Human Resource Management: An Overview

Human Resource Management

• HR management ensures the right employees are hired, trained, and retained to achieve business goals.
• Key responsibilities of HR include recruitment, retention, compensation, and defining job responsibilities.
• HR ensures the number of employees is effective and efficient to avoid overstaffing and understaffing.

HR Planning

• HR Planning is a continuous process where businesses estimate future workforce needs, ensuring the right number and type of employees.
• The purpose of HR planning is to avoid over or understaffing issues that impacts business cost and productivity.
• The HR planning process involves analyzing the current workforce, forecasting future needs, and developing appropriate strategies.
• Outcome of HR planning is a written plan for large organizations, or mental plans for smaller businesses.

External and Internal Factors Influencing HR

• External factors such as the labor pool affects HR planning.
• Technological changes like teleworking and improved information, allows for more flexibility in hiring remote workers.
• Government regulations on working hours, health, safety, and equality impacts hiring practices.
• Demographic changes, specifically ageing populations, immigration, and education levels impact worker availability.
• Changes in social trends like single parent families impacts work-life balance and employee preferences.
• Booming economies increase labor demand and wages, while recessions decrease job opportunities.
• The ease at which workers can change jobs affects the labor pool and new workers can fill labor shortages.
• Internal factors like organizational changes such as mergers or restructurings, can alter workforce needs.
• Labour relations or changes in union power can impact workforce planning and business strategy changes require new skills.
• Financial changes and budget constraints can affect hiring and compensation.

Resistance to Change in the Workplace

• Employees resist changes imposed by management due to discomfort and lack of understanding.
• Reasons for resistance include fear of the unknown, lack of skills, poor communication, and negative experiences.
• Social pressure, loss of control, and insufficient reward also lead to resistance.
• To manage change, organizations must develop a vision, allocate resources, and involve employees.
• Communicating regularly, providing training, and highlighting benefits is crucial for positive transition.

Changes in Work Patterns, Practices and Preferences

• Work patterns include a decline in full-time work, a rise in part-time work, and temporary work arrangements.
• Temporary Work: 1–3 year term contracts for for specific projects or maternity cover.
• Freelancing (self-employed), teleworking (work from home), and the gig economy (independent contracts) are also types of work patterns.
• Employees are now seeking career breaks and job sharing for flexibility and work-life balance.

Ethical Considerations in Human Resources

• Ethical Issues of HR ensures fair treatment regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity.
• Ethical practices include health and safety, handling layoffs fairly and transparently, and ensuring fair compensation.
• Protecting employee data and personal information is also an ethical consideration. -Ethical HR practices build trust and improve employee morale.

Cultural Differences in Human Resources

• Cultural factors such as power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, and masculinity vs. femininity affect HR policies.
• Uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation are other key cultural factors, understanding such differences foster innovation.

Innovation and Human Resources

• HR plays a key role in improving a creative work environment.
• Strategies include recruiting creative employees, giving training and experimenting.

Work-Life Balance and the Right to Disconnect

• France introduced a "right to disconnect" law, it allows employees to disconnect from work communications outside of contracted hours.
• This law aims to protect employees from overwork and promote work-life balance.
• Global Trends: Other countries like Spain, Canada, and India are considering similar laws.

HR SWOT Analysis

• The SWOT tool is used to assess a company's strengths, weaknesses, threat and opportunity.
• Ex. Used when opening a new factory, to analysis recruitment challanges.

Key Terms

• Demographic Changes: Shifts in population characteristics (e.g., aging, education levels).
• Labor Mobility: The ease with which workers can change jobs or locations.
• Gig Economy: Short-term, independent work contracts.
• Flexi-Time: Flexible working hours chosen by employees.
• Power Distance: Acceptance of unequal power distribution in society.

Revision Checklist

• It is important to understand: The role of Human Resources, the factors that influence it internally and externally, and the reasons and ways to reduce resistance.

Organizational Structure

• Key terminology for an organizational structure: Delegation, Span of Control, Levels of Hierarchy, Chain of Command, Bureaucracy, Centralization, Decentralization, Delayering.

Types of Organizational Charts

• Flat/Horizontal Structure: Few levels of hierarchy, a wide span of control, and decentralized leadership.
• Shorter chain of command along with a shorter amount of delegation, with fast communication.
• Tall/Vertical Structure: Many levels of hierarchy with narrow span of control and centralized decision making.
• Longer chain of command along with auto and limited delegation providing clear roles with light control.
• By Function: Employees are grouped by department.
• By Product: Employees are grouped by products and services.
• By Region: Employees are grouped on location.

Changes to Organizational Structure

• Can be done via Project-Based Organization, it involves temporary teams to complete projects.
• Shamrock Organization: Contains core, contracted and flexible employees which is cost efficient and flexible.

Appropriateness of Differing Organizational Structures

• It depends on size, industry and the external environment which impacts project based industries.

Organizational Goals and The effects

• Structures may foster innovation with the correct centralized and decentralized management methods.
• Tall structures lead to slow decision making, flat structures leads to ambiguity, and Matrix structures leads to conflict.

Practice Question

• It is important to understand delegation, span of control, and chain of command.
• It is import to know: How to define a flat, tall, functional, product-based, and regional organizational chart.

Management Intro

• Management involves planning, and organizing.
• Henri Fayol's 5 management skills involved planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.

Management and leadership

• Management focuses on tasks and processes while leadership focuses on people.
• Leaders use change and innovation as well as vision, management and expertise

Leadership Styles and Advantages

• There are four main leadership types: Autocratic, Paternalistic, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire.
• Autocratic has a clear authority, while paternalistic has strong employee loyalty.
• Democratic empowers employees, and Laissez-Faire encourages creativity.

Ethical Considerations in Leadership and Management

• Leaders focus on helping their employees, while managers are concerned with the needs of their employees.
• Unethical behavior is any action done by a leader against the needs of their employees.

Geert Hofstede's Dimensions

• Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions are useful for understanding power, cultural and individualistic leadership styles.

Motivation and Theory

• Intrinsic motivation is the satisfaction directly from activites and extrinsic comes from external rewards.

Motivation Theories and Effects

• There is Taylors Scientific Management, Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, Herzbergs Two-Factor Theory, McClellands Accquired Needs Theory, Decl and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory, Equity Theory, and Expectancy Theory.

Labour Turnover and Formula

• It is the amount of employees that leave the organization.
• Labour Turnover= Number of Staff Leaving/ Average Number of Staff Employed * 100

Recruitment and Types

• Recruitment comes in two forms, Internal and external.
• Internal is cheaper and faster and external brings new skills.
• Appraisals come in four forms, Formative, Summative, and 360-Degree, Self-Appraisal. Financial Rewards
• Financial rewards can be salary, wages and commissions.
• Advantages are security and links to company performance.
• Non financial rewards are adding a challenge.
• Job Enrichment/Rotation/Enlargement also helps with employee morale.

Training

• Training comes in three forms: Induction, on and off the job.
• It helps to have and know the advantages of various pay rates.

Verbal Communications

• Relies on spoken words and comes formally in the form of meetings and informally in the form of conversations.
• Advantages are quick feedback and clarity.

Visual communication

• Relies on images. symbols, or body language with structured and non-structured cues.
• Advantages are effective and clear along with instant recognition, along with permanent access.

Written Communications

• Written is done via Emails, Texts and Blogging, with a record and the ability to revise before ending.
• Barriers to communication include styles, workplace, cultural, disinterest.
• If someone is unable to listen, it causes bad information.

Barriers To Communications

• This includes a lack of transparency, and the spread of rumors and gossip.
• There are very bad consequences for poor information.
• This can be counteracted with effective communication such as social media campaigns.