Personnel Management and Human Resource Management (HRM) are related terms, but there's an important difference between them.
Personnel management is the traditional way of handling employee-related matters. It focuses mainly on administrative tasks, such as payroll, leave management, enforcing rules, and employee welfare. It's more reactive—solving problems when they occur—and tends to treat employees as resources whose productivity needs to be maximized through proper administration. Communication in personnel management is generally one-way, coming from management down to employees, and decisions are centralized.
Human Resource Management (HRM), on the other hand, is a modern, strategic approach. HRM sees employees as valuable assets who contribute to the organization's growth. It proactively focuses on areas like recruiting talented people, developing their skills, motivating employees, and retaining them by aligning their personal growth with organizational goals. Communication in HRM is two-way, involving feedback and employee participation, with decision-making often decentralized and collaborative. HRM emphasizes long-term planning, employee empowerment, and continuous improvement.
In simple terms, personnel management is administrative and routine-driven, while HRM is strategic and people-oriented, aiming at achieving organizational goals by nurturing and leveraging employees' full potential.