Human Resource Management plays a strategic role in organizational performance by focusing on finding the right people, maintaining an effective workplace, and managing talent. These efforts impact human capital, which is often cited as the most important factor in determining the success of an organization (Daft, 2021).
In Good to Great, Jim Collins references the idea of “First Who, Then What – get the right people on the bus” (Collins, 2001). This concept is focused on the belief that as long as an organization has hired the right type of people, they will be able to overcome all challenges, and drive the bus in the right direction together. The first step in HRM’s impact on influencing organizational performance is by “getting the right people on the bus”.
In my first job out of college I worked on a team of 12 consultants that were responsible for the success of nearly 200 accounts across the US. The organization’s recruitment and hiring process lasted over a year in the effort to identify and hire the best possible candidates, believing that organization would only be successful if the hired consultants believed in the organization’s mission and had the necessary skills. In the first two months of employment, our consulting team completed an intensive training program that put us in a position to operate at the highest possible level. This organization’s commitment to recruiting the right employees and training them effectively, embodied the idea that HRM practices play a critical role in the organization’s performance.
Erik Angus 