The Role of HRM in Strategic Management

Every day, scores of professionals contribute their intellectual wealth to improving companies' performance, paying attention to strategy management and human resources management, or HRM. They do so quietly and diligently, avoiding the hoopla or hype that often surrounds corporate earnings announcements. Professionals who think about HRM and strategic management issues hail from various departments, including marketing, finance and human resources.

HRM

In the modern era, HRM activities often present an operating puzzle for companies. The question here is how to grow the firm by hiring and training competent personnel. HRM consists of techniques and methodologies a company relies on to strengthen the effectiveness of its employees and increase its intellectual capital along the way. Corporate leadership ensures that HRM policies do not deprive personnel of important tools, such as technology, training and a workplace conducive to productivity. In essence, senior executives' resolutions in HRM initiatives are to stick with the fundamentals of quality and service and to improve productivity and profitability by coaching each employee, regardless of rank and work stream.

Relevance

HRM helps a business establish an occupational environment in which personnel feel comfortable to work, giving them a sense of achievement once they reach corporate goals. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of HRM is the fact that it helps the firm prevent headline risk. By working diligently and abiding by corporate policies and regulatory guidelines, rank-and-file indeed spare companies the doldrums often associated with a bad reputation. Headline risk is the possibility that a news story will negatively affect a stock's price and batter a company's image in the marketplace.

Strategic Management

Strategic management gives a company the tools necessary to begin an organized, focused plan toward financial success. To be effective, this blueprint must gradually gain strength and coherence, seeking the feedback of department heads and business-unit chiefs. Strategic management refers to the way a firm fulfills its commercial goals and dukes it out with the competition. It involves plans and techniques used in marketing, finance and regulatory compliance, to name a few processes.

Importance

Corporate leadership engages in strategic management to ease investors' minds. When corporate financiers raise questions about the firm's long-term prognosis, executives can point to their strategic blueprint to explain what they're doing and how they intend to steer the company to its economic pinnacle. Reassuring investors is important in the long term, as a coincidence of interests with external financiers is always good for a business.

Role

HRM is central to a firm's strategic management policies. For starters, the business cannot implement its operating strategy, however astute, without the full cooperation of its personnel. Consequently, corporate leadership makes sure to get employees' buy-in before rolling out operating tactics. HRM also enables organizations to take a peek at what rivals do and what personnel management strategies they use to trump others. Another HRM advantage is that it allows a firm to ensure regulatory compliance in its operations, which is generally a money saver and reputation builder.

References

• The Free Dictionary by Farlex: Human Resources Management
• California State University, Sacramento: Human Resources Management
• U21Global: Strategic Management
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011 Edition: Human Resources, Training and Labor Relations Managers and Specialists
• PRTM; Operational Strategy: Bold Moves, Breakout Performance; Tom Godward, et al.
• "Operations Management, 5th Edition"; Roberta Russell, et al.; 2006