Challenges in Human Resource Management

Challenges in Human Resource Management

Jessical Jenkins

HRM 300

Sept 28, 2014

The world of work is changing rapidly and it’s the responsibility of organization’s Human Resource Management (HRM) practices to effectively deal with effects of changing workplace (Taylor et al., 2012). Over the last few decades, the nature of Human Resource Management (HRM) functions have changed significantly with the change in business environment, labour market demographics, market dynamics and competition (Beardwell and Claydon, 2012). Historically, the functions of HRM are responsible for attracting, recruiting, training, retaining, assessing and rewarding of the employees whilst ensuring compliance with employment regulations and labour laws (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). In simple words, it is concerned with the management of human resources (people) through bringing both people and organizations together to achieve set goals and objectives. However, the modern HRM is not just limited to management of human resources but it is more strategic in nature and deeply integrates the interests of human resources and organization to develop an organizational culture of professional commitment, integration, workforce diversity and quality work (Lockard and Wolf, 2012). Also, the current themes of HRM requires HR managers in the organization to understand the implications of globalisation, workforce diversity, labour relations, corporate downsizing, succession planning, re-engineering, international workforce, decentralisation, leadership and employee motivation and involvement (Beardwell and Claydon, 2012).

Armstrong and Taylor (2014) indicates that the modern HRM practices play a strategic role in the success of the organization and every organization, irrespective of size and nature recognise the fact that the presence of talented human resources is critical for achieving competitive advantage. Particularly, with the emergence of globalisation, internationalisation and increase in competition, it became very important for organizations to indicate more adaptability, resilience, agility and customer centric approach to succeed in the global business environment (Torrington et al., 2011). In other words, HRM have become a business driven function with thorough understanding of organization’s activities and be able to influence key strategies, decisions and policies. In addition to this, the HR manager have evolved as a strategic partner and their key focus in not only to attract, retain and develop the talented human resources but also to involve in strategic activities such as succession planning, business continuity planning, workforce diversity, labour relations and aspects of change management (Beardwell and Claydon, 2012)

According to Armstrong