Human Resource Management Fundamentals

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Human Resource Management Fundamentals

HRM Fundamentals
KeyPoints to develop in your own time!
Introductory concepts in Human Resource Management @ OxfordCambridge.Org all for free and
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Aim of publication
To introduce the reader or learner to the
fundamentals of Human Resource Management.

After developing the KeyPoints outlined in this publication, you should mainly be able to:
☺ describe the importance of HR to an organization
☺ discuss the way attitudes to employment are changing
☺ explain the recruitment process
☺ explain how recruitment is perceived by job applicants
☺ participate in effective recruiting
☺ explain how organizations source suitable applicants
☺ define external selection
☺ outline the major pre-interview staffing techniques
☺ …
Learning Objectives

After developing the KeyPoints outlined in this publication, you should mainly be able to:
☺ discuss the interview process
☺ explain what makes performance appraisal worthwhile
☺ discuss the different methods of performance appraisal
☺ explain the relationship between total quality management and performance appraisal
☺ appraise an employee
☺ describe effective workplace communication
☺ outline the benefits of employee feedback and recognition programs
Learning Objectives

☺ Defining HRM
☺ Recruitment
☺ External Selection
☺ Performance Appraisal Methods
☺ Employee Relations and Communications
HRM Fundamentals - Sections list

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Defining HRM: Objectives
☺ After completing the KeyPoints in this
section the reader should be able to:
• define human resources and human
resource management (HRM)
• discuss the importance of integrated
human resource (HR) decisions in a
business context
• discuss the need for efficiency and
equity in organizations
• discuss the ways in which the
effectiveness of HR practices can be
measured
• describe a diagnostic approach to
making HRM decisions
• explain the changing nature of
employment
• explain how changing approaches to
employment affect the employee

Defining HRM: Summary
☺ You have examined how human resource
management (HRM) contributes to an
organization.
☺ An organization's human resources are the
people employed to work toward achieving
its goals. Human resource management
(HRM) refers to the management of
employees.
☺ Human resource (HR) decisions need to
take the business context of organizations
into account.
☺ To be effective, an organization needs to
monitor the efficiency and equity of its
practices. Efficiency concerns the
productive placement and performance of
employees, while equity concerns the fair
and legally compliant treatment of
employees.
☺ …

☺ Undervaluing or underutilizing employees
causes employee dissatisfaction and
hampers an organization's chances of
success.
☺ HR problems may be solved by applying a
diagnostic approach.
☺ The four phases of the diagnostic approach
are assessing conditions, setting
objectives, choosing appropriate actions,
and evaluating results.
☺ Assessing a problematic situation entails
examining external, internal, and employee
conditions to understand the problem
properly.
☺ Setting objectives involves finding ways to
move from problem situations to new,
desired situations.
☺ …

☺ A number of actions can be taken to put
plans into effect.
☺ HR decisions and actions are evaluated to
determine if they have achieved the
required objective.
☺ Employment contracts used to be largely
implicit, with high levels of job security and
predictable earnings. This relationship is
changing as employers begin to expect more
from employees, and employees are
increasingly concerned with managing their
own careers.
☺ Employers are beginning to regard
employees as providers of core
competencies in terms of an organization's
immediate needs, rather than as long-term,
secure investments.
☺ …

☺ Employees today may be required to update
their skills according to organizational
developments.
☺ Also, employees are more likely to review
their options for career development
across organizations, rather than remaining
in one job and progressing through
seniority-based career paths.

Recruitment: Objectives
☺ After completing the KeyPoints in this
section the reader should be able to:
• describe the concept of recruitment
• outline the recruitment process
• outline inducements and recruitment
styles
• discuss the preparation of recruiters
• discuss recruitment costs and
evaluation practices
• describe factors that influence
occupational choice
• outline information channels for job
seekers
• describe search strategies adopted by
job seekers

Recruitment: Summary
☺ You have been introduced to recruitment
from the perspectives of both employer
and employee.
☺ Recruitment is the beginning of the search
for employees by organizations that need
to fill positions and entails the creation of
a suitable pool of candidates that can be
drawn on at short notice.
☺ The recruitment process is a product of
human resource (HR) planning and
philosophy.
☺ Few organizations design their work, pay,
and career paths solely to improve
recruiting. However, some inducements -
such as home loans or subsidies, free or
reduced-cost services, and signing bonuses
- focus specifically on the recruitment
process.
☺ …

☺ The costs involved in recruitment can vary
depending on job levels, the intensity of
recruiting activities, and the number and
type of recruitment sources used.
☺ These factors, together with the
performance levels and retention rates of
employees, should form evaluation criteria
for recruitment practices.
☺ Individuals' occupational choices can be
influenced by psychological, sociological,
and economic factors.
☺ Job seekers can gather information
through informal contacts, employment
agencies, prospective employers, formal
advertising, and Internet sources
☺ …

☺ Also, job seekers adopt different search
strategies and can be classified as
maximisers, satisfiers, or validators.
☺ The particular search strategy used by a
job seeker may influence the quality of the
job found.

External Selection: Objectives
☺ After going through the KeyPoints in this
section you should be able to describe the
external selection process:
• identify the main objectives of
external selection
• discuss selection techniques
(predictors) and the benefits and
limitations of determining their
validity
• describe validation and the use of
statistical methods to determine
validity
• discuss the benefits, risks, and
validity of application forms and
resumes
• …

External Selection: Objectives
☺ After going through the KeyPoints in this
section you should be able to describe the
external selection process:
• discuss the benefits, risks, and
validity of background and reference
checks and life-history information
• discuss selection interviews and
identify factors affecting interview
outcomes
• describe interview structuring and
explain how it affects interview
validities

External Selection: Summary
☺ You have been introduced to the external
selection process and the validity
assessment of selection techniques.
☺ External selection forms part of the
staffing process and involves decisions
about which externally recruited applicants
to employ.
☺ Selection objectives are determined by
overall organizational goals, the need for
efficiency, and requirements concerning
fairness (equity) in employment practices.
☺ Selection decisions are predictions based
on information provided by selection
techniques or predictors. A predictor
relates to a specific criterion that is
required for the performance of a specific
job. Validity is the degree to which a
predictor is supported by statistical
evidence.
☺ …

☺ Validity enables employers to assess
selection techniques and can be used as
evidence to defend selection practices
against legal challenges.
☺ However, validity in itself does not signify
that a criterion is appropriate for a
specific job or that assumptions about
cause and effect are correct.
☺ The process of determining the validity of
a predictor is called validation. You can plot
the degree of correlation between
predictor and criterion scores on a
scatterplot graph or express it numerically
in the form of a validity coefficient.

☺ It is not always practical to interview all
the applicants for a job. Pre-interview
selection techniques help identify
candidates to be invited for interviews or
to participate in further selection
procedures. Application forms and resumes
contain particulars supplied by the
applicants and have low validities, whereas
weighted application blanks have greater
validity.
☺ Background checks are often essential as a
legal precaution. References generally
provide only positive information about
applicants. Life-history techniques have low
validities, except for biographical
inventories and accomplishment records.
Employers need to avoid asking
inappropriate questions irrespective of the
selection techniques involved.
☺ …

☺ Interviews of candidates for selection
proceed through similar phases, but each
interview is nevertheless unique.
Interviewers need to be aware of factors
that can affect interview outcomes
unfairly. These may include interviewer
stereotypes of certain groups and
impression management tactics used by
applicants.
☺ Employers attach great importance to the
interview, but as a selection technique it
generally has a low validity. Effectiveness
can be improved significantly by interview
structuring - that is, by specifying identical
questions, processes and evaluation
methods for all candidates. Examples of
structured interviews are behavior
description interviews, situational
interviews, and comprehensive structured
interviews.

Performance Appraisal Methods: Objectives
☺ After completing this unit you should be
able to:
• describe how performance appraisal
methods are selected
• describe and discuss performance
appraisal methods
• describe management by objectives
(MBO)
• define total quality management
(TQM)
• describe the characteristics of TQM
organizations and how this relates to
using an appraisal system
• describe how an appraisal system may
be designed for a TQM organization
• …

Performance Appraisal Methods: Objectives
☺ After completing this unit you should be
able to:
• identify and discuss appraisal methods
that are consistent with TQM
• describe the appraisal interview and
how it may be structured
• describe types of appraisal interviews
• outline guidelines for conducting
effective appraisal interviews
• describe how employee performance
may be improved

Performance Appraisal Methods: Summary
☺ You have been introduced to performance
appraisal methods.
☺ HR managers often make cost-benefit
decisions when selecting a performance
appraisal method.
☺ The way in which an appraisal method is
used may have more impact on its
effectiveness than the actual method
selected.
☺ Appraisal methods may be broadly
classified as measuring traits, behaviors, or
results.
☺ These appraisal methods have varying
degrees of usefulness for either
administrative or developmental purposes
and are prone to various levels of error and
subjectivity.
☺ …

☺ Results appraisals are more objective than
other methods and align the goals of both
employees and organizations.
☺ Management by objectives (MBO) is a
management philosophy that attempts to
overcome the disadvantages of results
appraisals.
☺ In MBO, employees are evaluated on goals
that they set for themselves in
consultation with managers.
☺ This process is intended to increase
motivation and focus employee attention on
organizationally relevant outcomes.
☺ Total quality management (TQM) is a
management philosophy that strives for
continuous improvement by setting
objectives based on customer
requirements.
☺ …

☺ TQM organizations display particular
characteristics that cause traditional
appraisal methods to be ineffective or
inappropriate.
☺ Appraisal systems consistent with TQM
need to be designed using employee and
customer participation.
☺ An appraisal system objectives should
relate directly to organizational goals.
☺ Appraisal methods that are consistent with
TQM include team appraisal, customer
appraisal and team-based performance
review sessions.
☺ In an appraisal interview, employees and
managers discuss the results of
performance appraisals and identify areas
for improvement.
☺ …

☺ It may be beneficial to interviewers and
employees if the interview is divided into
two sessions - one to deal with the
performance appraisal and one to discuss
employee's plans and suggestions.
☺ There are three types of appraisal
interviews: "tell-and-sell" interviews, "tell-
and-listen" interviews, and "problem-
solving" interviews.
☺ Appraisal interviews will be more effective
if conducted according to specific
guidelines.
☺ These guidelines focus on maximizing
employees' participation in discussions and
gaining a better mutual understanding of
the causes of any performance problems
and the best solutions.

Employee Relations and Communications: Objectives
☺ After completing all the KeyPoints in this
section you should be able to:
• describe the role of communication in
healthy employee relations
• outline communication processes in the
workplace
• describe the function of written,
audiovisual, and electronic
communications in organizations
• describe the function of meetings in
facilitating communication between
employees and managers
• identify the most appropriate method
of communicating different kinds of
workplace information
• describe employee feedback programs
and the function of attitude surveys
• …

Employee Relations and Communications: Objectives
☺ After completing all the KeyPoints in this
section you should be able to:
• describe the function of appeals
procedures
• describe the function of employee
assistance programs
• describe the function of employee
recognition programs

Employee Relations and Communications: Summary
☺ You have been introduced to employee
relations and communications.
☺ Effective communication between
employees and managers is necessary if
organizations are to maintain healthy
employee relations.
☺ Employee relations representatives can act
as mediators when a problem arises and
help keep the communication channels
between management and employees open.
☺ A typical communication involves a sender, a
receiver, and a message. The message is
encoded in a suitable communication
channel and then decoded by the recipient,
although it may be distorted in the process.
☺ …

☺ Communications that move up and down the
organizational hierarchy are becoming
increasingly important as a country moves
from an industrial to an information-based
economy.
☺ Employee handbooks, memos, financial
statements, newsletters and bulletins may
constitute appropriate written
communication channels in an organization.
☺ Audiovisual and electronic communications
provide various ways of sharing information
in and between organizations.
☺ Face-to-face meetings between employees
and managers may be formal or informal.
They can be used to promote dialogue,
develop personal relationships, and
encourage creative ideas.
☺ …

☺ Employee feedback programs are designed
to improve employee relations by promoting
upward communication, allowing employees
to participate in policy formulation, and
ensuring that they receive due process in
response to complaints lodged against
managers.
☺ Employment attitude surveys may ascertain
how employees feel about their work,
supervisors, remuneration, and career
aspirations.
☺ Appeals procedures provide employees with
the means to respond and challenge
management practices and decisions.
☺ …

☺ Employee assistance programs provide
confidential support to employees whose
performance is suffering as a result of
personal problems.
☺ Employee recognition programs are a means
of encouraging and rewarding employees'
work improvement ideas.

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