Session I

Why studying HRM

1.1 Define HRM, explain how it contributes to an organization’s performance.

HRM has an impact in the policies, practices, and systems that influence employees behavior, attitude and performance.
HRM involving “people practicies”.

Important HRM practices that support the organization’s business strategy -> Analyzing work & designing jobs,
determining how many employees with specific knowledge & skills are needed (Human Ressource Planning), recruiting,
choosing employees, training & development, performance management, rewarding employees (compensation),
creating positive wok environment (employee relations).

Employees are resources of the employer. Human capital means the organization’s employees, described in terms of
their training, experience, judgment, intelligence, relationships, and insight employee characteristics that add ecocomic
value to the organization. Employees todays are not interchangeable, by influencing who works for the company and
how HRM contributes to basic measures of an organization’s performance such as quality, performance, profitability..

An organization can succeed if it has a sustainable competitive advantage (is better than competitors at smthing and can
hold that advantage). Companies need the kind of resources that will give them this type of advantage -> HRM role.

1.2 Responsibilities of HR department.

Companies require that a number of tasks be performed, ideally they should be grouped in ways that help the
organization operate effitienly and obtain people with the right qualifications to do the job. This function involves the
activities of job analysis & job design.
Job analysis: Process of getting detailed information about jobs.
Job design: Process of defining the way work will be performed and the tasks that a given job requires.

Recruitment: Process through which the organizarion seeks applicant for potential employment.
Selection: Process by which the organization attempts to identify applicants with necessary knowledge & skills that will
help the organization achieve its goals.

Training: Planned effort to enable employees to learn job-related knowledge, skills & behavior. Ex : Safety training to
safe work habit.
Development: Acquiring knowledge, skills & behavior that improve employee’s ability to meet the challenges of
new/existing jobs.

Performance management: Process of ensuring that employees activities and outputs match the organization’s goals.

The pay and benefits that employees earn play an important role in motivating them. This is especially true when
rewards such as bonus are linked to the individual’s or group achievement.
Organization often depend on HRM to help them maitain a positive relation with employees. This function include
preparing and distributing employee handbooks, detail company policies, monthly newsletter.
All aspects of HR require careful and discreet record keeping, from processing job applications, performance appraisals,
benefit enrolment, governement mandated reports.. Handling records about employees requires accuracy as well as
sensitivity to employee privacy.

HR help managers to respect governments laws -> equal employment opportunity, employee safety & health, employee
pay & benefits, employee privacy and job security.

Human resource planning: Identifying numbers and types of employees the organization will require in order to meet
its objectives. Planning also may show that the organization will need fewer employees to meet anticipated needs.

1.4 Explain the role of supervisors in HRM

2.1 Describe trends in labor force composition and how they affect HRM.
Internal labor force: Employees and the people who have contracts to work at the organization.
External labor force: Individuals who are actively seeking employment.
2.7 Explain how the nature of the employment relationship is changing.
Psychological contract: Describe of what an employee expects to contribute in an employment relationship and what
the employer will provide to employee in exchange for those contributions. The psychological contract Is not formally
put into words. Instead it describes unspoken expectations of the employers & employees.

Session II
Recruitment & Integration
5.4 Process of HRM planning

The role of human resource recruitment is to build a supply of potential new hires that the organization can draw on if
the need arises. Recruiting: Consist of any practice or activity carried on by the organization with the primary purpose of
identifying and attracting potential employees.

Organizations recruit existing employees through job posting -> They recrute internal sources (people who currently
work for the organization but hold another position).
External sources are usefull when it comes to entry-level positions and sometimes for specialized upper-level positions.
-> Bringing in outsiders may expose the company to new ideas or new ways to doing business.
Measures of recruitment success: Yield ratios (express the percentage of applicants who succesfully move from one
stage of the recruitment and selection process to the next) / Cost per hire.
6.1 Identify the elements of the selection process

Personnal selection: Organization makes decision about who will or not be invited to join the company. Selection begins
with the candidated identified through recruitment and with attempts to reduce their number to the individuals best
qualified to perform the available job.

6.2 Define ways to mesure the success of a selection method

Reliability: Indicate how free a measurement is from random error. A reliable measurement therefore generate
consistent results. Organizations that construct intelligence tests should be able to provide information about the
reliability of their tests.

Validity: Describe the extent to which performance on the measure (test score) is related to what the measure is
designed to assess (job performance).

A generalizable method: Applies not only to the conditions in which the method was originally developed-job,
organization, people, time period.. It also applies to other organizations etc.. In other words, a selection method that is
valid in every contexts.

Practical value & Utility: Selection procedures such as testing and interviewing cost money, they should cost less than
the benefits of hiring new employees. Methods that provide economic value greater than the cost of them are said to
have utility.

6.3 Sample format for an online application form

-Contact information -> Name, adress, phone number, email

-Work experience -> Job titles, companies u worked for, dates of employment
-Educational background -> Highschool, college, university etc..
-Applicant’s signature..

By reviewing application forms, RH can identify which candidates meet minimum requirements for a job. They may be
able to rank applicants, in this way, the applicants enable the organization to narrow the pool of candidate to a number
it can afford to test & interview.

Résumé -> The usual way tha applicants introduce themselves to a potential employer. Organizations typically use
résumés as a basis for deciding which candidates to investigate further.
References -> Applicants provide the names and phone numbers of former employers or other who can vouch for their
abilities and past job performance. References are not an unbiased source of information.
Background checks -> Many employers conduct criminal background checks, some positions are so sensitive that the
law may even limit hiring a person with certain kinds of conviction.

6.5 Major types of employment tests

After the Organization has identified valid candidates they continue the process with the narrower pool of candidates
through different tests :

-Aptitude tests: Assess how well a person can learn or acquire skills and abilities.
-Achievements tests: Mesure a person’s existing knowledge & skills.

Physical strength and endurance play less of a role in the modern workplace than in the past. Still important in few
specific jobs. Use of physical ability tests can make the organization vulnerable to charges of discrimination.

Cognitives ability tests: Designed to measure such mental abilities as verbal skills, quantitative skills, reasoning abilities.
Assesment center: Tests for selecting managers, include in-baskets tests, tests of general abilities & personnality tests
(combining with several assesment methods).

Candidates personnalities -> “Big 5 traits” -> extroversion, adjustment, agreeableness, conscientiousness &
inquisitiveness.

Honesty tests & Drug tests -> Employers considering the use of drug tests should ensure that their drug-testing
programs conform to some rules :

-Administer the tests systematically to all applicants for the same job.
-Use drug testing for jobs that involve safety hazards.
-Have a report of the results sent to the applicant, along with information about how to appel the results and be
retested if appropriate.
-Respect applicant’s privacy by conducting tests In an environment that is not intrusive and keeping results confidential.

Differents Interview Techniques :

-Non-directive interview: Interviewer has great discretion in choosing questions. Candidate reply to one question may
suggest other questions to ask. Include open-ended questions about candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, career goals &
work experience -> Reliability isn’t great cuz of the wide latitude of questions, some interviewer ask questions that are
not valid/legal.
-Structured interview: Established a set of question for the interviewer to ask. Questions are related to job
requirements and cover relevant knowledge, skills & experiences -> Results are more reliable and valid than a non-
directive interview.
-Situational interview: Structured interview in which the interviewer describe a situation likely to arise on the job and
ask the candidate what he would do in this situation -> This type of interview have high validity in predicing job
performances.
-Behavior description interview: Structured interview in which the candidate have to describe how he handled a type of
situation in the past -> This type of interview tend to have the highest validity.
6.6 How to conduct a good interview
-> Top qualities that employers seek in new hires are communication skills & interpersonal skills.
Despite the benefits of interviewing, research has shown that interview can be unreliable, low in validity and costly.
A well- planned interview should be stantardized, comfortable for the candidates and focused on the job and the
organization. The interviewer should have a quiet place in which to conduct interviews without interruption, have
enough documents to conduct a complete interview and ask objectives questions related to the job.
He should schedule enough time to review the job requirements, discuss the interview questions, give the candidate a
chance to ask questions and thank the candidate for coming and provide informations.
6.7 How employers carry out the process of selection
Multiple-hurdle model: Gradually narrow the pool of candidate. Each stage of the process is a hurdle, candidate who
overcome a hurdle continue through the selection process. Company review resumes of all candidates then conduct
some tests on those who meet minimum requirements, conduct initial interviews with those who had the highest test
scores then follow up additional interview/test and finally select candidates who survived this process ≠ compensatory
model (Safe approach)
The HR department is responsible for notifying applicants about results of the selection process. When a candidate has
been selected the organization should communicate the offer to the candidate which include job responsabilities, work
schedule, rate of pay, starting date & other relevant details.

Session III
Performance management & Evaluation
10.2 Purposes of performance management systems

The strategic purpose of effective performance management is to help organization achieve its business objectives.
It does by helping to link employees behavior with the organization goals, performance management starts with
defining what the organization expects from each employee, mesure employee’s performances to identify where those
expectations are and are not being met. This enable the company to take corrective action, such as training, incentives
or discipline. Performance management only works when measurements are truly linked to the organization’s goals and
when the goals and feedback about performance are communicated to employees.

10.4 Compare methods for measuring performances

Simple ranking: Managers rank employees from the the highest performer to the poorest performer ≠ forced-
distribution method -> Assign a percentage of employees to each category in a set of categories.

Measuring Results -> Measurement of productivity & Management by objectives.

10.5 Major sources of performance information

To get as complete an assesmet as possible, some organizations combine information from most or all of the possible
sources -> 360 degree performance appraisal.

The most-used source of performance information is the employee’s manager. It’s usually safe for organizations to
assume that supervisors have extensive knowledge of the job requirements and that they have enough opportunity to
observe employees.

Another source of performance information is Peers (co-worker). Peers have expert knowledge of job requirements.
They also bring a different perspective to the evaluation and can provide extremely valid assessments of performance.

Surbordinate evaluations have some potential problems because of the power relationships involved. Subordinates are
reluctant to say negative things about the person to whom they report. To protect employees, the process should be
anonymous and use at least three employees to rate manager.

Self rating -> Common approach is to have employees evaluate their own performance before the feedback session.
Obvious problem is that individuals have a tendancy to inflate assessments of their performance. Especially if the ratings
will be used for administrative decisions.

Customers -> Services are often produced and consumed on the spot, so the customer is often the only person who
directly observes the service performance and may be the best source of performance information -> Customer surveys
for performance measurement cost a lot.

10.7 How to provide performance feedback effectively

Scheduling performance feedback -> Performance feedback should be a regular, expected management activity, not
just once a year because if a manager notices a problem with an employee behavior in June but the annual appraisal is
scheduled for November -> employee miss months of opportunities for improvement.

Another reason for frequent performance feedback is that feedback is more effective when the information doesn’t
surprise the employee.

Preparing the feedback session -> Managers should be prepared for each formal session, create the right context for
the meeting (location should be neutral, annoucing the meeting to the employee, describe it as a chance..), let the
employee time to be prepared, ask the employee to complete a self-assessment a head of time..

Conducting the feedback session -> -Tell & Sell -> Managers tell the employees their ratings and then justify it.
-Tell & Listen -> Managers tell employees their ratings and then let the employee explair their side of the story.
-Problem Solving -> Managers & employees work together to solve performance problems with respect and
encouragement (Best method).

The most effective way to improve performance varies according to the employee’s ability and motivation.
In general, when employees have high levels of ability and motivation they perform at or above standards. But when
they lack ability, motivation or both , a corrective action is needed.

Lack of ability -> When a motivated employee lacks knowledge, skills or abilities in some area, the manager may offer
coaching, training and more detailed feedback. Sometimes it’s appropriate to restructure the job so the employee can
handle it.

Lack of motivation -> Managers with an unmotivated employee can explore ways to demonstrate that the employee is
being treated fairly and rewarded adequatly. The solution is to send more positive feedback + counseling & help
employee with stress management.

13.1 Connection between incentive pay and employee performance

Incentive pay: Performance-related pay specifically designed to energize, direct or maintain employee’s behavior
Organizations can tie incentive pay to individual performance, profits or many other measures of success. They select
incentives based on their costs, expected influence on performance and fit with the orga HR and company policies and
goals. Because incentives pay are linked to a particular outcomes or behaviors, the organization is encouraging
employees to demonstrate those chosen outcomes & behaviors.

13.2 Variety of incentives to reward individual performance

Piecework rate: Wage based on the amount they produce. The amount paid per unit is set at a level that rewards
employees for above-average production volume.

Standard hour plans: Incentive plan that pays workers extra for work done in less than a preset “standard time”. The
organization determines a standard time to complete a task, if the employee complete the work in less than standard
time he receive an amount of pay equal to the wage for the full standard time.

-> They encourage employees to work as fast as possible but not necessarily to care about quality or customer service.
Also, it only works If employees want the extra money more than working at their pace.

Merit pay: System of linking pay increases to ratings on performance appraisals.

Performance bonus: Reward individual performance, not rolled into base pay. Employee must re-earn them during each
performance period. Bonuses may also be linked to objective performance measures, rather than subjective ratings.
Comissions: Pay calculated as a percentage of a sales.
13.3 Recognize group performance

Gainsharing program: [Big groups] Measure increases in productivity and effectiveness and distribute a portion of each
gain to employees. Gainsharing adresses the challenge of identifying appropriate performance measures for complex
jobs.

Group bonuses: [Small groups] Reward the members of a group for attaining a specific goal, usually measured in terms
of physical output.

Both types of incentives have the advantage that they encourage group or team members to cooperate so that they can
achieve their goal. However, these type of incentives can lead to competition which is healthy in some situations, as
when groups try to outdo one another in satisfying clients, it can also prevent necessary cooperation among groups.

13.4 Organizations link pay to their overall performance

Profit sharing: Payments are a percentage of the organization’s profits and do not become part of the employees’s base
salary.

Stock Ownership: Makes employees part owners of the organization. Employee ownership is intended as a way to
encourage employees to focus on the success of the organization as a whole. Drawback -> It may not have a strong
effect on individuals motivation. (employees may not see a link between their actions and the company’s stock price +
benefice come through the sell of the stocks, when the employee leave the company)

Session IV
Training & Development

8.1 How development is related to training and careers

Dev -> Implies learning that is not necessary related to the actual job, instead it prepares employees for other jobs or
positions in the organization and increases their ability to move into jobs that may not exist yet. Help employees
prepare for changes in responsabilities and requirements and responsabilities in their current jobs, such as changes
resulting from new technology, work designs or customers.

Training -> Focuses on helping employees improve performance on their current jobs.

Protean career: Employee frequently changes job based on changed in the person’s interests , abilities, values & in the
work environment. ≠ In the past employees used to think of a career as smthing a person pursues at one company,
rising through the ranks.

8.2 Different methods organizations use for employee devlopment

Formal education -> Include workshops designed specifically for the organization’s employees, short courses offered by
consultants/universities. These programs may involve lectures by business experts, business games & simulations,
experiential programs and meetings with customers.
Assesment -> Collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their behavior, communication style or
skills. Information for assesment may come from the employees, peers, managers & customers. The most frequent uses
of assesment are to identify employees with managerial potential to measure current managers’ strenghts and
weaknesses. Also used to identify managers with potential to move higher-level executive positions.
Assesment center -> muliple raters evaluate employees’ performance on a number of exercices to identify whether
employees have the personality characteristics, administrative skills & interpersonal skills needed for managerial jobs.
The types of exercices used in assesment center include leaderless group discussions, interviews, in-basket, roleplay..
In a LLGD a team of 5-7 employees is assigned a problem and must work together to solve it within a certain time
period. Problem may involve buying & selling supplies, nominating a subordinate for an award or assembling a product.
Job experiences -> Most employee development occurs through the combinaison of relationships, problems, demands,
tasks & other features of an employees’jobs. Using job experiences for employee dev assumes that development is most
likely to occur when the employee’s skills and experiences do not entirely match the skills required for the current job.

How Job experiences are used for employee development:

Job enlargement: Involves adding challenges or new responsabilities to employees current job. Include completing
special project, switching roles within a work team or researching new ways to serve customers.

Job rotation: Moving employees through a series of job assignements in one or more functional areas. Job rotation
helps employees gain an appreciation for the company’s goals, increase their understanding of different company
functions, develops a network of contacts and impoves problems solving and decision making skills. Also help to
increase salary and earn promotion faster.

Transfer: Organization assigns an employee to a position in a different area of the company. Transfers do not
necessarily increase job responsabilities or compensation. They are usually lateral moves (moves to a similar level of
responsibility). They may involve relocation to another part of the country or even to another country.

Downward move: Less responsibility & authority. The organization may demote an employee because of poor
performance or move the employee to a lower-level position in another function so that the employee can develop
different skills.

Promotion: More pay / responsibility / authority.

Externship: Full time temporary position at another organization. Externships are an attractive option for employees in
analytical positions, who otherwise might solve the same kinds of problems over and over, becoming bored as they miss
out on exposure to challenging new ideas and techniques.

Sabbatical: Leave of absence from an organization to renew or develop skills. Employees on sabbatical often receive full
pay & benefits. Sabbaticals let employees get away from the day-to-day stresses of their jobs and acquire new skills and
perspective.

Mentor : Experienced, productive senior employee who help develop a less-experienced employee, called “protégé”.
Most mentoring relationships develop informally as a result of interests or values shared by mentor and protégé.
Protégés characteristics -> emotional stability, ability to adapt their behavior to the situation, high need of power &
achievement.

In artificially created relationship, mentors may have difficulty providing counseling and coaching.

8.7 Steps in the process of career management

Succesion planning :

Session V
Retaining or terminating

Invonluntary turnover : When the organization initiates the turn over (often with employees who would prefer to stay).
Voluntary turnover : When the employees initiate the turnover (often when the organization would prefer to keep
them)

-> Typically, employees who leave voluntarily are either the organization”s worst performers, who quit before they are
fired or it’s best performers, who can mostly find attractive new opportunities.
11.2 Principles of justice

Outcome fairness : depends of the judgment that the consequences of a decision to employee are just. Organizations
promote outcome fairness when they clearly communicate policies regarding the consequences of innapropriate
behavior. Finally, the outcome should be proportionate to the behavior.

Procedural justice : Used to determine the consequences an employee receives. Procedures should be consistent from
one person to another and based on accurate information, not rumors or falsehoods.

Interactional justice : Judgment that the organization carried out its actions in a way that took employees feelings into
account. It’s judgment about the ways in which managers interact with their employers.

Hot stove rule : Organizations look for methods of handling problem behavior that are fair, legal & effective. According
to this principle, disciple should be like a hot stove -> The glowing or burning stove gives warning not to touch. Anyone
who ignores the warning will be burned. The stove has no feelings to influence people which people it burns and it
delivers the same burn to any touch. Like the hot stove, an organization’s discipline should give warning and have
consequences that are consistent, objective & immediate.

Alternative dispute resolution : Rather than turning to the courts every time an outsider is desired, organizations use
alternative dispute resolution.

-> Open door policy -> If the employe does not get a resolution from his immediate supervisor, the employee may
appeal to managers at higher level. This policy works only to the degree that employees trust management and
managers who hear complaints listen and are able to act.

-> Peer review -> The people in conflict take their conflict to a panel composed of representatives from the organization
at the same level as the people in dispute. The panel hears the case and tries to help the parties arrive at a settlement.

-> Mediation -> Neutral party from outside the company hears the case and tries to help the people in conflict arrive at
a settlement. The process is not binding, meaning the mediator can’t force a solution.

-> Arbitration -> Professional arbitrator from outside the company hears the case and resolve it by making a decision.
Most arbitrators are experienced employment lawyers or retired judges. The employee and employer both have to
accept this person’s decision.

Open Door policy > Peer review / mediation > Arbitration

Job dissatisfaction lead to Job withdrawal which is really bad for the organization & the employee.
Session VI
Lessons & further global perspectives
International expansion provide companies an access to more customer and an access to some countries' low labor
costs => competitive advantage !

 Parent country : the country in which a company is headquartered.

 Host country : a country in which an organization operates a facility.

• United-States suffers from a shortage of skilled workers in many occupations. A company needing highly skilled
workers is likely mostly concerned about hiring people who have a strong education.

• The political-legal systems of a country include its laws, regulations and government.

• A country's culture is the most important factor influencing international HRM.

• First step toward expanding a company into an international org is to export products from the parent country
into other nations. Before this first step, when considering entry into a foreign market, HR professionals must
advise their org on labor laws and local market wages.

• The pay structure of international workers is impacted by holiday bonuses and taxes

• In addition to a base salary, the pay package for a manager sent to work in a foreign country would typically
include :

 benefits similar to what was provided in the home country

 allowances to reward the manager for serving in another land
 a tax equalization allowance

• US =/ Europe in the way they award stock options : European companies usually link the stock options to
specific performance goals e.g. the increase in a company's share price compared with that of its competitors.

• Benefits: decisions about benefits must take into account the laws of each country involved, as well as
employees' expectations and values in those countries.

• In their global operations, U.S. organizations are known for exercising an unusual amount of control over labor
relations. In an international setting, day-to-day decisions about labor relations are usually handled by each
foreign subsidiary.
• Preparing expatriates : When preparing an employee for an overseas assignment, the employee's spouse or
partner should also be included in the preparation activities. This is because expatriate success depends a lot on
the entire family's adjustment. Communication and validation are helpful in making expatriate reentry into the
domestic workplace a success.