LMGT211 Human Resource Management: The Personnel Process PDF

LMGT211- HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: THE PERSONNEL PROCESS OVERVIEW OF SESSION: The students are introduced to the concept of human resource management. After the review and completion of the topic, the student should explain the role of human resource managem...

LMGT211- HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: THE PERSONNEL PROCESS OVERVIEW OF SESSION: The students are introduced to the concept of human resource management. After the review and completion of the topic, the student should explain the role of human resource management in the operation of a laboratory. UNIT OUTCOMES: The students will be able to describe the assessment, recruitment, selection and orientation about human resource management. They should also be able to explain the corrective action and employee’s discipline as well as the separation and termination process. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT The human resource management or personnel department is the organizational entity charged with guiding the institution in its relationship with its employees. The activities necessary to accomplish this mission includes designing and overseeing wage, alary and payroll functions, recruiting and hiring staff, planning and budgeting for personnel, administering benefit programs, handling grievances and discipline problems, assuring compliance with laws and company policies and maintaining employee records. THE PERSONNEL PROCESS Needs Assessment Job specification Budget authorization Recruitment Application pool: file advertisement Employment tests Reference/records verification Interview Legal/regulatory requirements Selection Qualifications review Job offer: salary/benefits Employment Pre-employment screening Payroll registration Orientation Company/department policies Job description/duties Workplace/staff Human resource management Salary and wage administration Staffing and scheduling Performance monitoring/evaluation  Labor relations Professional growth and development Separation Exit interview Payroll severance Employment termination References File maintenance Needs Assessment (A) Personnel needs assessment The groundwork for needs assessment and justification should have been completed during the job analysis process and in the preparation of the job description. From this information managers can supply their supervisors and the personnel department with a job specification sheet. A job specification sheet is usually abstracted from the job description and contains only the qualifications necessary to design a recruitment plan (B) Recruitment, selection and employment This is often referred to as the hiring process and is the major function of the human resources department. Its responsibilities are twofold: 1. To ensure that the organization complies with federal, state and local requirements and regulations and meets the social and ethical issues involved in hiring personnel 2. To fulfill workers needs by recruiting qualified candidates Legal and regulatory requirements: Myriad laws, executive orders, rules and regulations govern the relationship between an organization and its employees. These mandates touch every aspect of the management process: initial hiring of staff, workplace design and safety, schedules, breaks and lunch, working conditions, labor union contracts, on the job behavior, promotions, discipline, compensation, benefits and separation. In all these areas, government regulations define what an employer can, must and cannot do. These regulations are directly reflected and strongly influence the design of the application form, the recruitment strategy and conduct of the employment interview. The employer must be careful about the wording, so as not to force candidates to reveal information about themselves that may be considered discriminatory: Height and weight Marital status, number of children and children arrangements English language proficiency Arrest record Military service Citizenship Credit history Availability to work on specific religious holidays or weekdays Property ownership Date of birth or age Organizational membership TYPES OF DISCRIMINATION: (a) Disparate treatment, which occurs when a protected class of individuals receive unequal treatment (b) Disparate impact, which occurs when an employer’s actions affect a protected class differently from other groups RECRUITMENT Recruitment is the process of locating and attracting qualified job applicants. It is a searching stage, designed to build a pool of candidates from which to select the person best suited to fill the position. The recruitment objective is highly dependent on the conditions of the labor market. The recruitment strategy has to be highly creative, aggressive and the selection options are limited. There are two sources of recruits: those who are already known to the manager or human resources department, either through personal knowledge or because their applications are on file; and candidates solicited through an internal or external recruitment campaign. Recruitment strategies center on techniques that are targeted toward candidates inside or outside the organization. Inside Sources Most inside recruitment efforts focus on identifying persons who want to improve their positions. Candidates may acquire new skills and jobs through in-house, on the job training programs or by obtaining a promotion. Inside candidates may be found through: Personal records such as applications files and transfer requests Job postings and biddings Recall from lay off Promote from within policies Advantage(s) of inside source: Continuity in administration and services is ensured Current employees may have already shown their loyalty and long term commitment to the firm. The company takes advantages of its investment in the individual Minimal orientation and training time and expenses are needed because the employee is already familiar with operations and culture Outside sources The need to recruit outside the organization is usually an expensive and time consuming operation. The factor is magnified by availability or shortage of suitable candidates. some of the most common approaches to conducting an outside recruitment campaign are: Advertising: This strategy usually focuses on professional journal, trade magazines, newspaper and career fairs that offer international, national or wide regional coverage Sign-up bonuses: This method is gaining in popularity because it offers an attractive inducement to speed recruitment efforts Employment agencies: This includes government employment agencies, which may be a good source for staff that can be trained on the job and private placement agencies and executive search firms, which specializes in recruiting professional. Educational institutions: Institutions that have medical laboratory training programs offer excellent recruitment opportunities Unsolicited applications or chance walk-ins: This method can be slow and highly inefficient in a way of building a candidate pool to fill the current need  Professional organizations: These groups usually have several recruitment opportunities including journal advertisement, employment referral programs and meetings in which recruitment activities can be conducted. Advantage(s) of outside recruitment: Acquisition of new skills, knowledge and expertise Need for improvement in performance No suitable in-house candidate Low morale, group dissension or rivalry A worthy candidate who deserve a chance may be somewhere else in a large corporation First time managers have a high failure rate REFERENCE CHECKS Background reference investigations have become increasingly controversial and are often viewed as waste of time by many personal experts. The reasons for this include: The understandable reluctance of past employers to provide a negative recommendation or commitment because of threats of hard feelings and litigation The tendency of applicants usually to list only names of people who will speak positively about them Rules and laws that protect the confidentiality of personal background information EMPLOYMENT TESTS Employment is designed to be standardized measures of the attributes and skills of potential employees. They are different from pre-employment tests such as medical and drug screens, which are part of the registration process of new employees who have already been offered a position. Most employees use standardized tests produced and administered by professional testing services. Tests offered by commercial testing services cover the following areas: General (academic or scholastic) mental abilities Mathematical and verbal skills Dexterity Polygraph of lie detection Drug abuse Clerical skills Mechanical aptitude Personality evaluation of emotional adjustment, confidence and perseverance Attitudes, perceptions and decision making skills Personal interest inventories EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWS Employment interview is formal conversation, designed to achieve the following general goals: Meeting and beginning a relationship Exchange information Verifying credentials Comparing with other candidates Evaluating suitability Predicting performance and probability of success Interview Strategy: Three basic types of employment interviews can be used according to the kind of information desired and the type of position being filled: 1. Structural or patterned interviews, which have a predetermined format and list of questions, usually with a standardized checklist or interview form. Its main advantage is that it allows easier comparison between candidates. 2. Unstructured interviews with broad agenda, in which each party is free to discuss any issue in depth and follow up on response 3. Stress interviews, which take many forms and are designed for specific purpose. They are most often used in formal testing procedures to identify traits and characteristics needed for jobs in which individual will be exposed to highly dangerous or intimidating situations Interview Process: Employment interviews have six compartments that correlate with the interview goals: Preparation: It includes reviewing about the job (job description) and the data submitted by the candidate (application, resume, references and communication contacts) Establishing rapport: Any person being interviewed for a new job is naturally nervous and it is incumbent on the interviewer to make the candidate as relaxed and comfortable as possible. Questioning and information exchange: Because the primary goal of the meeting is to allow both parties to obtain as much information as they can make a decision about employment, the order and wording of the questions become a priority. Listening: It is crucial communication element for it assures understanding, clarifies intent and demonstrates interest. Closing and Follow-up: A brief review to clarify pertinent information is in order and the interviewer may formally provide candidates with an opportunity to ask questions they may have. Ending the session with a strong sense of congeniality and a clear understanding of what to expect is important to both sides. Evaluation: After the closing of the meeting, an evaluation and assessment of the results should be conducted. Many companies have checklists or fill in section on the application form for the interviewer to complete. EMPLOYEE SELECTION The selection process matches the right person with the right job. The criteria for selection have been determined through the development of the job description and specification and these criteria should have matched to the pool of qualified candidates that has been collected during the initial screening and interview stages. There are two basic selection methods to aid in this deliberation: 1. The process of elimination or comparison 2. A prioritizing or ranking procedure JOB ORIENTATION Orientation is the introduction of new employees to the organization and their duties. It is the beginning of the process of professional development and training. Most facilities use a combination of the four general methods for conducting the orientation program: 1. Formal meetings and training sessions 2. Supervisor-directed sessions 3. Checklist approach 4. A buddy or sponsor system COMPONENTS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Human resource management is the activity wherein the supervisor and the personnel department have the responsibility to ensure the well-being of this association and the productivity and coherence of workforce. A. Wage and Salary Administration Compensation management is the most visible aspect of the personnel process. Both the institution and the employee are reminded of this fact every payday. The goals and objectives of the wage and salary administration program include: 1. Recruiting a highly skilled and qualified staff 2. Maintaining a stable workforce 3. Maximizing productivity through incentive plans that reward desired behavior 4. Controlling labor costs 5. Complying with legal regulations 6. Meeting social and cultural expectations and goals COMPONENTS OF WAGE AND SALARY PLAN The total compensation package consists of three elements: 1. The actual paycheck 2. The benefit package 3. The perquisites associated with the position The paycheck represents the amount of money the employee can take home. A more formal definition of wage and salary paycheck incorporates the concept of discretionary income, the net salary after mandatory payments required by law. Benefits are an important part of the total compensation package and are supplements to the cash payments of salary and wages. Employers provided a uniform benefit package to all employees, regardless of their individual needs or lifestyle. Organizations frequently provide the following benefits: Medical, disability and life insurance Retirement plans Paid off for sickness, vacations, holidays and continuing educations Tuition reimbursement Social security, unemployment and worker’s compensation insurance METHODS USED IN WAGE DETERMINATION 1. Extended comparison, which focuses on recruiting and keeping personnel 2. Internal analysis, which seeks to establish equity between jobs, recognize the relative worth of the position to the success of the organization and maintain a stable workforce 3. Incentive programs, which are designed to motivate performance and reward desired behavior. Information for external comparison of wages can be collected from the following sources: Written or telephone questionnaires may be sent to competing organizations Department managers may conduct their own informal survey Professional organizations, journals and trade magazines Data can be collected from employment and exit interview about salaries offered at other laboratories Job evaluation is one tool used to determine the relative worth of jobs. Jobs evaluation builds on the information obtained during job analysis. The four most common methods for conducting a job evaluation are as follows: Job ranking: It is the simplest and the most direct method of comparison wherein each job is ranked subjectively according to the weight given to the work by the person doing the judging Job grading or job classification: This method classifies jobs according to a predetermined scale. This scale ranges from work considered simple and repetitive to work believed to be highly complex. Point system: This method is the most popular because it attempts to consider all the components of a job in comparing one job to another Factor comparison: This focuses on determining the relative worth of a job by comparing it to other jobs in the organization on a scale that assigns a dollar amount to each factor INCENTIVE PROGRAMS The purpose of incentive programs is to reward and encourage behavior considered desirable from the perspective of the employer. The following are several examples of incentive programs: Piecework: Pay is tied directly to the amount of work performed or units produced Commissions: A pay-plus system whereby the employee receives a basic salary plus additional pay determine by the volume or commissions may reconstitute the entire paycheck Bonuses: All employees may be allowed to participate in stock purchase plans, profit sharing programs and reward for cost reduction suggestions Merit raises: The amount of salary increase is based on the results of the performance appraisal Maturity curves: This method puts employees in pay scales with different top rate ranges or salary caps, based on performance and experience Perks and perquisites: Simple and inexpensive recognition programs give awards such as designated parking places and small cash gratuities.  B. Staffing, Scheduling and Performance Monitoring These two components of the personnel process represent the everyday relationships and interactions between the organizations and its members. They are major part of the directing function of management, the most visible activity in the life of both employees and managers. Labor relations refer to the company’s dealing with labor unions. It encompasses he way an organization views and treats its employees – particularly the way it handles grievances and applies its policies in a fair, equitable and consistent manner. TRAINING Lifelong learning is imbued in the laboratory mentality and culture as demonstrated through its emphasis on high quality patient care, educational and training institutions and the tenets of inspection, accreditation and personal certification agencies. Ideas for additional training and documentation can be derived from the following: Suggestions and requests from staff members Results of internal and external proficiency testing programs Orientation and competency assessment reviews Performance appraisal systems Inspection, accreditation and licensure surveys Quality management monitoring activities Continuing education resources for laboratory personnel are abundant. Some opportunities available are: In service training programs Intensive training Conference and seminars Formal college courses EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE One of the most difficult and distasteful decisions faced by the manager is how to deal with an employee who continues to have problems complying with the policies and procedures of the laboratory or who fails to meet minimum performance expectations. The following details corrective actions and discipline step program that many laboratory managers have found useful: Awareness Troubleshooting Verbal warning Written warning Suspension Dismissal SEPARATION AND EMPLOYMENT TERMINATION The final aspect of the personnel process and employment cycle is the conclusion of the formal relationship between the employee and the organization. It may either be voluntary, as when an employee retires or accepts position at another laboratory or involuntary such as disciplinary dismissal or lay off resulting from a hospital wide reduction of personnel. Exit interview may be conducted during the final week of employment as a method of identifying why personnel are leaving an organization. The information gained from these interviews may be used in assessing the overall efficiency of the organization’s human resource management system.