Chapter 10 Human Resource Management

What is a union?

A labour union is a group of individuals working together to achieve shared job-related goals, such as higher pay, shorter working hours, more job security, better benefits.

What is job analysis?

A systematic analysis of jobs within an organisation.

What is the emerging areas of discrimination law?

AIDS in the work place - employers cannot legally require a HIV test as a condition for making an offer of employment.

What are benefits?

Compensation other than wages & salaries & other incentives offered by a firm to its workers.

What is human resource management?

The HRM is a strategic approach to acquiring, developing, managing, motivating and gaining the commitment of the organization's key resource - the people who work in and for it.

What are wages and salaries?

The monetary amount paid to employees for their labour.

What is collective bargaining?

The process by which labour and management negotiate conditions of employment for union-represented workers and draft a labour contract.

What is recruiting?

The process of attracting qualified persons to apply for the jobs that are open

State some examples of individual incentives

1. Bonuses paid for those hitting the sales target. 2. Stock options - normally received by the Executives Eg. A CEO can buy several thousand shares of company stock each year at a predetermined price. He is then free to sell the stock at the market price, keeping the profits for himself. 3. Pay for performance - usually rewarded to middle-managers for productive output; producing output which exceeds the cost of bonuses.

State examples of contract issues.

1. Compensation 2. Benefits 3. Job security

What are benefits of industrial relations

1. Discussions taking place on an ongoing basis 2. Disputes over wages, working conditions and promotion can be settled without a strike

What are the disadvantages of industrial relations?

1. Disputes and strikes 2. Loss of pay for employees 3. Loss of profits for employers 4. Unhappy workers looking for new jobs

Explain sexual harassment

1. Employers are responsible for changing the environment by warning, reprimanding, or firing the harasser. 2. Two types of sexual harassment: -Quid pro quo harassment - the harasser offers to exchange something of value for sexual favours. Eg. Promotion in exchange of sexual favour. -Hostile work environment - 'coloured jokes', photos in the work environment.

Describe the HRP process

1. First, the HR department will conduct a job analysis. 2. Second, they will forecast a demand for labor. 3. This forecast will address the internal and external supplies of labor. 4. Finally, they will develop a plan to match demand with supply.

What are the other functions of human resource department?

1.Provide support to operating managers on all human resource matters 2. Fulfills a traditional staff role and acts in an advisory capacity 3. Depending upon the organization, functions may be split between operating managers and human resource department

What is the difference between wages and salaries?

1. Wages - paid for time worked (usually on hourly basis) 2. Salaries - is paid for performing a job (paid in a month)

What is internal recruiting?

1.Considering present employees as candidates for openings. 2. Promotion from within helps to build morale & keep high quality employees from leaving.

Describe how to match HR supply & demand

1. After comparing future demand and internal supply, managers can make plans to manage predicted shortfalls or over-staffing. 2. If a shortfall is predicted, new employees can be hired, present employees can be retrained and transferred into understaffed areas, individuals approaching retirement can be convinced to stay-on. 3. If overstaffing is expected to be a problem, the main options are transferring the extra employees, not replacing individuals who quit, encouraging early retirement and laying off workers.

What are the types of compensation and benefits available?

1. Wages & salaries 2. Incentive programmes 3. Individual incentives 4.Companywide incentives 5. Benefits programmes 6. Retirement plan

Discuss Human Resource Planning(HRP)

1. HRP is a process of analyzing & identifying the need for & availability of human resources (HR) so that organization can meet its objectives. 2. AIMS of HRP: -To ensure the optimum use of the people currently employed -To provide for the future staffing needs of the organization in terms of skills, number, & ages of people 3. HRP is as a continuous process of analyzing an organization's HR needs under the changing conditions & developing the activities necessary to satisfy these needs like staffing, recruitment, selection, training, etc. 4. Process aimed at assisting management to determine how the organization should move from its current staffing position to its desired staffing position. 5. Besides forecasting a demand for labor, the HR job analysis will examine the steps in the production process, as well as the current economic conditions. 6. In a recession, people will not spend as much money on toys, thus the HR team should conclude that the forecast for the supply of labor will go down.

What are industrial relations?

1. Industrial relations is the management of the relationship between employers and employees. 2. It is most important that this relationship is good.

What are the 2 types of recruiting?

1. Internal recruiting 2. External recruiting

What is external recruiting?

1. Involves attracting people outside the organisation to apply for jobs. 2. Methods of recruiting include job postings on company website, or other website, holding campus interviews, use employment agencies, referrals, advertisement, walk-ins.

What does job analysis produce?

1. Job description is a list that a person might use for general tasks, or list of duties and responsibilities of a position. It may often include to whom the position reports, specifications such as the qualifications or skills needed by the person in the job, and a salary range. 2. Job specification : is a statement of the essential components of a job class including skills, abilities, & other credentials & qualifications needed to perform the job effectively.

To set wage & salary levels, what may a company do?

1. Looking at the competitors' levels. 2. Eg. Although two employees may do exactly the same job, the employee with more experience may earn more.

What benefit programmes do businesses provide?

1. Most businesses provide health, life, disability insurance for the workers. 2. Examples: Counselling services, child care, paid time off for vacations

What are the types of training methods?

1. On-the-job training 2.Vestibule training

Describe on-the-job training

1. On-the-job training, also known as OJT, is teaching the skills, knowledge, and competencies that are needed for employees to perform a specific job within the workplace and work environment. 2. Employees learn in an environment in which they will need to practice the knowledge and skills taught in the on-the-job training. 3. On-the-job training uses the regular or existing workplace tools, machines, documents, equipment, knowledge, and skills necessary for an employee to learn to effectively perform his or her job.

State some examples of companywide incentives

1. Profit sharing plans - profits earned above a certain level are distributed to employees. 2. Gain sharing plans - distribute bonuses to employees when a company's costs are reduced through greater work efficiency. 3. Pay-for-knowledge plan - workers are paid to learn new skills and to become proficient at different jobs.

What are the primary functions of human resource department?

1. Provide support to operating managers on all human resource matters 2. Fulfills a traditional staff role and acts in an advisory capacity 3. Depending upon the organization, functions may be split between operating managers and human resource department

What are the actions could be taken by employees when collective bargaining fail?

1. Strike - employees temporary walk off the job and refuse to work. 2. Picketing - workers march at the entrance to the employer's facility with signs explaining their reason for striking. 3. Boycott - union members agree not to buy the products of a targeted employer. Workers may also urge the consumer to boycott the firm's products. 4. Work slowdown - workers perform jobs at a much slower pace than normal. 5. Sickout - a large number of workers call in sick

Explain employee safety & health

1. The Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA) of 1970 - to protect workers' safety and health. 2. OSHA holds the employers obligated to provide a place of employment that is free from hazards that likely to cause death or physical harm.

Discuss personnel management

1. The profession of personnel management has its principal aim the task of ensuring the optimum use of human resources to the mutual benefit of the enterprise, each person and the community at large. 2. Personnel management is concerning with: -Obtaining, developing and motivating the human resources required by the organization to achive its objectives. -Making the best use of the skills and capacities of all those employed in the organization

Describe retirement plan.

1. This is the plan to pay pensions to workers when they retire. 2. Some companies contribute all; others may be contributed by both employees and companies.

What is the vestibule training?

1. Vestibule Training is a term for near-the-job training, as it offers access to something new (learning). 2. This means the simulated setup is established, proximate to the main production plant, wherein the technical staff learns how to operate the tools and machinery, that may be exactly similar, to what they will be using at the actual work floor. 3. There are special trainers or the specialists, who impart this training to the technical staff, thereby reducing the burden on the line supervisor, who has to supervise the entire production process.

Describe the technique forecasting demand of labour.

Forecasting internal supply - the number & type of employees who will be in the firm at some future date. Replacement chart - lists each important managerial position, who occupies it, how long that person will probably stay in it before moving on, who is now qualified or soon will be qualified to move into it. This technique allows ample time to plan developmental experience for people identified as potential successors for critical managerial jobs. This system can quickly locate every employee who is qualified to fill a position. Forecasting external supply - the number & type of people who will be available for hiring from the labour market at large. To forecast external supply, managers must rely on information from outside sources, such as government reports, figures supplied by colleges on the number of students in major fields.

What is equal employment opportunity for?

Protect people from unfair or inappropriate discrimination in the workplace.

What are companywide incentives?

Some incentive programmes which apply to all employees in a firm.

What are incentive programmes?

Special pay programmes designed to motivate high performance.

What is a compensation system?

The total package of rewards that it offers employees in return of their labour.

What are the action could be taken by employers to manager & resolve a dispute?

To manage: 1. Lockout - employers deny employees assess to the workplace. No weapons are allowed. 2. Hire strike breakers - hire temporary workers or permanent replacements To resolve a dispute: 1. Mediation - get a neutral third party for discussion. This mediator cannot impose (execute) a settlement on the other parties. 2. Arbitration - the neutral third party dictates (commands) a settlement, which both parties agree to submit to the judgment of a neutral party.