Principles of Management

Module 7: Human Resource Management

Purpose of Human Resource Management
Main Functions and Examples

• Recruitment and Selection

• Training and Development
• Compensation
• Safety and Health
• Employee and Labor Relations
• Terminate employee contracts when necessary
Role of Human Resources Management

• Planning to hire or transfer employees

• Training new employees as company makes changes
• Developing incentive programs to help company compete with others
• Researching laws and policies related to employees in other states/countries
• Setting up employee transportation and other logistics

• Involves a great many legal details- mistakes in benefits or passing over

ethics policies can lead to trouble
Laws Affecting Human Resource Practices
Protected Classes of Employees

• Certain groups are legally

protected from discrimination
• Can’t discriminate against race or
color, national origin, sex, or religion
• HR managers can protect
company against discrimination
lawsuits by understanding law and
putting policies into place to avoid-
can work with upper management
to address issues
Employee Discrimination Laws

• Equal Pay Act 1963: illegal to pay men more than women of same work
• Civil Rights Act 1964: protect those discriminated against due to race, origin,
gender, color, or religion
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act 1967: illegal to discriminate against
employees older than 40 years old
• Pregnancy Discrimination Act 1978: can’t discriminate due to pregnancy
• Americans with Disabilities Act 1990: must make reasonable modifications to
those with disability
• Family medical Leave Act 1993: protections to those with parental/medical
leave
• USERRA 1994: job protections to those called to uniformed service
• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act 2008: genetics can’t be used to
make decisions
Workplace Safety and Collective Bargaining

• Workplace Safety: require employers to provide

safe workplace
• Can lower risk by substituting less dangerous procedures,
isolating dangerous materials/machines, ensuring proper
safety equipment, putting policies to decrease risk by
taking safety precautions, and requiring appropriate
equipment such as googles or gloves
• Collective Bargaining: process by which employers
work with union representatives to decide on
policies, wages, and benefits
• Labor unions gained power- legal for workers to
organize/join unions
• NLRB oversees rules and policies
Recruiting and Selecting Qualified Job
Applicants
Basics of Recruiting and Selecting Qualified Job
Applicants
• Steps for recruitment and selection: advertising for candidates, reviewing
applications, candidate screening, conducting interviews, & making offers
• Job analysis: ask questions, observe workers, conduct surveys, and determine
what job is required to do well
• First step toward creating job description and specification
• HR department takes over: must reach out to qualified candidates by
• Advertising in newspapers and trade publications
• Online sources such as Monster and CareerBuilder
• Social sites such as LinkedIn or even Facebook
Screening Applicants

• Look carefully at resumes, skills, and

level of experience
• Background checks on those who
appear promising
• Phone interviews
• Face-to-Face Interview
The Job Offer

• Once hiring manager decides who

they’d like to hire, HR makes an
offer
• Includes information about salary
and benefits as well as details
about job requirements
• If candidate is interested, they will
need to sign contract
• Must have concrete reasons for
choosing one candidate over
another
Employee Orientation and Training
Basics of Employee Orientation and Training

• When employee first arrives, they more than likely have preconceived
notions about what is expected
• Serve many positive purposes:
• Lower costs by helping employee get up to speed
• Help employee gain confidence and feel valued
• Improve employee’s performance by helping them build skills and relationships quickly
How HR Onboard Employees and Managers

• HR professionals are usually in charge of ensuring new hires have completed

all paperwork, signed up for benefits, reviewed ethics policies, and received
tour of workplace
• Also set up and implement training
• Managers will: send welcome letters, meet with HR to discuss hiring, meet
with team members, assign individuals to mentor, plan new hire’s schedule,
plan for training the new hire, set up lunch plans to get to know each other,
etc.
Employee Training

• Self-paced online training

• Hands-on training with equipment
• Leader-led group training for “soft”
skills (coaching, team-building)
• Formal business courses
• Shadowing skilled employee
• Mentoring to review work
Employee Development and Performance
Evaluations
Understanding Employee Development and
Performance Evaluations
• Best employees often started near
bottom and worked their way up to
top
• Help, support, and encouragement
part of employee development
• Managers must ensure their
employees develop their fullest
potential
• Delegating responsibility
• Being aware of development
opportunities
• Offering opportunities to employees
• Providing meaningful feedback
• Including rising employees in meetings
Formal Employee Development Strategies

• Training in areas such as leadership,

management, negotiation, and
other areas useful to new manager
• Often planned and implemented
by HR or consultants
• Skills such as interpersonal
communication, public speaking,
negotiation, leadership skills, etc. as
well as coding, accounting, etc.
• Workshops
• Online programs
Certification programs
Informal Employee Development Strategies

• On the job training: Newer employee watches and imitates more

experienced worker
• Shadowing: Follows experienced worker to watch and learn from them
• Mentorship and Coaching: Offered by managers
Practice Question 1

What is the best method of reducing the high cost of employee turnover?

1. Preparing a detailed job description to screen out unqualified employee

candidates.
2. Creating a strong onbarding plan for new hires.
3. Implementing a series of training activities for each employee.
4. Designing a employee development plan to expand both hard and soft
skills.
5. Offering competitive compensation, benefits and incentives to employees.
Performance Evaluations

• Profound influence on employee’s

career
• Popular approaches
• Checklists
• Rating Scales
• Comparative Techniques
• Narrative Techniques
• 360 Feedback
• Cost Accounting
• Management by Objectives
Employee Compensation, Incentive, and
Benefits Strategies
Compensation and Payroll Management

• Compensation
• Competitive analysis, cost of living,
labor negotiations, personal
qualifications, supply and demand
• Payroll Management
• Involves collecting employee
information, tracking work hours for
overtime pay, benefit and bonus
records, management of taxes
Incentives

• Rewards for good work and consequences for poor performance

• How to encourage- depends on culture of business, needs of individuals, and
options available
• Examples:
• Low-cost, fun perks (catered lunches, free snacks)
• Family events
• Significant incentives such as points towards World Series tickets
• Trips to conferences or inclusion in upper-level meetings
Benefits

• Part of compensation package:

highly valuable to employees
• Different forms of benefits
• Healthcare
• Paid vacations
• Retirement
• Stock and Stock options
Employee Separation and Termination
Voluntary Separation

• When employee leaves their job

for:
• Better opportunities
• A family move
• Illness or disability
• Job dissatisfaction
• Changing circumstances
• Process usually handled by HR
• Retirees often honored depending
on length of job duration
Involuntary Termination

• When employee is asked to leave the job

• Layoffs: unfortunate outcome of changes in industries or problems with individual
corporations- often when project has ended
• Firing: when someone breaks company rules or laws, are unable or unwilling to do their
jobs, or created problems for the company due to behavior
• Manager usually decides: should address problems directly with employee, work with
human resources, get HR involved if necessary, and then fire or lay-off
Class Discussion: Rights and Termination

One of the most controversial HR issues involves the First Amendment and the
workplace. The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no
law...infringing on freedom of speech”. Recently a Google employee was
terminated for disseminating an internal memo that implied women are inferior
to men as engineers. This employee was fired by Google.

Does Google have the right to fire an employee thus restricting his freedom of
speech.

Freedom of Speech does not apply in the workplace. Employment law operates
differently. The only free speech right protected in the workplace is to freely
communicate with union interests. Freedom of speech is really protecting
individual rights from the government.
Current Trends and Challenges in HR
Management
Part-Time Employees

• Benefits: flexible, budget-friendly,

brought on for specific
projects/jobs
• Downsides: difficult to manage,
onboarding, training, and
shadowing are expensive
• Largest downside is they can learn
insider information or business secrets
and use what they’ve learned to start
own business or sell to competitors
Pros and Cons of Social Media
and Instant Communication
• Pros:
• Able to reach clients and manage
business transactions
• Creation of technology policies-
limiting access to smartphones or
tablets
• Cons:
• Invades time between work and
leisure- difficult to leave work at work
and home at home
• Draining time and energy away from
productivity
Labor Relations

• Effort to get rid of unions and reduce labor costs since 1980- fairly successful
• Unionization means higher wages
• Fewer unions means more ability to hire contingent and part-time workers,
pay lower wages, ship jobs overseas, and increase profits
Quick Review

• Please list the functions of human resource management and explain how
HR decisions reflect the corporate strategy
• Can you list the protected employee classes in the U.S.?
• Are you able to summarize key laws related to discrimination and how the
company can protect against lawsuits
• Explain HR’s role in workplace safety
• Explain collective bargaining and the law the governs it
• Can you describe effective strategies for recruiting and selecting job
applicants?
• Are you able to describe employee orientation and training approaches?