Introduction
Over the last decade to fifteen years, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has been a buzzword in many industries. Before that time, the term “people administration” was often used to describe the HR industry. The new name is not just a marketing ploy; by the 1920s, personnel administration had become a distinct area of study with practitioners focusing on the nuts and bolts of the “staff” function inside their businesses via such activities as recruiting, appraising, training, and rewarding their workers (Harney, 2022). Neither the impact of different employment practices on overall organizational performance nor the systematic linkages among such practices were traditional areas of interest in this subject. There was no overarching theory to guide research in this area either. In the late 1970s, globalization, deregulation, and fast technical development significantly strained American corporate organizations (Kumareswaran, 2018). As a result of these challenges, businesses have begun to place a greater emphasis on strategic planning. This paper hypothesizes the transformation from personnel management to Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) resulted in a drastic increase in productivity, clear articulation of short-term and long-term goals, and increasing competition within the company.
SHRM Advantages
The first advantage of SHRM is that it aids in the establishment of long-term objectives and the formulation of operational tactics for the corporation. SHRM allows businesses to better interact with their employees from when they are first considered for a position until their final separation from the company. Pre-employment procedures entail much preparation. The company must anticipate the employment positions available over the next few months and then establish what skillsets will be required to fill them. A company’s human resources process begins with the hiring phase (Zehir et al.,2020). Applicants are sought for, evaluated, and finally, the most qualified are chosen via the selection processes.
Secondly, SHRM increases productivity resulting in employees getting a competitive edge. Personnel management is about establishing, maintaining, and creating processes for the employment framework. These structures stay in place from when an employee first joins an organization until he leaves that organization (Kashefikia, 2021). In the late 19th century, welfare workers began to emerge, whose primary mission was to help those in need via initiatives like unemployment insurance, health care benefits, and low-cost housing (Kashefikia, 2021). Workers have previously been treated severely since they were seen as nothing more than cogs in a machine. As businesses grew, they began devoting more resources to employee perks like canteens, corporate trips, and personnel administration to reduce the burden on upper management.
During this time, companies became even larger, and HR departments provided more services, such as wage administration, training, and counseling on industrial relations. However, the emphasis remained on the tactical, rather than the strategic, level. The need for industrial relations professionals emerged within the human resource management field when collective bargaining shifted from the sector to the firm level (Cooke et al., 2020). Due to employment laws, there was a rise in the need for human resources workers. Until the early 1970s, the economy was booming, and hiring, screening, training, and paying workers were all major concerns (Callaghan, 2018). Because of the severe lack of workers, companies had to concentrate on retaining their best employees and training their current staff to be even more effective.
A Training Board was set up to advocate for training initiatives and provide funding to businesses that implemented successful training initiatives. The field of staff development now includes specialized training professionals. Performance reviews, training for managers, and strategic workforce planning were also prioritized. When it comes to concerns of productivity and industrial relations, the negotiating strength of trade unions has grown (Ferrer et al., 2022). As a result, personnel experts now have more people to contact in upper management and the workforce (Kuchciak, 2021). In addition to learning to negotiate, there was a push to place human resources within management’s purview.
Personnel executives now focus on topics such as the company’s future, examining current business goals, and revising the objectives with improved means of attaining them as part of personnel management’s adaptation to the market economy. Japanese industrial relations methods, quality circles, and comprehensive quality management were emphasized with the management of change and creating a business culture (Japanese management practice) (Kuchciak, 2021). Centralized bargaining, in which talks take place at the national level without the participation of personnel managers, has supplanted collective bargaining. Trade unions saw their influence dwindle as the recession set in. The possibility of a strike was lessened because of the ease with which workers could be replaced. Collective bargaining led to less back-and-forth between unions and HR experts.
Theories Used
Collective bargaining, dispute resolution, and salary negotiations used to be handled in much more straightforward ways. Since there was an excess of workers, several adjustments were made to how things were done. The goal was to maximize output while reducing headcount. Here began a new era in HR practices. Human resource management became the focus of HR specialists to foster an enthusiastic workforce and boost productivity. The previous individualist ethos was abandoned in favor of a more communal one. There was a focus on cooperation, highly committed core personnel, flextime, and market-determined salaries rather than those negotiated by management and labor unions. In addition to their regular duties, employees must go above and above. Human resource management has shifted its emphasis from a tactical to a strategic approach, with the latter’s primary goal of cultivating the organization’s human potential.
There was a rise in employment laws throughout the 1970s, and organizations increasingly relied on their human resources departments to act as expert consultants to their managerial superiors and keep matters out of industrial courts. Competence in Adapting to and Taking Advantage of Variation Employers seeking more flexible arrangements in employee hours developed as a key trend in the 1990s, thanks to the rise of part-time and temporary contracts and the development of remote work (Callaghan, 2018). Traditional hiring methods are ineffective due to the increasing diversity of the workforce and work habits. As internet usage skyrocketed in the new millennium, people suddenly found themselves living in a culture that never shuts down. As a result, new positions opened up in the field of electronic commerce, while others in more conventional retail settings were eliminated. What this meant was that telecommuting was an option for more people (Thymi et al., 2022). Businesses need to have a long-term perspective while addressing the challenges posed by these innovations.
Conclusion
From the study above, it is evident that strategic management of human resources offers various advantages in addition to increased productivity. Employees may benefit from strategic management of human resources by being more competitive. Collective bargaining, dispute resolution, and salary negotiations are among the theories used. Both the company’s aims for the future and its overall business strategy may be more clearly articulated as a result of this. Therefore, it also comes in handy in assisting staff to stay on board.
Reference List
Callaghan, C.W. (2018) ‘Strategic human resources management or talent management: A theoretical non sequitur?’, Journal of Contemporary Management, 15(1), pp.763-783.
Cooke, F.L., Xiao, Q. and Xiao, M. (2020) ‘Extending the frontier of research on (strategic) human resource management in China: A review of David Lepak and colleagues’ influence and future research direction’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(1), pp. 183-224.
Ferrer, J., Waheduzzaman, W. and Holland, P. (2022) ‘The ethics of human resource management: An Impossible Position’, In the Emerald Handbook of Work, Workplaces and Disruptive Issues in HRM (pp. 415-433). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Harney, B. and Collings, D.G. (2021) ‘Navigating the shifting landscapes of HRM’, Human Resource Management Review, 31(4), p.100824.
Kashefikia, Z., (2021) Strategic Human Resource Management: The main condition for the survival of contemporary organizations.
Kuchciak, and Warwas, (2021) Designing a roadmap for human resource management in the banking 4.0’, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 14(12), p. 615.
Kumareswaran, S. (2018) The Cross-cultural Challenges in an Attempt to Use HRM Best Practices in a MNC (Doctoral dissertation, Doctoral dissertation, University of Wolverhampton).
Thymi, I., Bitsani, E. and Pantazopoulos, S. (2022) ‘Strategic human resource management and leadership of cultural organisations in the 21st century’, International Journal of Cultural Management, 1(1), pp. 58-79.
Zehir, C., Karaboğa, T. and Başar, D., (2020) ‘The transformation of human resource management and its impact on overall business performance: big data analytics and AI technologies in strategic HRM’, In Digital business strategies in blockchain ecosystems (pp. 265-279). Springer, Cham.