HRM- 301 -Human Resource Management session 1 notes.
This course introduces you to the central processes that make up human resource management practice in
organisations. We consider various options for attracting, retaining and developing employees and ensuring that
employers meet their legal and ethical obligations in relation to workforce management. You will cover the key
HR functions of recruitment and selection, learning and development, workforce planning, performance and
reward management, occupational health and safety, and diversity management. In this course students have the
opportunity to develop their professional skills and knowledge in managing the employment cycle.
In a nut-shell, the course aims to: 1) facilitate an understanding of what it is that HR Managers do and how they
do it, and, 2) promote an evidence-based approach to examining the effectiveness of the various options for
managing an organisation’s workforce.
Activity write 2 situations in which you felt very dissatisfied with customer service you received. Describe
each circumstance in details and consider the causes of the service in terms of possible HRM activities
From the book Human Resource Management An Experimental Approach (by H John Bernardin
and Joyce E.A Russel)
An organization achieves its objectives through HR. An effective organization is one where the most
effective employees or work units are those providing the highest possible quantity and quality of
work at the lowest cost and in the most timely fashion, with a minimum of supervision and with a
maximum of positive impact on co-workers, organizational units and the client/customer
population.
Every organization is comprised of people. Acquiring their services, developing their skills,
motivating them to high levels of performance, and ensuring that they maintain their commitment
to the organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This is true regardless of the
type of organization—government, business, education, health, recreation, or social action. Hiring
and keeping good people is critical to the success of every organization
HRM concerns the recruitment, selection, development, compensation, retention, evaluation and
promotion of personnel within an organization.
The HR of an organization consist of all people who perform its activities. In a sense all decisions
which affect the workforce, concerns and is a part of the organization’s HRM function.
Regardless of the size of a formal HRM or personnel department, the activities involved in HRM are
pervasive throughout or spread throughout the organization.
The most effective HRM programs, policies and practices are those which are established,
maintained and inspired with the organization’s mission and strategic plan. In particular, with total
customer satisfaction as the ultimate goal.
Reasons for the increased importance of HRM
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Declining productivity
Increasingly competitive work environment
Also mostly abroad another factor is increased laws and regulations
Proliferation of law suits related to HR
Change in work force characteristics
Poor fit between work force knowledge, skills and abilities and job requirement.
Recruitment and Selection
Good recruitment is not just filling vacancies and Human Resource planning is the route to
forecasting HR requirement and ensuring that the recruitment and selection activity is directed at
getting the:-
Right people
In the right place
At the right time
With the right skill
To achieve the business objectives
Recruitment and selection processes should be effective, efficient and fair.
Ineffectiveness in recruitment and selection may lead to
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poor work performance,
unacceptable conduct
internal conflict
low morale
low job satisfaction and dysfunctional
labour turnover
Human Resource Development and Learning
HRD comprises of all the activities involved in organising individual and collective learning processes
aimed at the development of both employees and the organizations as a whole. Meaning as a way of
ensuring that individuals and organisations can improve their performance and adapt to change
through learning, training and development processes. This will lead to sustainable competitive
advantage.
Identifying training needs-----Plan and design training-----Deliver training-----Evaluate training
outcomes.
Compensation
A total reward approach Utilizes financial and non-financial rewards such as work-life balance
opportunities, recognition, opportunities for development and interesting work to enhance the
value proposition to employees with the aim of achieving higher quality recruitment, motivation,
performance and retention.
Performance and Evaluation
Performance management is a continues process of identifying, measuring and developing the
performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the
organization
The philosophy of HRM as originally conceived by the pioneers in the 1980s, the concept of HRM
was based on a philosophy which was fundamentally different from the personnel management
practices of the time. ‘Today, many pressures are demanding a broader, more comprehensive and
more strategic perspective with regard to the organization’s human resources… These pressures
have created a need for a longer-term perspective in managing people and consideration of people
as potential assets rather than merely a variable cost.
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HRM philosophers believe that HRM has two characteristic features, first, that line managers accept
more responsibility for ensuring the alignment of competitive strategy and HR policies, and second,
that HR has the mission of setting policies that govern how HR activities are developed and
implemented in ways that make them more mutually reinforcing.
HR systems and the organization structure should be managed in a way that is congruent with
organizational strategy.
HRM consists of the following propositions: That human resource policies should be integrated with
strategic business planning and used to reinforce an appropriate (or change an inappropriate)
organizational culture, that human resources are valuable and a source of competitive advantage,
that they may be tapped most effectively by mutually consistent policies that promote commitment
and which, as a consequence, foster a willingness in employees to act flexibly in the interests of the
‘adaptive organization’s’ pursuit of excellence.
Example 1
Southeast Bank in Florida implemented an expensive computer based managerial training program
simply because a major competitor used the program. No attempt was made either to assess the
actual need for the training or to assess the effect of the training in terms of service quality or
customer satisfaction.
Example 2
IBM installed computer in one of their division/factory only to realize that the factory workers
required training in high school algebra in order to run them
Example3
A large departmental store used the same psychological test to hire sales personnel for over 8 years.
At no time was an attempt made to assess if the test actually worked
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Fundamentals of Human Resource Management Tenth Edition
Chapter 2 Fundamentals of Strategic HRM (SHRM) slide 1
When you think about the millions of organizations that provide us with goods and services, how
often do you explicitly consider that these organizations depend on people to make them operate?
Only under unusual circumstances, such as when you are put on hold for too long on a company’s
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toll-free customer-service line or when a major corporation is sued for a discriminatory HRM
practice, do you recognize the important role that employees play in making organizations work.
But how did these people come to be employees in their organizations? How were they selected?
Why do they come to work on a regular basis? How do they know what to do on their jobs? How
does management know if the employees are performing adequately? And if they are not, what can
be done about it? Will today’s employees be adequately prepared for the technologically advanced
work the organization will require of them in the years ahead? What happens in an organization if a
union is present? Adding to this employee find themselves working on project teams with various
people from across the organization. Others may do the majority of their work at home and rarely
see any of their co-workers. And, of course, global competition has increased the importance of
improving workforce productivity and looking globally for the best-qualified workers. Federal
legislation requires organizations to hire the best-qualified candidate without regard to race, age,
religion, colour, sex, disability, or national origin and someone must ensure that this is done.
Employees need to be trained to function effectively within the organization and again, someone
must oversee this as well as the continuing personal development of each employee. Someone must
ensure that these employees maintain their productive affiliation with the organization. The work
environment must be structured to encourage worker retention while simultaneously attracting new
applicants. Those primarily responsible for carrying out these activities, are human resource
professionals. Thus, organizations need HRM specialists trained in psychology, sociology,
organization and work design and law.
The Strategic Nature
Many companies today recognize the importance of people in meeting their goals. HRM must
therefore balance two primary responsibilities: assisting the organization in its strategic direction
and representing and advocating for the organization’s employees. Clearly, HRM has a significant
role in today’s organizations. HRM must be forward thinking. HRM must not simply react to what
“management” states. Rather, HRM must take the lead in assisting management with the “people”
component of the organization. Moreover, an organization’s employees can assist in gaining and
maintaining a competitive advantage. Attracting and keeping such employees requires HRM policies
and practices that they desire. Being a strategic partner also involves supporting the business
strategy. This means working with line management in analyzing organizational designs, the culture,
and performance systems, and recommending and implementing changes where necessary) ch 2 pg
32 SLIDE
Strategic HR Aligns with Organizational Strategy Different organizational strategies call for tailormade HR strategies. Staffing, training and development, motivation and maintenance all must
emphasize factors that support the strategy
HR professionals must align HR practices and plans with the overall organizational strategy. HR can
help the organization select an appropriate structure to fit the needs of the strategy. Some
questions to be answered are: How centralized or decentralized are the authority relationships?
How narrow or wide is the span of control? Once the structure is selected, jobs need to be designed
so that employees understand the relevance of their positions to the organizational strategy and the
necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to achieve success. Thought also needs to be given
to the amount of autonomy, skill variety, and work pace the position needs. Hiring and recruitment
policies must be examined to make sure that the proper sources are being contacted and people
with the right skills are being selected. Performance management also needs to support the
organizational structure. HR needs to decide what the relevant job standards are and how to
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evaluate performance. Compensation needs to reward progress toward organizational goals. In
short, strategic human resource management creates a clear connection between the goals of the
organization and the activities of the people who work there. All employees should see the link
between their daily tasks and achievement of a purpose or goal. The HR functions of staffing,
training, and development are important to supporting organization strategy through human capital
related areas such as building, developing, and maintaining a productive and talented workforce. 8
Research has shown that companies that link strategy with human resources show increased
profitability and shareholder value. Not only that, but the higher the emphasis on practices that
value human capital, the more profitable they seem to be. Superior HR practices, including hiring the
right people to support company strategy, seem to support productivity and profitability.9 example
of star bucks and delizia
Staffing Function
Before staffing the HR specialist must embark on employment planning. Organizations must have a
well-defined reason for needing individuals who possess specific skills, knowledge, and abilities
directly linked to specific jobs.
Until the organization’s mission and strategy have been fully developed human resource managers
cannot begin to determine human resource needs.
when an organization plans strategically, it determines its goals and objectives for a given period of
time.
These goals and objectives often lead to structural changes in the organization, requiring changes in
job requirements and reporting relationships.
These new or revised structures will require HR professionals to direct recruiting efforts to find
individuals with skills matching the organizational strategy.
Many organizations are choosing to assist recruiting efforts by developing and promoting an
employment “branding” strategy much the same way that consumer products have a distinct brand
image. The image needs to fit the organizational strategy, mission, and values. Google, for instance,
has promoted an employment brand that promotes their culture of creativity and innovation plus
employee perks like free food, games, and lots of social interaction. Branding assists candidates in
selecting an employer that they perceive to be a good fit with their values, personality, and work
ethic. Branding also allows candidates who do not feel that they would be a good fit with the
organization to decide not to pursue employment.
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As an organization’s jobs are analyzed, specific skills, knowledge, and abilities are identified that the
job applicant must possess to succeed.
Through the job analysis process, HRM identifies the essential qualifications for a particular job and
includes them in the job description.
This accomplishes two objectives.
First, prospective employees can see a clear connection between the job and the mission or strategy
of the company.
Second, it assures that the candidate is selected according to objective criteria and not politics or
personal bias, hopefully reducing the chance that illegal discrimination may influence hiring.
Almost all activities involved in HRM revolve around an accurate description of the job. One cannot
successfully recruit without knowledge of the critical skills required, nor can one appropriately set
performance standards and pay rates or invoke disciplinary procedures fairly without this
understanding.
Once these critical competencies have been identified, the recruiting process begins.
With information from employment planning, HR can begin to focus on prospective candidates.
When involved in recruiting, HR specialists should attempt to achieve two goals:
One to obtain an adequate pool of applicants, thereby giving line managers more choices;
Secondly to provide enough information about the job to head off unqualified applicants.
Recruiting then becomes an activity designed to locate potentially good applicants, conditioned by
the recruiting effort’s constraints, the job market, and the need to reach members of
underrepresented groups such as minorities and women.
Once applications have come in, it is time to begin the selection phase.
Selection, too, has a dual focus.
It attempts to thin out the large set of applications that arrived during the recruiting phase and to
select an applicant who will be successful on the job.
To achieve this goal, many companies use a variety of steps to assess the applicants.
The candidate who successfully completes all steps is typically offered the job
HRM must also ensure that the best prospect accepts a job offer.
Accordingly, HRM must communicate a variety of information to the applicant,
such as the organization culture,
what is expected of employees,
and any other information that is pertinent to the candidate’s decision-making process.
The completed selection process ends the staffing function. The goals, then, of the staffing function
are to locate competent employees and bring them into the organization. When this goal has been
reached, HRM focuses its attention on the employee’s training and development
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Training and Development Function:
The fact remains that new employees come into an organization and cannot immediately become
fully functioning, 100 percent performers.
First, employees need to adapt to their new surroundings.
Socialization is a means of bringing about this adaptation.
While it may begin informally in the late stages of the hiring process, socialization continues for
many months after the individual begins working.
During this time, the focus is on orienting the new employee to the rules, regulations, and goals and
culture of the organization, department, and work unit.
Then, as the employee becomes more comfortable with his or her surroundings, more intense
training begins.
Employees often take months to adjust to their new organizations and positions.
Although the job description may seem straightforward, employees need to learn
the culture of the organization,
how information is communicated,
and how their position fits the organization structure and strategy.
HRM plays an important role in assimilating employees so they can become fully productive.
To accomplish this, HRM typically embarks on four areas in the training and development phase:
Employee training,
Employee development,
Organization development,
Career development.
All four are critical to the success of the training and development phase. We have summarized
these four in
Employee Training Employee training is designed to assist employees in acquiring better skills for
their current job. The focus of employee training is on current job-skill requirements.
Employee Development Employee development is designed to help the organization ensure that it
has the necessary talent internally for meeting future human resource needs. The focus of employee
development is on a future position within the organization for which the employee requires
additional competencies.
Career Development Career development programs are designed to assist employees in advancing
their work lives. The focus of career development is to provide the necessary information and
assessment in helping employees realize their career goals. However, career development is the
responsibility of the individual, not the organization. E.g of tahir british petroleum paying for his
MBA
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Organization Development Organization development deals with facilitating system wide changes in
the organization. The focus of organization development is to change the attitudes and values of
employees according to new organizational strategic directions
The training and development function tends to be a continuous process.
The goal of training and development is to have competent, adapted employees who possess the
up-to-date skills, knowledge, and abilities needed to perform their current jobs more successfully. If
that is attained, HRM turns its attention to finding ways to motivate these individuals to exert high
energy levels
Motivation Function
Human behaviour is complex, and trying to figure out what motivates various employees has long
been a concern of behavioural scientists.
First of all, one must begin to think of motivation as a multidimensional process—
one with individual, managerial, and organizational implications.
Motivation is not just what the employee shows, but a collection of environmental issues
surrounding the job.
It has been proposed that one’s performance in an organization is a function of two factors: ability
and willingness to do the job.
Thus, from a performance perspective, employees need the appropriate skills and abilities to
adequately do the job.
This should be ensured in the first two phases of HRM by correctly defining the requirements of the
job, matching applicants to those requirements, and training the new employee in how to do the
job.
But another concern is the job design itself.
If jobs are poorly designed, inadequately laid out, improperly described, or there does not seem to
be a connection to the goals or the organization, employees will perform below their capabilities.
Providing latest technology to permit maximum work efficiency.
Is the office setting appropriate (properly lit and adequately ventilated, for example) for the job?
Are the necessary tools readily available for employee use? For example, imagine an employee who
spends considerable time each day developing product designs.
Motivating employees also requires a level of respect between management and the workers.
This respect can be seen as involving employees in decisions that affect them, listening to
employees, and implementing their suggestions where appropriate.
The next step in the motivation process is to set performance standards for each employee.
Managers must be sure that the performance evaluation system is designed to provide feedback to
employees regarding their past performance, while simultaneously addressing any performance
weaknesses the employee may have.
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A link should be established between employee compensation and performance: the compensation
and benefit activity in the organization should be adapted to and coordinated with a pay-forperformance plan
Throughout the activities required in the motivation function, the efforts all focus on one primary
goal: to have highly productive, competent, and adapted employees, with up-to-date skills,
knowledge, and abilities. Once that is achieved, it is time to turn the HRM focus to the maintenance
function
Maintenance Function The last phase of the HRM process is called the maintenance function.
This phase puts into place activities that will help retain productive employees.
HRM must ensure a safe and healthy working environment; caring for employees’ well-being has a
major effect on their commitment.
HRM must also realize that any problem an employee faces in his or her personal life will ultimately
be brought into the workplace.
This calls for employee assistance programs that help individuals deal with stressful life situations
such as substance abuse, child care, elder care, depression, and relationship problems.
HRM must operate appropriate communications programs in the organization. Such programs
ensure that employees are kept well informed—through such things as the company’s e-mail,
voicemail, Web site, bulletin boards, town hall meetings, and videoconferencing—and foster an
environment where employee voices are heard.
How External Influences Affect HRM: The four HRM activities are highly affected by what occurs
outside the organization. It is important to recognize these environmental influences categorize into
four general areas:
Dynamic environment,
Laws and regulation,
Labour unions,
Current management practice.
Dynamic Environment of HRM
The Dynamic environmental factors include:
Globalization,
Technology,
Workforce diversity,
Changing skill requirements,
Continuous improvement,
Decentralized work sites,
Teams,
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Employee involvement,
Ethics.
Laws and Regulation
Laws and Regulation
Today, employees who want to take several weeks of unpaid leave to be with their new-born
children and return to their jobs without any loss of seniority have an easier time making it a reality.
Although some employers may think such leaves negatively affect work flow,
government legislation has given employees the right to take this leave. Laws supporting this and
other employer actions are important to the HRM process.
Labour Unions
Labour unions were founded and exist today to assist workers in dealing with the management of
an organization
As the certified third-party representative, the union acts on behalf of its members to
Secure wages, Hours,
other terms and conditions of employment.
Management Thought
The last area of external influence is current management thought. In today’s organizations, we can
see the influence of management practice affecting HRM in a variety of ways. Motivation techniques
cited in management literature, as well as W. Edwards Deming’s influence on continuous
improvement programs to enhance productivity, have made their way into HRM activities. Writers
such as Tom Peters and Peter Drucker emphasize giving employees a say in what affects their work,
teams, and work process engineering. Implementing these will ultimately require the assistance of
HRM professionals.
Example: Like many other companies, Starbucks recently announced store closings and layoffs yet
they remain on Fortune Magazine’s list of “Most Admired Companies.” Why? The answer is simple—
it’s the people. From day one, Starbucks employees know exactly what’s expected of them and how
vital they are to the success of the business. As Starbucks says, it puts people before products.
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