Human Resource Management

Management- Semester 1
Mgt_Lec_Wk10_060409
 LEARNING OUTLINE
• What is Human Resources Management (HRM) and
why HR Is Important
•The Human Resources Management Process
•Human Resources Planning
•Staffing the Organization
•Orientation and Skill Development
•Managing and Rewarding Performance
•Compensation and Benefits
•Career Development
•Current Issues in Human Resources Management 2
 What is Human Resource Management
(HRM)?
• HRM is the set of organizational
activities directed at attracting, developing
and maintaining an effective workforce.
(Griffin, R.W 5th Edition)

•HRM takes place with in complex and

ever changing environment.
3
 The Importance of Human
Resources Management (HRM)
• Necessary part of the organizing function of
management
– Selecting, training, and evaluating the workforce
• An important strategic tool
– HRM helps establish an organization’s sustainable
competitive advantage.
• Adds value to the firm
– High performance work practices lead to both high
individual and high organizational performance.

4
 Exhibit 11.1 Examples of High-
Performance Work Practices
• Self-directed work teams • Implementation of employee
• Job rotation suggestions
• High levels of skills training • Contingent pay based on
• performance
Problem-solving groups
• Coaching and mentoring
• Total quality management
procedures and processes • Significant amounts of
• Encouragement of innovative information sharing
and creative behaviour • Use of employee attitude
• Extensive employee surveys
involvement and training • Cross-functional integration
• Comprehensive employee
recruitment and selection
procedures 5
 Human Resources for Non-HR
Managers

• Small vs. large organizations

– Large organizations have HR function.
– Smaller organizations may rely on managers
to handle HR issues.
• All managers need to be aware of federal
and provincial legislation and company
policies.
6
 The HRM Process
• Functions of the HRM Process
– Identifying and selecting competent
employees
– Providing employees with up-to-date
knowledge and skills to do their jobs
– Ensuring that the organization retains
competent and high-performing employees

7
 Exhibit 11.2 The Human Resources
Management Process
Environment

Human
Identification and Selection
Resource Recruitment Selection
of Competent Employees
Planning

Decruitment

Adapted and competent

Orientation Training employees with up-to-date
skills and knowledge

Compensation Competent and high-performing employees who

Performance Career
and are capable of sustaining high performance over
Management Development
Benefits the long term

Environment 8
Environmental Factors Affecting
HRM
• Labour Union
– An organization that represents workers and
seeks to protect their interests through
collective bargaining
• Collective Bargaining Agreement
– A contractual agreement between an
organization and a union, covering:
• Wage, hours, and working conditions

9
Environmental Factors Affecting
HRM (cont’d)
• Legislation Affecting Workplace Conditions
– Canada Labour Code
– Occupational Health and Safety Act
– Workplace Hazardous Materials Information
System (WHMIS)
– Employment standards legislation
• Antidiscrimination Legislation
– The Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the
Canadian Human Rights Act
– The Employment Equity Act
10
 Managing Human Resources
• Human Resources (HR) Planning
– The process by which managers ensure that they
have the right number and kinds of people in the
right places, and at the right times, who are capable
of effectively and efficiently performing their tasks
– Helps avoid sudden talent shortages and surpluses
– Steps in HR planning:
• Assessing current human resources
• Assessing future needs for human resources and
developing a program to meet those future needs

11
 Current Assessment
• Human Resources Inventory
– A review of the current makeup of the
organization’s resources status
– HR Management Information Systems (HRMIS)
• Tracks employee information for policy and strategic
needs
– Job analysis
• An assessment that defines a job and the behaviours
necessary to perform the job:
– Knowledge, skills, and abilities
• Requires conducting interviews, engaging in direct
observation, and collecting the self-reports of
employees and their managers
12
 Current Assessment (cont’d)
• Job Description
– A written statement of what the jobholder
does, how it is done, and why it is done
• Job Specification
– A written statement of the minimum
qualifications that a person must possess to
perform a given job successfully

13
 Exhibit 11.3 Meeting Future
Human Resources Needs
Supply of Employees Demand for Employees

Factors Affecting Staffing

Strategic Goals
Forecast demand for products and services
Availability of knowledge, skills, and abilities

14
 Staffing the Organization
• Recruitment
– The process of locating, identifying, and
attracting capable applicants to an
organization
• E-recruiting
– Recruitment of employees through the
Internet
• Organizational web sites
• Online recruiters
• Decruitment
– The process of reducing a surplus of 15

employees in the workforce of an organization

Exhibit 11.4 Major Sources of
Potential Job Candidates

16
Exhibit 11.5 Decruitment
Options

17
 Selection
• Selection Process
– The process of screening job applicants to ensure
that the most appropriate candidates are hired
• Selection
– An exercise in predicting which applicants, if hired,
will be (or will not be) successful in performing well
on the criteria the organization uses to evaluate
performance
– Selection errors:
• Reject errors for potentially successful applicants
• Accept errors for ultimately poor performers
18
Exhibit 11.6 Selection Decision
Outcomes
Selection Decision
Accept Reject
Unsuccessful Successful

Correct
Later Job Performance

Reject
decision error

Accept Correct
error decision

19
 Validity and Reliability
• Validity (of Prediction)
– A proven relationship between the selection device
used and some relevant criterion for successful
performance in an organization
• High test scores equate to high job performance; low
scores to poor performance
• Reliability (of Prediction)
– The degree of consistency with which a selection
device measures the same thing
• Individual test scores obtained with a selection device
are consistent over multiple testing instances
20
 Types of Selection Devices
• Application Forms
• Written Tests
• Performance Simulations
• Interviews
• Background Investigations
• Physical Examinations

21
Exhibit 11.7
Selection
Devices

22
 Written Tests
• Types of Tests
– Intelligence: how smart are you?
– Aptitude: can you learn to do it?
– Ability: can you do it?
– Interest: do you want to do it?
• Legal Challenges to Tests
– Lack of job-relatedness of test to job requirements
– Discrimination against members of areas protected
by the Employment Equity Act

23
 Performance Simulation Tests
• Testing an applicant’s ability to perform actual
job behaviours, use required skills, and
demonstrate specific knowledge of the job
– Work sampling
• Requiring applicants to actually perform a task or
set of tasks that are central to successful job
performance
– Assessment centres
• Dedicated facilities in which job candidates
undergo a series of performance simulation tests
to evaluate their managerial potential
24
 Other Selection Approaches
• Situational Interviews
– Interviews in which candidates are evaluated on
how well they handle role play in mock scenarios
• Background Investigations
– Verification of application data
– Reference checks:
• Lack validity because self-selection of references
ensures only positive outcomes
• Physical Examinations
– Useful for physical requirements
25
 Questions Not to Ask Job Candidates
• About name changes; maiden name
• For birth certificate, baptismal records, or about age in general
• About pregnancy, child bearing plans, or child care arrangements
• Whether applicant is single, married, divorced, engaged,
separated, widowed, or living common-law
• About birthplace, nationality of ancestors, spouse, or other
relatives
• Whether born in Canada
• For photo to be attached to application or sent to interviewer
before interview
• About religious affiliation, church membership, frequency of
church attendance
• Whether the applicant drinks or uses drugs
• Whether the applicant has ever been convicted
• Whether the applicant has ever been arrested
• Whether the applicant has a criminal record
• About the applicant’s sexual orientation

Sample Questions Taken from Exhibit 11.8 26

 Tips for Managers:
Some Suggestions for Interviewing

• Structure a fixed set of questions for all applicants.

• Have detailed information about the job for which
applicants are interviewing.
• Minimize any prior knowledge of applicants’
background, experience, interests, test scores, or
other characteristics.
• Ask behavioural questions that require applicants to
give detailed accounts of actual job behaviours.
• Use a standardized evaluation form.
• Take notes during the interview.
• Avoid short interviews that encourage premature
decision making. 27
Exhibit 11.9 Quality of Selection
Devices as Predictors

28
 Other Selection Approaches
(cont’d)
• Realistic Job Preview (RJP)
– The process of relating to an applicant both
the positive and the negative aspects of the
job
• Encourages mismatched applicants to withdraw
• Aligns successful applicants’ expectations with
actual job conditions, reducing turnover

29
 Orientation and Skill
Development
• Bringing a new employee into the
organization
– Work-unit orientation
• Familiarizes new employee with work-unit goals
• Clarifies how his or her job contributes to unit goals
• Introduces employee to his or her co-workers
– Organization orientation
• Informs new employee about the organization’s
objectives, history, philosophy, procedures, and
rules
• Includes a tour of the entire facility 30
 Exhibit 11.10 Types of Training
• Interpersonal skills
• Technical
• Business
• Mandatory
• Performance management
• Problem solving/decision making
• Personal

31
 Exhibit 11.11 Employee Training
Methods
• Traditional • Technology-based
Training Methods Training Methods
– On-the-job – CD-ROM/
– Job rotation DVD/videotapes/
audiotapes
– Mentoring and
coaching – Videoconferencing/
– Experiential exercises teleconferencing/
satellite TV
– Workbooks/manuals
– E-learning or other
– Classroom lectures
interactive modules.
32
Exhibit 11.12a Occupations of Employees Who
Receive Training
100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

Professional and managerial white collar occupations

Clerical, sales, and service white collar occupations
Blue collar occupations
33
Exhibit 11.12b How Employees Train Themselves
100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

Sought advice from someone

Used the Internet or computer software
Observed someone perform a task
Consulted books/manuals/other documents
34
Taught themselves by trying different methods
 Managing and Rewarding
Performance
• Performance Management System
– A process establishing performance
standards and appraising employee
performance in order to arrive at objective HR
decisions and to provide documentation in
support of those decisions

35
Performance Appraisal Methods
• Written Essays
• Critical Incidents
• Graphic Rating Scales
• Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales
(BARS)
• Multiperson Comparisons
• Management by Objectives (MBO)
• 360-Degree Feedback
36
Exhibit 11.13 Advantages and Disadvantages of
Performance Appraisal Methods

37
 Compensation and Benefits
• Benefits of a Fair, Effective, and Appropriate
Compensation System
– Helps attract and retain high-performance
employees
– Impacts on the strategic performance of the firm
• Types of Compensation
– Base wage or salary
– Wage and salary add-ons
– Incentive payments
– Skill-based pay
38
Exhibit 11.14 Factors That Influence Compensation and Benefits
How long has employee
been with company and
how has he or she performed?

How large is the Does job require

company? high levels of skills?
Employee’s Tenure
and Performance

How profitable is the Size of Kind of

What industry is job in?
company? Company Job Performed

Company Level of Kind of

Profitability Compensation Business
and Benefits

Geographical
Unionization
Location

Where is organization Management Labour- or

located? Is business unionized?
Philosophy Capital-Intensive

What is management’s Is business labour- or

philosophy
Sources: Based on R.I. Henderson, toward pay?Management, 6th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Compensation capital-intensive?
Hall,
1994), pp. 3–24; and A. Murray, “Mom, Apple Pie, and Small Business,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 1994, p. A1
39
Public Sector Vs. Private Sector
• Governments pay about 9% more
compared to private sector.
• Public sector employees: better benefit
plans, likelihood of pension plans
– Public sector pay rates: labour union equity
initiatives
– Private sector pay rates: “market wages”

40
 Career Development
• Career Defined
– A sequence of positions held by a person during his
or her lifetime
• Career Development
– Provides for information, assessment, and training
– Helps attract and retain highly talented people
• Boundaryless Career
– A career in which individuals, not organizations,
define career progression, organizational loyalty,
important skills, and marketplace value
41
 Top 10 Job Factors for College
Graduates
(ranked in order of importance)
1. Enjoying what they do
2. Opportunity to use skills and abilities
3. Opportunity for personal development
4. Feeling what they do matters
5. Benefits
6. Recognition for good performance
7. Friendly co-workers
8. Job location Source: Based on V. Frazee.
“What’s Important to College Grads
9. Lots of money in Their First Jobs?” Personnel
Journal, July 1996, p. 21.

10. Working on teams 42

Tips for
Managers:
Some
Suggestions
for a
Successful
Management
Career
43
 Contemporary HRM Issues
• Managing Downsizing
– The planned elimination of jobs in an
organization
• Provide open and honest communication
• Reassure survivors

44
Contemporary HRM Issues (cont’d)
• Managing Workforce Diversity
– Recruitment for diversity
– Selection without discrimination
– Orientation and training that is
effective

45
 Contemporary HRM Issues
(cont’d)
• Sexual Harassment
– An unwanted activity of a sexual nature that affects
an individual’s employment
• The Supreme Court of Canada definition: Unwelcome
behaviour of a sexual nature in the workplace that
negatively affects the work environment or leads to
adverse job-related consequences for the employee
• There continues to be disagreement as to what
specifically constitutes sexual harassment.
– An offensive or hostile environment
• An environment in which a person is affected by
elements of a sexual nature
46
 Contemporary HRM Issues
(cont’d)
• Work-Life Balance
– Employees have personal lives that they don’t leave
behind when they come to work.
– Organizations have become more attuned to their
employees by offering family-friendly benefits:
• On-site child care
• Summer day camps
• Flextime
• Job sharing
• Leave for personal matters
• Flexible job hours
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