HRM - lectures Flashcards
Human resource management
HRM related to the policies, practices and systems that influence employee’s behaviour, attitudes and performance (Noe et al. 2014). Boxall and purcell (2011) describe it as all activities associated with the management of work and people in organisations.
Employee lifecycle
- Recruitment & Selection
- Learning & Development
- Performance Management
- Reward Management
- Employment Relationship
Two main reasons why HRM can make a crucial difference:
- Skill development to become a better HR leader.
-Even if you are not working in HRM yourself, you need to be able to identify and select, manage, reward and retain the right people to support your goals/agenda. You also need to be able to “speak HR” to get the HR support that you need. - External positioning for stakeholder management.
- HR and Human Capital Reporting is critical for business strategy. To make effective business decisions you need to know about things such as: structure of HR organisation, permanent/temporary employees (number, competence profiles, age, tenure), management (spans of control, succession planning, non-compete-clauses), HR productivity (fluctuation, absenteeism, revenue/employee overtime).
How can HR knowledge help?
- help define jobs
- Forecast HR needs
- Provide training
- Interview (and select) candidates
- Appraise performance
- Recommend pay increases and promotions
- Communicate policies
- Motivate, with support from pay, benefits and other rewards
Evidence-based management
Evidence-based management finds its origins in medicine. In the medical world, findings must be proven by facts. Further, they must be able to be replicated in order to be valid. As an HR manager, one has to combine critical thinking with the best available evidence to make decisions, in order to engage in evidence-based management.
The evidence-based management process:
- Describe the essence of the problem and ask the right questions
- Collect evidence addressing the question
- Critically appraise/analyse evidence
- Use results of appraisal/analysis to make decision
- Evaluate performance.
Various sources of evidence can be used while conducting evidence-based management:
- Scientific evidence found in peer-reviewed journals;
- Empirical data were obtained from primary sources (surveys, focus groups) and secondary sources (databases, policies, procedures and reports).
Then these sources are critically appraised.
Different forms of evidence:
- Professional experience & Reflection: based on the impact of the decision, professional experience can be valid evidence;
- Organisational facts & figures
- Benchmarking (when done right)
- Research findings
HR Analytics
a form of evidence-based HR with an increased emphasis on the data from the organisation itself. The next step within the evolution of HR is the development of analytical literacy in HR professionals. This require the following:
- An understanding of the analytical framework, which involves an understanding that business logic drives measurement and thinking in terms of causal relationships;
- Mastery of the analytical toolkit and the ability to use big data;
- Strong communication skills, including visualisation and storytelling
Business logic: PICOC
It is important to employ business logic when conducting HR analytics. The PICOC method is a straightforward method to do so:
Population: who?
Intervention: what or how?
Comparison: Compared to what?
Outcome: What are you striving to accomplish, improve?
Context: in what kind of organisation, circumstance?
There are several levels of analytics used in HRM:
- Descriptive (describing present and historical data patterns)
- Predictive (Using past data to make predictions about the future)
- Prescriptive (Analysing data to predict outcomes and make decisions)
Human Resource Leadership
Human Resource Leadership is guiding or being in charge of people, and influencing them in a way of a systematic process. It involves looking at the human resources pool and determining how to influence people in order to build a solid organisational structure. This is achieved through effective recruitment and selection.
Effective recruitment and selection
Effective recruitment and selection provide a unique competitive advantage since good hires can add considerable value, which is difficult to replicate. Therefore, having a very good workforce represents a unique competitive advantage
Strategic Recruitment & Selection
To conduct strategic recruitment and selection, the following structure must be followed:
=> Business Strategy: necessary to select the candidates that are most likely to contribute to the goals and objectives of the firm
=> Workforce planning: helps an organisation identify its needs in terms of people resources. Entails drawing up a plan that ensures that the right number of people with the necessary skills are employees at the right time and place.
=> Job analysis: involve gathering detailed information on tasks and responsibilities involved in a job. It can range from desk research to elaborate observation studies.
=> Recruitment: entails attracting applicants. In this process, it is necessary to know the core competencies for prospective employees.
=> Selection: the final step in the recruitment and selection process, in which the best candidate is choosen.
Workforce planning
Workforce planning is the process of an organisation ensuring it has the right number of people with the right skills in the right roles, both now and for the future. Traditionally, workforce planning (HR planning) comprises the five stages of the human resource planning cycle.
Human Resource planning cycle
- Stocktaking
=> identifying the internal and external factors of the resource needs of the organisation. (This included the external economic climate, technological innovations - although these are outside the control of the firm, they do inform decisions regarding recruitment and selection.)
=> Internal factors include the number and the profile of the workforce, work conditions and performance reviews.
- Forecasting
=> entails predicting future demand and supply for labour and competencies. Labour demand relates to current and future business demands. Labour supply relates to both the internal and external workforce (the labour market).
- Develop action plans
=> Require the organisation to determine whether the competencies required are present, or can be developed, in the existing workforce or if new workers outside the workforce must be recruited.
- Implementation
=> this links to all stages of the HR practices
- Assess and adjust
=> entail verifying whether the desired results were achieved through the strategic action plan, did the firm recruit superior candidates in comparison to its competitors.
Job Analysis
This is the process used to gather information on the tasks and responsibilities of a given position. The job analysis process identifies the competencies associated with successful performance in this position. It is used in recruitment and selection (e.g., job description, people specification), performance management (e.g., performance appraisal criteria), reward management (e.g., compensation plans) and learning & development (e.g., training needs assessment).
Methods of job analysis include gathering background information, interviews, observation, open-ended or structured questionnaires, work diary logs and wearables.
The outcomes of job analysis for recruitment and selection are:
Job Description
=> outlines the typical job duties and responsibilities
Person specification
=> Outlines the essential and desirable criteria for the person doing the job.
Top three effective attraction methods by different employee groups:
Wide nets:
=> Search consultants (senior managers/directors + professional/specialists)
=> Recruitment consultants (middle/junior manager)
Wide Trawls:
Commercial Job Boards (administrative/secreterial + technical + services + manual/craft
Selection criteria
- Legality/adverse impact;
- Reliability - (achieved if the selection instrument consistently measures what it is set out to measure);
- Validity (refers to the extent to which a selection method measures what is intended to measure, and whether it does so effectively).
Otherwise, most organisations hire the wrong person for a position because they rely on gut-feeling rather than evidence-based approaches.
Best Selection instruments (job specific and general)
Job specific:
-Employment interviews (r = 0,42)
- job knowledge tests (0,4)
- biographical data (0,38)
- work sample tests (0,33)
- assessment centers (0,29)
General:
- Cognitive ability tests (0,31) (use with caution - possibility for adverse impact)
- integrity tests (0,31)
- Personality-based emotional intelligence (0,3)
- conscientiousness-contextualized (0.25)
- interests (0.24)
Avoid:
=> personality assessment
- openness to experience
- agreeableness
- neuroticism
=> Unstructured interviews
The most effective structured interviews have the following characteristics:
=> Structured interview guidelines must be based on insights from the job analysis;
=> A mixture of situational, behavioural and job-related questions must be used
=> Candidate answers must be evaluated on anchored-rating scales
=> interviewers must be documented
Importance of Learning and Development
=> essential in attracting and retaining talent;
=> lower turnover rates;
=> improves performance
=> better financial results
=> Immeasurable ROIs
=> maintaining competitiveness
Learning
Activity:
=> Acquiring knowledge, skills, experiences, raising self-awareness
=> Range of formal and informal activities
Outcome:
=> Change in behaviour
Characteristics:
=> Underpins other concepts - formal, informal, incidental.
Education
Activity:
=> Acquiring knowledge, skills and experience
=> Period of study
Outcome:
=> qualification (e.g., degree)
Characteristics:
=> Time: medium term;
Focus: broad (many jobs/roles); prescribed curriculum
Training
Activity:
=> Acquiring knowledge, skills and attitudes
=> Instructional process
Outcome:
=> Perform a job/role effectively
Characteristics:
=> Time: short term;
Focus: narrow (one role);
formal or informal provided by organisations
Development
Activity:
=> Gradual growth of an individual
=> Range of activities
Outcome:
=> Growth of an individual
Characteristics:
=> Self-directed, individual responsibility
Human Resource Development
Activity:
=> Field of practice: helping employees to learn and develop
=> Training and development; career development
Outcome:
=> Improve organisational effectiveness
Characteristics:
=> Focus: organisations
Three schools of learning
Cognitivism:
focuses on how learners absorb, store and retrieve information in the brain. Cognitive learning is creating associations between sources of information. This is stored in the form of mental schemas.
outcome - change in mental schemas
Behaviourism:
Focuses on observable behaviour and regards the internal learning mechanism as a black box. It focused on the punishment and rewards to affect behaviour. Punishment discontinues behaviour, rewards supports a specific behaviour. This builds on receiving feedback during practice opportunities to constructively improve one’s behaviour.
outcome - change in behaviour
Experiential learning:
Composed of a four-stage learning cycle: concrete experience (feeling), reflective observation (watching), abstract conceptualisation (thinking), and active experimentation (doing).
outcome - learning through experience
David Kolb made four learning styles for experiential learning
Reflector - diverging, feel and watch (reflective observation - watching)
Theorist - assimilating, think and watch
(abstract conceptualization - thinking)
Pragmatist - converging, think and do
(active experimenting - doing)
Activist - accommodating, feel and do
(concrete experience - feeling)
ADDIE Model
This model provides a simple and effective approach to ensure the effective alignment of learning and development with organisational goals.
The different stages of the model are:
Analysis:
can be regarded as a gap analysis between the current and desired state of needs
Design:
Involves formulating learning objectives; planning of assessment strategy, determining levels, types and difficulty, selection of delivery methods
Develop:
Involves the drafting, producing and testing of learning materials
Implement:
The stage at which the program is made available to the learner
Evaluate:
Assessing whether the benefits justify the investment.
Kirkpatrick’s Four-level model
The most widely used training evaluation model in training and development is Kirkpatrick’s Four-level model. The four levels:
Reaction (78% use)
=> Affective reactions, such as enjoyment, perceived relevance, linking of the training
=> “Happy sheets”; verbal feedback
=> Collected immediately after training; easy to obtain; relevant to know if participants disliked a training but no insights on actual impact of the training
Learning (32% use)
=> Measurement of skill enhancement, attitude change
=> knowledge tests; interviews; surveys
=> collected ~ 26 days after the training; more difficult to measure learning; relevant to know whether participants met the learning objectives of the training
Behaviour (9% use)
=> impact of training on job-related behaviours (e.g., training transfer, performance change)
=> longitudinal observation, surveys, or interviews
=> collected ~134 days after the training; supervisor ratings (i.e., other-ratings) need to be obtained in assessing behavioural change
Results (7% use)
=> Measurement of objective return of investment (e.g., complaints, failures, quality ratings, sales)
=> reporting tools already in place
=> collected ~159 days after the training
=> requires sophisticated utilisation and analysis of data; direct link between training and outcome can be difficult to prove.
Mobile learning
learning by means of portable devices such as phones and tablets. Currently, only 10% of organisations are using this form of learning (the least mature form of learning). However, more organisations are trying to provide accessible, engaging, bite-sized learning that is available anywhere and anytime.
Social learning
Learning through digital interactions with others by means of blogs, wikis, video chat, etc. 59% of organisations employ social learning in their training and development. However, only 24% testify to its effectiveness. The goal of this form of learning is to foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and building a strong learning culture.
Adaptive learning
achieved through personalised programs and entails the use of data mining to put together individualised learning content. This offers many advantages as it respects individuals’ learning styles, skill gaps, and interests.
Performance management
the process through which managers ensure that employees’ activities and outputs contribute to the organisation’s goals.
Traditional performance management model:
Performance plan:
=> translate organisational goals into individual goals
=> determine what will be measured to determine performance
Feedback:
=> Provide feedback to employee about performance
Mid-year Evaluation:
=>Discuss incremental goal attainment
=> redefine goals if necessary
Year-end performance appraisal
=> Formal performance rating
=> discuss goal attainment and areas for improvement
Key purposes of performance management are as follows:
=> Strategic: direct employee activities should contribute to the achievement of organisational goals;
=> Administrative: provide a basis to inform decisions about salary, benefits, recognition, as well as termination and payoffs. e.g., explain to employees when and how to get bonuses.
=> Developmental: identify strengths and areas of improvement for employee development and train these.
Goal-setting Theory
According to Latham and Locke, setting goals that are specific and challenging, yet attainable, can result in motivation to increase performance. Moreover, goals regulate performance as they direct the direction, intensity and duration of motivated action. Additionally, self-efficacy and feedback can strengthen the link between goal setting and performance.
The goal-setting theory comprises five principles:
1. Clarity
2. Challenge;
3. Commitment;
4. Feedback;
5. Task complexity.
Managers should follow the SMART (specific-measurable-attainable-relevant-timely) principle to ensure that set goals are clear. Moreover, managers can create ownership over goals by involving employees in the goal-setting process to increase their commitment. Additionally, research has shown that employees that receive feedback are more likely to attain their goals, making feedback an essential component of the traditional management performance cycle.
Biases that Plague Performance Management:
Contrast effect:
=> raters make exaggerations about an employee’s performance based on the prior candidate assessed.
Primacy and recency effect:
=> Raters only use first or last impression to evaluate performance; performance at other times of the review period is ignored.
Halo effect:
=> Raters let their overall opinion of an employee influence the rating of specific performance-related aspects
Similar-to-me effect:
=> Raters assign positive performance ratings to employees because they exhibit similar characteristics as them.
Stereotyping:
=> Raters exhibit a tendency to make generalisations about particular types of people, which distorts their overall perception.
Two classic approaches: ranking and rating
Ranking: Relative comparisons
=> Research has shown that rating is unpopular with employees. Also, it does not provide information on what “high performance means” what does not support employee development. Lastly, ranking promotes an aggressive culture since employees are competing for the best position in the performance hierarchy.
Rating: Absolute judgments
=> Has the advantage that it is easy to use but does not rely on relative comparisons between employees, which eliminates problems of internal competition. Nevertheless, rating can be very subjective and have a negative impact on employee development.
Performance appraisal criteria or dimensions
Relative performance appraisal: people are compared to one another, and outcomes are thus dependent on other people.
Ranking: Compare groups to each other;
Pairwise comparison: group 1 to all other groups, Group 2 to all other groups, etc.,
Forced distribution: grades/rates will be distributed on a curve.
Critical incident technique
Critical incident technique collects concrete behavioural examples of employee performance. It requires supervisors to record effective or ineffective employee behaviour at work, as such it can be quite costly and time-intensive for supervisors.
360-degree feedback
360-degree feedback can be used to reduce reliance on the subjective rating of supervisors only. This feedback rating is derived as a composite of the feedback from self, peers, customers, subordinates and superiors. It can be a bureaucratic process to implement, but it does provide employees with a holistic, continuously updating feedback loop.
Underperformance can be identified with the AMO model:
- Employees lacking knowledge and skills (Ability)
- lack of knowledge regarding expectations (Motivation)
- the working environment is non-conductive to performance (Opportunity)
Armstrong identified five basic steps to manage underperformance (2009):
- Identify and agree on the problem;
- Establish reason(s) for the shortfall;
- Decide and agree on required action;
- Resource the action;
- Monitor and provide feedback.
Strategies to address underperformance are:
- Goal setting - entails checking employee commitment to SMART goals and involving employees in the goal-setting process;
- Coaching - entails assigning a coach to employees and using the GROW model to facilitate performance improvement.
- Training - entails providing training to inrease knowledge and skills, to which employees often reciprocate with positive attitudes and behaviour
- Role redesign and job rotation - entails redesigning roles or assigning employees to different roles and aims to increase job and employee fit.
The feedforward interview protocol
Step 1: Identify personal success story
=> only focus on positive experiences
=> let employees describe the nature of positive emotions
Step 2: Discover personal success code
=> Personal characteristics and actions
=> supporting actions of others
=> supporting organisational conditions
step 3: Align future with personal success code
=> Asking feedforward question
Rewards in an organisation:
Financial rewards:
Direct pay and indirect pay
Under direct pay:
=> Base pay (inc. overtime and premiums)
=> performance related pay
Under indirect pay:
=> Statutory benefits
=> Organisation-specific benefits
Non-financial rewards:
=> job security
=> Career development
=> Recognition and awards
=> work-life balance
Functions of rewards:
=> they attract people to apply
=> they encourage people to stay (retention)
=> They encourage people to put more effort into their jobs (motivation)
Key decisions in reward management
=> amount to pay employees;
=> the use of financial incentives;
=> additional benefits to offer and what for;
=> level of transparency regarding decision-making and pay levels.
Performance related pay (PRP)
PRP can be split into consolidated (added to base pay) and non-consolidated (one-off payment in addition to base pay) PRPs.
Performance-related pay aims to attract individuals to organisations, retain them, and motivate them to perform even better. This then contributes to the overachieving organisational goals.
The sorting effect
The sorting effect results in both attraction and retention. As people who want their pay differentiated by performance will be attracted to organisations with PRP, and low performers will receive lower pay and thus are more likely to leave.
The incentive effect
The incentive effect results in increased motivation, as increased pay signals to individuals that their effort is valued and appreciated.
Three characteristics of motivation
Intensity of effort - short-term incentives increase intensity but do not encourage persistence;
Direction of effort - extrinsic vs intrinsic, short-term rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation;
Persistence of effort - long-term rewards are required.
Direction of motivation
Intrinsic motivation occurs when employees put effort into a task that they found interesting.
Extrinsic motivation occurs when employees are motivated by an external reward.
Flexible benefits
Flexible benefits are benefits where employees may choose from a variety of benefits, or choose from varying levels. Research suggests that flexible benefits increase satisfaction and awareness of benefits
Pay Secrecy
This is a pay communication policy that restricts employees’ access to pay-related information and discourages discussion among employees regarding pay issues. Despite being illegal in many countries, it is still present in private companies.
Types of pay secrecy
=> distributive pay non-disclosure: restrictions on sharing information on pay levels;
=> Pay communication restriction: stopping employees from speaking about their pay;
=> Procedural pay non-disclosure: restricting information on how decisions are made.
Perspective on the Employment Relationship
- The Unitarist view:
From this perspective, employees and employers follow the same goals. Therefore, keeping employees happy benefits the whole organisation. Conflicts only arise due to personality clashed and communication issues; - The Pluralist view:
From the perspective, conflicts are inevitable because it focuses on the differing interests of different parties. Management is responsible for balancing the conflicting interests fairly. Trade Unions are necessary and of high value. - The Marxist view:
Is based on the pluralist view of differing interests. Conflict is a needed mechanism to further employee interest. Reducing conflict only benefits management.
Voice mechanisms
Voice mechanisms are mechanisms that help employees raise concerns, solve problems, and contribute to workplace decision-making. Generally, voice mechanisms can be divided into direct and indirect mechanisms, as described in the table. The current trend shifts towards direct voice mechanism as trade unions decline (shift from pluralism to unitarism).
Experimental design
Experimental design is robust but costly. In an experimental design measurements are taken before and after the training and employees in a training group are compared to employees in a control group that did not receive the training. There are three methods:
=> Post-test only design
=> Pre-post design
=> Pre-post controlled design
Post-test only design
Easiest to use, where after the training a survey is given to the trainees to ask about their opinions on the training (includes affective reactions)
Pre-post design
Most rigorous, the trainee are not only asked after the training but also before on their knowledge, and a positive trend can be concluded.
Pre-post controlled design
Both a training and control group (i.e.: do not take part in the training) exist. Both are compared after the training to see if there was a change because of the training. Ultimately, the control group remains at their original performance level, and the trainees should have an increase in knowledge that can be evaluated at the end. The importance of the control group lies in being able to control for confounding factors, and the training influence can be isolated when testing people’s knowledge.
