PERFORMANCE IS NOT SYNONYMOUS WITH ADDED VALUE - THE IMPLICATIONS FOR HRM PRACTICES

Many organisations have been trying to establish how effective their HRM practices are. Yet few HR functions have provided any unequivocal answers as to the direct impact their efforts have had on individual and organisational performance. Paul Kearns has been working and researching in this area as a consultant since 1990. The results of his research suggest that there is little evidence that modern, ‘progressive’ HRM practices, which explicitly aim to improve performance, deliver what the theories promise. Some fundamental obstacles, which most HRM functions fail to surmount, is a lack of focus on real added value at the design stage of performance management initiatives, and a failure both to use meaningful performance measures and link HRM activity to bottom line results. Conventional HRM practices are increasingly outmoded It is increasingly acknowledged that management by objectives and the simplistic use of financial and other operational measures as improvement targets, which are intended to drive performance, are rather blunt, outmoded instruments, more suited to an era when commandand-control management styles were the order of the day. Thinking in performance measurement and performance management has had to reach a higher level of sophistication where management cannot continue to improve performance without addressing other fundamental organisational issues first. Many of these organisational issues are concerned with culture, structure or process but have been categorised under the generic headings of change management or just ‘people issues’ and it is probably for this reason that such changes are seen as part of the remit of the HR function. But it is only over the last 10 years or so that HR practitioners have become so closely associated with organisational efforts to measure and improve performance and therefore there has been a rapid development of the portfolio of tools and techniques necessary for this role. However, the move towards HR becoming a performance-focused function is a significant departure from the traditional role of many Personnel and HRM departments. Moreover, it is very important to fully appreciate the extent of this shift when considering the impact that HRM practices have on performance. The traditional role of applying personnel administration systems, with the main aims of consistency and fairness, for example, is increasingly seen as being out of touch with the needs of organisations which are under relentless pressure to reduce costs, increase quality and cope with competition in a global