‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ Model of HRM

Trent Building University of Nottingham Introduction Most modern organisations need a Human Resource Management (HRM) to manage their employees. An HRM can build a good relationship between top management and their employees. It also can give a significant contribution to organisation’s development (Marchington & Zagelmeyer, 2005, p. 3). It is because HRM functions not only as an organisation’s division but also as a media for the employee to express and bargain their demands.    Having best employees in every position is challenging because every organisation has limitations or problems. HRM Department which deals with this activity should have an ability to translate organisation’s needs and place ‘limited’ human source on the right place. One of the most significant roles of HRM is seen in the recruitment process. It can select either promoting junior staffs or hire new workers to fulfil a vacancy (Leopold 2002, p. 66-67). HRM Department then, must be able to formulate organisation’s need and find the best way to hire the best candidate to deal with the jobs. The role of HRM in the recruitment process is crucial because they put someone in a position. The result of the decision will show whether the recruitment is a success or not. In some cases, they might have problems to make this process done effectively. An HRM department can pick recruitment models or approaches that fit with them. It is because they have to measure costs and manage time so they can spend less money and hire employees as soon as possible. This essay explains the role of HRM in the recruitment process and analyses options for HRM to recruit employees. The first part explains ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ model of HRM. It is followed by a brief explanation of recruitment steps from job analysis until assessment centre. The next part of the essay analyses two models of HRM and its relationship with approaches is recruitment process. The last part is the conclusion of the essay. Theory HRM term has a connection with personnel function such: staffing (planning, recruitment process, and selection of candidates); rewards (systems, assessment and  administration); employee improvement; employee maintenance (health and safety); and employee interaction (Leopold, 2002, p. 7). In a more general perspective, Schneider & Barsoux in Bowen, Galang & Pillai (2002), states “the whole idea of human resource management seems embedded in an assumption that people can be utilised like other factors of production which can be bought and sold and whose value must be maximised, even exploited”.  From this perspective, HRM is expected to force employees to work harder to benefit the organisation. Saha (2003, p. 62) divided HRM form into two models, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ HRM. He explained that hard model concerns on how an organisation implements its strategic fit, such as recruitment process, staff distribution and workforce maximising. He also added that this approach more likely wants to quantify output from the employees, their contribution, and their task achievement.    Jenkins and Delbridge (2013, p. 2673) defined ‘hard’ approach in the way HRM engage with employees. This approach refers to an understanding that increasing employee productivity impacts in increasing the ability to compete of an organisation. The focus of ‘hard’ HRM is on the ‘resource’ aspects of HRM where organisations find ways to increase competitive advantage by pushing their employees to boost their effort (Jenkins and Delbridge, 2013, p. 2673). In addition to the hard model of HRM, Leopold, Harris & Watson (2005, p. 28) introduced ‘low commitment’ HR strategy. The authors describe the strategy as:  “Follow hire and fire principles with labour being acquired at the point when it is immediately needed. Workers are allocated to task for which they need very little training with their employment being terminated when those task no longer need to be completed. The organisation-workers relationship is an ‘arms-length and calculatingly instrumental one”. On the other hand, Saha (2013, p. 62-63) explained the ‘soft’ model as a strategic mechanism to develop an ideal workplace because placing individuals in a strategic position. In this model, employees are an important stakeholder in any strategic decision related to them (Saha, 2013, p. 63). Jenkins and Delbridge (2013, p. 2673) explained that the emphasis of ‘soft’ approach of HRM lies on ‘human’ dimension in managing people. The focus of ‘soft’ HRM is on management practices which search ways to increase employee satisfaction (Jenkins and Delbridge, 2013, p. 2673). The concerns of the soft model are adaptability to a certain situation, negotiation, job enjoyment, developing ideal work situation and small employee changing rates. This approach promotes several features such as involvement strategies, proactive management and the implementation of strong organisational practices (Jenkins and Delbridge, 2013, p. 2673). In addition to soft HRM, Leopold, Harris & Watson (2005, p. 27) explained ‘high commitment’ strategies of HRM. In this model, management finds ways to enclose their relationship with the employees to make them feel involved with the organisation. The organisation expects their workers to work in the longer term and various tasks, therefore, it provides many opportunities to develop their career (Leopold, Harris & Watson 2005, p. 27). Role of HRM in recruitment One of the functions of HRM is recruiting new employee into a new position in the organisation. Simpson in Leopold (2002, p. 53) states that recruitment is one of the crucial tasks by HRM in any organisation. Leopold, Harris & Watson (2005, p.141) argued that ‘normal’ view of recruitment process lies on a condition that if the organisation get an improper employee, there will be difficulties. Traditionally, the methods of recruitment are simple and based on local areas. As based on limited areas, the methods can only reach a small group of potential candidates and therefore reduce the opportunity for the organisation to hire employees with appropriate skill (Leopold, 2002, p. 55). Another traditional method of recruitment in an organisation is recruiting a member of family and colleagues of existing employees. It may be seen as an appropriate concept of recruitment than as nepotism (Leopold, 2002, p. 56). Leopold (2002, p. 60) explained recruitment process from the very basic question, is there a vacancy? Instead of replacing workers who had left, an organisation can reorganise their staffs by doing several opinions such as mechanisation, extra hour scheme, or using labour agency (Leopold, 2002, p. 61). Recruitment is needed if the organisation realises that new employees or talented candidates can fit and be able to contribute to the organisation (Leopold, 2002, p. 62). The next stage is job analysis or the mechanism to gain and evaluate information about the detail of the job. It contributes to clarify crucial facts relating to the job performance. The result may be specified as excellent, average or disappointing performance. If the focus of the job analysis is job performance, prediction of success can be made by the result (Leopold, 2002, p. 63). After job analysis stage, the organisation provides a job description and person specification. Job description informs the applicants about the detail of the job. It contains purposes, tasks, and responsibilities of new employees in the organisation (Ingham, 2015, p. 257). An organisation needs to specify their new employees by setting person specification. A recruiter in this stage plays a role in comparing ‘ideal’ and ‘real’ candidates (Leopold, 2002, p. 64). In this comparison, the recruiter focuses on the personal ability related to the job. The organisation can promote their vacancy trough advertisements to gain many applicants. Media for this advertisements depends on the organisation’s appropriateness and cost (Leopold, 2002, p. 68). The next step of the recruitment stages is the selection. The recruiter implements selection to find the ‘appropriate’ candidates that are capable and enthusiastic of occupying the vacancy (Leopold, 2002, p. 79). Selection is a crucial process because some individuals are more capable to some organisation because of tasks, function and organisations are different (Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 140). In selection stage, the interview is the most popular method (Leopold 2002, p. 92). It is used to decide the capability of the candidates to the job (Ingham, 2015, p. 257 ). An HRM department can apply an assessment centre to address many elements in the recruitment process. The assessment centre is an integral selection method where candidates must pass an assessment by competent assessors (Leopold, 2002, p. 94). Analysis Implementation of ‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ Model of HRM HRM connects employees with their organisation. To do this function, HRM faces a problematic situation, because human resources are provided by human beings (Leopold, Harris & Watson. 2005 p. 12). People are independent and have their willingness, but if they are in ‘lower’ level of a situation, they are pleased to be managed (Leopold, Harris & Watson. 2005 p. 12). The employees work the organisation to get profit and the organisation also wants to get profit by using its employees. In this situation, HRM department has a significant role because they bridge those needs, from employer side and workers side. There are two approaches of how HRM deals with employees, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ model. The ‘hard’ model is based on lower commitment strategies of the HRM. An organisation implements low commitment strategies in HRM if the most important source of the business strategies is not the employees (Leopold, Harris & Watson 2005, p. 28). In this situation, the organisation can recruit and substitute the employees easily. For instance, an organisation which operates simple technology and more direct business activities are not likely to require a more complex relation. On the other hand, the organisation needs to apply high commitment strategies in some situations. The organisation needs to focus on managing their employees because they are the major source of the business. The organisation applies the strategies to maintain workers who have a special skill, excellent education and creativity so they can work longer (Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 28). ‘Traditional’ and ‘Best Practices’ Approaches in Recruitment An HRM department must be able to organise the workforce to make an organisation work well and maximising its resources to gain the maximum profit. The duties of HRM Department in the recruitment process are selecting the most appropriate and talented  candidates, hiring potential and experienced new employees, and placing competent workers in appropriate places. Leopold, Harris & Watson (2005 p. 141) divided recruitment approaches into two models, ‘traditional’ and ‘best practice’ model. They argued that traditional model emphasises on ‘low’ commitment to human resourcing strategies (2005, p. 174) which is related to the hard model of HRM. On the other hand, ‘best practice’ in recruitment process emphasises on ‘high’ commitment which is related to the ‘soft’ HRM. Leopold, Harris and Watson (2005, p. 144) explained some characteristics of the traditional approach. Firstly, the focus of this approach is ‘job’. HRM try to predict candidates’ job performance by measuring individual capabilities. The measurement is to select the candidates who attain the closest details of job specifications. Organisations that apply this view can get employees to the highest levels of job specification’s matches. One of the drawbacks of this focus is that the organisation finds the new employees only to replace previous workers who worked well in the particular job. This focus also shows a static form of the job and therefore underestimates the dynamics of organisations (Atkinson in Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 144). Also, it overestimates individual criteria that stimulate job performance. Organisations expect its employees to work in best performance but do not treat differences among individual as a crucial problem that needs various actions (p. 144). Secondly, the management in this view has a prerogative power over the candidates. They perform ‘one-way decision-making processes’ in which the recruiting manager sort out the passive applicants and then select and hire the best candidates (Leopold, Harris and Watson, 2005, p. 145). This view has two consequences, if the organisation gets the best candidates who attain organisation’s aims, then the recruitment process is effective (McGrellis, 2013, p. 125). Otherwise, if the result of recruitment is hiring candidates with average or poor performance, then the organisation needs to modify their recruitment process (McGrellis, 2013, p. 125). Finally, Schneider in Leopold, Harris and Watson (2005, p. 145) added that the traditional approach stresses on ‘fit’ between the individual and the work situation. The dimensions of employee and job are clear where the ‘fit’ is based on management’s perception. It is a result of the perception that management or organisation is on a prerogative side in this process. To achieve the ‘fit’ situation, recruitment result must synchronise between individual character and capability and the job’s practical requirements (person-job fit). This perspective emphasises the relation between a worker as an individual and his particular job, not in wider relation with his organisation (Ostroff and Rothausen in Leopold, Harris and Watson 2005, p. 145). In contrast, Herriot in Leopold, Harris and Watson explored ‘the processual’ approach (2005, p. 144), which adopt ‘best practices’ approach. The character of this approach lies in an ‘exchange relationship’ and how negotiation mechanism develops work environment (Leopold, Harris and Watson 2005, P. 145). The exchange relationship gives candidates more opportunity to make a bargaining. Therefore, this character is fit with ‘high’ commitment to HR strategies and soft model of HRM. The processual approach suggests the ‘exchange relationship’ as a mechanism to set expectations about demands from both candidates and the management. The decisionmaking process, therefore, does not lie on one side as in the traditional approach. In this process, the selection is a technique to gain more information to find compatibility (Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 145). In addition to the process, both candidates and the manager can negotiate to propose their demands. It is possible because both sides sometimes have an unsteady characteristic and need a negotiation before sign any agreement. The exchange relationship is also considered as a learning process for both sides. For the candidates, they can learn about the job and also about the organisation from recruitment process (Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 147). They can also gain as many information during the process before making a decision. As a learning process, this approach implements experimentation and evaluation. Some experiments might be a success, but some might fail. Hired candidates can evaluate their situation by comparing between their expectation and their present position (Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 147). For the organisation, it can get the best candidates because the management has learnt more about the candidates. They can examine applicants’ orientation, attitude, behaviour, character, motivation and determination. Also, the management also tests the candidates to measure applicants’ suitability for the job before making a decision. This process is crucial because high-performance HRM can enhance organisation’s achievement (Buller & McEvoy, 2012, p. 45). The consequences of the ‘processual’ approach are successful and unsuccessful processes. If the process is successful, the outcome will be a contract as the result of the negotiation (Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 145). But in some situations, the process is unsuccessful. Firstly, it is because the organisation cancels hiring someone who is not potentially fit with the organisation. Secondly, the applicants reject the organisation’s offers because they do not feel suitable with the job (Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 145). Even though the organisation losses costs and time, the unsuccessful process is still useful for the organisation because they can prevent from a wrong decision that might waste cost and time more (Sisson & Storey, 2000, p. 187). Finally, the ‘processual’ approach which implements ‘learning process’ can help to recognise the drawbacks of the traditional approach (Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 147). To implement this approach is not always easy and simple because every organisation has its character and problems. This situation can make organisations use the traditional approach because it is easier and less costly. However, the traditional approach would be ineffective to provide new employees who have competency and commitment. Therefore, the processual approach is probably more acceptable for organisations to recruit capable and dedicated employees (Leopold, Harris & Watson, 2005, p. 175). Conclusion HRM has important roles in every organisation. Their performance can make a significant effect on the organisation. If they show good performance, the organisation can achieve their goal successfully or gain more profit. Otherwise, if the performance is bad, the organisation would suffer and probably miss an opportunity to gain more income. One of the crucial roles of HRM is recruiting new employees. In this process, HRM is expected to hire new employees who have a good skill and loyalty. It is also crucial for HRM to recruit the appropriate person in the proper position at the right moment (Sisson & Storey, 2000, p. 170). Also, it would be very profitable to recruit employees that fit not only with their job but also with their environment. In the recruitment process, HRM can adopt ‘the traditional’ or ‘the processual’ approach. Each opinion has its consequences. The first one has a connection with low commitment human resource strategy that follows ‘hard’ model of HRM because it adopts ‘hire and fire’ principles. Many modern organisations still implement this approach because of its simplicity and inexpensive reason. However, this approach has some limitations that likely position one side as a single decision maker. On the other hand, ‘the processual approach’ implements or adopts high-commitment human resource strategy. This approach follows ‘best practices’ and can be categorised as a ‘soft’ model of HRM. This approach recognises the limitations of ‘the traditional approaches’ and finds any solution that could be implemented. Instead of poses the employer as the prerogative side, the approach gives both the employer and the candidate, an opportunity to ‘exchange’ their position. This exchange can lead both sides to negotiate their expectation. The advantage of this approach is the organisation can recruit the employees that principally suitable for taking the job position. On the other hand, this approach seems too complicated and costly which may keep many HRM using the first approach. Bibliography Bennett, R. (2002). Employers' Demands for Personal Transferable Skills in Graduates: a content analysis of 1000 job advertisements and an associated empirical study. Journal of Vocational Education and training, 54(4), 457-476. Bloom, N., & Van Reenen, J. (2011). Human Resource Management and Productivity. Handbook of Labor Economics, 4, 1697-1767. Bowen, D. E., Galang, C., & Pillai, R. 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