COM502 some companies have set up

mentoring programs between

CHAPTER 2: Trends in Human Resource older and younger workers so that
Managements knowledge is not lost but passed
Labor Force on
 Diverse Workforce
 Refers to all the people willing and able  Growing diverse in race, ethnicity,
to work. For an organization, the labor and gender
force consists of Internal Labor Force  Immigration important source of
and External Labor Market growing diversity
 HRM considerations regarding
Change in the Labor Force
immigration:
 Internal Labor Force  Supply of and demand for
 An organization’s workers includes labor
its employees and people who  Need to comply with laws
have contracts to work at the  HRM considerations regarding
organization diversity:
 Internal labor force has been  Use talents, skills, and values
drawn from the external labor of all employees
market  Staffing selection should not
 External Labor Market use biased tests
 Individuals who are actively  Employees’ non-work needs
seeking employment should be met with flexible
 Number and kinds of people in schedules
external labor market determine  Educate employees on cultural
kinds of human resources available differences and stereotypes
to an organization  Encourage career
 Aging Workforce development for women and
 Workers aged 55 and older fastest minorities
growing group in force  HRM practices that support
 HRM considerations: diversity management:
 Planning retirement  Communication
 Retraining older workers  Development
 Motivating workers whose  Performance Appraisal
careers have plateaued  Employee Relations
 Controlling the rising cost of
health care and other benefits
 Today’s workforce often brings
together three to four generations
 As more and more of the
workforce reaches retirement age,
 Skill Deficiencies of the Workforce:
  Desired skills today: Giving employees responsibility
 Mathematical and authority to make decisions
 Verbal regarding all aspects of product
 Interpersonal development or customer service
 Computer/technology  Leads to more innovation and
 Physical strength and mastery of sharing of ideas
machinery no longer as important  HRM practices such as
 Many employers willing to accept performance management, work
candidates without an education; design, and compensation should
they offer training to correct any be considered
skills gaps  Employee engagement leads to
higher productivity, better
High-Performance Work Systems customer service, and lower
turnover
 Are organizations that have the best fit
3. Teamwork
between:
 Groups of employees with various
 Social system (people and how
skills work together to assemble a
they interact)
product or provide a service
 Technical system (equipment and
 Virtual teams possible through
processes)
technology
 Trends in high-performance work
 Can motivate employees; makes
systems:
work more interesting
 Reliance on knowledge workers
 More companies using teamwork
 Empowerment of employees to
due to its proven benefits
make decisions
 Use of teamwork Focus on Strategy
1. Knowledge Workers
 Main contribution to company is  HRM must support company’s strategy:
specialized knowledge such as in  Align policies and practices with
customers, process, or a profession company goals
 Have a position of power  Support company decisions
 Employers need the through quality improvement
knowledge they possess programs, mergers and
 Competitive: most jobs with acquisitions, and restructuring
fast rates of growth are filled  Business Strategy: Issues Affecting
by knowledge workers HRM:
 Some argue that all workers are  Total quality management
knowledge workers  Mergers and acquisition
 Reengineering
 International expansion
2. Employee Empowerment  Downsizing
 Outsourcing
 Mergers and Acquisitions  Some organizations have a low-
 Mergers: two companies become cost, low-price strategy
one  These organizations rely on HR to
 Acquisitions: one company buys identify ways to limit costs of
another maintaining a qualified, motivated
 In both, HR must be involved in workforce
resolving inevitable conflicts  HR must lower costs without
between companies’ practices compromising quality
 Total Quality Management (TQM)  HRM can downsize, reengineer,
 Many companies use TQM: high- outsource to control costs
quality standards are necessary to  Cost Control: Downsizing
remain competitive  HRM challenged to “surgically”
 Provides guidelines for all the reduce workforce
organization’s activities  Most valuable employees should
 Quality improvement can focus on be kept, but they are often willing
HRM functions and able to find other employment
 Applying data to improve before layoffs
business functions  HRM must boost morale of
 TQM Core Values: remaining workers
1. Methods and processes are  Open communication
designed to meet the needs of necessary to build trust: notify
internal and external employees of reason for
customers downsizing and strategies
2. Every employee receives moving forward
training in quality  Cost Control: Reengineering
3. Quality is designed into  The complete review of
product or service to prevent organization’s work processes to
errors from occurring make them more efficient and able
4. Organization promotes to deliver higher quality
cooperation with vendors,  Effects on HRM:
suppliers, and customers to  How HR accomplishes goals
improve quality and hold may change dramatically
down costs  HR must design and
5. Managers measure progress implement change so that all
with feedback based on data employees will be committed
to the reengineered
organization’s success

 Cost Control
 Cost Control: Outsourcing Technological Change in HRM
 Refers to having another
 Human Resource Information System
organization (vendors, third-party
(HRIS)
providers, consultants) provide
 A computer system used to
services
acquire, store, manipulate, analyze,
 Gives company access to in-depth
retrieve, and distribute information
expertise
related to an organization’s human
 Often more economical
resources
 HR helps with the transition to
 Computer system that automates
outsourcing; many HR functions
HR processes
are also outsourced
 Improves accuracy and
 Expanding Into Global Markets
efficiency; helps avoid lawsuits
 The Global Workforce
 Supports strategic and day-to-
 Offshoring - Moving
day decision making
operations to a country where
 Provides data for evaluating
pay rates are lower and
programs or policies
necessary skills are available
 Cloud Computing
 Reshoring - Reestablishing
 The practice of using a
operations back in country of
network of remote servers
headquarters due to quality
hosted on the Inter-net to
and flexibility concerns
store, manage, and process
 International Assignments
data.
 Expatriates - Employees who
 expands use of HRIS
take assignments in other
 Organization can set up an
countries
intranet to protect info
 HR must select
 People Analytics
expatriates carefully and
 The use of computers to analyze
help prepare them to
large amounts of data and offer
work internationally
information to guide decisions
 Artificial Intelligence (AI)
 A technology that simulates
human thinking, applying
experience to deliver better
results over time
 can improve HR decisions.
1. Job analysis
2. Recruiting and selection
3. Performance
management
4. Employee relations
  Sharing of Human Resource Information  Helps protect employees’ free
 Employees can now access HR info time and to more productively
through self-service use employees’ work time
 Using self-service has privacy and
efficiency benefits
 Self-service
 System in which employees
have online access to
information about HR issues
and go online to enroll
themselves in programs and
provide feedback through
surveys

Change in the Employment Relationship

 Psychological Contract
 Unspoken expectations of both
employee and employer
 Employees expected to take
responsibility in careers
 Employers expected to provide
perks in exchange
 Declining Union Membership
 Has been declining since 1980s;
consistent with idea of individual
workers taking responsibility for
own careers
 Flexibility
 Flexible staffing levels
 Allows an organization to
quickly meet changing needs
 Alternative work
arrangements: methods of
staffing other than the
traditional hiring of full-time
employees (independent
contractors, on-call workers,
temporary workers, contract
workers)
 Flexible work schedules