Recent Trends in IHRM
Recent Trends in IHRM
Recent Trends in IHRM
Demographic
The aging of the workforce, the need for elder care, changing family patterns, and high
rates of immigration are all demographic trends that impact organizations and their\
workforces.
Economics
Economic trends include health care and pension costs, demand for high-skilled
workers, and changes in corporate governance resulting from scandals.
Employment
Lower HR staff to employee ratios, demand for flexible work schedules, linking pay
and performance, employee demand for customized employment relationships, and the
backlash against managed care all impact the key employment trends.
International
International trends are formed by exporting U.S. jobs, security concerns, the expanding global
marketplace, ethnic and regional differences, anti-Americanism, and a growing economic
interdependence among the countries of the world.
Politics
The political trends in the U.S. reflect the issues that are most important in
workplaces and households across the nation. These include a focus ondomestic
security, health care reform, increased political partisanship, 2004elections, and a weakening
of affirmative action policies.
Society
The changing definition of a family, a 24/7 work culture, and broadening
diversity are some of the components that make the list of societal trends.
HR Trends
Current trends in the HR industry include the growing complexity of legal compliance,
use of technology to perform transactional HR functions, demonstrating HR’s return
on investment, and the emphasis on HR competencies for practitioners
Some of the recent trends that are being observed are as follows:
The recent quality management standards ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 of 2000 focus more
on people centric organizations. Organizations now need to prepare themselves in order
to address people centered issues with commitment from the top management, with
renewed thrust on HR issues, more particularly on training.
Charles Handy also advocated future organizational models like Shamrock, Federal
and Triple I. Such organizational models also refocus on people centric issues and call
for redefining the future role of HR professionals.
With the increase of global job mobility, recruiting competent people is also increasingly
becoming difficult, especially in India. Therefore by creating an enabling culture,
organizations are also required to work out a retention strategy for the existing skilled
manpower.
NEW TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL HRM
Selection of employees requires careful evaluation of the personal characteristics of the
candidate and his/her spouse.
To balance the pros and cons of home country and host country evaluations,
performance evaluations should combine the two sources of appraisal information.
Compensation systems should support the overall strategic intent of the organization but
should be customized for local conditions.
Lay off workers in a smooth way explaining facts to unions, workers and other
affected groups e.g. IBM , Kodak, Xerox, etc.
HR Managers today are focusing attention on the following-
b) Motivation- Create conditions in which people are willing to work with zeal,
initiative and enthusiasm; make people feel like winners.
Due to the new trends in HR, in a nutshell the HR manager should treat people
as resources, reward them equitably, and integrate their aspirations with
corporate goals through suitable HR policies.
CHANGES IN HRM : Some of the significant changes that are likely
to take place in the human resource management are as follows:
Technological developments:
Organizational development:
Development planning:
(i) Personnel managers of future will have to stress upon overall development of
human resources in all respects.
(ii) The scope of human resource management will be extended to cover career
planning and development, organization development, social justice etc.
(iii) Enlightened trade unions will become an active participant in the organization
and management of industry.
(iv) The personnel manager will be required to act as a change agent through
greater involvement in ‘environment and scanning and development planning.
They will have to devote more time to promote changes than to maintain the
status quo.
(v) The personnel function will become more cost-conscious and profit oriented.
Instead of merely administering personnel activities, the personnel department
will have to search out opportunities for profit improvement and growth.
(vi) Greater authority and responsibilities will be delegated to personnel managers
particularly in the field of employee welfare services.
(vii) Personnel managers will have to continuously retrain themselves to avoid
obsolescence of their knowledge and skills.
STRATEGIES IN IHRM
Strategy tells everybody who you are and what you
intend to accomplish.
Michael Porter, an expert on the topic, said strategy is a
defining position that delivers competitive advantage.
a) It speaks to what we will do and also admits to what we will not do.
b) It is cognizant of the world outside, including the structure of the industry, customer
needs and competitive forces.
c) It is cognizant of current strengths, without allowing the familiar to limit possibilities.
d) It comes from hard and comparative questions about whether those strengths do, in
fact, distinguish people and groups in the organization.
e) It is understandable beyond the "in" group.
f) It is measurable.
g) It is difficult to copy or supplant.
h) It enables decision making about what to do now and next.
i) It inspires.