Study Guide Chapter 2

Employee appraisal/ performance review, 360 review, and career development review:

Review on employee, these appraisals can be very beneficial in motivating and rewarding employees. The performance evaluation includes metrics on which the employee is measured.

Why do HR managers look closely at all job components and analyze each job?

This gives the HR manager the big picture on what current employees can do. It can serve as a tool to develop employees' skills and abilities, if you know where they are currently in their development. For example, by taking an inventory, you may find out that Richard is going to retire next year, but no one in his department has been identified or trained to take over his role. Keeping the inventory helps you know where gaps might exist and allows you to plan for these gaps.

Why do HR managers prepare an inventory of all current employees?

To determine how many people are needed. This step involves looking at company operations over the last year and asking a lot of questions: 1. Were enough people hired? 2. Did you have to scramble to hire people at the last minute? 3. What are the skills your current employees possess? 4. What skills do your employees need to gain to keep up with technology? 5. Who is retiring soon? Do you have someone to replace them? 6. What are the sales forecasts? How might this affect your hiring?

Budget constrains:

What the company can afford

What is a staffing plan?

When the HR manager has performed the needs assessment and knows exactly how many people, and in what positions and time frame they need to be hired, he or she can get to work on recruiting

Head- hunter:

a person who specializes in matching jobs with people, and they usually work only with high-level positions

Recruitment:

a process that provides the organization with a pool of qualified job candidates from which to choose.

Describe the 3 main areas

- Company culture. A company culture is the organization's way of doing things. Every company does things a bit differently, and by understanding the corporate culture, the employee will be set up for success. Usually this type of training is performed at an orientation, when an employee is first hired. Topics might include how to request time off, dress codes, and processes. - Skills needed for the job. If you work for a retail store, your employees need to know how to use the register. If you have sales staff, they need to have product knowledge to do the job. If your company uses particular software, training is needed in this area. - Human relations skills. These are non-job-specific skills your employees need not only to do their jobs but also to make them all-around successful employees. Skills needed include communication skills and interviewing potential employees.

Describe the 6 parts of the HRM plan. Identify key items that are found under each part

- Determine human resource needs. This part is heavily involved with the strategic plan. What growth or decline is expected in the organization? How will this impact your workforce? What is the economic situation? What are your forecasted sales for next year? - Determine recruiting strategy. Once you have a plan in place, it's necessary to write down a strategy addressing how you will recruit the right people at the right time. - Select employees. The selection process consists of the interviewing and hiring process. - Develop training. Based on the strategic plan, what training needs are arising? Is there new software that everyone must learn? Are there problems in handling conflict? Whatever the training topics are, the HR manager should address plans to offer training in the HRM plan. -Determine compensation. In this aspect of the HRM plan, the manager must determine pay scales and other compensation such as health care, bonuses, and other perks. - Appraise performance. Sets of standards need to be developed so you know how to rate the performance of your employees and continue with their development.

Describe the four aspects when creating a good HRM strategic plan

- Make it applicable. Often people spend an inordinate amount of time developing plans, but the plans sit in a file somewhere and are never actually used. A good strategic plan should be the guiding principles for the HRM function. It should be reviewed and changed as aspects of the business change. Involvement of all members in the HR department (if it's a larger department) and communication among everyone within the department will make the plan better. - Be a strategic partner. Alignment of corporate values in the HRM strategic plan should be a major objective of the plan. In addition, the HRM strategic plan should be aligned with the mission and objectives of the organization as a whole. For example, if the mission of the organization is to promote social responsibility, then the HRM strategic plan should address this in the hiring criteria. - Involve people. An HRM strategic plan cannot be written alone. The plan should involve everyone in the organization. For example, as the plan develops, the HR manager should meet with various people in departments and find out what skills the best employees have. Then the HR manager can make sure the people recruited and interviewed have similar qualities as the best people already doing the job. In addition, the HR manager will likely want to meet with the financial department and executives who do the budgeting, so they can determine human resource needs and recruit the right number of people at the right times. In addition, once the HR department determines what is needed, communicating a plan can gain positive feedback that ensures the plan is aligned with the business objectives. - Understand how technology can be used. Organizations oftentimes do not have the money or the inclination to research software and find budget-friendly options for implementation. People are sometimes nervous about new technology. However, the best organizations are those that embrace technology and find the right technology uses for their businesses. There are thousands of HRM software options that can make the HRM processes faster, easier, and more effective. Good strategic plans address this aspect.

Describe key issues of recruiting:

- Selecting the right person for the job - Determine compensation - Develop training - Perform a performance appraisal

What are the common items that contribute to the cost of selection?

- Time to review résumés - Time to interview candidates - Interview expenses for candidates - Possible travel expenses for new hire or recruiter - Possible relocation expenses for new hire - Additional bookkeeping, payroll, 401(k), and so forth - Additional record keeping for government agencies - Increased unemployment insurance costs - Costs related to lack of productivity while new employee gets up to speed

Understand the 3 aspects when conducting a strategic analysis

- Understanding of the company mission and values. It is impossible to plan for HRM if one does not know the values and missions of the organization. - Understanding of the HRM department mission and values. HRM departments must develop their own departmental mission and values. These guiding principles for the department will change as the company's overall mission and values change. - Understanding of the challenges facing the department. HRM managers cannot deal with change quickly if they are not able to predict changes. As a result, the HRM manager should know what upcoming challenges may be faced to make plans to deal with those challenges better when they come along

Describe the function of the Ulrich HR model and the 5 areas of main areas of HR. The current model looks at alignment of HR activities with the overall global business strategy to form a strategic partnership (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). His newly revised model looks at five main areas of HR:

1. Strategic partner. Partnership with the entire organization to ensure alignment of the HR function with the needs of the organization. 2. Change agent. The skill to anticipate and respond to change within the HR function, but as a company as a whole. 3. Administrative expert and functional expert. The ability to understand and implement policies, procedures, and processes that relate to the HR strategic plan. 4. Human capital developer. Means to develop talent that is projected to be needed in the future. 5. Employee advocate. Works for employees currently within the organization.

Strategy

= refers to long-term (usually at a minimum 1-3 years)

What are the steps to correctly selecting employees?

Describe some key things discussed in the book: résumés are reviewed and people who closely match the right skills are selected for interviews. Many organizations perform phone interviews first so they can further narrow the field. The HR manager is generally responsible for setting up the interviews and determining the interview schedule for a particular candidate. Usually, the more senior the position is, the longer the interview process takes, even up to eight weeks. After the interviews are conducted, there may be reference checks, background checks, or testing that will need to be performed before an offer is made to the new employee. HR managers are generally responsible for this aspect. Once the applicant has met all criteria, the HR manager will offer the selected person the position

What is the biggest challenge in recruiting?

Determining compensation

When developing the strategic plan what is the difference between HRM strategic plan and HR plan?

HRM strategic plan is the major objectives the organization wants to achieve, while the HR plan consists of the detailed plans to ensure the strategic plan is achieved. Oftentimes the strategic plan is viewed as just another report that must be written.

Outsourcing:

Have another company advertise for them

Performance appraisal:

Method by which job performance is measured also last step in writing a HRM Plan.

Explain the differences been HRM and personnel management.

Personnel management and HRM are different ways of looking at the job duties of human resources. Twenty years ago, personnel management focused on administrative aspects. HRM today involves a strategic process, which requires working with other departments, managers, and executives to be effective and meet the needs of the organization.

Employment agency:

agency that specializes in hiring people for a variety of positions, including temporary and permanent positions

Temporary employees:

hire temporary employees because they anticipate only a short-term need, and it can be less expensive to hire someone for only a specified period of time.

Define HR strategy:

is an elaborate and systematic plan of action developed by a human resource department, HRM strategic plan: the major objectives the organization wants to achieve

Pay systems:

system used to settle financial transactions. Ex. Direct deposit

What are strategies used to overcome these challenges?

the organization life cycle can determine the pay strategy for the organization. The supply and demand of those skills in the market, economy, region, or area in which the business is located is a determining factor in compensation strategy.

HR plan:

the specific activities carried out to achieve the strategic plan .