Evolution of Human Resource Functions

During the early stages of the industrial revolution, employees who worked in factories had to undergo extremely harsh conditions where they were underpaid and had to work for long hours under very poor conditions of hygiene. These conditions outraged the employees who worked in such factories and they initiated labour riots. As a result of these riots, the government intervened to provide basic protection for labours or employees of such factories. This was done through the introduction of statutory regulations and all factory owners were required to comply with these statutory regulations. As a result, the factory owners were forced to set up a department to look into employee wages, employee welfare and to address other issues concerning labour. This led to the development of Personnel Management (Rotich, 2015).

The Personnel Management Approach

The usage of Personnel Management Approach was prominent throughout the early 20th century even though it remained administrative in nature. The Personnel Management Approach mainly concerned itself with,

• Maintaining employee record.
• Aligning compliance with stated policies.
• Implementing recruitment, training and wage administrative functions.
• Bringing welfare turned measures such as offering medical care and vaccinations.
• Trying to uplift productivity through wage increment and training, and implementation of standards.
• Deal with trade unions, trying to solve labour disputes through collective bargaining and other labour relations.
• Conducting performance appraisals.

The personnel management methods try to convince workers of business interests, and satisfy the interests of workers management, but also raise the awareness of corporate social responsibility (Tubey et al, 2015).

The Traditional Human Resource Approach 

The traditional methods of human resources developed in the late twentieth century with the development and introduction of new theories. In the HR approach, the organization's staff is seen as a valuable resource. Not like the Personnel Management Approach, the Traditional Human Resource Approach was not just a staff function but it was more and more involved with business processes. The following could be identified as the main dissimilarities between the Personnel Management Approach and the Traditional Human Resource Approach.

• Motivation was given to employees through free holidays, creating an active and social group within the workforce besides financial incentives.
• Training and Development was not only focused on providing job-related skills but also focused on changing attitudes and development of basic skills
• Wages and salary management have become more complicated with the introduction of performance-based payment plans (Tubey et al, 2015).

The Strategic Human Resource Approach

Strategic human resource approach supports personal goals and business goals, and rather than urge rules or dictate terms, acts as a facilitator and promotes a participative or friendly approach. The following could be identified as the main dissimilarities between the Traditional Human Resource Approach and the Strategic Human Resource Approach.

• Increased trust in short-term performance-based contracts rather than long-term employment.
• Direct association of compensation to the profitability of the enterprise and the employee's involvement towards such profitability.
• The new dimensions of training and development play a major role by encouraging and promoting innovation and creativity (Tubey et al, 2015).

Personnel Management vs Human Resource Management

Personnel Management can be considered as a tool and it concerns organizational rules and regulations and also ongoing issues. Whereas, Human Resource Management first looks into the long-lasting future and analyzes Human Resource needs. Further, Human Resource Management uses an integrated approach to achieve those needs with the congruence of corporate objectives (Tubey et al, 2015).

Reference:

Tubey, R., Rotich, K.J. and Kurgat, A. (2015).  History, Evolution and Development of Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Perspective. European Journal of Business and Management,7(9).

Rotich, K.J. (2015).  History, Evolution and Development Of Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Perspective. Global Journal of Human Resource Management,3(3).