Strategic human resource research paper
QUINCY1010
Lecture7HRflowandemployeeinfluence.ppt- Employee Influence at the Heart of the Harvard Model
“All policies, the design and implementation of technology and work systems, the design and administration of compensation, and the design and administration of systems for hiring, promoting, placing and terminating employees should be examined from the perspective of how much influence employees are given over these decisions” (Beer et al, 1984).
- Human Resource Flow
Recruitment and selection
Training and development
Retention and retrenchment
- Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment – the process of generating a pool of candidates from which to select an appropriate person to fill a job vacancy
Selection – the process of assessing job applicants using one or more of a variety of methods with the purpose of finding the most suitable person for the job
- Key Recruitment Questions
Who do we want?
How can we attract them?
How do we know we’ve got it right?
- Who Do We Want?
Job specification (what is required to perform the task successfully)
Person specification (derived from the job specification, the personal qualities the employee requires to perform the job, e.g. skills, knowledge, competencies, personality characteristics, level of experience, certified qualifications, physical attributes, development potential)
- How Can We Attract Them?
Recruitment methods
Links with local schools and university careers service
Adverts in local/national newspapers/trade press
Company website/on-line advertising
Recruitment websites, recruitment agencies and headhunters
Work experience, vacation employment, government programmes
- How Do We Know We’ve Got it Right?
Cost and time to recruit
Number of enquiries/candidates and shortlisted/candidates recruited
Number of candidates retained after 6 to 12 months
Quality of successful candidates
- How do we Select the “Right” Candidate(s)?
Selection Methods – biographical data (Biodata), unstructured interviews, structured interview, psychometric tests (e.g. cognitive and personality tests), assessment centres
Subjective Selection – over-reliance on (unstructured) interviews, selection bias, organisational politics
- Training, Learning and Development
Training – instructor-led, content-based intervention leading to desired changes in behaviour
Learning – self-directed work based process leading to increased adaptive potential
Development – future oriented (beyond current job) and owned by the learner who has the need rather than the trainer who is trying to satisfy the need
- The Training Cycle
- Who is a “Competent Person”?
Someone who possesses certain knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs), which she or he can use …
to perform specified tasks to …
a standard of performance expected in …
a specified workplace
- Approaches to Developing Competence
Work-process oriented approach – takes work as the starting point by identifying work activities that are central to a particular job role and then identifies the personal attributes required to achieve appropriate outcomes
Worker-oriented approach – defines competence in terms of the attributes possessed by workers, typically represented as knowledge, skills, attitudes (KSAs) as well as various personal traits required for effective work performance
- Dimensions of Competency
Source: Adapted from: Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) (2007) Singapore Workforce Skills Qualification System: An Introduction, available at: http://app2.wda.gov.sg/data/ImgCont/487/SupplementaryGuideforACTACU2007v1.pdf.
Turnbull, P. (2011) ILO Guidelines on Training in the Ports Sector, Geneva: International Labour Organisation, 2011 (), available at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---sector/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_164412.pdf
- Models of Competence
| Functional-Behavioural | Multi-Dimensional |
| Passive employees (orientated towards the demonstration of prescribed competencies) | Active employees (involved in constructing knowledge) |
| Particular skills necessary to perform specific tasks as specified by employers | The ability to deal with complex work situations, drawing on multiple resources that the employee brings to the workplace |
| Emphasis on context-bound, practical (tacit) knowledge | Combines practical (tacit) knowledge and context-free, theoretical (explicit) knowledge |
| Prescribed outcomes – “competence” is the person’s ability to demonstrate performance to the standards required | “Competence” is a holistic notion, relating to the whole person and including different dimensions such as occupational, personal and inter-personal (“shared understanding”) |
| “One best way” | Potentially different ways to perform any given work task |
| Binary assessment (competent or not yet competent) | Graded assessment (e.g. exceptional, highly competent, effective, less than effective) |
| Individual competence – “possessed” by the individual | Organisational competence – the interaction of individual, group, managerial and technological systems |
| Limited transferability (across workplaces in the same industry) | More extensive transferability (across workplaces in the same and cognate industries) |
| Employer-led | Negotiation and agreement of competencies by the social partners |
| Workplace/enterprise orientation | Occupational/industry orientation |
- Unified Typology of Competence
Source: Winterton, J., Delamare-Le Deist, F. And Stringfellow, E. (2005) “Typology of Knowledge, Skills and Competencies: Clarification of the Concept and Prototype”, CEPEFOP Project No. RP/B/ BS/Credit Transfer/ 005/004, p.40
| Occupational | Personal | |
| Conceptual | cognitive competence (knowledge) | meta-competence (facilitating learning) |
| Operational | functional competence (skills) | social competence (attitudes and behaviours) |
- Retention and Retrenchment
“Selecting” who stays and who goes vs. “self-selection” (quits, voluntary severance)
Legal compliance vs. managerial prerogative
Managing the redundancy process
- Legislative Provisions in the UK
Statutory redundancy payments based on age and length of service
Advance notice/consultation period
Written information provided to recognised trade unions or elected employee representatives
- Statutory Redundancy Pay
Working for current employer for 2 years or more
18<22 years - half a week’s pay for each full year of service
22<41 years - 1 week’s pay for each full year of service
>41 years – 1.5 week’s pay for each full year of service
Length of service is capped at 20 years and
weekly pay is capped at £475 (max = £14,250)
- Statutory Redundancy Notice Periods
at least 1 week’s notice if employed between 1 month and 2 years
1 week’s notice for each year if employed between 2 and 12 years
12 weeks’ notice if employed for 12 years or more
- Information Requirements
Reasons for any redundancies
Numbers involved
Categories of workers affected
Method(s) of selection
Procedures to be implemented
- Consultation (Individual)
Why the employee is to be made redundant
Any alternatives to redundancy
Employees can make a claim to an employment tribunal if the employer does not consult properly (e.g. if they start late or fail to consult)
- Consultation (Collective)
At least 30 days prior notice for 20-99 redundancies
At least 90 days for 100 or more redundancies
Discuss reasons for redundancy, ways to avoid redundancies, how to keep dismissals to a minimum, limiting the impact
A procedural obligation (facilitating the process)
Note: very few employers use the full consultation period
The Process of Redundancy in the UK
The “need” for redundancy: (i) the employer must experience “a reduction or cessation of work of a particular kind”, (ii) the legal test is simply whether, in the employer’s opinion, fewer workers are required to perform the particular work in question
Ipso facto – the employer determines need and scale
How does the employer determine selection?
- Selection for Redundancy
Non-discrimination (e.g. race, sex, trade union activities)
Performance/efficiency criteria prevail
Customary arrangements, e.g. LIFO subject to “frequency test” and “all else equal”
Agreed procedures negotiated with trade unions are rare
*
- Selection in the Eyes of the Law
Tribunals have been urged not to require too high a standard of proof from the employer to show that selection criteria have been met (e.g. Buchanan v. Tilcon Ltd 1983, IRLR 417).
Where an employer selects employees in accordance with an agreed procedure, there is a strong assumption that the selection is reasonable unless the criteria in the agreement itself are unreasonable (Evans v. AB Electronic Components Ltd [1981] IRLR 111, EAT)
Tribunals have supported managerial definitions of efficiency (e.g. adapting to new methods of work, higher standards of efficiency – workers who do not meet these standards may be dismissed and might not even qualify for statutory redundancy pay, e.g. North Riding Garages v. Butterwick [1967] 2 QB 56, DC).
- The Redundancy Continuum
Compulsory Redundancy
Forced Voluntary Redundancy
Voluntary Redundancy
- Who “Volunteers” for Redundancy?
| Personal Factors | Work-related Factors |
| age | deterioration of substantive terms |
| length of service | deterioration of procedural terms |
| standard of health | work intensification |
| un/willingness to adapt to change | retraining/skills acquisition |
| current finances | lack of suitable alternative work |
| marital status |
- “Self-Selection” for Redundancy
Extra-statutory redundancy payments (ESRPs) target old(er)/long(er) service employees and specific job categories
ESRPs are usually “time limited” (workers must “volunteer” before a specific date to expedite the process)
If the “wrong” employees volunteer the organisation typically retains the right to refuse an application …
- A Continuum of Employee Participation and Influence
No Receiving Joint Joint Employee
involvement information consultation decision control
Source: Blyton and Turnbull (2004: 255)
Voice
- Dimensions of Employee Involvement
Forms – e.g. suggestion schemes, problem solving groups, consultation committees, collective bargaining, ‘worker directors’
Levels – from the individual, team, boardroom, national/regional/international
Scope – operational vs. strategic
Purpose – democracy vs. efficiency
- Worker Representation on the Board
- IR in Europe at the “Click of a Mouse”
See also: Eurofound (European Foundation for the improvement of Living and Working Conditions)
- Voice as a Means to an End?
Only 43 per cent of employees are satisfied with the amount of involvement they have in the decisions of their firm, HOWEVER …
Of those who are satisfied over 90 per cent felt loyal to their organisation and 87 per cent felt proud to work for their employer
This compares to 49 per cent and 38 per cent respectively for those who were not satisfied with their involvement in decision-making
Source: van Wanrooy et al (2013:19).
- Equity and Voice trump Efficiency
Efficiency
Voice
Equity
Equity and voice are fundamental employment rights (Conventions 87, 98, 100 and 111 of the International Labour Organisation, ILO), and are in fact recognised as human rights (Articles 1, 2, 7, 19, 20 and especially 23 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
The imperative for efficiency stems from property rights (ownership and control of the means of production) and efficiency is means to an end (to make a profit) rather than an end in itself.
The ‘high performance’ HR policies of ‘best practice’ firms are primarily concerned with equity and voice as an instrumental means to improve efficiency
- Charter of Fundamental Rights
of the European Union
Rights of …
* association
* information and consultation
* collective bargaining
* collective action
- Trade Unions - Legal Definition
“Trade union means an organisation (whether permanent or temporary) which ... consists wholly or mainly of workers of one or more descriptions and is an organisation whose principal purposes include the regulation of relations between workers of that description or those descriptions and employers or employers’ association” (Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974, UK)
- Trade Union Orientation
Examples: Business = USA
Instrumental = UK
Corporatist = Germany
Syndicalist = France, Spain
| Radical/Oppositional | |
| SYNDICALIST | INSTRUMENTAL |
| Socio-political (‘sword of justice’) | Economic (‘vested interests’) |
| CORPORATIST | BUSINESS |
| Integrative/Constitutional |
- What is Collective Bargaining?
“the negotiation and continuous application of an agreed set of rules to govern the substantive and procedural terms of the employment relationship, as well as to define the relationship between the parties to the process”
Market process – determines the sale of labour power
Managerial process – defines rights, duties and obligations
- The Merits of Collective Bargaining
“properly conducted, collective bargaining is the most effective means of giving workers the right to representation in decisions affecting their working lives, a right which is or should be the prerogative of every worker in a democratic society”
Source: Lord Donovan (1968, p.54)
- Union Density, Collective Bargaining
Coverage and Key Bargaining Level(s)
Source: L. Fulton (2013) Worker Representation in Europe, Labour Research Department & ETUI
| Country | UD | CBA | CB Level |
| Malta | 51% | 61% | C |
| Germany | 18% | 59% | I |
| Luxembourg | 41% | 50% | I+C |
| Ireland | 31% | 44% | C |
| Czech Rep. | 17% | 38% | C |
| Romania | 33% | 36% | I+C |
| Slovakia | 17% | 35% | I+C |
| Latvia | 13% | 34% | C |
| Estonia | 10% | 33% | C |
| Hungary | 12% | 33% | C |
| Bulgaria | 20% | 30% | C |
| UK | 26% | 29% | C |
| Poland | 12% | 25% | C |
| Lithuania | 10% | 15% | C |
| Country | UD | CBA | CB Level |
| France | 8% | 98% | I+C |
| Belgium | 50% | 96% | N |
| Austria | 28% | 95% | I |
| Portugal | 19% | 92% | I |
| Finland | 74% | 91% | I (C) |
| Slovenia | 27% | 90% | I |
| Sweden | 70% | 88% | I (C) |
| N’lands | 20% | 81% | I (C) |
| Denmark | 67% | 80% | I (C) |
| Italy | 35% | 80% | I |
| Spain | 19% | 70% | I (C) |
| Greece | 25% | 63% | I (C) |
| Croatia | 35% | 61% | I+C |
- Silence at Work: (HR) Managers, Unions and Workers
less than one-in-five workplace managers responsible for employee relations openly state that they are not in favour of trade union membership, BUT …
the percentage who agreed that they would rather consult directly with employees rather than a trade union was 80 per cent in 2011 (compared to 77 per cent in 2004)
the preference of (HR) managers is for direct (individual) rather than indirect (collective) consultation – only 7 per cent of establishments reported a joint consultation committee (JCC) in 2011
Source: van Wanrooy et al (2013: 14-15)
