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TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES VISAYAS

Capt. Sabi St., City of Talisay, Negros Occidental

College of Engineering Technology

Office of the Program Coordinator

LEARNING MODULE

Personnel Management
(Human Resource Management)
Week 1-2

DEPARTMENT: College of Engineering Technology

PROFESSOR:

APRAILLE M. ANGLO

SY 2021-2022 2nd Semester

COMPILED BY:

BENJAMIN E. ESMAÑA, CPM, MT.

2020
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VISION

The Technological University of the Philippines shall be the premier state university
with recognized excellence in engineering and technology at par with leading universities in
the ASEAN region.

MISSION

The University shall provide higher and advanced vocational, technical, industrial,
technological and professional education and training in industries and technology, and in
practical arts leading to certificates, diplomas and degrees.
It shall provide progressive leadership in applied research, developmental studies in
technical, industrial, and technological fields and production using indigenous materials;
effect technology transfer in the countryside; and assist in the development of small-and-
medium scale industries in identified growth center. (Reference: P.D. No. 1518, Section 2)

QUALITY POLICY

The Technological University of the Philippines shall commit to provide quality

higher and advanced technological education; conduct relevant research and extension
projects; continually improve its value to customers through enhancement of personnel
competence and effective quality management system compliant to statutory and regulatory
requirements; and adhere to its core values.

CORE VALUES

T - Transparent and participatory governance

U - Unity in the pursuit of TUP mission, goals, and objectives
P - Professionalism in the discharge of quality service
I - Integrity and commitment to maintain the good name of the University
A - Accountability for individual and organizational quality performance
N - Nationalism through tangible contribution to the rapid economic growth of the
country
S - Shared responsibility, hard work, and resourcefulness in compliance to the
mandates of the university
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Week No. 1 to 2
LEARNING GUIDE

Topic : Need for Human Resources Management

I. : COMPETENCIES
Upon completion of this Learning Guide, you should be able to:

1. Explain the need for human resources management

2. Identify the HRM roles and responsibilities as well as the legal issues.

II. : CONTENTS/TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Human Resource Management is the process of recruiting, selecting, inducting

employees, providing orientation, imparting training and development, appraising the
performance of employees, deciding compensation and providing benefits, motivating
employees, maintaining proper relations with employees and their trade unions, ensuring
employees safety, welfare and healthy measures in compliance with labour laws of the land
and finally following the Orders / Judgement of the concern High Court and Supreme Court,
if any.

Need of Human Resource Management (6 Valid Reasons)

Some of the reasons for need of human resource management are: 1. For Good
Industrial Relations 2. Create Organizational Commitment 3. Meeting with Changing
Environment 4. Change in Political Philosophy 5. Enhanced Pressure On Employees and 6.
Meeting Research and Development Requirements.

Human resource management tries to create a better understanding between management and
employees.

It assists employees in attaining individual and organizational goals. This approach

has been gaining the attention of management professionals in the last decade or so.

1. For Good Industrial Relations:

There is large spread unrest, labour- management disputes, lack of trust in each other,
increasing expectations of workers, growing of militancy in trade unions etc. These factors
have generated a gap among workers and managements. Both sides are blaming of
exploitation by the other side. In the absence of cordiality in an organization, the performance
of workers is adversely affected.

HRM approach is needed to bring proper understanding among workers and

management. The workers are trained and developed to meet their individual and
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organizational objectives. The workers are made to understand that various managerial
actions will assist them in achieving their aspirations and organization’s goal.

2. Create Organizational Commitment:

There is a humanisation of work environment in industrially advanced countries like

Japan, U.S.A., and Germany etc. Globalisation of economy has exposed Indian industries to
international competition. An improvement in efficiency and quality of work can come only
when workers develop organisational commitment. HRM approach helps in creating a sense
of pride for the organisation among the employees.

3. Meeting with Changing Environment:

The business environment is changing rapidly. Technological improvements have

revolutionised production processes. Automation has been introduced in office operations.
Good communication methods have revolutionised important areas of business.

Therefore, there is a need to cope with new and changing situation. The operational
efficiency of workers must cope up with a revolutionary change in the technology which
necessitates a new approach to manpower.

4. Change in Political Philosophy:

Political philosophy has also undergone a substantial change all over the world. The
new approach is to develop human resources properly for making their better use. In India,
Central Government has created a separate ministry as Human Resource Development and
put it under a Senior Cabinet Minister.

This shows the importance given to human resources in India, which opened up a
door for a fresh approach to human resource development in the industrial sector too.

5. Enhanced Pressure On Employees:

The technological innovations have made possible the use of sophisticated machines.
The installation, monitoring of machines, maintenance and controlling of operations etc.,
require large number of trained and skillful personnel.
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Technicians, repairers and service people are also necessary. The more the technical
development and automation, the more would be the dependence on human beings. There
should, therefore, be greater need for humane approach to manpower. Similarly, use of more
capital intensive methods would result in greater productivity of men necessitating greater
motivating and greater human resources approach to management.

6. Meeting Research and Development Requirements:

Fresh initiatives and emphasis on research and development in the realm of industry
also led to a new policy of human resource development to cope with the increasing demand
for technically capable people. As a result of this, a need arose for a new approach to human
resources.

What is the role of a Human Resource Officer?

He/she is responsible for formulating and designing of Human Resource policies in

compliance with labor laws and sees all HR related activities staring from hiring to firing of
an employees in an organization.

The Human Resource Manager is responsible for overseeing human resources

activities and policies according to executive level direction. They supervise human resources
staff as well as see staffing, compensation , assessing and providing employee
benefits, providing training & development, safety & welfare of staff, maintaining
healthy labor relations, providing employee handbook and maintaining employment records
as required by the employment laws.
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Figure No. 1 Organizational chart of PM ( www.what ishumanresource.com)

Who is responsible for human resource management?

Human resource officer or Manager is responsible for human resource management in

the organization.

The HR Director is a top-level manager responsible for the administration of all

human resource activities and policies. The director oversees compensation, benefits,
staffing, affirmative action, employee relations, health and safety, and training/development
functions. They also supervise professional human resources staff.

Primary responsibilities of the Human Resource Manager:

1. To develop a thorough knowledge of corporate culture, plans and policies.

2. To act as an internal change agent and consultant.
3. To initiate change and act as an expert and facilitator.
4. To actively involve himself in company’s strategy formulation.
5. To keep communication lines open between the HRD function and individuals and
groups both within and outside the organization.
6. To identify and evolve HRD strategies in consonance with overall business strategy.
7. To facilitate the development of various organizational teams and their working
relationship with other teams and individuals.
8. To try and relate people and work so that the organization objectives are achieved
effectively and efficiently.
9. To diagnose problems and to determine appropriate solution particularly in the human
resources areas.
10. To provide co-ordination and support services for the delivery of HRD programme
and services.
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11. To evaluate the impact of an HRD intervention or to conduct research so as to

identify, develop or test how HRD in general has improved individual or
organisational performance.

Core responsibilities of Human resource management

1. Planning for staffing needs

2. Employee Recruitment And Selection
3. Employee Compensation And Benefits
4. Employee Training and performance evaluation

Function of Human Resource Management

Figure No. 3- Function of HRM (www.whatishumanresource.com)

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Figure No.4 Changing Role of HRM(www.whatishumanresource.com)

Today’s companies are pressured by a great number of factors such as the increasing
globalization, rapid technological change, a tougher competition, new alliances or structures
and changes in workforce among others. Summarizing; as the company grows from its
“fetus” state into a stable and advanced entity, we can say a series of alterations, innovations
and changes are bound to happen.

In order to manage such steady changes of circumstances, the need arises to make the
HRM play a crucial role in aiding organizations through the transitions induced by the
pressures it undergoes. 

  Human Resources is a field that has been continuously evolving for a while now,
transition after transition. One of the most representative examples is the change from
“personnel” to “Human Resources” department, which clearly depicted the increase in value
of the employees as an organizational resource. Redefining therefore its  traditional
association with a bureaucratic and slow personnel department. 

  Nowadays, HRM is attributed with being more a fresh, modern and dynamic field; for
this role, CEO’s seek to hire, according to Johnson (1997), strategic thinkers, who understand
the pressure of being responsible and conducting an effective business, and what’s more
important, strategic thinkers. Therefore, when looking for fulfilling the Human Resources
Management position, high executives often look for “not a typical HR person”. It is to be
mentioned, that today, most of the applicants that have turned out to be successful usually
describe themselves this way. 
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  For some years now, it has been noted that the Human Resource department has
slightly diverged from its most rudimental mission: recruiting and paying employees. HRM
has been in charge of bringing the company more productive and qualitative outputs, and
therefore delivering a higher intrinsic and extrinsic value and revenue. This happened
because HRM established as first concern to fulfill the need to educate, train and organize
resource-planning, along with the duty of promoting the common company culture and
favorable teamwork to create the high-performance network companies have today. As Renee
West, from Luxor and Excalibur Hotel stated: “You can have the best strategy and the best
building in the world, but if you don’t have the hearts and minds of the people who work with
you, none of it comes to life.” 

  In the agenda of any successful HR department lay the priorities of acquiring talent to
employ, deploy, train and retain the best individuals. 

As agreed by numerous eminences in the HR field, “the deployment and retention of

suitable acquisition of talents in an organizational workforce is the most important and
challenging task of the Management of Human Resources”, it is a proven fact that in the long
run, this is the key element to organizational success. 

The previously explained, closely relates to the term Performance Management,

which portraits the action of abstracting the best talents from the workforce through training,
mentoring and orienting through employee assistance programs. When putting it into
practice, the best approach to do so is Motivational Development Planning; defined as face to
face interaction between the employee and the project, always in presence of the HR
department, which will positively lead to a level of accomplishment on the solving of issues
arisen within the department. 

  As the company evolves globally, complex business processes, high-tech machinery

and truly demanding customers, organizations have been motivated to implement a more
practical set of methodologies so as to assist the continuous advancement of the factors of
production’s efficiency and productivity. 

When it comes to innovation within the organization, to make sure the transition is
well received, it is relevant to have a solid interaction and open dialogue between the quality
assurance team and the HR department, in order to maintain and follow the quality control
rules; in a nutshell, quality information should be shared among the team members, creating
therefore a favorable environment for development and innovation, in which
interdepartmental communication is a pathway for success. 

It is believed that this innovation-oriented HRM, have been leading the transitions
occurred in the last years, mainly the ones concerned about work and employment. 

HR professionals are for the most part what would be deemed “embedded
professionals”—that is, professionals who exercise their profession as employees of an
organization. This is not unusual as many accountants (especially management accountants),
actuaries, most teachers and nurses, and many professional engineers are embedded
professionals. Relevant to the present discussion is that many lawyers are also embedded
professionals acting as counsels for their employers. The definition of professionalism
developed by the Chief Justice of Ontario on Professionalism would apply to lawyers
practicing as embedded professionals as well as those working as part of firms or in
independent practice.
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HRM Challenges in 21st Century

HR is at the centre of business affairs in the 21st century. Businesses are doing their
best to hire and retain the best talent. Without having skilled people onboard, it is difficult to
achieve the organisational objectives. However, from hiring to retention and performance
management, there are several challenges that  the HR managers face while trying to manage
their human resources efficiently. HR issues can be highly challenging and can sometimes
lead to escalating HR costs. It is why leadership and the HR managers must focus on making
policies that drive employee motivation and job satisfaction. Despite everything, the HR
managers regularly come across challenges that affect organizational productivity.
The challenging HR situation can be addressed best by planning. Some of the most
common challenges HR managers or businesses face are related to employee morale,
attrition, teamwork and workplace conflicts. If the managers can successfully address these
issues, it can lead to higher productivity and lower HR costs.

How to address the issue of employee morale?

Low employee morale can happen due to several reasons and this is a common yet
important problem that affects productivity of individual employees. Even the biggest
companies feel challenged by it and apart from financial incentives, try other benefits too
which can boost their employees’ morale and help retain them for longer. Employee morale
is an important issue because low staff morale means low conversion ratio. The employees’
affected by low morale will work more but still produce less. Those whose morale is high
will make better decisions and will be able to produce more while doing less. Moreover,
investing in employee morale has proved to bring superior results. Investing in employee
morale is just as productive as investing in other resources because your human capital is
worth more than any other resource you employ.

How to control the attrition rate?

High churn rate or attrition rate is also a common HR problem that poses as a tough
challenge for companies and HR managers. It does not just drive the recruitment costs higher
but a lot of time is also wasted dealing with hiring. Companies must not focus only on hiring
the best talent but also on their retention. Otherwise, one would continue dealing with
inappropriate costs and remain busy throughout the year with hiring. There can be several
reasons behind a high churn rate. Poor training and retention strategies and a poor
environment can make staff lose interest easily and that can translate into a very high churn
rate. Inside  the technology companies, the churn rate can be especially high.
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Low employee morale can also result in higher rates of attrition. If the staff cannot
love the environment inside your organisation, it would be difficult to retain them for long.
This is a difficulty that boggles every HR manager’s head that how to retain his staff for long.
Apart from great salaries, retention and training programs, a great culture and environment
are equally important to  control the attrition rate inside your organisation. While work
pressure and job complexity can also be a reason behind the high churn rate as is the case
with most technological firms, you can still control the churn rate using appropriate HR
policies. You can still focus on employee satisfaction and retain its level high by keeping
employees engaged and interested.

How to establish an environment of teamwork?

This is also an important question that leaders and HR managers face. Without
teamwork, productivity will remain low and if you desire to create a high energy, highly
productive  environment then this is an important thing to focus upon. However, differences
still arise and when they arise they hinder teamwork and progress. The various functions
inside your organisation cannot work in  different directions. It will make the execution of
strategy difficult and achievement of objectives impossible. So, if you had to channel the
entire energy inside your organization in the same direction then you must keep your entire
team working together in sync.

It is not easy to establish an environment of teamwork and bring unity. The

differences among the various line managers and functions become too obvious in
organizations without a strong culture. However, if you are trying to bring an organisation
wide change or initiate major programs, then you need people to work as a team. This is a
problem that can be addressed only with support from the leadership.

How to resolve conflicts and discrimination?

Both conflicts and cases of discrimination happen regularly inside offices. They affect
employee morale and become hurdles to performance. The employees being discriminated
against lose job satisfaction and experience low morale.  Conflicts also happen regularly and
many times the reason behind them are personal differences. Differences are bound to happen
because people from  different backgrounds come to the office and many of them may have
difficulty working with each other. While you cannot resolve all these issues at once or
completely, you can still address them to a large extent using appropriate policies.
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   The focus must be on creating the right environment and culture so that people can
collaborate. An environment of collaboration fosters innovation and lets people have
opportunities of learning and growing their skills. To address discrimination, managers must
focus on both policy making and encouraging diversity. You can also focus on training your
employees to be more flexible.  Increasingly businesses are adopting diversity practices to
make the composition of their workforce richer.

How to Address Training and Development Related Issues?

Training and development are also important concerns for HR managers because
every company wants its employees to perform at their best. However, it often becomes
difficult because while managers keep trying to extract performance from their employees,
they never see the issue of performance gap from the HR angle. HR also keeps its mind
occupied wth the other top priorities rather than focusing on designing effective training and
development programs. Grooming employees is important because it helps them learn faster
and keeps their morale high.

You cannot create a high performance environment and culture without having
effective training and development programs in place. Nevertheless, when it comes to
designing  such programs, HR managers either lack the support to make a start in the right
direction or there is always a communication gap between HR and line managers. HR
managers need to consult the line managers to understand the needs of the jobs and the
employees. They also need to keep the industry norms in mind and research what their
competitors are using to know what will suit their employees the most.  Moreover, HR needs
to be more persuasive in its techniques. It will need to persuade both the leadership and the
line managers so as to gain their support. Unless it can persuade them to understand the
criticality of such programs, neither leadership nor the line managers would consider it
compulsory. HR can create the right environment for such programs by creating the
excitement required to persuade the leadership.

How to design the best salary and benefits programs?

Often designing the right salary and benefits programs becomes difficult for the HR
managers.   Without the right salary and benefits retaining the best talent is difficult. It is an
area that requires special attention because salary and benefits are critical to employee
motivation. To keep your employees motivated, just a fat salary would not be enough, you
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also need to design good benefits programs that satisfy them. Since employee satisfaction is
critical, HR managers can try different combinations to see which one suits their needs best.
However, the hurdles can be limited to financial resources or lack of support from the
leadership or other crucial functions. HR managers must recommend the top executives what
suits their company’s needs best. The best point to start can be checking what the competitors
are doing. While plainly imitating others’ practices is never good, still researching others
gives an opportunity to understand the industry best practices. HR managers can use their
own creativity and imagination to design the programs that cater to the needs of the company
and employee better.

Challenges facing 21st century HR managers

Thee most of the challenges faced by the HR in 21st century are also, retention of

the employees, multicultural workforce, women workforce, retrenchment of employees,
change in the demand of the government, technology , globalisation, and initiating the
process of change.

Human Resource Management challenges

Over the last two decades,  there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of
organisations that have internationalised their operations. The international movement of
labour that has been concomitant with such expansion of international business has meant
that issues associated with the management of human resources across International borders
are increasingly important to international human resource managers and academics.  This
poses a lot of challenges to HR managers.

The rapidly-transforming business landscape means that there are currently many
human resource management challenges which will continue to evolve for years to come.
Tom Marsden, Director of Professional Services at Alexander Mann Solutions says that HR
departments really need to be adding real business value to their organisations.
“Although the restrictions of the recession aren’t over yet, companies are recognizing that in
2010, they will need to take steps to retain their workforce. This could be through an
increased emphasis on training and engagement programs or by investing in areas that will
optimize expenditure, such as integrated technology systems or improved candidate attraction
schemes. The signs are that HR departments are preparing to maximize their resources and
staff as organisations look to grow.”
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Due to the fluctuating economy as well as local and global advancements, there are
many changes occurring rapidly that affect HR in a wide range of issues. In the Survey of
Global HR Challenges: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, conducted by Price water house
Coopers on behalf of the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations
(WFPMA), several challenges for human resource management were revealed.
This survey, which concluded that “despite national and regional differences, there was
remarkable unanimity,” disclosed some of the top human resource management challenges as
follows: 
 Change management (48%),
 Leadership development (35%),
 HR effectiveness measurement (27%),
 Organisational effectiveness (25%).

But , typically,  the main challenges of HR manager include adding value to an

organisation both the labour force and the business itself, manage talent within your
organisation – try to attract and keep talented and hard-working people in the organisation; 
managing globalisation, Information Technology, business control, Information-workers and
info-management.

The modern business can not effectively operate in the business world if the human
force is  not well equipped with the latest technology and techniques. This is the
responsibility of the human force manager to properly train the work force and to see the
basic things  the human force  needs to achieve the competitive advantages of business in
21st century.

Great debates on this topic have been ongoing for several years and no doubt, people
are important in any organisation but due to rapid changes in the business world,
globalization, change in customer taste and habits, new techniques of production, human in
the organisation now facing different kind of problems, to cope with this situation the today’s
HR manager is also facing a variety of issues and challenges on how they can best manage
and solve all these issues and challenges with splendid ways.

The average HR manager is facing a variety of challenges tomeet these challenges for
the future, tomorrow. HR manager or department must be much sophisticated than their
predecessors. Because an international or multinational organisation can not perform their
activities well when their HR manager knows the diversity of technique to hack it with these
issues and to how they can prepared a unobjectionable force for the organisation to face the
rapid competitive business word and to operate in the situation.

All the organisations should prepare their human resources people well keeping in
view the global environment or market place to ensure competitive advantage. Human
resource manager will have to build or developed such a frame work that allows flexibility to
develop such a workforce that will be the work force for tomorrow. The main aim of the
paper is to address HR issues and challenges in the light of variety of literature work by
different authors.

What should be the priorities for human resource in future what should be? The
answer to this question is very difficult but there are many factors contributing to HR
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managers functions and these activities are constantly changing. By keeping in view the
entire situation, the organisation's HR department is continuously being transformed as well.
Some pieces of research have pointed out that the most of the challenges faced by the HR in
21st century are also, retention of the employees, multicultural workforce, women workforce,
retrenchment of employees, change in the demand of the government, technology ,
globalisation, and initiating the process of change.

The World Federation of Personnel Management Association (WFPMA) survey

pointed out the most important top ten HR challenges are leadership development,
organizational effectiveness, change management, compensation, health and safety, staff
retention, learning and development, succession planning. Staffing: recruitment and skill
labour. Liz Weber has pointed out that the most important challenges of the HR in business
are layoffs. The most of the owners and managers are  facing this hard issue. This laid off
may be due to several reasons which include the economic uncertainty, the employee’s job
instability and HR less effectiveness.

Commerce, and workforce diversity, and globalisation, ethical consideration of the

organisation which may directly or indirectly affect the organisation competitive advantages,
especially with technological advancement the affect on recruitment, training and
development and job performance with great extent can be study in organisation.

We can sum up these from the following points that the foremost challenge faced by
HRM is the globalisation. Globalisation means the present flow of goods, services, capital,
ideas, information and people. It means the movement of these things without using any
human resource. In this modern business world, markets have become battlegrounds where
both the domestic and foreign competitors try to capture as maximum market shares as
possible. Such globalisation is a challenge for HRM.

However without human resource they have no value because a workforce is

knowledgeable and skilled, who facilitates a company in gaining competitive advantage over
others and enable a company to compete in the foreign market and to make investment in not
only in a  domestic market but also in foreign markets. Therefore all the HR Managers come
up several strategies to develop and retain such human resource, because Human Resource is
the tool which makes an organisation successful in the field of globalisation.
Today, many business leaders and executives  view HR as a non-strategic cost centre instead
of a core, profit-contributing function. This is especially true during the tough economic
times like in  the past few years which have put more organizational demand on the revenue
generating business functions – and more of a focus on cost saving for the other functions. 
Unfortunately most organisations still view HR as a transactional cost centre which makes
them to under play the function.

One of the most common complaints about HR is that many professionals lack the
forward thinking, strategic advisory focus needed to be an effective business partner.  They
don’t spend the time to understand the business they support and focus more on transactional
HR activities that don’t have the impact the business desires.  HR Business Partners need to
be trusted advisers to the businesses and leaders they work with.  They need to be effective
coaches and remain aware of their critical role as to effectively assess workforce capabilities
and enable planning for future needs.  HR must be focused on becoming a trusted advisor to
their business to empower managers to drive improved organisational performance.
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Talent acquisition & talent management challenges

Organisations are continuing to struggle with hiring and managing their talent
effectively.  Most corporate recruitment and talent functions are reactive and rarely are future
focused.  These functions aren’t aligned to their organisation’s business strategy, aren’t part
of a formal organisational talent strategy and in fact seldom even communicate with each
other.  Most HR leaders and their teams aren’t spending the necessary time upfront to analyze
and properly plan their organisational talent assets, needs, and gaps.  When an organisation’s
recruitment and talent management functions are performing effectively, the rewards far
outweigh the investments.

Organizations must be self-aware and understand their true functional capabilities

within recruitment and talent management.  An organisation which isn’t effective in
managing and developing their own talent will need to rely more on hiring new talent to fulfil
the talent requirements of the business strategy.  The organisation must understand the
limitations of their talent functions and make the appropriate decision to either invest quickly
in resolving their functional deficiencies or work around the deficiencies.

Legal Issues in Human Resources Management

HR is bigger than just hiring and payroll – the main responsibilities of HR include
protecting the employees and the employer. Protection occurs in a number of ways, including
those that intersect with traditional HR responsibilities like managing benefits and practicing
ethical and legal hiring and management practices. The legal issues in human resources can
span many areas, however.

Here are the most important human resource management laws and regulations.

1. Confidentiality: HR professionals will often come into contact with sensitive information,
such as social security numbers, home addresses, marital status, and even sometimes medical
information through FMLA requests. HR has a responsibility, then, to ensure confidentiality
and discretion when managing all paperwork and records.

2. Background checks: Some businesses have a legal requirement to run background checks

on people before hiring to ensure that they don’t have a criminal record or simply to confirm
the information from their application is legitimate. Some company’s use background checks
to ensure compliance with the Immigration Reform and Control Act. This is one way that HR
works to protect the company’s interest – by trying to reduce their risk and liability.

3. Discrimination and favoritism: HR groups are legally obligated to practice certain

screenings when recruiting new hires – many US laws mandate certain labor laws, including
not practicing discrimination against people for age, sex, race, veteran or disability status. It’s
important that HR professionals are aware of labor laws and are using good judgement when
screening applications. It’s also important that HR is aware of discriminatory behavior at the
management level after someone is hired. Candidates can’t be fired for the same reason they
can’t be overlooked as a hire – someone’s gender or health is not a valid reason for
terminating employment, and it is HR’s legal responsibility to ensure that management
practices are fair. HR should also offer management training to educate managers, especially
new managers, in how to interact with employees as a supervisory level. This can help to
decrease issues of favoritism and protect the business’s interest.
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4. Harassment: Another one of the important legal issues in human resources is preventing

harassment. It’s important to have a harassment policy in place and ensure that it’s readily
available to all employees, as well as make sure it’s part of all new employee onboarding
training. Companies should also mandate regular training for managers. Finally, if a
harassment complaint comes up, it’s HRs job to handle the process, so HR managers need to
be trained in how to conduct a fair, impartial, and thorough investigation.

5. Safety: Employers are required to provide employees a safe workplace. HR’s support of

this protects both the employee physically, and the employer legally. The Occupational
Safety and Health Act requires that employers follow mandatory minimum health and safety
standards.

6. Equal pay: One important pay-related mandate is that employees must be paid equally for
equal work. If there is a younger person and an older person with the same job title
responsible for the same duties, the rate of pay needs to be the same. If a man and a woman
are performing the same day to day work and have the same job title, the company must
ensure that their salaries are the same.

7. Other payroll issues: Employers are legally obligated to pay their employers a minimum
wage per hour and also account for overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40. Keeping
accurate exemption employee records (to account for salary vs. hourly employees, for
instance) is essential in complying with compensation laws.

The legal aspects of human resource management can be complex, and this list is not
exhaustive. It does, whoever, highlight the myriad of ways that legal issues in human
resources can present themselves.

III. REFERENCES

Books : Human Resources Management by: Patrick Alain Azanza

: Fundamentals of Human Resource Management by: De Cenco and

Robbins, 8th Ed. 2015

Online : investopedia.com