Personnel function was treated as a routine activity meant to hire new employees and to maintain personnel records. It was never considered a part of the strategic management of businesses. Historically, PM preceded HRM. HRM and HRD: For many people, HRD and HRM convey the same meaning. This may not be true. HRD is a function more concerned with training and development, career planning and development and organization development. HRD is therefore, is a part of HRM. IRM and HRM: Industrial Relations Management (IRM) is yet another term which adds to the problem of semantics. Industrial relations, as the term implies, is merely concerned with employee grievances and their settlement, unionization and the like.. So, we can say that, IRM is one wing of HRM.

Image and Qualities of HR/Personnel Manager: The most important quality of HR manager is to deal successfully with people who have likes and dislikes. He/she has to deal with workers who refuse to see reason and who believe that violence pays, and nothing else does. The other qualities are as below: 1. Fairness and Firmness: HR manager should be fair in matters of promotions, demotions, transfers, layoffs and be firm in enforcing discipline. 2. Tact and resourcefulness: HR manager has to be tactful in dealing with difficult situations. But this tat is misunderstood as cunning by employees. The HR manager must be resourceful too. He / She should have open mind, objectivity and adjustability to tackle a difficult matter from different angles.

3. Sympathy and consideration: The HR manager must be guided by sympathetic attitude towards employee demands. Employee may demand unreasonably. But patient listening, open mind and concern for employees welfare make recalcitrant workers relent. Similarly HR managers intentions and actions must be tempered with consideration for others. 4. Knowledge of labor and other terms: The HR manager must possess a sound knowledge of the Constitution and other acts that influence labor interests.

5. Broad social outlook: It is desirable that HR manager has a social outlook and contributes towards the betterment of quality of life of the employees and those who live around and beyond the company. 6. Others: The HR manager must have the competence to perform activities relating to personnel better than his/her subordinates. This would earn him/her their enormous respect.

7. Academic qualifications: HR manager needs no specialized academic degree unlike cost accountants, software engineers, doctors etc.

Personnel Policies and Principles: A policy is a plan of action. Organizations need to evolve HR policies as they ensure consistency and uniformity in treating people. They help motivate and build loyalty. Policies become benchmarks to compare and evaluate performance.

A policy does not spell out the detailed procedure by which it has to be implemented. That is the role of a procedure.
Brewster and Richbell defined personnel policies as, a set of proposals and actions that act as a reference point for managers in their dealings with employees. Personnel policies constitute guides to action. They furnish the general standards or bases on which decisions are reached. Their genesis lies in an organizations values, philosophy, concepts and principles. Policies are broad statements which express the organizations principles and philosophy toward its human resource group. HR policies guide the course of action intended to accomplish HR objectives. A procedure is in reality a method for carrying out a policy. It is a well thought out course of action.

Procedures are called action guidelines. They are generally derived from policies. Further, HR rules and programs help in translating procedures into concrete action. HR rule spell out specific required action or non-action allowing no discretion. HR programs are complex sets of goals, policies, procedures rules, steps to be taken, resources to be employed and other elements necessary to carry out a given course of action. It can be said that rules and programs are aids to policy.

10 Characteristics or qualities of a sound HR Policy:

1. Policies must be capable of relating objectives to functions, physical factors and company personnel. 2. Policies should be stated indefinite, positive, clear and understandable language. 3. Policies should be sufficiently comprehensive and prescribe limits and yardsticks for future action. 4. Policies should be stable enough to assure people that there will not be drastic overnight changes. 5. They should be flexible enough to keep the organization in tune with the times. 6. HR policies should be build on the basis of facts and sound judgments and not on personal feelings or opportunistic decisions. 7. There should be as many personnel policies as necessary to cover conditions that can be anticipated, but not so many policies as to become confusing or meaningless.

8. Policies should be just, fair and equitable to internal as well as external groups. 9. Policies should be reasonable and capable of being accomplished. 10. Periodic review of policies is essential to keep in tune with changing times and to avoid organizational complacency or managerial stagnation.

Advantages of HR Policies:
1. Delegation: They help managers operating at various levels at various levels to act with confidence without the need for consulting superiors every times. 2. Uniformity: They increase the chance that different people in different levels of organization make similar choices when independently facing similar situations. 3. Better control: They specify the relationship among organization, management and employees; they permit members to work toward achievement of the objectives of the organization without friction/ conflict, paving the way for better control. 4. Standards of efficiency: Policies can also serve as standards in the execution of work. 5. Confidence: Policies make the employees aware of where they stand in the organization and create confidence in them while confronting routine and recurring problems. 6. Speedy decisions: They summarize past experience. So policies can speed up decision making by providing a blanket framework. 7. Coordinating devices: HR policies help in achieving coordination and prevent unwarranted deviation from planned operations.

Coverage of HR Policies:
1. Social responsibility: Equity - Treating employees fairly and justly by adopting an even-handed approach Consideration considering individual circumstances when decisions affect the employees prospects, seniority or self-respect. Quality of work life increase the interest in the job and organization by reducing monotony, increasing variety of responsibilities avoiding stress and strain.

2. Employment Policies: Provision of equal employment opportunities-selecting the candidates based on job requirements encourage the employee on the job and in the organization.

3. Promotion Policies: Promotion policy should be fair and just to all. Promotion policies would attempt to re-concile the demands of employee for growth and organizations demands for fresh and much more potential blood. 4. Development Policies: Policies should cover the kind of employees to be trained, time span of training programs, techniques, rewarding and awarding system, qualifications and experience of the trainer etc. 5. Relations policies: Relations policies cover the areas of human relations like policies regarding motivation, morale, communication, leadership styles, grievance procedure, disciplinary procedure, employee counseling etc.

Line staff relationships and personnel function:

The relationships with which the managers in an organization deal with one another may be broadly classified into two categories, i.e. line and staff. Line relationship: The relationship existing between two managers due to delegation of authority and responsibility and giving and receiving instructions or orders is called line relationship. So line relationship generally exists between a superior and a subordinate. Line refers to those positions of an organization which have responsibility, authority and are accountable for accomplishment of primary objectives. Managers identified as line are not subject to command by staff personnel. In case of disagreement between line and staff, line manager has the right to make final operating decisions. Line authority represents uninterrupted line of authority and responsibility running through the management hierarchy. For example, following is the line of authority delegation in any organization. BOD

Managing director

General Manager

Departmental Head

Supervisors

However, the line managers are completely responsible and accountable for the results achieved by the employees of the respective departments and sections. This does mean that though the authority is delegated, responsibility for action taken by a subordinate still rests with the superior.

Staff Relations: The staff concept is as old as organization itself. It is virtually impossible for line executives to perform all their functions and concentrate on all organizational activities. This naturally compels them to secure advice and help from specialists. The staff relationships are created thus. The relationship between Manager X and Manager Y is said to be a staff relation, when Ys position is created to secure advice, guidance, information, help or assistance, counseling etc, in the process of attaining organizational goals. So line and staff are to be viewed as relationships and not by departments. Some functional managers are having line relations with other managers while other managers have staff relations with other managers in the organization.

Personnel Management is a Line Responsibility. Personnel management is a responsibility of all line managers. It is in this sense that every manager is a personnel manager. The responsibility of line managers is to attain the goals of their respective departments by striking a harmonious balance between material, machines, money and men. Thus management of 4Ms which include management of personnel in their respective departments is the responsibility of line management.

Line needs assistance in managing men. In most of the organizations, BOD delegate operative/ technical responsibilities to managing directors and through them to the general manager. Since all these line managers have to concentrate on discharging technical/operative responsibilities, they may not find time to take care of human resources. In such situation line managers require help or advice relating to personnel management in their respective departments.

Personnel Management is a staff function. Since top management believes that organizational ability depends on sound management of human resources, it provides specialized assistance to line managers through personnel managers. Personnel managers perform the various functions of personnel management like employment, training, development, wage and salary, administration, motivation, grievance redressal, workers participation in management, collective bargaining etc. Other staff role of personnel department are policy initiation and policy formulation, advice to junior, middle and top management, secretarial and executive services, monitoring and control. So personnel management is a staff function. Challenges in Human Resource Management: There are enormous individual differences in any organization. Third differences demand attention so that each person can maximize its potential, so that organizations can maximize their effectiveness and so that the society as a whole can make the wisest use of its human resources.

HR Competencies We have identified five key roles HR players must master to become contributors to their business competitiveness. We developed these five roles through extensive work with HR professionals. This report includes a study of our model of five roles that show what HR players should do to contribute to the organization: [1] Coach Business Leaders: Coaches play a role in situations where participants must learn, adapt, and act in an ever improving way. Coaches set expectations for leadership behavior, provide accurate and candid feedback; they follow up and reinforce personal change. [2] Organizational Architect: Architects for an organization understand the external drivers of the business, create blueprints for organizational change, and work with managers to articulate the desired organization. [3] Design HR Systems: Designers of HR systems must know best practices in HR systems, they must create a menu of choices for HR, and they must prioritize HR investments for results. [4] Facilitate Change: HR players facilitating role includes the ability to frame complex trends in simplified and useable ways, the ability to perform organizational diagnoses and audits, the ability to facilitate teams, the ability to set the direction of change, and the ability to manage the process of change [5] Leads Function: As a leader, HR players set a good example of how to manage; they ensure that HR is a cultural role model for the organization, and they build the capability of the HR department to add greater value.