Importance Of Strategic Human Resource Management

INTRODUCTION

The role played by an employee in the success of a company cannot be over emphasised. It is therefore very important for any organisation to take care of and keep their employees for the organisation to achieve its set goals. This can only be achieved through good human resource management. Byars and Rue (2006) define Human Resource Management as “a system of activities and strategies that focus on successfully managing employees at all levels of an organisation to achieve organisational goals.” They conclude that employees are the human resources and the most valuable asset. They are of the opinion that to succeed an organisation has to focus mostly on the productivity of the employee.

The way the human resource is managed has changed drastically in the past few decades with emphasis on a more strategic approach that calls upon employees to be more of partners in the success of an organisation as opposed to the traditional view where they are the ‘managed’. The employee is mostly considered as a strategic partner and a key stakeholder in an organisation. Hence the emergence of Strategic Human Resource Management. Thompson et al (2006), concluded that strategic human resource management starts with strategic planning with long-term goal setting for an industry or organisation to succeed. According to them an action plan of how to implement these has to be brought up based on the position of the company and the main goal would be to achieve a competitive