Discussion 12

2. Describe federal legislation and societal trends that influence human resource management.

Several federal laws have been passed to ensure equal employment opportunity (EEO).  The point of the laws is to stop discriminatory practices that are unfair to specific groups and to define enforcement agencies for these laws.  EEO legislation attempts to balance the pay given to men and women; provide employment opportunities without regard to race, religion, national origin, and sex; ensure fair treatment for employees of all ages; and avoid discrimination against disabled individuals.  More recent legislation pertains to illegal aliens. 

3. Explain what the changing social contract between organizations and employees means for workers and human resource managers.

Not since the advent of mass production and modern organizations has a redefinition of work and career been so profound.  Under the emerging social contract, each person must take care of herself or himself.  Particularly in learning organizations, everyone is expected to be a self-motivated worker who has excellent interpersonal relationships and is continuously acquiring new skills.  Employees take more responsibility and control in their jobs, becoming partners in business improvement rather than cogs in a machine.  Organizations provide challenging work assignments as well as information and resources to enable workers to continuously learn new skills.  HRM departments can help organizations develop a mix of training, career development opportunities, compensation packages, and rewards and incentives.  They can provide career information and assessment, combined with career coaching to help employees determine new career directions.  The new social contract can benefit both employees and organizations.

4. Show how organizations determine their future staffing needs through human resource planning.

Human resource planning is the forecasting of human resource needs and the projected matching of individuals with expected vacancies.  Human resource planning begins with several questions:

What new technologies are emerging, and how will these affect the work system?  What is the volume of the business likely to be in the next five to ten years?  What is the turnover rate, and how much, if any, is avoidable?  By anticipating future HRM needs, the organization can prepare itself to meet competitive challenges more effectively than organizations that react to problems only as they arise.

5. Describe the tools managers use to recruit and select employees.

Recruiting involves practices that define the characteristics of applicants to whom selection procedures are ultimately applied.  Today, much of the recruiting is done via the Internet and social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Meetup.  Many organizations use internal recruiting, or promotionfromwithin, policies to fill their higherlevel positions.  Internal recruiting has several advantages because it is less costly, generates higher employee commitment, development, and satisfaction and offers opportunities for career advancement to employees rather than outsiders.  External recruiting is recruiting newcomers from outside the organization.  A variety of outside sources provide applicants, including online recruiting services, advertising, state employment services, private employment agencies, job fairs, and employee referrals.  Referrals are one of the cheapest and most reliable methods of external recruiting.

6. Describe how organizations develop an effective workforce through training and performance appraisal.

Training and development represent a planned effort by an organization to facilitate employees’ learning of jobrelated behaviors.  Some authors use the term “training” to refer to teaching lowerlevel or technical employees how to do their present jobs, while development refers to teaching managers the skills needed for both present and future jobs.  For simplicity, we will refer to both as training.  Performance appraisal is another technique for developing an effective workforce.  Performance appraisal comprises the steps of observing and assessing employee performance, recording the assessment, and providing feedback to the employee.  Managers use performance appraisal to describe and evaluate the employees’ performance.

7. Explain how organizations maintain a workforce through the administration of wages and salaries, benefits, and terminations.

Compensation refers to all monetary payments and all goods or commodities used in lieu of money to reward employees.  An organization’s compensation structure includes wages and/or salaries and fringe benefits such as health insurance, paid vacations, or employee fitness centers.  A company’s compensation structure is designed to fit company strategy and to provide compensation equity.  The wage and salary structure is important in maintaining a productive workforce.  Equally important are the benefits offered by the organization.  Benefits were once called “fringe” benefits, but this term is no longer accurate because they are now a central part of the compensation package.  Benefits comprise more than onethird of labor costs and in some industries nearly twothirds.  Terminations are valuable in maintaining an effective workforce.  Employees who are poor performers can be dismissed.  Also, employers can conduct exit interviews with departing employees.  The exit interview is an excellent and inexpensive tool for learning about pockets of dissatisfaction within the organization and, hence, reduce future turnover.