Assignment on the topic

“Challenges to
HRM”
Submitted to: Submitted by:

Prof. Shyam Lal Saurav Thakur

Kaushal 4096
Human Recourse Management:
Human: refers to the skilled workforce in an
organization.
Resource: refers to limited availability or scarce.
Management: refers how to optimize and make best use
of such limited or scarce resource so as to meet the
organization goals and objectives.

Human Resource Management is the process of

recruiting, selecting, inducting employees, providing
orientation, imparting training and development,
appraising the performance of employees, deciding
compensation and providing benefits, motivating
employees, maintaining proper relations with employees
and their trade unions, ensuring employees safety.
 It involves management functions like planning,
organizing, directing and controlling.
 It involves procurement, development, maintenance
of human resource.
 It helps to achieve individual, organizational and
social objectives
 Human Resource Management is a multidisciplinary
subject. It includes the study of management,
psychology, communication, economics and sociology.
 It involves team spirit and team work.
 It is a continuous process.

Human resource management is therefore focused on a

number of major areas, including:
 Recruiting and staffing
 Compensation and benefits
 Training and learning
 Labor and employee relations
 Organization development

Challenges to HRM:
1) Environmental Challenges
2) Organizational Challenges
3) Individual Challenges
 Environmental Challenges: The environmental
challenges are related to the external forces that exist in
the outside environment of an organization & can
influence the performance of the management of the
organization. These external forces are almost out of
control of the management of the organization.
Following are the list of human resource
management challenges that considered as the
environmental challenges:
1) Rapid Change
 2) Work Force Diversity
3) Globalization
4) Legislation
5) Technology
6) Job & Family Roles
7) Lack of Skills

1) Rapid Change: The world is changing at a faster rate

because change is constant from several centuries. So
the management of the organizations should be quickly
adaptive to the changing requirement of the
environment otherwise they become obsolete from the
market.
2) Work Force Diversity: The changing environment
provides both the opportunities & threats to the human
resource management of the organization. The HR
manager should adopt such policies that can make
possible the diverse work force of employees.
3) Globalization: One of the serious issue that today’s
organizations are facing is the issue of globalization.
The world is converting into global business and severe
competition is started between domestic & foreign
companies.
4) Legislation: It is the old environmental challenge that
is faced by organization since many decades. There are
certain labor laws that are declared by the government
for the benefits of the working employees. Some of
these laws are disadvantageous to the interests of the
 organizations so it is a one of the big challenges for the
HRM to implement all those labor laws within the
organizations.
5) Technology: The technology is also growing with great
speed especially in the field of computer &
telecommunication. New methods are emerging that
quickly dominates the older ones & makes them
obsolete. So there comes a burden on the HR
department to constantly update the skills & expertise.
6) Job & Family Roles: In recent years, dual-career
families are increasing in which both the wife &
husband work. This creates a serious burden on the
women that they have to give time to their families
also. So the challenges for the HRM increases with this
particular issue & special favorable working policies
are needed to be employed in all organizations.
7) Lack of Skills: The skills required in the employment
of service sector is advancing but the graduates of the
technical colleges & universities are groomed according
to the latest requirements. Therefore most of the
employees lack the standard required skills to perform
their duties and it becomes a big challenge for HRM to
properly train these new & old employees to become an
efficient & effective workers.

 Organizational Challenges: The organizational

challenges for the HRM are related to the factors that
 are located inside the organization. Although these
challenges are evolved as a byproduct of the
environmental challenges but these can be control by
the management of the organization to much extent.
The competitive position of the organization can be
influenced by the policies of HR in the following ways:
1) Controlling Costs
2) Improving Quality
3) Developing Distinctive Capabilities
4) Restructuring
1) Controlling Costs: An organization can avail the
competitive position by lowering its cost &
strengthening its cash flow. The effective employees
should be selected that keep with the organization for a
longer duration & proper training should also be
provided to these employees. The HR department
should also restore the work of the employees along
with the improvement in the health & safety issue of
working environment. All of these efforts would limit
the cost of labor.
2) Improving Quality: The quality improvement can lead
an organization towards competitive advantage. The
total quality management programs are employed that
improves all the processes within the organization
which would ultimately result in the improvement of
the final product or service.
3) Developing Distinctive Capabilities: Another method
of gaining competitive advantage is to employ the
people that have distinct capabilities to develop extra
ordinary competence in specific area.
4) Restructuring: Another technique is the restructuring
of the organization in which the methods of performing
different functions are altered positively. In case of HR
department, the majority of functions are still
performed within the organization.
In some organizations the major functions of HR
department are now transferred to the other parties in
the shape of outsourcing. But in most of the
organizations the HR manager performs all the relevant
functions of HRM.

 Individual Challenges: The decisions related to

the specific individual employees are included in the
individual challenges for the HRM. The organizational
issues are also affected by the fact that how employees
are treated within the organizations. The problems
related to the individual level are as follow:
1) Productivity
2) Empowerment
3) Brain drain
4) Ethics & social responsibility
5) Job insecurity
6) Matching people & organization
1) Productivity: Productivity is defined as the measure of
the value that an employee can add to the final product
or service of the organization. The increased output per
employee is reflected as increased productivity.
2) Empowerment: In the modern days many
organizations make changes in such a way that their
individual employees exert more control on their work
as compared to their superiors. This individual control
of employees is called empowerment which helps the
employees to work with enthusiasm, commitment &
learn new skills because they are more make normal
decisions about their work by themselves & hence
enjoy their work.
3) Brain Drain: One of the challenges for HRM is the
detachment of the key potential employees from the
organization which link with the competitors for higher
remunerations etc. This brain drainage is becoming
serious issue in the high-Tec companies.
4) Ethics & Social Responsibility: Under this challenge,
the organizations make an effort to benefit some portion
of the society. This is now considered to the social
responsibility of the organization to show favorable
behavior towards the society. The ethics serves as the
basic principle for the socially behavior of the
organizations.
5) Job Insecurity: In the recent years, restructuring &
downsizing develops the sense of insecurity of job
within the employees of the organizations. Now many
 employees only desire to get a steady job rather than a
job with promotional future. These things create a fear
among employees about the insecurity of their jobs
which would hinder their effective performance.
6) Matching People & Organizations: It has been
proved from the research that the HR department
contributes to the profitability of the organization when
it makes such policies of employee selection in which
those employees are selected & retained that best suits
the culture of the organization & its objectives.