Resource Management - An Introduction

Resource Management is one of the most commonly used terminology in today's Human Resources world. Wikipedia definition states that "Resource Management (RM) is the efficient and effective deployment of an organization's resources when they are needed. Such resources may include financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology (IT)."


In layman's language for somebody who is just starting his/her career in Human Resource Management, RM is all about deploying/allocating/staffing right professionals, at right job, at right time, at right cost & at right utilization to meet business goals and develop human capital of the organization.

The inception of RM, started since early 20th century when industrial revolution was just kicking in and need for mass production arose. The factories started hiring human resources in bulk and hence effort to effectively utilize them became paramount necessity. Those factories and companies started over burdening the resources/workforce with just one intention - being ahead of competition. The human aspect was getting lost, no body seemed to be bothered about labor welfare and words like "work-life-fit" did not exist then.

Gradually as we moved from Industrial revolution to new kind of revolution known as Information Technology & Telecom, with increased use of computers, software and related infrastructure, the workforce was transitioning from factory workers approach to knowledge worker approach. Just than in late 90s with Internet boom, the whole paradigm shifted and the need for software & IT services grew, and the birth new world of eCommerce was taking place.

The need for knowledge worker grew - the sudden surge of IT and Computer science professionals was instrumental in shaping up next gen. companies like #Amazon, #Google, #Facebook, #Mircosoft, #SAP, #Oracle , #Ericsson , #AT&T, #Vodafone, #TATA etc.

These were the companies which hires thousands of professionals each year to stay in business and have competitive edge. Some of these firms have over ten of thousands of professionals across multiple locations around the world. Hence the challenge of managing , deploying and developing them started becoming a challenge. This lead to a golden era of what we know as Strategic Human Resources - the new HR where its no longer perceived as a cost center/ support function, but was rather being recognized as Business Partners (the strategic advisor). Since professionals or resources are most important assets of all,the Resource Management (RM) started carving out of Strategic HR Management.

Next the next blog we will discuss on understanding resource managements in details and how does it impacts the business.