Human Resource
Management
Ch. 12

What is Human Resource Management.
(HRM)
• HRM is seen as the policies, prastices and systems that influence
employees behaviour, attitudes and performances in an organisation.
• The growth of human resource management has been affected by:
1. A change in the goals and objectives of the business
2. Increase financial resources
3. Increased business competition for both goods and staff
The main role of human resource management is to attract, develop
and maintain an effective workforce.

Benefits of HRM
• Effective human relations can help to prevent industrial action.
• Helps to motivate worker, thus increasing their productivity and
reducing potential costs to the business.
• Good human relations can prevent problems such as absenteeism or
high rate of turnover.

Drawsbacks pf HRM
• Poor human relations can result in serious industrial disputes
• Any plan that is implemented must be constantly monitored and
adjusted as the forces of the environment change.

The functions of HRM
• Workforce or manpower planning: is the process whereby a firm
forecasts its future demand for labour and develops a plan to meet
such demand.
• Other factors that may influence workforce planning, including:
1. financial resources and stability of the firm
2. The objectives of the firm
3. Technological advancement and the firms ability to implement
these changes
4. Change in population

Recruitment
• This is the activites or practices that defines the desired
characteristics of applicants for specific jobs. This is a very important
function for the HRM, as recruiting the wrong people for the job can
lead to low labour productivity and loss of revenue for the firm.
• Recruitment plan: this outlines the steps that will be taken to reruit
individuals for a particular job.

Five stages of the recuitment plan
• Job analysis- this is the examination of what the job entails: that is,
skills and responsibilities.
• Job evaluation- the aim of this process is to assess whether the
reward being given for the job is fear when compared with those for
other organisation.
• Job description- having completed the job analysis, the firm can
desribe the position that is available. It would give information the
purpose,duties, tasks and responsibilities of the position.

Five stages of the recuitment plan
• Job specification- in this stage, the profile of the person to fit the job
is outlined. It states the years of experience, minimum qualification
and character of the person required for the job.
• Job advertisement

Recruiting internally versus externally
• The general rule is that the post must first be advertised internally for
example over the intranet and if it is not filled then the post would be
adveristed to the wider population.

Factors that may influence the recruitment
decision
• The level of skills that are available internally is also another deciding
factor.
• The type and nature of the job may also be a deciding factor. The skill
required for this particular job may not be available anywhere in the
firm and so must be sought from outside.
• The firm may also need to consider the impact that an external
recruitment may have on the level of motivation of the existing.

Advantages of internal recruitment
• Improves employees morale as this is seen as a reward for hard work
done.
• May be cheaper, since large sums of money would not have to be
spent on adversitement.
• The entire process is less time consuming.

Disdvantages of internal recruitment
• There may be an absence of new ideas
• Promoting internal staff will create vacancies that will still need to be
filled.
• The firm incurs the cost of training if the skill of the internal staff is
not sufficient.

Advantages of external recruitment
• Offers more choice, as there is a greater variety of applicants
• ‘New blood’ can be injected into the organisation. This result in new
ideas and different approaches to the job.

Disadvantages of external recruitment
• Advertisement costs may be high
• May lead to morale issues within the firm.

Selection
• Aplication
• Short listing
• Interview
• Testing
• Employment

Compensation
• The compensation package that will be chosen will depend on the
analysis and job evaluation that were carried out at an earlier stage.
This two pieces of information give the firm a very good idea of the
worth of the job and level of compensation in the market.

Types of compensation
• Wages and salaries
• Allowance
• Pension fund
• Health insurance

Training and Development
• Training is seen as a process of improving the knowledge and skills of
employees. Firms that want to remain competitive in a constantly
changing environment have to impove the skill level of their
employees.

Aims of training
• Preparation of employees for their job
• For promotion
• Improve efficiency hencefore Increased productivity

Types of training carried out by the firm
• Basic skills training
• Refresher training
• Management trainee programme

On- the –job training
• Advantages:
1. Usually cost effective
2. Employees are working while learning
3. Less productive time is losr than with external training
Disadvantages:
1. Production may be disrupted during training
2. The quality of training might be compromised since it is dependent
on the person giving the instruction.

Off- the – job training
• Lectures
• E- learning
• Simulation
Advantage:
1. Usually more systematic and orgainsed
2. Trainers may have specialist training
3. A wider variety of skill and qualificaztion available.

Off- the job training
• Disadvantages:
1. More costly
2. Firms may still have to do supplementary training.
3. Loss of productive time while workers are trained externally

Training vs Development
• The main difference between the two concepts is the time frame.
Training focuses on the present situation and the job the employee is
currently doing.
• Development focuses on the furture jobs in the organisation.

Performance management
• This is seen as a process used by managers to measure how well
empolyees are executing the task given to them. It is the process that
is used to identify, measure, manage and develop the performance of
the employess within the firm.

Performance management can help the firm
to:
• Identify possible training needs
• Determine a pay structure for employees
• Assess the efficiency with wbich the pervious functions are being
carried out.

Performance appraisal
• Is defined as the on going process of measuring and evaluating
employees performance.
Characteristics of performance appraisal:
1. Fairness
2. Participative – management should ensure that any performance
appraisal that is been done receives the full support of the
employees.
3. Feedback
4. Periodic

Labour productivity
• This measures the ratio of output to input.
• Labour productivity = total output ÷ per hour input of labour.
• Labour turnover – This measures the number of workers who leave
the organisation in a given time period compared with the average
number employed within the same time period .
• Turnover = number of workers leaving/average number employed x
100.

Factors that influence high turnover
• low salary package or fringe benefits
• Poor working conditions
• Poor management style
• Workers may be getting more attractive offers elsewhere

Impact of high turnover rate in an
organisation
• Production time loss during recruiting
• It may be disruptive and unsettling, especially where people work in
groups.
• High training cost since this has to be done regularly

Labour management relations
• Factors that influence breakdown:
1. Lack of job security
2. Unfair prastices
3. Low remuneration
4. Poor working conditions
5. Unfair dismissal of workers

Collective bargaining
• Collective bargaining is a situation where trade unions and employers
meet to negotiate better terms and conditions of employment such
as salary and working condition.
• A trade union is an association of workers who have joined together
to accomplish a common goal of improvement in the terms and
conditions of employment.

Benefits of collective bargaining for
employees.
• Workers have greater bargaining power than if the process is done
individually
• Can be flexible and provides a fair settlement for grievances
• Trade union representatives are more knowledgeble of issues that are
discussed with management and can explain any decision made to
the employees in simple terms.

Benefit of collective bargaining for the
employer
• it is easier and less time consuming for management to bargain with
the union instead of each individual.

Dispute settlements
• Sometime both parties involved in collective bargaining encounter a
problem and cannot reach an amicable solution.
• A grievance procedure is a process through which a dispute can be
settled. This can be short or lenghty process, depending on how soon
the dispute is ratified.

Three main stages of grievance procedure
are:
• Conciliation – at this stage a third party will be asked sit in on the
dicussion between both parties.
• The conciliator will not offer a solution to the dispute but instead will
encourage both parties to come to an agreement.
• In jamaica the Ministry of Labour offers conciliation services.

Stages of grievance
• Mediation- at this stage a third party will be asked to sit in on the
discussion but, unlike in coniliation, the mediator will give suggestion
on how to resolve the dispute.
• Arbitration- This is the final stage of the grievance procedure. It is
where a third party, termed the arbitrator, is called in to come up with
a solution to the dispute that has been going on. Unlike the other two
pervious stages the arbitrator will give a solution to both parties.

Trends in industrial action
These includes:
• Strikes
• Work to rule
• Go slow
• Sit in
• Picketing
• Overtime
• Lock-out