MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES Chapter One MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES

What do I Need to Know? Define human resource management and explain how HRM contributes to an organization’s performance. Identify the responsibilities of human resource departments. Summarize the types of skills needed for human resource departments. Explain the role of supervisors in human resource management. Discuss ethical issues in human resource management. Describe typical careers in human resource management.

Introduction Human resource management (HRM) is defined as the policies, practices, and systems that influence employees’ behavior, attitudes, and performance. Important HRM practices include:

Human Resources and Company Performance Managers and economists have traditionally seen HRM as a necessary expense, rather than a source of value to the organization. The concept of HRM implies that employees are resources of the employer. Human capital means the organization’s employees described in terms of their training, experience, judgment, intelligence, relationships and insight. By influencing who works for the organization and how those individuals work, HRM contributes to such basic measures of an organization’s success as quality, profitability, and customer satisfaction. HRM is critical to the success of organizations because human capital has certain qualities that make it valuable. In terms of business strategy, an organization can succeed if it has a sustainable competitive advantage.

Impact of Human Resource Management

Human Resources and Company Performance Human resources have these necessary qualities: Valuable Rare Cannot be imitated No good substitutes High-performance work system: an organization in which technology, organizational structure, people, and processes all work together to give the organization an advantage in the competitive environment. Maintaining a high-performance work system may include: Development of training programs Recruitment of people with new skill sets Establishment of rewards for such behaviors as teamwork, flexibility, and learning

Responsibilities of Human Resource Departments The responsibilities of HR departments include: Analysis and design of work Recruitment and selection Training and development Performance management Compensation and benefits Employee relations Personnel policies Compliance with laws Support for strategy

Responsibilities of Human Resource Departments Analyzing and designing jobs: Job analysis: the process of getting detailed information about jobs. Job design: the process of defining the way work will be performed and the tasks that a given job requires. Recruiting and hiring employees: Recruitment: the process through which an organization seeks applicants for potential employment. Selection: the process by which an organization attempts to identify applicants with the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that will help the organization achieve its goals.

Responsibilities of Human Resource Departments Training and developing employees: Training: planned effort to enable employees to learn job-related knowledge, skills, and behavior. Development: involves acquiring knowledge, skills, and behavior that improve employees’ ability to meet the challenges of a variety of new or existing jobs.

How Training and Development Can Increase the Value of Human Capital

Responsibilities of Human Resource Departments Managing performance: Performance management: the process of ensuring employees’ activities and outputs match the organization’s goals. Performance management activities include specifying the tasks and outcomes of a job that contribute to the organization’s success.

HR Responsibilities of Supervisors Some HR responsibilities that supervisors are likely to be involved in include: Job analysis and design HR planning Interview job candidates Participate in hiring decisions Provide training Conduct performance appraisals Play a key role in employee relations

Responsibilities of Human Resource Departments Planning and administering pay and benefits: The pay and benefits earned play an important role in motivating employees. They have the greatest impact when based on what employees really want and need. Maintaining positive employee relations: Organizations often depend on HR professionals to help identify and perform many of the tasks related to maintaining positive relations with employees. This function often includes providing for communications to employees. Establishing and administering personnel policies: Organizations depend on their HR departments to help establish policies related to hiring, discipline, promotions, benefits, and other activities of HRM.

Responsibilities of Human Resource Departments Ensuring compliance with labor laws: The government has many laws and regulations concerning the treatment of employees. These laws govern such matters as equal employment opportunity, employee safety and health, pay and benefits, privacy, and job security. Supporting the organization’s strategy: An important element of this responsibility is human resource planning. This means identifying the numbers and types of employees the organization will require in order to meet its objectives.

Skills of HRM Professionals

Skills of HRM Professionals Human relations skills: HR managers need knowledge of how people can and do play a role in giving the organization an advantage against the competition as well as policies, programs, and practices that can help the organization’s people do so. Some of the human relations skills that are of particular importance today are communicating, negotiating, and team development. Decision-making skills: Decision making requires knowledge of the organization’s line of business and the ability to present options in terms of costs and benefits to the organization, stated in terms of dollars. Decisions must take into account social and ethical implications of the alternatives.

Skills of HRM Professionals Leadership skills: Fulfillment of this role includes diagnosing problems, implementing organizational changes, and evaluating results. Technical skills: In HRM, professionals need knowledge of state-of-the-art practices in such areas as staffing, development, rewards, organizational design, and communication.

Ethics in Human Resource Management Ethics: refers to the fundamental principles of right and wrong; ethical behavior is behavior that is consistent with those principles. Employee rights: Free consent Privacy Freedom of conscience Freedom of speech Due process Standards for ethical behavior: Empathize mutual benefits Employees assume responsibility for company actions Have a sense of purpose or vision Empathize fairness

Standards for Identifying Ethical Practices

Careers in Human Resource Management The majority of HRM professionals have a college degree and many also have completed postgraduate work. Some HRM professionals have certification in HRM, but many more are members of professional associations. The primary professional organization for HRM is the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). HR specialists are often involved in recruiting, training, or labor and industrial relations. HR generalists perform the full range of HRM activities including recruiting, training, compensation, and employee relations.