HR Midterm PDF

Important Terms Ch. 1: Automation – the shift toward converting work that was traditionally done by hand to being completed by mechanical or electronic devices Chartered Professional in Human Resources – Human resource practitioner, formally accredited to practise, who reflects a threshold prof...

Important Terms Ch. 1: Automation – the shift toward converting work that was traditionally done by hand to being completed by mechanical or electronic devices Chartered Professional in Human Resources – Human resource practitioner, formally accredited to practise, who reflects a threshold professional level of practice Cultural Mosaic – the Canadian ideal of encouraging ethnic, racial, and social group to maintain its own cultural heritage, forming a national mosaic of different cultures Demographic Changes – changes in the demographics of the labour force (ex. education levels, age levels, participation rates) that occur slowly and are usually known in advance. Economic forces – economic factors facing Canadian business today, including global trade forces and the force to increase one’s own competitiveness and productivity levels. Educational attainment – the highest educational level attained by an individual worker, employee group, or population Functional authority – authority that allows staff experts to make decisions and take actions normally reserved for line managers Gamification – use of rules, competition, and teamwork to encourage engagement by mimicking games Human Resource Audit – an examination of the human resource policies, practices, and systems of a firm (or division) to eliminate deficiencies and improve ways to achieve goals Human Resource Management – the leadership and management of people within an organization using systems, methods, processes, and procedures that enable employees to optimize their performance and in turn their contribution to the organization and its goals Knowledge Workers – members of occupations generating, processing, analyzing, or synthesizing ideas and information (such as scientists and management consultants) Line Authority – authority to make decisions about production, performance, and people Mission Statement – statement outlining the purpose and long-term objectives of the organization Organization Structure – the product of all of an organization’s features and how they are arranged – people, objectives, technology, size, age, and policies Organizational Culture – the core beliefs and assumptions that are widely shared by all organizational members Organizational Goals – an organization’s short and long-term outcomes that hrm aims to support and enable Productivity - ratio of a firm’s outputs (goods and services) divided by its inputs (people, capital, materials, energy Sociocultural forces – challenges facing a firm’s decision makers because of cultural differences among employees or changes in core cultural or social values occurring at the larger societal level Staff Authority – authority to advise, but not to direct, others Strategic human resource management – vertically integrating the strategic direction of an organization’s choice of human resource management systems and practices to support the organization’s overall mission, vision, strategies, and performance Ch. 2 Autonomy – independence, having control over one’s work and one’s response to the work environment Competency – a knowledge, skill, ability, or behaviour associated with successful job performance Competency matrix – a list of the level of each competency required for each of a number of jobs Competency model (competency framework) – a list of competencies required in a particular job Efficiency – achieving maximal output with minimal input Employee log – an approach to collecting job and performance-related information by asking the jobholder to summarize tasks, activities, and challenges in a diary format Environmental Considerations – influence of the external environment on the job design; includes employee ability, availability, and social expectations Ergonomics – study of relationships between physical attributes of workers and their work environment to reduce physical and mental strain and increase productivity and quality of work life Feedback – information that helps evaluate the success or failure of an action or system Focus group – a face-to-face meeting with 5-7 knowledgeable experts on a job and a facilitator to collect job- and performance-related information Interview – an approach to collection job and performance-related information by a face to face meeting with a jobholder, typically using a standardized checklist of questions Job – a group of related activities or duties Job analysis – systemic study of a job to discover its specifications, skill requirements, and so on, for wage-setting, recruitment, training, or job-design purposes Job analysis questionnaires – checklists used to collect information about jobs, working conditions, and other performance-related information in a uniform manner Job code – code that uses numbers, letters, or both to provide a quick summary of the job and its content Job description – a recognized list of functions, tasks, accountabilities, working conditions, and competencies for a particular occupation or job Job design – identification of job duties, characteristics, competencies, and sequences, taking into consideration technology, workforce, organization character, and environment Job enlargement – adding more tasks to a job to increase the job cycle and draw on a wider range of employee skills Job enrichment – adding more responsibilities and autonomy to a job, giving the worker greater powers to plan, do, and evaluate job performance Job families – groups of different jobs that are closely related by similar duties, responsibilites Job identity – key part of a job description, including job title, location, and status Job performance standards – the work performance expected from an employe on a particular job Job rotation – moving employees form one job to another to allow them more variety and to learn new skills Job specification – a written statement that explains what a job demands of jobholders and the human skills and factors required National Occupational Classification (NOC) – an occupational classification created by the federal government, using skill level and skill types of jobs Observation – an approach to collecting job and related performance related information by direct observation of job holders by a specialist Position – a collection of tasks and responsibilities performed by an individual Social expectations – the larger society’s expectations about job, challenge, working conditions, and quality of work life Task identity – the feeling of responsibility or pride that results from doing an entire piece of work, not just a small part of it Task significance – knowing the work one does is important to others in the organization or to outsiders Variety – an attribute of jobs wherein the worker has the opportunity to use different skills and abilities, or perform different activities Work flow – the sequence of and balance between jobs in an organization needed to produce the firm’s goods or services Work practices – the set ways of performing work in an organization Working conditions – facts about the situation in which the worker acts; includes physical environment, hours, hazards, travel requirements, and so on, associated with a job Ch. 3 Attrition – loss of employees due to their voluntary departures from the firm through resignation, retirement, or death Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS) – provides up to 10-year projection of Canadian economy and human resource needs Consultant – professional who provides expert advice and counsel in a particular area Contract (or contingent) worker – a freelancer (self-employed, temporary, or leased employee) who is not part of the regular workforce who provides goods or services to another entity under the terms of a specific contract Crowdsourcing – the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call. Delphi technique – the soliciting of prediction about specified future events from a panel of experts, using repeated surveys until convergence in options occurs Employee self-service – a feature of an HRIS that allows employees to access Enterprise-wide systems – systems that link an organization’s entire software application environment into a single enterprise solution Extrapolation – extending past rates of change into the future Flexible retirement – programs that provide retirees with the opportunity to work after they have retired and provide them with significant flexibility in terms of how they work, what they work on, when they work, and where Forecasts – estimates of future resource needs and changes Full-time employees – employees who work 37.5 – 40 hours in a workweek Human resource accounting – a process to measure the present cost and value of human resources as well as their future worth to the organization Human resource information (HRIS) – a system that gathers, analyzes, summarizes, and reports important data for formulating and implementing strategies by HR specialists and line managers Human resource planning – a process used to determine future human resource requirements and the business processes that will be needed to support and enable those resources by anticipating future businesses demands, analyzing the impacts of these demands on the organization, determining the current availability of human resources and the applicable business processes, and making decisions on how to effectively adapt and utilize firms’ human resources Indexation – a method of estimating future employment needs by matching employment growth with a selected index, such as the ratio of production employees to sales Intranet – an organization-specific internal computer network Job sharing – a plan whereby available work is spread among all workers in a group to reduce the extent of layoffs when production requirements cause a substantial decline in available work Labour market analysis – the study of a firm’s labour market to evaluate the present of future availability of different types of workers Labour shortage – insufficient supply of qualified talent to fill the demand for labour Management or leadership inventory Manager self-service (MSS) – a feature of an HRIS that allows managers to view and access their employees’ records and add relevant information Markov analysis – forecast of a firm’s future human resource supplies, using traditional probability matrices reflecting historical or expected movements of employees across jobs. Nominal group technique – a focused group discussion where members meet face-to-face or digitally, write down their ideas, and share them. All new thoughts on a topic are recorded and ranked for importance. Outplacement – assisting employees to find jobs with other employers Outsourcing – contracting tasks to outside agencies or persons Part-time employees – persons working fewer than the required hours for categorization as full- time workers and who are ineligible for many supplementary benefits offered by employers Phased retirement – gradual phase-in to retirement without loss of reduction of pension benefits Predictive analysis – the process of selecting, exploring, analyzing, and modelling data to create better business outcomes. Replacement charts – visual representations of who will replace whom when a job opening occurs Replacement summaries – lists of likely replacements for each job and their relative strengths and weaknesses Skills inventories – summaries of each worker’s knowledge, skills, abilities, experiences, and other attributes Staffing table – a list of anticipated employment openings for each type of job Talent management – “a systemic attraction, identification, development, engagement/retention, and deployment of those individuals with high potential who are of particular value to the organization.” Transition matrices – describe the probabilities of how quickly a job position turns over and what an incumbent employee may do over a forecast period of time, such as stay in the current position, move to another position within the firm, or accept a job in another organization Work arrangement – a firm’s use of work hours, schedules, and locations to ensure that the goals of the organization and the needs of employees are optimally met Ch. 4 Alternate work arrangements – nontraditional work arrangements (flextime, telecommuting) that provide more flexibility to employees while meeting organizational goals Apprenticeships – a form of on -the-job training in which junior employees learn a trade from an experienced person Awareness training – training employees to develop their understanding of the need to manage and value diversity Bona fide occupational requirement (BFOR) – a justified business reason for discriminating against a member of a protected class; also known as bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Federal law enacted in 1982, guaranteeing individuals equal rights before the law Canadian Human Rights Act – a federal law prohibiting discrimination Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) – supervises the implementation and adjudication of the Canadian Human Rights Act Concentration – a condition that exists when a department or employer has a greater proportion of members of a protected class than are found in the employer’s labour market Diversity and inclusion audits – audits to uncover underlying dimensions, causes, interdependencies, and process-to-date on diversity and inclusion matters Diversity, equity, and inclusion – diversity: recognized the presence of difference, equity: ensuring access to the same opportunities, inclusion: about welcoming and valuing all people Diversity, equity, and inclusion training programs – training programs aimed at importing new skills to motivate and manage a diverse, fair, and inclusive workforce Duty to accommodate – requirement that an employer must accommodate the employee to the point of “undue hardship” Employment Equity Act – federal law to remove employment barriers and to promote equality Employment Equity Programs – developed to employers to undo past employment discrimination or to ensure equal employment opportunity in the future. Called affirmative action programs in USA. Glass ceiling – invisible but real obstructions to career advancement of woman and people of visible minorities, resulting in frustration, career dissatisfaction, and increased turnover Harassment – occurs when a member of an organization treats an employee in a disparate manner because of that person’s sex, race, religion, age, or other protected classification Mentoring programs – programs encouraging members of disadvantaged groups to work with a senior manager who acts like a friend and guide in achieving career success Old boys’ network – set of informal relationships among male managers providing increased career advancement opportunities for mean and reinforcing a male culture Provincial human rights laws – all provinces have their own human rights laws with discrimination criteria, regulations, and procedures Reasonable accommodation – voluntary adjustments to work or workplace that allow employees with special needs to perform their job effectively Regulations – legally enforceable rules developed by governmental agencies to ensure compliance with laws that they agency administrations Sexual Harassment – unsolicited or unwelcome sex, or gender-based conduct that has adverse employment consequences for the complainant Skill-building training – training employees in interpersonal skills to correctly respond to cultural differences in the workplace Stereotyping – the process of using a few observable characteristics to assign someone to a preconceived social category Support groups – groups of employees who provided emotional support to a new employee who shares a common attribute with the group (eg. racial or ethnic membership) Systemic discrimination – any company policy, practice, or action that is not openly or intentionally discriminatory but has an indirect discriminatory impact or effect Tribunal – an administrative body for a dispute resolution that has authority in a specific area Underutilization – a condition that exists when a department or employer has a lesser proportion of members of a protected class than are found in the employer’s labour market Undue hardship – when accommodation is not possible because it would cost too much or create health or safety risks Workplace diversity – includes important human characteristics that influence employee values, their perceptions of self and others, behaviours, and interpretations of events Ch. 5 Ads – advertisements in a newspaper, magazine, and so on, that solicit job applicants for a position Alumni associations – associations of alumni of schools, colleges, or other training facilities Applicant tracking system (ATS) – a database of potential candidates that enables a good match between job requirements and applicant characteristics and also enlarges the recruitment pool. Blind ads – job ads that do not identify the employer Buy-back – a method of convincing an employee who is about to resign to stay in the employ of the organization, typically by offering an increased wage or salary Competitive advantage – an advantage that exists when the firm is able to deliver the same value and benefits as competitors but at a lower cost (cost advantage), or when the firm is able to deliver unique value or benefits that exceed those of competing products (differentiation advantage). Costs – expenses related to attracting recruits Direct inquiries – job seekers who arrive at or submit online to the organization in search of a job without prior referrals and not in response to a specific ad Educational institutions – high schools, technical schools, community colleges, and universities where applicants for job positions are sought Employee referrals – recommendations by present employees to the recruiter about possible job applicants for a position Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) – federal department that provides programs and services for employers and present and potential employees Human resource plan – a firm’s overall plan to fill existing and future vacancies, including decisions on whether to fill internally or to recruit from outside. Inducements – monetary, nonmonetary, or even intangible incentives used by a firm to attract recruits Job application form – a company’s form that is completed by a job applicant, indicating the applicant’s contact information, education, prior employment, references, special skills, and other details pertaining to the position Job fairs – trade show-style fairs with many employers showcasing their companies and jobs to potential recruits. Organizational policies – internal policies that affect recruitment, such as “promote-from- within” policies Professional search firms – agencies that, for a fee, recruit specialized personnel for a company Recruiter habits – the propensity of a recruiter to rely on methods, systems, or behaviours that led to past recruitment process Recruitment – the process of finding and attracting capable applicants to apply for employment and accept job offers that are extended to them Resume – a brief voluntary listing of an applicant’s work experience, education, personal data, and other information relevant to the job Selection – the identification of candidates from a pool of recruits who best meet job requirements, using tools such as application blanks, tests, and interviews Temporary-help agencies – agencies that provide supplemental workers for temporary vacancies caused by employee leave, sickness, etc.