Readers’ Forum

Strategic Human Resource Management
The aim of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is to have a balance between the interest of stakeholders, workers in general, owners and management of the business. Thus, an HR manager should plan the HR strategies keeping people in mind and considering the aspirations or desires of all the members, who are directly or indirectly related to the organization.
SHRM is the practice of attracting, developing, rewarding, and retaining staffs for the benefit of both the employees as individuals and the business as a whole. It is also involves a future-oriented process of developing and implementing HR programs that address and solve business problems and directly contribute to major long-term business objectives.
Benefits of SHRM – Strategic HRM is based on HRM principles incorporating the concept of strategy. So if HRM is a coherent approach to the management of people, strategic HRM now implies that is done on a planned way which integrates organisational goals with policies and action sequences and the benefits of SHRM are: (i) Identifying and analysing external opportunities and threats that may be crucial to the business’s success. (ii) Provides a clear business strategy and vision for the future. (i) To supply competitive intelligence that may be useful in the strategic planning process. (iii) To recruit, retain and motivate people. (vi) To develop and retain of highly competent people (v) To ensure that people’s development issues are addressed systematically. (vii) To supply information regarding the company’s internal strengths and weaknesses. (viii) To meet the expectations of the customers effectively. (ix) To ensure high productivity. (x) To ensure business surplus thorough competency.
Importance of Strategic HRM – Strategic planning presents great challenges and opportunities for HR professionals. Nearly all HR leaders in the largest global companies are involved in strategic decision making and contribute on the business’s strategy team, and a majority of HR professionals report that strategic planning is part of their function. In contrast, HR professionals in many medium and small businesses are not often involved in organizational or functional strategic planning. Consequently, to achieve long-term strategic HR objectives and to be a key player in the business’s strategic planning process.
Key features of SHRM are: (a) There is a clear linkage between HR policy and practices and overall organizational strategic aims and the organizational environment (b) There is some organizing schema linking individual HR interventions so that they are mutually supportive (c) Much of the responsibility for the management of human resources is devolved down the line.
Approaches of the SHRM: (I) attempts to link Human Resource activities with competency based performance measures (ii) attempts to link Human Resource activities with business surpluses or profit.
Above approaches indicate two factors in an organisational setting. The first one is the human factor, their performance and competency and the latter is the business surplus. An approach of people concern is based on the belief that human resources are uniquely important in sustained business success. An organization gains competitive advantage by using its people effectively, drawing on their expertise and ingenuity to meet clearly defined objectives. Integration of the business surplus to the human competency and performance required adequate strategies. Here the role of strategy comes into picture.
The way in which people are look after, motivated and deployed, and the availability of skills and knowledge that will outline the business strategy. The strategic orientation of the business then requires the effective orientation of human resource to competency and performance excellence.

Taslim Ahammad
 Assistant Professor,
Bangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman Science and Technology University,
Gopalganj, Bangladesh