Intro to Human Resources Management

Introduction to Human Resources Management

• Human Resource Management is a management function focused on developing people within an organization to meet its business goals.

Functions of HRM

• Key functions include workforce planning, recruitment, training, performance management, pay, managing discipline/grievances, and ensuring employee welfare.

Workforce Planning

• This process involves anticipating and meeting an organization's current and future staffing needs.
• Many believe people are a firm's most valuable asset, making workforce planning essential.

Importance of Workforce Planning

• Failure to properly manage human resources can lead to problems, including higher recruitment costs and resources being diverted to solve HR issues instead of meeting business objectives.
• Additional impacts involve lower morale and productivity, increased uncertainty, and a poor corporate image.

Factors Influencing HR Planning

• Demographic changes, like population characteristics and trends, affect the supply of human resources.
• An aging population may lead to a labor shortage, requiring firms to retain older employees and offer part-time work to increase workforce flexibility.
• Labor mobility, or the ability of workers to move geographically or occupationally, can impact planning.
• Factors like ties to family, relocation costs, and fear of the unknown limit geographical mobility
• Factors like worker attributes, specialization, and discrimination affect occupational mobility.
• Globalization encourages migration for work, requiring workforce planning by multinational firms, especially in regards to reasons for migration like better pay and employment opportunities.

Flexitime

• This system allows employees to set their hours while meeting deadlines.
• Common forms include teleworking (working remotely through electronic communication) and homeworking (working from home).
• Advantages encompass job opportunities, flexibility, reduced commuting, autonomy, and potential tax benefits
• Flexitime offers reduced overheads, adaptability, continuity through dependent workers, and adherence to working time laws.
• Disadvantages include reliability on technology, long working hours, social isolation, less job security, home distractions, limited training, high setup costs, tight process control, difficult monitoring, tech failures, and a lack of secure workspace

The Gig Economy

• A labor market where workers have short-term, flexible contracts.
• Gig workers and independent contractors provide on-demand services without permanent contracts.
• The gig economy provides, flexibility for workers/businesses/consumers, more control of work-life balance, added income for contractors and freelance workers.
• Limitations include irregular income, lack of job security/benefits, limited career advancement, bureaucratic tax filing, burnout from multiple jobs, and reputational risks from outsourcing unreliable service providers

Key Definitions

• Full-time employment: Working standard full-time hours weekly.
• Part-time employment: Working fewer hours than full-time.
• Flexible work patterns: Seasonal or subcontracted work.
• Teleworking: Working from home.
• Portfolio working: Holding several jobs at once.
• Offshoring: Relocating a business process to another country.
• Re-shoring: Moving a business process back to its origin country.

Resistance to Change

• Reasons for resistance include self-interest, low tolerance, misinformation, and differing perspectives.

Organizational Structure Terminology

• Key terms include delegation, span of control, levels of hierarchy, chain of command, bureaucracy, centralization, decentralization, delayering, and matrix structure.

Organizing Human Resources

• Organizational structures show job titles, accountability, and responsibilities.
• Companies adopt organizational structures to operate efficiently.

Delegation

• Delegation is the act of passing control and authority to others in a firm.
• It's critical as businesses grow and managers cannot manage everything.

Span of Control

• This refers to the number of people a manager is directly responsible for.
• Generally, the more senior the manager, the greater their span of control.

Levels of Hierarchy

• Hierarchy represents the ranking system within an organization.
• The most skilled appear at the top, the least skilled at the bottom.

Chain of Command

• This is the formal line of authority through which orders are passed.

Bureaucracy

• Bureaucracy refers to structured tasks governed by administrative rules.
• It can create inefficiency through paperwork, long chains of command, excessive committees, and duplicate roles

Centralization

• Is when decision-making is controlled by a small group on top.
• Centralization results in better control, direction, and decision-making but senior staff face added stress and inflexibility. Demotivation and delays are also possible.

Decentralization

• Decentralization is when authority and responsibility are shared among more people.
• The benefits consist of improved morale, accountability, teamwork, as well as fast decision-making, along with workforce input.
• However be cautious if less experienced workers make mistakes or chances are high
• It may result in loss of control and stray from the vision.

Delayering

• Delayering removes levels in the hierarchy to widen spans of control and shorten chains of command.
• While reducing costs and improving communications, it causes anxiety and overloads staff, as well as prolong decision-making.

Matrix Structures

• A matrix assigns employees from different departments to work on specific projects, giving them temporary positions and the chance to work with different colleagues.
• Members are accountable to both their department and project managers
• Matrix structures feature improved communications, skill maximization, and cost-effectiveness; yet, added workloads, coordination issues, and time consumption are drawbacks.

Types of Organization Charts

• Types of charts include flat/horizontal, tall/vertical, and those organized by product, function, or region.
• Organizational charts are visual representations of a firm's formal structures
• Functional departments, span of control, chain of command, communication channels, and hierarchy levels can be distinguished by org charts
• Tall organizations feature many management levels and a very narrow span of control, likewise their flattened counterparts
• Most businesses organize by product, function, or region for clarity.

Adapting Organization Structures

• Businesses must reorganize their human resources to remain competitive in the current environment, which is know as organizational restructuring

Changes in Organizational Structures

• Project-based Organizations and Charles Handy's "Shamrock Organization" are specific examples.

Project-based Organization

• Human resources are arranged around specific projects or developments
• Industries like construction, software engineering.
• Industries like entertainment, aerospace, and oil exploration use this model.
• Flexibility, productivity, efficiency, and motivation are benefits to this model
• Disadvantages include discontinuity, inefficiencies, and conflicting interest.

Handy's Shamrock Structure

• Focus on core staff, peripheral workforce, and outsourced workers to adapt to changes from the external environment
• Core staff manages daily ops and growth
• Peripheral offers flexibility
• Outsourced offers specialization