A Consideration of sustainable HR management implementation in a SME context

Sustainable human resource management (SHRM) practices implementation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) context is examined in this article. Various scientific articles and books, which analyse SHRM practices, were reviewed in the literature analysis. The scientific literature review allowed the identification of the problem that on the scientific level the majority of publications, which analyse SHRM practices, focus only on multinational enterprises (MNEs). As many authors agree, one of the main reasons behind the insufficient amount of publications regarding SHRM implementation in a SME context is the mistaken assumption that that SMEs are just scaled down versions of MNEs. Analysis of the situation was performed in a Lithuanian family owned SME called T Optimus. This company sells chemical equipment for laboratories and provides consultations for its clients. At this time, 6 employees work in the company. Five interviews with employees of the company were conducted. The interviews were conducted using semi-structured method, which offers a certain degree of freedom and discovery. All interviews were recorded in the Lithuanian language, and later transcribed and then translated into English. Because of the small company size, the interviewees have been chosen in the best way to represent the different employees’ opinions towards SHRM practices in the company’s daily activities. The results of the qualitative research have shown that T Optimus perfectly corresponds to the SME traits that were mentioned by several authors – the company has an informal HRM system, a close relationship among employees is normal practice, and employees have flexible working conditions. Furthermore, despite the fact that the company’s owner tries to implement some SHRM practices that are mainly related to work-life balance and health management issues, these practices are not sufficient and do not solve crucial problems such as frequent job burnouts, lack of expertise, retention of employees, limited career development and weak leadership, which are the issues that many authors distinguish as challenges that stops SMEs form achieving a better performance in the long run. The recommendations mainly focus on solving the company’s current issues regarding the use of SHRM practices and offer an opportunity for T Optimus to implement SHRM practices in its daily operations using a composite model