Abstract
The essay reports on research about the shift of the role of human resources (HR) that is rooted in the transformation of personnel administration departments into the human resources departments that have become strategic partners of organization contributing to its performance and helping to achieve excellence. The essay also offers a brief overview of HR history, starting from the ancient China and ending up with the 1920s when the term ‘personnel administration’ appeared. The historical background is very resourceful in understanding the reasons for the above-mentioned transformation.
The essay highlights the change in functions that have current human resources management and introduces the idea of the main role of a company’s leader in the process of transformation of HR Departments to a strategic partner of the company. Moreover, the idea of the great power of HR professionals as strategic partners is supported by the evidence based on the performance of HR in the real companies.
The findings presented in the essay allow to conclude that organizations and companies need to transform their HR Departments to their strategic partner so as to achieve success and excellence in the performance.
Introduction: History of Human Resource Management
Nowadays, everyone is well aware of the fact that a respected Human Resources Organization can create a great and really strong company that will be able to survive any market challenges and changes (“History of Human Resources Management”).
Therefore, human resources management is the area that organizations management pays a great attention to. The term itself is relatively new and has been in use for not many years. Prior to that was another term “personnel administration”, that emerged as a defined field in the U.S. by the 1920s. It mostly covered the technical side of such processes as hiring, personnel evaluation, training for employees and others, being only an administrative component within the organization (“The Historical Background Of Human Resource Management”).
However, it doesn’t absolutely mean, that nothing similar existed earlier. Human resource (HR) history is the evolution of the first social communities and development of the first societies of the ancient times, as people management were already important in the ancient China (“History of Human Resources Management”).
Thus, it should be said that first human resources practice goes back to the ancient army, where it was crucially important to ensure an effective organization of jobs and tasks within the army. It is worth mentioning, that Machiavelli’s book “The Emperor” can be called a guidance on human resource management, as Machiavelli described not exactly the art of power, but management process in terms of people, different leadership styles, recognition, and reward. Of course, many of his recommendations are not applicable to the modern reality (“History of Human Resources Management”).
As for the modern history of HR, it begins with the British Industrial Revolution that gave a start to the development of new people management strategies. The reason is the fact that with new large factories appeared thousands of workers to implement industries' plan on quick and cheap production. Therefore, soon, a lot of entrepreneurs have realized that employees' satisfaction directly influence on their efficiency, which led to the introduction of so-called voluntary programs to enhance comfort and satisfaction of employees. Moreover, the government also contributed to the further development of HR, when it began to introduce some fundamental human rights and legislation related to the work safety (“History of Human Resources Management”).
Another landmark in the development of HR happened at the beginning of the 20th century, when most organizations launched the personnel management, or personnel administration, as it was mentioned above. Actually, everything was aimed at increasing of the employees' productivity. A great change came after the 2nd World War due to numerous training programs developed by armies for new soldiers. Alongside with the personnel management was established the trade unions that contributed to the improvement of the employees' role in the organization (“History of Human Resources Management”).
The HR Management itself was introduced in 70's of the 20th century. The main reasons for this were the rapid growth of multinational organizations and continuous globalization processes. At that time, Personnel Departments became Human Resources Departments, that have become of a great importance to effective leaders and managers of the international organizations, who simply has to understand employees with completely different cultural backgrounds (“History of Human Resources Management”).
Becoming a Strategic Partner
It goes without saying, that there was the evolution of the role of HR. The transition from “personnel management”, or “personnel administration” to “human resources" is a bright example of the acknowledgment of the employees' value to the organization. This shift can also be considered an attempt to fight some stereotypes related to the personnel departments and stating that they are slow and full of bureaucratic procedures. What is more, the above-mentioned transition was sort of call for human resources to become a strategic partner to the companies' managers and leaders with the view to contributing to the process of decision-making in the business area and help to overcome critical transitions, and ,obviously, enhance the value of the employees (May, n.d.).
Ulrich (1998) is more specific about how HR can help organizations to deliver its excellence. He says, that first of all, HR indeed should become a partner with top management of the company in implementing company’s strategy, helping them to move the company to the marketplace. Secondly, Ulrich (1998) points out that HR should be an expert in the organization and execution of work and should contribute to the administrative efficiency so as to reduce the costs and at the same time to maintain the quality. are reduced while quality is maintained. Third, HR should develop a strategy aimed at keeping the balance between being a sort of champion for employees, representing their concerns, and increasing their contribution. Finally, Ulrich (1998) underlines that HR should be “an agent of continuous transformation”, forming processes and culture as well so as to improve company's capacity for the organizational change (Ulrich, 1998).
Khan (2014) supports Ulrich's (1998) ideas about the above-mentioned roles of HR, emphasizing the fact that HR functions show not only evolution of HR Departments, but also their key role within the administration (Khan, 2014). Obviously, HR Department continues to provide administrative services, like personnel management departments did earlier. However, there is also a business-partner role of HR, that involves assistance to units in implementation of their business models. Of course, the most important one is the strategic role, as HR professionals are partners to the organization' decision making. For instance, if a company takes up a new project, it's the tasks of HR Department to analyze the required skills and human resources that can be available for the projects (Khan, 2014).
HR as a strategic partner will only contribute to the performance. Thus, there arises a question: Is HR able to transform to a partner itself alone? The answer is obvious: of course, not. It is the CEO and line managers who are striving to achieve company's goals and who has the primary responsibility to transform the role of HR. The reason is that line managers create economic value for shareholders, service value or product for customers and workplace value for the employees. Therefore, it indicates the necessity to incorporate HR into the real work of the company. In this case, CEO and line managers should “become HR champions themselves”(Ulrich, 1998).
Speaking about CEOs and their perception of HR, it is worth mentioning interviews that were conducted with CEOs, representing different areas and businesses of different sizes so as to understand what role HR plays in their organization. David Anderson, president and CEO of Worksafe BC and Fellow Certified Human Resource Professional (FCHRP), said that their HR professionals are key resources and that he often address their HR leader for advice: “I am looking for the HR leader’s advice, especially on internal hires where they will have good insight. For example, I can ask them, ’is this the right person for the right job at this time?”. In general, most interviews CEOs consider their HR specialists to be a very valued contributor to business (“HR Professionals: Your Strategic Partner”, 2011).
H&M, one of the fashion retailer giants, pays great attention to HR, stating on their website that their Human Resource Department is their strategic partner. H&M has standards for the recruitment processes and organization and implementation of training and, obviously, supports further growth and development of the company. Thus, H&M highlights the idea their primary task is to ensure and control that “the right people with the right skills in the right positions – and at the right time”. H&M pays attention to the comfort and employees' satisfaction, promoting the idea that H&M should be the place where very employee feel valued and has all opportunities to for further development. In other words, H&R has turned their Human Resources Department into a strategic partner, that will continue to contribute to the success of the company by further development and encouragement of H&M's employees so as to ensure they will be able to reach their potential (“Human Resources”, n.d.).
Obviously, that today one can hardly find a company that doesn’t realize the importance of effective HR management.
Conclusion
It goes without saying, that HR's role has changed, shifting HR from simple personnel administration to more complex process of human resources management. This shift was caused by numerous factors, like the growth of the international companies, globalization, etc. Functions of the HT Department has been enlarged, allowing HR contribute to organizational performance.
Frankly speaking, human resources management has never been more vital than now. The challenges and competitors that company's managers face demand organizational excellence to overcome them. To achieve this excellence an organization make certain efforts that illustrate the way the work is done in the company and how it treats its employees, which are fundamental issues of HR. Thus, everything can be summed up in the following sentence: to achieve organizational excellence must be the work of HR Department, that has already become a strategic partner of the organization (Ulrich, 1998).
References
History of Human Resources Management. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2016, from http://www.creativehrm.com/hr-management-history.html
Human Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2016, from https://career.hm.com/content/hmcareer/en_gb/workingathm/what-can-you-do-here/corporate/human-resources.html
HR Professionals: Your Strategic Partner. (2011, September 27). Retrieved February 15, 2016, from http://www.hrvoice.org/hr-professionals-your-strategic-partner/
Khan, M. (2014). HR as a Strategic Partner: A Critical Review. Macrothink Institute, 4(1), 1-8. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
May, K. E. (n.d.). Work in the 21st Century: The Changing Role of Human Resources. Retrieved February 15, 2016, from http://www.siop.org/tip/backissues/tipjan98/may.aspx
The Historical Background Of Human Resource Management. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2016, from http://www.whatishumanresource.com/the-historical-background-of-human-resource-management
Ulrich, D. (1998, January/February). A New Mandate for Human Resources. Retrieved February 15, 2016, from https://hbr.org/1998/01/a-new-mandate-for-human-resources
