Lecture 1

HR: Managing human capital (knowledge, education, training, skills, and expertise) to achieve
organisational goals
People are central to organizations, HRM impacts its success (the bottom line), individual
well-being, and society
Contact Info:
donia@telfer.uottawa.ca
Office: DMS 5150
Hours: Mon 2:30 3:30 and by appointment
Chapter 1
Human Capital: describes the economic value of employees knowledge, skills, and
capabilities. Intangible, cant be managed like products & tech, cant be replaced, to build must
continue to develop superior knowledge, skills, & experience within their workforces & retain &
promote top performers & utilize it.
HR Framework:
Competitive Challenges
Changes in market places &
economy, globalization,
technology, cost containment,
leveraging employee
differences

HR
Planning, recruitment,
staffing, job design, training
& development, appraisal,
communications,
compensation, benefits,
labour relations

Employee concerns
Job security, health care
issues, age & generational
work issues, retirement
issues, gender issues,
educational levels, employee
rights, privacy issues, work
attitudes, family concerns

HR & Business Strategy

Six Sigma: set of principles & practices whose core ideas include understanding customer needs,
doing things right the first time, & striving for continuous improvement.
Lecture 2
CH2 Strategy & HR Planning
Strategic planning: procedures for making decisions about the organizations long-term goals &
strategies.
HR planning: process of anticipating & providing for the movement of people into, within, and
out of an organization.
Strategic HRM: Combines strategy formulation & implementation. Looks at types & number of
people available, resource allocation decisions.
6 Steps to SHRM process:
1. Mission (basic purpose/scope), Strategic Vision, Core Values (related to decisions)
of organization.
2. Environmental analysis/scanning
a. Economic factors: general, regional, global conditions

b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Industry & competitive trends: new processes, services, & innovations

Technological changes: info tech & automation
Govt legislative issues: laws & administrative rulings
Social concerns: child care & educational priorities
Demographic & labor market trends: age, composition, literacy, &
immigration
Internal Analysis culture, capabilities, composition
o 3 main core capabilities: people, processes, & systems
o Want workforce to have specific skills through hiring and training. Difficult to
imitate = advantage.
o Composition = who to hire? What are their functions? What is contracted out?
o Culture cultural audit. VABE = values, beliefs, expectations. Can be
discovered through interviews & questionnaires.
o Is the organization seniority based or merit based? (govt = seniority)
o Amazon experiment: white collar worker boundaries lack of trust, feedback
system, backstabbing, lack of a balanced life, overtime
o Forecasting: A critical element of planning. *look at figure 2.4*
Formulating Strategy
o Corporate Strategy growth & diversification, mergers & acquisitions, strategic
alliances & joint ventures
o Business strategy low cost = compete on productivity & efficiency.
Differentiation = compete on value added.
o Functional strategy ensuring alignment. Vertical fit/alignment = what
employees are doing, strategy, Horizontal fit/alignment = fit of HR functions with
each other.
Strategy implementation
o Taking Action: Reconciling supply & demand
o Balancing supply & demand considerations
o Organizational downsizing, outsourcing, offshoring
o Making layoff decisions
Evaluation & Assessment
o Benchmarking
o Human capital metrics different aspects of workforce
o HR metrics performance of HR function
o Compare to companies similar to you, but also industry leaders

Lecture 3
Equity and Diversity in HR
-

Understanding legal environment of country

Important to limit potential liability, want to underline shared responsibility between
employee and employer, doing the right thing.
- Consequences like negative publicity
Employment equity 2 main goals:
- Redress past discrimination

- Prevent future discrimination

Designated groups (4)
- Women, aboriginal people, people with disabilities, visible minorities.
- They make up 60% of the population in Canada, and yet do not represent 60% of the
workforce, especially in the higher levels.
Legal Framework. *understand broadly, employment law*
- Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms
- Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA)
- Provincial laws
- 14 jurisdictions in Canada 10 provinces, 3 territories, + federal
- 90% of all employment law is enforced by the provinces. 10% federal crown
corporations, civil service, agencies, transportation, banking, communications
- Standard legislation & human rights legislation
- Exemption to discrimination: Bona Fide Occupational Qualification/Requirement
(BFOQ/BFOR) = a justifiable reason for discrimination based on business reasons of
safety on effectiveness. Basically needs to be a requirement of the job.
- Concept: reasonable accommodations. When necessary? Adjustments in job content &
working conditions that an employer is expected to make in order to accommodate a
person protected by human rights provisions
- Enforcement of provincial human rights laws:
o Fill a written complaint
o Investigation & submission of report
o If complaint is sustained, settlement
o If no agreement, then a tribunal.
- Pay equity: it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of job content
o Equal pay for equal work
o Equal pay for work of equal value. Value = effort, required skills, responsibility,
working conditions Canada HR Act
o OB Communication negotiation for pay
- Employment Equity an attempt by an organization to select talented employees from
traditionally under tapped pools, prevent future discrimination, correct previous
discrimination
- Occupational segregation e.g. traditionally male/female jobs like being a nurse
o Glass ceiling = invisible barrier for designated groups to advance to higher level
positions compared to undesignated groups, organizational bias.
- Implementation of employment equity in organizations:
o Management commitment of assignment of accountable senior staff
o Data collection and Analysis stock data, flow data, self-identification form
o Employment Systems Review systemic discrimination, special measures,
reasonable accommodations
o Establishment of a work plan > specific goals
o Implementation
o Evaluation, Monitoring, and Revision

Sexual Harassment: unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favours, & other verbal or
physical conduct of a sexual nature in the working environment. Person may be in a
position of power. Person may be able to withhold something or implement consequence.
Managing Diversity: the optimization of an organizations multicultural workforce in
order to reach business objectives.
o Business reasons: better utilization of talent, increases marketplace understanding,
enhanced creativity, increased quality of team problem solving, greater
understanding in leadership positions.
Employment equity = mandatory, diversity management is not.

Lecture 4
Chapter 4 Job Analysis & Work Design
-

ABC video: increase in manufacturing jobs, decrease in natural resources, increase in

self-employment
Decrease in unemployment in US and Canada follows largest trading partner
Job Analysis: bedrock of HR. Way of dissecting jobs into tasks and duties so you know
who to assign/reward. When you disqualify have to be able to explain criteria and defend.
Job Description: a statement of the tasks, duties, & responsibilities of a job to be
performed.
Job Specification: a statement of the needed knowledge, skills, & abilities (KSAs) of the
person who is to perform the job.
Relationship of job requirements & HRM functions:
o Strategic HR planning assesses whether organisation has right human resources
and jobs to fulfill strategy
o Recruitment: job specification must be determined on basis of skills needed
o Selection: job description must clearly state tasks & duties of position to be filled
o Training development: organisation must determine how much space for
discrepancies between needs & KSAs of new hires.
o Performance appraisal: must be benchmarked against requirements of job
descriptions.
o Compensation mgmt.: worth of job based on KSAs in job specification
o Legal compliance: vague & unrelated criteria for above opens room for charges of
job discrimination.
Job Analysis: the process of obtaining information about jobs by determining the duties,
tasks, or activities of jobs.
o Should also include info on tools needed, environment & times to be done, with
whom (alone or team), required performance level
o Process of job analysis - *see textbook
o Onet job database
o Approaches to job analysis:
Position analysis questionnaire system
Critical incident method
Task inventory analysis
Competency based analysis

Job Description: job duties, or essential functions section indicate responsibilities

entailed & results to be accomplished + job specification section skills required to
perform the job & physical demands of the job
o Problems with job descriptions: poorly written, vague terms, little guidance, not
updates as job duties & specifications vary, they may violate the law by
containing specifications not related to job success, can limit scope of activities of
the job, reducing organisational flexibility
Job Design: an outgrowth of job analysis that improves jobs through technological &
human considerations to enhance organization efficiency & employee job satisfaction.
Behavioural Concerns: the job enrichment model & job characteristics model: 2 methods
designed to increase the job satisfaction of employees.
o Job characteristics model designing jobs to motivate employees. *look at
textbook
o Job enrichment increasing level of difficulty & responsibility of job, increase
authority & control over outcomes, adding new tasks that require training &
growth, providing performance appraisal directly to individual employees,
assigning specific tasks.
Flexible work schedules compressed work week, flextime, job sharing,
telecommuting

Lecture 5
Chapter 5 Branding the Talent Pool: Recruitment and Careers
-

Recruiting: invitation from the company to join the organization

Videos, on recruiting and branding Google, Canadian Forces
Branding: an organizations efforts to help existing and prospective workers understand
why it is a desirable place to work
Strategic Aspects of Recruiting
o Decisions about talent
o The broad factors that can affect a firms recruiting strategy include a firms
recruiting abilities
If high unemployment in a particular sector, it will be easier to find a
qualified person, because you will have more of a choice.
Small versus large company also has an effect on recruitment ability
o Who should do the recruiting?
HR recruiters or generalists (large firms)
Managers and/or Supervisors (smaller firms)
Work Teams
Recruiting Process Outsourcing (RPO) the process of outsourcing an
organizations recruiting function to an outside firm. Advantages and
disadvantages Outsourced, may not know internal needs as well, but
may also have more knowledge/resources/skills since specialized,
therefore organization saves money on training.
Having a manager vs. HR handle recruiting manager may hire
someone similar which is the main criticism since co. may need new ideas

or could be an advantage if they fit in with culture, for HR would look for
more things with a broader view and abide by policies, take diversity into
account
o Should a firm recruit internally or externally? Most managers try to follow a
policy of filling job vacancies above the entry-level position through promotions
and transfers. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.
Advantages to hiring internally: motivation for employees, important to
feel like there is opportunity for growth, will get someone who already
understands how the company works culture wise, cost-saving, serves as
organizational reward for the employee that is hired
Limitations: smaller pool of people to hire from inbreeding fostering
more of what you already do, potentially not bringing in new ideas,
sometimes cant find the skills you need internally, potential for gossip
amongst those who lost the competition when one person in the company
gets a position could accuse of favouritism, need more transparency.
Whereas if you recruit externally dont need to worry about that as much.
o Labour Markets
Labour Market: area from which applicants are to be recruited.
Tight market: high employment, few available workers
Loose market: low employment, many available workers
Factors determining the relevant labour market:
Recruiting Internally internal job postings, identifying talent
through performance appraisals, skills inventories and replacement
charts
Recruiting Externally advertisements, walk-ins, unsolicited
applications & resumes, the internet, social networking, mobile
recruiting, job fairs, employee referrals, re-recruiting, executive
search firms, educational institutions, professional associations,
labour unions, public employment agencies, private employment
and temporary agencies, employee leasing
Improving the effectiveness of recruiting
o Surveys, realistic job previews, recruiting metric (did you hire the best person and
did they stay with you? Is anyone responding to the job ad? Those responding, are
they relevant? Yield ratios proportion of applicants at each stage that make it to
the next stage, Metrics - cost of recruitment)
Career Management: developing talent over time
o The goal is to march individual and organizational needs
The employee role
The organizational role
o Recognize different career paths
o Consider various career development initiatives
Self-training opportunities (training/learning)
Mentoring programs associated with career success

Lecture 7
Effective Interviewing
Job Interview: a process in which a potential employee is evaluated by an employer for
prospective employment in their company or organization. During this process, the employer
hopes to determine whether or not the applicant is suitable for the role.
Securing the Interview
1. Reflect on your personal brand (understand what you have to offer and link to job
requirements/employers needs and be able to articulate this)
o Branding: the marketing practice of creating a name or an image that identifies
and differentiates a product form other products.
o In this case the product is you, what benefits do you offer? Who are you? Why are
you different? What is your brand promise? What qualities do you want your
employer see in you? Why should they choose you?
2. Create a solid marketing package
o A winning resume and cover letter attend workshops, use online resources
o A professional online presence LinkedIn, Twitter, website, blogs, etc.
3. Use active job search techniques
o Join student and professional associations
o Attend multiple networking events
o Set up information meetings
o Use social media
o Volunteer
The Preparation Process
- Research the company (mandate, focus, services, clients, news)
- Understand the job you are applying for (key responsibilities, qualifications, traits)
- Know yourself and what you have to offer (reflect on your skills and experience)
- Review you resume and know its content (be prepared to elaborate/provide examples)
- Anticipate questions & practice answers (family, friends, career centre)
- Prepare documentation you want to bring (portfolio, letters of reference, projects)
- Plan your route/map your day (directions, leave room for error, traffic)
- Pep talk (put yourself in a positive frame of mind)
Interview Etiquette
- Dont be late/dont be too early
- Dress for success
- Bring paper & pens + copies of your CV
- Act appropriately and professionally with everyone in the office
- Dont bring up salary, benefits, or holidays at the first interview

- Listen carefully, ask questions, take time to reflect when needed

- Be cool and confident without coming across as being arrogant
- Thank the interviewer for their time
- Offer a firm handshake at the beginning and the end of an interview
Types of Interview Questions *look at sheet*
- Traditional/General (getting to know you questions, icebreakers, understanding-yourpersonality questions) success depends on your responses as well as on the rapport you
build with the interviewer.
- Exercise: write down 5 strengths:
o Initiative seeking to do more than basic tasks, not being afraid to ask QS
o Good communication with co-workers, being able to articulate when asking
questions, expressing needs, setting up meetings, etc.
o Time management prioritizing tasks
- Behavioural: based on the premise that past behaviour is the best predictor of future
behaviour. Success depends on the relevance of the example you choose and your ability
to clearly describe the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result).
- Situational: the interviewer gives you a hypothetical situation and asks how you would
react.
Types of Interviews
- Phone Interview: keep pens and paper, a copy of your resume, and a list of the jobs you
have recently applied for near the phone. Be conscious of your tone of voice and try to
avoid long pauses (let them know if you need a minute to think).
- Panel Interview: focus primarily on the person who asked you the question; however,
you also need to make eye contact with the other interviewers. Try not to be intimidated
by the number of people there.
- Skype interview: dress professionally and prepare your surroundings, practice the process
with someone in advance, use active listening cues in your conversation, maintain eye
contact with the webcam, address technical problems immediately.
- Group Interview: try to stand out from the crowd without stealing the spotlight and
overpowering the group. Be conscious of how you are interacting with the other members
of the group.
- Stress Interview: try to stay focused and calm (they want to see how you react under
pressure).
- Case Interview: the employer wants to see how you approach a problem and how you
break down a complex situation into logical components. There can be more than one
answer.
Tips for making a good impression
- Your interview actually starts before you meet the employer
- Be prepared; practice out loud beforehand
- Be yourself/natural: talking vs. scripting
- Stay focused, take your time, avoid um
- Try to use different examples
- Be confident and enthusiastic

Career Centre Services

- Interview Workshops and Clinics (facilitated by employers as well as small group
interview clinics facilitated by a career counsellor)
- Practice Interviews
Final Steps
- Ask about the next steps or the process at the end of your interview
- Thank the interviewers and ask for their cards
- Send a follow-up thank you letter (24 48 hours after your interview)
- Be patient; however, keep track of where you are in the process
- Reflect on how you did/areas to improve
Chapter 6: Employee Selection
Selection: is a process where the goal is to choose among individuals who have relevant
qualifications who have been recruited to fill existing or projected job openings.
Important because:
the quality of HR (i.e. employees) determines organizational performance
high cost of inappropriate selection decisions training, relocating, socialization, loss of
clients
significant legal implications
Person-job fit and person-organization fit are the two selection considerations.
MISS vs HIT
Job performance: task performance, organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB),
counterproductive job behaviours, what we are trying to predict, our criterion
Guidelines for avoiding legal problems
- selection criteria based on job analysis
- adequate assessment of applicant ability
- careful scrutiny of applicant-provided information
- written authority for reference checking
- save all records and information
- reject applicants who make false statements
Results of a Job Analysis:
Job description and job specifications
Obtaining reliable and valid information:
- Reliability: the degree to which interviews, tests, and other selection procedures yield
comparable data over time
- Validity: the degree to which a test or selection procedure measures a persons attributes
Initial Screening:
- Cover letters and resumes
- Internet checks and phone screening

Application forms
Online applications

Employment Interviews:
- Nondirective interview
- Structured interview
- Situational interview
- Behavioural description interview (BDI)
- Panel interview
- Sequential interview
Employment interviews:
- Phone interview
- Computer and virtual interviews
- Video and digitally recorded interviews
Guidelines for employment interviewers
- Interviewer training
- Employment equity: are your questions legal?
Post-interview screening:
- Reference checks
- Background checks
- Credit checks