Is the process of attracting developing and maintaining a high quality work force?

The Human Resources Process

As mentioned earlier, the main goal of the Human Resources department is to maximize the performance of people - the organization’s workforce.  All Human Resources departments play an integral role in attracting, developing, and maintaining a high quality staff. The Human Resources process is often described with four major elements:

1. Planning
2. Attracting Employees
3. Developing Employees
4. Retaining Employees

Planning

The Planning element of Human Resources revolves around analyzing the staffing needs of the organization and determining how to go about best serving those needs.  A typical part of this planning element is analyzing the key components and considerations of jobs that exist, or that should exist in the organization. This often includes creating clear and specific job descriptions and specifications for all jobs that exist within the organization.

Attracting Employees

Recruitment

The recruitment element of Human Resources is the process of attracting qualified job applicants to the organization. It is through the process of recruitment that the business works hard to project their mission statement and the corporate tone of their company in the best possible light as they may be competing with other businesses who are also trying to entice a specific type of employee to come and work with them. Recruiting qualified applications for a job generally requires advertising the available job, contact with job applicants, and screening of all applicants to create a pool of acceptable applications. Recruiting can happen both within the organization (internally), and outside the organization (externally).  

Selection

After recruiting is completed, the Human Resources department can make a selection of the best possible person for the job and fit within the organization. The selection process is often the most important element of Human Resources because you want to ensure the best applicant is selected in order to help the organization meet its overall goals and objectives. Hiring the wrong person for the job can have a massive impact on the success of the organization, especially when selecting high level managers who are going to set strategy and help lead the organization.

The typical selection process involves multiple steps and considerations:

1. Applications Reviewed (resume, cover letter, other required inclusions)
2. Formal Personal Interview
3. Testing - if required (personality tests, job skills testing, physical testing, etc.)
4. Reference Checks - past work relationships, managers, personal references
5. Analysis, comparison, and final decision.

Developing Employees

After the Human Resources department identifies the need to hire and selects the best possible candidates, they must work hard to maintain, retain, and continue to develop that workforce. Attracting, selecting, orienting and training a workforce takes considerable time and is a major expense for any organization. Making sure that this investment of time and money is returned to the organization through employee productivity and commitment is critical to success.

A Human Resources department continues to develop employees in the following ways:

Orientation

When an employee first joins an organization he/she will go through job orientation. The major objectives of orientation are to gain employee commitment, reduce anxiety, help understand the organization’s expectations, and convey what the individual can expect from the organization. During orientation, an employee will learn about the organization's values, structure, policies and procedures.  Orientation may take various forms. The new employee may be required to attend online or in-person training sessions or may simply work one-on-one with a more senior employee. The employee will also be provided with access to an employee handbook where many of their questions regarding company policies, legal policies, and job responsibilities will be described in detail.

Training

Training employees doesn’t just happen when they first start a job. The act of training a workforce is an ongoing and never ending process.  As society and marketplaces change, organizations must also adapt to change in order to continue to be relevant and successful. As new technologies and innovations are developed and adopted by society, for example, organizations must adopt as well. Jobs and job requirements change as computers and software continue to make work-related tasks and processes easier and more efficient. Employees must receive ongoing training when their job tasks change as the result of new technologies.

Employee training can generally take place in two different settings: 

1. On the job training usually takes place in the normal workplace and is directly related to specific job tasks.
   An example of on the job training might be a group of company sales people receiving training on the new ordering software. Another example may include health and safety, equity and diversity training.
    
2. Off the job training takes place outside the normal workplace and might focus on more general learning outcomes and training such as team building exercises, for example.  
   An example of off the job training might be a group of school board Principals attending a 2-day retreat at a conference centre to learn real conflict resolution strategies.

Identify three jobs and for each job identify:

• an example of a potential on the job training scenario;
• an example of a potential off the job training scenario.

Career Development

Another way in which the Human Resources department develops their workforce is by offering additional opportunities for learning, growth and reaching additional career goals.  A successful Human Resources department will help employees reach aspirations of continuing their formal education and obtaining management and leadership roles within their organizations.

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Answer the following questions.

1. Why is it beneficial and/or advantageous for an organization to provide tuition subsidies to its employees?
2. Do the employer benefits outweigh the monetary costs of paying for employee education tuition? Explain.
3. Identify three careers which would lend themselves to tuition subsidy.
4. Are there other potential employee development situations that an employer would benefit from paying for?  Explain while exploring at least one example.

Performance Appraisals

A regular and consistent task of the Human Resources department is to ensure that the performance of all staff members are monitored and appraised. Employee performance appraisals are designed and implemented by the Human Resources department at regular intervals. The appraisal process ensures that workplace standards and organizational objectives are being met. If an employee performs poorly on a performance appraisal, successful organizations make plans to help an employee get back on track by providing specific feedback on how an employee can improve.

What do you feel about being appraised on the job? Identify three ways performance appraisals help both you and your employer.

Performance Appraisal Methods and Techniques

There are a variety of different types of performance appraisal tools used by organizations today. We will examine the following:

1. Comparative Method
2. Graphic Rating Scales
3. BARS - Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale
4. 360 Degree Feedback

Comparative Appraisal Method

In a comparative approach, the rater or appraiser compares the performance of the individual being appraised to the performance of other employees. This approach is essentially comparing the work of an employee with the work of the other employees.  Generally this involves the ranking of employees based on their rating - an employee is considered your number one employee, followed by a number two employee, right down to your lowest ranking employee, who is considered your worst, or poorest performing employee.

Graphic Rating Scales

A graphic rating scale type of performance appraisal is one of the simplest. It is a checklist for rating an individual employee's traits based on workplace performance characteristics. This might include the quality of their work, personal attitudes, punctuality, interaction with others, etc.

Here is an example of what a graphic rating scale appraisal tool might look like:

BARS - Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale

The BARS performance appraisal tool is a more advanced approach to employee evaluation. It ultimately describes specific behaviours based on various levels of performance achievement on the job. It is almost a rubric type of criterion referenced performance. The BARS tool is considered to be a more valid and essentially more reliable approach than the graphic rating scale approach.

360 Degree Feedback

The 360 degree feedback employee appraisal approach considers confidential and anonymous feedback from other stakeholders in the organization. These stakeholders could include managers, other employees, and even customers potentially.  

Watch this video to learn more about the 360 degree feedback model:

Retaining Employees

Diversity Policies

A successful organization, along with the Human resources department, should approach the creation of a diversity policy as they would any part of their strategic business plan, with the employees in mind. The policy should ensure that all employees have an equal opportunity for advancement and to reach their full potential regardless of sex, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. When all employees feel included and valued, the workplace becomes a place where they not only feel comfortable and secure but, in fact, their diversity is seen as a strength of the organization as it brings in unique viewpoints and truly fits the right person into the right position.

Labour Management Relations

Many workplaces include the presence of labour unions. Labour unions are groups of employees that organize in an effort to improve the working conditions of all employees in the workplace. Labour unions often work with their employers to agree upon a labour contract, which might include agreements regarding wages, work hours, workplace rules and regulations, seniority and hiring practices, as well as other related conditions of employment. A labour contract ensures that an employer and employees agree on the conditions of employment and allows for a grievance process to take place if those agreed upon conditions are broken. This protects both employees and the employer.

All Human Resources departments must be respectful of labour unions and labour contracts that exist in the workplace. An organization that dismisses labour contracts and contravenes a condition of employment runs the risk of creating a hostile workplace. In some cases, the relationship between the employees, represented by their labour union, and the employer reaches a point where the employees feel that further action must be taken in order for their concerns and/or feelings to be heard. These job actions might include a removal of partial job related services known as a work to rule, or removal of full job related duties known as a strike. The employers, also have measures that they can take when labour disputes breakdown. Management can essentially lockout the employees and not allow them to perform their job duties.

Compensation and Benefits

Yet another way in which organizations develop and maintain a quality workforce is by paying them well and providing fringe benefits. Employee compensation is the way in which employees are paid for their service and expertise. Compensation could take many forms:

1. Salary or hourly wage
2. Pay for performance - pay depends on personal performance and productivity
3. Bonus pay - one time or lump sum payments for meeting specific targets
4. Profit-sharing - a portion of organization profits distributed to employees
5. Stock options - granting employees shares in the corporation.

Organizations can also offer employees non-monetary related benefits. These are often referred to as fringe benefits. Typical examples of fringe benefits are health insurance, dental insurance, vacation days, maternity leave, long-term disability, sick days, employee fitness programs, employer provided uniforms, child care, employee meals, etc.

Human Resources Legal Considerations

Workplaces in Ontario, and all of Canada, are protected by various legal considerations. All Human Resources departments must be aware of and fully adhere to all government imposed workplace laws and regulations. An organization that does not follow workplace related laws can find itself facing costly lawsuits and government imposed fines.

Some of the most important workplace legal considerations revolve around:

1. Wages (minimum pay): which is set by the Ontario Ministry of Labour.
2. Employment Equity: which is regulated under the Employment Equity Act by the Government of Canada.
3. Health and Safety: which is regulated by the Ontario Ministry of Labour.
4. Employee Rights: which is regulated under the Canadian Labour Code by the Government of Canada.

Based on the following series of statements regarding Ontario workplace standards, identify each statement as fact or fiction.

Long Description

You explored some of the fundamental responsibilities and day-to-day functions of the Human Resources department in this activity. One of the major responsibilities is the recruiting of a highly qualified staff. You will now be exploring various job recruitment advertisements that have been created and advertised by real Human Resources departments in Canada. You are required to:

Locate two current management job opportunities that are being advertised. You can do this in a variety of ways:

1. Look through the current careers section of a local newspaper.
2. Use an online job search database to search. Some good examples:
   • Canada Job Bank
   • Workopolis
   • Monster Jobs
   • Career Builder
   • Eluta

Complete the Management Job Opportunities table for your identified job opportunities.

Revisit the KWL chart document you started at the beginning of this activity. Complete the last column - What I have Learned about Human Resources and HR Managers. 

Is the process of attracting developing and maintaining a high quality workforce?

Is the process of attracting developing and maintaining a talented and energetic workforce to support Organisational mission objectives and strategies?

What is attracting a quality workforce?

Why is it important to maintain a quality workforce?