History of Hrm

History of HRM

Christopher VanFosson

BA340 Human Resource Management

Grantham University

History of HRM

Over the course of the last 100 years there have been many workforce shifts in the types of jobs being performed. These shifts have come in the forms of technology, specialization, worker’s rights and globalization to name a few. Along with these changes in the types of labor force, human resource managers and departments had change also to keep pace with changing times.

In the past, the human resource (HR) or personnel department was primarily involved with company activities such as picnics, retirements, scheduling personnel for vacation time and assisting personnel with enrolling for health care insurance. Today, human resource managers are more involved in the hiring, training, motivating and retaining processes of a company.

Technology is one of the shifts that have had some of the biggest impact on the human resource department. With the role of the human resource manager continually changing, technology has helped the HR department keep up with the changes taking place in their businesses. Technology, along with computers, has helped the HR managers with recruiting for the company by building a pool of qualified individuals for future position openings. Employee training and development has improved with technology by allowing HR personnel to make training more accessible with computer based training and online applications that can be tracked more efficiently. This also allows the HR department to recognize outstanding performers and to assist those employees who may be struggling with some aspects of their positions. Technology has also helped communications within an organization by ensuring that pertinent information is flowing both to the top levels as well as the lower levels of the organization.

Another workforce shift that has affected HR departments is specialization. Many positions today require personnel who have...