Top 10 Human Resource Management Challenges

Human resource management deals with the effective management of all the employees of an organisation in order to raise it to an advantageous position against its competitors. The rapidly changing domain of business comes with the development of new challenges for human resource management in any enterprise which it has to face while ensuring the optimum development of the company. This blog discusses the top 10 common human resource management challenges that companies are facing in the present, along with their possible solutions.

Recruitment of Skilled Candidates

The recruitment process constitutes another common human resource management challenge, due to the fact that you cannot be sure that you have hired the right candidate until they work for a period of time in your company. Hiring the right candidate becomes difficult also due to the expedited hiring process consisting of a few rounds of interview. The best way to meet this challenge is to screen the candidates effectively and accurately to determine whether their skills or experience matches with the job profile or not. This can be ensured through more in-depth interviews, aptitude tests as well as other related recruitment rounds that can be added for the hiring process of a profile thus to make sure that the best candidates for a particular job get hired.

Development of Leadership

Leadership development is among the most common human resource management challenges faced by companies at present. Most companies overlook the need of putting the effort in training and grooming employees to help them develop their leadership potential as well as necessary career skills, which affects the work environment negatively. The solution is to provide training opportunities to talented employees on a regular basis to help them reach their real potential!

Must Read: Learn the Best & Effective Leadership Lessons from Kids

Diversity in the Workplace

While a diverse workforce has its own benefits, it is also a common human resource management challenge to address the differences between the diverse employees. Dealing with disagreements and ensuring effective communication between employees from diverse backgrounds, age, cultures etc. is a very difficult task. An effective solution to this challenge is the implementation of the teamwork culture in the workplace through team-building activities.

Retainment of Talented Employees

A very common human resource management challenge that most companies and businesses face is the retainment of employees in the face of the great competition for talented professionals. Smaller companies often fail to retain their employees who are attracted to the greater benefits offered by larger companies. This can be overcome to some extent through a structured onboarding process for each employee, which is proven to be highly effective in retaining employees for a longer duration as per research.

Performance Management

With the fast-paced nature of most businesses, performance management is also becoming a challenge for efficient human resource management. While it is important for companies to provide all the necessary training to their employees, it is equally important to track the effect of the training on the employee’s performance. The best way to do this is to have a simple but clearly defined performance framework for each employee.

Compensation Systems

Another prevalent human resource management challenge that many companies face is the structuring of employee compensation. This is especially true for smaller companies who cannot match up to the greater payroll of larger or well-established companies. The best solution for this challenge is to set up a performance-based rewarding system for employees in addition to their salaries, which will motivate them to work more efficiently.

Adapting to Changing Technology

Technology is rapidly changing and advancing in today’s world and the emergence of new technologies is posing challenges in every domain including human resource management. Companies, especially smaller ones, have to quickly adapt to such changing technologies, failing which they will fall below their competitors. An effective solution is to communicate all such technological changes with your employees while providing all the necessary training to make them familiar with it.

Compliance with Ever-changing Laws and Regulations

Ever-changing laws and regulations constitute another very common human resource management challenge, especially since many companies find it difficult to keep themselves up to date with such laws. Non-compliance of laws can lead to your company’s entanglement in lawsuits or even lead to a shutdown. Therefore, it is extremely important to be aware of all the changes in laws that can affect your business or company and also familiarizing your employees with such laws, be it employee regulations or general workplace laws.

Changes in Management

Management changes are bound to pose issues to the effective management of human resource in any organisation. With the growth and expansion of a company or business, its strategies, internal structures and processes also undergo changes. Many employees fail to cope up with these changes and show low productivity during such periods. As a solution to this, the higher-ups of the company should communicate the advantages of these changes with their employees.

Training and Development

A very common human resource management challenge is investing in the training and development of employees working at the lower levels of the company. Employees may not find enough time to invest in a full-time training course, while companies may find it difficult to find resources to train them. The best solution to this problem is to let the senior leaders or managers of the company mentor their subordinates. This will ensure that every employee receives proper training to align themselves with the values of the company.

FAQs on Human Resource Management Challenges

Bharti Singh, Senior HR Manager at Leverage Edu answers some frequently asked questions on HR Management:

Research and Survey on Human Resource Management Challenges

Survey of Global HR Challenges: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations (WFPMA), several challenges for human resource management were revealed. Here is a list of the same:

Human Resource Management Challenges Books

Here are some books for experienced as well as aspiring human resource managers must read to tackle the challenges of human resource management. Here is a list of books you can refer to for the development and advancement of human resources and the company:

• Human Resources Management, written by Gary Dessler
• Unleashing Capacity: The Hidden Human Resources by Rita Trehan
• Fundamentals of HR Analytics: A Manual on Becoming HR Analytical by Diez, Busan & Lee
• Investing in people. Financial Impact of Human Resource Initiatives by KirsWayne Cascio, John Boudreau
• Feedback (and Other Dirty Words), M. Tamra Chandler and Laura Grealish
• Staying Power: Why Your Employees Leave and How to Keep Them Longer by Cara Silletto and Leah Brown
• Winning on HR Analytics: Leveraging Data for Competitive Advantage by Ramesh Soundararajan and Kuldeep Singh

Online Courses for Human Resource Management & Challenges

To tackle the diverse and challenging field of human resource management, regular training and courses are another to overcome the challenging field of human resource management. Online courses equip candidates to understand and successfully navigate challenges as well as the diverse nature of the field. Here are some online courses to check out for Human Resource Management Challenges:

• Human Resource Management: HR for People Managers by the University of Minnesota (Available on Coursera)
• Preparing to Manage Human Resources by University of Minnesota
• Human Resources Analytics by University of California, Irvine (Available on Coursera)
• Organizational Analysis by Stanford University
• Conflict Management with Emotional Intelligence by Robin Hills (Udemy)

Hope you found this blog on the common human resource management challenges useful and informative. Planning to pursue a program in Human Resources Management? Reach out to our experts at Leverage Edu who can help you in deciding on the perfect course and university as per your interests and preferences! Sign up for a free session today!