BUS301: Human Resource Management

This chapter provides an overview of human resources management through definitions, functions, skills required, and challenges encountered. At the end, read the Chapter Case and note your answers.

This video provides an overview of basic HRM information, including a brief history and an overview of the roles.

This video discusses more about what Human Resource Management is, including the relationship between theory and practice. Note that the end discusses a CIPD qualification, which may only be relevant if you are or want to be based in the UK.

This video details the many functions of human resource departments and their role within the organization.

This chapter describes the importance of human capital, the critical role that human resources play as a strategic partner, and key elements of strategic human resources management. Note your answer to exercise question 3.

This video discusses organizational strategy and the integral role that resources play in the success of organizational strategy. Write a list of reasons HR is critical to organizational strategic success.

This chapter discusses the value of strategic planning, the components involved, and the importance of HR being a strategic partner within the organization. At the end, read the Chapter Case and note your answers.

This chapter discusses the legal environment of diversity and the federal agency charged with enforcement, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). You will read more about the EEOC in the next section.

Look at this graphical representation of statistics relating to the gender pay gap in America. What kinds of things can be done to address some of these issues?

Watch these two videos, which provide perspectives from various leaders and advocates on what can be done to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace. A diverse workforce adds value to an organization while enhancing teamwork, respect, and understanding.

This resource discusses the significance of diversity, which spans a range of identities, including color, gender, sexuality, religion, and age. It also explains the significance of equity and a sense of belonging in establishing an all-encompassing organizational culture, along with techniques for cultivating diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

This article highlights the social and legislative trends that lead to a more diverse workforce. Note the correlation between high diversity and high production and high diversity and high retention.

This video examines how organizations can take a more proactive approach to diversity and inclusion. It explains what an organization can do to become a diverse workplace.

These videos discuss diversity, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and various types of discrimination.

Read this article for an introduction to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This information will give you a deeper understanding of how the commission supports and enforces the proper management of human capital.

Read this list of the various types of laws enforced by the EEOC.

Read this list of the laws not enforced by the EEOC.

This article summarizes affirmative action and addresses some of its pros and cons.

This article provides historical data regarding affirmative action and its attempts to address inequality.

These videos discuss a recent affirmative action case that exhibits the controversy of "reverse discrimination" as it relates to affirmative action legislation.

This chapter will be important for Unit 2 and Unit 3, as it discusses job analysis, job description, relevant recruitment laws, and strategies for effective recruitment in depth. Make the connection between what you learned about critical HRM planning in the previous unit and its effect on HRM recruitment, which is the focus of this unit. Pay attention to Figure 4.1., which describes the job analysis process. Note how a company's culture can be used as a recruiting tool to attract candidates.

Watch this video, which introduces the value of human capital. While many organizations have a strategy for developing and nurturing their leaders, they must also create strategies to manage their employees.

This video discusses an income statement, a financial statement that illustrates the revenue and expenses a business incurs during a specific period. Businesses should monitor the income and losses recorded on this statement daily to ensure the business is profitable. A balance sheet is a financial statement that illustrates its assets, liabilities, and owner's equity.

Businesses need to focus on increasing the value of their assets. When managing human capital, certain C-jobs and C-employees, and even certain B-jobs and B-employees, affect your income statement the most. These employees' daily functions help an organization meet its goals and objectives and are often the most important. The A-jobs and employees have a high degree of risk (asset or liability), making their impact more strategic.

Read this article, which discusses knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) and the qualifications and attributes a job candidate will need to perform for a particular position. The authors focus on obtaining a job in the U.S. federal government, but you can apply their insight to identify and apply KSAs to any position opening.

This article discusses the Dunning-Kruger Effect, noting that poor performers often fail to learn from their mistakes. This inability to self-critique and self-correct poses obstacles for HR. While HR can provide feedback channels for employees to learn from, employees must also possess the skills to identify and remedy weaknesses in their performance. Make the connection between these obstacles and the important task of HR to properly assess knowledge, skills, and abilities to find valuable human resources.

Briefly revisit this section, which you read at the outset of this unit. Pay particular attention to the sample job analysis questionnaires in Figure 4.2 and the sample job description in Figure 4.3. Complete the exercises at the end of this section, and spend sufficient time on the second question. By the end of this activity, you should be able to list the four components of a job description and give tips for writing an effective one.

Watch this brief video explaining some of the most important points to consider in writing a job description.

This video compares and contrasts job descriptions and job postings, which overlap but are not the same thing.

This article discusses how psychologists have designed recruiting processes and personnel-selection systems to help employers find the best candidates. The article describes using interviews, personality tests, ability tests, and work samples to evaluate potential employees. As with all forms of testing, we cannot ignore the validity and reliability factors attributed to each test, as noted in the article.

Before you read this article, try your hand at the first activity. Though all of us have our own sets of experiences and opinions, we must not place our organizations in a situation of liability due to our individual biases, as they may not be strategically aligned with the organization's best interests. You must learn to work through personal perceptions and make strategic business decisions when recruiting and selecting human capital.

Watch this video. Professional recruiters attending a national summit share assessments and concerns over using social media in human resource recruitment.

Social recruiting isn't just a novelty; it is a must-have for any successful recruiting strategy. This article provides advice on how to use social media effectively and a few things to watch out for. Although aimed at nonprofits, this also applies more broadly to other organizations.

Social media is an excellent opportunity to showcase your corporate culture and brand. However, with your culture and your brand at stake, a company's social media presence must always be deliberate. This paper looks at job seekers' perceptions regarding social media recruitment and selection and what that could mean for employers. It is a bit technical, but pay attention to the seven themes discussed. Take a moment to select a company and look online at their social media presence. What personnel are they attempting to attract? Are the corporate culture and branding messages being represented consistently and deliberately? Is this a company you would be interested in based solely on their social recruiting efforts?

This video provides a closer look at some of the challenges of remote interviewing, along with tips to ensure everything goes smoothly.

This resource explains the various methods of recruitment, including the use of online recruiting.

Read this chapter, which discusses how to review and check a resume for validity and reliability, interview and test job applicants, choose prospective job candidates, and make an offer to a potential hire. This reading also reviews several case studies.

This article explains how compiling common information about applicants can help HRM avoid unintentional prejudice. Businesses can obtain this data through behavioral and situational interviews, selection tests, and background checks.

Read these sections on the process of strategically training and developing employees. In a competitive marketplace, effective training and development programs offer a recruitment tool to human resources (HR) and a valuable tool for employee retention. Knowing an organization is investing time and resources into your development can be critical.

The "Fortune 500 Focus" section describes how the Walt Disney Company conducts its training and development programs. In addition to providing training specific to each particular position in the park, the Disney Development Connection program offers continuous development to their human capital. In addition to in-house training, Disney also offers employees tuition reimbursement. In this way, Disney shows it is committed to its employees. How do these offerings affect employee performance, job satisfaction, corporate culture, and retention?

This article argues that formal training wastes organizational resources and that "push learning" is frequently unproductive. The author believes creating an organizational culture of ongoing work-driven learning is far more effective. Brainstorm some industries where you believe this model works and where it does not. Could you argue that the outcome of formal training depends on the learner rather than the type of learning?

Read this section, paying close attention to Figure 8.11 and the section on career development programs and succession planning. You may want to make a copy of this figure in your notes. Complete the exercises at the end of the section, and be sure to spend time on the question on the importance of creating a career development plan, even if your employer does not have one.

Read this chapter to learn about common performance issues in the workplace. When you finish reading, you should be able to say why it is important for human resources to establish clear and communicated policies to handle performance issues. These policies play an important role in avoiding wrongful termination legal actions. In addition, this chapter details the disciplinary actions when performance issues arise. Establishing clear objectives regarding performance management is an essential component of organizational success.

Watch this short video regarding the importance of performance management. Performance management is centered around setting goals, tracking the progress of the goals, and rewarding when goals are met. Meeting performance goals leads to meeting organizational goals.

As we shift towards more relationship-based performance management, agile performance management is coming front and center as the way to do that. This video discusses what Agile PM is and how organizations can benefit from this type of performance management.

This article notes the importance of assessing employee job performance on clear pre-established criteria and objectives. Performance management can be critical since employee performance can make or break a company. Review the graphic that reflects how performance standards, performance measurement, reporting of progress, and quality improvement processes are all components of an effective performance management system.

This chapter covers performance evaluation systems, which measure how well employees do their jobs. It will explain popular appraisal methods and how to conduct the appraisal.

Before you begin this unit, take some time to do this activity, which will help you better understand the comfort of compensation.

The overall objective of a compensation plan is to recruit the best human capital, motivate employees to perform at their peak and retain employees. The compensation package is critical to the strategic HRM plan since much of an organization's budget is devoted to employee compensation. This chapter details compensation options, compensation theories, and applicable laws regarding compensation. It also differentiates between financial, indirect, and non-financial compensation. Perform and answer exercise question one, which asks you to research your intended career and consider your compensation expectations with what you learn.

This article discusses team-based rewards as it relates to compensation. At the center of this debate is trust. An organization must have an established culture of trust for this type of compensation to be effective. Teams built on a solid foundation of trust can benefit from team-based rewards such as incentive pay, recognition, profit sharing, and gain sharing. Make a pro and con list regarding this compensation structure.

Watch this video explaining the core considerations when designing compensation and benefits plans.

This video explains why it is important to provide employees with benefits as a part of the compensation package.

This video explains the difference between 401k and 403b plans, which are employer-sponsored retirement plans.

As noted in the textbook chapter on compensation and benefits, there are a multitude of retirement options that employers can provide their employees, not limited to 401k plans and employee stock option plans. This short video provides insight into how employers can go a step further and provide training or understanding to employees regarding their financial options.

This video documents the history of OSHA and why it is critical in providing safe and healthy working environments for your most important asset, your employees.

Skim this report, which takes a comprehensive look at the act that governs the safety of human capital in the workplace. There is a lot of information on OSHA's website, and much of it is categorized by industry. Every organization should be aware of the specific information associated with its industry and should have a general understanding of OSHA and its standards. You are encouraged to browse OSHA's website to enhance your understanding of what they require of an employer.

Watch this video, which explains how OSHA conducts an inspection.

This chapter discusses the importance of creating an organizational culture built around safety and health. The chapter also discusses the health hazards at work, including stress, substance abuse, and workplace violence. Applicable laws are also detailed in length. Lastly, the chapter addresses the rise of Employee Assistance Programs to promote safety, health, and wellness.

This video discusses how organizations can profit from health and wellness programs.

Read this paper, which targets hospitality workplaces and applies to other industries. It includes examples of wellness programs and initiatives at large tech companies and some hospitality-focused companies while underscoring the importance of focusing on employee wellness.

This article discusses why offering employees drug treatment programs is good for the employee and the employer.

Read this article, which discusses the impact of the COVID pandemic and the growing importance of prioritizing employee wellbeing.

This chapter discusses labor unions: what unions are, why they exist, major legal acts that shape unions, the unionization process, union's impact on organizations, collective bargaining, and the grievance process. Think of industries with a large union impact and how it might change the dynamic between employees and employers.

Watch these lectures, where Thomas Woods provides a liberal view of labor history and relations in the United States.

Read this essay, which chronicles the evolution of collective bargaining.

Watch this lecture on labor unions and the considerations for unions in the workplace today.

This chapter documents the important concepts of communication strategies and management styles. Complete the Chapter Case at the end regarding developing an outline for a training program on effective management and communicating with employees.

This video explains the connection between effective communication and employee relations.

This short video notes the tremendous value of effective employee relations.

This article notes the importance of trust between managers and employees and its impact on performance. Undoubtedly, trust is a necessary component in all industries. Can you think of some industries where trust may play an even more important role in organizational effectiveness?

This video documents two workplace discrimination cases from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and explains how these cases affect future employee-employer relations.

This chapter discusses the ethical issues in human resources, finance, sales, marketing, and production. The chapter also notes the Enron scandal, a highly publicized case regarding ethics. Take some time to search for the Enron scandal and note the ongoing effect this case has on business today.

Many factors go into creating an ethical workplace environment, from building trust to having responsible leadership. This article is targeted at entrepreneurs, but the points it raises are applicable everywhere.

Watch these two brief videos, which explain how to identify how ethical your workforce is and provide insight into creating an environment that fosters ethical behavior.