HRM concept, HR planning, recruitment and selection
HRM is the strategic management of people to meet organisational goals. Staffing flows from job analysis and HR planning to recruitment, selection, placement and induction.
HRM perspectives and models
| Model | Author | Key idea |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel management to HRM | General shift | From administrative, reactive personnel work to strategic, proactive people management |
| Matching (Michigan) model | Fombrun, Tichy and Devanna (1984) | HR cycle of selection, appraisal, rewards and development, aligned with strategy |
| Harvard model | Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills and Walton (1984) | Stakeholder interests and situational factors shape HR policy; outcomes are the 4 Cs |
| Guest model | David Guest (1987) | HRM goals: strategic integration, high commitment, flexibility and quality |
| Hard vs soft HRM | John Storey | Hard: people as a cost to be used efficiently. Soft: people as assets to be developed |
| Warwick model | Hendry and Pettigrew | Adds outer (socio-economic) and inner (organisational) context to the Harvard model |
Influences and recent trends
- Influences on HRM: economy, technology, labour laws, unions, globalisation, workforce demographics and organisational culture.
- Trends: HR analytics, AI in hiring, HR information systems (e-HRM), gig and remote work, employer branding, employee experience, well-being and diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Dave Ulrich's four roles: strategic partner, administrative expert, employee champion and change agent.
- HR outsourcing and human capital reporting are growing as HR moves from cost centre to value creator.
The staffing pathway
Recruitment is called positive and selection negative because one attracts applicants and the other screens them out.
HR planning, recruitment and selection
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Forecasting demand | Managerial judgement, Delphi technique, ratio-trend analysis, work-study, regression |
| Forecasting supply | Skills inventory, replacement charts, succession planning, Markov analysis (transition matrix) |
| Closing the gap | Shortage: recruit, overtime, outsource. Surplus: hiring freeze, voluntary retirement, redeployment |
| Internal sources | Promotion, transfer, job posting, re-hiring former employees |
| External sources | Campus recruitment, advertisements, employment exchanges, placement agencies, job portals, walk-ins, head-hunters |
| Selection steps (typical) | Preliminary screening → application blank → tests → interviews → background and reference checks → medical examination → final offer |
| Tests and interviews | Aptitude, intelligence, personality, interest and trade tests; structured, unstructured, panel, stress, situational and behavioural interviews |
| Reliability vs validity | Reliability: consistent scores. Validity: measures what it claims and predicts job performance |
Worked example: recruitment yield pyramid
A firm needs 20 hires. Past ratios: offers to hires 2:1, interviews to offers 3:2, invitations to interviews 4:3, applicants to invitations 6:1. How many applicants must it attract?
- Offers = 20 × 2 = 40.
- Interviews = 40 × 3/2 = 60.
- Invitations = 60 × 4/3 = 80.
- Applicants = 80 × 6 = 480.
- Check backwards: 480 ÷ 6 = 80; 80 × 3/4 = 60; 60 × 2/3 = 40; 40 ÷ 2 = 20 hires.
480 applicants (80 invited, 60 interviewed, 40 offers, 20 hires).
NET asks you to match HRM models with their features, sequence the selection process and classify recruitment sources, with an occasional quick yield-ratio numerical.
Typical MCQ: “Which HR planning technique uses a transition matrix?” Markov analysis, which forecasts internal supply. Trap: replacement charts show named successors, not probabilities.
Typical MCQ: “To get 10 hires with offers to hires at 2:1 and interviews to offers at 3:2, how many interviews are needed?” 30: offers = 10 × 2 = 20, interviews = 20 × 3/2 = 30. Trap: dividing by the ratio instead of multiplying.
Recruitment invites, selection excludes. Harvard's 4 Cs: commitment, competence, congruence, cost-effectiveness.