Human Resource Management

Human resource management is the

function performed in organizations
that facilitate the most effective use
of people to achieve organization or
individual goal.

Competitive Challenges Facing HRM

Globalization
Technology
Change management
Development of human capital
Market responsiveness
Cost containment

Emerging Employee Issues in HRM

Diversity of background
Age distribution
Gender issues
Education levels
Employee rights
Privacy issues
Attitude towards work
Family concerns

HRM Today
HRM Model
The scope of HRM today has been defined
by a model developed by ASTD (American
Society for Training and Development):
Training and development
Organization development
Organization/Job design
Human resource planning
Selection and staffing
Personnel research and information systems
Compensation/Benefit
Employee assistance
Union/Labor relations

HRM Today
HRM Model
The model suggests that these nine areas
have impacts on three human resources
outputs:
Quality of work life
Productivity
Readiness for change

Environmental Elements of HRM

External Environmental Elements
Government
Union
Economic conditions
Labor force
Geographic location

Internal Environmental Elements

Strategy
Goals
Organizational culture
Nature of task
Workgroup
Leadership

HR Planning
Definition
The process by which an organization
ensures that it has the right number and
kinds of people, at the right places, at the
right time, capable of effectively and
efficiently completing those tasks that
will help the organization achieve its
overall objectives.
The process by which an organization
assesses the future supply of and demand
for human resources.

HR Planning Process
Development of Plans for Action
After analyzing the demand for and the
supply of future human resources, these
two forecasts are compared to determine
the courses of action.
The discrepancy between the demand and
supply forecasts may lead to two situations:

Shortage of human resources

Surplus of human resources

Development of Plans for Action

Shortage of Human Resources: the options
open for an organization in order to fill up
the shortage include:

Overtime
Recruitment and recall
Temporary employment
Outsourcing

Development of Plans for Action

Surplus of Human Resources: the options
open for an organization to deal with the
surplus employees include:

Demotion and transfer

Early retirement
Layoff and termination
Attrition
Downsizing

Job Analysis
Job
A job is a type of position held by a person within
an organization.
Job Analysis
The process of systematic analysis of a job
in order to determine the task, duties, and
responsibilities of the job and the knowledge,
skills, and abilities required to perform the job. The
outputs of a job analysis include:

Job description
Job specification

Job Description
The list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities
of a job.

Task: a task is a distinct work activity

carried out for a distinct purpose.

Duty: a duty is a number of tasks.

Responsibility: an obligation to perform

certain tasks.

Job Specification
The list of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics that an individual must have to perform a
job.
Knowledge: an organized body of information,
usually of a factual or procedural nature applied directly
to the performance of a task.
Ability: a demonstrated competence to perform
an observable behavior or a behavior that results
in an observable output.

Job Specification
Skill: a competence to perform a learned,
psychomotor act, and may include a
manual, verbal, or mental manipulation of
data, people, or things.
Other Characteristics: the personality
factors (attitudes), aptitudes, or physical
or mental traits needed to perform the job

Job Analysis
Job Analysis Methods
Observation Method
Interview Method
Questionnaire Method
Diary/Logbook Method

 Most commonly used method

very adaptable

Usually conducted with

job incumbents
technical experts
supervisors

Questions like:
what are your most typical duties?
How long do they take?
How do you do them?

Con: people may misrepresent/exaggerate job

 method is most useful for comparing jobs

very commonly used (esp. with interviews)

 Unobtrusive method
camera; video; audio

Excellent for understanding and

appreciating conditions under which
job is performed
Allows analyst to experience aspects
of job that worker may not be aware of
Not as good for understanding why
behaviors do/do not occur

 Worker makes systematic entries in book

outlining activities
May be useful for jobs that are difficult to
observe
But, not commonly used

 Reduce Role Conflict and Ambiguity

reduce discrepancy between what organization
thinks job is and what job is in reality

Design and Evaluation of Training

focus training on most difficult and/or most frequent
elements of job

Performance Appraisal
criteria for appraisal should be matched with most
important elements of job

Job Evaluation
What is Job Evaluation?
Job evaluation is a systematic process of deter
mining the value of each job in relation to other
jobs in the organization in order to determine
which jobs should be paid more than others.
Job Evaluation Methods
Job ranking
Job classification
Point method
Factor comparison

 Job Ranking
Job ranking involves arranging all jobs in an
organization in a simple rank order from the
simplest to the most difficult.
Qualitative in nature.
This method is suitable for small and simple
organizations having less number of jobs.
But not suitable for big and complex organizations having a large number of jobs.
Subjectivity and lack of definite or consistent
standard is another limitation.

 Job Classification
Job classification is the process grouping jobs
into different grades or classes on the basis of
differences in skills, duties, responsibilities,
knowledge, working conditions and other jobrelated factors. Then those grades of jobs are
ranked by levels of difficulty or sophistication.
Qualitative in nature.
This method is quick, simple, and cheap. It is
also easy to understand and communicate.
But it may lead to inappropriate grouping of
some jobs and consequent feeling of inequity.

 Point Method
Point method involves breaking down jobs on
the basis of certain identifiable criteria (such
as skill, effort, responsibilities, etc) and then
allocating points or weights to each of these
criteria as per their importance. The points of
each job are then added and jobs with similar
point-totals are placed in similar pay grades.
Quantitative in nature.
This method is the most consistent one with
least rating errors.
But it is complex, costly and time-consuming.

 Factor Comparison Method

This method involves identifying certain key
jobs in the organization and then comparing
them by using a universal five-factor (that is,
skills, responsibilities, physical effort, mental
effort, and working conditions) scale. A base
rate is decided for each of the key jobs which
is then allocated among the five criteria.
Quantitative in nature.
It is a step-by-step systematic method which
can be tailored to meet specific needs of each
organization.
But this method is also complex, costly and
time-consuming.