MIDTERM REVIEW FOR PSYCH 3172
Strategic workforce planning involves planning for deployment of human capital in line with
organizational and or business unit strategy
It involves
-reassignment
Training and development
Outsourcing
Using temporary help or outside contractors
Five major objectives of strategic planning
1. Prevent over and under staffing( overstaffing loss of efficiency because of excessive
payroll cost and surplus whilst understaffing results in loss of sales and revenue
because the organization us unable to satisfy existing demands for customers)
2. Ensure the organization has the right employees with the right skills in the right place at
the right time
3. Ensure organization is responsive to the changes in the environment
4. Provides direction and coherence to all HR activities and systems
5. Unite perspectives of line and staff managers
Two types of planning:
1. Aggregate planning
2. Succession PLanning
Aggregate planning:
Step 1: forecasting the demand for employees
● Organization needs to consider it strategy plan and rates of growth or retrenchment
-indicator for demand for employees is demand for product/service
-May be done through unit forecasting(bottom up planning, top down planning
and a combination of the two)
Unit forecasting(bottom up planning) involves point of contact estimate of future demand for
employee
- Promotes responsiveness to customer and market place
Top bottom forecasting involves senior managers allocating a fixed payroll budget across
organizational hierarchy
- Technique similar to sales and profit plans
- Each unit is assigned a budgeted amount and is then required to make decisions on
deploying those resources consistent with business objectives
- Allocation is solely on what the organizations can afford regard to input concerning
demand and marketplace dynamics
Demand for employee skills requirements must also be considered
- The organization also needs to consider the demand for specific skills that it will acquire
of its employees as part of HR planning
●
Forecasting supply: level and quantities of abilities, skills and experiences can be
determined using skills inventory
- Once demand for employees has been forecasted, the organization has to plan
for an adequate supply of employees to meet this demand.
-
The process involves estimating the actual number and determining the skills
that these employees must have and whether their backgrounds, training and
career plan will provide a sufficient fir for the organixation;s future plan
-One way to assess the abilities, skills and experiences of existing employees is
by using a skills inventory
Strategies for managing shortages
- recruit permanent employees
- Offer incentives
- Rehire retired employees part time
- Attempt to reduce turnover
- Work current staff overtime
- Subcontract work out
- Hire temporary employees
- Redesign job processes so that fewer employees are needed
Strategies for managing surpluses
- Hiring freeze
- Do not replace those who leave
- Offer early retirement incentives
- Reduce work hours
- Voluntary severance, leaves of absence
- Across the board pay cuts
- Layoff
- Reduce outsourced work
- Employee training
- Switch to variable pay
- Expand operations
Succession PLanning:
Involves identifying key management positions that the organization cannot afford to have
vacant
●
Usually senior management positions
Succession planning have two purposes
1. Facilitates transition when employee leaves
- Usually involves having a successor shadow the leaving employee
2. Identifies the development of high potential employees and assist with their career
planning
- The organization can attempt to develop key skills in these individuals that might
be needed in subsequent assignments
●
Many organizations fail to implement succession planning effectively
-One critique of succession planning model is that their timing often does not remain
in synch with ongoing and evolving business needs
-qualified successors may seek external career advancement opportunities if succession
is not forthcoming
Guidelines for Effective Succession Planning
●
It should be tied into the organization’s strategy relative to projected needs and
competencies over the coming five years
- Its critical that the organization modify the plan accordingly as the organization's
responds to unanticipated events and revamps its strategy
●
Organizations should monitor and measure the outcomes of succession planning
initiatives
- This helps to ensure that targeted efforts are producing results
●
Ensure that all HR functions that impact succession plan(hiring, training and
development, compensation and retention) are integrated and working in tandem
- Succession planning is often soiled without coordination
●
Organization needs to ensure centralized coordination of succession planning effort to
ensure that top performers are not being coveted by different executives as a possible
successor (this can potentially put managers against each other)
●
It needs to engage and involve managers throughout the organization
Succession planning involves taking an investment oriented approach towards employees.
Pros and cons of disclosing Succession Planning
●
When you do not tell
Disadvantages- high performers may leave the organization, unsure of their future
Advantages- allows flexibility as business needs change
●
When you tell them
Disadvantages- unrealistic expectations and implied contract
Advantages- retention strategy
Mentoring Vs Sponsorship
●
Sponsor
- Two types of currency:
-Performance currency : generated by your performance by
delivering that which is asked of you and a little bit extra.
Everytime you deliver a performance above expectation, you generate
performance currency
1. It is valuable because it would get your noticed ( Will
create a reputation for you
2. Would get you paid and promoted
3. It may attract a sponsor (because it raises your visualbility)
-relationship currency : created by the investments that you make in the
people in your environment
If you looking for a sponsor, they need to have these three characteristics
1. They need to have a seat at the decision making table
2. They need to have exposure to your work
3. They better have some power
●
Mentor ing: experienced executive or manager assumes responsibility for the
development of a lower level employee
- Individual development needs of the employee are joined with organizational
workforce development needs
- Selection of mentor should be carefully considered both technical and
interpersonal skills
-
Mentoring programs can be formal and informal
To be monitored closely with an awareness of diversity
Chapter 6
Design and redesign of work systems
Design of Work Systems
● Job specialization:
- Creates jobs with very narrow task(activity) assignments
- Resulted in high efficiency, quickly achieved job competency, low training
costs, but creates monotonous jobs
● Job enlargement:
- An increase in task variety to relieve boredom
● Job rotation:
- A variation of job enlargement
- Workers rotate across different specialized positions
- Enlargement and rotation add variety but not necessarily responsibility
● Job enrichment:
- Increasing the amount of responsibility employees have
● Vertical Loading:
- Reassignment of job responsibility formerly delegated to supervisor to
employee
- Employees become more accountable for their own work performance
because responsibility for quality and productivity which was once
assigned to supervisor is redirected to employee
Five Core job characteristics [ exhibit 6.2 ]
● Skill variety:
- Extent to which the work allows an employee to use a variety of acquired
skills
● Task identity:
- The extent to which the work allows an employee to complete a whole or
identifiable piece of work
● Task significance:
- The extent to which an employee believes in the importance and meaning
of their work to the organization and those outside the organization
● Autonomy:
-
Extent to which employee is able to work and determine work procedures
at their discretion, free of supervision
● Feedback:
- Extent to which work allows the employee to gain a sense of how well job
responsibilities are met
What workers Need
The design work model must also consider what workers need and want in order to
carry out their job responsibilities
There are four considerations:
1. Changing demographics and life styles (of the market place)
- Workers needs vary by age, gender, race, religion, physical abilities,
marital and family Status
- Workers no longer have generic needs
2. Employee needs for work/life balance:
- Workers are less committed to organization today
- If not, employees would experience burn out and perform less than
optimal levels
3. Employees need representation and have a voice
-highly skilled workers do not expect to be micro-managed
-They expect to use their training and experience to make a contribution to the
organization
4. Employee concerns about safety in workplace
- Workers want safe, hazard free working environment
Types of Task Interdependence
● Pooled interdependence
-
Individual employees work independently of each other in performing task
but utilize coordination of activities
-
the team accomplishes its tasks simply by combining everyone’s separate
efforts. Pooled interdependence is an effective design when your team members
are doing the same task in parallel (such as procuring different services or
responding to customer complaints) or are doing parts of a task that can easily
be combined to achieve the overall task (such as entering data to be aggregated
or writing discrete sections of a standard report). It works well when the task can
be standardized. Your sales team is designed with pooled interdependence if you
and others sell individually and combine your monthly individual sales numbers
to get the team result. The gymnastics team referenced above is really a group
with pooled interdependence. To be a team you need a team task — one that
requires that members actively work with each other to accomplish it.
● Sequential Interdependence
- Work in process flow is linear
- One individual depends on timely completion of quality work from another
coworker
- your team members rely on each other in predictable ways for the flow of
information, work and decisions. Each person’s output becomes the input for the
next person in the sequence. Sequential interdependence is an effective design
when some parts of the team’s task can be standardized, but other parts need to
be modified or customized, depending on the situation or client at hand. For
example, in a sales team designed with sequential interdependence, Anil might
qualify a client, and then the two of you discuss and agree on how you should
best address the client’s needs. You then meet with the client and reach
agreement on the work to be produced. Next, you meet with Donna, jointly agree
on any modifications that need to be made to the standard agreement, and
Donna produces the agreement. In sequential interdependence, each person
must complete his or her task before anyone later in the sequence and can
complete theirs.
●
Reciprocal Interdependence
- Work flow is random
- Responds to immediate situation
- Employees have joint and shared responsibilities for work
- your team members are sequentially interdependent, but in addition, work back
and forth. Team members need to adjust to each others’ actions as the situation
changes. For example, a hockey team has reciprocal interdependence. This is
an effective design when the nature of the team’s work is inherently uncertain or
when the team works in an environment where they need to adjust to changes
from customers or managers midstream. You can’t always know in advance
which members need to be involved at any given point in the process. For
example, in a reciprocally interdependent sales team, after you and Anil agree on
how to best address the client’s needs, you decide which technical experts on
your team will help craft a proposal for the client. You begin meeting with these
experts to jointly decide what you can deliver that meets the client’s needs, while
also being technically and operationally feasible, not to mention profitable. As the
client provides feedback on your initial proposal, you and the technical experts
meet to modify the proposal. As you are meeting, the client adds new
specifications, which leads you to bring in another expert to address that issue.
This process continues until you have completed the proposal.
Higher levels of interdependence require higher levels of coordination and attention
Employee life Cycle (see exhibit 6.3)
Outsourcing
● Contracting out some of the organization’s non core work activities to
outside specialists
-
Can work more effectively
Lower cost for the organization
● Areas that are frequently outsourced?
- Payroll
- Benefits
- Technical support
● More than 75% of organizations outsource at least one HR functions
● Can free up HR staff to focus on more strategic issues
● Considerations
- Cost saving
- Whether contractor can deliver
- Compliance with laws
- Impacts on employees whose jobs might be lost
- Impacts on morals of remaining employees
Offshoring: exporting tasks and jobs to other countries where labor costs are
significantly lower
- Eg. India
Advantages:
-cost savings
Extend work dat to 24/7
Disadvantages:
- Loss of domestic jobs
- Transfer of technical knowledge
- Public image/loyalty concerns
An increasing number of domestic and international organizations are merging and’or
being acquired by both domestic and international partners. Sometimes what happens
in merging is that the HR strategies are often neglected hence why most have a higher
risk of failing.
Issues for integrating new technologies (exhibit 6.6)
● Strategic Issues
- Impact on productivity
- Impact on quality of output
- Impact on timing/delivery of output
- Cost of equipment/technology
- Adequacy of current facilities
- New market opportunity afforded
● Strategic HR Issues
- Necessary expansion/contraction of workforce
- Training needed to utilize new technology
- Cost for hiring, severance, training
- Effective management of change
- Impact on work group dynamics
Impact of Technology on Organization
● Requires change in skills and work habits of employees
● Elimination of some low level positions and layers of management
● Less hierarchy, more collaboration
Barriers to Change
● Disrupting the status quo may be met with resistance by both employees and
managers
● Cost and reallocations of resources
- Perceive need to change
- See benefits from change
● Risk and uncertainty
● Poor coordination and communication can undermine change initiatives
Overcoming Resistance
● Promote and implement change so it provides benefits to those impacted
● Involve employees in change process to increase their commitment to change
● Open, two way communication
- Early before change decisions are made
- Dispel rumours
- Increase trust and acceptance of change by keeping employees informed
and asking for input
CHapter 7
Employment at will law
● Allows both parties the right to terminate their relationship at any time without
giving prior notice
Some exceptions to this:
● Collective bargaining agreement
● An express written contract
- Express contracts are used for middle and executive level management to
ensure some degree of security with their employment and income.
- It ensures that their employment cannot be terminated at will or without
cause
● Terms of implied contracts (verbal agreement)
● Judicially determined public policy exceptions
● Federal, state and local statutes which prohibit discrimination in employment
against given specified protected classes
The first antidiscrimination law passed by congress that impacted the employment
relationship was the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
- Gave all citizens the right to enter into contracts
- No remedies for unjust treatment were provided
● Civil Rights Act of 1871 gave employees the right to sue if they felt they had been
deprived of rights under the 1866 Act
● Equal Pay Act 1964- Title VII
- Prohibits discrimination of employment based on race, colour, sex, religion
and national origin
- Cover conditions of employment: hiring, firing, promotion, transfer,
compensation, and admission to training
- Applies to all private and public employers with 15 or more employees,
state and local governments, educational institutions, employment
agencies and unions
● Civil Right Act 1991
- Extended Title VII coverage to federal employees
- Allows litigants to sue for compensatory and punitive damages
- Requires heavier burden of proof on oarts of the employers in rebutting
claims of discrimination
- Provided extraterritorial enforcement of federal labor laws in protecting
U.S employees on overseas assignments
-
Established and equal employment opportunity commission (EEOC) to
oversee and enforce title VII and all other federal labour laws
● Age discrimination Act 1967
- Prohibits employment discrimination against employees 40 and older
- Prohibits setting of mandatory retirement ages except in cases of public
safety eg. airline pilots
- Amended 1990 by older workers protection act which prohibits
discrimination waivers at layoffs
- Covers all employees including federal government
● Rehabilitation Act 1973
- Prohibits discrimination by federal ( not private) contractors against
handicapped employees or applicants
-
Definition of handicap
● Persons with physical and mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more major life activities
● Persons with history of record of impairment
-Handicapped people must be otherwise qualified to perform (with reasonable
accomodations) essential functions of job eg. no blind bus drivers[ see slides 611]
● Pregnancy Discrimination Act 1978
- Prohibits discrimination agaisnt pregnant employees by requiring
pregnancy be treated as any other medical disability
- Does not require reinstatement of returning employee to same job
- Does not allow employer to determine dates to leave
- Employer cannot refuse to hire or promote on basis of pregnancy
- Employer cannot provide health plans that do not cover pregnancy
● Family and Medical Leave Act 1992
- Requires employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for birth,
adoption, or serious illness of a child, a family member, or employee
during a 12 month period
- It only covers organizations with 50 or more employees
- Employees must have been employed minimum of 25hrs per week or
1,250 hours yearly
- Employees in top 10% of employers salary ranges not covered
- Employer required to continue the employee's group health coverage
during leave
- Employee must be allowed to return to same or equivalent job
● Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act 2008
- Prohibits the use of genetic information in decisions related to health
-
insurance and employment
Employers need to utilize caution in collecting information about
employees which could give rise to GINA claim
● EEOC Complaint Process {see slide 18-20]
1. The complaint must be filed within 180 days of the alleged discriminatory
act
- Can be filed at state or local agency
- If charges complaint is dissatisfied with the outcome, the claimant
can refile within 30 days of initial decision
2. They would then investigate the complaint to determine if there is
reasonable cause
- If no cause has been found, the complaint would be dropped
- If cause was found the EEOC would notify the employer on behalf
of the complainant
3. The EEOC will first meet with the complainant to determine what would
constitute a satisfactory settlement and attempt to have the employer sign
a conciliation agreement
4. If the employer refuses EEOC may file a suit in the federal court on behalf
of the complainant or issue the complainant a right to sue letter
Burden of proof falls on the employee or applicant
- Disparate or adverse treatment happens when an employee is treated differently
from others based on some dimension of protected class status (race, age, sex,
religion etc)
Ways employers can rebuttal discrimination claims:
- Must demonstrate job relatedness of any criteria utilized in selection process
- Bona fide occupational qualification
Strategic plan of the equal employment opportunity commission
● Prevent discrimination through education and partnerships with other like minded
organizations
● Efficiently track and resovle charges of discrimination, evaluate data and report
trends to employers
● Develop working relationships between attorneys and investigators for more
strategic enforcement and litigation
● Expand the mediation program and increase use of ecternal mediators
● Become a model workplace and an example for the private sector to follow
Affirmative Action
● Requires organizations with 100 or more employees and $50,000 or more in
federal contracts to develop, implement and maintain a program of affirmative
action.
● Requires organization to have a discrimination free workplace
● Filed with the department of labor and monitored by the Office of Federal
Contract Compliance
● Four separate sections:
1. Utilization analysis
- Identifies employees of protected class
2. Availability analysis
- Examines availability for employment of a protected class in
immediate recruiting vicinity
3. Identification of problem areas
4. Narrative statement of corrective action
Pros and cons of affirmative action:
● Pros
1. It ensures diversity is in place.
2. It helps disadvantaged individuals with advancing.
3. It offers a boost to disadvantaged students.
4. It promotes equality for all races.
5. It breaks stereotypes regarding color.
6. It promotes more work and study.
7. It is needed to compensate minorities for centuries of slavery or oppression.
8. It lets minority students get into advanced education.
9. It assures equality in the workplace.
10. It offers protection from hatred.
● Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
It can serve as a reverse discrimination.
It destroys the idea of a meritocracy.
It can still reinforce stereotypes and racism.
It can generate unfavorable results for businesses and schools.
It can lower the accountability standards that are needed to push
employees and students to perform better.
6. It has a flaw with regards to diversity.
7. It would help lead a truly color-blind society.
8. It demeans true minority achievement.
9. It can be condescending to minorities.
10. It is difficult to remove, even after discrimination issues have been
eliminated.
Sexual Harassment
● An individual’s clear rejection of offensive and inappropriate, unwelcome
advances
● Forms of sexual harassment
- Quid pro quo
● Hostile working environment
- Presence (perceived or actual) of offensive or threatening environment
● Harassment standards used by court
- Reasonable woman’s test (an assessment of how a reasonable woman or
person if the complainant were male would be expected to act or react to
such working conditions
- Pattern of behavior
- Response of organizations to the complaint
Problems and challenges in managing sexual harassment [ exhibit 7.3; pg 302 ]
Guidelines for investigating sexual harassment:
1. Investigate all allegations
2. Conduct thorough and prompt investigation
3. Ensure that the investigator is unbiased, objective
4. Ensure that there is no retaliation
5. Treat the accused fairly
6. have both parties sign written statements
7. Take prompt action and equate consequences with behavior
8. Have clear, defined process for investigation
Chapter 8
● Staffing is the process of recruiting and selecting prospective employees
● Has an impact on an organization's bottom line
- Staffing process to become strategically focused
● Staffing decisions need to ensure employees fit organization’s culture
- Lining staffing needs with the organizational goals
Recruiting[ see exhibit 8.1, pg 335]
Temporary VS Permanent Employee
- Should be strategically driven
- Based on HR forecasting
- Temps cost less money
- Temp increases can be from specialized agencies
- Headcount increases can be avoided by subcontracting
When recruiting the question to be answered is how many candidates we need and how
much time to fill the position
● Yield ratios
- Offer information on how many applicants eliminated/remain at each step
in the recruitment process
- % of recruits that make it to the next level to be hired
Methods of recruitment
● Formal and informal
● Internal and externa;
● Targeted advertising in selected media
● Recruiting on internet
●
●
●
●
Outsourcing to staffing agencies
Private industry councils (PIC)
Executive search firms
On-campus recruiting
Recruiting on internet
- Fastest growing method
- Cost effective
- Speedy and ability to target a wide range of applicants
- Allows applicants to assess interests and needs with employer
- Global exposure to potential applicants
- Cut search process time by 75%
Potential challenges of internet recruiting
● Viruses
● Ensuring security
● Access to unauthorized areas
● Disparate impact against certain protected classes
● Can complicate reporting of data related to compliance with federal and state
laws
Selection process issues
● Reliability
-consistency of measurement
Screening criteria should elicit the same results on repeated trials across time
and evaluators
Reliability influence by criterion deficiency and contamination
Reliability us prerequisite for validity
A reliable test should be consistent or not change too much with the test taker
- If something is valid, we assume that it is reliable
*criterion - lacks something that is needed
Eg. interviewing for an editor’s position and forget to ask about writing ability
*contamination- irrelevant information for the job
Eg. MCAT lacks questions about medicine
● Validity
- Degree to which what is assessed is related to actual performance
- Ability ti establish job related validity is crucial to employers in defeinding
themseolves in discrimination allegations
- Content validity illustrates that measure or criterion is representative of actual job
content or knowledge
- Criterion validity demonstrated by relationship between screening criteria and job
performance
*content validity is subject matter
*harder to be valid than reliable
Interviewing Process
● Who should be involved
- Perspective supervisor, peers, subordinates
● Which interview format:
- Individual or group interviews
● Common interview errors
- Similarity error
- Contrast errors
*interviewer comparing instead of taking notes of individual
attributes
- First impression
- Halo errors
*hired when someone is perceived to be good looking because
beauty is associated with positive attributes
-
Personal biases
Behavioral interviewing is used with experienced and inexperienced applicants
- Asked about situations candidates is likely to face on job
- Candidates can present real life situations they were involved in and how they
handled it
Unstructured interview- spontaneous, unplanned
Structural interview- better at determining if the person fits certain criteria
Testing
Another critical decision in the selection process involves applicant testing and the kinds
of testing to use
The needs of organization and job structure (responsibilities, interpersonal relationships
etc) will determine whether any or all of the following should be assessed:
- -technical skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Personality traits
- Problems solving abilities
- Or any job performance indicators
The most useful types of tests are:
● Work sample test
- Ask applicant to complete representative sample of actual work
● trainability
- Measure
- aptitude in certain areas
-ability to understand critical job components that firm will teach new hires
*work sample and trainability testing provide candidates with realistic job previews
● Realistic job previews
- Make applicants aware of both the positive and the negative aspects of
job
- Decrease likelihood of new employee dissatisfaction
- Increase the likelihood of candidate's self selecting out position
● Personality testing
- Useful to anticipate how applicants likely to behave
- Few if any jobs require personality type
- Have been successful challenges in court
● Physical testing
- Restricted under ADA to testing only for specific critical job related
physical performance requirements
New Trends in Staffing
● Employment Branding: creation of an image which allows prospective employees
to view the organization in a certain way and aid in recruitment
● Candidate relationship management: building a relationship with prospective
employees which transcends hiring cycle and process to keep interest high
potential employees
● Applicant/organization fir: employers going beyond skills and experiences to
determine whether applicant interpersonal styles preferences appropriately
matched with organization culture
Questions
Chapter 8
How does an organization’s investiment
5. Devise staffing strategy for all of the following organisations. 1. A church- based kitchen soup
staffed with volunteers. 2.a professional based baseball team.3 A small internet startup. 4.a
publisher of a large daily newspaper in a major city, 5. police department, 6.a 400-room luxury hotel
Ans:Staffing strategy means how a company can handle staff in organisation i.e this is related to
employees hiring, recruitment, retention of employees etc different type of organisation opt different
type of staffing strategy
1. Church based kitchen soup staffed with volunteers : this type of organisation opt club staffing as in
this type of organisation employees interact with volunteers many time so in these type of
organisation need employees with social values, loyalty with their primary goal.
2. Professional baseball team : This type of organisation opt Normally Team staffing because they
want best players so they are ready to hire expert person & in these type in organisation normally
employees are not too much loyal with organisation.
3. Small Internet startup : This type of organisation normally opt Academy staffing as they are try to
get employees which are highly capable & by then organisation develop the potential by training in
house and in that case employees want expertise in a particular field of company & retain long life.
4. Publisher of a large daily newspaper in a major city : this type of organisation normally opt Clup
staffing as their profession is relates to public at large hence then want employees with loyal & social
image.
5 Apolice Department : this type of organisation normally opt Academic Staffing & for entering in this
field person can prove their eligibility with competitive exam also. so they hire people on the basis of
Eligibility & Exam performance.
6. 400 Room Luxury Hotel : Normally they opt Club staffing as their work relates to public at large
hence they want employees with social ability.
1.
How does an organization's investment in staffing benefit the organization after an applicant
becomes an employee?