How to evaluate the performance of the human resource department?

Résumé du document

It is important for companies to evaluate the quality and performance of their different departments (Baruch, 1997). Evaluating the human resource department (HRD) is even more important due to its many links with and influences on other items -for example, with increased productivity (Fox et al, 1999), good customer service (Fox et al, 1999), increase profitability (Delery and Doty, 1996) and overall organisational survival (Welbourne and Andrews, 1995). As such, evaluating the department is of primordial importance (Stavrou-Costea, 2005: 114) and it is generally believed that HRM practices, when aligned with the organisation overall strategy, can help create a competitive advantage (Roos, Fernström and Pike, 2004). As showed by Ulrich's (1997) framework, the role of HR can be classified in four categories (administrative expert, employee champion, change agent and strategic partner).

Extraits

[...] goal attainment, attitude surveys and activity analysis) in parallel with one another for both employees and employer, it is possible to get a better picture of the performance of an HRD and from that gain an understanding of what the department is doing, how it is doing, how it can be improved and most importantly how it relates to and supports the overall organisational strategy. Reference Ahmed, S. (1999). emerging measure of effectiveness for human resource management: An exploratory study with performance appraisal”, The Journal of Management Development, Vol 18 543-556. Aycan, Z. (2001), “Human resource management in Turkey-current issues and future Challenges”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol 252-60. Baruch, Y. (1997). “Evaluating quality and reputation of human resource management”, Personnel Review, Vol 26 377-394. Cascio, W.F. [...]

[...] "Measuring HR for success", Training and development, Vol 39 39-52. Stavrou-Costea, E. (2005). "The challenges of human resource management towards organizational effectiveness: a comparative study in Southern Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol 29 112-134. Tsui, A.S. (1987). “Defining the practices and effectiveness of the human resource department: a multiple constituency approach”, Human Resource Department, Vol 26 35-69. Ulrich, D. (1997), Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Welbourne, T.M. [...]

[...] The evaluation of the department in that perspective is done through collecting data (through the accounting department for financial data and through the department own data for items like turnover, productivity level etc). The data can then be analysed through ratio as shown in the table below. Cascio (1982) suggest that measurement criteria must be relevant, reliable, sensitive and practical (Baruch, 1997) as such two points must be mention. Firstly, it is important to use ratio that reflect performance of the HR function. Some ratio might represent things that are beyond the department. [...]

[...] general assessment of the department. Employees' evaluation EMPLOYEES' VIEW OF THE HRD MIGHT BE DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF THE OWNERS/MANAGERS GROUP AS SUGGESTED BY TSUI (1987). WHAT THEY EXPECT IS PROBABLY DIFFERENT AND AS SUCH THEY MIGHT EVALUATE THE FUNCTION DIFFERENTLY. WHILE CORPORATE IS PROBABLY MORE INTERESTED IN THE BOTTOM LINE (I.E. NUMBERS), EMPLOYEES MIGHT BE MORE INTERESTED IN HOW THEY ARE AFFECTED INDIVIDUALLY AS SUCH EXPLORING EMPLOYEES' VIEW PROVIDES AN ALTERNATIVE WAY OF EVALUATING HRM (GIBB, 2001). IT PROVIDES A NUMBER OF ADVANTAGES SUCH AS COUNTERACTING THE EFFECT OF MANAGERIALISM, (MABEY ET AL, 1998), COUNTERACTING AN ONLY ECONOMIC VIEW AND INTRODUCING AN HUMAN DIMENSION TO THE EVALUATION (GIBB, 2001). [...]

[...] And lastly, through analysing the department in terms of what it does and how (activity analysis). Using those three means, a good perspective of the effectiveness of the department might be achieved. While general measure exists, measurement system should be strongly linked to the operational strategy of each organisation (Wouters and Sportel, 2005) as to reflect the values, mission, and objective of the organisation being measured. It is important to evaluate the HRD for items that the organisation deems as important (Neely et al, 1995) (e.g. [...]