Search

Over the past five decades, the nature and role of the Australian HR function has changed dramatically, mirroring developments in the United States and in Britain.The most significant change for the HR profession has been the shift from a reactive to a strategic focus. While the strategic importance of HR has increasingly been recognised, challenges remain. Within the discussion of the strategic trajectory of the HR function we analyse changes to the HR role over the last five decades. We also provide an update on perceptions of the HR function using comments from interviews with both senior HR practitioners and top management team executives about how the HR function currently gains influence to perform its strategic role within Australian organisations. We conclude with a discussion of directions for the Australian HR professional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HR professionals have been encouraged to make a greater strategic contribution to their organizations for many years. The literature suggests, however, that in general progress has been limited both in Australia and internationally. An important issue is whether HR professionals have the range of skills needed to be effective in a strategic role and what these may be. Based on 360 degree feedback from 1005 colleagues of 197 senior Australian HR managers, this paper explores the qualities needed to operate strategically. The results indicate that Australian HR managers can develop many of the skills required but some areas still need further improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although human resource management (HRM) outsourcing is an international trend little has been written in the Australian literature about HRM outsourcing choices. The aims of the research are to determine first which HRM areas are most likely in Australia to be initiated using external consultants, second whether organisational size or sector impacts on the outsourcing decision and third the type of skills that HRM consultants bring into organisations. Results from an on-line survey generating 1372 responses identify training and development, recruitment and selection, and HRIS as the primary outsourced HRM areas. With respect to organisational determinants, larger organisations were more likely to use consultants; sector differences revealed higher recruitment and selection and performance-related pay outsourcing in the private sector, higher HRIS outsourcing in the public sector, and a focus on employee relations in the not-for-profit sector. There are no differences in the qualifications of HRM professionals and consultants but consultants are more likely to have broader business experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within personnel selection there is an increasing emphasis on multi-level selection. However, while there are a range of psychometrically robust tools available for assessing person-job fit, substantially fewer are available for assessing person-team or person-organization fit. One of the few tools available for selecting for person-team fit is the Team Selection Inventory (TSI); however, the only published TSI data relates to UK and Greek samples. Given that selection processes in New Zealand and Australia, as well as other parts of the Asia-Pacific region, are similar to those in the UK, with a growing need for valid measures of person-team fit, the aim of the current study was to begin the process of collecting data from the Asia-Pacific region by providing psychometric data from a sample of graduating New Zealand students (n = 148). Results demonstrated similar psychometric properties to the UK data, along with minimal gender and ethnic group differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles which focused on the management of human resources in Australia.