Strategic Human Resource Management

Aims

1. Understand the elements of a human resource strategy and the necessity for integration between the HR strategy and the strategies adopted by the organisation in general and by all other business functions.
2. Understand the tasks and processes involved in the creation of a human resource strategy, including capability evaluations, development of an HR vision, assessment of the strategic gap, and construction of plans designed to enable the gap to be reduced or eliminated.
3. Understand the relationships between human resource strategies and associated performance measures like profitability, competitive innovation, service quality, customer satisfaction, employee retention, and so forth.
4. Understand the construction of meaningful strategies and implementation programmes within each human resource management function, i.e. employee resourcing, employee reward, employee relations, and employee development.

Programme Content and Learning Objectives:

After completing the programme the student should be able to:

1. Perceive the necessity for alignment between an organisation’s corporate strategy and its human resource strategies, particularly in circumstances of growth, change, survival, or transformation.
2. Analyse the connections between human resource strategies and strategies created for specific business functions and roles.
3. Undertake the sequence of activities linked to the construction of a meaningful human resource strategy, including internal resource/capability evaluation, external assessment of the labour market, creation of a human resource vision for the future, assessment of the strategic gap, and development of credible action plans to enable the strategic gap to be overcome.
4. Evaluate the sign)ficance of human resource strategies for specific organisational scenarios, including global enterprises, manufacturing and service companies, not-forprofit entities, and devolved (business unit) structures.
5. Measure the effectiveness of a human resource strategy through the design and operation of appropriate methodologies linked to quantified, time-bounded objectives and goals.
6. Construct human resource plans which cater for future organisational needs through recruitment, retention, skill acquisition, employee development, and so forth.
7. Appreciate the significance of the external economic, political, sociological, cultural and commercial environment so far as human resource strategies are concerned.
8. Acknowledge the importance of ethics and values in the design of human resource strategies which adequately reflect organisational priorities and cultural preferences.
9. Create strategies for each component within human resource management, namely, employee resourcing, employee relations, employee reward, employee retention, employee involvement and participation, employee consultation, employee communications, and performance management.
10. Assess the human resource management implications of significant contextual developments, e.g. concerns about customer service as a source of competitive advantage, factors affecting employment trends in manufacturing industry, new thinking about organisational learning, and so forth.