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In a world of change, people are the ultimate source of competitive advantage.  The primary purpose of the human resource function is to create the human side of the business that wins in the marketplace.  Human resource practices must be designed to create strategic business alternatives and to drive the implementation of business strategies.  As business partners, human resource professionals must have the capability to deliver business results through people.

What was the human resource (HR) formally like?  According to Ulrich, HR was formally considered a mundane function that holds no importance to the development of the organisation (Stone 1998:6).  The old myths that he describes of the HR function states that HR people joined HR because they like to handle people and that anyone else can perform the functions in HR.  HR was an unaccountable element in the organisation as it only dealt with the soft side of business.  It was considered as a cost center that maintains the company policies.  The HR function was handled by nice, stylish people, and its activities were considered to be only the concern of the HR department (Stone 1998:6).

If those were the views of what HR was formally like, then what is the new HR that Stone had mentioned?  In the new reality, the HR functions more than just a stylish department designed to police the health-and-happiness of the people in the organisation, or to be entrapped in only the administrative duties to ensure that policies are maintained.  Ulrich states that the new realities of human resource management (HRM) is both reactive and proactive, and its activities are based not only on theories of studies, but also on a wide spectrum of research on the human and organisational aspects of the business (Stone 1998:6).

The mastery of HR practices is vital to the success of the business.  This is because effective HR practices will create competitive employees.  The performance of the new HR is a significant effect on the bottom line of the business.  Tangible results of the HR activities are measured in terms of financial profitability and in so doing makes HRM an important major contributor to the success of the business (Stone 1998:6).

Human resource is about people.  The new HRM is concerned with attracting skilled intellectuals into the organisation that will yield high performance effectively and efficiently.  It is also concerned with increasing the intellectuals of existing employees within the organisation so that they will be motivated to increase work performance, and even support organisational change (Stone 1998:6).

The HR professional performs a dual role.  One is to entice employees to commit themselves into bringing success to the organisation and the other is to persuade the managers in the organisation to commit the employees and administer the policies of the organisation (Stone 1998:6).

Instead of crediting their worth by hiding behind jargons, the new HR professionals are more opened to show and explain their work in simple terms, and earn their worthiness by developing greater authorities over their work.  They will become more assertive and at the same time, are supportive of any strategic development (Stone 1998:6).

The HR function should be seen as equally important as any other functions in the organisation.  HRM must work together with other organisational functions to develop strategies for HR related issues (Stone 1998:6).  HRM is not just merely a function to coordinate and manage human resources.  Through productive human resources, the activities of HRM can provide major contributions to success of the organisation, and more economically, contributions to the 'bottom line' (Stone 1998:4).

Take for example, during the current economic crisis of Asia, the HRM plays an important role in determining and providing the right sources in a tight financial situation.  Retrenchment is not the only solution to downsize the company to remain viable.  The HR manager may plan strategically with managers of the other departments to consider alternative solutions like having shorter work hours or enabling employees to take unpaid leave to ride through this low production season.  Even though the market is weak, the HR manager may also plan strategically ahead to provide training and re-training for employees so that when the economy picks up again, the company is able to compete in the revitalised marketplace with higher caliber staff.

The new breed of HR managers are able to fully understand the overall business strategy of the organisation and align the human resource strategies with the business strategy.  Not only that, but they must also develop and implement HR policies and practices, which will align with the business strategy.  The HR managers, as described by Bruce Rowe, former General Manager of ICI Australia, must contribute to the profits and achievements f the business (Stone 1998:4).

As Stone has pointed out that recently, the HR managers' responsibilities have been increasingly competed by operating managers and line managers (1998:5).  Some of these responsibilities and activities include occupational health and safety matters, recruitment, training and the termination of employment.  As such, the position of HRM is slowly becoming redundant by the 'invasion' of other management positions.  To assure the survival of HRM in an organisation, the new breed of HRM must be able to quickly prove the importance of their function to the success of the business and the organisation.  They have to value add to their current human resource function.  To value add, they must be able to contribute to the profit and achievements of the organisation.  The successful new HRM must have a "strong sense of business realities ... [to accomplish their] roles in HRD, rewards management, industrial relations and HR information systems development" (Smith, B. in Stone 1998:9).

Stone has identified four key roles of the new breed of HR managers.  They are strategic partner, administrative expert, employee champion and change agent (Stone 1998:9).

To be a strategic partner is to be part of the business team and be able to "contribute to business decisions" (Stone 1998:9).  In order to be able to contribute gainfully to business decisions, the HR manager must therefore, be able to "develop business acumen, a customer orientation and an awareness of the competition to be able to link business strategy to HR policies and practices" (Stone 1998:9).

The advancement of new technologies, especially in the information technology field, is a tremendous asset to HRM.  Being an administrative expert requires the knowledge of re-engineering HR activities by harnessing the technologies that are so readily available in the market.  The HR manager can also utilise methodologies such as process engineering and total quality management to enhance the HR activities.  By doing so, will inevitably create value in measurable tangible results on the cost and effectiveness of the HR function (Stone 1998:10).

The human relation expertise of the HR manager is an important aspect for her or him to become an employee champion.  The HR manager "must be able to relate to and meet the needs of employees" (Stone 1998:10).  By drawing on an employee-centred approach, the HR manager will be able to direct her or his attention to the human aspects of subordinates' problems and develop effective work groups that are dedicated to achieving high-performance results.

A successful organisation is ever changing to suit the internal and external environment.  The HR manager must be able to act as a change agent within the organisation.  She or he must be able effectively and efficiently manage change by "developing problem-solving communication and influence skills" (Stone 1998:10).  It is therefore, important for the HR manager to have an open perspective and the knowledge of the behavioural sciences to act as a catalyst to help the organisation approach old problems in new ways.

To increase the competitiveness of the organisation, HRM activities must be included in the strategic development of the business.  HR is not just a chock-full of administrative duties for hiring and firing.  The potential contributions that HRM can provide to ensure a 'slice of the pie' in the marketplace is imperative.  It is the responsibility of the HRM to ensure that HR activities are strategically aligned with the organisation's overall business objectives (Stone 1998:19).

The internal and external environment constantly influences human resource management.  As in any management analysis, the major forces outside the organisation such as the technological, economic, legal-political, sociocultural and international elements can significantly impact on the operations of the organisation.  Inside forces such as the organisational culture also has a "significant influence on the organisation's HRM objectives, strategies and action plans" (Stone 1998:23).

For example, changes in technologies will affect how employees may be trained to fully utilise the potential of new technologies to increase productivity.  HRM may also make use of new technologies to develop flexible human resource information systems (HRIS) to assist in its decision-making process, and respond quickly to changes and challenges brought on by local and global competition (Stone 1998:73).

The current economic turmoil is an example of how the economic element can affect businesses and in varying degrees.  The responsibility to carry out retrenchment exercises and strategic downsizing often falls on the HR practitioners.  The changes in social values and political laws in the local and international aspects are also HR issues that must be resolved with HR planning.

The general conditions of the internal environment like the organisational culture also has an impact on how HR should manage and change the conditions in alignment with the organisation's objectives, strategies and structure.  The "organisational culture is a system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs and norms uniting organisation members" (Bartol et al 1995:108).

A diagnostic model for strategic human resource management like the one described by Stone (1998:23-25) will enable the HRM to assess the internal and external influences that will affect the organisation's performance.  The assessment will assist the HRM to develop and set objectives that will best align the organisational objectives with HR activities to strengthen the competitiveness of the organisation.  Finally, performance can be evaluated to determine the achievements of the HR activities and subsequently HR plans are reviewed and reworked to achieve its final objectives (Stone 1998:23-25).

An effective technique that can be used to assess the internal and external influences that affects the organisation is the SWOT analysis (Stone 1998:17; Webber 1998:28).  The SWOT analysis will evaluate the strength and weaknesses of the organisation, which are factors of the internal environment.  Factors of the external environment are analysed through opportunities and threats.  For example, a company may have acquired many projects through its effective marketing strategies, but are constraint by the lack of local professional staff to maintain the projects.  The HR manager may then plan to acquire the right professional staff from countries that are able to provide the expertise needed for the projects and at the same time, are aware of threats of the governmental authorities as well as high taxation for foreign employees.

To be able to strategically contribute to the success of the business, HR managers must be able to link the financial aspects with HR issues.  That means, they must be able to "increase profitability through improved employee productivity" (Stone 1998:32).  And to be able to do that, HR managers must be "managers of people" (Stone 1998:32).

HRM must consider the impact of the external and internal environment in order to be able to contribute resourcefully to the organisation.  HR planning will identify the activities needed to ensure the "availability of the human resources needed by an organisation to meet its strategic business objectives" (Stone 1998:49).  Forecasting the HR requirements of the organisation is an essential task of HR planning.  Stone has identified three sets of forecasts that are required.  The first is to forecast the demand for human resources.  Second is to forecast the supply of external human resources and third is to forecast the supply of human resources available within the organisation (Stone 1998:52).

Stone has also highlighted two approaches to HR planning.  They are the quantitative approach and qualitative approach (Stone 1998:52).  The quantitative approach makes use of statistical and mathematical techniques to determine the HR requirements, which requires forecasting techniques such as trend projection and econometric modelling to accomplish the task.  Trend projection uses time series analysis to predict the future trends, while econometric modelling simulates future events by using complex computer models that work on probabilities and multiple assumptions (Stone 1998:52-54).

Another important aspect of the new HRM is that they must have the ability to sell HRM "within their organisation so that they achieve the required level of influence and participation at executive and strategic management levels" (Stone 1998:32).  It is only when the HR manager had convinced the management of the importance of HRM to the strategic development of the organisation, then she or he will be able to provide all the value-added activities to accomplish their new role.

On a final note, the new HRM focuses on the emergence of human resources as a strategic partner.  It is the role of the HR to manage the organisation's human resources through economic turbulence.  The new breed of HR managers will have to knowledge and skills to make use of new technological tools to develop HRIS for decision-making and strategic planning and to develop a high value-added human resource strategy.  They will also have the ability to create a customer-focused human organisation that influences the financial position of the business.  The task of managing strategic organisational change is not excluded from HRM.  The new HR managers will face greater challenges in the future.  They must be able to add greater value to their organisation through the development and application of more powerful human resource strategies and practices to support short term business goals and long term business strategies.

Yes, we need people power to drive the company.  But, having just people is not enough to determine the success of the company.  Just to ensure that there are enough employees to function in the organisation is the ancient way of the HR manager.  The new HRM works with added value to promote HR activities to create a more profitable company.  It is a dynamic HRM that are involved in strategic planning of the company.  HR managers will have greater consultative skills, with a high level of influence and communication abilities.  They are able to think strategically and develop and implement strategies, coupled with good leadership values and not only does well in HRM, but also good in industrial relations, business presentations and the marketing of HRM.

Bartol, K. M., Martin D. C., Tein, M. and Matthews, G. 1995, Management: A Pacific Rim Focus, McGraw-Hill, Sydney.

Stone, R. J. 1998, Human Resource Management, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, Australia.

Webber, W. 1998, MGG2324/MGB2324/MGG1304 Human Resource Management/Practices Subject Book, Distance Education Centre, Monash University, Australia.