HRM vs. Personnel Management: How Do Their Roles and Approaches Really Differ?

Difference Between HRM and Personnel Management

The main difference between Human Resource Management (HRM) and Personnel Management lies in their scope and approach. While Personnel Management primarily focuses on traditional administrative tasks such as employee payroll, benefits administration, and compliance with employment laws and regulations, HRM takes a more strategic approach.

HRM encompasses not only administrative functions but also strategic workforce planning, talent management, employee development, and organizational effectiveness. It is more proactive and aims to align the organization's human resources with its overall goals and objectives.

In contrast, Personnel Management is often seen as reactive, dealing with employee issues as they arise rather than taking a proactive approach to anticipate and prevent potential challenges. The role of HRM is to contribute to the organization's success by effectively managing its most valuable asset - its people.

In summary, while Personnel Management focuses on routine tasks and compliance, HRM takes a broader and more strategic view of managing people within an organization.

Personnel management is day-to-day management, meaning it is short-term. HRM is a broader term that defines both day-to-day and long-term human management.

Thank you!

Hi,

The main difference between personnel management (PM) and human resource management (HRM) is that in PM, employees are treated as machines, whereas they are considered as social and psychological beings by HRM.

PM treats employees as a cost center, while HRM views them as profit centers. PM considers employees a liability, whereas HRM sees them as assets to the company, contributing to profits for the organization. For more details on this, refer to "Human Resource Management" by Subba Rao. I hope this information was useful.

Regards,
Rashmi

Definition

Personnel Management - Personnel Management is thus basically an administrative record-keeping function, at the operational level. Personnel Management attempts to maintain fair terms and conditions of employment, while at the same time, efficiently managing personnel activities for individual departments etc. It is assumed that the outcomes from providing justice and achieving efficiency in the management of personnel activities will result ultimately in achieving organizational success.

Human Resource Management - Human resource management is concerned with the development and implementation of people strategies, which are integrated with corporate strategies, and ensures that the culture, values and structure of the organization, and the quality, motivation and commitment of its members contribute fully to the achievement of its goals.

HRM is concerned with carrying out the SAME functional activities traditionally performed by the personnel function, such as HR planning, job analysis, recruitment and selection, employee relations, performance management, employee appraisals, compensation management, training and development etc. But, the HRM approach performs these functions in a qualitatively DISTICNT way, when compared with Personnel Management.

Main Differences between Personnel Management and HRM

• Personnel management is workforce centered, directed mainly at the organization's employees; such as finding and training them, arranging for them to be paid, explaining management's expectations, justifying management's actions etc. While on the other hand, HRM is resource –centered, directed mainly at management, in terms of devolving the responsibility of HRM to line management, management development etc.

• Although indisputably a management function, personnel management has never totally identified with management interests, as it becomes ineffective when not able to understand and articulate the aspirations and views of the workforce, just as sales representatives have to understand and articulate the aspirations of the customers.

• Personnel Management is basically an operational function, concerned primarily with carrying out the day-to day people management activities. While on the other hand, HRM is strategic in nature, that is, being concerned with directly assisting an organization to gain sustained competitive advantage.

HRM is more proactive than Personnel Management. Whereas personnel management is about the maintenance of personnel and administrative systems, HRM is about the forecasting of organizational needs, the continual monitoring and adjustment of personnel systems to meet current and future requirements, and the management of change.

Dear Ketan,

The view that there are more similarities than differences between personnel and HR management is shared by a number of authors. Legge, for instance, is tempted to say that there are “not a lot” (1989: 27) differences between the two approaches, but nevertheless manages to detect some diverging aspects. These however cannot be qualified as substantial differences, but are rather a matter of emphasis and meaning (Legge 1995: 74). Torrington regards personnel management as a continuing process of evolution and growth, in which more and more fields of expertise are acquired and assimilated. Within this evolutionary process HRM is only adding “a further dimension to a multi-faceted role” (1989: 66), and is not at all a revolutionary concept. However, the effect of HRM should not be underestimated. Armstrong (1987: 34) maintains that although the procedures and techniques strongly resemble those of personnel management, the strategic and philosophical context of HRM makes them appear more purposeful, relevant, and consequently, more effective.

Courtesy: Marco Koster

Regards,

Aditi