o HRM Challenges and Issues - Discipline system is progressive

1. Availability and Quality of Workforce - Customer-satisfaction and quality are evaluated in

 Fit of people to jobs the performance management system
i. Making them adapt to new systems and - Skills and values of a diverse workforce are valued
job requirements at a very fast pace and used
ii. Universities need to catch up to
industrial requirements
 Workforce quality deficit
i. The “war for talent” is heightening
ii. Need to sustain productivity of
employees
iii. Need to re-train and re-tool people
 Growth in contingent workforce
i. Trend to hire more project-based and
tempo employees
2. Demographics and Diversity Issues
 Racial and ethnic diversity
i. How to deal with diversity in the
workplace
ii. How to cope with creation of cross-
cultural teams
 Ageing of the workforce MODULE 2 – STRATEGIC HRM
i. A particular problem in the US, Japan
and European nations
 Work-Life Balance
i. Making employees cope with stress
and work fatigue
ii. Development of alternative work
arrangements (e.g. work at home,
SOHO)
3. Economic and Technological Change
 Occupational shifts
i. New types of jobs are emerging
ii. BPOs and call centers creating new
schedules of work and service
delivery models
 Global competition
i. Development of an increasingly
global market
ii. Expansion of companies into global
markets to sustain growth
iii. The threat posed by China and other
low-labor cost producers
 Technological Change
i. Technology driving the fast pace of
industrial change
ii. Making people cope up with
technological changes and trends
4. Organizational Effectiveness
 Corporate Organizational Restructuring
i. HR needs to assist business in finding
more effective ways of organizing
 HR Organization Restructuring
i. Need to make HR more effective by
finding appropriate HR structure
o How HR can help address the challenges
- HR Strategy is matched to business strategy
- Work is effectively performed by teams
- Pay systems reward skills and accomplishments
- Selection system is tight and competency-based
- Work attitudes of employees are monitored
- Continuous learning environment is created
o External Environment: Key External Forces to Scan o Internal Environment
1. Economic forces - All firms by nature have their own STRENGTHS
2. Social, cultural, demographic and environmental and WEAKNESSES
forces - Looks at the firm’s COMPETENCIES – strengths
3. Political, governmental and legal forces that can’t be matched or imitated by its
4. Technological forces competitors
5. Competitive Forces - Defines what the firms can strongly provide or
offer to its customers – its “value”
o Relationships b/w Key External Forces and an - Areas to Assess
Organization  Vision, Mission, Goals and Strategies of the
Organization
 Workforce Capability – Competencies and
Skills of its Employees
 Organizational Culture, Management and
Philosophy
 Operational and Financial Conditions of the
Firm
o Vision and Mission
- Vision – Given a firm’s knowledge of where we it
is at the moment, where does it want to be in the
near future (e.g., 5 years from now). It defines
“what do we want to become?”
- Mission – Defines clearly what the firm is
supposed to do to reach its vision. It spells out
“what is our business?”

o Workforce Capability Inventory

- Includes assessment of:
 Employee Demographics (age, length of
service, time in present job)
 Career Progression of Employees (jobs held,
 Rivalry Among Existing Firms -- The Intensity
time in each job)
of rivalry tends to increase as there are more
firms competing in the industry with more or  Education and Training of Employees
less equal power  Geographical preferences
 Potential Entrants – Whenever new firms  What types of jobs interest them
can easily enter a particular industry, the  Specific aptitudes, abilities and interests
intensity of competitiveness increases.  Promotability Ratings
Barriers to entry protect a firm within an  Anticipated Retirement
industry. o Michael Porter’s 4 Generic Strategies
 Threat of New Products or Substitutes – As o HR Strategy Process
new competing products are introduced and
prices of substitutes drop, firms face erosion
of their market power
 Bargaining Power of Suppliers – Affects the
intensity of competition esp. as there are
just a few suppliers with relatively few
substitute materials for producing goods
 Bargaining Power of Consumers – When
customers are concentrated or large, or buy
in volume, their bargaining power affects the
competitiveness of firms.
o How HR Strategy Aligns with Organizational Strategy knowledge & commitment differentiate one
organization from another

o Industry stage also defines HR Strategies

3. Human Capital – People comprise the intellectual
capital of an organization. As capital, they drive the
organization to its full potentials given proper
conditions, investment & empowerment

o HR Strategies for Various Industry Stages

o Human Capital Perspective

- HUMAN CAPITAL generally refers to the totality of
person’s capabilities, i.e, which includes his
Knowledge (Intellect) and Knowhow
(Competencies)
- In this framework, the organization looks at people
and their development to full potential as
investment in an intangible capital (human
capital), capable of creating proportional results
(even surprising returns!) for the company.
- Human Capital Assumptions
o HR Evolution:  People are…
1. Personnel – People are employees who man  Not just instruments or mere resources,
respective posts and whose skills and knowledge but creators of their destiny & career –
need to be managed for optimum productivity they have “free will”
 Empowered owners of the business and
not just paid according to their jobs –
they are “partners”
 Jobs of people are …
 Relative but more important are what
competencies and potentials people
bring into the organization – i.e., task of
the organization is to maximize
competencies and potential
- Implications on HRM
 The Organization’s Success is TIGHTLY
LINKED to the development of company’s
intellectual capital
 An Organization’s commitment to continuing
2. Human Resource - People are the greatest assets
expansion of knowledge and development of
of the company and whose skills,
 human capital drives HR Programs and
Practices

o Core Competencies Perspective

- A Core Competence is a bundle of skills and
technology that makes a company competitive. It
represents the sum of learning across individual
skill sets and across organizational units.
 Skills that enable a company to deliver
fundamental customer benefit
 Capabilities that differentiate one over
competitors
 Core strengths that are extendable to new
products & services
- Assumptions:
 To be successful, a company must identify its o Competencies
core competencies and focus on cultivating - Enduring traits or characteristics that help
and strengthening these. determine job performance
 An organization must look at its core skills and - Behaviors that describe excellent performance in a
identify people who possess those skills. particular work context (e.g., job, role or group of
 An organization needs to benchmark its core jobs, function or whole organization)
competencies with other firms – i.e. to see - Collection of observable behavioral statements
exciting opportunities to develop further its that require no inference, assumption or
core competencies. interpretation.
- Implications on HRM - Example:
 HR Programs must address the core
competency development agenda of the
company
 HR should “prioritize cultivation of core skills”
and people who possess them.
 Competency Development can be addressed
in two fronts:
 Development of job competencies of
people
 Integration of those differentiating skills
with appropriate technology

o Job Analysis
- One of the essential activities of HR MODULE 3 – HR PLANNING & JOB DESIGN
- Breaks down work into bits and pieces o HR Planning
- Considers the knowledge, skills and abilities that a
worker needs to perform a specific job effectively
- Defines Competencies needed for a particular job

- HR Planning is the process of forecasting the

organization’s future employment needs and then
developing action plans and programs to address
the identified staffing needs.
- HR Planning is widely affected by 4 Major External
Influences:
 Economic conditions
 Technology
 Labor Unions
 Labor markets
- Examples of external influences on HR Planning
 Economic Conditions
 Economic expansion and contraction o Determining Gaps
Job growth and opportunities - Basically matching forecasted HR Requirements vs.
 Technology HR Availability
Changes in skill requirements - Gaps need to be identified and quantified
 Labor Unions - Any gaps need to be addressed with a staffing
Negotiations and CBAs action plan or via “staffing alternatives”
 Labor Markets o Staffing alternatives to deal with Labor Shortages and
Labor Demand and Supply Surplus
Labor shortages and surpluses - Employee shortage
o One key economic variable HR is very concerned with  New hires
LABOR SUPPLY  Retrain employees
- Workforce composition and work patterns  Transfer employees
- Govt influences  Increase OT
- Geographic and competitive conditions  Increase outsourcing
- Economic conditions  Increase productivity
 Buy back vacation leaves
o Major workforce trends:  Temporary hires
- Increasing number of workers over age 55 will - Employee surplus
mean higher health care costs for employers  Freeze hiring
- Aging of workforce, and attendant increase in  Redundancy program
retirement, will lead to shortage of skilled workers  Retirement incentives
in some fields  Retrain employees
- Changes in technology will lead to changes in skills
 Internal transfers
demanded by employers
 Reduce work week
- Increased internationalization of labor pool,
 Temporary shut down
including increased outsourcing, immigration, and
 No OT policy
international corporations
- Employees are seeking more accommodation for  Reduce part-time
work/life balance programs and flexible scheduling o Job Analysis & Design
- Increased focus on productivity and demonstrated - Goal: match person and job
results for investments in human capital
o Basic elements of HR Planning

o Forecasting HR Requirements
- Direct derivative of business and organizational
planning
- A reflection of forecasted factors such as sales,
production, technological change, productivity
improvement, regulatory changes, etc.
- Statistical Techniques – uses ratio analysis, trend
analysis, regression analysis and other statistical
methods
- Judgmental Techniques – represent human
decision-making models used for forecasting HR
requirements
o Forecasting HR Availabilties
- May just involve Manager Judgment – Specially
appropriate in smaller organizations. To do this,
managers should be very knowledgeable about
organizational business plans and individual
employee plans
- Other ways to forecast include:
 Replacement Planning
 Succession Planning
o Job Description and Job Specification
- Basic documents describing the components of a
job:
 Defines duties and responsibilities for a job
 Details qualification requirements for the job
 Defines jobs in terms of specific KSAOs
 Knowledge
 Skills
 Attitudes
 Others
- Job Analysis: the process of collecting & analyzing
information about jobs to write:
 Job Description: a document that identifies
the tasks & duties performed by a job
 Job Specification: a document that identifies
the qualifications required by a job
- Most organizations combine the Job Description &
the Job Specification into a single document for
each job
 Usually simply called a “Job Description”
 - More definitions:
 Task: a unit of work activity performed by a
worker within a limited time period
 Duty: several related tasks that are
performed by a worker
 Position: the set of all tasks & duties
performed by a worker
 Job: a group of identical positions
o Preparing a Job Description
- Common Elements
 Job Title
 Job Summary
 Tasks & Duties
 “Task Statements”
 Qualifications
 Other information
- Format:
 First word or phrase (required): Performs
what action? (Present-tense verb)
 Example: “Supervise …”
 Next word or phrase (required): To whom or
what is the action performed? (Object of the
verb)
 Example: “… operation of bar …”
 Next word or phrase (optional): Additional
information
 Example: “… to maximize profitability,
minimize legal liability, and conform to
alcoholic beverage regulations.”
o Job Analysis Process
- Sample job duty and standards
MODULE 4 – STAFFING & RECRUITMENT
o Basic HRM MODEL (recruitment and selection part)
o Staffing
- PROCESS of ACQUIRING, DEPLOYING and
RETAINING a workforce of sufficient QUANTITY
and QUALITY to create positive impact on
ORGANIZATION’S EFFECTIVENESS
o Implication
- Acquisition involves getting the right kind of
people with desired KSAOs (knowledge, skill,
ability and other characteristics) needed to
perform a job effectively.
- Deployment refers to placement of new hires
on the actual job they will hold – also includes
guiding the movement of current employees
through movements and promotions.
- Retention refers to retaining employees and
managing the inevitable flow of employees out
of the organization – both voluntary and
involuntary.
- Staffing as a process or system – There are
multiple interconnected systems that
organizations use to manage employee flows
such as: planning, recruitment, selection,
decision making, job offer and retention
systems
o Effective Staffing
o Staffing System Components
o Staffing Strategy
- Requires making key decisions about
acquisition, deployment and retention of the
organization’s workforce.
- There are 13 key issues/strategic staffing
decisions to consider when crafting staffing
strategy.
o 13 Key Strategic Staffing Decision/Issues Facing HR
Managers
Decisions/Issue Related to Staffing Levels:
1. Acquire or develop talent – buy ready talent
or hire them untrained and train them
2. Hire yourself or outsource – do you develop
in-house recruitment or outsource your
recruitment to a professional hiring
organization outside as needed
3. External or internal hiring – when job
vacancies come up, do you fill it up through
external hires or do you promote or move
somebody from within
4. Core or flexible workforce – do you staff with
regular employees or use part-time/project
employees
5. Hire or retain – do you manage turnover with
hiring or seek to minimize turnover so that
need for replacement staffing is held to a
minimum
6. National or global – do we get someone from
local sources or do we get someone from
abroad
7. Attract or relocate – do we attract employees
to work where the office or factory is now or
do we move the office or factory to where the
talent are available
8. Overstaff or understaff -- do we provide for
some allowance in our staffing levels to cover
 sudden surges in work requirements or do we
keep staffing below ideal to ensure higher
productivity of people
9. Short-term or long-term focus – do we plan
staffing for just the short-term or for the long-
term
10. Person/Job or Person/Organization Match –
do we hire on the basis of job-person match or
with the person’s match to the organization
and not just the job
11. Specific or general KSAOs – should the
organization hire people with specific KSAOs
(or specific competencies) or more general
ones (which can be developed and further
honed)
12. Exceptional or acceptable workforce quality –
do we hire exceptional people or just
“ballpark” people
13. Active or passive diversity – does the
organization want to actively pursue diversity
in its workforce mix or do we just leave this to
chance
o Staffing Philosophy:
o Job Description: Basic Document for Recruitment
- Defines Duties and Responsibilities
- Details Reporting Relationships for the job
- Describes Work Qualifications
- Defines Educational Requirements
- Defines Essential KSAOs
o Company’s ability to recruit is affected by several
factors…
- Organizational Factors
 Reputation of the organization
 Recruitment budget
 Recruitment capability of the firm
 Understanding of the organization of its
actual recruitment needs
- Environmental Factors
 Labor Market conditions
 Technological innovations
 Changes in business and economic
conditions
o Responsibility for Recruitment
- In small firms, task is usually done by the
business owner himself
- In big companies, there is a dedicated
Recruitment Unit or recruitment is part of HR’s
functions
- In multinational companies, recruitment is
“International” or “global” in nature – search is
done across the globe
- But whether small or big, recruitment should be
a “shared responsibility” (between owners and
people who will directly manage recruits)
o Recruitment Responsibility

o Employment Relationship
- From a “Legal Perspective” the term STAFFING
refers to the formation of the employment
relationship
- There are generally 3 Types of Employment
Relationships:
 Employer-Employee – full-pledged or full- o What Recruiters look for in applicants?
time employee - Educational Abilities:
 Independent Contractors – not legally  Degree
considered an employee and covers a
 Grades
specific service contract
 Extra-curricular involvements
 Temporary Employees – employees hired
 School seminars
from an agency to serve on project or
- Personal Qualities:
temporary basis
 People-orientation
o Recruitment
 Business sense
- Process of locating, identifying, and attracting
capable candidates  Technical skills
- Can be for current or future needs  Attitudinal inclination
- Critical activity for organizations and  Ability to work with teams
corporations.  Success orientation
o Strategic Recruitment  Independence
- While Recruitment is concerned with attracting o Common Recruitment Sources
qualified applicants for a job, STRATEGIC - School placement
RECRUITMENT is the continuous process of - Employee referrals
sourcing applicants to ensure that candidates for - Temp services
job openings are available as soon as they are - Advertisements
needed - Employment agencies
 - Employee leasing
- Internal searches
o 2 Types of Recruitment
- External Recruitment – process to identify and
attract job applicants from outside the
organization
- Internal Recruitment – process to identify and
attract applicants from among individuals
already holding jobs with the organization
o Sources of Recruitment
- External Recruitment Sources
 walk ins/applicant initiated
 other Companies – via pirating
 former employees – their referrals
 employee networks/social networks
 via job advertisements
 job fairs
 employee and contact referrals
 internet/employment websites
 schools, colleges and placement offices
 employment agencies
 executive search firms
 professional associations and meetings
 social service agencies
 e-recruiting – e.g. JOBS.DB.COM
o Internal Recruitment Sources
- Job postings
- Intranet and Intraplacement
- Supervisor nominations
- In-house temporary pools
- Skills inventories of employees
- Talent management systems
- Career planning and development
programs/centers
- Other companies (in group of companies)
o External Recruitment
- Before actually conducting external recruitment,
2 general issues must be resolved:
 Organizational plans must be made to
coordinate the identification and attraction
of applicants
 Administrative issues, such as the number
of contacts to be made, recruiters to be
used, and the budget to be spent need to
be considered to ensure there are
adequate resources to conduct successful
recruitment
o External Recruitment Strategies: Open vs. Targeted
Recruitment
- Open Recruitment:
 Cast a wide net to identify potential
applicants
 Very little effort is made to segment the
market with most desirable KSAOs
 Very passive – anyone can apply for an
opening
 Advantages:
1) seen as “very fair”
2) helps ensure diverse candidates
(including marginally challenged)
3) essential when large numbers are
to be hired
 Disadvantages:
1) lacks focus
2) with so many candidates, the right
ones may be overlooked
3) costly
- Targeted Recruitment
 Organization identifies segments in labor
market where candidates are likely to be
 Targets specific KSAO and JOB
requirements
 Advantages:
1) very focused
2) more economical
 Disadvantages:
1) limits options
2) may be perceived as unfair
o Making the choice b/w Open and Targeted
Recruitment
o Internal Recruitment
- Reasons for using internal sources:
 This raises morale of employees
 Saves money and time through reduced
hiring and training costs
 Evaluation is easier since you already have
pre-knowledge of the applicants
- Reasons for not using internal sources:
 Danger of “inbreeding”
 Lack of available candidates
 Reluctance of supervisors to let go of their
best employees to another department
 Reluctance of employees to apply for fear
of being “marked” by their supervisors
o Internal Recruitment Strategies: Close, Open and
Targeted
- Closed Internal Recruitment System
 Employees are not aware of job vacancies4
- Open Internal Recruitment System
 Employees are made aware of job vacancies

- Targeted Internal Recruitment System
 Combination of open and closed
 Both open and closed steps are followed
 Able to cast as wide a net as possible
 Large applicant pool is further narrowed
down by KSAOs, seniority eligibility,
demographics, and availability of applicants
o Searching
- Once recruitment planning and strategies are
set, it is time to conduct the SEARCH
- Search is generally activated with a REQUISITION
(as previously mentioned)
- Once requisition has been approved, the
MESSAGE and MEDIUM must be developed to
communicate the vacancy to applicants
o Message
- MESSAGE should be:
 Realistic and accurate – portrays job as it
really is showing positive and negative
aspects
 Targeted – one that points out how the job
matches the needs of the applicant
 Branded – emphasizes value, culture and
identity of the unit so as to attract
applicants who fit the “employer brand”
o Communication Medium
- Should match and reach the target applicants
- Examples: newspaper classified ads, radio and TV
ads, internal ads, company
announcements/IOMs, e-mail letter, brochure,
video clip or short AVP, posters, website ads,
direct contact (via telephone or text message)
o Examples of Recruitment Ads
- Facebook
- US Army
- Apple
o Some Best Practices in Recruitment
- Mirage Resorts
 Hotel chain with HQ in Las Vegas, Nevada,
employs 18,000 workers in four locations
 Mirage Ad: We’re looking for 5,000 people
who wouldn’t mind working in a tropical
rainforest with live sharks and a volcano
that erupts every 30 minutes
 Treasure Island Ad: We’re looking for
ruffians, scalawags, and other people who
don’t mind a good fight while working
 Ads resulted in 80,000 applicants, selecting
only 8,000
- General Motors Corp
 Located in Detroit, Michigan with more
than 450,000 employees
 Faced recruiting challenge when it had to
build its IT dept from ground up which
needed 300 leaders
 GM paid particular attention to out-of-town
candidates, in addition to selling the IT jobs,
they had to sell “Detroit”
 Aside from job interviews, they arranged
“tours” of Detroit to prospective employees
 Had to be flexible with its compensation
and benefits package as a means to attract
employees – e.g., extended VLs and GM
stock ownership
o Creative Staffing Solutions
- Airplane Banners
- Billboard Ads
- Bumper Sticker Ads
- Company-sponsored Social affairs
- Movie Ads
- Pre-employment Training
- Newspaper Inserts
- Sporting Events
- Try-a-Job for a Day
o Measuring Recruitment Success – Recruitment Metrics
- Metrics tell us whether recruitment is successful
or not
- Recruitment Metrics can generally be classified
into 3:
 Sufficient Quantity – Were we able to get
the right number of applicants or
candidates?
 Sufficient Quality – Did we get the
candidates with the right qualifications?
 Cost – Was the recruitment method used
cost-effective or not?
MODULE 5 – EMPLOYEE SELECTION
- Still under recruitment and selection
o Selection
- The process of picking out the right person with
the right knowledge, skills and capabilities, and
attitude for a given job
- Or simply, the process of choosing “THE BEST
CANDIDATE/S”
o Value of Selection
- The company is assured of the right person with
the right competencies and capabilities
- We don’t waste money and time in getting the
wrong person
- We can screen for undesirable attitude or work
behavior among prospects
- The logic of “prediction” – past behavior is
predictive of future success
o Logic of Prediction
o Some commonly used predictors o Selection Tools
- Level of Education
- Grades in School
- Quality of School
- Major Field of Study
- Extracurricular Activities
- Training and Experience
- Licensing and Certifications
- Biographical data
- Letters of Recommendation
- Reference Checks
- Initial Interview
- Genetic Screening
o General process for selection includes:
1. Development of a selection plan
2. Acceptance of applicants
3. Shortlisting of applicants o Assessment methods
4. Assessment of applicants: 1. Initial Assessment Methods
 Initial assessment  Resume screening
 Substantive assessment  Screening of Application Blanks/Forms
 Discretionary assessment  Biographical Information review
 Contingent assessment  Reference and Background checks
5. Selection Decision  Genetic screening
6. Job Offer  Initial Interview
7. Selected candidate start as new hire 2. Substantive Assessment Methods
o An Effective Selection procedure has 4 Stages  Personality Tests
1. Establishing Selection Procedures  Ability Tests
 Who makes the selection decisions  Job Knowledge Tests
 Screening out or Selecting In?  Performance Tests and Work samples
 Fitting People to jobs or fitting jobs to  Situational Judgment Tests
people?  Integrity Tests
 Single or differentiated selection  Interests, values, and preferences
procedure? inventories
2. Identifying and choosing selection criteria,  Structured interviews
predictors and instruments 3. Discretionary Assessment Methods
 Identifying criteria for successful  Focuses on factors beyond KSAOs
performance  Culture fit exams
 Identifying predictors of success  Involve use of organization’s staffing
 Choosing selection instruments philosophies regarding EEO and affirmative
 Determining validity, reliability, and action
accuracy 4. Contingent Assessment Methods
3. Gathering and evaluating information about  Drug testing
applicants  Medical exams
 Initial contact with potential employee o Assessment Methods by Applicant Flow Stage
 Preliminary screening interview
 Biographical inventory
 Testing
 In-depth Interview
 Verifying background information
 Physical examinations
4. Making and communicating decision to select or
reject
 Explaining how decision is made
 Communicating the decision
 Accepting or rejecting job offer
o Types of Tests - Race or color
- Religion
- Handicap
o What leads to good hiring decisions
- Disciplined and clear practices that thoroughly
asses the competencies, skills, knowledge,
personality and the needs of the people you are
considering to hire
- Recognition of JOB FIT – individual’s capabilities
and interest matches well the job opening
o Another important aspect: assessing “cultural fit”
1. Look for a match between the energy level of the
candidate and the pace required by the
organization
2. Evaluate the candidate’s view of risk taking
3. Consider the candidate’s decision making style
4. Compare candidate’s with organization’s values
o Types of Interview
- One-on-One
- Panel Interview (one interviewee, many
interviewers)
- Group Interview (more than 1 interviewee, more
than one interviewer)
- Targeted Selection (STAR Framework)
 Situation
 Task
 Action
 Results
o STAR Example
Question: What have you done in your college years to
demonstrate leadership?
S – I was the head of the Marketing Org and I was tasked
to head a project team
T- Our task was to develop a campaign for getting more
members
A- What I did were: 1) to meet with the project team; 2)
lead the brainstorming; 3) help select our common
solution
R- As a result of our effective planning and execution,
org membership increased by 20% that year.
o Common Questions Asked in Interviews

o International Perspective: EEO Questions to Avoid

- Marital Status
- Height
- Weight
- Number and Ages of Dependents
- Information on Spouse
- Birthplace, National Origin or Ancestry