How will future changes affect Human Resource Management Essay

Introduction Human Resource Management (HRM) has become more important to society in the past twenty years, going through many changes already. But how will it adapt in the future. What are the predictions for the future and how will HRM cope? The forthcoming document analyses the history of HRM, predicts what will happen in the future of employment and the changes that HRM will have to consider to be able to keep functioning. The History of HRM According to Winning (Online), Personnel Management has been around since the early 1920’s but mainly just to support employees and also keep them away from being part of unions as it wasn’t in the company’s interest to encourage unions then. It was the 1960’s where Personnel Management started to get recognised slightly more, at this time it was still being called Personnel Management. This changed in mid 1980’s when Personnel Management started to be seen as something that is actually important to a company. The image of Personnel Management got given a face-lift and was now referred to as Human Resource Management or HRM. The reasons for this being that the powers of the trade unions were decaying slowly. Staff functions also began to change with more technology being introduced, which introduced the start of HRM (Mullins, 1999) Personnel Management was recognised on a low level before the introduction of HRM, but still had a part to play in the negotiations of machinery in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The introduction of HRM brought around many questions about the similarities and differences between HRM and personnel management. The main differences are stated that Personnel Management is an employee centred activity including more opinions than facts, and that HRM is a resource centred activity with more planning, monitoring and control. Functions of HRM The HRM department varies from organisation to organisation. But there are some specific tasks that need to be completed by every organisation. Some organisations are just too small to have a separate HRM department, but they still need to complete these specific tasks by whichever means. All organisations have to recruit employees by going through the recruitment and selection process. Larger organisations will have specific guidelines by which they follow to complete this process; some smaller companies may not have these guidelines, but they still have to abide by the law. Any staff that are employed need to be trained in their job with compliance to any laws relating to the role. Larger companies will offer a development plan to run along side the training, but even smaller companies need to train staff. The HRM function in the company adheres to any legislation set by the Government. All organisations must have a motivation and reward scheme or the employee turnover will be high as everyone has needs, whether it is basic or social needs. Employee records need to be maintained in accordance with the data protection act. If things are not kept legal in the organisation then it will be in trouble. The HRM department/function sees that everything operates correctly. Specific HRM departments looks after the employees and their welfare in the organisation, taking care of wages and dealing with personal issues that may arise with particular employees. Although many line managers will carry out such functions in smaller organisations. Predictions for the future and how it will affect HRM HRM has come along way over the years. Since the 1980s there has been a significant but gradual change from Personnel management to HRM, being recognised as something that is becoming more important to organisations. With many people not joining unions and expecting more care from companies, it is something that had to happen to keep good relations. The key issues to discuss are the acceleration of technology and homeworkers having an affect on HRM in the future. Such issues such as outsourcing, planning and future attitudes also need to be considered. The future is always hard to predict but an issue that is becoming obvious is that technology will play a huge part of what is to come. The Internet and computer technology is moving very fast, one business year is seven Internet years according to Dr Patrick Dixon (online). With growth like this, the Internet will be a backbone for society before long. In 2000 62% of all businesses functioned with Internet access as table 1.1 shows in Appendix 1. This demonstrates how important the Internet has become to businesses and the way they operate. 50% of businesses in the UK have their own web site now as well, so only 12% of the businesses with Internet access don’t choose to have a web site. Having a web site catches another corner of the market and makes a company grow considerably, this would allow employees to work from home and brings lower costs for the businesses. E-Commerce is beginning to take off as table 1.3 shows in Appendix 1, 16% of businesses trade in this way over the Internet. E-Commerce is quite a new concept and the fact that 16% of businesses trade this way already is shocking. Since 1999, table 1.4 on Appendix 1 shows that the supply of ICT products has escalated by 150%. This is a very clear indication that technology is growing at a very high speed. Therefore the future of HRM will have to work around this and face the facts that with the lower costs for businesses and job losses HRM will have to seriously change the way operations are conducted. The question is where do they start making changes. Perhaps an Internet based solution could be planed and trailed, but part of HRM is face-to-face communication with employees, which is also something else that will need to be considered when bringing in any changes. Home and work integration is already starting with 0.7% of the population in 1996 working from home (Appendix 2a), this figure is practically unchanged from 1996 with the 2000 figure being the same. But in 2001 there are some significant findings, the figure not being vastly different from the above but, as the Office of National Statistics states (Appendix 2b), â€Å"Homeworking is most common among women, but among men it is the associate professional and technical occupations where homeworking is most common.† Office of National Statistics (Online) This means if technology keeps progressing like it is today, more and more people will work from home. As most men that are homeworking have professional and technical occupations, the growth of technology keeps the doors firmly opened for men to easily work from home (Appendix 2b). The impact on HRM is huge, it will have to keep up with this and find a way to be able to carry on functioning. But with homeworkers, if they are located all around the country, communication is hard. HRM may have to become like door-to-door salesman, having HRM representatives knocking on employees door for a review. Some organisations are already predicting this in the future and have taken certain measures to try and either delay or combat the problem. For example Google, ironically an Internet based company, keep their workers on-site and have brought in excellent benefits for employees, a few examples being a free gourmet lunch five days a week and a doctor, dentist and massage therapists on-site (Google job opportunities, 2004) In the past employers have been thinking of schemes to try and boost the company and its profits, but before long schemes will have to be brought in to retain and motivate employees. Employees are the way of the future whether they work from home or stay on-site. On-site workers will need an incentive to stay on-site and home workers will need support with the issues that arise from homeworking such as motivation, friendship and fulfilment. Has Google set the trend for the future? There are other issues that have to be considered such as outsourcing, planning, and future attitudes. Outsourcing, according to Deloitte Research (Appendix 3), by 2008 will have two million financial service jobs moved to India, as it is cheaper for companies to locate there. If other companies follow the trend that financial services has started, lower paid jobs may become reduced to a minimum in the UK leaving unemployment at an all time high. HRM will be cut in this case and only used in the higher paid jobs. Another alternative for HRM is being told by employers to still look after branches in India. How will this be achieved? Perhaps Video Conferencing or relocation for many workers is an option. If more people are having to think about highly paid jobs in the future, things such as friends and family may have to become very planned out for people. The society we live in may become false with everyone focused on getting a job leaving things in our lives, such as finding friends, being all about getting into a certain job. HRM employees will have to be very careful; they may find they are finding many new friends that are very interested in where they work. HRM will have to become a very tight profession to go into, everything being planned to the fine detail, even perhaps who your friends can or cannot be. Future Attitudes will pave out a lot of what the future will be like. Some jobs may become redundant if no one in the future wants to do it. What will happen when young workers cannot get onto the house ladder? Many people now work to support their family and cannot afford to leave a job, will workers of the future feel the same, if they have no house and no young family, what will attitudes be like? How will the HRM department stop young workers from leaving and moving from job to job? How will HRM try and get employees to have company loyalty. These are issues to be addressed for the future if social attitudes hit an all time low. The effect of these changes on traditional HRM functions If people will be working from home the whole recruitment and selection process will have to change. Perhaps a home visit interview will have to be deliberated by companies to find the correct candidates. How will training be issued and measured? Possibly by post, email or web site even. Will HRM representative have to go to employee’s houses to deliver a training package? HRM will have to investigate what would be the most effective measure. How can HRM deliver motivation to a self-motivated homeworker? There is no way possible that HRM can motivate homeworkers when they work at home on their own all day. A homeworker just have to motivate themselves, but HRM can think of social activities designed to get homeworkers out of the house and perhaps targets that they get rewards for. Personal issues and employee welfare will be the hardest thing to monitor. If the HRM department are not getting to know employees through the work place, they do not know what this person is like which makes it harder to get to know them let alone assess their needs. Conclusion HRM will face many problems of how they are going to plan and organise people in the company, facing difficulties of how and where people are working and monitoring this. As HRM is also responsible for employee well-being, but without being in a specific work place more issues of motivation, friendship, respect and fulfilment will have to be addressed and dealt with in a specific manner. If the predictions come true HRM will be under a lot of stress to completely change over the next few years. The operations they undertake from day to day will have to be managed in such a way it incorporates every eventuality.