Human Resource Strategies : An Integrated Approach for Current Corporate Scene

INTRODUCTION Human Resource Strategy can be defined as a set of ideas , policies and practices that management adopt in order to achieve a people management objective. An interaction of the firm with its environment is important in framing the strategies. The human resource strategy helps in analyzing the external environmental scan and internal capital assessment. Human Resource Strategies refer to a specific course of action that human resource managers of the company choose to achieve its aims & objectives. The main function of human resource strategy is to reduce cost and get maximum competitive advantage for the Organization in current era of globalization. These strategies are formed through human resource interventions, broad areas which human resource strategy covers are recruitment and selection , compensation , wage and salary administration , staffing and performance appraisal etc. Human resource strategies provide a sense of direction and an outline to the Organizational progress and leads an Organization towards its desired objectives and pre determined goals. Human interventions result in creation of a platform which provides a planning base to framework of activities and ideas conceived by management in consensus with the employees and investors and thus they lead to formulation of Human Resource Strategies. An HRM strategy typically consists of the following factors: "Best fit" and "best practice" - meaning that there is correlation between the HRM strategy and the overall corporate strategy. As HRM as a field seeks to manage human resource in order to achieve properly organizational goals, an organization's HRM strategy seeks to accomplish such management by applying a firm's personnel needs with the goals/objectives of the organization. As an example, a firm selling cars could have a corporate strategy of increasing car sales by 10% over a five year period. Accordingly, the HRM strategy would seek to facilitate how exactly to manage personnel in order to achieve the 10% figure. Specific HRM functions, such as recruitment and selection, reward/recognition, an HR plan, or learning and development policies, would be tailored to achieve the corporate objectives. Close co-operation (at least in theory) between HR and the top/senior management, in the development of the corporate strategy. Theoretically, a senior HR representative should be present when an organization's corporate objectives are devised. This is so, since it is a firm's personnel who actually construct a good, or provide a service. The personnel's proper management is vital in the firm being successful, or even existing as a going concern. Thus, HR can be seen as one of the critical departments within the functional area of an organization. Continual monitoring of the strategy, via employee feedback, surveys, etc.
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The implementation of an HR strategy is not always required, and may depend on a number of factors, namely the size of the firm, the organizational culture within the firm or the industry that the firm operates in and also the people in the firm.

BROAD CONCEPTUAL AREAS FOR APPLICATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES Considering broad areas of strategic framework the foremost important human resource area which can be discussed is Recruitment & Selection ; through recruitment and selection processes Organization ensures talented and resourceful employees for itself and hence recruitment and selection strategies are core for good organizational health. Recruitment and selection strategies are mostly depending upon the kind of workforce an organization is looking at , but today in the era of employee branding most of the organizations want their employees to be tough, smart and creative besides being resourceful hence we can say that Organization today are using strict recruitment policies with tougher selection standards, therefore selection of most talented people in the organization becomes the most vital function of any human resource manager. In all this exercise the cost factor also plays an important role and hence most of the human resource managers prefer cost conscious modern methods of recruitment like Online recruitment , telephonic interviews , conference interviews , campus recruitments etc these methods ensure talented pool of employees besides saving companys precious cash resource. Organizations now create resume banks and cv depositories on their website so that fresh potential employees are always at hand whenever required by the company , it saves the advertisement and selection costs also. Interview techniques and strategies for formulation and designing of interview techniques has also changed with time , On-the spot Interviews, Off Campus Interviews and abstract Interviews have become common these days . Companies are now looking for something more than education , work knowledge and decision making power in employees and they need individuals with fresh ideas and innovative approach towards performance and responsibilities , abstract interviews help in identifying such difficult qualities which generally remain hidden in course of normal and routine interview. Another approach towards cost cutting in recruitment and selection is to outsource the entire Recruitment function to a recruitment agency or a allied partnership firm but this generally affect the quality of employees which are recruited so mostly Organizations outsource Mass recruitment processes for lower job profiles and retains recruitment of senior and specialized individual positions which are of utmost important to the company. Regarding formulation of Compensation policies and strategies the human resource managers conduct job evaluation studies to design and implement remuneration of employees which matches exactly with the skills , qualification, experience, profile and responsibilities handled.
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Human resource manager also prepares job analysis summary for every employee to assess qualities and strengths of employees and requirements of the job which match these qualities and strength. Compensation Strategies are difficult to formulate and implement as they involve a long term strategic overview of the company and that whether company is able to cope with increasing demand from competition and reducing pool of talented and skilled employees. Also the compensation strategies tend to have a long term impact on the liquidity and financial resource of the Organization , hence they should be carefully designed to achieve goal congruence of Organizational development with employee development. Wage and salary administration policies are mainly part and parcel of personnel strategies designed which are based on the Organizational values , ethics and leadership style besides work culture and Human Resource philosophy of the company. Wage and Salary policy along with compensation and remuneration for individual designation worked upon by financial experts and tax people decide CTC i.e Cost-To-Company which is really important for any Organization in deducing its cash outflows and expenses. Staffing , Training and development as well as Industrial relations strategies allocate a backbone structure for the human resource functionality of any Organization Staffing Strategies and policies decide and project current and future human resource requirement and plan to fulfill these requirements within allocated and budgeted resources made available by the Organization. Training and development strategies go hand in hand with the recruitment and staffing policies and decide the exposure to be provided to the new cadre in the Organization. Training and development plans chalk out the future generation and their ideology towards the work and the Organization. Appropriate training and development strategies which are pre-planned and well executed benefit the whole Organization in multiple ways and have a long term impact on Organization Culture and environment. Industrial relations and Labour welfare are the critical part of Human resource planning and strategizing exercise, these plans when designed create the relationship aspect of the management-union transactions and management and union relationships further decide the style and kind of atmosphere and culture the Organization will be having .Industrial relations is more important on functional basis also as its elements like Collective bargaining and Grievance handling are more important for employees and labours and that framework to be well designed is an utmost essentiality for the success of human resource in any Organization. Motivation is another area which human resource managers tend to find challenging and now a days it is a common practice amongst manufacturing and service Organizations to have a well designed motivational plans and strategies for all categories of workers payment of Overtime , Micro credit schemes , ESOP (Employee Stock Option Scheme) and Time bound promotion schemes are result of a well integrated approach of combining motivational and compensation strategies to provide and promote workers motivation and enable higher productivity and efficiency. Motivational strategies can be used to motivate workers at different stages of their life and are also used by companies to show their employees that how much the Organization cares
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about the employees for eg. In MICO employees with more than fifteen years of service are rewarded with Siver Medal for recognition of their effort and dedication towards the company. Besides this Strategies are applicable in almost every area of human resource management like job enrichment strategies which help to make a job more interesting and productive for employee and organization respectively and also the employee gets the satisfaction of creativity and innovation. Strategies are applied for designing and redesigning a job to make it perfect to promote its enrichment rather then its enlargement. Job enrichment leads to job satisfaction which again leads to high motivation and higher productivity , thus in this way Organizations plan and implement a phased career building programme for employees to enhance employee employer bonding and positivity. This to a greater extent reduces employee turnover also and enhances talent retention. Today in this era of Knowledge Management only learning Organizations will progress and grow to survive and rule the competition, hence today companies prefer multi skilling of their employee rather than solo-skilled employees which are a characteristic of past era. Either companies already hire a multi skilled employee , but in this case the expenses are sometimes too heavy to bear so most of the organizations prefer hiring a solo-skilled employee and through a rigorous and diversified result oriented training and development programme convert a simpleton into a talented multi skilled employee with varied output compatibility and performance flexibility. This multiskilled employee is known as Knowledge worker and this strategy of creating new knowledge workers has become very important strategy for modern technology oriented Organizations. Today such Knowledge workers can handle the work load of many employees single handedly and moreover can perform diversified functions in different environments with same ease and constant perfection. For such workers again to keep them abreast of speedily developing technology periodic T & D programmes are consciously planned and implemented. Another important area which entirely rests on Strategic planning and development and on which entire Organization depends for productivity , efficiency and output is Performance Appraisal. Performance Appraisal is the hub of Organizational Strategic Management, by application of Strategic Human Resource aspects a balance between Job Requirements and Employee Skills is created and maintained ,Strategic Management has been successful in developing Performance Management System (PMS) from Performance Appraisal (PA) , this shift is necessitated by increased job complexity and recruitment of diversified work force , expectations of which cannot be fulfilled by PA alone, PMS on the other hand measures technical aspect of the job , overall impact of job done successfully on Organizational performance , Standard Outputs , skills required to perform the job and T&D efforts to train new employee to achieve basic performance level of the job. Human resource strategies have further developed Performance Appraisal methods to cater to the needs of the modern , technology oriented Organizational environment, inclusion of Management By Objectives (MBO) process and 360 degree
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performance appraisal are two of the relevant examples of Strategizing Performance Appraisal process. Human Resource Managers further use HR Strategies to maintain sound, systematic and harmonious industrial relations between labour and management so that peaceful and disciplined atmosphere prevails in the Organization , this has a very positive impact on the production and profitability of the Organization concerned. To achieve this following Strategies are evolveda.) b.) c.) d.) Establishing Scientific grievance redressal procedure Encouraging peaceful collective bargaining between disputing parties Evolving suggestion schemes for enhancing workers participation in management Observation, implementation and compliance with provisions of various labour laws especially Standing Order Act.

Microsoft Corporation, Mobil ,Unilever Ltd., Infosys India Ltd., IBM , WIPRO all have one common aspect ; they have Strategized their HR Functions and the change that has resulted into incorporation of new ideas , policies and practices has lead these Organization to become global leaders in world market. Thus with implementation of HR Strategies Organization can resolve problems of maintenance of consistent quality and high level of competition.HR Strategy integrates dynamic application of conceptual Human Resource principles that direct and align organizational objectives for a long term business success . An HR Strategy develops or evolves when a complex human resource situation leads an individual to think towards resolving it in most cost and time effective way, With the changing dynamics of the HR Function and it becoming more strategic in nature , there is a greater need of HR Strategy . Organizations that are performing and enduring market challenges successfully are those that have begun earlier towards identifying ,defining , designing , implementing and evaluating their strategies , this action has allocated them with a unique competitive advantage in the form of market leadership. Human Resource Strategies enable an organization to remain efficient in managing people in line with the changing environment business. DESIGNING HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES Human Resource professionals need to manage as well as forecast the change as human resource is a constantly changing field. For Human Resource managers it is important to be in tune with the changing environment and look for opportunities and problems so that new resources can be developed . It can be clearly understood that for a comprehensive strategic framework , the interaction of a firm with its environment is of utmost importance. Basic two steps in strategic designing are external environmental scan and internal capital and technological assessment. a.) External Environmental Scan The external environmental scan is the analysis of external forces that have an impact on the functioning of the Organization. If the industry is operating in the competitive environment , it needs to formulate plans according to challenges offered by the market. External environmental scan would cover analysis of
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competitors , industry , stakeholders, PEST (Political-economic-socio-technical) analysis, and situational analysis. i)Competitor / Industry Analysis In competitor / industry analysis the company comes to know about the operating competitive pressures , the human resource strategies used in competitor / industry analysis is that of knowing the intensity of rivalry, the more intense the rivalry , more intense the competition. The competition can be in the form of price slashing to gain market share or manufacturing innovative products . Hence human resource should adopt strategy of innovative work culture and cost minimization to face intense rivalry. ii)New entrants If company is a new entrant there are various barriers to enter the market if the competition is Perfect Competition, even if the firm is able to enter the market the profits will be nominal, in such a situation firm should be able to achieve economies of scale which can be achieved with limited investment, product differentiation and cost minimization . Moreover in such situations company can hire multi skilled employees as discussed earlier .To counteract threat of substitutes , bargaining power of suppliers and bargaining power of buyers , the human resource strategy should be to hire and develop creative employees who can create a difference through their services. iii)Stakeholder Analysis- It includes analysis of shareholders, employees, customers, owners, Government , unions etc. Each group has different and diversified profit expectations and hence the HR Strategy should be to satisfy minimal expectations of all stakeholders. iv)PEST Analysis- This step analyzes the political, social, economic and technical factors that influence Organizational strategies. The political & legal environments have an impact on the framing of the general strategic planning & this affects the overall HR Strategies. When companies operate globally, there is a need to know the global laws of different countries in which the company is operating at the same time hence it has become important to train managers on legal issues. v)Situational Analysis- This calls for a thorough scan of the various trade and business situations from which the company can generate new business opportunities as well as those situations from which the company should protect itself, situational analysis assists in formation of timely and appropriate strategies which further enhance company output and returns. b.) Internal Capital & Technological Assessment When performing internal capital and technological assessment a strategic framework for proper analysis of companys strengths and weaknesses is formed, these trends are evaluated in financial, technological and human resources aspects. Technology affects all different areas of Organizational structure , as new technologies are developed, the skills and work habits of the employees change and here human resource strategy can be used to upgrade the existing skills of current employees. Technological changes also demand for workers with more
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sophisticated skills and training. Due to rapid growth of Internet Technology the company website and portals are used to reach market segment and customer who otherwise would not know about the company due to wide geographical distances, hence one more important role of human resource strategy is to manage these technological changes and also prepare the workforce to manage these changes. Thus matching the external Threats and Opportunities with internal strengths & weaknesses an Organization formulates it Human Resource Strategies to be implemented , which would enable its further growth and stability. HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES IN CURRENT CORPORATE PANORAMA Human Resource Strategic planning is a sequential process of integrating alternative human resource practices with business processes to provide a competitive edge to the Organization. In the current corporate scenario it is equally important for organizations to focus on internal & external environment balance with Organizational development .This shows in every organizational activity. The functions of recruitment and retention are considered to be the most primary human resource functions but along with these functions all the other human resource concepts and functions up to retirement of the employee must be considered also. Some of the important human resource strategies for current market scene can be a) Human resource strategies relating to recruitment will be formed for recruiting through Company websites as well as social networking websites , these sites include Ryze, twitter , Orkut , Facebook , Yaari , Flixter etc .They have the advantage of reaching millions of talented potential employees within minutes plus these sites are immensely popular amongst urban and professional employee pools. Another major way of recruitment used as a strategy is Employee Referrals Accenture Ltd, uses recruitment strategy of employee referrals for 100% company recruitment. b) The concept of Technology blogs is used for many human resource functions like Grievance redressal, feedback , Performance Appraisal , Employee Engagement , Training and development and routine information exchange. c) Employee retention can be achieved through strategies such as Employee Orientation Programmes and activities that enhance workers participation and consideration, along with these provisions personality development , skill enhancement ,better standard of living , free education for employees children should be provided so also facilities of Insurance , amusement facilities, provident fund , gratuity , bonus , gain sharing plans , broad banding , stock options, flexi hours of work , transport facilities , employee suggestion schemes can be employed. Software companies lead the market in implementing such retention strategies. d) Job Rotation Strategy is very popular these days first of all it gives the Organization multi talented and diversely skilled employees as well as company enhances their skills
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e) f)

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further by conducting innovative T & D programmes like Outbound learning and team building , leadership training, attitude training , personal dynamics etc. Cross Functional teams are equally popular because of their excellent outputs on multiple fronts and their immense quality and cost orientation. JUMP Junior Upward Movement Programme JUMP Strategy is used by many companies to retain and utilize talented junior employees where they are given a chance to move one position upward by successfully completing the assigned task within a given timeframe.eg. Bajaj Allianz Insurance Ltd. STRIDE -Staff Talent Recognition & Integrated Development Exercise Under this strategy employees are given opportunity of longer career jumps such as double promotions as well as salary benefits and ESOP , it helps in retention , performance , motivation and quality . Flexi Retirement Plans Human resource strategies regarding retirement are also getting more and more flexible and employee oriented , salaries are designed and distributed according to new pension schemes , they include loyalty rewards , holiday packages , mutual benefits and career advancements.

CONCLUSION As seen above various types of strategies are used at various organizational areas, these strategies are outlined , evaluated and implemented from time to time to suit Organizational requirements and market demands. A change in Human resource strategies calls for a realignment of whole strategic framework and such a restructurization can make or break the Organizational Capabilities. The importance of Human Resource Strategies is underlined by the fact that , HR Strategies are solely responsible for smooth functioning , performance and survival of the Organization in current competitive corporate scene and they impart sustainable growth , competitive edge , flexible structure and functionality to maintain the Organization in Global vision. ReferencesArmstrong, Michael (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (10th ed.). London: Kogan Page Prahalad, C. and Hamel, G. (1990) 'The core competences of the organisation' Harvard Business Review Greer, Charles R.(2009), Strategic Human Resource Management A General Managerial Approach (2nd ed.).New Delhi: Pearson Education Vishwanathan, Rajeesh , Strategic Human Resource Management, Mumbai Himalaya Publishing House Perkins,Stephen J. & Shortland, Susan M,(2006),Strategic International H.R.M(2ed.),New Delhi, Kogan Page [Type text] Page 8

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