ABSTRACT
In a nutshell, Strategic Human Resources Management (known to lesser mortals as manpower planning) is all about getting the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time, and then providing the right structure and balance of motivation and reward to keep them there. This is hard enough to achieve in a large organization that has the resources to employ Human Resource Professionals (personnel managers), that can afford the necessary reward structures and opportunities for promotion or career development, and that can make use of highly specialized skills. However, as we have discussed a number of times in previous chapters, the average small firm does not have these luxuries, often lacking or possessing only limited resources, relying on the limited personnel knowledge of the boss and the willingness of the multi-skilled staff to be flexible in their work.
