OBHR 3P97 – Chapter Notes
Chapter 1: The World of Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management (HRM)
 The process of managing human talent to achieve an organization’s objectives.
o It provides the managers with the tools of getting the job done.
o Vital tool for every firm.
Human Capital and HRM
 Human Capital
o The knowledge, skills, and capabilities of individuals that have economic value to an
organization.
 Intangible
 Valuable because capital:
 Is based on company-specific skills
 Is developed through long-term experience
 Can bee, expanded through development
 The Idea of “Competing through People”
o “Mickey mouse can’t walk out of Disney, but the CEO can, it’s intangible.”
 HRM
o Managers have to help blend the idea’s of:
 Competitive Challenges:
 Changes in the Marketplace
 Globalization
 Technology
 Employee Concerns
 Job Security
 Health Care Issues
o These two aspects need to be blended to make an effective working environment for
employees to use.
Issue 1: Responding Strategically to Changes in the Local and Global Marketplace
 HR Managers and Business Strategy
o The typical HR manager job has drastically changed:
 They’ve gone from conducting administrative tasks to Strategic Partners
 For this reason, HR managers need an extensive brain of knowledge
about the entire firms plan
o Competitors operations, and the Firms Operations
 HR Managers need to have extensive knowledge on:
o Six Sigma
 Set of principles and practices that focus on:
 Understanding customer needs
 Doing things right the first time
 Striving for continuous improvement
o Reengineering
 The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve
dramatic improvements in:
 Cost, quality, service, and speed.
o Downsizing, Outsourcing, and Offshoring
 Downsizing – Planned elimination of jobs
 Outsourcing – Contracting outside to get inside work completed
 Offshoring – Sending jobs to other countries
o Globalization (70% - 85%)
 Impact:
 “Anything, anywhere, anytime” markets are increasing
 Partnership with foreign firms
 Lower trade end tariffs barriers.
 Strategic Changes
o Reactive changes
 Changes that occur after external forces have already affected performance
o Proactive changes
 Change initiated to take advantage of targeted opportunities.
Issue 2: Setting and Achieving Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Goals
 Corporate Social Responsibility
o Look for the best interests of the people and communities affected by its activities
 Sustainability
o Ability to produce a good or service without damaging the environment or depleting a
resource.
Issue 3: Advancing HRM with Technology
 Changing where people work and at which times
o Collaborative Software has been developed to allow workers to interface and share
information with one another electronically
 Touch Labor to Knowledge Workers
o Knowledge workers
 Workers whose responsibilities extend past the physical execution of work to
include planning, decision making, and problem solving
 Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS)
o A computerized system that provides current and accurate data for purposes of control
and decision making
o Impact:
 Operational, Relational, Transformational
Issue 4: Containing Costs while Retaining Top Talent and Maximizing Productivity
 Organizational Approaches to lowering labor related costs:
o Downsizing
o Furloughing
 When the company asks employees to take time off for either no pay or reduced
pay.
 Examples:
 Offering 20% of salaries and continued benefits for 6-12 months.
 Can work for another company as long as it’s not a competitor
 Drawbacks:
 Doesn’t cut costs back as much as Downsizing does
 Employees that are not furloughed feel resentful as they are left with
more work and increased work times.
 Hurts companies recruiting efforts.
o Offshoring (Global Sourcing)
 Shifting work to overseas locations
 Enables cost reduction (40-60% on labor costs)
o Nearshoring
 Moving jobs closer to one’s home country.
 Rising labor costs in China is making companies shift work to Mexico or
Central America.
o Homeshoring
 Outsources the work to domestic independent contractors who work out of their
homes.
 Pros and Cons of a Layoff
o Pros:
 A fiercely loyal, more productive resource
 Higher customer satisfaction
 Readiness to snap back with the economy
 A recruiting edge
 Workers who are riskier when it comes to innovation knowing their jobs are safe.
o Cons:
 Severance and rehiring costs
 Vacation/Sick Days
 Pension/Benefit Payoffs
 Aggrieved worker lawsuits
 Survivors are risk averse, paranoid, and political
 Employee Leasing
o The process of dismissing employees that are then hired by a leasing company and
contracting with that company to lease back the employees.
Issue 5: Responding to the Demographic and Diversity Challenges of the Workforce
 Difference Generations
o Baby Boomers
 Poor at Technology
 Long work hours, and more experience
o Generation X
 Watch parents get let go
 Very individualistic
o Millennials
 Immigrants/Refugees
o Literacy Issue
 “Overall problem in Canada as well as low productivity”
Demographic Changes
#
#
#
More Diverse Workforce
Aging Workforce
More educated workforce
Managing Diversity
#
Being aware of characteristics common to
employees, while also managing
employees as individuals
Issue 6: Adapting to Educational and Cultural Shifts Affecting the Workforce
 Other factors:
o Cultural and Societal Changes
o Employee Rights
o Privacy Concerns
o Changing nature of the job
o Changing attitudes before work
o Balancing work and family
Partnership of Line Managers and HR Departments
 Line managers are non-HR managers who are responsible for overseeing the work for other
employees.
Responsibilities of the HR Manager
# Advice and Counsel
# Service
# Policy Formulation and implementation
# Employee advocacy
Competencies of the HR Manager
# Business Mastery
# HR Mastery
# Change Mastery
# Personal Credibility
Chapter 2: Strategy and HR Planning
Strategic Planning and HR
 Strategic Planning
o Set of procedures for making decisions about the organization’s long-term goals and
strategies.
 Especially focuses on how the organization will position itself relative to its
competitors:
 Long-term survival
 Create Value
 Grow
 Human Resources Planning
o Process of anticipating and providing for the movement of people into, within, and out of
an organization
 It’s to help managers deploy their human resources as effectively as possible
Strategic Human Resources Management
 Combines the ideas of Strategic Planning and HRP
o It’s the pattern of human resources deployments and activities that enable an organization
to achieve its strategic goals
o Two Issues:
 Strategic Formulation – What is possible, whether a firm has the types and
numbers of people available to pursue a given strategy.
 Strategic Implementation – Making resource allocation decisions, including
decisions related to structure, processes, and human capital.
Strategic Planning Step 1: Mission, Vision, and Values
 Mission
o The basic purpose of the organization and the scope of operations
 Strategic Vision
o Provides a perspective on where the company is headed and what the organization can be
in the future.
 Vision is more long-term then Mission.
 Core Values
o The beliefs and principles that the company uses as a foundation for decisions.
 HR Manager’s Roles in Mission, Vision, and Planning
o Communicating them frequently, informally, and formally, via verbal and written
communications.
o Recruiting and hiring employees whose values are consistent with the organization
o Translating the mission, vision, and values into specific on-the-job behaviours
Strategic Planning Step 2: External Analysis
 Environmental Scanning
o The systematic monitoring of the major external forces influencing the organization
 The Remote Environment:
o Economic and Ecological Changes
 Changes in the economy: general, regional, and global conditions
 Economic booms – firms expand
 Economic recessions – firms contract
o But it varies on type of business
o Dollar stores increased in the last recession
 Ecological changes
 Natural disasters or living conditions
o Technological Changes
 Automation increasing
 Internet has affected virtually every type of business and everyone must adapt
and conform to fit customer needs
o Demographic Changes
 Age composition
 Labour Market
 Immigration
 Educational Requirements
o Social Changes
 Benefits and Workstyle
o Legal and Regulatory Changes
 Laws
 Competitive Environment
Step 3: Internal Analysis
 Core Capabilities
o Bundles of people, processes, and systems that distinguish an organization from its
competitors and deliver value to customers.
 Process
 Recipes or standard routines for how work will be done
 Systems (Tech)
 Top-notch Systems
 People
 Competitive Advantage (CA) Through People
o The resources must be valuable
 Source of CA when they improve the efficiency or effectiveness of the company
 Find ways to decrease costs, etc.
o The resources must be rare
 Source of CA when their human capital is unmatched
o The resources must be difficult to imitate
 Source of CA when the capabilities or contributions of a firm’s employees cannot
be copied by others.
o The resources must be organized
 Source of CA when their talents can be combined and deployed to work on new
assignment’s at a moments notice.
 Composition
o Strategic Knowledge workers
 Unique Skills that are directly linked to the company’s strategy and are difficult
to replace
 Companies tend to make long-term commitments to these employees, investing
in their continuous training and development.
o Core Employees
 Valuable Skills but not necessarily unique
 Transferable skills therefore can leave the company easily, thus managers tend to
shy away from developing these types of employees.
o Supporting Workers
 Skills that are of less strategic value to the firm
 Support the other two groups
 The scope of their duties are limited and their employment relationships tend to
be transaction based.
o External Partners
 Skills that are unique but not directly related to a company’s core strategy.
 Skills that are not readily available to firms
 Companies tend to establish long-term alliances and partnerships with these
people
 Lawyers, and consultants.
 Corporate Culture
o Cultural Audits
 Audits of the culture and quality of work life in an organization
Forecasting
1. Forecasting the Demand for Labour
a. Quantitative Approaches
i. Trend Analysis – A firm’s employment requirements are forecasted based on
some organizational index
1. Relies on a single factor to predict employment needs
b. Qualitative Approaches
i. Less statistical
ii. Management Forecasts – The opinions of supervisors, dept. managers, experts,
etc. about the organization’s future employment needs.
1. Dephi Technique – Decrease the subjectivity of forecasts by soliciting
and summarizing the judgments of a preselected group of individuals.
2. Forecasting the Supply for Labour
a. Staffing tables
i. Graphic representations of all organizational jobs, along with the numbers of
employees currently occupying those jobs.
b. Markov Analysis
i. Shows the % of employees who remain in each of a firm’s jobs from one year to
the next.
1. Also shows the proportions of people who are promoted, demoted, or
transferred/terminated.
c. Quality of Fill
i. Attempts to measure how well new hires are performing so that the company will
have enough top performers to propel it toward its strategic objectives.
d. Skill Inventories
i. List each employee’s education, past work experience, vocational interests,
specific abilities and skills, compensation history, and job tenure.
1. When data is gathered on managers, they are called management
inventories.
e. Replacement Charts
i. List current jobholders and identify possible replacements should openings occur.
ii. Succession Planning
1. The process of identifying, developing, and tracking talented individuals
so that they can eventually assume top-level positions.
3. Human Capital Readiness
a. The process of evaluating the availability of critical talent in a company and comparing it
to the firm’s supply.
Step 4: Formulation Strategy
 SWOT Analysis
o Helps executives summarize the major facts and forecasts derived from external and
internal analyses.
 Corporate Strategy
o Growth and Diversification
 Growth hinges on:
 Increased employee productivity
 A greater number of employees
 Employees developing or acquiring new skills
 Diversification
 Managers are inevitably faced with a “make or buy” decision.
o Mergers and Acquisitions
 HRP is a crucial point prior to and during the merger process.
 Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaws
 Recent high-scale merger.
o Strategic Alliances
 HR plays a vital role in a assessing the compatibility of cultures and potential
problems between the two companies looking to become mutual partners.
 HR selects key executives and develops a teamwork across the respective work
forces.
 HR is typically involved in the design of performance assessment.
 Business Strategy
o What the firm adds to a product or service by virtue of making it; the amount of benefits
provided by the product or service once the costs of making it are subtracted
(value = benefits − costs)
•
o
Low-cost strategy: competing on productivity
and efficiency
• Keeping costs low to offer an attractive price to customers (relative to
competitors)
• Differentiation strategy: competing on added value
• Involves providing something unique and distinctive to customers that
they value
Functional Strategy
• Vertical Fit
• Focuses on the connection between the business objectives and the major
initiatives in HR
• Horizontal Fit
• Aligning HR practices with one another internally to establish a
configuration that is mutually reinforcing
Step 5: Strategy Implementation
 Balancing demand and supply considerations
o Forecasting business activities
o Locating Applicants
 Organizational Downsizing, outsourcing, and offshoring
o Dealing with Surplus Employees
 Layoff Strategies
 Attrition
 Hiring Freeze
 Termination Strategies
 Severance Pay
Step 6: Evaluation and Assessment
 Benchmarking
o The process of comparing the organization’s processes and practices to those of other
companies.
 Human capital metrics
o Assess aspects of the workforce
 HR metrics
o Assess the performance of the HR function itself
Ensuring Strategic Flexibility for the Future
 Organizational Capability
o Capacity of the organization to continuously act and change in pursuit of sustainable
competitive advantage
 Coordination Flexibility
o The ability to rapidly reallocate resources to new or changing needs
 Resource Flexibility
o Having human resources who can do many different things in different ways.
Chapter 3: Equity and Diversity in HRM
Employment Equity
 The employment of individuals in a fair and nonbiased manner.
o This concerns all individuals regardless of any specific demographic.
o Emotional issue and legal topic.
Designated Groups
 Women
o Constitute roughly 50% of the workforce but commonly take jobs with lower statuses.
o The Gender Pay Gap in Canada is 0.76
 For every dollar a man earns, a woman gets 76 cents.
o Retention Strategies
 Equal Pay
 Flex Schedules
 Forty-hour workweeks
 Aboriginals
o 4.3% of Canada’s Population
o Barriers to employment
 Low educational achievement
 Lack of job experience
 Language and cultural barriers.
 Disabled
o One in 7 Canadians
o Barriers to employment
 Attitudinal Barriers
 Physical Demands
 Inadequate access to the technical and human support systems that would make
productive employment possible.
 Visible Minorities
o 16% of Canadians
o Barriers to employment
 Systematic Barriers
 Culturally biased aptitude tests
 A lack of recognition of foreign credentials
 Excessively high language requirements.
Benefits of Employment Equity
 Contributes to the bottom line
o Broadens the base of qualified individuals for employment, training, and promotions.
o Enhances an firms ability to attract and maintain qualified personnel
o Enhances employee morale
 Flexible work scheudles and work sharing
Legal Framework
 The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
o Constitution Act
o Guarantees fundamental rights:
 Fundamental Freedoms
 Speech, press, assembly, association, religion
 Democratic Rights
 Mobility Rights
 Legal Rights
 Equality Rights
 Language Rights
 Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA)
o Proclaims that every individual should have an equal opportunity with other individuals
to make for himself or herself the life that he or she is able and wishes to have.
o Discrimination
 Companies are permitted to discriminate if employment preferences are based
on a BFOQ.
 A justified reason for discrimination based on business reasons of safety
or effectiveness.
 Provincial Laws
o Pay Equity
 Pay equity law makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against individuals
on the basis of job content.
 Pay equity means equal pay for work of equal value.
 Pay equality – equal pay for equal work
 Equal pay for similar work
o Male and female workers must be paid the same wage rate for
jobs of similar nature even if they have different job titles.
o Employment Equity Act
 Corporations that have 100 employees or more and that are regulated by the
Canada Labour Code must implement employment equity.
 This code requires the corporation to do various activities.
Implementation of Employment Equity Act – Step 1: Senior Management Commitment
 Commitment necessitates a top-down strategy, the CEO or owner-operator publicly introduces
the written policy.
Implementation of Employment Equity Act – Step 2: Data Collection and Analysis
 Developing a workforce profile is an important tool and if absent the company cannot see where
it stands in the internal/external workforce.
o Stock Data provides a snapshot of the organization
 Shows the status of designated groups in occupational categories and
compensation levels
o Flow Data provides a profile of the employment decisions affecting designated groups.
 Tracks movement of employees into and through the organization
 Other terms
o Underutilization
 Term applied to designated groups that are not utilized or represented in the
employer’s workforce proportional to their numbers in the labour market
o Concentration
 Term applied to designated groups whose numbers in a particular occupation or
level are high relative to their numbers in the labour market
Implementation of Employment Equity Act – Step 3: Employment Systems Review
 The means by which employers carry out personnel activities such as recruitment, hiring, training
and development, promotion, job classification, discipline and termination.
o Systemic discrimination
 The exclusion of members of certain groups through the application of
employment policies or practices based on criteria that are not job related.
 Can create legal concerns for an organization
o Reasonable accomadation
 Adjusting employment policies and practices that no individual is denied
benefits, disadvantaged with respect to employment opportunities or blocked
from carrying out the essential components of a job.
Implementation of Employment Equity Act – Step 4: Establishment of a Workplan
 Workplan
o The summary should include any restrictions faced in hiring, staff movements, or the
need for specialized skills in a particular profession.
o Must Include:
 Numerical goals with time frames
 Explanations about the proposed improvements
 Descriptions of specific activities to achieve the numerical goals
 An outline of monitoring and evaluation procedures
Implementation of Employment Equity Act – Step 5: Implementation
Implementation of Employment Equity Act – Step 6: Evaluation, Monitoring and Revision
Sexual Harassment
 Main sources of the employer’s duty to prevent harassment in the workplace
o Human Rights Legislation
o Common Law obligation to treat workers with decency and respect.
 Sexual Harassment
o Unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct
of a sexual nature in the working environment
 Only 4/10 women take formal action
 ½ think their complaint would be taken seriously
 Types of Sexual Harassment
o When someone says or does things to you of a sexual nature and you do not want or
welcome it.
 Ex. Your manager talks about sex all the time and it makes you uncomfortable
o A person who has authority or power to deny you something makes sexual suggests or
requests that you do not want or welcome.
 Ex. Teacher says you must have sex with him/her or you will not pass the course
o A person with authority or the power to deny you something important punishes you or
threatens to do something to you for refusing a sexual request
Managing Diversity
 Diversity Management
o The optimization of an organization’s multicultural workforce in order to reach business
objectives.
 The Benefits of DM
o Better utilization of talent
o Increased marketplace understanding
o Enhanced creativity
o Increased quality of team problem solving
o Greater understanding in leadership positions
Chapter 4: Job Analysis
Relationships of Job Requirements and HRM Functions
Basic Definitions:
 Job Position: Different duties and responsibilities performed by one employee
o Job Family: Individual Jobs held with similar characteristics
HRP Functions:
1. Strategic HRP
a. Information on jobs is used to examine a company’s organizational structure and
strategically position it for the future.
2. Recruitment
a. Job specification:
i. A statement of the needed requirements, such as skills, experience, etc. in order
to be qualified for the job.
3. Selection
a. Job Description
i. A statement of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job.
4. Training and Development
a. Any discrepancies between the requirements of the job and what the job beholds may be
subject to training.
i. The difference between what the requirements of the job are and what the actual
person’s skills are.
5. Performance Appraisal
a. The requirement in the description of the job allow for the criteria for the appraisals.
i. If the certain criteria are not valid, and not job related, the employer can find
themselves being sued for unfair discrimination.
6. Compensation Management
a. Rate to be paid for a certain job
i. Most important factor of HRP functions.
b. The worth is based on what the job demands of an employee in terms of skills, effort, and
responsibilities
i. As well as the hazards imposed.
7. Legal Compliance
a. Discrimination Issues:
i. Vague Job Specifications or Requirements can lead to job discrimination
b. Example – In the past, job specifications for Plumbers, Electricians, and Mechanics said
they “Had to be male”
Job Analysis
 The process of obtaining information about jobs by determining the duties, tasks, or activities of
those jobs.
o Used to create Job Specifications and Job Requirements for future Job Descriptions
 The ultimate purpose of job analysis is to improve organizational performance and productivity.
Gathering Job Information:
1. Interviews
a. The job analyst may question individual employees and managers about the job that they
are currently occupying.
2. Questionnaires
a. The job analyst may circulate carefully prepared questionnaires to be filled out
individually by job holders and managers.
3. Observation
a. The job analyst may learn about the jobs by observing and recording on a standardized
form the activities of jobholders.
i. Videotaping
4. Diaries
a. Jobholders themselves may be asked to keep a diary of their work activities during an
entire work cycle.
i. Specific time line (ex. Every 30 mins)
Standardization
 NOC - National Occupational Classification
o Purpose is to compile, analyze, and communication information about occupations.
o Brings a great form of uniformity.
Approaches to Job Analysis
1. The Position Analysis Questionnaire System
a. Quantifiable Data collection method covering 194 different worker-oriented tasks.
i. 5-point Scale is used to determine the degree of which duties/tasks are actually
needed for the particular job.
2. The Critical Incident Method
a. The objective is to identify critical job tasks.
i. The aspects of the job that lead to job success.
1. Obtained through interviews or self-reports made by the employees
b. After the interviews/self-reports are obtained…
i. The job Analyst is required to separate them into job statements
1. Job statements convey required roles in the job that are vital.
c. Important as it teaches the analyst to focus on employee behaviours critical to job
success.
3. Task Inventory Analysis
a. The technique is developed by identifying a list of tasks and their descriptions that are
components of different jobs.
i. The goal is to create a list of task statements that are applicable to all jobs.
4. Competency-Based Analysis
a. For companies with a fast-moving environment
b. This relies on building job profiles that look at the responsibilities and activities of jobs
and the worker skills necessary to accomplish them.
i. These skills can be identified through focus groups, surveys, etc.
Job Descriptions
 A written description of a job and the types of duties it includes.
o Contains at least three parts:
 A Job Title
 A Job Identification Section
 A Job Duties Section
o Pros to Worker
 Can be used to help them learn their job duties and to remind them of the result
they are expected to achieve.
o Pros to Employer
 Minimizing misunderstandings between managers and their sub-ordinates
concerning the job requirements.
 Use as base to subject sub-ordinates to do their job requirements if they aren’t
met.
 Job Description Aspects:
o Job Title
 Psychological Importance – providing status to the employee
 “Sanitation Engineer” compared to “Garbage Collector”
 Must represent the duties of the job
 Should indicate the relevant level occupied by its holder.
o Job Identification Section
 Includes:
 The Location of the Job
 The person to whom the job holder reports
 Date of revision of the job
 The Job Statement*
o Essential Functions
 Statements covering the duties of the job
 Arranged by most important
 Indicate the value of each duty
o Job Specification Section
 The personal qualifications a person must hold to perform the duties the job
entails.
 Covers:
o The skill required to perform the job
o The physical demands of the job
 Skills – Education/Experience, Specialized Training
 Interpersonal Skills
 Decisiveness, decision making, multi-tasker
Problems with Job Descriptions
1. If they are poorly written, using vague rather than specific terms, they provide little guidance to
the job holder.
2. They are sometimes not updated as job duties or specifications change.
3. They may violate the law by containing specifications not related to job success.
4. They can limit the scope of activities of the job holder, reducing organizational flexibility.
Flexible Work Schedules
1. Compressed Workweek
a. The number of days in the workweek is shortened by lengthening the number of hours
worked per day.
i. Commonly 4/10 which means four work days at 10 hours each day.
ii. Others include
1. Shortening the hours per week
2. Or 9/80 which means a day is taken off every other week.
2. Flextime
a. Permits employees the option of choosing daily starting and quitting times provided that
they work a certain number of hours per week and per day.
i. Core period – morning/afternoon time when all employees must be present.
b. Pros to Employer
i. Reduce tardiness and absenteeism
ii. Recruitment
c. Pros to Person
i. Adjust their work to accommodate their lifestyle
1. Higher job satisfaction.
ii. May not have to commute in rush hour times.
iii. Improves reliability, quality, and quantity of employee work.
d. Disadvantages
i. Not feasible in some areas of work
ii. Create problems with managers in communicating with and instructing
employees.
1. Which can cause managers to have to work more
3. Job Sharing
a. Arrangement where 2 part-time workers perform a job that may have been held by
someone working full-time.
i. The job sharers work 3 days a week with an overlap day for communicating.
ii. Paid 3/5 times a regular salary.
b. Pros:
i. May be well suited for families needing more flexibility
ii. Limit layoffs in hard economic times
iii. Job sharers will have lots of personal time to care of things, less absences
c. Cons:
i. Added time to train 2 people instead of one and more supervision
ii. The Job sharers may not be able get a long, and that’s the key to making it
successfully.
4. Telecommuting
a. Use of PC’s, networks, and other communications tech to do work at home rather than in
the workplace.
b. Pros:
i. Increased flexibility, therefore less absenteeism
ii. Reduce carbon footprints
iii. Productivity increases
c. Cons:
i. Loss of creativity as employees are not interacting with anyone.
ii. Negatively affects employee-supervisor behaviour relationships through loss of
knowledge, training or development and sense of connectedness.
d. Keys to success:
i. Identify jobs best suited to distance work
ii. Select responsible employees.
iii. Establish formalized telecommuting procedures
iv. Begin a formal training program
v. Key telecommuters informed
vi. Recognize when telecommuting is not working.
Chapter 5: Expanding the Talent Pool: Recruitment
 Employee Profiles
o Profiles of a workers developed by studying an organization’s top performers to recruit
similar types of people.
Who Should do the Recruiting?
 Large Firms – Full-time, in-house HR recruiters
 Smaller Firms – HR Generalist
 Work Teams – Groups inside the company select employees to hire so that they can be included
in their group.
o Organization that want to focus on their core functions outsource their recruiting to
outside firms.
 Recruiting Process Outsourcing (RPO)
 Also used by firms who are hiring a lot of people or need to hire quickly.
Labour Markets
 Area from which applicants are to be recruited
o Tight Market
 High Employment
 Few Available Workers
 Requires heavy advertisements
 Assistance from external recruitment agencies
o Loose Market
 Low Employment
 Many Available Workers
 Global Recruitment
o To develop better products via a global workforce
o To attract the best talent wherever it may be
o Issues:
 Local, national, and international laws
 Varying labour costs
 Varying practices
 Cultural Differences
 Security
 Visas and work permits.
Branding
 A firms effort to help existing and prospective workers understand why it is a desirable place to
work.
o 5 Objectives for Branding
 Secure you long-term recruitment needs (long-term employees, 20+ years)
 Build your name globally
 Differentiate yourself from competitors
 Build your plan locally and regionally
 Don’t oversell yourself (you might get caught)
Recruitment Channels
Recruiting Internally
1. Internal Job Posting – Quick way to find qualified employees interested in the position.
a. Smaller Companies
i. Can post a small notice on the break room bulleting board.
b. Larger Companies
i. Post on their intranet website – employees that are qualified will be notified.
1. A list is then prepared to see which employees are appropriate for the
position and interview process begins.
2. Identifying talent through Performance Appraisals
a. 9-box grid
i. Helps managers assess appraisal and assessment data to be compiled into a single
visual reference so they can see both an employees ACTUAL performance and
POTENTIAL performance.
3. Skill Inventories and Replacement Charts
a. Skill inventories are developed to keep track of an employees education, experience, and
interpersonal skills to see how they are best used in their companies.
b. Replacement charts are made to see who can easily step in when a current job holder
moves on.
i. Usually 2-3 candidates are put into place.
Recruiting Externally
1. Advertisements
a. Wide array of options – Websites/Newspapers, Help wanted signs, billboards, Craigslist,
Social Media, Emails, Twitter, and Text messages.
i. Pros:
1. Reaching a large audience of possible applicants
a. Depends on option used
i. LinkedIn will bring a different selective audience then
advertising in a Newspaper.
ii. Cons:
1. Time Consuming
2. Requires creativity in both design and message aspects.
2. Walk-ins and Unsolicited Applications and Resumes
a. Often believed that people who contact employers on their own initiative are better
employees then those contracted through programs.
i. Managers have to be careful in this subject as not fairly treating applicants can
harm the employers brand.
3. The Internet/Social Networking/Mobile Recruiting
a. Online Job Boards – Indeed, Workopolis, and CareerBuilder.
i. Employers can use keywords to search for applicants.
b. Social Media
i. Being increasingly used by companies to create pages to advertise job positions,
and showcase their company’s attractive features.
ii. Passive Job Seekers – People who are not looking for jobs but could be
persuaded to given the opportunity.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
c. Mobile Recruiting
i. Process of recruiting candidates via there mobile devices.
ii. Text Messages
1. Inexpensive, easy to send, fast, and work with any cell phone.
2. User doesn’t have to open an application.
iii. Social Networks
1. Inexpensive
2. Drawback – Some groups of people are less likely to be “wired”
a. The disabled – 54% of Adults with disabilities access internet.
Job Fairs
a. Set up booths, meet with applicants, and exchange employment info.
i. Industry Specific
b. Pros:
i. Cast a wide net for diverse applicants.
c. Cons:
i. May attract a lot of unqualified applicants.
ii. Only attract applicants in that certain area.
d. Virtual Job Fairs – Get away from the regional aspect and can attract even more people.
Employee Referrals
a. Word-of-mouth recommendations are the way most job positions are filled.
b. Cons:
i. Inbreeding – Companies that rely heavily on employee referrals may end up
doing this as the people that are being referred by employees are usually of
similar background.
1. Potentially be unintentionally screening out other classes.
c. Attraction-Selection-Attrition Model
i. Attraction – People with similar values are attracted to the organiation
ii. Selection – These employees then choose applicants similar to themselves
iii. Attritions – Employees who do not fit in, leave.
d. Nepotism
i. Process of hiring relatives.
Re-recruiting
a. Process of keeping track of an maintaining relationships with former employees.
i. Just in case they want to come back to the organization and bring back relevant
experience.
Executive Search Firms
a. Head-hunters – find the right person for a job.
i. Costs can vary between 25-40% of the person’s salary.
Educational Institutions
a. A source of young applicants with formal training but relatively little full-time work
experience.
Labour Unions
Public Employment Agencies
Employee Leasing
a. The process of dismissing employees who are then hired by a leasing companies and
contracting with that company to lease back the employees.
Improving the Effectiveness of Recruiting
 RJP – Realistic Job Preview
o Informs applicants about all aspects of the job, both desirable and undesirable
o Includes a tour of the working area
 Discussion of the negative health or safety considerations.
 Surveys
o Survey managers about how satisfied they are with the recruitment process.
 Based on the answers, the HR personnel can handle this situation and improve
what needs to be improved.
Metrics of Recruiting
1. Quality-of-Fill Statistics
𝑃𝑅+𝐻𝑃+𝐻𝑅
a.
𝑁
i. PR = Average job performance rating
ii. HP = % of new hires reaching acceptable productivity within an acceptable time
frame.
iii. HR = % of new hires retained after one year.
iv. N = Number of Indicators.
2. Time to Fill
a. Refers to the number of days from when a job opening is approved to the date the person
is ultimately chosen to fill the position.
3. Yield Ratios
a. The percentage of applicants from a particular source who make it to the next stage in the
selection process.
4. Costs of Recruitment
𝑆𝐶 𝐴𝐶 + 𝐴𝐹 + 𝑅𝐵 + 𝑁𝐶
=
𝐻
𝐻





AC = Advertisement Costs
AF = Agency Fees
RB = Referral Bonuses
NC = No-Cost Hires
H = Total Hires
AIDA Formula – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
 Effective Job Advertisements
o Prof listed this as a potential exam question in which we’ll have to design an
advertisement.
 Make sure to reach all four areas of AIDA
Chapter 6: Employee Selection
Overview of the Selection Process
 Begin with Job Analysis
o KSAO’s (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Other Factors)
 Are analyzed and compared against qualified and unqualified applicants.
*Reliability
 The degree to which interviews, tests, and other selection methods yield comparable data
o Also to the extent to which two or more methods yield similar responses/results
 Inter-rater reliability
 Agreement among two or more raters
 Measures consistency of reliability.
*Validity
 What a test/selection method measures how well it measures it.
o Two reasons for validating a procedure
 Validity is directly related to increases in employee productivity
 Employment equity regulations require valid selection methods.
1) Initial Screening
a. Cover letters and Resumes
i. Spelling mistakes biggest error, as the person revising them typically tosses
them, especially if the job requires communicational skills.
b. Internet Checks and Phone Screening
i. Employer will search name on google to find other things about you.
1. But this method has very little reliability as there are possibly others with
the same name.
ii. Phone Screening is basically Video Resumes
1. Elevator Pitch, recording yourself highlighting internal capabilities and
strengths that will benefit you in the job.
c. Applications
i. Standardization of Minimum Requirements and potential interview questions.
ii. Reference Checks – Used to test whether or not someone has falsely stated
something on their resume
iii. Suggested Sections for an Application to include:
1. Application Date
2. Educational Background & Experience
3. Convictions/Arrests
iv. Cannot ask for specific dates to things because that can be used to pinpoint age.
1. Trick – SIN numbers first digit has classification
a. Can be used to see whether or not you’re eligible or not to work
in Canada
2) Employment Interviews
a. Types of Interviews
i. Non-Directive
1. Interview asks open-ended, broad questions to let the person speak freely
a. Low reliability and validity because the information is hard to
trace to other interviews.
2. Good for Senior Managers
a. “Tell me about yourself”
i. Unreliable source for common grounds for comparison
between different interviewers with different people.
1. Inter-rater Reliability is LOW.
ii. Structured
1. Everyone gets the same exact questions with no follow-up
a. Unless semi, then the interviewer may provide follow up
questions based on what the interviewee has answered.
2. Twice as common as Non-Directive
b. Types of Questions
i. Situational Questions
1. Hypothetical situations trying to base future job scenarios.
ii. Behavioural Description Interview (BDI)
1. Tell me a situation when…
c. Process/Setup of the Interview
i. Panel Interview
1. Very diverse
a. Typically with 5 or 6 people, but prefer an odd number.
b. Behavioural/Situational type questions
i. Scoring Guide
1. EXAMPLE – Case competition
ii. Sequential Interview
1. Many interviewers, interview the interviewee one after another.
a. Most Senior person will interview last.
2. Each has specific questions and get together to compare answers.
3) Other:
a. Video/Phone Interviews
b. Computer-Administered
i. Automated through computers.
ii. Interviewer can’t ask follow-up questions.
Guidelines for Employment Interviewers
 Qualities of an Interviewer
o Humility, the Ability to think Objectively, Maturity, and Poise.
 Interviewer Training
a. Understand the Job
i. The Most Critical Step
b. Establish an Interview Plan
i. Purpose of the interview and the areas and questions that need to be covered.
c. Establish and maintain rapport and listen actively
i. Create a relationship or trust with the applicant
ii. Active listening is understanding the intentions of the message from the applicant
d. Pay attention to nonverbal cues
i. Facial expression, gestures, body position, and movements provide more
information about a person’s attitudes and feelings.
e. Provide information freely and honestly as possible
f. Use questions effectively
i. Use more open-ended questions (non-directive)
ii. Less of yes or no questions
g. Recognize Biases and Stereotypes
h. Avoid the Halo Error
i. Evaluating/Judging someone off of one high point or one low point and treating
that heavily to create a final judgement
i. Control the course of the interview
i. Stick to your interview plan
j. Standardize the questions asked
i. Ask the same questions pretty much every interview
1. Increase the reliability of the interview
2. Avoid discrimination
Post-Interview Screening
 Reference Checks
o Most reliable information comes from supervisors, who are in the best position to fully
evaluate an employee’s work.
 An employer doesn’t have the legal obligation to provide a reference but if
promised by the employer, it must follow through.
o A survey of Canadian companies found that the majority had to terminate an employee
for reasons that could have been discovered by a reference check.
 Background Checks
o Typical checked on:
 Previous Employment History, Academic qualifications, criminal record, credit
rating.
o Now an increasing number of companies are using Internet Checks
 Basically only checking social media websites like Facebook
 Credit Checks
o Credit reports – Credit Score reporting
 Used to analyze employee eligibility and financial reports
Pre-employment Tests
 Job Knowledge Tests
o Designed to measure a person’s level of understanding about a job
 CPA Exams
 Work Sample Tests
o Tests applicants to perform tasks that are part of the work required on the job.
 Competency-based selection – hiring based on observation of behaviours
previously shown.
o Basket Tests – Testing Organizational Skills
 Memos in a basket, but some are more urgent then others
 Most just went one by one from the top
 Assessment Centre Tests
o Evaluating candidates, often as a group, as they participate in simulations that are like
what they’ll handle in the job.
 Day in the life – simulation
 Spend a whole day in a simulated environment that replicates real things
 Cognitive Abilities Test
o Measure mental capabilities such as general intelligence, verbal fluency, numerical
ability, and reasoning ability.
 SAT scores – IQ
 Biodata Tests
o Collects biographical information about candidates that has been show to correlate with
on-the-job success.
 Situational.
o The more biodata questions that are asked, increased pattern size and can be used to
predict future job behaviour and performance.
 Personality and Interest Inventories
o Myers-Briggs
 What you might be suited for based on personality tests.
o Big-Five Factors
 Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness to
Experience.
 Polygraph Tests – Lie Tectors
o Measures change in breathing, blood pressure, and pulses.
 Honesty and Integrity Tests
o Very reliable and valid test.
o Testing whether or not someone is honest in job scenarios.
 Physical Ability Tests
o Used for demanding and potentially dangerous jobs
 Fire fighters or cops.
o Must be explained thoroughly how the testing is applicable to the requirements of the job
 Medical Exams and Drug Testing
Validity of Tests
1. Criterion-Related Validity
a. The extent of which a selection predicts important elements of work behaviour
i. Giving someone a coding test for a coding job.
b. Two Types
i. Concurrent
1. Data obtained from current employees about the same time that test
scores are obtained.
a. The supervisor gives predictions and then the test is compared
for the degree of comparison.
ii. Predictive Validity
1. Testing applicants and obtaining criterion data after those applicants
have been hired.
a. After a few months, supervisors that don’t know the test scores
should rate the employees on quantity/quality of performance.
2. Content Validity
a. When a selection instrument, such as a test, adequately samples the knowledge and skills
a person needs to do a particular job.
i. The closer the content of selection is to actual work, the more valid.
b. Driver of a Truck
i. Tested by driving a truck.
3. Construct Validity
a. The extent to which a selection tool measures a construct/trait.
i. The constructs are intelligence, mechanical comprehension, and anxiety.
b. Measuring construct validity requires showing that psychological trait is related to job
performance and that the test accurately measures the psychological trait.
Reaching a Selection Decision
 Can Do vs. Will Do.
o What you can do right now vs. what you will do.
 Clinical Approach – Subjective
o Those making the decision review all the data, and on the basis of their understanding of
the job, they make a decision.
 Statistical Approach – Objective.
o Identifying the most valid predictors and weighting them using statistical methods.
o Models:
 Compensatory Model
 A selection decision model in which a high score in one area can make
up for a low score in another area.
 Multiple Cut-off Model
 Requires an applicant to achieve a minimum level of proficiency on all
selection dimensions.
 Multiple Hurdle Model
 A sequential strategy in which only the applicants with the highest scores
at an initial test stage go on to subsequent stages.
o Happens several times before the final decision.
Chapter 7: Training and Development
 Training
o Tends to be narrowly focused and oriented toward short-term performance concerns.
 Development
o Effort that is oriented more toward broadening the individual’s skills for future tasks.
Strategic Model for Training and Development
 Phase 1: Conducting the Needs Assessment
o Evaluate whether training must be done, don’t train unless you have to train.

o Organization Analysis
 Examination of the environment, strategies and resource the firm faces so as to
determine what training it should focus on.
o Task Analysis
 The process of determining what the content of a training program should be on
the basis of a study of the tasks and duties involved in the job.
 Competency assessment
o Focuses on the set of skills and knowledge needed for the jobs.
o Person Analysis
 Determines which employees require training, and employees that do not.
 Helps avoid the mistake of sending all employees into training when all
of them don’t need it.
 Performance Appraisals can be a good structure to judge if a person needs to be
trained/developed further.
 But if the performance deficiencies are due to an external factor, training
is not a good idea.
 Phase 2: Designing the Training Program
o Training’s Instructional Objectives
 Instructional objectives are the desired out comes of the training program
 Describe the skills/knowledge to be acquired.
o Assessing the Readiness and Motivation of Trainees
 Readiness – whether or not the experience and knowledge of trainees have made
them ready to absorb the training.
 Motivation – The company needs to link the teffort involved and the payoff. Why
is the training important?
o Principles of Learning
 Characteristics of training programs that help employees grasp new material.
 Goal Setting
 Trainers encourage goals to be set by employees or explain the
importance of the objectives of the training.
 Meaningfulness of Presentation
 The relevance and importance of information being presented has to be
high to maintain high level effectiveness.
 Modelling
 People learn by mimicking other people. Senior Managers need to be
role models – A picture is worth a thousand words.

Individual Learning differences
 Visual, Audio, or Tactile Learners
 Switch up the way people are trained to accommodate everyone.
 Active Practice and Repetition
 Practice is very important, the skills that were taught earlier in training
can now be applied to real-life scenarios.
 Whole-versus-Part Learning
 Learning can be cut down into several parts to make it easier to
understand.
 Massed-versus-Distributed Learning
 The amount of time devoted to practice in one session.
o Most cases, spacing out the training will result in faster learning
and longer retention
 Distributed Learning
 Feedback and Reinforcement
 Can help individuals focus on what they are doing right and wrong.
 Behavioural Modification
o A technique that operates on the principle that behaviour that is
rewarded, will be exhibited more frequently then behaviour that
goes unrewarded.
o Characteristics of Instructors
 Good trainer – Shows more effort or more instructional preparation
 Based on knowledge of the subject, enthusiasm, sincerity, interest, humour, etc.
 Phase 3: Implementing the Training Program
o Training Methods
 On-the-Job Training
 Employees are given hands-on experience with instructions from their
supervisor or other trainer.
 Apprenticeship Training
 A system of training in which a worker entering the skilled trades is
given instruction/experience on and off the job.
 Internship Programs
 Students are given the opportunity to gain real-life experience which will
help them gain knowledge on how they will perform in work
organizations.
 Classroom Instruction / Programmed Instruction
 Self-directed learning – books, manuals, or computers
 Audiovisual Methods
 Video recordings, teleconferencing, blogs, wikis, etc.
 Simulation
 Emphasizes realism in equipment and its operation at minimum cost and
maximum safety.
 E-Learning
 Learning that takes place on the web or computer based training.
o Allows the firm to bring the training to the employees
o JIT training
o
Methods for Management Development
 On the Job Experiences – Coaching, Understudy, Special Projects
 Case Studies
 Role-Playing
 Behaviour Modelling
 Demonstrates desired behaviour and gives trainees the chance to practice
and role-play those behaviours and receive feedback.
o Learning Points:
 Modelling, Practice, and Feedback/Reinforcement
 Phase 4: Evaluating the Training Program
o Evaluating Criteria 1: Reactions
 Assessing Participant reactions – insights more than whether they liked it or not
 A company wants negative responses too because there are always things
that need to be fixed.
o Evaluating Criteria 2: Learning
 Testing the knowledge of the trainees before and after will measure if the training
has helped in development.
 Or one can compare between people that have participated in training
and those who didn’t to assess effectiveness.
o Evaluating Criteria 3: Behaviour
 Transfer of Training – How well employees apply what they have learned to their
jobs.
 Maximize transfer of training:
o Feature Identical Elements – Have conditions in the training
come as close as possible to the actual job.
o Focus on General Principles – Trainers will emphasize the core
principles rather than the job as it may change.
o Establish a climate for transfer
o Give employees transfer strategies
o Evaluating Criteria 4: Results
 Return on Investment = Benefits of Training / Training Costs
 Bench Marking
 Process of measuring one’s own services and practices against the
recognized leaders in order to identify the areas of improvement.