Final Flashcards
Environmental scanning
Identify and anticipate PTOs (potential problems, threats, and opportunities)
- external environment: competitors, economy
- internal environment: strategy, tech, culture
Labour demand forecast
Project how business needs will effect HR needs
- qualitative method: Delphi, expert
- quantitative method: trend analysis, regression analysis
Labour supply forecast
Project resource availability from internal and external sources
Trend or ratio analysis
- determine factor that related to size of workforce (sales volume, units of production)
- plot historical record of that factor relative to the size of the workforce
- compute average employee requirement ratio for the period (ex. Sales/ employee)
- forecast amount of the factor in the future (ex. Projected sales)
Regression analysis
Presupposes that a linear relationship between one or more variables
Skills inventory
What do employees look like in terms of skills and qualifications (basically the KSAOs of current employees)
Replacement chart
Shows 2-3 potential candidates for positions of interest. Shows things like:
- age (important for retirement)
- performance grade
- are they ready for a promotion
Things to consider with promoting/ replacing employees
- who will replace employee you promote (and who will train them)
- risks from outside forces (a good candidate gets poached)
- while the candidate is good at their current job, they may or may not be suitable for the promoted position
- issue of promoting one candidate over the other (other candidate becomes demotivated)
Markov’s model
Forecasting model that uses rates of movement between various jobs levels based on historical patterns. Uses five options for movement of an employee:
- stay in current job
- promotion
- lateral transfer
- exit (all kinds)
- demotion
Calculating movement of employees in Markov model
Expected movement= initial staff x transition rate
Shortage or surplus= initial staff- predicted number of staff
Gap analysis
Reconcile surplus or shortage of labour
Action programming
Implement recommended solution based on gap analysis
Control and evaluation
Monitor effects of HRP by defining critical criteria
Factors of labour supply forecast
- economic conditions
- migration rates
- activities of competition
- unemployment rates
- educational enrolments
- Canadian occupational projection system (COPS; 10 year projection of labour supply and demand factors)
Succession planning/ management
Process of ensuring a pool of qualified employees are trained and available to meet strategic objectives of the company (I.e., for positions company heavily relies on)
- difference from replacement process: aimed specifically at key positions (C suite and management)
Why promote from within?
Promote from within
- insider knowledge (mission, vision, values, operations)
- reduce spending on recruitment
- employees know they have a future at the company
- retention strategy
- shorter adaptation period
- train and develop employees to company specifications
What use outsiders for succession planning?
Receptive externally
- reduce homogeneity (new ideas)
- change culture and habits
- reduce internal politicking and infighting
- there might not be qualified candidates internally
- supports a turnaround strategy
Succession management steps
1 align succession plans with strategy
2 decide who does assessment
(Ex. Committee of stakeholders)
3 identify required competencies
4 identify internal candidates with potential
5 develop potential candidates
6 evaluation and selection
Development activities
- movement through promotion
- job rotations
- special work assignments
- formal training and development
- formal education
- mentoring and coaching
70/20/10 model for career development
70% hands on job experience
20% mentoring and coaching
10% formal training and education
Relay (succession management)
Retiree passes job to designated successor
-pro: focus resources on single candidate
- con: if the candidate doesn’t work out there is uncertainty
Horse race
Develop a pool people (focus developmental efforts on all candidates)
- pros: more than one candidate (in case one doesn’t work out), people know they can grow in the company
- cons: more expensive, don’t know who will be in the position until the end
When do you use relay succession?
- smaller company (small pool of candidates)
- firm is performing well before succession
- experiencing strategic and industry instability
When do you use horse race succession planning?
- larger company
Cons of external succession planning?
- expensive (to attract outside candidates)
- high turnover
- steep learning curve
- disruption to work culture (unless hire for fit)
- especially bad for CEOs
What is downsizing?
Activities undertaken to improve efficiency (cost effective), productivity, and competitiveness that affects the size of the work force
Reasons for downsizing
- cut costs: revenue is down, business activity is down
- new tech: some jobs become obsolete
- seasonal work
- restructuring: goal of increasing efficiency
What should be considered when downsizing?
- control messaging (who know about downsizing before wider employees)
- needs of employees (what is going on with business, why it’s happening, who will be impacted, how laid off employees will be supported)
- how to deliver message to employees
- train managers to deal with effected employees
Negative impacts of downsizing?
- lower productivity
- lower morale and motivation
- high voluntary turnover
- violation of psychological contract
How to mitigate negative impacts of downsizing?
- training
- flexible job design
- incentives (promotion opportunities, profit sharing, etc)
- information sharing
- procedural justice
When thinking about downsizing, what should you consider?
- is it strategic or cost cutting (merely cutting costs unlikely to be successful)
- who goes (be critical as you could lose top talent, or be short staffed when economy improves)
- how are you going to terminate (reputation, audience, voluntary buy outs)
3 steps to decide who gets severance package
- Consider competencies, skill inventories, qualifications for future jobs
- Performance ratings
- Use seniority as a tie breaker (unless a collective agreement says otherwise)
What are some supports to offer to survivors of a downsize?
- set vision for the future
- ongoing career planning and development
- training for new job duties
- adjust compensation and rewards
- have open two way communication
- employee surveys
What is a merger?
Company willingly joins with another company
What is an acquisition?
One company acquires another (usually a competitor)
Why would a company use an acquisition or merger?
- easier to work with a competitor
- avoid bankruptcy
- acquire resources of another company
- rapid expansion
- synergy (interaction is more profitable than the sum of its parts)
- increase control over resources or distribution channels
- lower dependency on limited markets
- empire building
3 types of mergers
- horizontal: acquire a competitor
- vertical: acquire a supplier/ buyer (control the value chain)
- conglomerate: either related diversification (different business but common theme) or unrelated diversification (different businesses and industries)
Why do mergers fail?
- inadequate evaluation of target
- large debt taken on
- different company cultures
- different org structures and strategies (communication, management, two unions)
- lose talented employees
Reduces morale
Kotter change steps - for managing changes from mergers or acquisitions
- Create a sense of urgency
- Form a powerful coalition
- Create a vision
- Communicate the vision and strategy
- Empower others to act on the vision
- Create short term wins
- Consolidate improvements
- Institutionalize new approaches
Outsourcing
A contractual relationship for provision of business services by an external firm
Offshoring
Sending work outside the country (ie. outsourcing outside the country)
What are reasons to outsource?
- opportunity cost: expected cost saving (either time or money)
- specialized skills: no internal employee has necessary skills
- technical expertise: access to technology
- outsource noncore activities: necessary for business to focus on what it does best
- temporary increase in business
What are core activities?
- related to business success
- create firms competitive advantage
- influence growth or rejuvenation
What are non-core activities?
Routine or easily standardized activities that do not require specialized knowledge
What HR activities are more likely to be outsourced and why?
- payroll, benefits, and pension admin (don’t require specialized knowledge)
- training (ONLY if firm doesn’t need it often)
- recruiting/ testing, advertising, screening (can be done online)
- exit interviews (allow for more honesty)
- terminations/ outplacement (ONLY good for mass lay offs)
- employee assistance plans (org might not have in house counselling services)
What HR activities MUST be done in house?
- orientation
- career development
- performance management
- final hiring decision
- succession planning
- change management
What are the issues with outsourcing HR?
- hidden costs (done improperly could lead to litigation or turnover)
- in house HR spends time managing relationships
- loss of control over quality
- loss of knowledge and expertise
- harder to integrate and coordinate HR activities
Risks of outsourcing?
- reduced employee morale (ex. Survivors guilt)
- decisions are not being made in a timely and quality manner
- potential data leaks risk (risk to privacy)
- costs exceed expectations
- risk to intellectual property
- difficulty in coordinating activities
What should be done to manage outsourcing?
- identify needs and goals (impact on strategy)
- specify responsibilities/ extra fees
- set detailed performance standards
- set out consequences for non performance
- set reporting system
- consider growth needs
Why expand a company internationally?
- more customers
- possibly lower taxes
- get around tariffs
- economies of scale
- synergies (of labour and skills over different markets)
- acquire resources
What are tariffs?
Taxation on imported goods to make them more expensive than local goods
- expanding internationally can get around tariffs
What’s economies of scale?
The more you produce the cheaper the per unit cost
What are the three staffing options for expanding internationally?
- parent country national
- host country national
- third country national
What is a parent company national? Pros?
An employee from parent country goes to international country
- brings knowledge of product and culture
- transfer internal processes or practices to new country
What is a host country national?
International employee is hosted by parent company
What is a third country national?
An employee from a country different from the parent country or the expanded to international country
What are the stages of going international?
- Export stage (domestic)
- Sales subsidiary stage (multi-domestic)
- Foreign production stage (international)
- Multi-subsidiary stage (multi- country stage)
- Global network stage
Export stage of going international
There is a limited market so need to export to an international customer
- May need an export manager to supervise process, knowledge of rules, and negotiation skills
Sales subsidiary stage of going international
Sales presence or division in another country
- manufacture domestically but have a distribution center in another country
- have control over distribution process and local knowledge
Foreign production stage of going international
Have production operations in country you are selling to
- consider staffing needs (parent country or local)
Multi-subsidiary stage of going international
Multiple distribution and production centres, may require hiring mostly host country employees
What are the criteria for staffing on an international assignment ?
- knowledge requirements (language, culture, applicable laws, business practices)
- personality traits (flexible, adaptable, handle stress, extroverted, agreeable, conscientiousness)
- skills and abilities (problem solving, self management)
- family situation (careful as this gets close to discrimination; consider complications of spouse and children)
What are some support mechanisms for international assignments?
- preassignment training (business etiquette, hands on experience)
- orientation (both at the job site and practical orientation for the city/ country)
- family support (housing, schooling, child care, spousal support)
- career planning and development (if returning from assignment what happens? If not returning what happens?)
- compensation and benefits (local or parent currency? Local or parent pay standards?)
- repatriation (if they do come back)
What are the high level roles and responsibilities of HR?
- strategic partner (HR planning, culture and HR branding)
- change agent (talent management, performance management, training and development)
- administrative expert (compensation, HRIS, legal compliance)
- employee relations expert (safety and workers comp, DEI, labour relations)
What is the 5C model of HR impact?
Compliance
Client satisfaction
Culture management
Cost/ efficiency
Contribution
What is compliance (5C model)? How is it measured?
Compliance with legal/ ethics
- employment standards, human rights, health and safety
-measured in number of lawsuits (and the cost), accidents/ incidents (and the cost of), human rights complaints
What is client satisfaction (5C model)? And how is it measured?
- clients = employees, employer, families and dependents, shareholders, vendors, talent pool
- measured in interviews, focus groups, surveys, exit interviews
What are the 3 psychological states of employee engagement and associated employee behaviours?
- satisfaction (commitment, attendance, punctuality)
- motivation ( good performance in assigned duties)
- organizational identification (engagement, going beyond job description, leadership)
What are drivers of employee engagement?
- involvement with decision making
- extent to which employees can voice their opinions and be heard
- recognition of good performance
- development opportunities
- how much concern employer shows over employee health/ wellness
- reputation of employer
- sense of fairness in decision making
How do we create and maintain a work culture?
- hire people with the same values (hire for fit; look for attitudes and behaviours)
- high management involvement (senior management role models)
- two way communication (listen to employee concerns and ideas)
- get employees to care about business (rewards that reinforce norms like gain sharing)
- orientation, training and development
- establish a shared mission and vision
What are 3 career planning and development metrics?
- succession planning rate: number of candidates ready to move up per total positions
- promotion rate: number of positions filled internally per total positions filled
- external hire rate: number of positions filled externally per total positions filled
What is Revenue per FTE ?
A measure of orgs productivity or performance
What is FTE?
Full time equivalent staff; for example multiple part time staff equal a single full time employee, so must account when calculating revenue per employee
Implications/ causes of a declining revenue/ FTE rate?
- external: downturn in economy?
- internal: declining motivation, burnout?
- lack of training or proper staffing
- at the extreme, may need lay offs
Implication/ causes of a rising revenue/ FTE rate?
- employees desire greater rewards
- might need more employees to keep up with business
