Human Resource Management Fundamentals

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Human Resource Management Fundamentals

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HRM Fundamentals

KeyPoints to develop in your own time!

Introductory concepts in Human Resource Management @ OxfordCambridge.Org all for free and free for all.The information gathered here are under KeyPoints format and may be use:- Either to give the reader an overview before deciding for a full scale study of the subject.- Or to guide readers in expanding their knowledge on the given topic. Some recommendations, perhaps:- Identify all the KeyPoints on which you feel a need to expand your knowledge.- Choose a good book or two and/or info from Internet.- And then work towards gaining that knowledge.Please enjoy!





Aim of publicationTo introduce the reader or learner to the fundamentals of Human Resource Management.





After developing the KeyPoints outlined in this publication, you should mainly be able to:☺ describe the importance of HR to an organization☺ discuss the way attitudes to employment are changing☺ explain the recruitment process☺ explain how recruitment is perceived by job applicants☺ participate in effective recruiting☺ explain how organizations source suitable applicants☺ define external selection☺ outline the major pre-interview staffing techniques☺ …

Learning Objectives





After developing the KeyPoints outlined in this publication, you should mainly be

able to:☺ discuss the interview process☺ explain what makes performance appraisal worthwhile☺ discuss the different methods of performance appraisal☺ explain the relationship between total quality management and performance

appraisal☺ appraise an employee☺ describe effective workplace communication☺ outline the benefits of employee feedback and recognition programs

Learning Objectives





☺ Defining HRM☺ Recruitment☺ External Selection☺ Performance Appraisal

Methods☺ Employee Relations and

Communications

HRM Fundamentals - Sections list




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Defining HRM: Objectives☺ After completing the KeyPoints in this

section the reader should be able to:

• define human resources and human resource management (HRM)

• discuss the importance of integrated human resource (HR) decisions in a business context

• discuss the need for efficiency and equity in organizations

• discuss the ways in which the effectiveness of HR practices can be measured

• describe a diagnostic approach to making HRM decisions

• explain the changing nature of employment

• explain how changing approaches to employment affect the employee

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Defining HRM: Summary☺ You have examined how human

resource management (HRM) contributes to an organization.

☺ An organization's human resources are the people employed to work toward achieving its goals. Human resource management (HRM) refers to the management of employees.

☺ Human resource (HR) decisions need to take the business context of organizations into account.

☺ To be effective, an organization needs to monitor the efficiency and equity of its practices. Efficiency concerns the productive placement and performance of employees, while equity concerns the fair and legally compliant treatment of employees.

☺ …




Defining HRM: Summary☺ Undervaluing or underutilizing

employees causes employee dissatisfaction and hampers an organization's chances of success.

☺ HR problems may be solved by applying a diagnostic approach.

☺ The four phases of the diagnostic approach are assessing conditions, setting objectives, choosing appropriate actions, and evaluating results.

☺ Assessing a problematic situation entails examining external, internal, and employee conditions to understand the problem properly.

☺ Setting objectives involves finding ways to move from problem situations to new, desired situations.

☺ …




Defining HRM: Summary☺ A number of actions can be taken to put

plans into effect.☺ HR decisions and actions are evaluated

to determine if they have achieved the required objective.

☺ Employment contracts used to be largely implicit, with high levels of job security and predictable earnings. This relationship is changing as employers begin to expect more from employees, and employees are increasingly concerned with managing their own careers.

☺ Employers are beginning to regard employees as providers of core competencies in terms of an organization's immediate needs, rather than as long-term, secure investments.

☺ …




Defining HRM: Summary☺ Employees today may be required to

update their skills according to organizational developments.

☺ Also, employees are more likely to review their options for career development across organizations, rather than remaining in one job and progressing through seniority-based career paths.




Recruitment: Objectives☺ After completing the KeyPoints in this

section the reader should be able to:

• describe the concept of recruitment• outline the recruitment process• outline inducements and

recruitment styles• discuss the preparation of recruiters• discuss recruitment costs and

evaluation practices• describe factors that influence

occupational choice• outline information channels for job

seekers• describe search strategies adopted

by job seekers




Recruitment: Summary☺ You have been introduced to

recruitment from the perspectives of both employer and employee.

☺ Recruitment is the beginning of the search for employees by organizations that need to fill positions and entails the creation of a suitable pool of candidates that can be drawn on at short notice.

☺ The recruitment process is a product of human resource (HR) planning and philosophy.

☺ Few organizations design their work, pay, and career paths solely to improve recruiting. However, some inducements - such as home loans or subsidies, free or reduced-cost services, and signing bonuses - focus specifically on the recruitment process.

☺ …




Recruitment: Summary☺ The costs involved in recruitment can

vary depending on job levels, the intensity of recruiting activities, and the number and type of recruitment sources used.

☺ These factors, together with the performance levels and retention rates of employees, should form evaluation criteria for recruitment practices.

☺ Individuals' occupational choices can be influenced by psychological, sociological, and economic factors.

☺ Job seekers can gather information through informal contacts, employment agencies, prospective employers, formal advertising, and Internet sources

☺ …




Recruitment: Summary☺ Also, job seekers adopt different search

strategies and can be classified as maximisers, satisfiers, or validators.

☺ The particular search strategy used by a job seeker may influence the quality of the job found.




External Selection: Objectives☺ After going through the KeyPoints in this

section you should be able to describe the external selection process:

• identify the main objectives of external selection

• discuss selection techniques (predictors) and the benefits and limitations of determining their validity

• describe validation and the use of statistical methods to determine validity

• discuss the benefits, risks, and validity of application forms and resumes

• …




External Selection: Objectives☺ After going through the KeyPoints in this

section you should be able to describe the external selection process:

• discuss the benefits, risks, and validity of background and reference checks and life-history information

• discuss selection interviews and identify factors affecting interview outcomes

• describe interview structuring and explain how it affects interview validities




External Selection: Summary☺ You have been introduced to the

external selection process and the validity assessment of selection techniques.

☺ External selection forms part of the staffing process and involves decisions about which externally recruited applicants to employ.

☺ Selection objectives are determined by overall organizational goals, the need for efficiency, and requirements concerning fairness (equity) in employment practices.

☺ Selection decisions are predictions based on information provided by selection techniques or predictors. A predictor relates to a specific criterion that is required for the performance of a specific job. Validity is the degree to which a predictor is supported by statistical evidence.

☺ …




External Selection: Summary☺ Validity enables employers to assess

selection techniques and can be used as evidence to defend selection practices against legal challenges.

☺ However, validity in itself does not signify that a criterion is appropriate for a specific job or that assumptions about cause and effect are correct.

☺ The process of determining the validity of a predictor is called validation. You can plot the degree of correlation between predictor and criterion scores on a scatterplot graph or express it numerically in the form of a validity coefficient.




External Selection: Summary☺ It is not always practical to interview all

the applicants for a job. Pre-interview selection techniques help identify candidates to be invited for interviews or to participate in further selection procedures. Application forms and resumes contain particulars supplied by the applicants and have low validities, whereas weighted application blanks have greater validity.

☺ Background checks are often essential as a legal precaution. References generally provide only positive information about applicants. Life-history techniques have low validities, except for biographical inventories and accomplishment records. Employers need to avoid asking inappropriate questions irrespective of the selection techniques involved.

☺ …




External Selection: Summary☺ Interviews of candidates for selection

proceed through similar phases, but each interview is nevertheless unique. Interviewers need to be aware of factors that can affect interview outcomes unfairly. These may include interviewer stereotypes of certain groups and impression management tactics used by applicants.

☺ Employers attach great importance to the interview, but as a selection technique it generally has a low validity. Effectiveness can be improved significantly by interview structuring - that is, by specifying identical questions, processes and evaluation methods for all candidates. Examples of structured interviews are behavior description interviews, situational interviews, and comprehensive structured interviews.




Performance Appraisal Methods: Objectives☺ After completing this unit you should be

able to:

• describe how performance appraisal methods are selected

• describe and discuss performance appraisal methods

• describe management by objectives (MBO)

• define total quality management (TQM)

• describe the characteristics of TQM organizations and how this relates to using an appraisal system

• describe how an appraisal system may be designed for a TQM organization

• …




Performance Appraisal Methods: Objectives☺ After completing this unit you should be

able to:

• identify and discuss appraisal methods that are consistent with TQM

• describe the appraisal interview and how it may be structured

• describe types of appraisal interviews

• outline guidelines for conducting effective appraisal interviews

• describe how employee performance may be improved




Performance Appraisal Methods: Summary☺ You have been introduced to

performance appraisal methods.☺ HR managers often make cost-benefit

decisions when selecting a performance appraisal method.

☺ The way in which an appraisal method is used may have more impact on its effectiveness than the actual method selected.

☺ Appraisal methods may be broadly classified as measuring traits, behaviors, or results.

☺ These appraisal methods have varying degrees of usefulness for either administrative or developmental purposes and are prone to various levels of error and subjectivity.

☺ …




Performance Appraisal Methods: Summary☺ Results appraisals are more objective

than other methods and align the goals of both employees and organizations.

☺ Management by objectives (MBO) is a management philosophy that attempts to overcome the disadvantages of results appraisals.

☺ In MBO, employees are evaluated on goals that they set for themselves in consultation with managers.

☺ This process is intended to increase motivation and focus employee attention on organizationally relevant outcomes.

☺ Total quality management (TQM) is a management philosophy that strives for continuous improvement by setting objectives based on customer requirements.

☺ …




Performance Appraisal Methods: Summary☺ TQM organizations display particular

characteristics that cause traditional appraisal methods to be ineffective or inappropriate.

☺ Appraisal systems consistent with TQM need to be designed using employee and customer participation.

☺ An appraisal system objectives should relate directly to organizational goals.

☺ Appraisal methods that are consistent with TQM include team appraisal, customer appraisal and team-based performance review sessions.

☺ In an appraisal interview, employees and managers discuss the results of performance appraisals and identify areas for improvement.

☺ …




Performance Appraisal Methods: Summary☺ It may be beneficial to interviewers and

employees if the interview is divided into two sessions - one to deal with the performance appraisal and one to discuss employee's plans and suggestions.

☺ There are three types of appraisal interviews: "tell-and-sell" interviews, "tell-and-listen" interviews, and "problem-solving" interviews.

☺ Appraisal interviews will be more effective if conducted according to specific guidelines.

☺ These guidelines focus on maximizing employees' participation in discussions and gaining a better mutual understanding of the causes of any performance problems and the best solutions.




Employee Relations and Communications: Objectives☺ After completing all the KeyPoints in this

section you should be able to:• describe the role of communication

in healthy employee relations• outline communication processes in

the workplace• describe the function of written,

audiovisual, and electronic communications in organizations

• describe the function of meetings in facilitating communication between employees and managers

• identify the most appropriate method of communicating different kinds of workplace information

• describe employee feedback programs and the function of attitude surveys

• …




Employee Relations and Communications: Objectives☺ After completing all the KeyPoints in this

section you should be able to:• describe the function of appeals

procedures• describe the function of employee

assistance programs• describe the function of employee

recognition programs




Employee Relations and Communications: Summary☺ You have been introduced to employee

relations and communications.☺ Effective communication between

employees and managers is necessary if organizations are to maintain healthy employee relations.

☺ Employee relations representatives can act as mediators when a problem arises and help keep the communication channels between management and employees open.

☺ A typical communication involves a sender, a receiver, and a message. The message is encoded in a suitable communication channel and then decoded by the recipient, although it may be distorted in the process.

☺ …




Employee Relations and Communications: Summary☺ Communications that move up and

down the organizational hierarchy are becoming increasingly important as a country moves from an industrial to an information-based economy.

☺ Employee handbooks, memos, financial statements, newsletters and bulletins may constitute appropriate written communication channels in an organization.

☺ Audiovisual and electronic communications provide various ways of sharing information in and between organizations.

☺ Face-to-face meetings between employees and managers may be formal or informal. They can be used to promote dialogue, develop personal relationships, and encourage creative ideas.

☺ …




Employee Relations and Communications: Summary☺ Employee feedback programs are

designed to improve employee relations by promoting upward communication, allowing employees to participate in policy formulation, and ensuring that they receive due process in response to complaints lodged against managers.

☺ Employment attitude surveys may ascertain how employees feel about their work, supervisors, remuneration, and career aspirations.

☺ Appeals procedures provide employees with the means to respond and challenge management practices and decisions.

☺ Appeals procedures provide employees with the means to respond and challenge management practices and decisions.

☺ …




Employee Relations and Communications: Summary☺ Appeals procedures provide employees

with the means to respond and challenge management practices and decisions.

☺ Employee assistance programs provide confidential support to employees whose performance is suffering as a result of personal problems.

☺ Employee recognition programs are a means of encouraging and rewarding employees' work improvement ideas.





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Human Resource Management Fundamentals