Human Resource Management

What is Human Resource Management?

• The management function that deals with
recruitment, placement, training, and
development of organization members.
• It is concerned with getting, training, motivating,
and keeping competent employees.
• It is a staff function (i.e., HRM managers advise
line managers through out the organization)
• The policies and practices involved in carrying out
the “people” or human resource aspects of a
management position, including recruiting,
screening, training, rewarding, and appraising.
Human Resource Management
 The HRM Process
• The HRM process is an ongoing procedure that tries
to keep the organization supplied with the right
people in the right positions, when they are needed.

1. Human resource planning

2. Recruitment
3. Selection
4. Socialization
5. Training and development
6. Performance appraisal
 Human Resource Planning
• Human resource planning is designed to ensure that
personnel needs will be constantly and appropriately
met.
• It is accomplished through analysis of
a) Internal factors, such as current and expected skill
needs, vacancies, and departmental expansions and
reductions
b) Factors in the environment, such as the labor market
• The use of computers to build and maintain
information about all employees has enabled
organizations to be much more efficient in their
planning of human resources.
• Human resource planning has four basic aspects:
1. Planning for future needs by deciding how many
people with what skills the organization will need
2. Planning for future balance by comparing the
number of needed employees to the number of
present employees who can be expected to stay
with the organization, which leads to:
3. Planning for recruiting or laying off employees
4. Planning for the development of employees, to be
sure the organization has a steady supply of
experienced and capable personnel.
• To be effective, the managers of a human resource
program must consider following two major factors:
– The organization’s human resource needs
– The economic environment of the future
 Recruitment
• Recruitment is concerned with developing s pool of job
candidates in line with the human resource plan.
• The purpose of recruitment is to provide a group of
candidates that is large enough to let managers select the
qualified employees they need.
• Job analysis is an early step in the recruitment process
where clear ideas regarding the activities and
responsibilities required in the job being filled are
identified.
• Once job analysis has be done, a written statement of its
content and location is incorporated into the organization
chart. This statement is called a job description.
• Job description lists the title, duties, and responsibilities for
that position.
• Once the position description has been determined, an
accompanying hiring or job specification is developed.
• Job specification defines the education, experience, and
skills an individual must have in order to perform effectively
in the position.
Example:

Job description
Sales Manager: Duties include hiring, training, and supervising
small sales staff and administration of sales department;
responsible for performance of department; reports to Division
Manager.

Job specification
Position requires BBA degree; five years’ experience in sales and
two years’ supervisory experience; energetic, motivated
individual with well-developed interpersonal skills.
 Selection
• Selection involves using application forms, resumes,
interviews, employment and skills tests, and reference
checks to evaluate and screen job candidates for the
managers who will ultimately select and hire a
candidate.

• The mutual process where by the organization decides

whether or not to make a job offer and the candidate
decides whether or not to accept it.
The Selection Process
1. Completed job application
2. Initial screening interview
3. Testing
4. Background investigation
5. In-depth selection interview
6. Physical examination
7. Job offer
 Orientation
• A program designed to help employees fit smoothly
into an organization; also called socialization.

• Orientation or socialization is designed to provide new

employees with the information needed to function
comfortably and effectively in the organization.
• Typically, socialization conveys three types of
information:
1. general information about the daily work routine;
2. a review of the organization’s history, purpose,
operations, and products or services, as well as a
sense of how the employee’s job contributes to the
organization’s needs; and
3. a detailed presentation (perhaps in a brochure) of
the organization’s policies, work rules, and
employee benefits.
Effective socialization programs reduce the anxiety of new
employees by giving them information about the job
environment and about supervisors, by introducing them to
co-workers, and by encouraging them to ask questions.
 Training and Development
• Training and development both aim to increase
employees’ abilities to contribute to organizational
effectiveness.

• Training is designed to improve skills in the present job;

development programs are designed to prepare
employees for future work activities and promotion.
• Once the organization’s training needs have been
identified, the human resources manager must initiate
the appropriate training effort.
• On-job-training methods include job rotation,
internship, and apprenticeship.
– Job rotation - the employee, over a period of time,
works on a series of jobs, thereby learning a broad
variety of skills.
– Internship - job training is combined with related
classroom instruction.
– Apprenticeship - the employee is trained under the
guidance of a highly skilled co-worker.
• Off-the-job training takes place outside the
workplace but attempts to simulate actual
working conditions.
– Vestibule training – employees train on the actual and
in a realistic job setting but in a room different from
the one in which they will be working.
– Behaviorally experienced training – activities such as
simulation exercises, business games, and problem-
centered cases are employed so that the trainee can
learn the behavior appropriate for the job through
role playing.
Off-the-job training may focus on the classroom, with
seminars, lectures, and films, or it may involve computer-
assisted instruction, which can both reduce the time
needed for training and provide more help for individual
trainees.
• Management Development Programs
– Management development is designed to improve the
overall effectiveness of managers in their present positions
and to prepare them for greater responsibility when they
are promoted.
On-the-job methods
1. Coaching – the training of an employee by his or her
immediate supervisor – is by far the most effective
management development technique.
2. Job rotation involves shifting managers from position to
position so they can broaden their experience and
familiarize themselves with various aspects of the firm’s
operations
3. Training positions – trainees are given staff posts
immediately under a manager, often with the tile of
“assistant to”. Such assignments give trainees a chance
to work with and model themselves after outstanding
managers who might otherwise have little contact with
them.
4. Planned work activities involve giving trainees important
work assignments to develop their experience and
ability.
Trainees may be asked to head a task force or participate
in an important committee meeting. Such experiences
help them gain insight into how organizations operate
and also improve their human skills.
Off-the-job methods
– In-house classroom instruction – specialists from
inside and outside the organization teach trainees a
particular subject.
Often supplemented with case studies, role playing,
and business games or simulation.
– Some organizations send selected employees to
university-sponsored programs, which range in length
from a week to three months or more to broaden
their perspective and prepare them for promotion.
 Performance Appraisal
• Performance Appraisal and Compensation
– Informal performance appraisal refers to the
continual process of feeding back to employees
information about how well they are doing their work
for the organization.

The manager spontaneously mentions that a

particular piece of work was performed well or poorly,
or the employee stops by the manager’s office to find
out how a particular piece of work was received.
– Formal systematic appraisal - which usually occurs
semiannually or annually - is a formalized appraisal
process for rating work performance, identifying those
deserving raises or promotions, and identifying those
in need for further training.

Four major purposes:

1. To let employees know formally how their current
performance is being rated;
2. To identify employees who deserve merit raises;
3. To locate employees who need additional training;
and
4. To identify candidates for promotion.
Compensation is linked to a particular job or job
description.

The more responsibility a manager has, the more

compensation he or she should earn.

Oftentimes jobs are rated by a job evaluation system

which measures such variables as the number of
subordinates, level in the organization hierarchy, and
the complexity and importance of the job function.
The new pay approach is an approach toward
compensation that links it to the process of setting and
achieving organizational objectives.

Total compensation involves base pay, variable pay (often

called “incentive pay”), and indirect pay (often called
“benefits”).

By linking base pay to the labor market and variable pay to

the success of the organization, managers can use the
compensation system to foster teamwork and other
organizational goals.
• Promotions, Transfers, Demotions, and Separations
Promotions
– The possibility of advancement often serves as a major
incentive for superior managerial performance, and
promotions are the significant way to recognize superior
performance.
– It is extremely important that promotions be fair – based
on merit and untainted by favoritism.
Transfers
– They are be used to give people broader job experiences
as part of their development and to fill vacancies as they
occur.
– Transfers are also used to keep promotion ladders open
and to keep individuals interested in the work.
Discipline, demotions, and separations
– Discipline usually progresses through a series of steps –
warning, reprimand, probation, suspension, disciplinary
transfer, demotion, and discharge – until the problem is
solved or eliminated.
– Some ineffective managers may be asked to go for
retraining or development, others may be “promoted” to a
position with a more impressive title but less
responsibility.
– If demotion or transfer is not feasible, separation is usually
better than letting a poor performer stay on the job.
Human Resource Functions
Human
Resource
Management
versus
Personnel
Management