Chapter 1

● Human Resources Management (HRM)= management of people in organizations to drive

successful organizational performance and achievement of organization’s strategic goals.
● Human Capital= the knowledge, education, training, skills, and expertise of an organization’s
workforce.

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● Brief history of HRM
○ Scientific Management
■ concern for production
■ scientifically analyzing manufacturing processes to reduce costs/compensating
employees based on performance
○ Human Resources Movement
■ concern for people/productivity
● HRM: evolutionary phases
○ Phase 1 - early 1900’s
■ personnel administration
■ hiring, firing, payroll/benefits processing
○ Phase 2 – 1930’s to 1950’s
■ union liaison, compliance with new laws
■ orientation, performance appraisal, employee relations
○ Phase 3 – 1960’s to 1980’s
■ human resources management
■ outsourcing of many administrative functions
■ emphasis on contribution and proactive management of people
○ Phase 4 – 1990’s to present
■ every line manager must posses basic HR skills
■ help achieve strategic objectives
■ new roles: activist, change steward, talent manager/organizational designer,
operational executor and business ally.

● Strategic HR
 ○ The HR Role Continues to Evolve
■ The current shift in human resources management as a department and as a
profession will continue to undergo evolution well into the 2020s.
○ There are five major forces driving this change:
■ 1. Changing Technology: Technology has helped automate basic HR functions,
including managing day-to-day transactions and employee self-service systems.
Rather than maintain HR technology experts in-house, nearly half of companies
outsource operational functions of HR (payroll, benefits administration,
employee education, recruitment processes, and workforce analytics).
■ New Rules: Corporate accounting scandals that plagued the early 2000s resulted
in a more focused alignment of organizational activities with new laws and
compliance expectations. The financial crisis that started in 2008 included a
series of additional regulations and expectations of organizational accountability.
In this highly volatile environment with high accountability expectations, HR’s
role is increasingly strategic, including helping the organization recover from
changes and comply with new regulations.
■ 3. Succession Planning: Fifty percent of companies do not have a succession plan
in place for their CEO. HR’s role extends significantly beyond operational tasks
to think critically about the complexities, time, and contingencies that must be
considered in succession planning. Thus, HR executives are critical to
organizational success through development and management of a
comprehensive succession planning process.
■ Identifying Top Talent: While some companies argue that all employees must be
motivated, educated, rewarded, and evaluated, others argue that a better return on
investment can be secured by focusing on a smaller portion of workers (for
example, the top 3 percent of all employees). HR is continually asked to establish
a commitment to talent development that is fair, realistic, aware of limitations,
and sustainable.
■ 5. A New Breed of HR Leaders: The rise of the CHRO (Chief HR Officer) or
CTO (Chief Talent Officer) confirms the seriousness and intent of many boards
of directors in elevating and recognizing the role and capabilities of HR in an
organization’s leadership. HR’s participation at the highest level of
organizational decision making marks the transformation of the role of HR from
operational expert to strategic expert in a concrete way.
● Measuring the value of HR: metrics
○ Traditional Measures
■ focused on activity and cost
■ for example:
● number of candidates interviewed
● cost per hire
○ Today’s Measures
■ focus on productivity, quality, sales, market share, and profits
○ balanced scorecard
 ■ a measurement system that translates organization’s strategy into a
comprehensive set of financial and operational performance measures
● Human resource activity
○ Human resources activities:
■ operational (administrative)
● HR hires and maintains employees and then manages employee
separations.
■ strategic category
● HR is focused on ensuring that the organization is staffed with the most
effective human capital to achieve its strategic goals

●
● Growing professionalism in HRM
○ Characteristics of a profession:
■ common body of knowledge
■ performance standards
■ professional association
■ external perception as a professional
■ code of ethics
■ required training credentials
■ ongoing skill development
■ maintenance of professional
competence
● Guiding HR practitioners in Canada
○ No nation-wide association guiding HR Practitioners in Canada
○ Every province has an association of HR practitioners (PEI is included in Nova Scotia’s)
○ Roles:
■ Serving the interests of its members
■ Regulatory body serving the public
● Ethics
○ professionalization of HRM has created a need for a uniform code of ethics
○ ethical vs. unethical is usually open to debate
○ provides a guide to help employees discover the next course of action by themselves.
 ○ prevalent ethical issues
■ security of information,
■ employee/client privacy,
■ environmental issues,
■ governance and,
■ conflicts of interest.
○ reasons for failure of ethics programs = lack of effective implemented
leadership/inadequate training
○ Social Responsibility
■ implied/enforced/perceived obligation of managers, acting in their official
capacities, to serve/protect interests of groups, other than themselves
■ important manifestation of ethics
● Environmental issues on HRM
○ External Influences
■ Economic
conditions
■ Labour diversity
■ Technology
■ Government
■ Globalization
■ Environmental
concerns
○ Internal Influences
■ Organizational
culture
■ Organizational
climate
■ Management
practices
● External influences: economic conditions
○ employment levels
○ productivity levels
○ growth of the primary, secondary, and tertiary (service) sectors
● External influences; labour market issues
○ increasing workforce diversity:
■ visible minorities;
■ ethnic minorities;
■ Women;
■ aboriginal population;
■ people with disabilities
○ generational differences:
■ Traditionalists (pre-1946)
■ Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964)
■ Generation X (1965 to 1980)
 ■ Generation Y (1981 to 2000)
○ Education
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higher overall level of education, however higher level of functional illiteracy
○ increased non-standard or contingent workers
■ Part-time
■ term/temporary/standby
■ Home
■ Self-employed

● External influences: technology

○ new technologies: Twitter, Facebook, videoconferencing
○ concerns over data control, accuracy, right to privacy, and ethics
 ○ computerized monitoring of e-mail, voice mail, telephone conversations, computer usage,
and behaviour
● External influences: government
○ Ensure policies and practices comply with new and changing laws covering:
■ human rights
■ employment standards
■ labour relations
■ occupational health and safety
■ workers’ compensation
● External influences: globalization
○ Global trends:
■ firms extend business operations abroad
■ emergence of one world economy
■ multinational corporations: conduct business around the world, seek cheap
skilled labour
○ HR professionals must become familiar with employment legislation in other countries
and manage ethical dilemmas.
● External influences: environmental concerns
○ Topics of increasing importance:
■ Sustainability
■ climate change
■ global warming
■ Pollution
■ carbon footprints
■ extinction of wildlife species
■ ecosystem fragility
● Internal influences: organizational culture
○ core values, beliefs and assumptions
○ often conveyed through an organization’s mission statement
○ positive culture is desired
● Internal influences: organizational climate
○ prevailing atmosphere in an
organization
○ friendly/unfriendly, open/secretive,
rigid/flexible, innovative/stagnant
○ influenced by leadership, HR policies,
communication style
● Internal influences: management practices
○ bureaucratic organizations being
replaced with flatter structures
○ increased employee empowerment
Chapter 2

● Tort law
○ Tort Law
■ primarily judge based law,
whereby precedent and
jurisprudences set by one judge
through his/her assessment of a
case establishes how similar cases
will be interpreted
○ Regulations
■ legally binding rules established by
special regulatory bodies created to
enforce compliance with the law
and aid in its interpretation
●
● Canadian legislation
○ Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
■ basic rights for all Canadians
○ Human Rights Legislation
■ protection from discrimination
○ Employment Standards Legislation
■ minimum terms and conditions of employment
○ Ordinary Laws
■ content or context specific
○ Collective Bargaining Agreement
■ legally binding agreement establishing minimum terms/conditions affecting
unionized positions
○ Employment contract contract between employee and employer specifying employment
conditions.
● The canadian charter rights and freedoms
○ Freedoms
■ freedom of conscience and religion
 ■ freedom of thought, belief, expression and opinion
■ freedom of peaceful assembly
■ freedom of association
○ Section 15 – Equality Rights
■ right to equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination
● Human rights legislation
○ Human rights legislation
■ jurisdiction-specific legislation that prohibits intentional and unintentional
discrimination in employment situations and in the delivery of goods and
services.
● Discrimination defined
○ “... a distinction, exclusion or preference based on one of the prohibited grounds that has
the effect of nullifying or impairing the right of a person to full and equal recognition and
exercise of his or her human rights and freedoms.”
● Types of discrimination
○ Intentional Discrimination
■ Direct
■ differential or unequal treatment
■ indirect (3rd party)
■ by association
○ Unintentional Discrimination
■ constructive or systemic discrimination
■ embedded in policies with adverse impact on specific groups.

● unintentional discrimination
Examples:
■ maximum height/weight requirements
■ limited accessibility to company premises
■ job evaluation systems that are not gender-neutral
■ lack of a harassment policy or guidelines
● Bona Fide occupational requirement
 Three criteria used to assess if the discrimination qualifies as a BFOR:
Question of rationale:
■ Was the policy or procedure that resulted in the discrimination based on a
legitimate, work-related purpose?
Question of good faith:
■ Did the decision makers or other agents of the organization honestly believe that
the requirement was necessary to fulfill the requirements of the role?
Question of reasonable necessity:
■ Was it impossible to accommodate those who have been discriminated against
without imposing undue hardship on the employer?
justifiable reason for discrimination
based on business necessity (safe and efficient operations)
e.g. vision standards for bus driver
● Reasonable accommodation
Requirement for Reasonable Accommodation
■ adjustment of employment policies/practices so that no individual is denied
benefits or is disadvantaged
■ based on prohibited grounds in human rights legislation
■ e.g. work station redesign for wheelchair
Undue Hardship
■ financial costs make accommodation impossible
● Disability
Basis determined by courts
■ differential treatment
■ enumerated ground (protected by legislation)
■ substantive sense (is burden imposed or benefit withheld?)

● Duty to accommodate
Duty to Accommodate
■ respect dignity
■ discrimination must be legally defensible
■ most appropriate accommodation should be undertaken
●
● Harrasment
 “Unwelcome behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person and that a
reasonable person should have known would be unwelcome.”

Employer Responsibility
■ protect employees from harassment
■ includes harassment by clients or customers
● Sexual harassment
○ Offensive or humiliating behaviour that is related to a person's sex, as well as behaviour
of a sexual nature that creates an intimidating, unwelcome, hostile, or offensive work
environment or that could reasonably be thought to put sexual conditions on a
person’s job or employment opportunities.”
● Sexual Coercion
•“Harassment of a sexual nature that results in some direct consequence to the worker's
employment status or some gain in or loss of tangible job benefits.”
● Sexual Annoyance
•“Sexually related conduct that is hostile, intimidating, or offensive to the employee but
has no direct link to tangible job benefits or loss thereof.”

● Harassment policies
○ To reduce liability, employers should:
■ establish sound harassment policies
■ communicate policies to all employees
■ enforce policies in a fair and consistent manner
■ take an active role in maintaining a working environment that is free of
harassment
○ Effective harassment policies should include:
■ clear workplace anti-harassment policy statement
■ information for victims (definitions, examples)
■ employees’ rights and responsibilities
■ employers’ and managers’ responsibilities
■ anti-harassment policy procedures
■ penalties for retaliation against a complainant
■ guidelines for appeals
■ other options such as union grievance procedures and
■ human rights complaints
 ■ how the policy will be monitored and adjusted
● Discrimination- other human rights case examples
○ Race and Colour
■ illegal in every jurisdiction
○ Religion
■ accommodate with time to pray and allow religious clothing
○ Sexual Orientation
■ “common-law partners” includes same sex couples
○ Age
■ mandatory retirement age eliminated in many jurisdictions
● Enforcement of harassment
○ responsibility lies with human rights commission in each jurisdiction
■ costs are borne by the commission
■ human rights tribunal resolves conflict through mediation
■ Remedies:
● Systemic
● Restitutional
● Employers obligations
○ awareness of the issues of discrimination or harassment
■ antidiscrimination/antiharassment policy
■ complaint mechanism
■ training available for employees
○ fulfilling post-complaint actions
■ assessing the seriousness of the complaint,
■ launching an investigation promptly,
■ focusing on employee welfare,
■ taking actions based on the complaint
○ resolving the complaint
■ demonstrating reasonable resolution and communication
● Employment equity act
○ based on Charter of Rights and Freedoms
○ applies to federally regulated employers only
○ promotes equality, removes employment barriers
○ four designated groups: women, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, Aboriginal
peoples
● The plight of the four designated groups
○ Women
■ underrepresentation in certain fields
■ glass ceiling
○ Aboriginals
■ concentration in low skill, low pay jobs
○ People with Disabilities
■ underrepresentation in all areas
■ lower pay
 ○ Visible Minorities
■ Underemployed

●
● Employment equity program
○ Step 6: Monitoring, Evaluation, Revising
○ Step 5: Implementation
○ Step 4: Plan Development
○ Step 3: Employment Systems Review
○ Step 2: Data Collection and Analysis
○ Step 1: Senior Management Commitment & Support
● Employment labour standards legislation
○ laws present in every Canadian jurisdiction that establish minimum employee
entitlements and set a limit on the maximum number of hours of work permitted per day
a week
● Employment standards act
○ federal and provincial/territorial versions establish minimum terms for:
■ wages, overtime pay
■ paid holidays and vacations
■ maternity/paternity leave
■ bereavement/compassionate care leave
■ termination notice
○ employment contracts may exceed minimums
○ principle of greater benefit applies
● Enforcement of employment standards act
○ complaints filed with ministry of labour or counterpart
○ filed complaint is settled through the ministry, not civil court
○ limitation periods for filing
○ maximum claim limit for unpaid wages
● Respecting employee privacy
○ Challenges
■ Employer has right to prevent liability to the company
 ● eliminate time wasted on personal matters
● prevent abuse of company resources
■ Employees have right to:
● control over information about themselves
● freedom from interference in their personal life

○
● Internet and email policy
○ electronic surveillance is permitted
○ employer should create written policy
○ policy should be updated regularly to stay current with technology
● Video surveillance
○ used to prevent employee theft and vandalism
○ employees must be made aware
○ not advised if reasonable alternatives exist

Chapter 3
● Job analysis- The procedure for determining the tasks, duties,and responsibilities of each job, and
the human attributes (in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities) required to perform it.
● job-a group of related activities/duties for one or more employees
● Position- the collection of tasks/responsibilities performed by one person

● Steps in job analysis-

○ Step 6: Communicate and update information as needed
 ○ Step 5: Write job descriptions and job specifications
○ Step 4: Verify/modify data if required
○ Step 3: Collect data on job activities
○ Step 2: Select jobs to be analyzed
○ Step 1: Review relevant background information
● Step 1
○ Organizational Structure
■ the formal relationships among jobs in an organization
■ should be appropriate given strategic goals
○ Organization Chart
■ clarifies chain of command; who reports to whom
■ does not explain communication patterns, degree of supervision, power,
authority, or specific duties

○
● Process chart- shows the flow of inputs and outputs from the job under study.
● Step 2
○ Necessary when there are a number of similar jobs
○ Job Design
○ the process of systematically organizing work into tasks that are required to perform a
specific job

● Evolution of jobs and job design

○ Job Specialization
■ work simplification
■ industrial engineering
○ Behavioural Aspects
■ job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment, team based job design
○ Ergonomic Aspects
■ physical needs of workers
● Competency based job analysis
○ Competencies: demonstrable characteristics that enable performance of a job
○ shift from job-specific duties to competencies in job descriptions; emphasis on employee
capabilities
○ examples of competencies:
■ general (reading, writing, mathematics)
■ leadership (strategic thinking, motivating)
■ technical/task/functional (technical competencies)
● Competency based job analysis
○ Use of competency analysis is becoming more common:
■ it encourages workers to learn and rotate among jobs
■ more strategic approach to defining jobs
■ supports performance management process
● Team-Based Job Design
○ designs that focus on giving a team, rather than an individual, a whole/meaning piece of
work to do and empowering team members to decide among themselves how to
accomplish the work
● Team
○ small group of people with complementary skills who work toward common goals for
which they hold joint responsibility/accountability
● Step 3
○ interviews (individual, group, supervisory)
○ Questionnaires
○ observations
○ participant diary/log
○ National Occupation Classification (NOC)
● Step 4 (verifying info)
○ Verify with:
■ workers currently performing the job
■ supervisors
○ Increases validity and reliability
■ inconsistencies/concerns can be addressed
■ participants will be more honest
● Step 5 (writing job description and specifications)
○ Job Description
■ statement of duties,
responsibilities, reporting
relationships, and working
conditions of the job
○ Job Specifications
■ statement of requisite
knowledge, skills, and abilities
needed to perform the job
● Job descriptions
○ No standard format is used in writing
job descriptions, but most include the
following types of information:
■ job identification,
■ job summary,
■ Relationships,
■ duties and responsibilities,
■ Authority,
■ performance standards/indicators,
■ working conditions and physical environment.
● Human rights legislation considerations
○ not legally required but highly advisable
 ○ essential job duties should be clearly identified
○ only criteria examined should be knowledge, skills, and abilities required for the essential
duties of the job
○ employee cannot perform an essential duty because of reasons related to a prohibited
ground, reasonable accommodation to the point of undue hardship is required
● Job specifications
○ What human traits and experience are required to do this job?
■ all listed qualifications are bona fide occupational requirements (BFORs)
■ unjustifiably high educational/experience requirements may lead to systemic
discrimination
■ qualifications of incumbents should not be confused with the minimum
requirements
■ for entry-level jobs, identify actual physical and mental demands
● Step 6 (communication and preparedness for revisions)
○ communicate to all relevant stakeholders
○ anticipate modifications
■ Restructuring
■ new product development
■ technological changes
■ competitors

Chapter 4
● Human resource planning
○ The process of forecasting future human resources requirements to ensure that the
organization will have the required number of employees, at the right time, with the
necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities to meet its strategic objectives
● Strategic importance of HRP
○ Helps organization:
■ meet strategic goals and objectives
■ achieve economies in hiring new workers
■ make major market labour
demands successfully
■ anticipate and avoid
shortages and surpluses of
human resources
■ control or reduce labour
costs
● Environmental Scanning
○ External environmental factors monitored Include:
■ economic conditions
■ market and competitive trends
■ new or revised laws relating to HR
■ social concerns (health care, childcare, educational priorities)
■ technological changes
■ demographic trends
● Steps in HRP process
○ Step 4: Planning and Implementing HR Programs to Balance Supply and Demand
○ Step 3: Gap Analysis: Summarizing Human Resources
○ Step 2: Forecasting Future HR Needs (Demand)
○ Step 1: Forecasting the Availability of Candidates (Supply)
● Forecasting the availability of candidates
○ Internal
■ present employees who can be trained, transferred, or promoted to meet needs
○ External
■ people in labour market not currently working for organization, including those
employed elsewhere and those unemployed, who can be expected to join the
organization to meet needs
● Forecasting supply of internal candidates
○ skills inventories and
management inventories
○ replacement charts and
replacement summaries
○ succession planning
○ Markov Analysis

● Skill inventories management

inventories
○ Skills inventories
■ summary of current
employees’ education,
experience, interests,
and skills
■ used to identify eligibility for transfer/promotion
○ Management inventories
■ summary of management employees qualifications, skills, interests, managerial
responsibilities
■ used to identify eligibility for transfer/promotion
● Replacement charts and replacement summaries
○ Replacement charts
■ depiction of who will replace whom in the event of a job opening
■ an organizational chart format is typically used to depict reporting relationships,
relevant jobs, and job incumbents. Such charts indicate the current performance
level of the employee and his or her promotion potential.
○ Replacement summaries
■ lists of likely replacements for each position
■ indicates relative strengths/weaknesses, current position,performance,
promotability, age, and experience
● Succession planning
○ ensuring supply of successors for key jobs so that careers can be effectively planned and
managed
○ Includes:
■ analysis of demand for managers and professionals
■ audit and projection of likely future supply
■ planning individual career paths, career counseling
■ accelerated promotions
■ planned strategic recruitment
● Markov analysis
○ a method of forecasting internal labour supply that
involves tracking the pattern of employee movements
through various jobs and developing a transitional
probability matrix
● Forecasting supply of external candidates
○ Market conditions assessed:
■ general economic conditions
● interest rates, wage rates, inflation,
unemployment rates
○ labour market conditions
■ demographics: education levels, age, gender, marital status
○ occupational market conditions
■ relevant occupations (as applicable): e.g. engineers, skilled labour, accountants,
etc.
● Forecasting future human resources needs (demand)
○ Factors that should be considered:
■ projected turnover
■ quality and nature of employees
■ decisions to upgrade
■ planned technological and administrative changes
■ financial resources
● Forecast HR needs (demand) quantitative approaches
○ Trend analysis
■ predict future needs based on past employment levels
 ○ Ratio analysis
■ ratio of business activity and number of employees needed, e.g. sales revenue per
salesperson
○ Scatter plot
■ used to determine whether two factors (business activity and staffing levels) are
related
○ Regression analysis
■ examines statistical relationship between
business activity and employees

● Forecasting hr needs (demand) qualitative approaches

○ Nominal group technique
■ involves a group of experts meeting face to face
■ steps include independent idea generation, clarification and open discussion, and
private assessment
○ Delphi technique
■ Judgmental forecasting method involving outside experts as well as
organizational employees
■ ideas are exchanged without face-to-face interaction and feedback is used to fine-
tune until consensus is reached
● Summarizing human resources requirements
○ Staffing table
■ a pictorial representation of all jobs within the organization, along with the
number of current incumbents and future employment requirements (monthly or
yearly) for each

● Balancing supply and demand

Labour surplus
the internal supply of
employees exceeds the
organization’s forecasted
demand
Labour shortage
the internal supply of human resources cannot
meet the organization’s needs

● Responding to labour surplus

○ hiring freeze/attrition
○ early retirement buyout programs
○ job sharing
○ work sharing
○ reduced workweek
○ layoff
○ termination
○ leave of absence
● Considerations:
○ survivor syndrome
○ supplemental unemployment benefits
○ severance package
■ Pay
■ Benefits
■ golden parachute
■ outplacement assistance
● Responding to labour shortage
○ Internal solutions:
■ Transfer
■ Promotion
■ employee retention
○ External solutions:
■ Recruiting