Human Resources

The “Social Contract”

• Capitalism and the free market revolve around the sale of labour.

• We work to get paid.

• OLD DAYS:-Looking for a long-term career. Job security mattered.

• NEW AGE-Selling to whoever is buying.

Social Contract

• The “Social contact” has changed.

• Importance for employees: Skills, responsibility, continuous learning, mobility.

Importance for employers: Providing development opportunities, challenging work assignments, resource support, incentive compensation.

BUILDING YOUR OWN BRAND

• Have a portfolio of skills.

• Protect your mobility.

• Take charge of your destiny

• Add value to your organization

• Ask yourself:

• Who am I?

• What do I want?

• What have I done?

• What do I know?

• What can I do?

• Why should someone hire me?

Valuing Human Capital

• Human Capital is the economic value of people with job-relevant abilities, knowledge, ideas, energies, and commitments.

• Companies that want to succeed, companies that want the highest efficiency and productivity, say things like:

• “People are our most important asset”

• “People make the difference”

• “People determine whether our company succeeds or fails.

Valuing Human Capital

• Multiple studies have shown:

Treat your employees well, they will work

better. This makes

companies more successful.

Valuing Human Capital

• Diversity refers to a workforce that represents a wide range of difference.

• The best employers know that diversity has to be valued.

• Job-related talent is not restricted by things like:-race-gender-religion-relationship status-sexual orientation-ethnicity

Human Resource Management

• HRM is the process of attracting, developing, and maintaining a high-quality workforce.

• In other words, organizations want to raise human capital the same way they need to raise regular capital.

• HRM has become more important as economic environments change.

• There are HR programs in colleges and universities. These produce specialists.

Human Resource Management

• Organizations put more importance in this because of:

• Complicated laws,

• Labour shortages,

• An unstable economy,

• Changing strategies

• Changing personal values

• New expectations,

Human Resource Management

• 1. Attracting a quality workforce – involves human resource planning as well as employee recruitment and selection.

• 2. Developing a quality workforce – involves employee orientation, training and development, and performance appraisal.

• 3. Maintaining a quality workforce – Involves career development, work-life balance, compensation and benefits, retention and turnover, and labour-management relations.

Human Resource Management

• A good way of knowing that an organization cares about HR is when its HR department is headed by someone who reports directly to the CEO.

• Ethics scandals have also contributed to making HRM more important in today’s workplace.

Discrimination

• What do YOU think when you hear this word?

• Discrimination in employment occurs when someone is denied a job or job assignment for reasons that are not job relevant. Here are the prohibited grounds for discrimination in Canada, according to the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Prohibited Grounds for Discrimination in Canada

• Race or colour

• Religion

• Physical or mental disability

• Age if 18-64/65

• Sex (includes pregnancy and childbirth)

• Marital status

• Dependence on drugs/alcohol

• Family status

• Sexual orientation

• National or ethnic origin

• Ancestry or place of origin

• Language

• Social condition or origin

• Source of income

• Political belief

• Criminal conviction

• Pardoned conviction

Discrimination

• Each province has a human rights commission that has the power to force employers into action.

• They can force employers to hire the victim,

• They can demand compensation for lost wages

• They can demand damages for injury to feelings or self-respect.

Discrimination

• Employment equity is an effort to give preference in employment to Aboriginals, women, visible minorities, and people with disabilities.

• Job Example

Discrimination

• Government departments have to follow these rules. So do private sector employers who have to follow government legislation (Banks, broadcasters, transportation companies).

• Are there criticisms of employment equity?

Discrimination

• What it does NOT do, is prevent employers from discrimination for Bona Fide Occupational Requirements.

• These are legitimate requirements for a job.

• It is OK to deny a blind man a job driving a bus, because he is blind.

• It is OK to deny a woman in a wheelchair, a job as a lifeguard at a pool, because she is handicapped.

• It is NOT OK to deny a black man a job driving a bus for being black.

Current Legal Issues in Human Resource Management

• HR departments and organizations have to be aware of laws. A failure to follow the rules can lead to fines.

• We will be talking about:-Sexual Harassment-Comparable Worth-Independent Contractors-Workplace Privacy

Let’s Talk About Interviews

• Race: No questions regarding race or colour are appropriate.

• Religion/creed: No questions regarding religion or observance of holidays are appropriate. It is okay to ask if the shifts and days required will pose a problem.

• National origin: Not ok to ask about ethnic origin or nationality. It IS ok to ask if they are allowed to work in Canada.

• Sex. No questions regarding orientation are appropriate.

• Marital status: May not ask about marital status or children. May ask if the travel and overtime expectations for the position will pose a problem.

• Family planning: No questions regarding present or future plans are allowed.

• Age: May not ask an applicant’s age. May ask if they are between the ages of 18 and 65.

• Arrest: Inappropriate to ask if the applicant has ever been arrested. May ask if they have ever been convicted of a crime (relevant to job performance) for which they have not received a pardon.

• Birthplace: No questions regarding birthplace of parents or spouse.

• Disability: May not ask about specific disabilities. It is acceptable to ask if the applicant has any condition that could affect their ability to perform the major requirements of the job.

Current Legal Issues in Human Resource Management

• Sexual Harassment is behaviour of a sexual nature that affects a person’s employment situation.

• It is ANY behaviour that creates a negative environment, interferes with a person’s ability to do a job, or interferes with their promotion potential.

• It is law to have a policy to deal with sexual harassment.

• Here are some examples.

Current Legal Issues in Human Resource Management

• Comparable work is the idea that people doing jobs of similar importance should be paid at comparable levels.

• This usually applies to the idea that men and women should be paid equal money for equal work.

Current Legal Issues in Human Resource Management

• Independent Contractors are hired on temporary contracts.

• They are not part of the organization’s permanent workforce.

• They are also not covered under basic employment standards legislation.

• These are more common today then they have ever been.

Current Legal Issues in Human Resource Management

• Workplace privacy is the right to privacy while at work.

• A good rule of thumb is, while you are at work, expect no privacy.

• If you are on company time or using company equipment, you should not expect any privacy rights.

• Companies are legally allowed to protect themselves from waste, AND from damage to their image.

Attracting a Quality Workforce

• Before an organization can begin attracting a quality workforce, they have to know what they are looking for.

• A lot of organizations nowadays look less for particular skills/talents and more for attitudes, behaviours, and beliefs.

• “You can do almost anything with a person who has the right basic instincts, and you can do practically nothing with someone who doesn’t.”

Attracting a Quality Workforce

• There are three steps:

• 1. Human Resource Planning

• 2. Recruiting Process

• 3. Selection process

Human Resource Planning

• Human resource planning analyzes staffing needs and identifies actions to fill those needs.

• STARTS with a review of the organization’s mission, objectives, and strategies.

• This identifies the needs the organization needs to fill.

Human Resource Planning

• Job analysis – This action studies what is done in a job, when, why, where, how, and by whom.

• Why is this done??

• So a job description can be written. Job descriptions are written statements of job duties and responsibilities.

• Also useful for job specifications. These are the requirements for a job-Education, experience, skills, etc.

The Recruiting Process

• Recruitment is a set of activities designed to attract a qualified group of applicants.

• GOOD recruiting allows qualified candidates to find out about positions.

• 1. Organizations advertise an opening.

• 2. Potential candidates are contacted

• 3. Screening creates a list of qualified members.

The Recruiting Process

• External Recruitment is when an organization goes outside of a company to hire employees.

• Ads on the radio, in newspapers, on websites, etc.

• Can create anger within an organization.

• Internal Recruitment is when an organization hires somebody who already works in the company.

• Usually a procedure exists for advertising openings within the business.

The Recruiting Process

• External hiring:-brings in new opinions, ways of looking at things.-allows the organization to experience different/new experiences.

• Like this.

• Internal hiring:-less expensive,-employees performance records are established.-builds loyalty and motivation.

The Recruiting Process

• Traditionally, when companies want to hire, they try to sell themselves.

• They talk about all the best things the company has to offer.

• This is called traditional recruitment.

• The modern way is called realistic job preview, where all information is given. Candidate is told about good AND bad.

The Selection Process

• Selection is choosing who to hire from a pool of qualified job applicants.

• Depending on the job, there are different steps.

• 1. A form.

• 2. An interview.

• 3. Testing

• 4. Reference checks

• 5. Physical examination

• 6. Final analysis

The Selection Process (Testing)

• Testing should identify intelligence, personality, skills, or interests.

• They have to be:-Reliable (giving consistent results)-Valid (Shoe links to future performance)

The Selection Process (Reference Checks)

• Reference checks make sure the resume is correct.

• They also identify features of a person that cannot be found on the resume.

• A lot of people lie on resumes. Estimates range from 25% to 33% of all resumes are faked.

The Selection Process (Physical Exams)

• Physical examinations are justified in a lot of cases, but employers have to be careful. They are not allowed to discriminate.

The Selection Process (Final Decisions)

• After all the first steps, management has to decide who to choose.

• There should be discussion amongst everyone the decision will affect.

• “Good fits” will give a company long-term advantage, “bad fits” will create problems.

Developing a Quality Workforce

• This step is training and development.

• Learning opportunities to gain job skills.

• Two types of training.

Developing a Quality Workforce

• On-the-job Training – Learning how to do the job, by doing the job.

• Involves:-Coaching-Mentoring-Modelling.

Developing a Quality Workforce

• Coaching: Experienced workers give performance advice to the less experienced person.

• Mentoring: New workers are assigned to experienced workers. These workers provide advice, and serve as someone to go to with problems. “Shows them the ropes..

• Modelling: Informal. Occurs when someone demonstrates the “right way to act/behave.”