Chapter 1 - Strategies, Trends, and Challenges in Human Resource Management PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Chapter 1 - Strategies, Trends, and Challenges in Human Resource Management PDF

Description

Introduction ● Human resource management: the practices, policies, and systems that influence employees behaviour, attitudes, and performance ● HRM practices that support the organization’s business strategy ○ Analyzing work and designing jobs ○ Workforce planning (determining how many employees with specific knowledge and skills are needed) ○ Recruiting (attracting potential employees) ○ Selection (choosing employees) ○ Training and development (preparing employees to perform their jobs and for the future ○ Performance management (supporting their performance) ○ Compensation and rewards (rewarding employees) ○ Employee and labour relations (creating a positive work environment) ○ Providing safe and healthy work environments and proactively meeting legal requirements ● Companies that have effective HRM and perform these practices systematically, employees and customers tend to be more satisfied, companies tend to be more innovative, have greater productivity and develop a more favourable reputation Why Are People so Valuable? ● Human capital: an organization’s employees, described in terms of their training, experience, judgement, intelligence, relationships,and insight (employees are resources of the employer) - the employee characteristics that can add economic value to the organization ● People are crucial to organizational success and the human and intellectual capital of an organization’s workforce provides an opportunity for substantial competitive advantage ● Employees are not easily replaced due to their specific qualities (skills + experiences) and are the source of success and failure of the company ● Human resources qualities: ○ HR are valuable.  High-quality employees provide a needed service as they perform many critical functions ○ HR are rare in the sense that a person with high levels of the needed skills and knowledge is not common. An organization might spend months looking for a talented and experienced manager or technician. ○ HR cannot be imitated . To imitate HR at a high-performing competitor, you would have to figure out which employees are providing the advantage and how. Then you would have to recruit people who can do precisely the same thing and set up the systems that enable those people to imitate your competitor. ○ HR have no good substitutes.  When people are well trained and highly motivated, they learn, develop their abilities, and care about customers. It is difficult to imagine another resource that can match committed and talented employees.

Effective management of HR can form the foundation of a high-performance work system: an organization in which technology, organizational structure, people, and processes all work together to give an organization an advantage in the competitive environment ○ As technology changes the ways organizations manufacture, transport, communicate, HRM must ensure that the company has the right kinds of people to meet the new challenges ○ To maintain H-P WS, develop training programs, recruit people with new skill sets, and establish rewards for behaviours (teamwork, flexibility, learning) What Are the Responsibilities of HR Departments? 1. Administrative services and transactions - handling admin tasks efficiently and with a commitment to quality. 2. Business partner services - D  eveloping effective HR systems that help the organization meet its goals for attracting, keeping, and developing people with the skills it needs. For the systems to be effective, 3. Strategic partner -  Contributing to the company’s strategy through an understanding of its existing and needed human resources and ways HR practices can give the company a competitive advantage. ● Think of responsibilities in terms of specific activities ○ No two HR departments have precisely the same roles because of differences in organization size and characteristics of the workforce, the industry and management’s values ANALYZING AND DESIGNING JOBS Work analysis; job design; job descriptions ● Job analysis: the process of getting detailing information about jobs ● Job design: the process of defining the way work will be performed and the tasks that a given job requires RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION Identify needs (which kind of employees needed based on job analysis and job design); recruiting; interviewing and screening; deployment of staff; and outplacement ● Recruitment: process through which the organization seeks applicants for potential employment ● Selection: the process by which the organization attempts to identify applicants with the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics that will help the organization achieve its goals ● Recruitment and selection can be done through external job postings on websites, social media or newspaper, or through internal job postings through availability of current employees with necessary skills ● May focus on a specific skill, such as experience with a particular program or equipment or general abilities, such as the ability to work as part of a team or find creative solutions ●

TRAINING AND DEVELOPING EMPLOYEES Orientation/onboarding; learning strategies; design, deliver, and evaluate programs; career development ● Organizations base hiring decisions on candidates’ existing qualifications, but to broaden their knowledge, skills and abilities, provide training ● Training: a planned effort to enable employees to learn job-related knowledge, skills and behaviour ● Development: acquiring knowledge, skills, and behaviour that improve employees’ ability to meet the challenges of a variety of new or existing jobs (preparing employees to work in diverse work teams, etc.) PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Integrate performance measures; performance appraisal systems; coaching ● Performance management: process of ensuring that employees’ activities and outputs match the organization's goals; how well employees are performing relative to job description for their particular position ● Activities of PM ○ Specifying tasks and outcomes of a job that contribute to success ○ Providing timely feedback and coaching ○ Comparing employee's actual performance over some time period with desire performance COMPENSATION AND REWARDS Develop and administer compensation and incentive programs; benefit program design and implementation; pension plans; payroll ● Play a vital role in motivation especially when they are linked to individual or team performance ● Link significant differences in pay to high performance ● Make sure employees know what is expected of them ● Give employees plenty of feedback, so performance problems can be identified and corrected early on ● Create a positive climate MAINTAINING POSITIVE EMPLOYEE AND LABOUR RELATIONS Terms and conditions of employment, communication; employee involvement; labour relations ● HR maintains positive relationship with employees through satisfying and engaging work environments

●

HR negotiates an employment contract with union members and communication with union representative to ensure issues are resolved as they arise STRATEGY Strategic partner in organizational effectiveness; change and development; workforce planning ESTABLISHING AND ADMINISTERING HUMAN RESOURCE POLICIES Guide and implement policy; create and manage systems to collect and safeguard HR information ● Develop and communicate policy to every employee, so that everyone knows its importance ● Prepare employee handbooks, process job applications, performance appraisals, benefits enrolments - all done with sensitivity to employee privacy ENSURING COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL LEGISLATION Implement policies to ensure compliance with all legal requirements; reporting requirements ● Human rights, employment equity, employee safety and health, compensation, benefit, privacy ● HR keeps to date and on track with these requirements Why Focus on Strategy? ● HRM is a means to support a company’s strategy - Its plan for meeting broad goals such as profitability, quality and market share ● Workforce planning: identifying the numbers and types of employees the organization will require to meet its objectives (hiring, training, reassigning, and how to handle or avoid layoffs) ● Evidence-based HR: collecting and using data to show that HR practices have a positive influence on the company’s bottom line or key stakeholders. ○ Shows that the money invested in HR programs is justified and contributing to the company’s goals ● Corporate social responsibility: an organization’s commitment to meeting the needs of its stakeholders ● Stakeholders: Parties with an interest in the company’s success (shareholders, community, customers and employees) ● Ways to show corporate social responsibility ○ Minimizing environmental impact ○ Providing high-quality products and services ○ Measuring how well the company is meeting stakeholder needs PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT ● Productivity: the relationship between an organization’s outputs (products, information or services) and inputs (people, facilities, equipment, data and materials) EXPANDING INTO GLOBAL MARKETS ● To survive and prosper they must compete in international markets as well as fend off foreign competitors’ attempts to gain around in Canada ● To meet these challenges, must develop global markets, keep up with competition from overseas, hire from an international labour pool, and prepare employees for global assignments The Global Workforce

●

Organizations with international operations hire at least some of their employees in the foreign countries where they operate and small businesses who stick close to home hire qualified candidates who are immigrants to Canada ● HR practices must take into consideration differences in culture and business practices International Assignments ● Organizations must be prepared to send employees to other countries, and to carefully ● select them ● Expatriates: employees who take assignments in other countries ● Must prepare employees to work in other countries by carefully selecting employees to work abroad on the basis of their ability to understand and respect the cultural and business norms of the host country, also need language skills and technical ability OUTSOURCING ● Outsourcing: the practice of having another company (a vendor, third-party provider or consultant) provide services ○ Ex. outsourcing accounting functions to an accounting firm ● Gives the company access to in-depth expertise and is often more economical ● Offshoring: setting up a business enterprise in another country ○ Building a factory in China where it’s less expensive to manufacture products ● Offshore outsourcing: the company providing outsourced services is located in another country rather than the organization’s home country MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS ● Mergers: two companies becoming one ● Acquisitions: one company buying another ● Mergers and acquisitions are sometimes hard because of people issues ○ Differences in businesses involved in deal make conflict inevitable ○ Training efforts should therefore include development of skills in conflict resolutions ○ HR needs to sort out differences in two companies regards to rewards, performance management, etc. What Competencies Do HR Professionals Need? 1. Credible Activists ● Being well respected in the organization and can influence the positions taken by managers - through gaining credibility by mastering all others 2. Cultural Steward ● Understanding the organization’s culture and helping to build and strengthen or change that culture by identifying and expressing its values through words and actions 3. Talent Manager/ Organizational Designer ● Knows the ways that people join the organization and move to different positions within it ● Must know the structure of the organization and how it can be adjusted to help it meet its goals for developing and using employees’ talents 4. Strategy Architect ● Requires awareness of business trends and an understanding of how they might affect the business 5. Business Allies ● Knows how the business achieves its success, who its customers are, and why customers support what the company sells

6. Operational Executors ● Carry out particular HR functions (selection, training, etc.) ● All other HR skills require some ability as OE, because this is the level which policies and transactions deliver results by legally, ethically and efficiently acquiring, developing, motivating, and deploying employees ● All these competencies require interpersonal skills; HR professionals must be able to share information, build relationships and influence persons inside and outside the organization Ethics in Human Resource Management ● Ethics: the fundamental principles of right and wrong ● HRM decisions should be ethical. ● 3 Basic Standards for Identifying Ethical Practices: 1. HRM practices must result in the greatest good for the greatest number of people. 2. HR practices must respect legal requirements, including human rights and privacy. 3. Managers must treat employees and customers equitably and fairly. What Are the HR Responsibilities of Supervisors and Managers? ● In large organizations, HR departments advise and support the activities of the other departments ● Many HR activities are carried out by supervisors and managers ○ Define jobs ○ Provide motivational environment ○ Communicate policies and comply with legal requirements ○ Recommend pay increases and promotions ○ Train, coach and develop employees ○ Interview and select candidates ○ Appraise performance Careers in Human Resource Management ● Top HR executive, Employee benefits manager, HR manager, compensation analyst, etc. CHRP DESIGNATION ● Certified HR Professional: the nationally recognized designation that recognizes individuals who have met the standards of professional knowledge and competence defined by the Canadian Council of HR Associations. ● NKE (National Knowledge Exam): must take to get CHRP How Is the Labour Force Changing? ● Labour force: all the people willing and able to work ● Internal labour force: an organization’s workers ● Internal labour force is drawn from the external labour market: Individuals who are actively seeking employment ● HR professionals need to be aware of trends in the composition of the external labour market, because these trends affect the organization’s options for creating a well-skilled, motivated internal labour force AN AGING WORKFORCE ● Canada’s population and its labour force are aging

●

Fastest-growing age group is expected to be 55+, 25-54 year old group will decrease its numbers slightly so its share of total workforce will fall, 15-24 will be fewer in number ● This combination of trends will cause the overall workforce to age ● HR pros will spend time on concerns related to supporting needs of multigenerational workforce, planning retirement and reskilling workers and organizations will struggle with way to control rising cost of health-related benefits ● Have to find ways to attract younger generations ● Nevertirees - older workers say they intend to have a working retirement A DIVERSE WORKFORCE ● Reflects communities and clients to which they sell services SKILL DEFICIENCIES OF THE WORKFORCE ● The increasing use of computers to do routine tasks has shifted the kinds of skills needed for employees ● No longer need physical strength and mastery of a particular piece of machinery ● Now looking for mathematical, verbal and interpersonal skills to handle a variety of responsibilities, interact with customers and think creatively ● To find these employees look for educational achievements ● Rely on training to make up for skill deficiencies What Is a High-Performance Work System? ● Organizations that have the best possible fit between their social system (people and how they interact) and technical system (equipment and processes) ● Requirements for creating a high-performance work system ○ High quality and customized products ○ Flexible work arrangements ○ Ways to tap people’s creativity and interpersonal skills ● They are reliant on knowledgeable workers, employee engagements, the use of teamwork, and the increasing levels of education of the workforce KNOWLEDGE WORKERS ● Knowledge workers: employees whose main contribution to the organization is specialized knowledge, such as knowledge of customers, a process or a profession ○ Especially needed in health, business and social services, engineering and management ● Are in a position of power because they own the knowledge that the company needs in order to produce its products or services, and they must share their knowledge and collaborate with others in order for their employer to succeed ● Have many job opportunities even in a slow economy so replacing them is difficult because they take their knowledge with them ● Shifts focus away from specific skills and more to general cognitive skills EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT ● Employee engagement: the extent that employees are satisfied, committed to, and prepared to support what is important to the organization ● Job must give employees ability to make decisions, properly train them, give feedback, pay and give rewards, link them to coworkers and customers TEAMWORK ● Teamwork: the assignment of work to groups of employees with various skills who interact to assemble a product or provide a service ● ^ increases employee responsibility, giving them authority and ability to make decisions

Viral teams: teams that rely on communications technologies to keep in touch and coordinate activities INCREASING LEVELS OF EDUCATION ● Rate of return is higher for those with a post secondary degree How Is Technological Change Impacting HRM? ● Human resource information system (HRIS): a computer system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute information related to an organization’s HR. ○ supports decision making, helps avoids lawsuits, provides data ○ therefore helps HR professionals navigate challenges in business environ. ● Sometimes require global HRIS so managers around world can obtain up to date data & customer needs + decision making ● Technologies of HRIS: ex. Hr dashboard: display of series of HR related indicators/measures showing HR goals & objectives meeting those goals ○ ex. if goal is employee development, company’s HR dashboard tracks how many employees move & why ●

THE INTERNET ECONOMY ● Business & individuals use Internet way more now, results in HRM challenges ● Face pace of change in info requires constant updates to skill requirements and therefore train people to fit those ● Another challenge: motivation → small startup companies focus more on creativity and happy environment, but eventually investors withdrew funding because of competition and therefore went out of business ● HRM needed to help companies engage employees & keep motivation up ELECTRONIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (E-HRM) ● HRM activities have moved onto internet (online training programs, online benefits packages, look up answers to HR questions, twitter/tweets of job postings, read news, etc)

●

e-HRM: the processing and transmission of digitized HR information, especially using computer networking and the internet ○ major implications in analysis, recruiting, selection, training & rewards ● With this employees in different areas of world can work together and use of social media expands opportunity for diverse employees ● ISSUE: privacy, lot of HR info is confidential so e-HRM setup on an intranet (network that uses internet tools but limits access to authorized users in the organization) or use Web portals (websites designed to serve as gateway to internet highlighting links to relevant info) Sharing of Human Resource Information ● HR employees play smaller role in records because employees can get the info through self service: system in which employees have online access to information about HR issues and go online to enrol themselves in programs and provide feedback through surveys

How is the Employment Relationship Changing? ● Employees and organizations that will thrive will be flexible, forward-thinking & open to change to reshape employee relationship A NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT ● Psychological contract: description of what an employee expects to contribute in an employment relationship & what ...