Download Human Resource Planning

Unit Eleven
Human Resource Management
Objectives
 Get the students to be familiar with the concept of
human resource management.
 Cultivate the students’ ability of problem-solving.
 Help the students to grasp the techniques for fast
reading.
Section A

Introduction
 Without people, organizations would not exist. While this idea
may not be much of a revelation to you, it brings home the point
that organizations are made up of people. Successful
organizations are particularly adept at bringing together
different kinds of people to achieve a common purpose. This is
the essence of human resource management (HRM).
Pre-reading
Before reading the following passage, answer these
questions:
 1. What is human resource?
 2. What is the objective of human resource ?
 3. How much do you know about human resource
management?
Text Human Resources management

What is human resource management? Human resource
management is the area of management concerning itself with
the recruitment, selection, training, development, compensation,
retention, evaluation, and promotion of the people within an
organization. The human resources of an organization consist of
the employees. Of the types of organizational capital upon
which an organization depends its focus is on the human capital
as opposed to the financial capital or the physical capital.
 Job Analysis

At the heart of human resources is job analysis—a
purposeful and systematic process for collecting, describing,
and delineating what is done within jobs. Why is job analysis
important? Job analysis is important for at least two reasons—
(1) in order to increase organizational efficiency and
effectiveness and (2) because it is required by the Uniform
Guidelines (the guidelines used by the U.S. government to
determine what selection and assessment processes are legal).
How might job analysis increase organizational effectiveness
and efficiency? Job analysis is the systematic study of what is
done in a job.
By knowing what is supposed to be done within a particular
job an organization is able to better look for employees who
possess the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics required for a job that it is seeking to fill. It is
also better enabled to evaluate the performance of employees
within particular jobs and provide feedback as to how to
perform better. Without the systematic study of what
SHOULD be done within a job employees involved in the
hiring process are more likely to introduce personal bias,
prejudices, and other non-job relevant information possibly
leading to a less than optimal hiring decision. The lack of a
detailed job analysis can then also lead to an organization not
providing the training needed to optimize employee
performance within jobs.
For instance, if my university provided professors and
administrative assistants with identical training then it is
likely that the performances of both would be sub optimal as
they do not require the same sets of talents for both jobs.
While there is some overlap—both require that one be able to
manage time effectively—typing is likely a more highly
valued skill for the administrative assistant while lecturing
/teaching/speaking in front of audiences would likely be
more important for the professor. Moving on to the
evaluation process if we required the administrative
assistants be evaluated on their teaching, research, and
publishing while professors be evaluated based upon their
typing speed then the organization would also be less
effective—unless we sent the administrative assistants into
the classroom and turn them into professors.
 Human Resource Planning

Human resource planning is the beginning place for
human resource actions just as job analysis is the building
block upon which all human resource actions should be
based. Human resource planning is where the human
resource management strategy and the organization
mission come together in determining the numbers and
skill sets needed for employees based upon the future plans
of the organization. Human resource planning should
actually be done along with job analysis as the first step in
the human resource management process so that the
organization can identify how many employees it needs to
employ and the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics needed for employees based upon the future
plans of the organization.
Based upon the initial estimates of the types and numbers
of employees needed it is job analysis that is used to assess
the specific knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics necessary for the organization to
accomplish its mission and objectives and it is human
resource planning that is used to determine the numbers of
employees needed. Human resource planning involves the
following six-step process in order to forecast the human
resource needs for the organization.
 Step 1
Environmental Scanning—basically a SWOT
analysis for the organization with an emphasis on how it
would influence the human resource needs of the
organization.
 Step 2 Labor Demand Forecast—labor demands many be
estimated either qualitatively or quantitatively.
 Step 3 Labor Supply Forecast—how many people shall
likely have the knowledge, skills, abilities and other
characteristics desired for your organization. Both internal
and external labor supply should be examined.
 Step 4
Gap Analysis—difference between labor demand
and supply.
 Step 5 Action Programming—plan for how you shall hire
and place the needed employees.
 Step 6 Control and Evaluation—the feedback process—
how well did the process actually work at getting the
employees needed and how can the process be improved in
the future?
 Compensation

Compensation refers to all forms of financial
returns and tangible services and benefits that
employees receive as part of the employment
relationship. Compensation has long been a topic
of interest to employees and employers alike. In
fact, the use of compensation as a motivator has
been traced to antiquity. The concept of an
employment relationship implies that employees
work in exchange for some reward, and this
reward is often monetary compensation.

Compensation systems may themselves have to do with
any type of reward or benefit that may be received by
employees and include base compensation (whether piece
rate, hourly, or salaried), merit pay, pensions, profit sharing,
health care, family and medical leave programs, vacation
leave, and compensatory leave. Both direct remuneration
(pay) and indirect remuneration (benefits) are included.
Compensation administration also typically incorporates
compliance issues as there are myriad local, state, and
federal laws and regulations that must be followed that are
related to compensation including minimum wage laws,
maximum hours allowed before overtime pay is required,
unemployment and disability requirements, and employee
health and safety requirements, to name just a few.

All good compensation systems should be based upon a
detailed job analysis to allow the organization to attract,
retain, and motivate needed employees. In relation to
compensation systems job analysis examines the internal
and external pay rates for jobs in order to allow
organizational decision makers to make intelligent
compensation decisions that allow for both internal and
external equity and match the organization’s ability to pay.
This is typically done by an examination of the internal
and external pay rates for key jobs in the organization and
then creating a hierarchy of position worth based upon the
contribution of the job to the mission of the organization.
 Recruitment

Organizational recruitment is the attraction of employees
with the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics needed for the organization to be able to
fulfill its mission and objectives. The recruitment strategy
should be based upon the human resource planning
estimates as to the numbers, types, and skill sets of
employees needed and upon the organizations’ ability to
compensate the employees. Based upon the results of the
job analyses job advertisements should be written up
identifying the skills and experiences of applicants desired.
The advertisement should be designed such that it attracts
employees with the types of background experiences and
skills desired for the job and in the numbers needed by the
organization.
An important part of recruitment is the determination of
where to advertise the job openings. Some organizations
only consider external applicants (people not yet
employees of the organization) for entry-level positions so
in such a situation if seeking more senior employees in
such a case the organization needs only advertise internally
(for individuals already employed by the organization who
may be seeking career advancement). However, this is not
the case for most organizations and therefore in most
instances the position would be advertised both internally
and externally. Internal postings may be done in a variety
of ways from newsletters, to e-mail messages, to bulletin
boards (both virtual and physical). External postings may
also be done electronically, through newspapers,
magazines, trade journals, with job placement services, and
through word of mouth.
 Training and Development

Once a new employee has been hired and placed within
an organization, the organizational socialization process
begins and the employee should be trained. In the United
States most new employee training takes place on the job
(while the employee is working). In more complicated
work the employee may be trained for the job before being
hired and then retrained by the organization after
beginning paid employment or they may be trained for the
job off-site (while not performing the job, but being paid).
 For example, going back to the bombing crews
discussed in the section on selection, modern
American bombing crews are trained for their job by
the U. S. government before being assigned to a
bombing crew and then they are re-trained by the
training officers from their squadrons as to what they
are supposed to do. They also must then go through
refresher courses at predetermined intervals in order to
ensure that they remain combat ready and that they do
not forget what they were trained to do and how they
are supposed to do what they are trained to do.
 The most common type of training done by
organizations is a New Employee Orientation. A
New Employee Orientation is done to acquaint
new employees with their new organization
(organizational culture and history, benefits, etc)
and their working environment (what is going to
be their physical surroundings while at work, who
do they report to, when do they report to work,
etc). Training may also be done long after one is
hired in order to increase one’s efficiency and
effectiveness in the job.

While employee training involves making a worker
more effective and efficient in his/her current job,
employee development involves the preparation of the
employee for future positions within the organization.
Typically the first type of employee development with
which employees become involved is career exploration in
which employees decide where they would like to work
and what they might like to do in the future.
Psychological self evaluations such as the Strong Interest
Inventory and the Personal Career Development Profile are
two tests which may be very useful for employees trying to
decide what they might do in the future as can missionbased goal-setting in which employees develop a mission
statement for their life—just as the organization has a
mission statement to provide guidance for employees—so
to may a personal mission statement provide guidance for
employees seeking to decide what type of personal and
career development they may desire.
Post-reading

Answer the questions on the text:
1. What is Human Resource Management?
2. What is job analysis?
3. What are the steps in human resource planning?
4. What are the components of compensation?
5. What does validity mean?
6. What is the difference between training and
development?
Section B Reading skills
 Making Inferences
 Making an inference means making a guess.
 Go beyond surface details and “read between the lines” to reach
information logically.
Speed Reading Task
 Let’s have a glimpse of the model for evaluating
human resource. Use this reading skill to find out
the answers to Exercise 1 as quickly as possible.
True or False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
KEY: T F T F F T F T
The four C’s model for evaluating the effectiveness of HRM is
competence, commitment, congruence and cost effectiveness.
Performance evaluation by managers can help a company determine
how to set its strategies.
Low levels of trust and common purpose result from a low level of
congruence.
Employees participation is essential for manages to obtain the data
needed to evaluate the impact of HRM practices and policies.
High commitment means that employees are versatile in their skills
and can take on new roles and jobs as needed.
Cost effectiveness means that human resource costs, such as wages,
benefits and strikes, are kept equal to or less than those of
competitors.
It’s unnecessary for managers to meet the needs of employees for
learning, self-realization, and personal growth.
Job enrichment and job enlargement have been adopted in many
organizations to satisfy both the fundamental and personal needs of
employees.
Section C Case Study
Task
Study the case and discuss the questions in groups.
 Sony
 Akio Morita, founder of Sony Corporation, says there is no “magic” in the
success of Japanese companies in general and Sony in particular. The secret
of their success is simply the way they treat their employees. In this biography,
Made in Japan, Morita says:
 The most important mission for a Japanese manager is to develop a healthy
relationship with his employees, to create a family-like feeling within the
corporation, a feeling that employees and managers share the same fate.
Those companies that are most successful in Japan are those that have
managed to create a shared sense of fate among all employees, what
Americans call labor and management, and the shareholders.
 When Morita was chairman of Sony, he stressed to new
employees that each employee had to seek happiness in his
or her work and to decide personally whether to spend the
rest of his or her working life at Sony.
 At Sony, there are few noticeable differences between
management and labor. Although management writers
sometimes paint a too rosy picture of Japanese
management-labor relations, Sony’s management
philosophy is that employees should be treated as
colleagues and helpers, not merely as means to profits.
Investors are important, Morita acknowledges, but they
establish only a temporary relationship with the company.
Employees are more important because they are a
permanent part of the company, just as much as top
management.
 In return for showing loyalty to employees, Morita expected
loyalty from his employees. But he urged them not only to use
their best efforts on the company’s behalf, but also to question
management views. Ironically, Morita’s emphasis on loyalty
was partly inspired by his experience with American managers
and employees. In its early days, Sony hired many employees
in the United States in an effort to keep pace with the
remarkable demand for its products. Morita was stunned by an
American colleague’s blunt advice about a problem employee:
“Fire him.” Morita was equally surprised when an American
employee walked into his office one day and announced he
was quitting to take a job with a competitor who offered him
double his salary.
 Under Morita, the whole process of recruiting, selecting,
training, and appraising employees was built on the premise that
employees are most valuable part of the company. Granted,
Morita’s policies—especially the idea of life time job security—
are not as typical of Japanese companies as Americans were
once led to believe. But this does not mean that American
management cannot learn a great deal from Morita’s philosophy.
 Sony has long been a leader in human resources management in
Japan. The company has adopted such American concepts as
five-day, 40-hour work week, even though Japanese law still
sanctions a maximum of 48 hours, and the average in Japanese
manufacturing remains 43 hours per week. Moreover, Sony was
one of the first Japanese firms to close its factories for one week
every summer to allow all its employees to be off work at the
same time.
 In addition, the Japanese system enforces a different view
of recruits. Akio Morita, who believes that a key to success
is creating a sense of shared fate among all employees,
urges managers to see recruits as rough stones and the
managerial job as the task of building a strong and sturdy
wall out of these rough stones. The Japanese ideal is to
shape and smooth managerial recruits so that they become
a cohesive part of the company. Japanese companies, at
least the large ones, also have a humane attitude toward
dealing with employees in declining industries. Most
companies offer retaining—and most workers eagerly
accept it. At Sony, workers are retained when their
particular jobs become obsolete.
 Clearly, Akio Morita’s human resource policies
accommodate Sony’s overall strategy. By focusing on the
shared fate of management and employees, Sony develops
among its workers a sense of commitment to the overall
goals of the firm. Partly because of this employee
commitment, Sony has been able to stay competitive in
terms of wages and benefits and to motivate highly
competent people to continue to innovate.
Questions for Discussion
 1. How do you explain Sony’s management philosophy?
 2. How do you evaluate Morita’s human resource policies?
 3. What is the difference between Japanese companies and
their American counterparts concerning loyalty, according
to the above case?
NOTES
 New Employee Orientation
 新员工定位(入职引导)