Personnel Management [ Functions, Importance, Objectives & Definitions ]

Personnel Management focuses on the administrative tasks of the organization along with the employee’s welfare and labour relations management. It is often considered as a sub-category of Human Resource Management. Few consider it to be the same as HRM but it is different from it.

Personnel Management Definition by Different Authors

Edwin Flippo

Personnel Management is concerned with procurement, development, compensation, integration and maintenance of personnel of organization for the purpose of contributing towards the accomplishments of the organizational objectives.

Paul Pigore & Charles Myres

Personnel Management is the line responsibility & staff functions, assisting managers in providing advice, counsel, service and various types of controls to secure uniform administrations of personnel policies designed to achieve an organization’s objective.

Prof. Michael Jueins

Personnel Management is that field of management which has to do with planning, organizing and controlling various operative functions of procuring, developing, maintaining and utilizing a labour force in such a way that:

• Objectives of the company are attained economically and effectively.
• Objectives of all levels of personnel are served to the highest possible degree.
• Objectives of the community are duly considered and served Anything HR Solutions

Martinez et. al, 1993:215

The efficient use of the material resources of any organization depends on how well it is utilized by its Personnel or Manpower.

Sison,1991:30

Personnel Management is concerned with promoting and enhancing the development of work effectiveness and advancement of the human resources in the organization through proper planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling of activities related to procurement, development, motivation, and compensation of employees to achieve the goals of the enterprise.

H.N. North Scott

Personnel management is an extension of general management that of promoting and stimulating every employee to make the fullest contribution to the purpose of the business.

Terry R George

Personnel management is concerned with the obtaining and maintaining of a satisfactory and satisfied workforce.

Spates,194 4:9

Code of the ways of organization and treating individual at work so that they will each get the greatest possible realization of their intrinsic abilities, thus attaining maximum efficiency for themselves and their group, and thereby giving to the enterprise of which they are a part its determining competitive advantage and its optimum result.

Webster, 1687

The phase of management concerned with the engagement and effective utilization of manpower to obtain optimum efficiency of human resources management functions.

Paul G. Hastings

Personnel Management is that aspect of management having as its goal the effective utilization of the labour resources of an organization.

Functions and Objectives of Personnel Management

• Conduct job analysis
• Recruitment and Selection of employees
• Performance appraisal systems of employees
• Handling employee relations at the workplace
• Employee Retention
• To align the individual’s goals with the organization’s goals and objectives
• To assure organizational compliance with governmental laws
• Provision of the proper work environment and to ensure job satisfaction
• To analyze Job security, avenues for promotion and internal and external compensation
• To achieve a social objective like creating more employment opportunities, producing goods at the cheap rates and allocation of resources in useful ways
• The orientation of new employees in an organization
• To motivate the employees to do best on jobs
• To communicate with all employees effectively
• Role of Personnel Management is to play a role as Mediator between employees and management
• To assist the top management in developing the strategic goals and objectives

Importance of Personnel Management

Employees are considered as an important asset of an organization, so the organization tries its best to retain them. In this modern era, many companies hire personnel managers as an essential part of their organization. Personnel management deals with transactional and administrative aspects of HR management. To understand the importance of Personnel Management considers the following:

Motivation

Personnel managers motivate employees to their job. They tried to motivate those employees who are not doing their job in a way as it should be doing. They carefully listen to their problems and solve their queries and issues. On the other hand, personnel managers motivate employees by offering them incentives, bonuses, perks, promotions, etc.

Competitive

Personnel managers train employees to stay up-to-date on their jobs because things are changing rapidly in this fast-paced era. So with the changing external environment organizations have to adopt a change to survive in the industry.

Hence, personnel managers conduct training sessions and seminars to train and to develop their employees. So that they can easily perform their jobs.

Competent Workforce

Personnel manager develops a competent workforce who can work with full devotion to achieve the mission and vision of the organization. He evaluates the performance of employees and finds out the best workers to create a competent workforce. The competent workforce also plays an important role to gain competitive advantage.

Managing People

Personnel managers manage not only the organized and disorganized workers in the organization, but individually manage the people in the organization. It manages all of the persons and departments like clerical staff, administration, top management, line managers, etc.

Human Relations

Personnel department concerned with the human relations in the organization. It stabilizes human relations through 7 Cs communication, supervision and leadership

What Happens In the Absence of Personnel Management

• The turnover rate will be high
• Wrong hiring process
• Conflicts will be increased
• Wrong compensation and benefits plans
• Outdated structure
• Unfair labour practices
• Incompetent workforce
• Demotivated employees
• Unable to gain competitive advantage
• Wrong performance appraisals systems
• Organization’s goals and objectives couldn’t be achieved