Chapters 1,6,7, pg 203-205 and 237-255)

SESSION 1

Main activities:
- Recruitment and selection
- Learning, training and talent development
- Human resource planning
- Healthy and safety
- Payment and reward systems
- Performance appraisal
- Ethics and corporate responsibility

Skills:
- Objectivity, discretion, communication, business knowledge, team work, curiosity,
flexibility, adaptability and resilience

Who develops this function?

Line Managers:
- Specify what is needed
- Provide information on the roles and job ads
- Prepare and conduct interviews and other selection tests
- Manage teams: motivation, retention… dynamics.
- Culture
- Conduct performance appraisal evaluations – Assess performance

Line Managers are usually responsible for implementing HR policies and procedures

HR Specialists: Design policies in coordination with strategy. Generate procedures,

interview candidates, design compensation policies...

Why is HR Management important?

Because it adds value. ¿How?

• Competitive advantage through people

• Focus on strategy (HR should be included in the decision-making process).
• Integrated policies, excellent communication (consistent with values and
culture).
• Line Manager role (implementation is crucial).

Development of the HR Management approach

Major characteristics:
- Importance of adopting a strategic apporach
- Line managers play a predominant role
- Organisational policies must be integrated and cohesive – support org’s values
and objectives.
- Importance of Communication
- Hard and Soft HRM
- Unitarist vs. Pluralist approach
- Everyone is important to the organization

Line Managers:
- Active management of people matters
- Combination of technical aspects & attention to people
- Now: traditional activities undertaken by HR are now undertaken by line
managers (i.e.: T&D, R&S, Performance Appraisal, etc).
- Challenge: Encouraging line managers to take responsibility for people
management.

Human Resources

Hard HRM
• Primacy of business needs = HR will be acquired, deployed and dispensed with according to
corporate plans
• Little regard to human resources
• Emphasis on quantitative aspects.

Just another resource (What resources do we need, how do we get them and how much will they
cost? How can we use them more productively?)
Get the most out of them . Efficiency

Soft HRM

• All potential is nurtured and developed

• Programs on behavioral aspects at work are developed
Most important resource and source of competitive advantage.

How can they be developed and organized?

How do we get the best out of our employees? How can they help give the business an edge?

The two are not mutually exclusive

HRM’s objectives can be read in two ways

HRM approach
TWO PERSPECTIVES

Unitarist: All members are dedicated to the achievement of a common goal with no conflict from
personal interests.

- All members share same interests

- No conflicts
- Leadership of org. decides what the goals are
- All will accept and seek to achieve those goals
- These org. depend on top-down leadership
- Recruitment of like-minded people
- Employers are more likely to resist unionisation
There is a common goal – all direct efforts to achieve

Pluralist: Within a large group of people there are a variety of interests and these have to be
managed.

- Belief that there are different interests among members (i.e.: pay vs. profit – employees vs.
owners)
- Conflicts are likely to arise
- Acceptance and need to manage
- Employers are more likely to accept trade union representation
Differing interests will have an impact on achievement of goals

Adopting one or the other has a major impact on the way managers treat the workforce

Why is it important to relate Strategy and HR?

Different definitions for strategy

The classical approach: plan of action for the future

Three common questions to explain the strategic process:

• Where are we?

• Where do we want to be?
• How do we get there?

Long-term focus: business plans with 3 -5 years frame.

Objective: create competitive advantage.
CULTURE

“The set of shared values and norms that control organizational members’ interactions with each
other and with people outside the organization”

The HR Department
Recruitment & Selection: Definition of recruitment policies & actions (posting job vacancies,
screening applicants through preliminary interviews, scheduling personal interviews, tests,
assessment centres…). Providing guidance to managers on hiring decisions. Workforce planning
to determine the organization's staffing requirements. Talent acquisition.

Training & Development: Establishment of training plan for employees, Follow-up providers
actions and effectiveness. New employee. Coordination of skills training and professional
development opportunities that prepare employees for additional responsibilities with the
company as well as future promotions.

• Compensation & Benefits: Establish compensation strategy to position the company as a

competitor in the labor market, enabling the company to attract the best-qualified applicants
for job openings. Benefits administration includes from negotiating the cost of group benefit
plans to counseling employees on medical, dental, vision and disability coverage. Involves
counseling employees about income protection and savings plans.

• Administration & Labor Relations: Managing payroll, holidays and extras. Planning
employee
recognition and reward events, identifying workplace issues, investigating employee complaints,
ensuring HR compliance with employment laws.

HR Manager:
• Human resource managers have strategic and functional responsibilities for all of the HR
disciplines.
• A human resource manager has the expertise of an HR generalist combined with general business
and management skills.
• Regardless of the size of department or the company, a human resource manager should have the
skills to perform every HR function if necessary.

HR PLANNING
Strategy involves planning for the future – increasing rate of change is unavoidable.
Change – changing work methods, ie.: technologies – new skills required – adaptation – HR
PLANNING
What do you think HR Planning is/what does it entail?
Process by which a company ensures the adequate amount of people with the necessary
qualifications, in the right positions and in necessary time to reach the organization's objectives.

OBJECTIVES
• Optimise and motivate human factor in companies
• Ensure the necessary staff in time both in number and quality
• Develop, train and promote current employees according to future needs of the company
• Improve work environment
• Contribute to maximise the company’s benefit

CONTEXT AND TRENDS

Political and economic environment

Social and demographic trends:
• Better prepared professionals
• Ageing workforce: Generations of workers – Stereotypes (EXERCISE)
• Trend: young professionals in executive positions
• Information technology - Diff ways: i.e: e-Recruitment / e-learning.. social media
teleconferencing – teleworking – Skype – FaceTime – Zoom, etc.
• Internationalisation
• Individualist population
• Environmental concerns – corporate responsibility
• Increased uncertainty
• Adding value
• Talent management
• Knowledge management

SESSION 2

CULTURE

“The set of shared values and norms that control organizational members’
interactions with each other and with people outside the organization”

HR PLANNING

Strategy involves planning for the future – increasing rate of change is

unavoidable.

Change – changing work methods, ie.: technologies – new skills

required – adaptation – HR PLANNING.

Values:
General criteria, standards or guiding principles that people use to determine which types os
behaviours, events, situations and outcomes are desirable or undesirable.
Terminal – Desired and state of outcome that people seek to achieve.
• (ie.: guiding principles, excellence, responsibility, reliability, profitability, innovativeness,
morality, quality)
Instrumental – Desired mode of behaviour
• (ie.: working hard, respecting traditions, authority)

Norms:
Standards or styles of behaviour that are considered acceptable or typical for a group
of people.
• (ie,: keeping working area clean, no food & drinks in classes)

EXAMPLE OF ICEBERG
- VISIBLE: Symbols, manifestations (architecture, websites, technologies), stories,
language, rituals, clothes (dress code), personal conduct, leadership, ceremonies
- PARTLY VISIBLE: Norms and standards, maxims, codes of behavior, prohibitions,
informal practices
- INVISIBLE: Values Basic assumptions about the environment, “what really counts”, and
human nature

Effects of organizational culture

People draw on these cultural values to guide their actions and decisions
• Especially in situations of uncertainty and ambiguity
• Org. culture is an important influence on members’ behavior and response to situations

For a company, organizational culture…

• can be a source of competitive advantage
• can be used to increase organizational effectiveness
• can be a means of control

Effects of a STRONG culture

Provides clear orientation for actions
 • Because it reduces complexity
• People might not even notice that they make a choice
Efficient communication network
Fast information processing and decision making
• Because everyone thinks similarly Fast implementation of plans and projects
High motivation and loyalty
• Because employees identify with the org.
Less need for control like direct supervision or technological control
Thinking in stereotypes
Conformity pressures
• Might lead to unethical behaviour
Suppression of creative problem solutions
Fixation on success patterns of the past
• E.g. “we have always done it like that and it worked”
Neglect of negative feedback
A strong culture might be used as a covert
form of control
• E.g. “we have a culture of working long

Can organizational culture be managed?

Communicating the culture is important (eg. Social Media)
• Is it enough?
• Mismatch between the communicated culture and actual, experienced culture is harmful!
The organization HAS a culture (that can be managed):
• Corporate Identity, shared (explicit) visions, moral, individual values
• Belief in the changeability of cultures, change programs that aim at creating new
organizational and workplace culture(s)
• Culture as a key success factor
The organization IS a culture (that managers need to take into
account)
• Myths, rites, ideologies, taboos, identity of organizations’ members
• Belief in the idiosyncrasy (uniqueness) of cultures
• Organizational culture as an influential factor, but cannot be directly changed; idea of
culture-sensitive management

Where does it come from? What influences CC?

What to consider when you want to change/manage OC
Characteristics of people
• Founders bring in their personal values
• Fit: People feel attracted to companies that share their values
Organizational ethics
• Moral values and rules how organizational members should deal with each other
and with the organization’s stakeholders
• “Code of conduct” to ensure compliance with org. ethics
Property rights
• Distribution of organizational resources to members: salaries, stock options,
lifetime/long-term employment, pension & benefits
Organizational structure
• Formal system of task & authority relationships
• Structure: Tall, centralized, standardized - Culture: Predictability & stability
• Structure: Flat decentralized - Culture: Innovation & flexibility

What do you think HR Planning is/what does it entail?

Process by which a company ensures the adequate amount of people with the necessary
qualifications, in the righ positions and in necessary time to reach the organization's objectives

OBJECTIVES

• Optimise and motivate human factor in companies

• Ensure the necessary staff in time both in number and quality
• Develop, train and promote current employees according to future needs of the company
• Improve work environment
• Contribute to maximise the company’s benefit

SESSION 3

Recruitment – Selection
Recruitment: Establishes the groundwork for the selection process by providing the necessary pool
of applicants from whom the selectors may choose.
Objectives:
• Attract pool of suitable candidates for vacant positions
• Use fair process
• Recruitment activities contribute to organization goal and image (ie LinkedIn)
• Cost efficient and effective

Selection: Select the most suitable person from the pool of candidates provided by recruitment.
Objectives:
• Gather as much information as possible
• Organize and evaluate information
• Assess each candidate to forecast performance and provide information for them to decide to
accept

THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

Two Key questions:

1.- What is needed? – Assessment in the need of additional labor
2.- How do you think the hiring process works from the recruiter’s point of view?

1st step: JOB DESCRIPTION

Listing of activities that must be carried out from each position within the organization in order to
fulfill the company’s strategy and the competencies required to develop the position successfully
CLEAR – CONCISE – SPECIFIC – COMPLETE

COMPANY, TITLE, ACTIVITY, PURPOSE, REQUIREMENTS, SALARY, HOW TO

APPLY

- COMPANY & TITLE:

• Selling point (employer brand more and more used in Recruitment)

- ACTIVITY / RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Combination of duties and responsibilities the employee occupying the position must
develop.

- PURPOSE / OBJECTIVE:
 • Results the employee occupying the position must achieve.

- REQUIREMENTS:
• Hard and soft skills

WHAT ARE COMPETENCIES?

Competencies are a set of abilities, attitudes and knowledge that are evidenced in the candidate’s
behavior and that have a predictive value of future (successful) performance in a role.

• Communication • Teamwork • Negotiation • Leadership • Creativity & Innovation •

Analysis • Rigor • Results Orientation • Customer Orientation • Motivation • Excellence •
Entrepreneurial Spirit • Flexibility • Sense of Responsibility • Resistance to Pressure • Self-
Confidence • Influence

CANDIDATE SEARCH
- INTERNAL EXTERNAL: Network, Database, Promotion

Recruit from inside (vs. outside candidates):

- Advantages: Deep knowledge of a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, current

employees might be more committed to the company, they might see promotions as
rewards for loyalty and competency, it requires less orientation and training than
outsiders.
- Disadvantages: Employees not chosen might be disappointed and less motivated,
“home-grown managers” have a tendency to maintain the status quo when a new
direction is required.

External Search

• PRESS (local & international)

• INTERNET
• TARGETED ACTIONS – BRANDING
- Campus recruitment
• EMPLOYMENT FAIRS
• HEAD HUNTERS / SELECTION COMPANIES/RECRUITMENT AGENCIES
• CAREERS
• SOCIAL MEDIA (ej.: Facebook, LinkedIn)
• NETWORK

Where to place an advertisement:

▪ Likelihood of finding people with necessary skills
▪ Qualifications and experience
▪ Salary
▪ Cost of advertising: SR vs. JR
THE JOB AD
• Name and Info on the organisation
• Job title and major duties
• Competencies required
• Opps and challenges
• Salary and benefits
• Important issues such as equal opportunities
• How to apply (online application, open day, letter and CV by e-mail, apply by certain date, conact
particular person…)

Targeted Recruitment
Method of encouraging previously disadvantaged groups to apply for vacancies. Any
subsequent selection must be based on merit only.
Different ways of drawing potential applicants’ attention in job ads:
• A statement that encourages under-represented groups to apply
• A statement emphasizing that diversity is valued and that all candidates will be assessed on merit
• Photographs and text that show people in non-traditional roles (emphasizing an employer’s desire
to receive applications from groups that do not traditionally apply for particular posts)
• An assurance that qualified candidates with diability will be invited to interview
• Photographs showing a mix of different people

THE SELECTION PROCESS

OBJECTIVE:
1. Gather as much information as possible
2. Organize and evaluate information
3. Assess each candidate
4. Forecast performance on the job and provide info to candidates – acceptance?

SAMPLE PROCESS:
1. Shortlist: Be objective - More than one person – tech.
2. Telephone interview: screening - video interviewing
3. Assessment Centre
• Tests
• Group work
• Interviews
 • References
4. Interviews

WHAT IS AN AC?
The Assessment Centre is a group selection activity, consisting of exercises and simulations that
allow the recruiter to evaluate if the candidates have certain competencies necessary for specific
role(s).
• GRADUATE PROGRAMS
• SUMMER INTERNSHIPS
• ON-GOING RECRUITMENT - TALENT IDENTIFICAITON
• SPECIFIC POSITIONS WITH MANY APPLICATIONS
• Candidates are assessed over several competencies / skills
• Silent recruiter/s
• Full morning / 1 – 2-day activity
• Measures consistency and compares among candidates / Increase validity of
selection decisions
• Group exercises to observe teamwork
• Exercises like future work situations

Assessment Centre’s
Why use them? Advantages?
1. Evaluate and compare several candidates
2. Group exercises to observe teamwork
3. Exercises similar to future work situations
4. Increase validity of selection decisions

Issues and disadvantages:

1. Needs to be well designed
2. Training of assessors (observers)
3. Costly
4. Needs to be accepted by all parties (ie. Line Managers)

SAMPLE EXERCISES IN AN AC
• “In Tray” / “E-Tray” exercises
• Presentation / Case study
• Pitch
• Role Plays – work simulations
• Group Exercises and discussions
• Tests: Psychological testing, Ability tests, Interest and motivation, personality, etc.
• Interviews

THE JOB INTERVIEW

Conversation with the objective of obtaining as much information as possible from the candidate
According to culture, industry, job description, “personality”
Selection interview: selection procedure designed to predict job performance based on applicant’s
oral responses to oral inquiries

HOW THE INTERVIEWER OBTAINS INFORMATION. HARD & SOFT SKILLS

What has been done Who he/she is What he/she knows How he/she behaves

NON-VERBAL: Eye – contact, Speech, Body Language, Silences, Personal, Appearance

VERBAL: QUESTIONS

Types of interviews
1. Format:
- Structured: the interviewer lists questions ahead of time and may even weight
possible alternative answers for appropriateness.
- Unstructured: the interviewer follows no set format.
2. Content:
- Situational: You ask the candidate what his/her behavior would be in a given
situation.
- Job-related: You ask the candidate about job-relevant past experiences.
- Behavioral: You ask the candidate how he/she reacted to actual situations in the
past
 *Stress interviews: The interviewer seeks to make the candidate uncomfortable.
The aim is supposedly to spot sensitive applicants and those with low (or high)
stress tolerance. Puzzle questions

3. Administration:
• One-on-one and sequential
• Panel interview
• Mass interview (panel & several candidates)
• Phone interviews • Computer-based • Web-based video interviews

One-on-one: One interviewer meets one candidate.

Sequential (serial): Several interviewers assess a single candidate one-one-one,
sequentially.
Panel interview: Conducted by a team of interviewers. An interview in which a group of
interviewers questions the applicant together.
Mass interview: A panel interviews several candidates simultaneously.

SESSION 4
GOOD PRACTICES TO AVOID ERRORS & IMPROVE INTERVIEWING SKILLS:
1. Plan & prepare for the interview. Know the job (room, JD, CV application form,
interview
questions,…)
2. Structure the interview
3. Put candidates at ease (sectors / styles – informal intro, easy questions…)
4. Body language and voice neutral
5. Ask relevant questions
6. Encourage candidate to talk
7. Gather sufficient information / Record the information
8. Invite and respond to candidate’s questions
9. Close the interview
10. Evaluate information
11. Clarify what the job requires
12. Record and justify decisions

Job interviews
INTERVIEWS - TO AVOID:
1. “Halo” and “Horns” effect: Making a strong impression at the beginning affecting the
interpretation of everything else. Seek for more positive (halo) or negative (horns)
information to confirm initial judgement.
2. First impression / snap decisions: First few minutes of interview. Jumping to
conclusions. Negative information.
3. People like oneself: Identification with people who are similar to us. Diversity?
4. Stereotyping: A person is identified as belonging to a group with certain characteristics
and then assumed to have a range of characteristics that are thought to be common to
all members of the group (you can share group identity and be very different. Ie.: students)
5. Gathering insufficient or irrelevant information
6. Contrast effect (candidate order): the order in which you see applicants affect how
you rate them

TYPES OF QUESTIONS:
• Closed questions
• Leading questions
• Puzzle questions – Traditional – Job-related
• Situational questions / mini-cases
• Behavioral questions / competency based
• Strength-based questions

1. Yes or no
2. Expect an affirmative/negative response
3. Not answered with one word
4. What would candidate do in a specific situation
5. Done in the past in similar situations
6. What the candidate enjoys doing

OPEN - (opinion, taste, sensitivity, knowledge, job-related, analysis, puzzle questions…)

SITUATIONAL (Eg: LinkedIn)
• Talent & Coach needs to jump into the digital market, what strategy would you follow to
attract clients through Social Media?
• Your peer at work has just been fired for something she did under your responsibility and
following your instructions, what would you do?
BEHAVIOURAL / COMPETENCY-BASED

DEMONSTRATING COMPETENCIES THROUGH EXAMPLES

CANDIDATE’S BEST ALLY: THE STAR model

Situation/Tasks: Background, describe situation / what had to be done

Action: What you did to resolve the situation
Result: The outcome / achievements

QUESTIONS TO IDENTIFY COMPETENCIES / BEHAVIOURS

• Give me an example on a situation where you focused on leading a team
• Describe a situation where your enthusiasm persuaded others

EXIT INTERVIEWS – TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT

Reasons to leave: voluntary and involuntary
• V: another job (salary, personal reasons, development, area…, retirement, non-employment.
• I: redundancy/dismissal
Key to understand why employers leave the organisations
Appropriate recruitment and retention plans
Information by exit interviews (esp. voluntary reasons)
Areas covered in exit interviews:
• Reason for leaving (job itself, manager, pay, other terms & conditions, training, career prospects,
working conditions,…)
• Relationships with supervisors and co-workers
• Working conditions in general / specific if problematic

To ensure useful data: carried out by HR, away from usual place of work, explain confidentiality,
does not affect references or chances to come back. Good practice: complete form to ensure
interview and clarify details.
LINKEDIN CASE
- Mission: to connect the worlds professionals to make them more productive and successful.
- Vision: create economic opportunity for each of the worlds more than three billion
professionals, galvanizes our employees and our culture.
- That culture remains one of their strongest CA
- Linkedin Core Values:
o Our members come first
o Relationships matter
o Be open, honest and constructive
o Demand excellence
o Take intelligent risks
o Act like an owner
- Linkedin’s culture:
o Transformation
o Integrity
o Collaboration
o Humor
o Results
- Compassion: a more objective form of empathy, to understand the person perspective and
point of view
- Coaching: requires the taking the time to question, to listen, and to understand another
person. It keeps managers from projecting and imposing their own way of performing a
task onto the people they manage.