Human Resource Management
1. Explain why HR portals are popular technological application among human resource managers
A portal is a unified place that connects people to contextually relevant information, services, and applications. It is like a business portal. A HR portal is a role based wherein it provides right information to the right person. It will provide HR related content and applications to those who need it, those assigned to Employee, Manager, payroll administrator etc.
HR portals are popular technological application to HR managers because they provide a variety of benefits to them. Some of them are
1. It reduces administrative costs
2. Increases productivity
3. Increases information access
4. It enables managers in improved decision making
An HR portal will provide access to various information like Employee profile, Employee pay, time and attendance, Skills and training and Recruitment.
2. Explain the difference between line authority and staff authority. What type of authority do human resource managers have?
Authority is the right to perform or command. It allows its holder to act in certain designated ways and to directly influence the actions of others through orders. It also allows its holder to allocate the organization’s resources to achieve organizational objectives.
Line Authority:
The line authority is the most fundamental authority within an organization. It reflects existing superior-subordinate relationships. It consists of the right to make decisions and to give order concerning the production,sales or finance related behavior of subordinates.
In general, line authority pertains to matters directly involving management system production, sales, finance etc., and as a result with the attainment of objectives. People directly responsible for these areas within the organization are delegated line authority to assist them in performing their obligatory activities.
Staff Authority:
Staff authority consists of the right to advise or assist those who possess line authority as well as other staff personnel. Staff authority enables those responsible for improving the effectiveness of line personnel to perform their required tasks.
The Human Resource manager has the staff authority wherein he assists the line authority personnel and also help them in improving their effectiveness to perform the required tasks.
3. How is a functional job analysis different from the Department of Labor Procedure?
The Department of Labor (DOL) works to promote the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees. It strives to improve working conditions and create opportunities for profitable employment. It also works to protect retirement and health care benefits help employers find workers, strengthen collective bargaining, and track changes in employment, prices and other national economic measurements. The Department also administers a variety of federal labor laws.
Functional Job Analysis(FJA) model is a method of job analysis that was developed by the Employment and Training Administration of the United States Department of Labor.
FJA model is similar to the DOL method, but differs in two ways.
• Functional job analysis also identifies performance standards and training requirements.
• Functional job analysis rates the job not just on data, people, and things, but also on another dimensions: worker instructions, reasoning, mathematics, language.
4. What is the HR Scorecard approach? Identify the steps in using the HR Scorecard approach to create a strategy-oriented HR system.
The HR scorecard is a method for Human Resources to position itself as a strategic planning partner with line managers and executives in the organization. the framework of the HR scorecard, which is modeled after the Balanced Scorecard developed by Kaplan and Norton. By specifying the important process measures, assessing them, and communicating the firm’s performance based on these criteria to the employees, the managers can ensure that the entire organization participates actively in the strategy implementation process. It is a unifying tool in strategy implementation.
The Seven-Step Model for Implementing HR’s Strategic Role
1. Defining business strategy
2. Building a case for HR as a strategic asset:
3. Creating a Strategy Map
4. Identifying HR deliverable within the strategy map
5. Aligning the HR architecture with the HR deliverable
6. Designing the Strategic HR measurement system
7. Implementing into the system
5. Why is it important to select the right employees for a position?
A business is only as good as the people in it. Therefore, to effectively manage your business, you must take the time to find and hire the right employees. It is important to select right employees for a position because each job had a job description and a job specification.
Each job has tasks and roles assigned. A right employee would enable in providing efficiency and effectiveness in the tasks provided. A right person for the right job would also help the company in saving costs on training it would otherwise need to provide to a person who does not have knowledge and skills required to perform a job.
The employee would also develop his skills in that particular field and would bring about an overall growth in the organization. It would also lead to perfection and there would be no confusion.
6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using an employee referral campaign for recruitment purposes?
Employee referral is an internal recruitment method employed by organizations to identify potential candidates from their existing employees' social networks. An employee referral scheme encourages a company's existing employees to select and recruit the suitable candidates from their social networks. As a reward, the employer typically pays the referring employee a referral bonus.
Advantages:
1. Employee referral campaigns offer incentives and rewards to employees who refer qualified applicants.
2. Employees like the opportunity to earn extra money while recommending friends and colleagues. Current employees can and usually will provide accurate information about job applicants they refer.
3. The new employees typically come with a realistic picture of what working in the firm is like. It can also be useful for hiring workers with diverse backgrounds.
4. It reduces the burden on the recruiting department and also increases the manager’s satisfaction.
Disadvantages:
1. The program can result in poor morale if some one's friend is rejected.
2. The program can result in a discriminatory situation if most current employees are white males.
3. Slow response times and poor treatment of referrals and referrers.
7. What three ways can selection interviews be classified? What are the resulting types of interviews?
Interviews are conversations whereby a candidate interacts with one or more people who assess the candidate and, in a selection interview, decide on whether this person should be offered a job. The structure of an interview is based on the degree of control exerted by the interviewer as to the predictability of what questions are asked and what information is sought.
1. Unstructured interviews are unplanned, non-directed, uncontrolled, unformulated, bilateral communications and flexible. They require skills in questioning and probing.
2. Semi-structured interviews are pre-scheduled, directed but flexible, major topic areas are controlled and there is a focused flow.
3. Structured interviews are pre-planned, interviewer directed, standardised, pre-formatted and inflexible. They have a full structure and use highly-designed, closed questions. They assume a consistent format will get consistent responses.
There are four common type of selection interview:
1. Situational interviews use situation-specific questions based on job and look at hypothetical performance. They are conducted by specialists: psychologists or trained people.
2. Job-related interviews ask about past behavior on job. They are typically conducted by HR or managers.
3. Psychological interviews assess personality traits. They are conducted by work/organizational psychologists.
4. Competency interviews widen psychological interviews to include competencies such as interpersonal skills, leadership and other identified key competencies.
8. How can an employer protect itself from charges of discrimination in its interview process?
We live in a very legal oriented society today and the work environment is no exception. According to the EEOC, work related discrimination charges keep increasing.
This situation is alarming to many companies and HR departments, especially when considered in the interviewing process. Two basic approaches in conducting interviews involve a structured approach and an unstructured approach. Many will argue the benefits in choosing one type over the other, each having specific advantages and disadvantages respectfully. In an unstructured interview, their is usually no specific format in which to follow. It is a system that allows the interviewer to direct the questions and gives them the freedom to conduct an interview on a more conversational basis. The lack of structure allows the interviewer to ask follow-up questions and pursue points of interest as they develop.
As an employer concerned with charges of discrimination resulting from the interview process, the first consideration of the human resources and legal department should be which type of interview method to implement. Standardizing the interview also increases consistency across candidates, enhances job relatedness, reduces overall subjectivity (and thus the potential for bias), and may enhance the ability to withstand legal challenge. Companies must establish appropriate questions as related to the job and the individual only as related to such job. To minimize discrimination claims, interviewers should prepare themselves by thoroughly reviewing the applicants information and prepare questions prior to the interview. Questions designed to elicit information about a candidate’s work experience, character, maturity, judgment and motivation are more likely to be helpful in making good hiring decisions than the improper questions.
9. Why is it important for managers to appraise subordinates’ performance? Provide three reasons for performance appraisals.
A performance appraisal, employee appraisal, performance review, or (career) development discussion is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated typically by the corresponding manager or supervisor. A performance appraisal is a part of guiding and managing career development. It is the process of obtaining, analyzing, and recording information about the relative worth of an employee to the organization.
The key elements of an effective performance appraisal system are:
1. Clearly defined performance standards.
2. An effective monitoring system.
3. Regular discussions of performance.
4. Development of appropriate action plans as a consequence of the appraisal.
Need for performance appraisal:
1. Performance appraisal is a very effective tool to improve performance and productivity and for developing employees.
2. It helps individuals to do better, raises self-esteem and motivation. Above all it strengthens the management/subordinate relationship and fosters commitment.
3. Performance evaluation is not a process to be avoided; rather it should be implemented in all organizations and promoted as a key management activity.
10. There are several components important for an effective performance management process. Name and explain five of these components.
Performance management (PM) includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the performance of an organization, a department, employee, or even the processes to build a product or service, as well as many other areas.
Performance Management process has five essential components. They are as follows:
1. Planning tasks and setting expectations
In effective organizations, tasks and processes are planned in advance. Planning means determining employee performance expectations and purposes for individuals and groups to address their efforts towards reaching business objectives. The involvement of employees in the planning process will allow them to better understand the purposes of the organization.
2. Continuously conducting employee monitoring
In effective organization s, employee activities are monitored continuously. Well employee monitoring means consistently estimating task performance and addressing immediate feedback to employees on their progress towards achieving their goals.
3. Developing and training
In effective organizations, employee management intends to develop and train employee for increasing the performance identifications. Through training, improving work processes, and developing skills, the managers can make new assignments and introduce higher levels of responsibility to the employees. Such methods encourage higher performance, strengthen competencies, and helps employees to be on the top with changes in the workplace, such as service expansion or introduction of new technology.
4. Systematic appraisal of employee performance in summary manner
Organizations need to know who their best employees are, and who unsatisfied employees are. From time to time, the employee management needs to summarize employee performance. Within the process of performance appraisal requirements, the employee management rates and evaluates an employee or a group performance against the requirements and standards in the employee performance plan. The appraisal summaries the best results and defines the best employee. It is based on the procedures listed in the organization's appraisal program. The appraisal also determines unsatisfied employees and the poorest performance.
5. Rewarding good performance
In effective organizations, the employee management recognizes employees for their performance and confirms their contributions to the organizations' mission. Good performance is well rewarded and best employees get formal and informal awards. Various actions that reward good performance don't require a specific regulation (e.g. saying "Thank you"). The awards regulations should not only provide rewards to the best employees, who showed best performance, but also to cover weak performance and reveal unsatisfied employees. The employee management must find out the reasons and consequences of poor employee productivity.
