Human Resource Management

Strategic Human Resource Management

Strategic Human Resource Management is one of the essential component to managing people. In this article, we will explain what Strategic HR Management is & how it impacts to our work in HR,

Strategic Human Resource Management is a combination of Strategy and Human Resource Management. HRM is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an integrated array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques.

This is a complex and descriptive definition. It states that Human Resource Management involves the use of different techniques. These include:

·        Personnel techniques,

·        Structural techniques,

·        Cultural techniques, 

As per the introduction, all of this achieving competitive advantage. A competitive advantage is the ability to distinguish an organization from its competitors. The second part of the definition is about "strategic deployment".

Strategic Human Resource Management became increasingly popular in the 2000s. This was triggered by Dave Ulrich’s challenge for the HR profession. HR had become “often ineffective, incompetent, and costly; in a phrase, it is value sapping”.

According to Ulrich, HR needed to become value adding – and thus more strategic. This means that HR needed to become a better fit with the business strategy in order to provide value.

Strategic HRM is the result of this call to action. It aims to align the focus of HRM with the focus of the business. As such, strategic HRM is all about achieving business objectives through smarter Human Resource Management.

References.

Boxall,P. and Purcell,J.(2006). Strategy and Human Resource Managment, (3rd Edition) London:palgrave.

https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/the-evolution-of-hr-1984-to-2014-and-beyond-part-two