Human resource managementBasics and emerging diversity

Jussi LeponiemiJussi.tapani.leponiemi@gmail.com

+358-44-2387860

Examples on literature

• Boxall, P. & Purcell, J. 2003. Strategy and Human Resource Management. London.

• Harris, H., Brewster, C. & Sparrow, P. 2004. International human resource management. London.

• Dowling, P. & Welch, D. 2004. International human resource management: managing people in a multinational context. London.

• http://mams.rmit.edu.au/d4lhtsmk45c.pdf, by Carol Gill

HRM

The integration of all processes, programs, and systems in an organization that ensure staff are acquired and used in an effective way

Strategic hrm

HR planningRecruitmentSelectionOrganizational and work designTraining and developmentPerformance reviewCompensationLabour relations

Strategic Importance of HRM• Can establish an organization’s sustainable

competitive advantage– Shortfall of hundreds of million workers globally

• Requires fundamental change in how managers think about employees– Partners and Investments

• Need to consider outsourcing certain HR transactions– But then what does the HR dept. do?

Legal Environment of HRM

• Governments influenced HRM through laws and regulations– Huge increase in this since 1960’s

• Employers must ensure that managers understand their obligations and comply

• Four primary areas of employment legislation

Human Rights Legislation

• Has the most impact on HR decisions• Protects individuals and groups from

discrimination• Protects employees from harassment - both

workplace and sexual• Consider the time, (which translates to

money), that managers spend on HRL

Other Employment Legislation• Employment standards

– Basic or minimum employment conditions in an organization

• Minimum wage, hours of work, OT pay• Health and safety

– Healthy and Safe work Environment– On the Job Injuries

• Labour relations– Relationship between union and employer– Not all organizations are covered by Labour Relations

Global Laws and HRM

• Laws and regulations are not the same throughout the world– Working Conditions, Pay

• Important for manage to know the legislation in the country in which they are working

Human Resource Planning

Assessing FutureHuman Resource

Needs

Assessing Current Human Resources

Developing aProgram to Meet

Needs

HR Planning

• We have found the gap, how do we fill this void?

• How much time should we spend on identifying the right person?

• Lets follow the trail of what it takes to hire a new team member in an oganization.

Recruitment

• Process of locating, identifying, and attracting capable candidates

• Can be for current or future needs

• Critical activity for some corporations.

• What sources do we use for recruitment

RecruitmentSources

InternalSearches

EmployeeReferrals

EmployeeLeasing

TempServices

EmploymentAgencies Advertisements

SchoolPlacement

Selection

• Prediction exercise– Thus, Not Perfect

• Decision-making exercise• Purpose is to hire the

person(s) best able to meet the needs of the organization

• Tied Back to Strategy

Selection

• Are there ways that managers can ensure that the decision achieves the desired outcome? (time and time again)– Yes, use HR Tools which are Reliable & Valid

Reliability

• Degree to which selection tool measures the same thing consistently

• Can be a test or an interview• Same questions need to be asked.

Validity

• Relationship between selection tool and appropriate criterion

• What a selection technique measures and how well it measures

• Must be proven and relevant to job– Eg: keyboarding skills for data entry clerk.

The Effectiveness of Interviews

• Prior knowledge about an applicant• Attitude of the interviewer• The order of the interview• Negative information• The first five minutes• The content of the interview• The validity of the interview• Structured versus unstructured interviews

Common Types of Interviews• Non-directive

– Most Latitude– Questions are open ended – This can get you into trouble

• Behavioural Description – As about a situation you have experienced.

• Structured– Panel– Situational

• Why is a Situational Analysis Good.

Written Tests

• Intelligence• General aptitude• Ability• Interest

Reference Checks

• Potential employer seeks to verify information• Important to have well-constructed questions• Can you Outsource This? • How far can you dig?

Your Hired

• Now What? • Most Important Stage

Familiarization to Organization and its Values

Improved Success On the Job

Minimizes Turnover

Orientation

• Process to introduce new employees to organization

• Familiarize new employee to job and work unit

• Help employee to understand values, beliefs, and acceptable behaviours

Training and Development

• Learning experience that seeks relatively permanent change

• Involves changing skills, knowledge, attitudes or behaviours

• Training tends to be done for current job• Develop usually means acquiring skills for

future work

Employee Training

What deficiencies, if any,does job holder have in terms of skills, knowledge, abilities, and behaviours?

What behaviours are necessary?

Is there a need fortraining?

What arethe strategicgoals of theorganization?

What tasks mustbe completedto achievegoals?

Training

• Can you Train Someone out of a job?

Performance Management

• Integration of management practices that includes a formal review of employee performance– How often should this take place?

• Includes establishing performance standards and reviewing the performance

• Means to ensure organizational goals are being met

MultipersonGraphicRating Scales

CriticalIncidents

WrittenEssay

BARS

Performance Review Methods

360-DegreeReviewMBO

If Performance Falls Short

• Train • Discipline• Coach• Out the Door

Compensation Management

• Process of determining cost-effective pay structure

• Designed to attract and retain

• Provide an incentive to work hard

• Structured to ensure that pay levels are perceived as fair

Factors That Influence Compensation

Unionization

Level ofCompensation

and Benefits

Employee’stenure and

performance

Kind of jobperformedSize of

company

Managementphilosophy

Kind ofbusinessGeographical

location

Labour- orcapital-intensive

Companyprofitability

Robbins et al., Fundamentals of Management, 4th Canadian Edition ©2005 Pearson Education Canada, Inc.

Source: Management, Seventh Canadian Edition, by Stephen P. Robbins, Mary Coulter, and Robin Stuart-Kotze, page 274. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education Canada Inc.

Employee Benefits

• Indirect financial rewards• Designed to enrich employees’ lives• Vary widely in scope• Costs range from 30% to 40% of payroll costs

Health and Safety

• Employers are responsible for ensuring a healthy and safe work environment

• Employees are required for follow instructions and any legal requirements

• Workplace violence is a growing concern

Labour Relations

• Relationship between union and employer• Union functions as the voice of employees• Collective bargaining is a process to negotiate terms

and conditions of employment• Bargaining produces a written document called a

collective agreement

Key HR challenges for today’s managers

Environment•Rapid change•Workforce diversity•Globalization•Legislation•Evolving work and family structures•Skill shortages

Organization•Competitive position•Decentralization•Downsizing•Organizational restructuring•Self-managed work teams•Technology•Outsourcing

Individual•Matching people and organization•Brain drain•Productivity•Empowerment•Ethical dilemmas•Social responsibility

Assignment

• Themes– G1 – Recruitment in a context of diverse workforce– G2 – Appraisal -”-– G3 – Employee relations -”- – G4 – Internal communications -”-– G5 – Training and development -”-– G6 – Compensation -”-– G7 – Strategy aspect -”- – G8 – HR-manager aspect -”- (competences etc.)– G9 – Enlargement of HRM beyond traditional boundaries,

supporting employees further -”- AND Minority individual aspect, encounter with HRM: key points, emphasis on which ?

Group assignment • Each group considers 1) the

implications of diversity on the given HR-function or –aspect, and 2) what must change?

• 0 % diversity -> 100 % diversity

Emerging workforce diversity and HRM

• What is interesting?– the causes, benefits, and challenges of cultural

diversity– the impacts the diverse workforce has on the HRM

• Focus on a situation where the level of diversity is yet small but increases steadily vs a situation where the level is high

Diverse workforce• Different approaches (EO, DM)• Definitions (deep- / surface-levels)• Causes

– demographic developments, globalisation, potential benefits• Benefits

– competitive advantage, reducing costs, • Challenges

– communication, collaboration, processes

The role of HRM in diversity

• How to obtain the benefits and to deal with the challenges?

• Traditionally HRM theories and models based on homogeneity

• Abstract, ideal workers• Similarity promoted, not diversity• HRM & challenges

The role of HRM in diversity

• HRM as a holistic system• Commitment to diversity and equality• Culture of solidarity and equality • Readiness for change and flexibility• Seen as related to the benefits and the

challenges

Results – Causes, benefits & challenges

• Causes– new recruitment potential, reduction of staff turnover (context),

potential benefits • Benefits

– quality of customer service, recruitment potential, cultural competence, innovativeness, working atmosphere

• Challenges– communication, need for greater flexibility, different conceptions of

work, women as supervisors

Results - HRM• HR-strategy

– Diversity typically not stated in HR-strategy– still considered important for the competitiveness

• Recruitment– new paths created (diversity promoting organisations)– selection criteria not touched

• Training & development– 50 % of the organisations have modified T&D

Results - HRM

• Rewarding– generally untouched

• Performance appraisal– typically done without any regard for diversity

Conclusion

• Challenges: emphasis on communication; context-related challenges

• HRM changes: it seems that the strategy level follows the functions; emphasis on recruitment and T&D

• How global HRM is managed nowadays and contemporary challenges?

Background (workf div)

• Workforce in most contexts develops to be more diverse in several ways – particular challenges for organisations operating internationally – need for globally applied workforce diversity management, also other motives

• Need to ensure that activities and programs are efficient and influencing at the meaningful organisational levels based on right reasons

Findings• Central discourses:

– Mixed blessing (workforce diversity has positive and negative aspects – we should support it and then again..)

– Sledgehammer to crack a nut (topic not relevant in Finland, why so much resources for promoting workforce diversity?)

– Free reign in implementation (local adaptation and variation in implementation hinders the program’s objectives)

– Anticlimax of DM impacts (despite long and resourceful efforts, only little concrete development seems to be achieved)

– DM tained by HRM brush (HR office working alone has too weak role to really promote workforce diversity)

• All relevant for the theoretical discussion the paper bases itself (what, how, why, antecedents and outcomes)

Example 1 – Mixed blessing• Two-folded logic, on the one hand a positive and favourable

phenomenon – because it is socially and ethically required to think like that?; on the other hand a burden, minority members require more support and create another challenge for the team members, still the efficiency is not quaranteed.

• Typically the first aspect was stated strongly and explicitly at the beginning of the discussion, whereas the second aspect was more hidden into the text and used e.g. in an implicitly given role that hints towards challenges, difficulties and only poor ROI in relation to everyday business.

• It appears that some elements of the global DM program’s desired cognitive effects have been reached, whereas attitudes and values still may remain partly unchanged.

Example 2 – Free reign in implementation

• Explanatory logic – why the implementation has not been or will not be successful? Because local line managers and lower level supervisors adapt the standardised policy too much – DM standards are likely to be interpreted in different ways – causes inconsistency and hinders horisontal cooperation

• Typically stated in the beginning of ”explanatory sequence”, accusations were not made openly, subjects were located in some of the cases in development requirement descriptions later on, still only carefully and not explicitly

• Organisational standpoints to HRM with mixed workforce

Organizational approaches and their practical implications

• Organization’s approach realizes in the actions taken by the individuals sharing the values and aims of that organization, and possibly in company statements (implementation?)

• The selected (?) approach can be observed• Workforce perceives the implications

Earlier aspects• Discriminatory approach

– Certain identity group is openly preferred– Legislation prevents this (by norming the strategies, policies,

statements and formally the behavior as well) typically nowadays, cognition-related behaviors of individuals difficult to control

– Paradigm: by favoring openly a certain group• Equality

– Legislation is followed and no one is favored: same behavior, treatment

– Formally meets the criteria, but when there is no individual- or group-based adjustment, org. may eventually lack the potential benefits

– Paradigm: by treating everybody the same

Two non-excluding principles• Organizations have different philosophies to

diversity depending on the goals of the organization

• Traditionally the division follows the principle of whether the organization believes that it will meet its goals by 1) understanding and valuing the people (Moral case) or 2) seeing the valuing of people and business goals as integrated and others supporting (Business case)

Two different traditional alternatives to approach diversity

• Typically organizations have balanced between two approaches

• It has been assumed that org. should distinguish if it approaches the personnel as thinking and reactive mass that observes acts of prefers (Equal opportunities) or if it approaches the diversity as manageable issue with strategic dimension (Diversity management)

Do they interact?Moral case approach → Equal opportunities-traditional approach of the organization-organizations try to offer equal opportunities to be promoted and to feel accepted in the workplace-Legislation-based changes, only obligatory changes are done, no extras-Paradigm: by offering all the same possibilities

Practical implications

+employee centered HRM+basically guides organizations towards positive treatment

(?)+corporate social responsibility included through the

legislation-organization is not committed to diversity (?)-power relations inside an organization typically appear as

barriers-a strategic approach needed (?)

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Two different alternatives to approach diversity

Business case approach → Diversity Management-business goals are seeked to obtain through better management of diverse workforce-healthy way if diversity management is done with the respect of workforce and human resources are not taken as cold resources-Paradigm: by integrating business goals into the utilization of our workforce

Practical implications+planned change, top-down/down-top+HRM seen as a central management tool+external integration

-no structure or culture change (?)-show-casing (?)-internal integration in HRM missing (?)-increases inequality (is it a negative aspect?)-ethical or EO basis missing

New approach: learning diversity• Tries to combine the benefits of moral and

business case• Work is adjusted to individuals• Supports the learning process

– Opens the possibility to circulate knowledge and experiences that individuals with different backgrounds have

Paradigm: by learning from differences (and thus valuing them)

Practical implications+employee centered HRM+HRM seen as a central management tool+basically guides organizations towards positive treatment+corporate social responsibility included through the

legislation+planned change, top-down/down-top+external integration-requires resources-no guarantee still of the result

Emerging approach: capability-based

• Give individuals possibilities to develop their talents, skills and abilities → organization gains more innovative and motivated resources, people stay in organization

• Paradigm: by supporting and promoting our staff’s skills

Practical implications

+benefits of the diverse workforce is enabled and seeked+motivation is supported by offering a change to develop

individual’s skills etc.-how does it go along with the business goals if individuals’

personal growth is the main principle?-how do we assure that the invested individuals do stay