challenges faced bu hr professionals
CHALLENGES FACED BY HR PROFESSIONALS IN THE NEW MILENNIUM
The threats facing managements have been changing with time, and what was a fine solution yesterday may no longer be valid tomorrow! We all know that the world is moving at an extremely fast pace, and that the rate of change is continuing to accelerate, as Alvin Toffler stated so aptly many years ago in "Future Shock". It can now be said that we have moved to the era of not just change, but an accelerated rate of change. This demands that corrective steps too need to be taken fast without a long drawn wait and see attitude. As compared to the past, the twenty-first century corporations are getting to be globally market driven ones with "invest anywhere & share everywhere" concept. The impact of e-commerce with rapidly changing information technology (IT) will similarly transform conventional business structures dramatically - even smaller organisations will not be immune. These will demand a totally different type of HR strategy and intervention.
Recently I attended and participated in a HR Conclave at the Management Development Institute at Gurgaon, when two bright young HR students, Archana Shekhar & Shivalee Puri, presented an excellent White Paper on "Aligning HR with Strategy". Despite their limited practical experience, they discussed the theoretical and conceptual issues in considerable detail. Much of it has relevance to the understanding of the current realities facing many Indian organisations and the HR professionals in particular, in order to be able to design and develop appropriate winning HR strategies best suited to meet the changing challenges.
Amongst other issues, the paper highlighted the four stages of growth and evolution process of the Human Resource management (HRM) function as follows:
- The Reactive HRM function: where the main purpose is seen as maintenance of industrial harmony, and avoiding disruption through strikes etc. and exists generally where organisations are
The threats facing managements have been changing with time, and what was a fine solution yesterday may no longer be valid tomorrow! We all know that the world is moving at an extremely fast pace, and that the rate of change is continuing to accelerate, as Alvin Toffler stated so aptly many years ago in "Future Shock". It can now be said that we have moved to the era of not just change, but an accelerated rate of change. This demands that corrective steps too need to be taken fast without a long drawn wait and see attitude. As compared to the past, the twenty-first century corporations are getting to be globally market driven ones with "invest anywhere & share everywhere" concept. The impact of e-commerce with rapidly changing information technology (IT) will similarly transform conventional business structures dramatically - even smaller organisations will not be immune. These will demand a totally different type of HR strategy and intervention.
Recently I attended and participated in a HR Conclave at the Management Development Institute at Gurgaon, when two bright young HR students, Archana Shekhar & Shivalee Puri, presented an excellent White Paper on "Aligning HR with Strategy". Despite their limited practical experience, they discussed the theoretical and conceptual issues in considerable detail. Much of it has relevance to the understanding of the current realities facing many Indian organisations and the HR professionals in particular, in order to be able to design and develop appropriate winning HR strategies best suited to meet the changing challenges.
Amongst other issues, the paper highlighted the four stages of growth and evolution process of the Human Resource management (HRM) function as follows:
- The Reactive HRM function: where the main purpose is seen as maintenance of industrial harmony, and avoiding disruption through strikes etc. and exists generally where organisations are