TOPICS IN HUMAN RESOURCES

CHAPTER 1

Why is an effective HRM so important?

 Companies with effective HRM tend to have employees and customers more
satisfied
 The companies tend to be more innovative, have greater productivity and
develop a more favourable reputation in the community

Human Capital
An organization’s employees described in terms of their:
- Training
- Experience
- Judgment
- Intelligence
- Relationships
- Insight

Employees are resources of the employer

What is the relationship between HRM and Business strategy?

HRM and sustainable competitive advantage

An organization can succeed if it has sustainable competitive advantage.

HR have the necessary qualities to help give organizations this advantage:
- HR are valuable, cannot be imitated, have no good substitutes and whith needed
skills and knowledge are sometimes rare.

Engaged and enable employees vs low-engaged and low-enabled ones

 Engaged employees: when they are involved in the firm’s decision and in
personal development programs through adequate communication and
leadership

 Enabled employees: when they have been carefully selected for well-desgined
jobs with adequate resources and training

Growth in revenues are 4 times greater with high engagement and enablement.
Customer Satisfaction Scores are 54% higher

Responsibilities of HR departments

You can think of HR as a business within the company with three product lines:

1. Administrative services and transactions

 For example, hiring employees and answering questions about benefits. This
requires expertise in the particular tasks

2. Business partner services

Developing effective HR systems that help the organization meet its goals for
attracting, keeping, and developing people with the skills it needs. HR people
must understand the business.

3. Strategic partner
Contributing to the company’s strategy through an understanding of its existing
and needed human resources. This requires HR people to understand the
business, its industry, and its competitors

Analysing and designing jobs

To produce their products or services, companies require that a number of tasks be

performed. Ideally, the tasks should be grouped and designed in ways that help the
organization to operate efficiently.
This function involves:

- Job analysis: Process of getting detailed information about jobs

- Job design: Process of defining the way work will be performed and the tasks
that a given job requires.

Recruiting and hiring employees

Based on job analysis and design, an organization can determine the kinds of employees
it needs. With this knowledge, it carries out the function of:

- Recruitment: Process through which the organization seeks applicants for

potential employment
- Selection: The process by which the organization identifies applicants with the
necessary knowledge, skills, abilities that will help the organization achieve its
goals

*Top qualities employers seek in job candidates-graduates

1. Problem-solving skills
2. Analytical/quantitative skills
3. Ability to work in a team
4. Communication skills (written and verbal)
5. Initiative
6. Strong work ethic
7. Technical skills
8. Flexibility
9. Leadership

Training and developing employees

Although organizations base hiring decisions on candidates existing qualifications, most
of them provide ways for their employees to broaden or deepen their knowledge, skills,
and abilities:

- Training: A planned effort to enable employees to learn job-related knowledge,

skills, and behavior.
- Development: Acquisition of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that improve an
employee’s ability to meet changes in job requirements and in customer
demands

Managing performance

 Keep track of how well employees are performing relative to objectives such
as job descriptions and goals for a particular position.
 Performance management is the process of ensuring that employees’ activities
and outputs match the organization’s goals
 It includes specifying the tasks and outcomes of a job that contribute to the
organization’s success
 It implies the use of various measures to compare the employee’s performance
over some time period with the desired performance

Planning and administering pay & benefits

 The pay and benefits that employees earn it’s an important role in motivating
them. This is especially true when rewards are linked to the individual’s or
group’s achievements

PLANNING pay and benefits:

How much salary, wages bonuses, commissions, and other performance pay to
offer.
Which benefits to offer and how much of the cost will be shared by employees.

ADMINISTERING pay and benefits:

Keeping track of employees’ earnings and benefits are needed.
Employees need information about their benefits plan.
Extensive record keeping and reporting is needed.

Maintaining positive employee relations

Preparing and distributing employee handbooks and policies, and company publications
and newsletters.
Dealing with and responding to communications from employees questions about
benefits and company policy, possible discrimination or harassments, safety hazards…
Collective bargaining and contract administration

Establishing and administering personnel policies

Organizations depend on their HR department to help establish and communicate

policies related to hiring, discipline, promotions and benefits.
All aspects of HRM require careful and discreet record-keeping, accuracy as well as
sensitivity to employee privacy.

Ensuring compliance with labor laws

 Government requirements include filing reports and displaying posters and

avoiding unlawful behavior.

 Managers depend on HR professionals to help them keep track of these

requirements.

 Ensuring compliance with laws requires that human resources personnel keep
watch over a rapidly changing legal landscape

 Lawsuits will continue to influence HRM practices concern job security

Supporting the organization’s strategy

At one time, human resource management was primarily an administrative function.

However, many HR departments have increasingly taken on a more active role in
supporting the organization’s strategy.
As a result, today’s HR professionals need to understand the organization and its entire
business.

HR planning plays a central role to companies’ success

It allows to identify the numbers and types of employees the organization will require to
meet its objectives and forecast its needs for hiring, training and reassigning employees.

The organization may turn to its HR department for help in managing the change
processes.

Evidence-based HR: collecting and using data to show that human resource practices
have a positive influence on the company’s bottom line or key stakeholders.

For example, for hospitals getting talented employees engaged in their work is more
than a matter of profits.

What are the main skills of HRM professionals?

-Human Resource Expertise => Technical competency

-Business Acumen
-Critical Evaluation => Business competency
-Consultation

-Relationship Management
-Communications => Interpersonal competency
-Global & Cultural Effectiveness
-Ethical Practice => Leadership competency
-Leadership & Navigation

In an organization, who should be concerned with HRM?

HR department, managers, top-level managers. All of these are responsible for HR.

Supervisors’ involvement in HRM

- Help define jobs

- Motivate, with support from pay, benefits, and other rewards
- Communicate policies
- Recommend pay increases and promotions
- Appraise performance
- Forecast HR needs
- Provide training
- Interview (and select) candidates

CHAPTER 2- Trends in Human Resources Management

The labor force

 INTERNAL Labor Force

An organization’s workers
- Its employees
- The people who have contracts to work at the organization

The internal labor force has been drawn from the external labor market

 EXTERNAL Labor Market

Individuals who are actively seeking employment.
It determines the kinds of HR available to an organization.

What do you think are the main changes affecting the labor force today?

Change in the labor force

 An aging workforce
 A diverse workforce
 Skill deficiencies of the workforce

An aging workforce:

What are the HR managers’ implications of having an aging workforce?

HR professionals will spend much of their time on concerns related to retirement
planning, retraining older workers, and motivating workers whose careers have reached
a plateau.
Organizations will struggle with ways to control the rising costs of health care and other
benefits.
Many of tomorrow’s managers will supervise employees much older than themselves.
Organizations will have to find ways to attract, retain, and prepare the youth labor force.

A diverse workforce:

What are the HR managers’ implications of having a diverse workforce?

HRM practices that support diversity management

Communication: Communicate with employees from a variety of backgrounds

Development: Provide career development for employees with different backgrounds
and abilities
Performance Appraisal: Provide feedback based on objective outcomes
Employee Relations: Create a work environment that is comfortable for all and fosters
creativity.

Skill deficiencies of the work force:

Today, employers are looking for mathematical, verbal, interpersonal and computer
skills.
The gap between skills needed and skills available has decreased companies’ ability to
compete.
They sometimes lack the capacity to upgrade technology, reorganize work, and
empower employees.

High Performance work system

HR professionals have critical information on the labour force:

 It is likely that registered nurses, accountants, and teachers require more

training than the other occupations.
 They are also the occupations that likely require more responsibility
 The occupations that likely pay the least are home health aides, food
preparations and service workers, and personal and home care aides.

 Organizations that have the best possible fit between their:

o The way people interact with each other (social system)
o The organization’s equipment and processes (technical system)
 Key trends occurring in today’s high-performance work systems:
1. Reliance on knowledge workers
2. The empowerment of employees to make decisions
3. The use of teamwork

The knowledge society

The organization is a destabilizer.
Instead of trying to maintain stability and order, and to prevent itself from change, it
should be organized for innovating, this means changing.
Knowledge and skills become rapidly obsolete.

1. Knowledge Workers
The main contribution to a company is specialized knowledge such as in
customers, process, or a profession.

Have a position of power: employers need the knowledge they possess. They
often have many job opportunities, even in slow economies

2. Employee Empowerment
Is not the same as employee engagement

Employee empowerment: Giving employees responsibility and authority to

make decisions regarding all aspects of product development or customer
service.

Employee engagement: Full involvement in one’s work and commitment to

one’s job and company. This is associated with higher productivity, better
customer service and lower employee turnover.

3. Teamwork
The assignment of work to groups of employees with various skills who interact
to assemble a product or provide a service.

Work teams often assume many of the activities traditionally reserved for
managers:
 Selecting new team members
 Scheduling work
 Coordinating work with customers and other units of the organization

Virtual teams
 Employees working from home
 Sales reps constantly on the road
 Management teams in multi-office locations
 Project development teams not sat together
 Offshore teams

Focus on Strategy

HRM must support the company’s strategy by:

 Aligning policies and practices with company goals
 Supporting company decisions through quality improvement programs, mergers
and acquisitions, restructuring, reengineering, out

Issues Affecting HRM:

- Total quality management (TQM)
 Provides guidelines for all the organization’s activities
- Mergers and acquisitions
o Mergers: two companies become one (fusion)
o Acquisitions: one company buys another
*HR must be involved in resolving inevitable conflicts between companies’
practices.
- Reengineering
- International expansion
- Downsizing
- Outsourcing

Cost Control:
Some organizations have a low-cost, low-price strategy. These organizations rely on HR
to identify ways to limit costs of maintaining a qualified, motivated workforce.

 HR must lower costs without compromising quality

 HRM can help the organization use human resources more efficiently and make
HRM processes more efficient
 HRM can downsize, reengineer, or outsource to control costs

Technological Change in HRM

HR Information Systems
- Improve accuracy and efficiency
- Support strategic and day-to-day decision making
- Help avoid lawsuits
- Provide data for evaluating programs or policies
- Cloud computing expands use of HRIS
- Organization can set up an intranet to protect information

Automating HR Tasks

Application:
- Employee selection: software that can analyse videos of interviews to provide
data about candidate’s behaviour
- Workforce planning: predict situations in which companies are paying for
overtime.
- Compensation
- Orientation of new employees: “preboarding” system to get information about
the job, team and company culture.
- Training: employees can download training modules online as they identify
relevant skills they want to learn.

People Analytics
The use of computers to analyse large amounts of data and offer information to guide
decisions
Artificial Intelligence can improve HR decisions in:
- Job analysis
- Recruiting and selection
 - Performance management
- Employee relations

Change in the employment relationship

 A New Psychological Contract
 Flexibility

A New Psychological Contract

There is a psychological contract that describes what employees and employers
expect from the employment relationship. Today, organization’s needs are
constantly changing

Flexibility
Organizations seek flexibility in staffing levels through alternatives to the traditional
employment relationship:
- Outsourcing, temporary, and contract workers
- Flexible work schedules
- Moving employees to different jobs to meet changes in demand

Flexible work schedules:

More demanding work results in less satisfied employees, loss of productivity
and higher turnover (costly for companies).
Currently, many organizations are providing more flexible work schedules,
protecting employees’ free time.

CHAPTER 4- ANALYZING WORK AND DESIGNING JOBS

Work Flow Design: Process of analysing tasks necessary for the production of a
product or service
Position: The set of duties (job) performed by a particular person
Job: A set of related duties

Work flow design and organization’s structure

Within an organization, units and individuals must cooperate to create outputs.

The organization’s structure brings together the people who must collaborate to
efficiently produce the desired outputs.
 Centralized
 Decentralized
 Functional
 Product or Customer

Organizational chart

It shows the structure underlying all organization’s activities.

It visually represents the whole set of activities and processes in an organization: what
positions exits, how they are grouped, who reports to whom.
It indicates the structure of control but depend the employees who provide the behavior.
It doesn’t capture the informal relationships.

Functional organizational structure

Divisional organizational structure

Matrix organizational structure

Job analysis

Is the process of getting detailed information about jobs.

It provides essential knowledge for staffing,training, performance appraisal, and many
other HR activities.
Careful job analysis makes it possible to define what a person in a certain position does
and what qualifications are needed for the job.

 Job description
It is a list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs) that a particular job
entails.
Key components: Job title, brief description of the TDR, list of the essential
duties with detailed specifications of the tasks involved in carrying out each
duty.

 Job specifications
It a list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that
an individual must have to perform a particular job.
Knowledge: factual or procedural information necessary for successfully
performing a task.
Skill: individual’s level of proficiency at performing a particular task.
Ability: a more general enduring capability that an individual possesses.
Other characteristics: job-related licensing, certifications, or personality traits.

Sources of job information

-The incumbents: people who currently hold the position in the organization
-Supervisors and managers: provide the most accurate estimation of job duties
-Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT): published by the US Department of Labor
-Occupational Information Network (O*NET): online job description database
developed by the Labor Department.

Positions Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

Is a standardized job analysis questionnaire containing 194 questions about work

behaviors, conditions and job characteristics that apply to a wide variety of jobs.
Key sections: info input, mental processes, work output, relationships with other
persons, job context and other characteristics

Importance of job analysis

Has been called the building block of all HRM functions.
Almost every HRM program requires some type of information determined by job
analysis:
- Work redesign
- HR planning
- Selection
- Training
- Performance appraisal
- Career planning
- Job evaluation

Competency Models

A competency model identifies and describes all the competencies required for success
in a particular occupation or set of jobs.
Organizations may create competency models for occupational groups, levels of the
organization, or even the entire organization.

Trends in job analysis

Today’s workplace must be adaptable and is constantly subject to change.

Job analysis must not only define jobs when they are created but also detect changes in
jobs as time passes.

Job Design

Organizations also must plan for new jobs and periodically consider whether they
should revise existing jobs.

Job design: the process of defining how work will be performed and what tasks will be
required in a given job.
Job re-design: a similar process that involves changing an existing job design.

To design jobs effectively, it is important to understand:

- the job itself (through job analysis)
- its place in the units work flow (work flow analysis)

Approaches to job design

 Design for Efficiency (Industrial Engineering)

 Design for Mental Capacity
o Filtering info
o Clear displays and instructions
o Memory aids
 Design for Safety and Health (Ergonomics)
 Design for Motivation
o Job enlargement
o Job enrichment
o Teamwork
 o Flexibility

Designing efficient jobs

Industrial Engineering: The study of jobs to find the simplest way to structure work in
order to maximize efficiency:

- Reduces the complexity of work

- Allows almost anyone to be trained quickly and easily perform the job
- Used for repetitive jobs

Designing jobs that motivate

However, especially when organizations must compete for employees, depend on

skilled knowledge workers, or need a workforce that cares about customer satisfaction,
a pure focus on efficiency will not achieve human resource objectives.

Job enlargement, job enrichment, teamworks, flexibility.

The Job Characteristics

1. Skill variety – the extent to which a job requires a variety of skills to carry out
the tasks involved.
2. Task identity – the degree to which a job requires completing a “whole” piece
of work from beginning to end.
3. Task significance – the extent to which the job has an important impact on the
lives of other people.
4. Autonomy – the degree to which the job allows an individual to make decisions
about the way work will be carried out.
5. Feedback - the extent to which a person receives clear information about
performance effectiveness from the work itself.

Job enlargement
Broadening the types of tasks performed in a job
Opportunity to develop new skills.
 Job Extension: Enlarging jobs by combining several relatively
simple jobs to form a job with a wider range of tasks.
 Job Rotation: Enlarging jobs by moving employees among
several different jobs.

Job enrichment
Empowering workers by adding more decision-making authority to jobs.
Based on Herzberg’s theory of motivation: individuals are motivated more by
the intrinsic aspects of work (meaningfulness of the job) than by extrinsic ones
(pay)

Intrinsic factors: achievement, recognition, growth, responsibility, performance.

Self-managing work teams

 Some organizations empower employees by designing work to be done by self-
managing work teams
Have authority for an entire work process or segment:
 schedule work
 hire team members
 resolve team performance problems
 perform other duties traditionally handled by management
Team members are motivated by autonomy, skill variety, and task identity.

Flexible work schedules

 Flextime: A scheduling policy in which full-time employees may choose

starting and ending times within guidelines specified by the organization.
A work schedule that allows time for community and family interests can
be extremely motivating.

 Job sharing: A work option in which two part-time employees carry out
the tasks associated with a single job.
Enables an organization to attract or retain valued employees who want
more time to attend school or take care of family matters.

 Telework: Allows employees to do work away from a centrally located

office.

** ALTERNATIVES TO THE 8-TO-5 JOB

Designing ergonomic jobs

Ergonomics: the study of the interface between individual’s physiology and the
characteristics of the physical work environment.

The goal is to minimize physical strain on the worker by structuring the physical work
environment around the way the human body works.
Redesigning work to make it more worker-friendly can lead to increased efficiencies.

Designing jobs that meet mental capabilities and limitations

Work is designed to reduce the information-processing requirements of the job.

Workers may be less likely to make mistakes or have accidents.
Simpler jobs may be less motivating
Technology tools may be distracting employees from their primary task resulting in
increased mistakes and accidents.
CHAPTER 5- PLANNING FOR AND RECRUITING HR

How would you define HR planning?

Why do you think it may be important for any organization?

THE PROCESS OF HR PLANNING

Assumption:
Any organization should have a clear idea of the strengths and weaknesses of their
existing internal labor force, know what they want to be doing in the future and be
aware that the workforce changes over time.

What does HR planning do?

It compares the present state of the organization with its goals for the future. Then
identifies what changes it must make in its HR to meet those goals.

Consequences: Downsizing, Training existing employees, Hiring new employees.

Overview of the HR planning process

1st step: Forecast of labor demand/ supply -> Forecasts of labor surplus or shortage

2nd step: Goal setting and strategic planning

3rd step: Program implementation and evaluation

Step 1: FORECASTING (PRONÓSTICO)

Forecasting: Attempts to determine the supply and demand for various types of human
resources and to predict areas within the organization where there will be labor
shortages o surpluses.

 Labor demand
How many employees will be needed? What kinds of employees?
It provides estimates of the organization’s staffing requirements

Top-down techniques: Trend projection and Leading Indicators

For example: Walmart uses past shopping patterns to predict how many
employees will be needed to staff shifts in each of its stores on any given
day and time.

 Labor supply
How many employees do I currently have? What kinds of employees do I
currently have in terms of the skills and training necessary for the
future?
 This analysis must be adjusted according to the changes in the workforce
expected in the near future. (retirements, promotions, transfers, voluntary
turnover…)
Transitional matrix: a chart that lists job categories held in one period
and shows the proportion of employees in each of those job categories in
a future period.
It answers two questions: Where did people in each job category go?
Where did people now in each job category from?

 Labor surplus or shortage

Based on the forecasts for labor demand and supply, the planner can
determine whether there will be a shortage or surplus of labor for each
job category.
Determining expected shortage and surpluses allows the organization to
plan how to address these challenges.

Step 2: GOAL SETTING AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

Based on the forecasts of labor demand and supply, the organization sets specific
numerical goals:
- What should happen with the job category/skill area
- Defining a specific timetable for when the results should be achieved

This planning stage is highly critical

Advantage: Focuses attention on the problem and provides a basis for measuring the
organization’s success in addressing labor shortages and surpluses.

For each goal, the organization must choose one or more HR strategies.

Strategies for reducing a surplus:

 Downsizing
 Reducing hours
 Early retirement
 Hiring freeze

Downsizing:
It refers to the planned elimination of large numbers of personnel with the goal of
enhancing the organization’s competitiveness.

According to surveys, they do this by meeting four objectives:

- Reducing costs
- Replacing labor with technology
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Moving to more economical locations

However, it has limitations:

- Hurts long-term organizational effectiveness
 - Loss of talent
- Sometime eliminates people irreplaceable
- Disrupts the social networks through which people are creative and flexible
- It leads employees to feel confused, demoralized and less willing.

Reducing hours

Cutting work hours, generally with a reduction in pay.

Companies choose this alternative because:
- It is less costly than layoffs
- It is easier to restore the work hours than to hire new employees after a
downsizing

Early retirement program

Under the pressures associated with an aging labor force, many employers try to
encourage older workers to leave voluntarily by offering a variety of early-retirement
incentives.

Strategies for avoiding a shortage:

 Temporary employees
 Outsourcing
 Contractor workers

Employing temporary workers

Employers may hire a temporary worker through a specialized agency

Disadvantages: this worker may not be as committed to the organization, and if they
work directly with customers, that attitude may spill over and affect customer loyalty

Organizations use permanent employees in key jobs an use temporary workers in ways
that supplement (not replace) the permanent employees.

Outsourcing
Contracting other organizations to provide a broad set of services.

- It allows to operate efficiently and save money

- There are outsourcing specialized firms
- Costs are lower when the outsourcing firm is located in a part of the world
where wages are relatively low
- Challenges: Quality-control problems, security violations, poor customer
services

Step 3: PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION

The organisation should hold some individuals accountable for achieving the goals.
That person have the authority and resources needed to accomplish those goals. Should
issue regular progress reports.

Evaluation should identify which parts of the planning process contributed to success or
failure.

RECRUITING
Identifying and attracting potential employees, with the purpose to build a supply of
potential new hires. It creates a buffer between planning and the actual selection of new
employees.

Three aspects of recruiting:

1. Personnel policies
2. Recruitment sources
3. Recruiter traits and behaviors

PERSONNEL POLICIES
Firm’s decisions about how it will carry out HR management, including how it will fill
job vacancies.
- Internal vs external recruiting
- Lead the market pay strategies
- Employment at will policies
- Image advertising

RECRUITMENT SOURCES
Decisions about where to look for applicants

 Internal sources:
Job posting: the process of communicating info about a job vacancy
How? On company bulleting boards, publications, corporate intranets…

Advantages:
 It generates applicants who are well known to the organization
 Minimizes the possibility of unrealistic job expectations
 Cheaper and faster than looking outside

 External sources:
 Outside candidates: entry level employees, professionals, innovation and
new way to work.

Advantages:
 New ideas
 Help company gain a competitive advantage
 Helps companies avoid the appearance of nepotism
How?
 Direct applicants
 Referrals (top recruiting sources reported by employers)
 Public and private employment agencies
 Colleges and universities
 Electronic recruiting
 Newspapers and magazines

RECRUITER TRAITS AND BEHAVIORS

 Characteristics of the recruiter

Recruiters are HR specialists or expert at jobs. Applicants perceive HR specialists as

less credible.
In general, applicants respond positively to recruiters whom they perceive as warm and
informative:
- Warm: the recruiter care about the applicant and is enthusiastic about the
applicant’s potential to contribute to the organization.
- Informative: the recruiter provides the kind of info the applicant is searching.

 Behavior of the recruiter

Level of realism in the recruiter’s message, exaggerating the positive qualities of the
vacancy and downplaying negative qualities. Applicants are sensitive to negative info.
Realistic job previews: background info about jobs positive and negative qualities.

 Enhancing the recruiter’s impact

Recruiters should provide timely feedback and avoid offensive behavior.

The organization can recruit with teams rather than individual recruiters.

CHAPTER 6- Selecting employees and placing them in jobs

Think of the last time you were hired for a job?

- What activities were used in selecting you?

- Should the organization that hired you have used other methods as well?
- Did you have to take a computerized or paper-and-pencil test in order to get a
job?
- Did you have to interview in order to get the job?

Personnel selection

Is the process through which organizations make decisions about who will or will not be
allowed to join the organization.
Selection begins with the candidates identified through recruitment.
Aim (objetivo): to reduce the candidate identified to those best qualified.

Steps in the selection process

1. Screening Applications and Resumes

2. Testing and Reviewing Work Samples
3. Interviewing Candidates
4. Checking References and Background
5. Making a Selection

Step 1: Screening Applications and Resumes

A strategic approach to personnel selection

Organizations should create a selection process in support of its job descriptions.

The kind of strategic approach to selection requires ways to measure the effectiveness
of the selection tools.

Criteria for measuring the effectiveness of selection tools and methods

The method provides reliable and valid information.

The information can be generalized to apply to the candidates
The method offers high utility
The selection criteria are legal

Measuring the effectiveness:

RELIABILITY
Is the extent to which a measurement is free from random error.
A reliable measurement generates consistent results.
Organizations use statistical test to compare results over time (correlation coefficients:
higher correlation coefficient signifies a greater degree of reliability)

VALIDITY
Is the extent to which the performance of a measure (test score) is related to what the
measure is designed to assess (job performance)
3 ways: criterion-related, content validity and construct validity.

ABILITY TO GENERALIZE
A generalizable selection method applies not only to the conditions in which the method
was originally developed-job, organization, people, time period, etc.
It also applies to other organizations, jobs, applicants, etc.

PRACTICAL VALUE AND UTILITY

Being valid, reliable and generalizable adds value to a selection method.
Another consideration is the cost of using the selection method.
Selection methods should cost significantly less than the benefits of hiring new
employees.

LEGAL STANDARDS FOR SELECTION

All selection methods must conform to existing laws and legal procedures.
- Civil rights Act
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act
- Americans with disabilities Act

Gathering background and information

 Application Forms
 Résumés

Application forms
A low-cost way to gather basic data from many applicants.
Standard categories of information:
- Contact info
- Work experience
- Educational background
- Technical experience
- Memberships in professional or trade groups

Résumés
It allows applicants to introduce themselves to a potential employer.
 Drawbacks: the content of the information may be biased in favor of the
applicant and be inaccurate.
However, organizations typically use résumés as a basis for deciding which
candidates to investigate further.
Résumés provide how candidates communicate and present themselves.
Shouldn’t be: unclear, sloppy, full of mistakes.

Step 2: Testing and Reviewing Work Samples

Employment tests

 Aptitude tests: assess how well a person can learn or acquire skills and
abilities
 Achievement tests: measure a person’s existing knowledge and skills.

Practicas usadas:
- Physical ability tests
- Cognitive Ability Tests
- Job Performance Test
- Work samples
- Personality inventories
- Honesty Test
- Drug tests
- Medical examinations

Step 3: Interviewing Candidates

Interviewing Techniques:
 Nondirective interview
o is the simplest interview
 Structured interview
 Situational Interview
o Ask what you would do in a proposed situation
 Behavior Description interview

Pros and cons of interviewing

Advantages:
- Talking face to face can provide evidence of applicants’ skills
- Gives insights into candidates’ personalities and interpersonal styles
- Provides a means to check the accuracy of info on the applicant’s resumes

Disadvantages:
- Interviews can be unreliable, low in validity, costly and highly subjective.

Interviewing effectively
 1. Be prepared
2. Put the applicant at ease
3. Ask about past behaviors
4. Listen (let the candidate do most of the talking)
5. Take notes (write down notes during and after interview)

How organizations select employees

 Multiple-Hurdle Model
Process of arriving at a selection decision by eliminating some candidates
at each stage of the selection process

 Compensatory Model
Process of arriving at a selection decision in which a very high score on
one type of assessment can make up for a low score on another

Step 4: Checking References and Background

References
- Names and phone numbers of former employers or others who can vouch for
their abilities and past job performance.
- Letters of reference written by those people

They help the organization gather further information or verify the accuracy of the info
provided by the applicant.
References are not an unbiased source of information (Las referencias no son una
Fuente de informacion objetiva, porque es una opinión)

Background checks
Internet allows for faster and easier searching for convictions
Requests for expunging police records has been on the rise so background checks may
not be as complete as employers would prefer

Step 5: Making a selection

Communicating the decision

When a candidate has been selected, the organization should communicate the offer to
the candidate.
The offer should include job responsibilities, work schedule, rate of pay, starting date…

CHAPTER 7- Training and development

Introduction

Training: an organization’s planned efforts to help employees acquire job-related

knowledge, skills, abilities, with the goal of applying these on the job.
Training can benefit the organization when it is linked to organizational needs and when
it motivates employees.

Training linked to organizational needs

Modern business environment makes training important.
Rapid change requires that employees continually learn new skills.
Growing reliance on teamwork creates a demand for the ability to solve problems in
teams, an ability that often requires formal training.

Instructional design

An effective training program is designed to teach skills and behaviors that will help the
organization achieve its goals.
HR professionals approach training through instructional design.
Instructional design is a process of systematically developing training to meet specified
needs.

Learning management system

Learning management system (LMS) is a computer application that automates the

administration, development, and delivery of training programs.
LMS is being used by organizations to carry out the instructional design process more
efficiently and effectively.

The system can be linked to the organization’s performance system to plan for and
manage:
- Training needs
- Training outcomes
- Associated rewards

Stages of instructional design

1. Assess needs for training

2. Ensure readiness for training
3. Plan training program
 o Objectives
o Trainers
o Methods
4. Implement training program
o Principles of learning
o Transfer of training
5. Evaluate results of training

STAGE 1: NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Is the process of evaluating the organization, individual employees, and employees’

tasks to determine what kinds of training, if any, are necessary.
Needs assessment answers three questions:
- Organization: What is the context in which training will occur?
- Person: Who needs training?
- Task: What subjects should the training cover?

The outcome of the needs assessment is a set of decisions about how to address the
issues that prompted the needs assessment.
These decisions do not necessarily include a training program.
Only the lack of knowledge can be corrected through training.
Other outcomes of a needs assessment might include plans for:
- Better rewards to improve motivation, hiring decisions and safety precautions.

Organizational analysis
Is a process for determining the appropriateness of training by evaluating the
characteristics of the organization.
The organization analysis looks at training needs in the light of:
 The organization’s strategy, resources available for training and
management’s support for training activities.

Person analysis
Is a process of determining individuals’ needs and readiness for training.
It involves three questions:
 Do performance deficiencies result from a lack of knowledge, skill or
ability?
 Who needs training?
 Are these employees ready for training?

Task analysis
Is the process of identifying and analysing tasks to be trained for.
To carry out the task analysis, the conditions in which tasks are performed are
looked at.
 The equipment and environment of the job
 Time constraints
 Safety considerations
 Performance standards
 STAGE 2: ENSURE READINESS FOR TRAINING

Readiness for training is a combination of employee characteristics and

positive work environment, that permit training. Social support

A positive work environment encourages learning and avoid interfering with

training.

STAGE 3: PLANNING TRAINING PROGRAM

Steps:
1. Establishing the objectives of the training program
2. Deciding who will provide the training
3. Topics the training should cover
4. Methods
5. Evaluation

 Objectives
Why is important to formally establish the training objectives?

-The training program will be more focused and more likely to succeed
-When trainers know the objectives, they can communicate it to the employees
-Employees learn best
-It provides a basis for measuring whether the program succeeded

They include a statement of what the employee is expected to do, the quality or
level of acceptable performance and the conditions under which the employees
are to apply what they learned.
Measurable performance standard.

 Who provides the training

An organization can mail several vendors a request for proposal (RFP).
Vendors that believe they can provide the services outlined in the RFP submit
proposals that provide the types of information requested.
Even in this case, someone in the organization may be responsible for
coordinating the overall training program (training administration).

 Methods
Training programs may use these methods alone or in combination.
These methods used should be suitable for the course content and the learning
abilities of the participants

o Classroom Instruction *

o Audiovisual Training *

o Computer-Based Training *
 E-learning: involves receiving training via the Internet or the
organization’s intranet.
E-learning uses electronic networks for delivering and sharing
information, and it offers tools and information for helping trainees
improve performance.

Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS): provide access to

skills training, information, and expert advice when a problem occurs on
the job.
As employees need to learn new skills, they can use the EPSS, which
gives them access to the particular information they need.
For example: instructions on how to perform an unfamiliar task

o On-the-job Training (OJT)

Training methods in which a person with job experience and skill guides
trainees in practicing job skills at the workplace.
This type of training takes various forms, including apprenticeships and
internships.

 Apprenticeships: A work-study training method that teaches job

skills through a combination of on-the-job training and classroom
training.
(Bricklayer, carpenter, plumber, electrician…)

 Internship: On-the-job learning sponsored by an educational

institution as a component of an academic program
(Doctor, lawyer, accountant, nurse…)

To be effective, OJT follow these characteristics:

 Issue a policy statement

 Specify who is accountable for conducting OJT
 Review OJT practices at companies in similar industries
 Managers and peers should be trained in OJT principles
 Employees can conduct OJT and before, the organization should
assess the employee’s level of basic skills, they should have
access to all manuals, progress report forms and lesson plans.

o Simulations

A training method that represents a real-life situation, with trainees

making decisions resulting in outcomes that mirror what would happen
on the job.
Uses: Avatars (depiction) and Virtual Reality

o Business Game & Case studies

 -Case studies are detailed descriptions of a situation that trainees study
and discuss.
-Business games require trainees to gather information, analyze it and
make decisions that influence the outcome of the game

o Behavior Modeling

o Experiental Programs

Participants learn concepts and apply them by simulating behaviours

involved and analyzing the activity, connecting it with real-life situations.
 Adventure Learning: a teamwork and leadership training program
based on the use of challenging, structured outdoor activities.

o Team training

Individuals work together to achieve a common goal:

 Cross training
 Coordination training
 Team leader training

o Action Learning

Teams get an actual problem, they work on solving the problem, commit
to an action plan and are responsible for carrying out plan.

STAGE 4: IMPLEMENT TRAINING PROGRAM

Principles of learning

- Employees are most likely to learn when training is linked to their job
experiences.
- Employees need a chance to demonstrate and practice what they have learned
- Trainees need to understand whether or not they are succeeding
- Well training helps people remember the content
- Appropriate reading level of the written materials

Ways that training helps employees learn

- Communicate the learning objective

- Use attention messages (pictures, key points)
- Limit the content of training
- Guide trainees as they learn
- Elaborate on the subject
- Provide memory cues
- Transfer course content to the workplace
- Provide feedback about performances
 STAGE 5: EVALUATE RESULTS OF TRAINING

Evaluation methods: transfer of training and training outcomes

Transfer of training: on-the-job use of knowledge, skills, and behaviors

learned in training.
Can be measured by asking employees three questions about specific training
tasks:

1. Do you perform the task?

2. How many times do you perform the task?
3. To what extent do you perform difficult and challenging learned tasks?

Measures of Training Success

o Trainee satisfaction
o Transfer of training
o New skills, knowledge
o Performance improvements
o Return on investment

Training outcomes:

- Information such as facts or techniques that trainees can remember after the
training.
- Skills that trainees can demonstrate in tests or on the job.
- Trainee and supervisor satisfaction
- Changes in attitude
- Improvements in individual, group or company performance

Applications of training

 Orientation of New employees

Orientation: training designed to prepare employees; perform their jobs effectively,

learn about their organization and establish work relationships

The objectives of orientation programs include making new employees familiar with the
organization’s rules, policies, and procedures.

Onboarding: process that aims to prepare new employees for full participation.

Goals for a Four-Stage Onboarding Process

1. Compliance: Understand company policies, rules and regulations

2. Clarification: Understand job and performance expectations
 3. Culture: Understand company history, traditions, values, norms and mission
4. Connection: Understand and develop working and interpersonal relations

 Diversity training

Diversity training: training designed to change employee attitudes about diversity and/
or develop skills needed to work in a diverse workforce
These programs generally emphasize either attitude awareness and change, or behavior
change.

- The training should be tied to business objectives

- Top management involvement and support
- Training should emphasize learning behaviors and skills, not blaming employees
- The program should be well structured, deliver rewards for performance and
include a way to measure the success

CHAPTER 8: DEVELOPING EMPLOYEE FOR FUTURE SUCCESS

Introduction

Employee development is the combination of formal education, job experiences,

relationships, and assessment of personality and abilities to help employees prepare for
the future of their careers.
Development is about preparing for change in the form of new jobs, responsibilities or
requirements

Training vs Development

Current focus – Future focus

Low use of work experiences – High work experience
Preparation for current job- preparation for changes
Required- Voluntary
Development for careers

Protean career: a career that frequently changes based on changes in the person’s
interests, abilities, and values and in the work environment.
Employees take responsibility for managing their careers.
To remain marketable, employees must continually develop new skills

This practice is consistent with the modern psychological contract: describes what
employees and employers expect from the employment relationship. Today,
organization’s needs are constantly changing. Need to find matches between
employee’s interests, development experiences involving jobs and relationships and
career management (development planning).

Four approaches to employee development

- Interpersonal relationships
- Formal education
- Assessment
- Job experience

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Employees can also develop skills and increase their knowledge by interacting
with a more experienced member:

 Mentoring: senior employee helps

 Coaching: manager motivate and feedback

FORMAL EDUCATION
Include: workshops, courses, lectures, simulation, business game and experiental
programs.

ASSESSMENT
Collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their
behavior, communication style or skills.
May come from other employees, peers, managers and customers.

Assessment tools:

 Psychological tests (MBTI and Disc)

MBTI: psychological test that identifies individuals preferences for
source of energy, information gathering, decision making and lifestyle.
Most popular test. 100 questions about different situations

 Assessment centers
Identify if employees have the characteristics, skills for managerial jobs
or for working in teams.
Activities: Leaderless group discussions, interviews, role-plays
  360º Feedback &Performance appraisal

Performance appraisal is a formal process for measuring employee

performance.
360º Feedback is performance measurement by the supervisor, peers,
employees and customer.

Performance appraisal: conditions

 Appraisal system must tell problem and ways to improve their
performance
 Clear understanding of the differences between current and
expected performance
 Must identify causes of the performance discrepancy

360º Feedback: purpose

 The rater identify an area of behavior as a strength or an area

which requiring further development
 Results show how self-evaluations differ from others evaluation
 Employee review the results and sets development goals based on
the strengths and weaknesses

JOB EXPERIENCE

Job experiences: the combination of relationships, problems, demands, tasks of

employee’s jobs. Most employee development occurs through job experiences.
Job assignments, interpersonal relationships and types of transitions there are
Jexp

How job experiences are used for employee development:

Promotion, Job rotation, Transfer or Downward move produces an

Enlargement of current job.
Temporary assignment to another organization (externship or sabbatical) is a job
experience.

Career management

- Steps and responsibilities in the Career Management Process

1. Data gathering
2. Feedback
3. Goal setting
4. Action planning & Follow-up

Step 1: Data Gathering: Self- Assessment

 The use of info by employees determines their career interest, behavioural
tendencies, values. Through MBT Indicators.
Self- Assessment Exercise: questions of employee’s expectative of their self

Step 2: Feedback

Information employers give employees info about their skills and knowledge

Step 3: Goal Setting

Based on the information from the self-assessment and reality check, the employee
sets career objectives (short and long term)
Objectives like desired positions, level of skill to apply, work setting and skill
acquisition.

Step 4: Action Planning & Follow-up

Employees prepare an action plan for HOW they will achieve their career goals.
Approach used depends on the development need and career objectives.

Development- related challenges

 Glass Ceiling
Invisible barrier that keep most women and minorities from attaining the top
jobs.
Developmental systems help solve this challenge.

 Succession Planning
The process of identifying and tracking high-potential employees who will be
able to fill top management positions when they become vacant.

 Dysfunctional Managers
A manager who is otherwise competent may engage in some behaviors that
make him or her.
These dysfunctional behaviors include arrogance, insensitivity, poor conflict
skills…
To solve it, there are specialized programs include Individual Coaching for
Effectiveness (ICE).

CHAPTER 10: MANAGING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

Definition of Performance Management

Performance management is the process through which managers ensure that

employee’s activities and outputs contribute to the organization’s goals.

Three sub-purposes

 Strategic Purpose

An effective performance management helps achieve business objectives, requires

defining what the organization expects from each employee.
The organization take corrective actions, such as training or incentives.

 Administrative Purpose
Performance management it’s important to provide information for day to day decisions
about benefits or salary and supports decision making related to employee behaviour.

 Developmental Purpose

It serves for developing employees’ knowledge and skills. It makes employees more
aware of their strengths and areas in which they can improve.
Performance management also helps employees become more valuable.

When is a performance management effective?

Performance management its effective when tells top performer that they are valued,
improve communication between managers and employees, establishes uniform
standard evaluation and help the organization identify strongest an weakest performers.

What does performance management require?

a) Knowing what activities and outputs are desired (step 1)

b) Observing whether they occur (step 2)
c) Providing feedback to help employees meet expectations (step 3)

Steps of the Performance Management Process

Step 1: Define performance outcomes for company division and department

Identifying the aspects that are relevant to the organization goals or objectives.

Step 2: Develop employee goals, behavior, and actions to achieve outcomes

Developing employees’ goals and actions to achieve these outcomes

Its too important the information collected during job analysis

Step 3: Provide support and ongoing performance discussions

Providing employees with training, necessary resources and tools, and ongoing
feedback between employee and manager.

Step 4: Evaluate performance

Manager and employee discuss and compare targeted goals and supporting behaviour
with actual results

Step 5: Identify improvements needed or Step 6: Provide consequences for performance

results

Capitalize on performance strengths and address weaknesses

Methods for measuring performance

- Comparative
- Attribute
- Behavior
- Results
- Quality

Comparative

Compare one individual performance with others. Different rankings.

Adventages: useful for supporting decisions about how to distribute pay raises and
esay to use.
Drawback: it doesn’t define what is good or bad about person’s contribution

Rating individuals’ attributes and behaviors

Managers look at each employee’s performance relative to a uniform set of

standards.
The measurement may evaluate employees in term of desirable attributes or
employee’s behaviour.

Advantages: It looks at the individuals without comparing

Drawback: It may show low reliability, because manager decides about what is
excellent and what is poor.

Results

Focus on the objective and measurable results of a job or work group.

Management by Objectives (MBO): people at each level set goals in a process that
goes from top to bottom, contributing to the organization’s overall goals.
These goals become the standards for evaluating each employee’s performance.

1. Management and employees agree with the objectives and understand what
they need to do
2. Participate in goal setting, choosing courses of action and decision making
between management and employees
3. Employees should be involved in the goal-setting phase

Quality

Total Quality Management: a company-wide effort to continuously improve

the ways people, machines, and systems accomplish work.

Employees and customers work together to set standards and measure

performance.

A TQM approach to performance measurement includes subjective feedback

from managers, peers, and customers as well as objective feedback based on the
work process.

Who collects and analyses the information on employees’

performance?

 360º Performance Appraisal

Performance measurement that combine info from the employees:
 Managers
 Peer and Subordinates (most appropriate for develop. purpose)
 Self
 Customers

Types of Ratings Errors in Performance Measurement

- Similar-to-me error: Overrating people who seem similar

- Contrast error: Underrating people who seem different
- Halo error: Overrating based on one good quality
- Horns error: Underrating based on one poor quality

Performance management may not be completely objective because:

It’s difficult to evaluate too many information and to capture the overall complexity of
the job.
Social influences may affect the rathers’ opinions.

Ways to reduce errors

- People may make these errors unintentionally

- Raters can be trained how to avoid rating errors

Provide performance feedback

Managers gives employees information about their performance so they can adjust their
behavior to meet the organization’s goals

When there are performance problems, feedback should include efforts to identify those
problems in order to solve them.
In case of good performance, it can provide rewards to the employee

 Scheduling Performance Feedback

Annual feedback is not enough, feedback should be a regular and continuous
activity.
It’s most effective when information does not surprise employee.

 Preparing for a Feedback session

Appropriate meeting place and free of distractions
Finding solutions to performance problems

When a employee’s evaluation indicates that is below standard, the feedback process
should indicate an effort to correct the problem. Even when the employees is meeting
current standards, the feedback session may identify areas in which the employee can
improve. It depends to employee’s ability and motivation

Improving Performance
 Lack of ability Lack of neither

Lack of both
Lack of motivation

Legal and Ethical Issues in Performance Management

Legal requirements:
Lawsuits often arise in two areas: discrimination and unjust dismissal

System should be legally defensible:

- Based on valid job analyses
- Evaluations based on behaviors rather than traits
- Uses multiple raters whose ratings can be appealed

CHAPTER 12: ESTABLISHING A PAY STRUCTURE

Introduction

Pay is a powerful tool for meeting the organization’s goals and has a large impact on
employee attitudes and behaviors.
Employees attach great importance to pay decisions when they evaluate their
relationship with their employer.
1.Decision about pay

Job Structure: The relative pay for different jobs within the organizations
Pay Level: The average amount the organization pays for a particular job
 Pay Structure: The pay policy resulting from job structure and pay-level
decisions.

2.Issues in Developing a Pay Structure

- Legal Requirements
- Market Forces
- Organization’s Goals

Legal Requirements for pay

 Equal employment opportunity

 Minimum wages
 Pay for overtime

Two employees who do the same job cannot be paid different wages because of race
or age. Only differences in their experience, skill or job are the legal reasons why
their pay might be different.

Market Forces

 Product Markets

Includes organizations that offer competing goods and services.

Organizations compete on quality, service and price.
The cost of labor is a significant part of an organization’s costs.

 Labor Markets

Organizations must compete to obtain human resources in labour markets

Competing for labour establishes the minimum an organisation must pay to
hire an employee for a particular job.
For example: there is a strong demand for nurses, and this means that
hospitals have to pay competitive wages to attract and retain staff.

Organization’s Goals

- High-quality workforce
- Cost control
- Equity and fairness
- Legal compliance

Pay level: Deciding what to pay

  Pay at the rate set by the market
 Pay at a rate above the market
 Pay at a rate below the market

Gathering information about market pay

Benchmarking: is a procedure in which an organization compares its own practices

against those of successful competitors.
- Pay surveys, trade and industry groups and professional groups.
Sources: Bureau of labor statistics (BLS), Society for HRM, and WorldatWork

Pay Equity
Perception of being under-rewarded consequences:
- Employees might put forth less effort ( reducing inputs)
- Increase their outcomes

Job Structure Decisions:

Relative value of jobs

Job evaluation: administrative procedure for measuring the relative internal worth of
the organization’s jobs
Compensable factors: characteristics of a job that the organization values and chooses
to pay for. (experience, education, complexity…) Strictly related to the job description.
Defining key jobs

Key jobs: are common among many organizations, play a significant role in the
organization, have relatively stable content.

Pay policy line

A graphed line showing the mathematical relationship between job evaluation points
and pay rate.

- Pay rates: hourly wage, piecework rate, salary

- Pay grades: sets of jobs having similar content, grouped together to establish
rates of pay
 - Pay range: a set of possible pay rates defined by a min, max and midpoint of
pay employees holding a particular job or a job within a particular pay grade.

Alternatives to job-based pay

Delayering: reducing the number of levels in the organization’s job structure, more
assignments are combined into a single layer, more emphasis on acquiring experience.

Skill- Based Pay Systems: Pay structures that set pay according to the employees’ levels
of skill or knowledge and what they can do. This is appropriate in organizations where
changing technology requires employees to continually widen and deepen their
knowledge

CHAPTER 14: PROVIDING EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

The Role of Employee Benefits

Benefits contribute to attracting, retaining and motivating employees.

The variety of possible benefits help employers tailor their compensation to the kinds of
employees they need.
Benefits packages are more complex than pay structures, making them harder for
employees to understand and appreciate.

Optional Benefits Programs

- Paid Leave: Paid Time Off (PTO)

Paid time off is a way for employees to enjoy free time, removes the need to keep record
of why employees are absent or on vacation.
Most flexible approach. Employer pools personal days, sick days and vacations for
employees.

- Group Insurance: Medical, life, disability and long-term care

- Retirement Plans

- “Family-Friendly” Benefits: Family leave, childcare benefits, college savings

plan and elder care
- Other quality of Work-life benefits: employee discounts, subsidized
cafeterias, fitness centres, tuition reimbursement

CHAPTER 16: MANAGING HR GLOBALLY