Soft and Hard Hr

1. (A) Soft HR treats employees as the most important resource in the business and a source of competitive advantage Employees are treated as individuals and their needs are planned accordingly whereas hard HR treats employees simply as a resource of the business like machinery and buildings. • Soft HR concentrates on the needs of employees; their roles, rewards, motivation where as hard HR identifies workforce needs of the business and recruits and manages accordingly. • Soft HR Strategic focus on longer-term workforce planning whereas hard HR Short-term changes in employee numbers that is recruitment and redundancy. • Soft HR encourages strong and regular two-way communication whereas hard HR has minimal communication, from the top down • Soft HR has competitive pay structure, with suitable performance-related rewards e.g. profit share, share options whereas hard HR Pays enough to recruit and retain enough staff e.g. minimum wage • Soft HR Employees are empowered and encouraged to seek delegation and take responsibility whereas hard HR has little empowerment or delegation • Soft HR appraisal systems focuses on identifying, addressing, training and other employee development needs whereas hard HR appraisal systems focuses on making judgements good and bad about staff • Soft HR has flatter organisational structures whereas hard HR has taller organization structure • Soft HR Suits democratic leadership style whereas hard HR Suits autocratic leadership style. (B), Hard HR planning ensures that there are enough employees with the right type of skills to meet the business 's current demands, using numbers and definitive skills. Soft HR planning focuses on employee attitudes and what personalities make the best fit for the company.

The “hard HR” approach to HR might be expected to result in a more cost-effective workforce where decision-making is quicker and focused on senior managers. However, such an approach pays