Chapter 1 & 2

Objectives of human resource management;

i. To attract potentially qualified people to apply to the organisation.
ii. To retain productive employees and motivate employee.

Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of attracting suitable people to apply for job vacancies.

Selection
Selection is the process of choosing a suitable applicant to fill an available job vacancy.

The skills and attributes required of human resource practitioners include:

(a) Communication Skills; A HR practitioner needs to be able to communicate clearly
and persuasively to a variety of stakeholders - the skill is far more than language
skills; be able to explain and defend company policies, suggest improvements to the
organizational practices, listen to worker complaints, strong interpersonal skills to
counsel workers with problems at the workplace.

(b) Ability to Bring About Change; change agents at the workplace - when new
procedures/policies are introduced which impact employees, HR find appropriate
ways to persuade the workers to accept the changes

(c) Information Technology (IT) Savvy; delivery of services to workers in the
organization and keeping of records; such as leave and benefits administration - being
done through the use of various technologies, especially computerization of databases,
e-learning packages.

(d) Numerate and Able to Analyse Data; Policy making requires hard facts. Data must
be collected and analysed. For example, wage and benefit surveys must be conducted,
as should opinion surveys. Cost of training, recruitment and other HR initiatives must
be calculated.

(e) Ability to Understand the Business Context
HR managers must understand the business in which they are employed. They need to
know the current trends in the industry at national and international levels.






Chapter 3: Training

Training and development is the planned, continuous effort by management to improve
employee competency levels and organizational performance. Training is for now while
development is for the future.

Jobs have become increasingly complex and ever-changing so even qualified people are not
fully competent to perform without training. Rapidly advancing technology has made the
need more important. Employees working for a long time require training as changing
technology influences jobs. Need to improve employee productivity and organizations
profitability. Need to prevent obsolescence of skills at all levels. Need to upgrade employees
skills to enable them

Chapter 4: Managing Employee Performance and Performance Appraisal

The essentials of an effective performance appraisal system;

i. Planning to establish performance standards that become benchmarks
ii. Dependable performance measures
iii. Fair comparisons of measures and benchmarks (actual appraisal)
iv. Face-to-face feedback session
v. Management decisions like rewards or coaching, counselling, or disciplining to encourage
and improve performance

An effective performance appraisal scheme has the following characteristics:
a) It is based on targets/goals/objectives that are achievable, measurable and understood
by the employee concerned.
b) It uses a format/appraisal form that is understood by the manager and the employee
being appraised.
c) It involves a frank discussion between the manager and the employee concerning the
employees performance.
d) It reduces, as far as possible, bias affecting the assessment of the employees
performance.
e) It is carried out on a regular basis, without having an excessively long period from
one appraisal to the next. At the minimum, the appraisal should be on an annual basis,
although more frequent appraisal would be better.
f) It relies on accurate information collected over the entire period for which
performance is being appraised and is based on a variety of sources, otherwise known
as multi-rater appraisal or 360 degree feedback.
g) It provides for an appeal system whereby if the employee feels that his managers
appraisal of him is not fair, he can raise the matter with a higher authority.
The main benefits which may be derived from an effective performance appraisal scheme
are:
a) Improved performance by individual employees which contributes to the success of
the enterprise. Employees are given feedback on their strengths and weaknesses, and
are given help to reduce their weaknesses in performance.
b) Information on training needs amongst employees. This information forms the basis
for training plans for the organization and ensures the training budget is spent
appropriately, i.e. on training employees who need help to do their work.
c) A channel of communication is opened up between manager and subordinate.
Although managers should speak to their subordinates about their performance on a
regular basis, in reality, many managers find it difficult to spend the time discussing
past performance and future plans for each employee they supervise. A performance
appraisal scheme makes this discussion compulsory.
d) The determination of which workers deserve monetary and other rewards, including
promotion. Without a fair and transparent performance appraisal scheme, these
decisions may seem to be arbitrary and due to personal influence rather than ability to
perform.
e) The existence of documentation concerning the performance of an employee and how
he was treated, which is needed should he be dismissed for poor performance. The
Industrial Court expects employees to have their performance fairly assessed prior to
any decision to dismiss on the grounds of poor performance. The evidence that this
has been done is the performance appraisal forms signed by the supervisor.

Chapter 5: Payment Systems
The key characteristics of a benefit package which is likely to be attractive to employees.

a) The package must be easily understood, i.e. employees understand their
entitlements and how to apply for these benefits. Employee handbooks or online
explanations and forms would be helpful in this regard.
b) The benefits must be relevant to the needs of the individual employees. Thus,
extra maternity leave would not be attractive or relevant to male employees. A
flexi-benefit scheme would help achieve this objective.
The benefits must be equal to or better than those provided by other employers. For
this purpose, employers must conduct regular benefit surveys to determine changes in
offerings by other employers, especially competitors.

Chapter 6: Benefits and Rewards
Benefits must be provided by employers to employees within the scope of the Employment
Act, the Sabah or Sarawak Labour Ordinance.

a) Paid sick leave (14, 18 or 22 days per year, depending upon the length of the
employees service).
b) Paid annual leave (8, 12, or 16 days per year, depending upon the length of the
employees service).
c) A minimum of 10 paid public holidays per year.
d) Termination benefits of 10, 15 or 20 days wages for every year of service when the
employee is retrenched or the employer closes his business.
e) Maternity leave of 60 days when the employee gives birth. The leave will be paid if
the employee has a minimum of 90 days service and has no more than five surviving
children.

Rewards can drive employee behaviour if certain conditions are met. The rewards must be:

a) Perceived as fair by the employees, i.e. based on known rules. If the employees do not
know what they have to do to get a reward, they will not be motivated to achieve
them.
b) Attractive to the employees concerned. If the reward is considered too little or not
relevant to the needs of the employees, they will not be driven to try to win the
rewards.
c) Perceived as achievable. If the behaviour or output needed to get the reward is seen as
impractical or impossible, the employees may not try to achieve the necessary output.
While employees will accept a challenge, they must perceive that there is a chance of
success.
d) Customized for the needs of different persons and groups in the organization. What
attracts one group may not be popular with another.

In order to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) an employer must
do the following:

a) Provide a safe workplace, as safe as is practicable.
b) To ensure a safe workplace, the employer must provide safety training, safety
supervision, and information to employees concerning hazards, provide personal
safety equipment to employees and so on.
c) Draft, disseminate and review a safety policy, if the employer has more than five
employees.
d) Appoint a safety committee, if the employer has more than 40 employees. The
committee must meet at least once in three months and minutes of the meetings must
be kept and available for inspection for up to 7 years. The committees membership
must be both management and non-management.
e) Recruit a qualified safety officer if the organization is in one of the designated
hazardous industries and has the requisite number of employees. A qualified officer is
one who is certified competent by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health
(DOSH).
f) Report serious accidents to DOSH, i.e. fatalities and accidents where an employee is
injured and is unable to work for more than 4 days.






Chapter 7: Safety and Health at Work
Grievances can be caused by a variety of causes including:
(i) Dissatisfaction with terms and conditions of employment caused by
misunderstandings during the recruitment and selection process;
(ii) Compensation packages perceived as unfair;
(iii) Bullying and other forms of stress inducing behaviour;
(iv) Unsafe working conditions, and
(v) Unfair disciplinary systems.


Chapter 8: Improving Productivity and Employee Commitment

The role of the employer and employee in developing an employees career.

The employer plays a major role in developing an employees career. The employer can
assess the interests and abilities of the employee, usually through an assessment centre which
may be conducted in-house or may be contracted out to a consultant with the appropriate
expertise. The employer can provide career counselling so that the employee knows what
career paths are available in the organization. The company can facilitate the employees
movement along these career paths by providing suitable training and assignments which
may include transfers and secondments. The employees role is to analyse his strengths,
weaknesses and interests so that he can decide what development interventions would be
useful. The employee needs to undertake training assignments and carry them out to the best
of his or her abilities.

Key criteria for successful quality control circles.

a) An appropriate support structureManagement must provide support to the
programme by appointing facilitators and steering committee and providing an
appropriate budget. They must show their support publicly by attending QCC
activities.
b) TrainingAll parties involved in QCCs need ongoing training in a variety of
skills and activities including how to organize their QCC meetings, how to
carry out statistical analysis and the use of various problem-solving tools.
c) To encourage employees to participate and to develop a climate of
competition between groups, adequate publicity must be given to group
activities.
d) A suitable reward system which may include financial and non-financial
rewards to encourage workers to willingly participate.



Chapter 9: Disciplinary Systems

To deal with sexual harassment at the workplace an employer should do the following:
a) Train employees so that they all understand what types of behaviour constitute sexual
harassment and the harm it does to victims and the organization where it occurs. The
training should also include explanation on what victims should do when faced with
sexual harassment at work.
b) Appoint and train a special investigating committee so that allegations of sexual
harassment can be properly handled.
c) Establish a written policy and procedure which clarifies that the employer will not
tolerate sexual harassment and what an employee should do when faced with
harassment.
d) Take prompt action to investigate, and where appropriate institute disciplinary action
against any sexual harasser.


The procedures necessary if an employee is to be dismissed on the grounds of poor
performance.

If an employer does not follow fair procedures prior to dismissing an employee, the employee
may file a claim against the employer, either at the Labour Department or at the Industrial
Relations Department or at the High Court. The cost of defending this claim is high and if the
employer loses, he may either have to reinstate the employee or pay compensation.

Before dismissing an employee on the grounds of poor performance, the employer must
follow the following procedures:
a) Inform the employee, preferably in writing, that his performance is not acceptable and
give details as to the problems with the performance.
b) Assist the employee to improve by offering coaching, training, counselling or any
other relevant help.
c) Set a time frame within which the employee is expected to improve. The time given
should be reasonable in the circumstances.
d) Only after the above has been implemented and the employee has nevertheless not
improved can he be dismissed.

To avoid retrenching workers when company is overstaffed?

a) Freezing external recruitment, except for jobs that cannot be filled by existing
staff, and transferring redundant staff into vacancies that occur when
employees leave. This step will generally require extra effort to train and
retrain the workers who are being redeployed.
b) Cutting back all unnecessary costs and luxuries to save money so that
employees jobs can be saved for as long as possible.
c) Offering a Voluntary Separation Scheme, including Early Retirement Scheme,
to encourage employees to resign.
d) Reducing wages and other benefits, if the employees agree, so as to protect
jobs for as long as possible.

Sexual Harrassment;
There are two categories of sexual harassment, namely sexual coercion and sexual
annoyance. Sexual Coercion is a type of harassment which has direct results in some
consequence to the victim's employment. It is an employment discrimination. Sexual
coercion is under a condition of employment, where an openly or implicitly offer in keeping a
job or getting a promotion is made by a supervisor to an employee in exchange for sexual
favors. Such person normally has the power over promotion or raise of the employee.
In sexual coercion, promotion and favorable job benefits will follow if an employee takes the
advantage and consented to sex. On the contrary, if the employee rejects, the job benefits are
denied. The second type of harassment - sexual annoyance is also known as hostile
environment sexual harassment. Sexual annoyance is a demeaning and unwelcome sexually
related behavior that is offensive, hostile or intimidating to the victim, but has no direct
connection to any job benefits. However, the annoying behavior creates an offensive working
environment which affects the victim's ability to continue working. Sexual annoyance
includes sexual harassment by an employee against a co-employee. Similarly, sexual
harassment by a company's customer against an employee also falls into this category.


Chapter 10: Industrial Relations

Employees join trade unions for a variety of reasons. There are three major reasons why
employees become union members. These are:

a) Economic reasons. Typically, individuals have little bargaining power. When
offered wages and other benefits as a package by the employer in return for
their work, they either take it or leave it. Their ability to bargain other items is
strictly limited, because generally, workers need a job more than an employer
needs any particular worker. Trade unions can conduct collective bargaining
on behalf of the workers in an establishment to improve the terms and
conditions offered, or at the very least, if there is a financial crisis, they will
endeavour to maintain the current terms and not allow the employer to reduce
them.
b) Protection of rights, especially security of employment. Unions will try to
ensure their members are not exploited by their employers. One of the most
important rights to employees is security of employment. Unions try to protect
jobs. They will negotiate with employers to save jobs if the company is facing
a financial crisis and they may lobby the government on policies which impact
on the right of an employer to retrench. When an employee is faced with
dismissal on the grounds of misconduct, his union will try to defend him as far
as possible.
c) Employees join unions for social reasons. Workers, as with all other persons,
have social needs. This can be met by joining with other workers in a trade
union which also provides opportunities for workers to exercise leadership and
to give assistance to their fellow workers. Camaraderie and solidarity are
important concepts in the union movement.

Employees in Malaysia can go on strike as this is a legal activity, providing various
conditions are met. These conditions are:
a) The employees must be members of a registered trade union.
b) The employees must have a trade dispute with their employer.
c) The employees who have a trade dispute must take a secret ballot before they go on
strike. The strike is only permissible if two-thirds of the union members concerned
vote for the strike action.
d) The strike ballot papers must be sent to the Director-General of Trade Unions
(DGTU) within 14 days of taking the ballot.
e) The employees must wait for at least 7 days after sending the ballot papers to the
DGTU before commencing the strike.
f) If the dispute is referred to the Industrial Court for arbitration (after the breakdown of
conciliation talks), the strike action must be cancelled.
g) In practice, nearly all disputes not settled at conciliation are immediately referred to
the Industrial Court.

Thus, while it is possible in theory for employees to go on strike legally, it is very rare for
this to happen because of the procedures laid down in the law. Failure to follow the required
procedures is a serious offence for which individuals as well as any trade union involved
could be prosecuted.


The changes that may occur if an employees union is formed?

i. presence of union changes relationship between management and employees
ii. HR department and line managers and supervisors will find their roles altered.
iii. more formal rules and regulations
iv. less management or supervisory discretion allowed
v. management staff no longer allowed to act according to their whims and fancies.
vi. possible increase in fringe benefits for employees