BARRIERS TO STRATEGIC HRM INTERVENTIONS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM RECRUITMENT, TRAINING CURRICULUM, AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE PRACTICES IN PUNJAB POLICE

Abstract

The paper has examined the major issues and obstacles involved in the application of the HRM intervention-based policies and analyzed the strategic HRM interventions that can be applied in order to increase employee performance and organizational performance in the Punjab Police. The research took the form of a qualitative study because it concentrated on three fundamental areas of HRM that include recruitment and selection, training curriculum and pedagogy, and work-life balance practices. Semi-structured interviews with 18 key informants purposely selected were used to gather the data, whose roles in the study included senior police officers, HR officials, training instructors, psychologists, welfare officers, as well as policy experts of the Bahawalpur region. Thematic analysis was utilized with the assistance of methodological triangulation to determine recurrent institutional, structural, and operational problems that impacted the implementation of HRM policy.

The results to the first research question showed that the old and rigorous recruitment standards, post-selection psychological testing, low intake of recruits into the unit, and rigidity in the bureaucracy, training curricula that was traditional and relatively drill-based, poor experiential learning, heavy load, inconsistent duty hours, poor enforcement of welfare policies, and low mental support were significant obstacles to effective HRM interventions. All these issues led to burnout, skills gap, lack of motivation, operational exhaustion, and poor organizational performance. To answer the second research question, the study developed a group of context-specific strategic HRM strategies in accordance with the modern requirements of policing and the international benchmarks. These had a competency-based and merit-oriented recruitment process with pre-induction psychological evaluation, modernization of training programs by integrating cybercrime, community policing, and learning scenarios, ongoing professional development systems, work and shift scheduling, institutionalized work-life balance programs, and integrated psychological and welfare support. They highlighted that working to harmonize HRM reforms with international standards of policing and contextualizing them to local institutional realities might be of great help to increase workforce capacity, involvement, and professional strength.

The credibility and validity of the findings were enhanced due to the triangulation of the multi-stakeholder perspectives with the current scholarly and policy literature. In general, the research finds that to address the issues of structural and implementation-level barriers, consistent strategic HRM reforms will be necessary to enhance the performance of both employees and the organization, its efficiency, and effectiveness to foster long-term organizational modernization and better service delivery to the population.