Human Resources and Employment Equity Quiz

Human Resources - BOH4M

• This course covers Human Resources (HR) management, specifically the initial stages from managing HR to training.
• The course is part of a larger Management Fundamentals chapter, specifically chapter 12.

Success Criteria

• Students need to understand and articulate the purpose of HR and identify its various functions.
• Students need to differentiate between job titles, descriptions, and specifications.
• Students need to construct appropriate and effective interview questions.

H.R. and the Organization

• HR plays a vital role within an organization.

Be Nice to HR!!!!

• This section emphasizes the importance of HR in an organization.

Discuss

• The discussion is about the role of HR, both who they are and what they do in an organization.

Human Resources

• In a business context, "Human" refers to people.
• "Resources" are valuable assets.
• HR departments are designed to manage the human aspect of a business, acknowledging that people are the most valuable asset.

What Does HR Do?

• Job Analysis: determining job requirements
• Recruitment: finding potential employees
• Selection: choosing from applicants
• Training and Development: managing employee learning
• Compensation: deciding compensation for employees
• Performance Appraisals: evaluating employee performance
• Labour Relations: dealing with labour unions
• Workplace Health and Safety: ensuring a safe workplace.

Study Question 1: Why do people make the difference?

• Human capital is essential for long-term organizational success.
• Organizations achieve better results when they prioritize treating employees well.

Everything Falls into 3 Categories

• HR responsibilities are categorized to:
  • Attracting a quality workforce: which involves human resource planning, recruitment, and selection.
  • Developing a quality workforce: which includes employee orientation, training, development, and performance appraisal.
  • Maintaining a quality workforce: this includes career development, work-life balance, compensation and benefits, employee retention, turnover, and labor-management relations.

Legal Issues in H.R.

• This section focuses on legal considerations related to HR.

Study Question 2: What is strategic human resource management?

• Discrimination in employment: denying someone a job or role based on non-relevant criteria.

  • Example: age discrimination in layoffs

• Employment Equity: an effort to ensure representation from various groups (Aboriginals, women, visible minorities, people with disabilities) in the workplace.

  • Bona fide occupational requirements: essential qualifications and attributes necessary for a specific job, which are legally justified for discriminating against certain applicants

• Current legal issues in HR management:

  • Sexual harassment: behaviours of a sexual nature that affect one's employment situation.
  • Quid pro quo: making employment or academic benefits contingent on sexual advancements.
  • Hostile work environment: inappropriate actions such as unwanted touching or comments.

• The Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canada Labour Code protect employees from sexual harassment in the workplace.

• Additional legal issues:

  • Comparable worth: principle that jobs of similar importance must have comparable pay.
  • Part-time and contract work: becoming more prevalent.

Workplace Health and Safety

• HR manages workplace health and safety policies.
• This includes the prevention and post-incident consequences of health and safety issues in the workplace.

WHMIS

• Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS): Canada's hazard communication system.
• Key elements include labelling hazardous products, safety data sheets, and worker education/training.

Workplace Safety Videos

• Discussion questions address commercial impact, campaign success, and manager roles after reviewing workplace safety videos.

JOB ANALYSIS

• Job analysis is the foundation of human resource planning.
• It's a systematic study of job facts, responsibilities, timing, and processes.
• It identifies the who, what, where, why, and when of a job.
• Job analysis informs the development of both job descriptions and job specifications.

Job Descriptions

• Job descriptions outline what the jobholder does.
• A counter-server example details responsibilities such as greeting customers, cleaning area, serving customers, handling cash and inventory, and reporting to the supervisor.

Job Specifications

• Job specifications detail the required knowledge, skills, and abilities for a job.
• A counter-server example requires a high school diploma, experience, safety training and ability to lift 8 kilograms.

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

• Recruitment is attracting a qualified pool of job applicants.
• Steps in recruitment include:
  • Advertising job vacancies.
  • Making preliminary contact.
  • Initial applicant screening.

Recruitment methods

• External recruitment (seeking applicants from outside the company) and internal recruitment (seeking applicants from within the company).
• Traditional recruitment (highlighting positive aspects only) and realistic job previews (providing candidates with all aspects of the job).

Discussion - Small Groups

• Discussion about internal and external recruitment of a school principal.

INTERVIEWING

• Two types of Interviews:
  • Structured Interview: planned questions asked systematically to each candidate (often preventing bias but can be rigid).
  • Unstructured Interview: less planned questions, more open to bias and can be unfair to certain applicants.

Interviewing – Questions to Ask

• Questions should be job-relevant.

• Questions shouldn't duplicate information from the resume.

• Each question should have a purpose.

• Questions can assess aptitude (e.g., "how many windows are in NYC?").

• Questions should allow for understanding of person-organization fit.

• Questions shouldn’t ask for information that is readily available elsewhere, including the candidate's resume.

Questions that you are not allowed to ask

• Employers in Ontario cannot ask about age, marital status, personal questions, disabilities, criminal record, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or affiliations.

Sample Teacher Interview Questions

• Interview questions to assess teaching philosophy, fostering positive learning environments, managing classroom behaviour, and accommodating diverse learners.