New Trends in HRM

The challenge for HR managers is to keep up to date with the latest HR innovations -technological, legal, and otherwise.
How HR managers can anticipate and address some of the most challenging HR issues.

1. 10/20/11
New Trends in HRMNew Trends in HRM
Saroj Kumar Behera
ITER B-school

2. 10/20/11
IntroductionIntroduction
Historically, the HR Department was
viewed as administrative overhead.
HR processed payroll, handled benefits
administration, kept personnel files and
other records, managed the hiring
process, and provided other
administrative support to the organization
The role of Human Resources is changing
as fast as technology and the global
marketplace

3. 10/20/11
IntroductionIntroduction
The positive result of these changes is
that HR professionals have the
opportunity to play a more strategic role in
the business.
The challenge for HR managers is to keep
up to date with the latest HR innovations
-technological, legal, and otherwise.
How HR managers can anticipate and
address some of the most challenging HR
issues.

4. 10/20/11
External and internal factors influencing
the Personnel function
External factors Internal factors
 Technological factors  Mission
 Economic challenges  Policies
 Political factors  Organisational culture
Social factors  Organisation
 structure
 Local and Governmental issues HR systems
 Unions
 Employers’ demands
 Workforce diversity

5. 10/20/11
Human ResourceHuman Resource
ManagementManagement
Attract and Attract and
orient new orient new
employeesemployees
EffectiveEffective
compensationcompensation
systemssystems
EffectiveEffective
workwork
environmentenvironment
Compliance & Compliance &
proceduresprocedures
EffectiveEffective
relationshipsrelationships
HRM ActivitiesHRM Activities

6. 10/20/11
Technological Changes And Technological Changes And
HRM HRM
Technology includes tools, machinery, equipment, work procedures
and employee knowledge and skills. The impact of technology on HR
can be profound, as the following things clearly reveal:
New skills, knowledge, experience and expertise required to gain
the edge over rivals.
Downsize operations, cut organisational layers and cut the extra
fat to survive in a competitive world
 Collaborate and achieve teamwork
 Relocate work from the office to the home
Internet and intranet revolution

7. 10/20/11
How to deal with a human resource surplus How to deal with a human resource surplus
situation?situation?
Why?
Automation
 Restructuring
 Mergers
 Acquisitions
 Competitive
Pressures
Consequences?
Cuts payroll expenses
 Eliminates extra layers
 Improves functioning if
firm’s product and
service profile is good
 Shocks those left out
 Shattering impact on
employee motivation and
morale if not managed
properly
Managing Survivors of
downsizing

o
Bitterness, anger, disbelief
and shock need to be
handled properly
Give information as to why
the action had to be taken
Tell how it is going to help
the firm and employees in
the long run.

8. 10/20/11
Economic, Political And Social
Challenges And HR
•Now-a-days, people, goods, capital and information are moving
around the globe as never before.
•Global competition is making every firm to think in terms of
gaining an edge over rivals by producing high quality goods at a
very competitive price.
•This is where the ‘people’ dimension comes into being.
Incentives, favourable work climate, team spirit, freedom to think
and act independently, and a host of other HR initiatives are
needed to keep talent from flying away.

9. 10/20/11
What HR managers can do What HR managers can do
??
Use workforce skills and abilities in order to exploit environmental opportunities and
neutralise threats.
Employ innovative reward plans that recognise employee contributions and grant
enhancements.
Indulge in continuous quality improvement through TQM and HR contributions
(training, development, counselling, coaching etc.).
Utilise people with distinctive capabilities to create unsurpassed competence in
an area (Xerox in photocopier, 3M in adhesives, Telco in trucks, Britannia in
biscuits, Nestle in coffee, McDonald’s in fast foods, etc.).
Decentralise operations and rely on self managed teams to deliver goods in difficult
times (Motorola is famous for short product development cycles. It has quickly
commercialised ideas from its research labs).
Lay off workers in a smooth way, explaining facts (IBM, Kodak, Xerox, AT&T,
Steel and Textile firms in India etc.) to unions, workers and other affected groups.
HR generally plays a key role, these days, in planning and implementing corporate
downsizings, and then in maintaining the morale of the remaining employees.

10. 10/20/11
Political factors
Political stability
Formation of new political parties
Influence of politicians over Productivity linked wage agreements
Political parties sympathetic to trade unionism
Opposition to VRS schemes, downsizing operations, restructuring
exercises.
Freedom to show the door to unwanted people
Social factors
Conducting business in a socially relevant and responsible way.
Hire qualified people or hire inexperienced local people and train them
to avoid trouble?
Helping economically poor people, unemployed, underprivileged ones,
etc.

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Local and government-related Local and government-related
factors factors
Meet legislative requirements
Offering jobs to certain sections of local community
Trade unions
 Demands for higher wages, better working conditions, incentives,
benefits, services

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MANAGING WORKFORCE MANAGING WORKFORCE
DIVERSITYDIVERSITY
The workforce is becoming increasingly diverse now and
organisations are doing their best to address employee concerns and
to maximise benefits of different kind to employees with diverse
educational, cultural and religious backgrounds. The diversity issues,
mainly, include the following:
Composition In terms of age, caste, education, culture,
region, religion
Minority groups, Economically backward groups
Displaced persons
Child labour
Contract labour
Women employees

13. 10/20/11
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND HR
Organisations are also influenced by a variety of internal factors
relating to strategy, culture, structure etc.
 Mission and Strategy
 Internal Policies
 Organisational Culture
 Organisation structure
 Human resource systems

14. 10/20/11
Designing appropriate HR systems
Issue Focus on
Nature of employment :Job/Career
Recruitment :Internal/external/both
Selection :Merit/other considerations
Training and employee :6 months/yearly
development actions Regular/irregular/need based
Degree of participation:Top down/bottom up
Incentives :Individual merit/group output
Job security :Lifelong employment/need-based jobs
Employee welfare :Be a model employer (offer those that
are needed by law.)

15. 10/20/11
An Aging WorkforceAn Aging Workforce
The ministry of labour tracks changes in the composition of the
Indian labor force and forecasts employment needs.
Projections for 1996-2006, indicate the Indian labor force will
have a phenomenal growth.
Some of the expected change involves the distribution of workers
by age.
–Youth labor force, workers between the ages of 16-24, is expected to
grow faster than the overall labor force.
–The fastest growing segment will be workers aged 45-64.
–By 2015, workers aged 40 and above will exceed the number under
40 for the first time ever.
Organizations will struggle with ways to control costs and will
have to find new ways to attract, retain, and prepare the youth
labor force.
Values tend to change from one generation to another as well as
during different life stages.

16. 10/20/11
Skill Deficiencies of the Skill Deficiencies of the
WorkforceWorkforce
The increasing use of computers to do routine tasks has
shifted the kinds of skills needed for employees in the
indian economy.
Employees must be able to handle a variety of
responsibilities, interact with customers, and think
creatively.
Most organizations are looking for educational
achievements and a college degree is a basic requirement
for many jobs today.
The gap between skills needed and skills available has:
–Decreased ability to compete because they sometimes
lack the skills to upgrade technology, reorganize work,
and empower employees.

17. 10/20/11
High-Performance Work High-Performance Work
SystemsSystems
High-performance work systems are
organizations that have the best possible fit
between their social system and technical
system.
Some of the trends in today’s high-
performance work systems are:
–Reliance on knowledge workers
–Empowerment of employees to make decisions
–Utilization of teamwork

18. 10/20/11
Knowledge WorkersKnowledge Workers
Knowledge workers are
employees whose main
contribution to the
organization is specialized
knowledge.
The reliance on knowledge
workers affects
organizations’ decisions
about the kinds of people
they are recruiting and
selecting.

19. 10/20/11
Employee EmpowermentEmployee Empowerment
Employee empowerment means giving employees
responsibility and authority to make decisions
regarding all aspects of product development or
customer service.
HRM practices such as performance management,
training, work design, and compensation are important
for ensuring the success of employee empowerment.
For empowerment to succeed, managers must be
trained to link employees to resources within and
outside the organization.
The use of employee empowerment shifts the
recruiting focus away from technical skills and toward
general cognitive and interpersonal skills.

20. 10/20/11
TeamworkTeamwork
Teamwork is the assignment of work to
groups of employees with various skills who
interact to assemble a product or provide a
service.
Work teams often assume many activities
traditionally reserved for managers.
Virtual teams rely on communication
technology to keep in touch and coordinate
activities.
Teamwork motivates employees by making
work more interesting and significant.

21. 10/20/11
Focus on StrategyFocus on Strategy
At a growing number of
organizations, HR
professionals are
strategic partners with
other managers.
The specific ways in
which HR professionals
support the
organization’s strategy
vary according to their
level of involvement and
the nature of the
strategy.

22. 10/20/11
Business Strategy: Issues Business Strategy: Issues
Affecting HRMAffecting HRM

23. 10/20/11
Focus on StrategyFocus on Strategy
High Quality Standards:
–To remain competitive in
today’s economy,
organizations need to
provide high-quality
products and services.
–Total quality management
(TQM) refers to a
company-wide effort to
continuously improve the
ways people, machines,
and systems accomplish
work.
•TQM has several core
values.
Mergers and Acquisitions:
–Mergers: Two companies
becoming one.
–Acquisitions: One
company buying another.
–HR professionals have to
sort out the differences in
the two companies’
practices with regards to
compensation,
performance appraisal,
and other HR systems.

24. 10/20/11
Focus on StrategyFocus on Strategy
Downsizing:
–Downsizing presents a
number of challenges and
opportunities for HRM.
All employees should be
informed:
–Why the downsizing is
necessary
–What costs are to be cut
–How long the downsizing will
last
–What strategies the
organization intends to pursue
HRM can provide downsized
employees with outplacement
services to help them find new
jobs.

25. 10/20/11
Focus on StrategyFocus on Strategy
Expanding into Global
Markets:
In order to meet challenges,
companies must
–Develop global markets
–Keep up with competition
from overseas
–Hire from an international
labor pool
–Prepare employees for
global assignments.
Employees who take
assignments in other
countries are called
expatriates.

26. 10/20/11
Focus on StrategyFocus on Strategy
Reengineering:
Reengineering is a complete
review of the organization’s
critical work processes to
make them more efficient
and able to deliver higher
quality.
Reengineering affects HRM
in two ways:
–The way the HR
department accomplishes
goals may change
–The HR department must
help design and implement
change
Outsourcing:
Outsourcing refers to the
practice of having another
company provide services.
HR departments help with a
transition to outsourcing and
many HR functions are being
outsourced such as:
–Payroll administration
–Training
–Recruitment
–Selection

27. 10/20/11
Traditional HR vs. Strategic HRTraditional HR vs. Strategic HR
Point of distinction
Focus
Role of HR

Initiatives
Time horizon
Control
Job design
Key investments
Accountability
Responsibility for HR
Traditional HR
Employee Relations
Transactional change
follower and respondent
Slow, reactive, fragmented
Short-term
Bureaucratic-roles, policies,
procedures
Tight division of labour;
independence,
specialisation
Capital, products
Cost centre
Staff specialists
Strategic HR
Partnerships with internal and
external customers
Transformational change leader
and initiator
Fast, proactive and integrated
Short, medium and long (as
required)
Organic-flexible, whatever is
necessary to succeed
Broad, flexible, cross-training
teams
People, knowledge
Investment centre
Line managers

28. 10/20/11
Technological Change in HRMTechnological Change in HRM
Advances in computer-
related technology have
had a major impact on
the use of information
for managing HR.
A human resource
information system
(HRIS) is a computer
system used to acquire,
store, manipulate,
analyze, retrieve, and
distribute information
related to human
resources.

29. 10/20/11
A Changing EconomyA Changing Economy
The way business is conducted has changed rapidly
during the past few years and will continue to do so.
Many companies are connecting to the Internet to gain
an advantage over or keep up with competitors.
Electronic business (e-business) is any process that a
business conducts electronically, especially business
involving use of the Internet.
E-business involves several forms of buying and
selling goods and services:
–Business-to-consumer
–Business-to-business
–Consumer-to-consumer

30. 10/20/11
Changes in the Employment Changes in the Employment
RelationshipRelationship
A psychological contract is a description of what an
employee expects to contribute and what the employer
will provide the employee in exchange for the
contributions.
From the organization’s perspective, the key to
survival in a fast-changing environment is flexibility.
Flexibility in HRM includes:
–Flexible staffing levels
–Flexible work schedules

31. 10/20/11
Changes in the Employment Changes in the Employment
RelationshipRelationship
Alternative work arrangements are methods of staffing other than
the traditional hiring of full-time staff.
–Independent contractors
–On-call workers
–Temporary workers
–Contract company workers
From employees’ perspective, alternative work arrangements
provide some flexibility for balancing work and non-work
activities.
The globalization of the world economy and the development of
e-commerce have made the notion of a 40-hour workweek
obsolete.
Offering flexible work schedules provide organizations with many
benefits.

32. Next is coming.............
For feedback/suggestion contact at
[email protected]
10/20/11