TRENDS AND ISSUES IN HRM

Introduction
 As businesses move forward in 2013 looking for newer
growth avenues in a sluggish economy, leaders are
increasingly banking on talent to achieve this growth.
 While business demands, margin pressures, declining
budgets, HR technology, social media, data and analytics
are all reshaping the contours of HR, what is noteworthy is
an increase in HR’s focus on these aspects.
 Traditional ways of doing things are being re-
examined as HR leaders look at more effective ways of
managing and aligning talent with the new business
objectives.
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Introduction
 The role of HR is changing fast as technology and
the global marketplace.
 The positive result of these changes is that HR
professionals have the opportunity to play a more
strategic role in the business.
 The challenge for HR managers is to keep with the
latest HR innovations-technical and legal.
 How HR manager can anticipate and address some
of the most challenging issues.

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 Overall Framework for
Human Resource Management

COMPETITIVE HUMAN EMPLOYEE

CHALLENGES RESOURCES CONCERNS

• Globalization • Planning • Background diversity

• Recruitment • Age distribution
• Technology
• Staffing • Gender issues
• Managing change
• Job design • Educational levels
• Human capital • Employee rights
•Training/development
• Responsiveness • Privacy issues
• Appraisal
• Cost containment • Work attitudes
• Communications
• Compensation • Family concerns
• Benefits
• Labor relations

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Current Trends & Challenges in HRM

1. Globalization
2. Technology
3. Managing change
4. Human capital
5. Responsiveness
6. Cost containment

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Globalization
The trend toward opening up foreign markets to
international trade and investment.
 Impact of Globalization
 Partnerships with foreign firms
 “Anything, anywhere, anytime” markets

 Lower trade and tariff barriers

 NAFTA, EU, APEC trade agreements
 WTO and GATT

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Globalization
 Impact on HRM
 Different geographies, cultures, laws, and business
practices
 Issues:
 Identifying capable expatriate managers.
 Developing foreign culture and work practice
training programs.
 Adjusting compensation plans for overseas work.

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Embracing New Technology
1. Use of technology to communicate with
employees

 Company intranets

 E-Newsletters

 Company emails

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Embracing New Technology
2. A move toward single software platforms

 Integrated Human Resource Information

System (HRIS)

 PeopleSoft

 SAP

 Oracle

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Embracing New Technology
 Human Resources Information System (HRIS)
 is a system that lets you keep track of all your
employees and information about them. It is usually
done in a database or, more often, in a series of inter-
related databases.
 Benefits:
 Store and retrieve of large quantities of data.
 Combine and reconfigure data to create new information.
 Institutionalization of organizational knowledge.
 Easier communications.
 Lower administrative costs, increase productivity and response
times.

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Embracing New Technology
 Specialized applications

 Succession planning

 Applicant tracking

 Job evaluation

 Employee performance evaluation

 Grievance handling

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Embracing New Technology
3. Evolution of new technologies

Employee Self-Service and Data Exchange

 Capability to maintain personal data

 View context-specific information

 Initiate benefits transactions

 Internet-based tools are quickly becoming the preferred method

for employees to execute benefits transactions

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 Benefits of Automated Benefit
Administration
 Reducing and eliminating extensive manual efforts formerly
needed to:

 Distribute, collect, and process forms

 Test programming required to export/import data

 Administer the periodic data exchanges

 Reconcile data

 Resolve employees’ problems resulting from the time lag

between data collection and processing

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Manage the Changing Workforce
1. Increased diversity in the workforce
 Creating workplace that respects and includes differences
 Recognizing unique contributions of individuals with
differences can make
 Creating work environment that maximizes potential of all
employees

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 Manage the Changing Workforce
2. Work-life balance
 Employees experiencing burnout due to overwork
and increased stress – in nearly all occupations
 Rise in workplace violence, increase in levels of
absenteeism as well as rising workers’ compensation
claims
 Causes range from personal ambition and the
pressure of family obligations to the accelerating
pace of technology

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Manage the Changing Workforce
Work-life balance
 According to study by Center for Work-Life Policy, 1.7
million people consider their jobs and work hours excessive
 50% of top corporate executives leaving current positions
 64% of workers feel work pressures are “self-inflicted”,
and taking a toll
 In the US, 70%, and globally, 81%, say jobs are affecting
their health.
 Between 46% and 59% of workers feel stress is affecting
their interpersonal and sexual relationships.
 Males feel there is stigma associated with saying “I can’t
do this”

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Manage the Changing Workforce
3. Structural shift from the manufacturing to the service
sector
 Growth in part-time employment
 Rising prominence of women in the workforce
 Gradual aging of labor force with fewer young people
entering workforce and participation rates among older
workers increasing
 Growing importance of temporary employment and self
employment
 Adoption of flexible working practices, such as job sharing and
the increasing opportunity to work from home.

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Developing Human Capital

 Human Capital
 The knowledge, skills, and capabilities of individuals
that have economic value to an organization.
 Valuable because capital:
 Is based on company-specific skills.
 Is gained through long-term experience.
 Can be expanded through development.

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Developing Human Capital

1. Managing talent – recruitment, development,

and retention of the best workers
 Employers need to find innovative ways to
“brand” themselves, setting them apart from
competitors and becoming an “employer of
choice”

 As talent becomes scarce, development of current

employees for promotional opportunities

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Developing Human Capital

2. Labor shortage – finding the right talent

 Statistic: By 2020, gap between available and

required skilled workers is projected to be 14 million

 Use of e-recruiting and non-traditional labor pools

 Establishing selection system geared to retention:

better skills assessment, knowledge, and fit for jobs

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Developing Human Capital
3. Higher ethical standards

 Greater focus on trust and integrity at all

levels

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Responding to the Market

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Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM is a companywide effort to continuously

improve the ways people, machines, and
systems accomplish work.

The TQM approach provides guidelines for all

the organization’s activities, including HRM.

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TQM Core Values
 Methods and processes are designed to meet the needs
of internal and external customers.
 Every employee in the organization receives training in
quality.
 Quality is designed into a product or service so that
errors are prevented from occurring.
 The organization promotes cooperation with vendors,
suppliers, and customers to improve quality and hold
down costs.
 Managers measure progress with feedback based on
data.

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Mergers and Acquisitions

 HRM should have a significant role in carrying out a

merger or acquisition.
 Differences between the businesses involved in the deal
make conflict inevitable.
 Training should include developing conflict resolution
skills.
 There is a need to sort out differences in the two
companies’ practices with regard to compensation,
performance appraisal, and other HR systems.

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Reengineering

 A complete review of the organization’s critical work

processes to make them more efficient and able to
deliver higher quality.
 Involves reviewing all the processes performed by
all the organization’s major functions.
 This includes human resources management.

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Reengineering

 Reengineering affects human resource management

in two ways:
1. The way the HR department itself accomplishes its
goals may change dramatically.
2. The fundamental change throughout the organization
requires the HR department to help design and
implement change so that all employees will be
committed to the success of the reengineered
organization.

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Cost Containment
 Downsizing
 The planned elimination of jobs (“head count”).
 Outsourcing
 Contracting outside the organization to have work done that
formerly was done by internal employees.
 Employee Leasing
 The process of dismissing employees who are then hired by
a leasing company (which handles all HR-related activities)
and contracting with that company to lease back the
employees.

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Downsizing
 Downsizing is reducing the number of employees on
the operating payroll. Some users distinguish
downsizing from a layoff , with downsizing intended
to be a permanent downscaling and a layoff
intended to be a temporary downscaling in which
employees may later be rehired. Businesses use
several techniques in downsizing, including
providing incentives to take early retirement and
transfer to subsidiary companies, but the most
common technique is to simply terminate the
employment of a certain number of people.

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Outsourcing
 The practice of having another company (a vendor,
third-party provider, or consultant) provide services.
 Outsourcing gives the company access to in-depth
expertise and is often more economical as well.
 HR departments help with a transition to outsourcing.
 Outsourcing includes both foreign and domestic
contracting, and sometimes includes offshoring or
relocating a business function to another
country. Financial savings from lower international
labor rates is a big motivation for
outsourcing/offshoring.
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Cost Containment
 Hidden Costs of Layoff
 Severance and rehiring costs

 Accrued vacation and sick day payouts

 Pension and benefit payoffs

 Potential lawsuits from aggrieved workers

 Loss of institutional memory and trust in

management
 Lack of staffers when the economy rebounds

 Survivors who are risk-averse, paranoid, and

political
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Cost Containment
 Benefits of a No-Layoff Policy
 A fiercely loyal,more productive workforce

 Higher customer satisfaction

 Readiness to snap back with the economy

 A recruiting edge

 Workers who aren’t afraid to innovate, knowing

their jobs are safe.

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Issues in HRM

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An Aging Workforce

 HR professionals will spend much of their time on

concerns related to retirement planning, retraining
older workers, and motivating workers whose
careers have reached a plateau.
 Organizations will struggle with ways to control
the rising costs of health care and other benefits.
 Many of tomorrow’s managers will supervise
employees much older than themselves.
 Organizations will have to find ways to attract,
retain, and prepare the youth labor force.

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A Diverse Workforce
 Workplace diversity refers to the variety of
differences between people in an organization.
That sounds simple, but diversity encompasses race,
gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive
style, tenure, organizational function, education,
background and more. Diversity not only involves
how people perceive themselves, but how they
perceive others. Those perceptions affect their
interactions.

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A Diverse Workforce
 For a wide assortment of employees to function
effectively as an organization, human resource
professionals need to deal effectively with issues
such as communication, adaptability and change.
Diversity will increase significantly in the coming
years. Successful organizations recognize the need
for immediate action and are ready and willing to
spend resources on managing diversity in the
workplace now.

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Benefits of Workplace Diversity
 An organization's success and competitiveness depends
upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the
benefits.
 Increased adaptability
 Organizations employing a diverse workforce can
supply a greater variety of solutions to problems in
service, sourcing, and allocation of resources. Employees
from diverse backgrounds bring individual talents and
experiences in suggesting ideas that are flexible in
adapting to fluctuating markets and customer demands.

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Benefits of Workplace Diversity
 Broader service range
 A diverse collection of skills and experiences (e.g.
languages, cultural understanding) allows a company to
provide service to customers on a global basis.
 Variety of viewpoints
 A diverse workforce that feels comfortable
communicating varying points of view provides a larger
pool of ideas and experiences. The organization can
draw from that pool to meet business strategy needs
and the needs of customers more effectively.

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Benefits of Workplace Diversity
 More effective execution
 Companies that encourage diversity in the
workplace inspire all of their employees to perform
to their highest ability. Company-wide strategies
can then be executed; resulting in higher
productivity, profit, and return on investment.

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Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace

 Communication
 Perceptual, cultural and language barriers need to be
overcome for diversity programs to succeed. Ineffective
communication of key objectives results in confusion, lack
of teamwork, and low morale.
 Resistance to change
 There are always employees who will refuse to accept
the fact that the social and cultural makeup of their
workplace is changing. The "we've always done it this
way" mentality silences new ideas and inhibits progress.

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Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace

 Implementation of diversity in the workplace

policies
 This can be the overriding challenge to all diversity
advocates. Armed with the results of employee
assessments and research data, they must build and
implement a customized strategy to maximize the
effects of diversity in the workplace for their
particular organization.

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Skill Deficiencies of the Workforce
 Today, employers are  The gap between skills
looking for: needed and skills
 mathematical skills available has
 verbal skills decreased companies
 interpersonal skills ability to compete.
 computer skills  They sometimes lack
the capacity to
upgrade technology,
reorganize work, and
empower employees.

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Social Issues and HRM
 Changing Demographics
 Shrinking pool of entry-level workers
 Productivity
 Individual differences
 Retirement benefits
 Social Security contributions
 Skills development
 Use of temporary employees

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Social Issues and HRM
 Employer/Employee Concerns
 Job as an entitlement
 Right to work

 Whistle-blowing

 Employment at will

 AIDS

 Comparable worth

 Concern for privacy

 Mandated benefits

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Social Issues and HRM
 Attitudes Toward Work and Family
 Day care

 Flextime

 Job sharing

 Alternative work schedules

 Elder care

 Job rotation

 Parental leave

 Telecommuting

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