Human Resources Management (HRM) Overview

Human Resources Management (HRM)

• The management of human talent to achieve organizational objectives.
• HRM involves analyzing the competitive environment, designing jobs, and implementing strategies.

Why Study HRM?

• Studying HRM helps establish strategic direction.
• HRM is crucial for attracting top-notch talent by appealing to prospective employees.
• Effective hiring ensures that the team and the company achieve success.
• Coaching people to become top performers is facilitated by HRM.
• HRM is essential for making informed pay decisions that affect employees' lives.

Human Capital

• It is the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of individuals with economic value to an organization.
• Human capital is intangible and cannot be managed like jobs, products, or technologies.
• Managers build human capital by developing knowledge, skills, and experience and retaining top performers.

Responding Strategically to Changes

• HR managers should understand their firm’s business operations and competitive strategies.
• Success comes from adapting operations, as with Six Sigma, Reengineering, Downsizing, or Outsourcing.
• Change management is essential for implementing new strategies.
• Change management is a systematic approach to organizational and individual changes.
• Successful organizations link change to business strategy, show quantifiable benefits, engage stakeholders, and invest in change.
• Reactive changes occur due to external forces that affect organizational performance.
• Proactive changes are initiated by managers to seize opportunities in fast-changing industries.

Competing, Recruiting, and Staffing Globally

• Globalization defined as the trend of opening markets to international trade and investment.
• Partnerships and mergers drive globalization for large and small companies.
• Free-trade agreements have accelerated globalization in recent decades.
• The 1948 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was the first major trade agreement.
• It created rules for global commerce.
• GATT led to the European Union (EU) in 1986 and NAFTA in 1994.
• Free trade faces scrutiny as political leaders try to protect domestic businesses and jobs.
• Globalization requires HRM to balance cultural, legal, and business practice differences across geographies.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability

• Free trade has led to worries about a "have/have not" world.
• Exploitation of developing economies and the environment by richer countries raises concerns.
• Corporate social responsibility balances the interests of people and communities.
• Sustainability emphasizes environmentally friendly and resource-conserving business practices.

Advancing HRM with Technology

• Information technology advancements have enabled organizations to harness extensive data.
• Collaborative software allows workers to interface and share information.
• Collaborative software examples include Google Docs, online chat, video conferencing, and electronic calendars.
• The Internet and social media are used to attract and evaluate potential employees.
• Social Intelligence is a firm that creates candidate reports using social media and other online sources.

Shift to Knowledge Workers

• Advanced technology reduces low-skill jobs and increases the need for high-skill positions.
• Knowledge workers tasks include planning, decision making, and problem-solving.
• The technology, transportation, communications, and utilities industries spend the most on training.
• News organizations are using web robots to gather information and write basic stories.

The Future of Work

• Working in a traditional office at your desk will be replaced by the virtual working environment
• Organizations will use a hybrid of both physical and virtual spaces in order to increase organizational culture
• Flexibility, coordination, teamwork and respect will be valued more than compensation
• People are chained to their technology and are working 24/7 instead of the traditional 9-5
• virtual collaboration is being leveraged through information technology

Influence of Technology on HRM

• The Human Resources Information System (HRIS) is a computerized system for control and decision-making.
• HRIS reduces costs, increases productivity, speeds up response times, decision-making, and talent tracking.
• Routine activities are automated as a means to reduce costs and improve HR productivity.
• HR automation involves tasks like payroll, employee records, and benefits administration.
• Self-service systems enable managers to access employee records and manage their own benefits.
• HRIS facilitates collaboration between people and access to HR data.
• Companies use software to recruit, screen, train, and promote employees.
• Goals are aligned through HRIS to reach higher organizational levels.
• Workforce (HR) analytics gathers and analyzes data to improve HRM.

Containing Costs and Maximizing Productivity

• Labor costs are lowered by managing benefits, downsizing, outsourcing, offshoring, and furloughing.

Downsizing

• The act of downsizing has become widespread
• Organizations have used downsizing to adjust internal changes, but also adjust to trends such as globalization
• Costs pertaining to severance, rehiring, lawsuits and overall lack of retained staff can be causes of layoffs
• Companies that work to avoid downsides will have a more productive workplace, with loyal customers and a greater edge at innovating
• Reassigning staff into new roles is critical if roles get eliminated

Furloughing

• Furloughing defined as an unpaid requirement to take time off from work
• Organizations leverage Furloughing to retain talent, while avoiding potential downsides
• Drawbacks from Furloughing include resentful employee, costs not being significantly reduced, impacts on overall productivity

Outsourcing

• The employment relationship has shifted from transactional relationships to relationship based ones
• As companies outsource, this provides organizations flexibility while lowering costs
• Executives are keen to focus on what the organization does best

Offshoring

• Commonly known as "global sourcing", this practice focuses on sending jobs to other countries
• Motivators for these decisions hinge on cost reductions
• Countries estimate costs of labour down to 40%-60% by sending staff offshore Some things to keep in mind include costs pertaining to political instability, losing productivity, domestic costs or layoffs

Nearshoring

• The act of moving jobs closer to a company
• Labour costs have been increasing , giving reason to bringing work towards north American firms
• Quick gains and competitive advantages can be capitalized by sellers

Homeshoring

• Commonly defined as outsourcing independent contracts in domestic markets

Employee Leasing

• The process of dismissing all staff to rehire them with PEO, professional employer organizations
• Organizations seek PEO to perform HR duties such as payroll and appraisals

Productivity

• Companies are missing out by overemphaszsing costs , versus focusing on productivity
• Employee productivity encompasses technology, work environment, abilities and motivation
• Although Canada has good labour productivity , countries may be more wealthy / successful if canada focused on it too

Demographic and Diversity Challenges

• To address organizational strategies, it is important to analyze the capabilities, representation and skills between employees
• Understanding changes in the environment such as backgrounds, age , education is important
• the 2016 census reported Canadian ethno cultural and diversity numbers
• minorities in Canada are on the rise , and business are knowing the importance of recruiting diverse staff

Age Distrubution

• Due to the distribution of age, companies face significant impact to their talent
• Retiring staff are a large portion of most workforces
• Companies fear that they have a rapid drain from these experienced staff
• Because of better health and extended life, retirees return to the workforces due to cost

Diversity

• Millennial generation , commonly known as gen Y are born in the late 70s to early 90s
• Gen y is considered tech savvy with motivation to improve the world

Gen X

• Gen x are known as loving to challenge repetitive tasks, and are motivated to grow when challenged
• Organizations are helping employees better understand each other so they can cater to the talents of all generations

The workforce

• To ensure talent, employers should be doing a better job with being more equal in terms of promotions, compensation
• Accommodating parent life is critical, flexibility is top of mind
• It is up to Hr managers to compensate for the talent and function
• Managing employees also encompassed what values and goals are most important to each of them

Education

• More people are pushing fro educational changes

Educational and Cultural Shifts

• Going to university is a 1M dollar investment in bettering career
• The unemployement rate is 2x higher with a high school diploma versus a higher education
• The skills gap is getting bigger

Shift in culture

• Attitudes and values are an integral part of culture
• HR is required to modify HR, such as policies and procedures
• legislation from the federal government can greatly impact management decisions
• Federal regulations may include certain protection, representation, safety or compensation

Right to Privacy

• HR managers and staff are required to recognize the importance of discretion on information that is collected
• There are laws to ensure the regulation and use of personal information, such as PIPEDA
• Employees should have the right to know what their data is being used for, before hand
• Most are trying to limit the use of data, like social security
• Companies are getting smarter with storing and using sensitive intel, as well as locking up personal information

Job shifts

• Permanent jobs seem to be dissapearing
• There is more short term project based work
• There is greater push to better benefits from healthcare and pension plans

Work attitudes

• Younger ones are looking for greater balance between life and personal satisfaction

Balancing Work and family

• There are several ways to ensure that employees can balance their work life and personal life
• This is critical to employee retention

Management Roles

• Its essential to combining HR specialists to work will to utilize talent from other areas
• HR managers ensure that there is a better work place through open dialogue and communication
• Executive staff want to see managers making a impact with HR through contributions

HR responsibilities

• Hr serve as council to executive staff
• They help utilize employment issues to make informed decisions, while being well versed, ethical, regulatory issues
• HR are responsible for recruitment, testing, selecting, conducting programs , hearing complaints

Formulation and Implementation

• Create new policies prevent anticipated items and address reoccurring issues
• Manager are critical to the success for the establishment of these procedures

Employee Advocate

• Ensure interest for manager and employees are aligned and listened too

Mastery

• Organizations should master skills at external relations
• Staffing and reward are skills that they should be developed too
• The should establish reliability at all levels internally and externally