Evolution of HR: from personnel management to business strategic partner

Posted on Oct 10, 2023 at 01:10 AM

The importance of evaluating human resources and their management methods is to understand this area's functions, philosophy, and practices in different organisational contexts.

The following article highlights the history of human resources. Thus, to illustrate the stages of evolution of human resources over time and their most important future trends, follow until the end.

What is the history of human resources?

The concept of human resources management emerged in the early 1980s.

However, some attributed the first use of human resources to the end of the nineteenth century when what they called officers or welfare trustees emerged.

The task was to protect girls and women in the workplace, improve workers' conditions, and inform them of safety, health, and hygiene issues.

Today, the Human Resources Department is primarily responsible for all matters related to recruitment, workers, and manpower. Specialists in the department search for and interview individuals and then choose the most suitable among them to join the team.

Their tasks continue; they must ensure that all on-site workers receive their rights and benefits and reward those who deserve and contribute to the organisation's development.

Ensure there is no distinction between employees to create a healthy working environment.

Another of the Resource Section's duties is to train team members regularly to develop and refine their skills for the future. 

Their active role in resolving the common disputes and conflicts between staff and management, so they must resolve those differences to ensure smooth functioning.

Those who care about people and people will find the HR job exciting.

It is necessary to be knowledgeable and skilled enough to perform their job. HR courses London can be the gateway to that exciting profession.

How have human resources evolved throughout history?

The evolution of human resources from the Industrial Revolution to the present has been classified into a series of phases, as follows:

• Human resources development during the Industrial Revolution:

The Industrial Revolution has seen significant growth in the industry. Such as the development of machinery, the use of mechanical capacities in production processes, and the emergence of the factory term, so in keeping with all that development, it was necessary to use more manpower. So, a system must be developed to manage these large numbers of unusual workers.

Three human resources management systems.

Recruitment of workers, workers' training, and labour control have developed even though the basic policy prevailing in that period was based on Mr Al-Khadim's basis, which still exists to some extent.

• Development of human resources during the trade union movement:

In the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, workers' conditions were poor, so many serious steps needed to be taken to save the deteriorating situation caused by the First World War. The brokerage system and the appointment of business officers within enterprises imposed the task of verifying recruitment tasks and securing workers' requirements.

At the same time, with the emergence of trade unions to protect their members from workers and solve some significant problems such as child labour, long working hours, and poor working conditions, the unions relied on protests and strikes to demand solutions to their problems.

• Evolution of human resources during the period of social responsibility:

At the beginning of the twentieth century, factory owners and companies relied on a more humane approach to managing their workers, which was based on the philosophy of fatherhood, in a more detailed sense that a worker should not be treated as a worker but as a child by business owners who took on the role of father, as they must take care of their workers as well as their children.

The first to apply that approach was a British industrialist and humanitarian activist, Robert Owen, who felt that the economic and social environment affected the worker's physical, mental, and psychological development.

• Human resources development during the period of scientific administration:

At this point, human resources are managed according to scientific foundations rather than the prevailing management system, which places on the principle of initiative and incentives based on functional experience. 

In the early 20th century, American scientist Frederick Winslow Taylor developed a scientific approach to human resources management through:

Study and measure the time taken for each job or operation and standardise the job's functions.

Study the movement of objects in the workplace and reduce excessive movement—standardising all machines, tools, equipment, and working conditions.

• Evolution of human resources during the period of human relationship:

Experts and sociologists worked to convey their thoughts and opinions on human aspects and their role in human resources management from 1925 to 1935. In his book Psychology and Industrial Competence, applied psychologist Hugo Munsterberg suggested that psychology should use staff selection, training, and testing.

Australian psychologist Elton Mayo conducted a series of experiments within the Hawthorne plant of Western American Telephone and Telecommunications Services between 1924 and 1932.

The experiments intended to determine the impact of changing working conditions on the productivity and evolution of work.

As a result of those experiences, Mayo and his colleagues concluded that workers' productivity depended on social factors prevailing in the workplace, group formation and impact, communication, leadership, and supervision and that organisations must pay attention to human relations outside physical conditions in the workplace to achieve increased production.

• The evolution of human resources from the 1960s to the early twenty-first century:

As human resources continue to evolve, workplaces have begun to change, with employers realising that workers are not puppets with their own hands but with their emotional and psychological needs. So, personnel departments have improved their efforts in workers' internships and working with trade unions to establish better compensation and rewards for them.

At the same time, some theories, especially human motivation theories such as Desi and Ryan's self-determination theory and Herzberg's second-factor theory, have contributed to changing workplace strategy.

Industrial psychology and management have helped in human resources management by paying more attention to the need for staff to succeed, evolve and appreciate by matching the 

nature of work with a person's knowledge, abilities, and skills, as well as his or her interests.

• Today's human resources:

Today's Human Resources Management sector requires more efforts to be more flexible and dynamic in light of ongoing technological development and growing challenges, including epidemics, health conditions, delayed supply chains, increased inflation, and significant talent shortages.

Resource professionals must have many new skills, such as workforce analysis, artificial intelligence, digitisation of human resources, strategic planning, design thinking, human resources management as a product, and others.

What are the future trends in human resources management?

Having seen the evolution of human resources over the years and how developments have become more practical, the talk has now reached the most critical trends that human resources expect to take in the future. The most anticipated and demanding is that resource officers be more flexible and fast in making decisions and facing expected disruptions.

He also believes in changing how employee performance evaluates to become more specialised. 

He expects to replace the annual audit system with real-time performance reports. This helps secure the training needed for employees to improve productivity.

Resource staff's digital expertise and ability to use artificial intelligence applications in management will become necessary, helping to prepare a more diverse team.

Workforce analyses must rely upon to determine the age, gender, and ethnicity of the right employees and thus create a multi-background team, which is an excellent benefit for the company, and modern technology helps make such decisions.

It is also expected that most of the tasks in the resources section will be divided into separate components. 

This method increases corporate agility, and this step has already begun to apply within companies looking for a flexible human resources instructor to prepare employees in many 

locations.

In the end, 

This was all about the history of human resources development and the expected future trends. 

No one can predict what is coming with real-time technology developments at every moment, but that's what things are pointing to.