Chapter 1
Introduction to Human Resource
Management
The Management Functions
What is Human Resource Management
• Human Resource Management includes all the activities used to attract &
retain employees & to ensure they perform at high level in meeting
organizational goals
• These activities are made up of:
1. Recruitment & selection
2. Training & development
3. Performance evaluation
4. Pay & benefits (compensation)
5. Labor relations
• Human Resource Management (HRM)
“The policies and practices involved in carrying out the ‘people’ or
human resource aspects of a management position, including
recruiting, screening, training, rewarding, and appraising.”
“Human Resource Management is a management function that helps
managers recruit, select, train and develop members of an
organization.”
-John Storey
“HRM is a management function concerned with hiring, motivating
and maintaining people in an organization.”
-McGraw Hill
Personnel Aspects of a Manager’s Job
• Conducting job analyses (determining the nature of each employee’s job)
• Planning labor needs and recruiting job candidates
• Selecting job candidates
• Orienting and training new employees
• Managing wages and salaries (compensating employees)
• Providing incentives and benefits
• Appraising performance
• Communicating (interviewing, counseling, disciplining)
• Training and developing managers
• Building employee commitment
Personnel Mistakes
• Hire the wrong person for the job
• Experience high turnover
• Have your people not doing their best
• Waste time with useless interviews
• Have your company in court because of discriminatory actions
• Have some employees think their salaries are unfair and inequitable
relative to others in the organization
• Allow a lack of training to undermine your department’s effectiveness
• Commit any unfair labor practices
Basic HR Concept
• HR creates value by engaging in activities that
produce the employee behaviors that the
company needs to achieve its strategic goals
Line and Staff Aspects of HRM
• Line Manager
- A manager who is authorized to direct the work
of subordinates and is responsible for
accomplishing the organization’s tasks.
• Staff Manager
- A manager who assists and advises line
managers.
Line Manager’s Human Resource Duties
1. Placing the right person on the right job
2. Starting new employees in the organization (orientation)
3. Training employees for jobs new to them
4. Improving the job performance of each person
5. Gaining creative cooperation and developing smooth working relationships
6. Interpreting the firm’s policies and procedures
7. Controlling labor costs
8. Developing the abilities of each person
9. Creating and maintaining department morale
10. Protecting employees’ health and physical condition
HR and Authority
• Authority
The right to make decisions, direct others’ work and give orders
• Implied authority
The authority exerted by an HR manager by virtue of others’ knowledge
that he or she has access to top management.
• Line authority
The authority exerted by an HR manager by directing the activities of
the people in his or her own department and in service areas
Supervisor – subordinate relationship
• Staff authority
Advisory relationship
-Innovator role
-Employee advocacy role
• Functional control
-The authority exerted by an HR manager as
coordinator of personnel activities.
Authority as coordinator of personnel
Functions/ Duties of HR Manager
• A Line function
HR manager directs activities of the people in his/her
department & in related services. He/she exerts line authority
within HR department.
• Coordinative function
HR managers coordinate personnel activities, a duty often
referred to as functional authority/ control. He acts as the right
arm of top executive
• Staff function
Assisting & advising line managers is the heart of an HR
manager’s job
Employee Advocacy
• HR must take responsibility for:
– Clearly defining how management should be
treating employees.
– Making sure employees have the mechanisms
required to contest unfair practices.
– Represent the interests of employees within
the framework of its primary obligation to
senior management.
Examples of HR job duties
• Recruiters – Search for qualified job applicants
• Equal employment opportunity coordinator (EEO) - Investigate and
resolve EEO grievances, examine organizational practices for potential
violations, and compile and submit EEO reports
• Job analyst - Collect and examine information about jobs to prepare job
descriptions
• Compensation managers - Develop compensation plans and handle the
employee benefits program
Examples of HR Job Duties (cont’d)
• Training specialists
- Plan, organize, and direct training activities.
• Labor relations specialists
- Advise management on all aspects of union–
management relations.
Changing Role of Human Resource
Management
• Strategic Human Resource Management
(SHRM)
- Formulating and executing HR policies & practices
that produce the employee competencies and
behaviors that company needs to achieve its
strategic aims
- Partnering with the top management in both
designing & executing their companies’ strategies
• Creating High Performance Work
Systems
- A high performance work system is an
integrated set of human resource management
policies and practices that together produce
superior employee performance
High Performance Work System
Practices
• Employment security
• Selective hiring
• Self-managed teams & decentralized decision making
• Reduced status distinctions between managers & workers
• Information sharing
• Contingent (pay for performance) rewards
• Transformational leadership
• Measurement of management practices
• Emphasis on high quality work
Measuring HRM Team’s Performance
• Metrics
- A set of quantitative performance measures HR managers
use to assess their operations
• HR Metric
1. Absence rate
2. Cost per hire
3. HR Expense factor
4. Time to fill
5. Turnover rate
Managing with HR Scorecard Process
• HR scorecard
-Measures the HR function’s effectiveness and
efficiency in producing employee behaviors
needed to achieve the company’s tragic goals
Human Resource Manager’s
Proficiencies
• Four categories of proficiencies
1. HR proficiencies
2. Business proficiencies
3. Leadership proficiencies
4. Learning proficiencies
• Specific proficiencies
✔ HR certification
✔ Managing within law
✔ Managing ethics
Human Resource Manager’s
Proficiencies (cont)
• HR certification
✔ Senior Professional in HR (SPHR
✔ Professional in HR (PHR)
• Managing within law
✔ Equal employment law
✔ Occupational safety and health law
✔ Labor law
Human Resource Manager’s
Proficiencies (cont)
• Managing Ethics
Ethics refers to the standards someone uses to decide
what his or her conduct should be
• HR related ethics:
✔ Workplace safety
✔ Security of employee records
✔ Employee theft
✔ Employee privacy rights
