Evolution Of Human Resource Management - 2149 Words

According to Merriam-Webster, the term human resources started in the 1960s and is defined as â€Å"a department within an organization that deals with the people who work for that organization† (Human Resources, n.d., p. 1). In this assignment I will discuss the evolution of human resource management, workplace trends affecting human resources, strategic positioning of HR, the major objectives of human resource planning, key tools HR managers utilize to improve performance, and the challenges for creating buy-in for support of a strategic human resource function. When companies began using Human Resource departments (called personnel) before the second World War, they served an administrative function. These departments were responsible†¦show more content†¦The next transformation to occur with Human Resource departments in the late 1980s was coined as the â€Å"New† HR (Groysberg et al., 2006, p. 2). This new evolution brought HR into a strategic role within the company. The department acted like a business within a business – dealing with â€Å"leadership and talent development, promotion of organizational learning, succession planning, and dissemination of knowledge† (Groysberg et al., 2006, p. 2). This new strategic HR strived to deliver actions that could help execute the company’s goals, motivate employees to align with company strategy, and directly help implement goals. I believe there is a significant difference between the two types of HR. When HR is serving an administrative function, it is dealing with tasks that could potentially be outsourced or done by computer programs. The strategic role for HR enables capable leadership, builds organizational culture, increases productivity, fosters innovation, and builds customer loyalty (Roberts Hirsch, 2005). According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the current trends affecting HR today are: a more competitive global business landscape, impacts of information and communication technologies, complex legal environments and ever-changing laws, an aging workforce and pending retirement of the Baby Boomer generation, a lack of skilled workers, economic instability,