Human Resource Management
Human resource management (HRM) is the process of determining the people an organization needs and then recruiting, selecting, developing, motivating, evaluating, compensating, and scheduling employees so the organization can achieve its goals. HRM is therefore much more than simply hiring people. It connects an organization’s strategy with the people who perform its work.
The role of HRM has grown as organizations have recognized employees as an important resource and as employment laws have changed workplace practices. Effective HR management can help an organization attract capable people, develop their skills, retain strong performers, and create a productive and legally compliant workplace.
Employment Law and Equal Opportunity
Human resource decisions must be made within legal guidelines. The chapter introduces several important laws and agencies that influence recruiting, hiring, compensation, training, promotion, and termination.
Civil Rights Act and Equal Employment Opportunity
The presentation identifies Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a major law affecting employment discrimination. It also discusses the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which strengthened the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), expanded its authority to issue workplace guidelines and require recordkeeping, and strengthened enforcement.
The chapter also introduces affirmative action, policies intended to increase opportunities for groups that experienced past discrimination, and reverse discrimination, discrimination alleged against members of a majority group as a result of corrective policies. These topics have generated continuing debate and litigation.
Other Employment Protections
The presentation discusses the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The ADA addresses employment consideration for qualified applicants and employees with disabilities, while the ADEA protects workers age 40 and over from age-based employment discrimination.
A practical lesson is that employment law can vary by employer size, jurisdiction, and situation. Managers should know which requirements apply to their organization rather than assuming every law applies in exactly the same way to every employer.
Human Resource Planning
Before an organization can hire effectively, it must determine what people and skills it needs. The chapter’s human resource planning process includes preparing an inventory of current employees, analyzing jobs, forecasting future human resource demand, assessing the future labor supply, and establishing a strategic plan for meeting those needs.
Job Analysis, Job Description, and Job Specifications
A job analysis studies what employees in a particular job actually do. The information from that analysis helps create two important documents:
- Job description — a summary of the job’s objectives, work, responsibilities, duties, working conditions, and relationship to other jobs.
- Job specifications — a summary of the minimum qualifications needed to perform the job.
These tools help HR managers recruit appropriate candidates and give applicants a clearer understanding of the position.
Recruiting Employees
Recruitment is the set of activities used to obtain the right number of qualified people at the right time. The goal is to create a pool of qualified candidates from which the organization can select employees.
Organizations can recruit from internal sources, such as current employees and promotion from within, or external sources, such as advertising, employment agencies, online recruiting, colleges, interns, and other outside sources. Internal recruiting can reward and retain current employees, while external recruiting can bring new skills and perspectives into the organization.
The central point is simple: getting the right people is one of HRM’s most important responsibilities. Recruiting determines the quality of the candidate pool from which later selection decisions are made.
Selecting Employees
Selection is the process of gathering information and deciding who should be hired, within legal guidelines, to serve the best interests of the individual and the organization.
The chapter presents six common steps in the selection process:
- Obtain complete application forms.
- Conduct initial and follow-up interviews.
- Give appropriate employment tests.
- Conduct background investigations.
- Obtain results from required physical examinations when appropriate.
- Establish trial or probationary work periods.
Applicants also influence selection outcomes. The presentation highlights common interview mistakes such as failing to take the interview seriously, dressing inappropriately, failing to explain experience and education well, talking too much, speaking negatively about former employers, showing little enthusiasm, asking poor questions, or failing to follow up.
Contingent Workers
Contingent workers include part-time and temporary workers, seasonal employees, independent contractors, interns, and co-op students. Organizations may use contingent workers when regular employees are on leave, during periods of peak demand, during uncertain economic conditions, to reduce some benefit costs, or to evaluate possible future employees.
Contingent staffing can give an organization flexibility, but managers still need to think carefully about training, supervision, legal classification, and how temporary or part-time workers fit into the organization.
Training and Developing Employees
Training and development includes efforts to improve productivity by increasing an employee’s ability to perform. The presentation distinguishes training, which generally focuses on short-term job skills, from development, which focuses more on long-term abilities and growth.
Orientation helps new employees become familiar with coworkers, procedures, expectations, and the workplace. Training teaches employees specific job tasks through classroom instruction, online learning, coaching, or on-the-job experience. Development prepares employees for broader responsibilities and future roles.
Management Development
Management development is the process of training and educating employees to become effective managers while monitoring their progress over time. The chapter identifies approaches such as on-the-job coaching, understudy positions, job rotation, and off-the-job courses and training.
Developing managers also supports employee retention. When strong employees leave, the organization can incur new recruiting, selection, orientation, and training costs, while turnover may also affect morale, reputation, and the ability to recruit other good employees.
Networking and Mentoring
Networking means establishing and maintaining contacts with key managers and professionals inside and outside the organization and using those contacts to develop productive relationships. Professional networking can occur formally or informally and can extend beyond the immediate workplace.
Mentors are managers or experienced professionals who supervise, coach, guide, and sometimes sponsor selected lower-level employees. A mentor can help an employee understand the organization, develop skills, recognize opportunities, and prepare for greater responsibility.
Performance Appraisal
A performance appraisal evaluates employee performance against established standards. The results can help managers make decisions about promotions, compensation, training, development, or termination.
The presentation also introduces the 360-degree review, which gathers feedback from people at different levels or perspectives to provide a broader view of an employee’s performance. Whatever method is used, an effective appraisal should be tied to clear expectations and useful feedback.
Compensating Employees
A well-managed and competitive compensation program can help an organization attract the employees it needs, encourage productive work, retain valued employees, control costs through productivity, and provide employees with financial security.
When evaluating a job offer, employees should consider the entire compensation package rather than salary alone. Pay systems and benefits together determine much of the economic value of employment.
Fringe Benefits
Fringe benefits are forms of compensation beyond base wages. The study materials identify examples such as sick leave, vacation pay, pension plans, health plans, and additional compensation. Employers may also offer work-life or workplace perks such as child care, food services, fitness facilities, transportation assistance, flexible work options, or other benefits.
Benefits can help employers compete for talent and retain employees, but different employees may value different benefits.
Flexible Scheduling
Organizations increasingly use scheduling options to respond to employee needs and changing work arrangements.
- Flextime gives employees some freedom to choose their working hours as long as required hours or tasks are completed.
- Compressed workweek schedules the full number of work hours into fewer than the standard number of days.
- Job sharing allows two or more part-time employees to share one full-time position.
Job sharing can provide opportunities for people who cannot work full time, can help employers cover peak demand periods, and may reduce absenteeism and tardiness. Remote-work technologies also make it possible for some jobs to be performed away from a traditional workplace.
Moving Employees Up, Over, and Out
Employees move through organizations in several ways. They may be promoted to positions with greater responsibility, reassigned or transferred to different positions, terminated because of performance or economic conditions, or eventually retire.
Termination can be difficult and costly for both the employee and employer. The presentation discusses at-will employment while also emphasizing that employers must comply with applicable laws and cannot terminate employees for legally prohibited reasons.
Putting Human Resource Management Together
Human resource management is a continuous process. Organizations determine their people needs, analyze jobs, recruit candidates, select employees, orient and train them, develop future managers, evaluate performance, compensate employees, design workable schedules, and manage employee movement and turnover.
Strong HRM balances organizational needs with employee needs and legal responsibilities. The objective is not simply to fill jobs; it is to put capable people in appropriate roles, help them succeed, and create conditions that support both employee performance and organizational goals.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Thinking HRM is limited to hiring and firing.
- Confusing recruitment, which builds a candidate pool, with selection, which chooses among candidates.
- Confusing a job description with job specifications.
- Ignoring employment-law requirements during recruiting, interviewing, selection, appraisal, or termination.
- Assuming salary is the only important part of compensation.
- Confusing short-term training with longer-term employee and management development.
- Treating performance appraisal as punishment rather than a tool for feedback and decisions.
- Confusing flextime, compressed workweeks, and job sharing.
- Failing to consider the costs of employee turnover and the value of retention.