Human Resource Management

MAN201: Organizational Behaviour Class 11

 Selection and Recruitment

 One of the primary roles of Human Resource Management (HRM) is

recruiting applicants and selecting suitable candidates for new or existing
positions within an organization.
 Initially, HRM will assess applications and conduct basic background checks
in order to establish a minimally-qualified pool of potential candidates.
 Thereafter, HRM will conduct job interviews, administer psychometric tests,
and perform reference checks on potential candidates. They may also have
candidates perform job simulation tests or longer-form interviews.
 After following these processes, HRM will have a short-list of suitable
candidates. Ideally, this number should be as low as possible.
 Finally, HRM may administer drug tests or medical tests to candidates.
 Training
 HRM is responsible for administering initial job orientations and other
forms of on-the-job training.
 Training responsibilities can range from very rudimentary skills training
through to more complex training such as interpersonal skills training,
ethics and civility training, and problem-solving training.
 Training methods vary depending on what the organization does and what
is expected of the person being trained. Many job trainings involve a
combination of in-person apprenticing with a senior manager; computer-
or simulation-based training; and various off-hours educational
programmes.
 Training, in and of itself, can have limited efficacy. Its effectiveness is
highly contingent on the actual person that is being trained (i.e. their
personality, level of motivation, general abilities, etc.)
 Coaching and Mentoring
 In modern organizations, training has become increasingly supplanted by
coaching and mentoring. Coaching in particular has become a significant
part of the modern HRM repertoire.
 Mentoring involves the employee “shadowing” a senior member of the
organization (a “mentor”) who works intensively with them to build their
skills, confidence, and suitability for progression within the organization.
 Coaching is a more applied and systematic approach to developing
employees than mentoring. It used to be exclusively utilized for senior
managers, but more and more organizations are now making coaching
available to junior “rank and file” employees.
 Training is about introducing new skills to an employee. Coaching is about
refining and enhancing skills that the employee already possesses.
 Employee Development
 Taken together, training and coaching are both features of employee
development. This has become arguably the most important area of
concern for modern HRM.
 Turnover rates in modern organizations have been steadily increasing,
while tenure rates have been steadily decreasing.
 Employee development is essential for retaining high-quality employees
who show potential in their job and who provide value to their
organizations.
 By developing employees through continued coaching and training,
employees are more likely to be motivated to stay with the organization,
and to continue progressing through the ranks – which allows the
organization to continue to benefit from their talents and experience.
Employee Development
 Performance Evaluations
 Regular performance evaluations are necessary to ensure that the
behaviours, traits, and competencies of employees are aligned with the
staffing, promotional, and remunerative demands of the organization.
 They are also necessary to ensure that these organizational demands are
aligned with the developmental needs of the employees themselves.
 360° performance evaluations are the most reliable form of evaluation;
soliciting feedback from superiors, peers, and subordinates alike.
 The best performance evaluations are methodologically comprehensive;
entailing combinations of written analyses, behavioural scales, critical
incident reports, and comparative measures.
 Performance evaluations should be explicitly connected to reward
allocations in a way that is clear and meaningful to the employee.
 Feedback

 Formal performance evaluations alone are not sufficiently responsive or

frequent to be useful in developing and motivating an employee or
meeting the ongoing employee needs of the organization.
 Employees will be more quick to improve deficient areas of their
performance (or maintain or build on strong areas of their performance) if
they receive consistent, timely, and detailed feedback from their leaders.
 Giving feedback can be a tricky process, and can make employees
defensive or even resentful when the feedback is negative.
 But this doesn’t need to be the case: giving feedback in a thoughtful,
sensitive manner simply requires that leaders are mindful, emotionally
intelligent, and practice active listening (feedback should go both ways!).
Managing Work-Life Conflict and Balance
 Successful organizations are those that are sensitive to the competing
extracurricular demands of their employees.
 It is HRM’s responsibility to ensure that employees are able to manage
conflicts between their job and their domestic/non-work responsibilities.
 Employees that have balance in their lives are more focused, disciplined,
motivated, and productive than those without such balance.
 Remember, sometimes “life gets in the way.” HRM needs to recognize that
employees are not just employees; they are human beings (parents,
children, friends, teammates, associates, contemporaries).
 HRM policies and practices to accommodate work-life balance can include:
flexible scheduling; paid parental leave and childcare provision; corporate
wellness initiatives; and a workplace culture which promotes balance.
Sustainable Leadership Change and Development

 When leaders are given the opportunity and support from HRM to
focus on other areas of their lives, they become better leaders.
 Remember the connection between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and
leadership: EI must be developed outside the workplace as well as
within it in order for it to be truly sustainable.
 “Life is the laboratory for learning.” (Primal Leadership, p. 129)
 Modern HRM recognizes that in order for leaders to develop, they
need to structure their development like athletes: a lot of time
practicing, and a little time performing – rather than vice versa, as
with many leaders.
 Building an Action Learning Culture
 Leadership development cannot be the mandate of HRM alone. Even with
their domain expertise and contributions to the strategy of the
organization, HRM’s involvement by itself cannot drive the changes in
behaviour or culture required for sustainable leadership development.
 HRM and leadership need to work together to build an action learning
culture: A culture based on adopting an experimental, iterative mindset to
day-to-day work activities. This requires a willingness to embrace failure,
as well as a recognition that there will always be opportunities to adapt
and improve.
 This can be achieved by getting buy-in from senior leadership to set an
example themselves; cultivating a growth mindset where everyone wants
to keep learning; and encouraging risk-taking among all employees.