Lesson:  HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

 


What is Human Resources Management?

Management has been defined as:

 

Ø       Management is the art of getting things done through people. 

 

We can’t do everything ourselves, so we need to employ others to help us get the job done.  It follows, then, that to get the most done we need to employ the best people that we can find.  In simple terms, then, the first task of Human Resources Management is to find, hire, and keep the best possible people.

 

Ø       Things get done better and quicker with good people.

 

Another reason that Human Resources Management is so important is that finding, hiring, training, and retaining people is expensive!

 

Ø       Payroll is generally one of the major expense categories in a company.

 

In this lesson we will look at the important responsibilities of Human Resources Management, and discuss ways to accomplish the above.

 

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Human Resources Goals

The goals for effective Human Resources Management involve three broad areas:

 

  1. Determine the correct mix of employees and skills needed to meet competitive conditions.
  2. Develop an effective work force through good recruiting and training.
  3. Keep costs down while improving efficiency and productivity.

 

The tasks performed by Human Resources Managers to reach these goals include Planning, Attracting, Developing, and Maintaining.   The following chart illustrates the relationships between these tasks.

 

 


Planning – what people will we need?                                           Attracting – how will we get them?

* Job Analysis                                                                                     * Recruiting

* Forecasting                                                                                       * Selecting

 

 

 

 


                               

Maintaining – how do we keep them?                                            Developing- keeping them up to speed.

                * Wages, Salaries, Benefits                                                             * Training & Development

                * Job Enrichment                                                                                * Performance Appraisals

 

 

Planning

The first of these tasks is Planning – what type of people, and how many of them, will we need? The tools used are Job Analysis and Forecasting.

 

Job Analysis is the process of defining the scope of the particular job, and involves three areas:

Ø       The nature of the work activities.

Ø       The current technology that is available to perform this type of work.

Ø       Productivity and product quality expectations.

 

Once these are defined, the result is a very important document about the particular job – the Job Description.

 

Forecasting is an attempt to predict how many people are going to be required that meet the Job Description, and examines the following areas:

Ø       Emerging technologies – fewer people may be needed if they can be replaced by machines.

Ø       Business volume – how the company expects to grow in the coming year.

Ø       Employee turnover rate – how normal attrition will effect hiring.

Ø       The changing labor market – if it is easy or hard to find qualified people.

 

Attracting

Recruiting is the process of seeking qualified individuals, and can be done either externally or internally.  With external recruiting, the job of the Human Resources Manager is to determine the best way of reaching the right people.  Schools are an obvious choice, but for experienced candidates it is also very effective to recruit from the industry itself, either by advertising in trade magazines or via industry category want ads in newspapers, or on industry-related web sites.  Professional recruiters, commonly known as “head hunters” are also an alternative, especially for higher level or highly technical positions.  The drawback of this type of recruiting, however, is cost -- recruiters can be very expensive.

 

Another place to recruit qualified candidates is internally – from within the company itself.  The advantages of internal recruiting are many: it is less costly to recruit internally than externally, there is greater employee commitment and satisfaction when recruiting from within, and internal recruiting allows employees to advance in their careers without moving to another company.  Not to be underestimated is the negative affect of NOT recruiting internally – employees might feel that the only way to advance is to leave the company, which can contribute to dissatisfaction and employee turnover.

 

Recruiting also requires a good selling job on the benefits of working for the company.  While salary and health insurance, etc., are important, other incentives can be held out to prospective employees, such as signing bonuses, stock options, and lifestyle benefits (it’s a nice place to live).

 

Selecting is what happens as recruiting efforts pay off and resumes begin to accumulate for a particular job opening.  The Human Resources Manager should review applications and resumes keeping in mind the Job Description that was written in the Planning process.  The applicants with the best work history and education can be chosen for the next steps in the process – interviews and reference checks.

 

An interview plan, or “road map”, is a useful tool for insuring an effective interview process.  The plan will have a list of questions relevant for the job description – a list that will be asked of all candidates.  This will help insure that all candidates are judged by the same criteria, and that the selection process is fair.

 

There are many possible questions, but typical questions would include:

 

  1. What has been a particularly demanding goal for you to achieve?
  2. Can you think of a situation in which an innovative course of action was needed? What did you do in this situation?
  3. What are the typical customer interactions you have in your present position? Can you think of a recent example of one of these?
  4. Have you ever been in a situation where you have had to take on new tasks or roles? Describe this situation and what you did?
  5. In your present position, what standards have you set for doing a good job? How did you determine them?

 

A favorite question asked by Microsoft recruiters is “how do they make M & Ms?”  This question tests reasoning and critical thinking abilities –necessary skills for a software developer.

 

Avoid this type of question:

 

  1. Are you a U.S. citizen? (adversely impacts national origin)
  2. Do you have a visual, speech, or hearing disability?  (Prohibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act.)
  3. Are you planning to have a family? When?  (Sex discrimination.)
  4. Have you ever filed a workers’ compensation claim?
  5. How many days of work did you miss last year due to illness?
  6. What off-the-job activities do you participate in?
  7. Would you have a problem working with a female partner?
  8. Where did you grow up?
  9. Do you have children? How old are they?  (Age.)
  10. What year did you graduate from high school? (reveals age)

 

In the interview process the best several candidates are chosen for the last step in the selection process – the checking of references.  References are generally provided by the candidate, but calls can also be made to prior employers who are not listed as references.

 

A personal credit report can also be obtained as a way to gauge the honestly, integrity, and stability of the candidate, and many employers are also utilizing independent firms that do a more thorough investigation of the candidate, looking for any legal or criminal history.

 

Finally, an offer of employment can be made to the best candidate, who hopefully will accept!

 

Developing

Training and Development are critical components of Human Resources Management.  In the same way that it is often better to recruit from within, it is also cheaper, less disruptive, and a better motivator to train current staff rather than to find new employees.  There are a number of training methods, but the most common types are:

 

Ø       Orientation Training – it is important that a new recruit become indoctrinated as soon as possible with the corporate culture and “the ropes” (the day-to-day activities of the business) so that they can become effective employees as soon as possible.

Ø       On the Job Training – this is to keep the employee abreast of changes in technology, the marketplace, and competitors, again in order to maximize effectiveness and to keep the company competitive.

Ø       Cross Training – serves several purposes; allows for employee job enrichment and insures a supply of trained substitutes.

Ø       Industry Seminars – these allow for fresh information from OUTSIDE the organization to be introduced to the work force.

 

The goal of all training, of course, is to keep the company operating at the state-of-the-art in the industry, and to minimize the need to recruit new employees.

 

Performance Appraisals also serve an important purpose in this area, as they are a way to help the employee improve performance.  They also serve to point out performance deficiencies to Human Resource Managers, who may decide that the best way to bring performance in a particular job up to competitive standards is to replace the individual currently holding the position.

 

 

Maintaining

Finally, how do we keep good people once we have recruited and developed them into effective employees? 

 

Wages and Benefits – this is an obvious and vital function in keeping good people.  It is the job of the Human Resources Manager to make sure that the company remains competitive in the industry, or employees will eventually begin to drift to higher paying jobs elsewhere.

 

In addition to pay and benefits, there are other ways to keep good people.  Job Enrichment is based on the idea that employees will want to stay if a job can be kept interesting and fresh, or if the company can be perceived as simply an excellent place to work.  Cross Training was mentioned above, but other means of enriching the employment experience are flex time, job sharing, sabbatical programs, and education funding.  New tools are being developed in this area all the time to help retain good employees by means other than wage increases.

 

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Conclusions about Human Resources Management

Considering that Human Resource Managers do not build or sell any of the products of the company, it is interesting that they play such a vital role in the success of the company.  Without effective management in this area, costs will rise and competitiveness will falter until the company is forced out of business.  For this reason one of the most important recruiting jobs for an owner or manager is to find the best possible person to manage Human Resources!

 

Links

The following are interesting links to Human Resource Management web sites.  The first is a company that does background checks on job applicants, and the other two are general Human Resources sites.

 

http://www.absolutebackgrounds.com/

http://www.shrm.org/

http://humanresources.about.com/

 

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