• Unit 2: Strategic Human Resource Planning and Staffing

    Now that we have discussed the core components of HR strategy, let's explore how to identify human capital by assessing and defining all of the jobs within an organization. Recognizing the best people to hire can be difficult. Job descriptions often do a poor job of detailing the employment environment. By conducting a proper job analysis of all of the roles within a firm, hiring managers can best identify the abilities future employees should possess for specific jobs. The keys to success often depend on your ability to learn on the job, correct mistakes, and manage a stressful situation, rather than your knowledge of a particular computer program. In this unit, we explore how to translate the demands of a job into an accurate job description.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 10 hours.

    • Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

      • define strategic human resource planning;
      • identify why effective planning is vital in human resource management;
      • define and explain how to conduct a job analysis, and discuss the validity of an analysis in support of other key human capital functions; and
      • describe how to effectively manage human capital and properly assess knowledge, skills, and abilities to find valuable resources (people).

    • 2.1: Overview of a Job Analysis (JA)

      • Recruitment URL
        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 recruitments in depth. Make the connection between what you learned about critical HRM planning in the previous unit and its impact on the HRM recruitment, which is the focus of this unit. Pay particular attention to Figure 4.1., which describes the job analysis process. Take note of how a company's culture can be used as a recruiting tool to attract candidates.

    • 2.2: A, B, and C Jobs: People (Human Capital)

      • Protecting Human Capital Page

        Watch this brief video, which introduces the value of human capital. While many organizations have a strategy for developing and nurturing their leaders, they also need to 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, have the greatest impact on your income statement. The daily functions these employees perform to help an organization meet its goals and objectives are most often the most important. The A-jobs and employees are those with a high degree of risk (asset or liability), which makes their impact more strategic.

    • 2.3: Competency Modeling and KSAs

      • The Importance of KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) Page

        Read this article, which discusses knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) and discusses the qualifications and attributes a job candidate will need to perform for a particular position. This 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.

      • The Dunning-Kruger Effect: Why Once a Fool, Always a Fool URL
        This article discusses the Dunning-Kruger Effect, noting that poor performers most 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 needed to identify and remedy weaknesses in their own 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.

    • 2.4: Job Description and Job Specification

      • The Recruitment Process URL
        Briefly revisit section 4.1 of this chapter, 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 be sure to 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 job description.
      • Job Description Template URL
        Note this template for writing a job description. Using this template, create a job description for your current position or a past position.
      • Job Descriptions vs. Job Postings Page

        This video compares and contrasts job descriptions and job postings.