Ques.

High-Performance Work Systems

A set of human resource management policies and practices that promote

organizational effectiveness. High-Performance Work System An organization in which
technology, organizational structure, people, and processes work together seamlessly
to give an organization an advantage in the competitive environment.

High-Performance Human Resource Policies and Practices

- Emphasize the use of relevant HR metrics.

- Set out the things that HR systems must do to become an HPWS.
- Foster practices that encourage employee self-management.
- Practice benchmarking to set goals and measure the notable performance
differences required of an HPWS.

Another study looked at 17 manufacturing plants, some of which adopted high-

performance work system practices. The high-performance plants paid more (median
wages of $16 per hour compared with $13 per hour for all plants), trained more, used
more sophisticated recruitment and hiring practices (tests and validated interviews, for
instance), and used more self-managing work teams. Those with the high performance
HR practices performed significantly better than did those without such practices.
Service companies (such as hotels) particularly gain from such high-performance work
systems and practices. For example, high-performing companies recruit more job
candidates, use more selection tests, and spend many more hours training employees.

First, it shows examples of human resource metrics such as hours of training per
employee, or qualified applicants per position. (In Table 3-1, the metric for “Number of
qualified applicants per position” is 37 in the high performing companies.) Managers use
these to assess their companies’ performance and to compare one firm with another.

Second, it illustrates what employers must do to have high-performance systems. For

example, high-performing companies have more than four times the number of qualified
applicants per job than do low performers. They also hire based on validated selection
tests, and extensively train employees.

Third, Table 3-1 shows that high-performance work practices usually aspire to
encourage employee involvement and self-management. In other words, an aim of the
high-performance recruiting, screening, training, and other human resources practices
is to nurture an engaged, involved, informed, empowered, and self-motivated workforce.