Scope of HRM

The scope of HRM is very wide, covering almost every aspect of managing people from the day they join an organisation to the day they leave it. The main areas covered are:

• Human resource planning — forecasting the organisation's future manpower needs (how many people, of what skill, at what time) and planning to meet them.
• Job analysis and job design — studying and describing what a job actually involves (job analysis) and deciding how the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job should be organised (job design).
• Recruitment and selection — searching for and attracting suitable candidates (recruitment), and choosing the most suitable among them (selection). (Covered in full depth in the dedicated Recruitment Methods and Employee Selection Process chapters that follow this one.)
• Training and development — improving employees' knowledge and skills for their present job, and preparing them for future responsibilities. (Covered in full depth in the dedicated Employee Training Method chapter that follows.)
• Performance appraisal — systematically evaluating how well an employee is performing against the standards expected of their job, as a basis for feedback, rewards, and further development.
• Compensation and benefits management — deciding fair and competitive wages, salaries, incentives, and benefits (such as provident fund, medical benefits, and leave) for the work performed.
• Industrial relations — maintaining healthy relations between management and employees (and their trade unions, where they exist), and handling grievances and disputes fairly. …