Module 1

Introduction to Human Resource Employee Staffing and Development

Human Resource Management is a central pillar of many organizations. Human Resource

Management (HRM) is the management of people within an organization. The main function of HRM is
to maximize the productivity of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its employees. "The
basic mission of human resources will always be to acquire, develop, and retain talent; align the
workforce with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business.

HRM is the process of managing people in organizations in a structured and thorough manner.
This covers the fields of staffing (hiring people), retention of people, pay and perks setting and
management, performance management, change management and taking care of exits from the
company to round off the activities. HRM encompasses the management of people in organizations
from a macro perspective i.e. managing people in the form of a collective relationship between
management and employees. This approach focuses on the objectives and outcomes of the HRM
function.

The definitions of Personnel Management - is essentially “workforce” centered whereas human

resource management is “resource” centered. HRM is fulfilling management objectives of providing and
deploying people and a greater emphasis on planning, monitoring and control. HR managers is known as
People Managers, People Enablers and the practice as people management. Today, HR manager or the
people manager is no longer seen as someone who takes care of the activities described in the
traditional way.

HR manager is responsible for managing employee expectations vis-à-vis the management

objectives and reconciling both to ensure employee fulfillment and realization of management
objectives. Human resource departments are responsible for activities spanning a wide variety of core
functions. The functional areas of human resource activities fall under the following five core functions:

1. Recruitment, Selection (Staffing) and Hiring

This includes the activities of hiring new full-time or part-time employees, hiring contractors, and
terminating employee contracts

Activities include:

 Identifying and fulfilling talent needs (through recruitment, primarily)

 Utilizing various recruitment technologies to acquire a high volume of applicants (and to filter
based on experience)

 Terminating contracts when necessary

 Maintaining ethical hiring practices and aligning with the regulatory environment

 Writing employee contracts and negotiating salary and benefits

2. Training and Development

On-boarding new employees and providing resources for continued development is a key investment for
organizations, and HR is charged with maintaining a developmental approach to existing human
resources.

Activities include:

 Training and preparing new employees for their role

 Providing training opportunities (internal training, educational programs, conferences, etc.) to

keep employees up to date in their respective fields

 Preparing management prospects and providing feedback to employees and managers

3. Compensation Administration

Salary and benefits are also within the scope of human resource management. This includes identifying
appropriate compensation based on role, performance, and legal requirements.

Activities include:

 Setting compensation levels to match the market, using benchmarks such as industry standards
for a given job function

 Negotiating group health insurance rates, retirement plans, and other benefits with third party
providers

 Discussing raises and other compensation increases and/or decreases with employees in the
organization

 Ensuring compliance with legal and cultural expectations when it comes to employee
compensation

4. Safety and Health

Achieving best practices in various industries include careful considering of safety and health concerns
for employees.

Safety and health activities include:

 Ensuring compliance with legal requirements based on job function for safety measures (i.e.
hard hats in construction, available counseling for law enforcement, appropriate safety
equipment for chemists, etc.)

 Implementing new safety measures when laws change in a given industry

 Discussing safety and compliance with relevant government departments

 Discussing safety and compliance with unions

5. Employee and Labor Relations

Defending employee rights, coordinating with unions, and mediating disagreements between the
organization and its human resources is also a core HR function.

 Employee and labor relations activities include:

 Mediating disagreements between employees and employers

 Mediating disagreements between employees and other employees

 Considering claims of harassment and other workplace abuses

 Discussing employee rights with unions, management, and stakeholders

Acting as the voice of the organization and/or the voice of the employees during any broader
organizational issues pertaining to employee welfare

Recruitment, Selection and Hiring

Finding Good Candidates

It is advantageous to attract applicants with the highest potential for success at the organization.

Key Points

 Selective hiring helps prevent the costly turnover of staff and increases the likeliness of high
employee morale and productivity.

 The proper start to a recruitment effort is to perform a job analysis —to document the actual or
intended requirement of the job to be performed. This information is captured in a job
description and provides the recruitment effort with the boundaries and objectives of the
search.

 Job descriptions need to be reviewed or updated prior to a recruitment effort to reflect present
day requirements. Each job description should be associated with a list of critical skills,
behaviors or attitudes that will make or break the job performance.

 When screening potential employees, managers need to select based on cultural fit and attitude
as well as technical skills and competencies.

Recruiting - is beneficial to attract not only a large quantity of applicants but a group of individuals with
the necessary skills and requirements for the position. After obtaining a large, qualified applicant base
managers need to identify those applicants with the highest potential for success at the organization.
According to Pfeffer and Veiga 1998, selecting the best person for the job is an extremely critical piece of
the human resources inflow process. Selective hiring helps prevent the costly turnover of staff and
increases the likeliness of high employee morale and productivity.

After the job analysis, the process moves to sourcing:

1) advertising the vacancy to look for the potential applicants, the use of multiple media, such as the
Internet, general newspapers, job ad newspapers, professional publications, window advertisements,
job centers, and campus jobs fair

2) Walk-in application

3) In-house applications

4) Referrals

Managers must strive to identify the best applicants at the lowest cost. Companies have a
variety of processes available to screen potential employees, so managers must determine which system
will generate the most accurate results. The methods of selection vary both in levels of effectiveness and
in cost of application.