Human Resources and Talent Management

Human Resources

• Used to describe both people who work for a company or organization and the department responsible for managing all matters related to employees
• Considered one of the most valuable resources in any business or organization
• Also called talent or personnel management
• HR is the division of a business that is charged with finding, recruiting, screening, training job applicants/employees, administering benefits, compensation, firing, and staying up to date with any laws that may affect the company and its employees
• Career titles for HR professionals include training development specialist, HR manager, benefits specialist, compensation/job analysis specialist, recruiter, benefits counselor, and personnel analyst

Human Resource Planning

• Also known as workforce planning, succession planning, and strategic staffing
• It is a process of hiring and staffing an organization

Recruitment techniques

• Internal recruitment promotes from within the organization
• External recruitment hires from outside the organization

Media Advertisements

• Newspaper ads
• Electronic media
• Situation-wanted ads (Jobstreet, JobsDB)
• Point-of-purchase methods (where is the job vacancy posted?)
• Recruiters (campus, outside, agencies)

Employment Agencies

• Charge either the company or the applicant
• Charges range from 10-30% of the employee's first-year salary

Executive Search Firms

• Represent higher-paying, non-entry-level positions
• Charge their fees to organizations instead of applicants
• Fees charged by executive search firms average around 30% of the applicant's first-year salary

Public Employment Agencies

• Designed to help the unemployed find work

Other Recruitment Methods

• Employee referrals
• Direct email
• Internet
• Job fairs
• Walk-ins

Headhunters

• Recruit for high-paying jobs

Structured Interviews

• The questions come from a job analysis (job related questions)
• All applicants are asked the same questions
• There is a standardized scoring key to evaluate answers.
• Job-related questions
• Scoring is standardized
• Structured interviews can add predictive power to the use of cognitive ability tests
• Viewed more favorably by the courts than are unstructured interviews

Unstructured Interviews

• Interviewers are free to ask anything they want
• Interviewers are not required to have consistency in what they ask of each applicant
• Interviewers may assign numbers of points at their own discretion

Problems With Unstructured Interviews

• Contrast effects mean the interview performance of one applicant may affect the score given to the next applicant
• Negative-information bias occurs when interviewers aren't aware of job requirements
• Interviewer-Interviewee Similarity results in higher ratings to same-race interviewees or with the same background/experience
• Interviewee Appearance means physically attractive applicants have an advantage in interviews over less attractive applicants, and those who dress professionally receive higher interview scores than those who don't

Nonverbal Cues

• Howard and Ferris found a significant relationship between use of appropriate nonverbal behaviors and interviewer perceptions of Interviewee competence
• Meta-analysis results also indicate that the appropriate use of such verbal cues as tone, pitch, speech rate, and pauses is also related to higher interview scores

Poor Intuitive Ability

• Interviewers often base their hiring decisions on "gut reactions, or intuition
• People are not good at using intuition to predict behavior

Lack of Job Relatedness

• A preference for an answer doesn't mean it will actually predict future performance on the job

Primacy Effects

• "First impressions" don't always last

Interview Style

• One-on-one
• Serial
• Return
• Panel
• Group

Interview Medium

• Face-to-face
• Telephone
• Videoconference
• Written

Employee Screening

• The process of reviewing information about job applicants used to select workers
• Includes resumes, job applications, letters of recommendation, employment tests, and interviews

Selection

• All the information gained from screening procedures, is combined in some manner to make actual selection decisions

Objectives of Selection

• Choosing the qualified candidate for employment
• Maximize the probability of accurate decisions making
• Decision is free from both intentional/unintentional discrimination against applicants
• Determining who will be successful and reject those who will not be successful in the job

Traditional Selection Procedure

• Reception of applicants
• Preliminary interview
• Filling out application
• Employments test
• Interview
• Behavioral interview
• Preliminary Selection
• Final selection
• Physical examination

Criterion

• Measures of job success
• Typically related to performance; definition of good employee performance

General Criteria for Success

• Performance
• Loyalty
• Commitment to the organization
• A good work attendance record
• Ability to get along with supervisors and coworkers
• Ability to learn and grow on the job

Predictors

• Any pieces of information that are able to be measured/assessed about job applicants
• Related to (predictive of) the criterion

Predictor Measurement Areas

• Job-related knowledge/expertise
• Education
• Skills

Types of Decision Errors

• False Positive: erroneously accepting applicants who would have been unsuccessful
• False Negative: erroneously rejecting applicants who would have been successful

Reference Check

• The process of confirming the accuracy of information provided by an applicant

Reference

• The expression of an opinion, either orally or through a written checklist
• Regarding an applicant's ability, previous performance, work habits, character, or potential for future success
• Content and format of a reference are determined by the person or organization asking for the reference

Letter of Recommendation

• A letter expressing an opinion regarding an applicant's ability, previous performance, work habits, character, or potential for future success
• Content and format are determined by the letter writer

Reasons for Using References and Recommendations

• Confirming details on a résumé (are the information true or falsified?)
• Checking for discipline problems (did the person resign or was terminated?)
• Discovering new information from former employers and professors about an applicant's habits, character, personality, and skills
• Predicting future performance based on past performance

Placement

• Process of assigning workers to appropriate jobs
• Placing new hires with the right qualification at a particular job
• Placement puts the current employee into another position within the organization, using the same method used in "Selection" KSAOS.
• Done by personnel/HR specialists
• A personnel specialist's job is to find the best possible "fit" between the worker's attributes (KSAOs) and the requirements of the job openings