How HRM evolved from Personnel management

How HRM evolved from Personnel management

It would be close to impossible to try and visualize how cruel and severe the workplace was back in the 19^th Century before proper ways of managing people were invented. Fortunately, after the World War, several scholars took it upon themselves to study the people at their places of work. These studies would enable managers to understand the best approaches and practices that derive the required performance and productivity levels from their workers. Thus, came personnel management. This style of managing employees, however, wasn’t very useful as it only considered workers as a means to an end. Nonetheless, more research was carried out that led to the specialization of the management functions that had been developed.

Contrary to the assumption that the whole idea of personnel management was bad unproductive, some of the management tactics are useful to organizations even now. So, what made performance management successful back then? Which of these tactics do employers still use to date?

20th-century tactics that we still use today

The following are some of the employee management tactics that are still important to organizational success today.

1. Career Development

Management in the Twentieth Century emphasized the development of employee skills and competencies for their benefit, which would, in turn, boost organizational performance. Similarly, today’s strategic management advocates for enhancing individual skills and competencies to give organizations a competitive edge over others through their employees. More significance has been placed on training and development, which not only pays attention to improving employees’ desired skills but also changing their behavior and attitude to suit their career as well. Additionally, more managers advocate for innovativeness and creativity in their employees, which is essential for any organization to perform

2. Effective Compensation Management

The industrial revolution brought about new ways to manage employees and enhance productivity and effectiveness. Fredrick Taylor, through his theory on scientific management, believed that most employees were motivated to work by money. Equivalently, in this age, many companies do invest a great deal on competitive compensation schemes to retain talent and promote employee productivity. With the introduction of human resource management, wages and salary administration has become a bit more specialized, with the commencement of performance and competence-based pay systems and pay structures. Strategic management has also brought in profit sharing with employees, which makes employees part and parcel of the organization’s success or downfall. This new twist to compensation has enhanced compensation management and is considered as an essential performance management tool.

3. Ensuring Proper Working Conditions

With the end of the Great Depression in the 20^th Century, came new laws that seek to ensure that employees get proper working conditions as well as the necessary equipment to perform their duties. Today, actual tools are often replaced with different software solutions, but the idea stays the same. With the help of scheduling software, the managers of today have been able to reduce time wastage while preparing work schedules and staff payrolls by over 70%. This benefit, in turn, has enabled organizations to attend to their customers better, therefore, consequently boosting performance.

4. Implementing Employee Reward Programs

The industrial revolution also came with the development of recognition programs for workers based on the research studies on positive reinforcement by B. F. Skinner. These programs emphasized the idea that hard work and commitment should be recognized and rewarded. Today, companies develop different total reward systems to identify employees based on their achievements and tenure. Although this tactic wasn’t very popular with the personnel managers, it has become an essential tool in managing employee performance and productivity in organizations. For human resource management, motivating employees has taken the form of job enrichment, offering free vacations, team-based social activities on behalf of the company, benefits, profits, and so on, aside from money-related incentives.

5. Developing Conflict Management and Resolution Programs

Even back then, it was the personnel manager’s duty to sort out conflicts whenever employees had problems amongst themselves or with the management. Hence this has become a vital employee management strategy today that minimizes labor turn over and potential lawsuits against organizations. Personnel managers were tasked with dealing with matters concerning trade unions while attempting to find solutions to organizational disputes employing collective bargaining, among other various industrial relations techniques. Similarly, human resource managers also have the same duties as their predecessors, focusing more on leading the employees rather than being managers. This tactic has become necessary to many companies when it comes to managing conflict and disputes, which are an immense hindrance to their performance.

6. Promoting Employee Welfare

Among the laws provided during the evolution of management in the 20^th Century were those improving employee welfare. Today, top companies offer programs that support work-life balance for the employees, such as flexible working hours and employee assistance programs. These programs go a long way in ensuring employee commitment and organizational success.

Personnel managers promoted the welfare of their employees by considering welfare-related measures like providing medical covers, insurance covers, accommodation facilities, and so on. This strategy has been useful to date as it promotes employee commitment and gives them a sense of belonging. As a result, employees are obligated to perform better and meet or surpass the companies targets.

Conclusion

We are all aware that human resources are a highly essential part of any organization. Through the employee contributions, organizations can carry out their various operations such as production, sales and marketing, finance management, and so on. It is for this very reason that employee managers have tried several ways, over the past years up until now, to exploit the capabilities of the human resource. Employers achieve this by developing their skills and abilities, and then to direct them towards the benefit of the organization.

Performance management is vital for any company to achieve its goals. Moreover, companies that perform better have a better public image than their competitors, which is good for the business. Any organization that practices the tactics as mentioned above in managing their employees will undoubtedly succeed. We should, therefore, admit that effective performance management of human resources is a crucial contributor to the success of any organization.