HR discipline had its first brief showing as the agrarian economy gave way to manufacturing. It focused on improving machine processes and employee productivity, based on the work of Frederick W. Taylor, the father of scientific management (Ulrich & Dulebohn, Are we there yet? What 's next for HR?, 2015). During the recession, it disappeared. HR resurfaced in the 1930s after the passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. This Act was a vital piece of labor legislation that gave legal rights to workers to organize or join labor unions. Thus, HR came in to manage the administrative and compliance aspect of the law. This clerical and enforcement role has persisted with HR ever since: necessary but not value-added.
After World …show more content…
In 1978, Jac Fitz-enz wrote a groundbreaking, anti-establishment article that started to put HR on the radar as contributing to business performance. Personnel Journal (now called Workforce Management) published “The Measurement Imperative” that challenged the conventional thinking: HR activities could be measured and impact profit (Caudron, 2004). After ten years in HR, Fitz-enz’s frustration materialized because bosses and colleagues resolutely believed that HR was a soft, feel-good department staffed by underperforming “nice” people. Fritz-end strove to justify HR as a legitimate functional …show more content…
Companies wanted to know how its people count, compensation, and training budgets compared to best in class. From the 1990s to mid-2000s companies were now focused on the “people expense” and the industry developed all types of technology solutions specific to HR to track and monitor HR activities (Bersin, 2015). A range of databases emerged to track recruitment, employee demographics, compensation, performance evaluations, and competencies. With all the people data now quantified, HR metrics surfaced with relative ease. HR scorecards were the new obsession. Organizations could now monitor open positions, turnover rates, compliance violations, and salary scenarios. These were the first analytics used in HR which became the standard operating procedure. (Bassi,
After World …show more content…
In 1978, Jac Fitz-enz wrote a groundbreaking, anti-establishment article that started to put HR on the radar as contributing to business performance. Personnel Journal (now called Workforce Management) published “The Measurement Imperative” that challenged the conventional thinking: HR activities could be measured and impact profit (Caudron, 2004). After ten years in HR, Fitz-enz’s frustration materialized because bosses and colleagues resolutely believed that HR was a soft, feel-good department staffed by underperforming “nice” people. Fritz-end strove to justify HR as a legitimate functional …show more content…
Companies wanted to know how its people count, compensation, and training budgets compared to best in class. From the 1990s to mid-2000s companies were now focused on the “people expense” and the industry developed all types of technology solutions specific to HR to track and monitor HR activities (Bersin, 2015). A range of databases emerged to track recruitment, employee demographics, compensation, performance evaluations, and competencies. With all the people data now quantified, HR metrics surfaced with relative ease. HR scorecards were the new obsession. Organizations could now monitor open positions, turnover rates, compliance violations, and salary scenarios. These were the first analytics used in HR which became the standard operating procedure. (Bassi,